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General Atlantic

also referred to as: ga · general atlanta

41 statements across 9 episodes · 12 bullish · 7 bearish · 8 people on the record · first statement Jul 7, 2020 by Joe Lonsdale · said 113 times in 25 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (50), Martin Escobari (9), Anton Levy (8), Marcelo Claure (7), David George (6), Sebastian Kanovich (4), Joe Lonsdale (4), Dmitry Gurski (3)

tap a year for its mentions
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048201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
004488201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 2 mentions in 1 episode
2025 3 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2024 22 mentions in 4 episodes 6 per episode
2023 9 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
2022 30 mentions in 4 episodes 8 per episode
2021 42 mentions in 7 episodes 6 per episode
2020 4 mentions in 1 episode
2015 1 mention in 1 episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about General Atlantic, oldest first

Jul 7, 2020
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: General Atlantic targets an IRR closer to 20 percent
“Their IRR targets are closer to 20%.”
Joe Lonsdale Jul 7, 2020 ▶ 6:43 20VC: 8VC's Joe Lonsdale on How To Foster Contrarian Thinking Within Venture Partnerships, Why The Best VCs Are Company Builders & Why It Is Not Possible To Build Multi-Billion Dollar Companies and Have Worklife Balance
Jul 19, 2021 positive
Disclosure
George: Passing on Qualtrics over price was my most painful miss
“The most painful one is probably Qualtrics. Which, I mean, look, it's killer founders, and yeah, I remain friends with the guys. We turned it down based on price when I was at GA.”
David George Jul 19, 2021 ▶ 17:22 20VC: a16z's David George on Leading a16z's Growth Fund Today, The Biggest Misconceptions of Growth Investing, How a16z Think Through Portfolio Construction, Investment Decision-Making and Scenario Planning & How The Entrance of New Players Has Changed Th
Jul 19, 2021 positive
Opinion
George: Shorter VC diligence cycles are more efficient and benefit the market
“It used to, I remember when I started at GA, it would be like, okay, a company's raising money and you know, let's take two months and you turn over every single piece of minutia for a company. Like that's, it's probably more efficient and better overall for t…”
David George Jul 19, 2021 ▶ 20:12 20VC: a16z's David George on Leading a16z's Growth Fund Today, The Biggest Misconceptions of Growth Investing, How a16z Think Through Portfolio Construction, Investment Decision-Making and Scenario Planning & How The Entrance of New Players Has Changed Th
Oct 5, 2021 bullish
Insight
Levy: Higher potential upside justifies paying higher startup valuations
“Just rationally, you should say, if the expected positive outcomes are higher, I should be willing to pay higher prices across the board.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 9:42 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Levy predicts the current golden age of tech innovation could last decades
“I actually think we're in the golden age area of innovation right now, and I think that golden age could be decades plus.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 10:35 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021 negative
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Levy: General Atlantic will never invest in broken unit economics businesses
“I don't think we'll go all the way to investing in the upside down unit economics business. I don't think we'll ever do that. That's not how we invest, and I don't think we will.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 31:11 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021
Disclosure
General Atlantic invested $75M in Alibaba but missed a chance for $300M
“We ended up investing seventy-five million into the business at that time, and, you know, I probably had pushed it, could have put three hundred million into it, but I was like, seventy-five million, we don't really know this”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 35:15 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021 neutral
Assertion Contradicted
Levy: The five largest global companies are tech firms under 35
“Basically, the five largest companies in the world, these are all technology companies that didn't exist 35 years ago.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 9:15 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
General Atlantic is deploying over $8 billion to $9 billion annually
“Well, now we're trending, you know, probably 8,000,000,009 billion plus of capital deployment.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 22:54 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021
Disclosure
General Atlantic cut its minimum check size from $75M to $15M
“If you look at General Atlantic a decade ago, we used to have a minimum seventy five million dollar check. We've now, we're now probably, you know, I don't know the exact numbers, but call it four X the size in terms of capital deployment. And we've taken our …”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 22:26 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021
Prediction Partly held up
General Atlantic scales top winning investments up to $500 million checks
“Somewhere in the middle, we make a hundred investments for a vintage, somewhere between the 10 and 300, but it's still going to be only 10 to 15 or 20 that matter at the end of the day, because we're going to press those. So if we do a bunch of 25, 50, and sev…”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 25:11 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021
Disclosure
Levy had a handshake deal to invest in Facebook at $5B valuation
“I had a full shot on goal, ready to go, handshake deal to invest in Facebook early on, which doesn't sound that early, but at a five billion dollar value.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 35:51 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021 bullish
Prediction Held up
Levy predicts cross-stage firms will scale companies from Series A to take-private
“In 10 years from now, it may be sooner than that, that you're going to have a handful of investment firms that are cross-stage, and you're going to show up at the Series A investor meeting, and you're going to say to the entrepreneur, I'm going to scale with y…”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 21:35 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021 positive
Assertion Not yet assessed
General Atlantic maintains an investment loss ratio under three percent
“Our loss ratio is sub three percent.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 29:50 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021 neutral
Disclosure
General Atlantic takes board or observer seats in all portfolio companies
“We sit on the boards of every company or board observers in all the companies we invest in.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 15:09 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021
Insight
Levy: Follow-on checks generate higher IRRs at lower risk than initial investments
“The returns on the follow on checks. End up being so much higher return and higher IRR for lower risk.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 26:24 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021
Insight
Levy: Winning venture deals is easy if you pay the highest price
“Doing deals is easy. It's easy to give capital to someone. It's easy to lead around. You just pay the highest price.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 7:09 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 5, 2021 bullish
Prediction Partly held up
General Atlantic is moving earlier stage to build relationships with winning founders
“We're moving earlier stage to get to know and build relationships with entrepreneurs so we can continue to press our winners.”
Anton Levy Oct 5, 2021 ▶ 16:20 20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
Oct 8, 2021 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Squarespace raised over $948M prior to its May 2021 IPO
“To date, Anthony has raised over nine hundred and forty eight million dollars for the company from the likes of General Atlantic, Index Ventures, Tiger Global, culminating in their IPO in May 2021.”
Harry Stebbings Oct 8, 2021 ▶ 0:25 20VC: Squarespace Founder, Anthony Casalena on Scaling Squarespace from Dorm Room To Public Company with over $700M in ARR, The Decision to Direct List over Traditional IPO or SPAC & What Changes When You Go Public?
Sep 16, 2022
Assertion Supported
Kanovich: dLocal was already profitable when it raised from General Atlantic
“We were profitable, so we didn't need the money. And it was our first ever outside investor.”
Sebastian Kanovich Sep 16, 2022 ▶ 13:18 dLocal CEO Sebastian Kanovich: The $8BN Company You Might Not Know | 20VC #926 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Escobari: General Atlantic suffers capital losses on only 3% of invested capital
“We have 42 years of data at General Atlanta, and we've done over 400 transactions. We know we've very experienced, and across the entire world in six sectors. Over the 40 years, 10% of the transactions lead to 50% of the gains. And that's been consistent throu…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 9:50 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022
Assertion Supported
Escobari: General Atlantic requires 3 of 4 votes on investment committee
“We have a four person investment committee. You need three, three people to vote yes out of the four. And it's the co-president, the co-president and the CEO.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 33:21 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022
Assertion Partly supported
Escobari: Over half of General Atlantic's assets and staff are outside US
“More than half of our people and more than half of our assets are outside the United States”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 33:36 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022
Assertion Supported
Martin Escobari: GA Portfolio Raised $20B Primary Capital in 2021
“So in twenty-twenty-one, our portfolio raised twenty billion dollars of primary capital, 19 of which from other parties.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 16:38 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Martin Escobari: 97% of General Atlantic's 200 Portfolio Companies Are Fully Funded
“Today, we have 200 companies, 97% of them, fully funded plants.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 16:46 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022 bullish
Disclosure
Escobari: Latin America accounts for 15% of General Atlantic's investments
“Latin America is now about 15% of what we do.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 2:37 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022
Assertion Not checkable as stated
General Atlantic priced investments 20-30% lower than competitors during market boom
“We looked like tough negotiators because we were pricing things, 20, 30% below the tourists.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 28:48 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022
Assertion Partly supported
General Atlantic meets 10,000 companies annually and invests in 50
“At GA, we meet 10,000 companies a year. We invest in 50.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 29:25 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022 negative
Disclosure
Escobari almost spent $500M on an Argentine acquisition before pulling out
“I almost spent five hundred million dollars on buying a company in Argentina, and then the day bids were due, I woke up and said, what the hell am I doing? And I'm glad we didn't buy it because the country went where it went.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 48:28 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022 negative
Disclosure
Escobari: General Atlantic Lost Great Deals to Fast, High-Paying Tourist Capital
“And we lost to them. You know, I, you know, here's a sort of wise, seasoned manager that adds lots of value, but requires three months of due diligence and pays 40% less than a guy that gives you a check in three days. Hard to compete. So it was humbling and w…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 23:09 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Escobari: Many Startups Raised in Abundant Liquidity Will Cease to Exist
“The hangover of a period of excessive abundant capital globally, not just in Latin America, is that you have a large percentage of the companies Who got lost in this abundance of liquidity and today don't have viable business models and will unfortunately ceas…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 24:37 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022
Insight
Escobari: General Atlantic targets a 25% annual return over five years
“It's the price that allows me to get at least a 25% return in five years based on a P multiple exit by the time I exit. And I backtrack into what I can afford to pay today on a base case.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 27:36 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022 negative
Disclosure
Escobari: General Atlantic passed on Nubank's Series A, B, and C rounds
“I should have backed David Vélez at Nubank. David had worked at GA. I had tried to, and he left for Sequoia, and I tried to bring him back when I got hired into GA. He called us in our Series A, Series B, Series C, then he stopped calling because he kept sayin…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 49:30 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022 negative
Disclosure
Escobari: General Atlantic passed on Uber's $2B round over market size limits
“So, one of my mistakes as an investor is Anton, my friend Anton Levy, co-president of the farm, invited me to look at Uber, the two billion dollar round, because of the international opportunity, and we went, and we met Travis, The entire black market industry…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 11:29 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022 negative
Disclosure
Escobari: General Atlantic made little money on 2013-2015 traditional PE deals
“There was a period of time where I drifted away from technology led disruption. And tried my hand at traditional private equity. I discovered it's not my cup of tea, and we didn't make a lot of money in those two transactions, and I went back to my roots.”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 38:37 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022
Assertion Supported
Escobari: General Atlantic partners are paid on global, not deal, results
“We all get paid out of the same pot. So no one gets paid of their individual performance. We get paid out of global performance”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 33:57 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 11, 2022 positive
Insight
Escobari: Market Followers Often Beat Early Leaders Who Spend Recklessly
“And in most situations, it is often the follower that does even better because they learn from the mistakes of the leader who spent all that money recklessly without listening to the signals. And you're listening to the signals and you're being wise. These guy…”
Martin Escobari Nov 11, 2022 ▶ 26:00 Martin Escobari: How to Invest During a Recession; Negotiation Tips; Developing Markets | 20VC #948 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 31, 2023 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Claure: General Atlantic's Best Investment Returns Come From Latin America
“If you look at the returns of GA, people often don't know, but if you truly study GA, the great returns have come from Latin America.”
Marcelo Claure Jul 31, 2023 ▶ 32:32 Marcelo Claure & Shu Nyatta: LATAM's New $500M Growth Fund; Investing Billions at SoftBank | E1042 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 7, 2024
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Allebest forced exiting investors to pool tens of millions for staff
“When our PokerStars investor, you know, the Sheinberg family, when they exited to GA, I said, I am going to block this transaction as hard as I can, unless We set aside a huge percentage comparatively of the sale. Everybody is going to pay. I think it was seve…”
Erik Allebest Feb 7, 2024 ▶ 1:03:32 Erik Allebest: Scaling to $100M Revenue, 150M Members and 700 People, All with No Vc Funding | E1113 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 7, 2024 neutral
Disclosure
Allebest: Chess.com's General Atlantic deal was 100% secondary equity
“That's when we met GA, but again, it was to buy out existing equity. It was not to raise money. There was no primary money put in whatsoever. It was all just buying founders' equity and equal ownership.”
Erik Allebest Feb 7, 2024 ▶ 50:17 Erik Allebest: Scaling to $100M Revenue, 150M Members and 700 People, All with No Vc Funding | E1113 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 9, 2024 neutral
Disclosure
Escobari: Deals are underwritten to a minimum 25% five-year return
“The fair price is the price that allows me to get at least a 25% return in five years based on a P multiple exit by the time I exit.”
Martin Escobari Feb 9, 2024 ▶ 14:50 20VC: Doug Leone, Bill Ackman, Bill Gurley and Orlando Bravo on "Does Price Matter"; When to Pay Up vs When to Stay Disciplined, The Biggest Lessons on Price Discipline from 8 of the World's Best Investors
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