business

also referred to as: the business

15 statements across 15 episodes · 5 bullish · 3 bearish · 15 people on the record · first statement Jan 18, 2016 by Fred Destin · across every show →

Everything said about business, oldest first

Jan 18, 2016 negative
Insight
Destin: Unrealistic short-term timelines cost seed startups their survival
“Your irrational expectations of what you can do in a short amount of time end up costing you the survival of your business.”
Fred Destin Jan 18, 2016 ▶ 11:35 20VC: Fred Destin @ Accel on Why Startups Fail & Founders Get Fired?
Jul 13, 2016
Insight
VCs Spend More Time on Struggling Startups Than Winners
“It turns out that this is probably a truism in the business that you end up investing more time in your losers than your winners.”
Brad Burnham Jul 13, 2016 ▶ 9:12 20VC: USV's Brad Burnham on Co-Founding USV with Fred Wilson, What They Look For In Potential Partners & Whether We Are Entering a Period of Consolidation or Expansion
Nov 17, 2017
Insight
Barrett: Business complexity is mostly invented jargon to justify roles
“Business is not nearly as hard as people make it out to be. I think most of the complexity that people experience is sort of invented complexity. It's a bunch of jargon for people to sort of justify their roles”
David Barrett Nov 17, 2017 ▶ 22:37 20VC: Why Valley Investors Are Really Gamblers, Why The Business Model of Selling To The Biggest Sucker Is Wrong & Why The Best Potential Hires Don't Care Who Your VC is with David Barrett, Founder & CEO @ Expensify
Jun 25, 2018 bullish
Insight
Motschwiller: Current Out-Execution Correlates Highest With Future VC Returns
“The highest correlation to a business that will be a great return and will continue to execute is one that is out executing in the current state.”
Max Motschwiller Jun 25, 2018 ▶ 14:08 20VC: The 4 Key Skills All VCs Need To Be Successful, How To Build, Maintain and Scale Your Network in VC and What is The Process Through Which VCs Build Conviction in Opportunities with Max Motschwiller, General Partner @ Meritech Capital
Sep 30, 2019 negative
Insight
Brad Feld: Mega-cap valuations require underlying long-term profitability
“The idea that you'd be one of the world's most valuable businesses and your fundamental economic characteristics don't generate a long-term profit cycle, well, that's not going to work.”
Brad Feld Sep 30, 2019 ▶ 13:10 20VC: Brad Feld on Why Market Size At Early Stage Is Not Helpful, His Biggest Learnings From The Boom & Bust of The Dot Com and How The Best VCs Work For Their CEOs
Nov 6, 2020 positive
Insight
Weinberg: Companies should take socio-political stances before their business is affected
“There are things that eventually have an effect on the business, and you need to make a stand on them before they have that effect.”
Zach Weinberg Nov 6, 2020 ▶ 13:28 20VC: Zach Weinberg on Whether A Company is a Democracy, The Importance of Ownership, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed and How he Approaches Both Risk and Personal Capital Allocation
Jan 18, 2021 positive
Insight
Silverman: Business moves faster and impacts communities better than policy work
“I think when you run a business, you're able to really move much more quickly than in policy, and I think do a lot of things that can positively impact community.”
Josh Silverman Jan 18, 2021 ▶ 3:56 20VC: Etsy CEO, Josh Silverman on 2 Defining Traits of Great Leadership, The Danger of Attaching Happiness To Milestones, How To Structure Teams To Optimise for Experimentation and Agility &Whether You Learn More From Success Than Failure
Mar 29, 2021 neutral
Insight
Fenton: Founder Workload Is Unaffected by Investor Base or Board Structure
“Once you start a business and you're working on it, you don't work more or less hard based on the investor base or the governance structure.”
Peter Fenton Mar 29, 2021 ▶ 4:17 20VC: Benchmark's Peter Fenton on The Single Question That Defines The Art of Early Stage Venture, Marketing Timing Risk, Why The Oversupply of Capital Is Good & His Biggest Lessons from 12 Years On The New Relic Board
Aug 3, 2022 neutral
Insight
Doshi: Health metrics rarely drive growth but ignoring them impedes business
“Health metrics by themselves will rarely drive your business forward, but health metrics, if you don't pay attention to them, Can drastically impede your business.”
Shreyas Doshi Aug 3, 2022 ▶ 10:40 Shreyas Doshi: The 6 Product Metrics You Need To Know; The 3 Types of Product Leader | E913 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 25, 2022
Insight
Sunak: Risk-taking and iteration are harder in government than in business
“It's, you know, it's difficult in business. It's even more difficult in politics and in government, right? Where, you know, we're just not set up well to be able to say, look, we're going to try some things knowing that some of them are not going to work, but …”
Rishi Sunak Oct 25, 2022 ▶ 4:59 UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Turning the UK Into a Talent Magnet | Full Interview · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 31, 2024
Insight
Lerner: Product-market fit with very few customers does not make a business
“You can have product market fit with six customers, and next year it's seven customers, and you don't have a business.”
Matt Lerner May 31, 2024 ▶ 15:48 Matt Lerner: How to Hire Growth Leaders and Teams and Why in a World of AI | E1159 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Dec 16, 2024 positive
Insight
Hoffman: Pro-business stance is a moral requirement for American presidents
“One of the things that I actually think is a not only a competence, but a moral requirement for American presidents is to say business is good.”
Reid Hoffman Dec 16, 2024 ▶ 10:13 Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn & Paypal Founder: Trump Administration, Elon Musk and DOGE | E1239 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 24, 2025 negative
Insight
O'Driscoll: No Business Is So Good That Excess Capital Can't Ruin It
“There's no business so good that excess capital can't ruin it.”
Rory O'Driscoll Apr 24, 2025 ▶ 14:39 How LP Deployment to Venture Will Change in 2025 & Are Endowment Funds in Trouble? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 28, 2026
Insight
Raanan: Hyper-growth startups do not naturally regress to average growth rates
“Whenever a business is getting to a point it's growing super fast, year over year, It becomes part of their DNA. So it would not slow down just because, you know, averages and things like that. The need to be a significant external event to slow them down. So …”
Gili Raanan Mar 28, 2026 ▶ 14:57 Why Margins Don't Matter for Early-Stage Startups | Gili Raanan · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 7, 2026 bullish
Insight
Greze: B2B AI enables revenue generation whereas consumer AI only saves time
“And when I do those things, I save time and time is worth money. But on the business side, when I create something that generates value for the business, They make more money and then they want more of that thing.”
Jean-Denis Greze Sep 7, 2026 ▶ 48:50 Town vs Instinct vs GrokBot | Why the AI Assistant Market Is Not a Bubble
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