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Greylock

also referred to as: greylock partners · greylocks

63 statements across 21 episodes · 29 bullish · 9 bearish · 19 people on the record · first statement Apr 4, 2016 by Josh Elman · said 252 times in 79 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (118), Sarah Tavel (25), Saam Motamedi (18), David Sze (9), Sarah Guo (7), Reid Hoffman (7), Gagan Biyani (5), Roy Bahat (3)

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0815201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
0037.5615201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 10 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
2025 5 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
2024 40 mentions in 8 episodes 5 per episode
2023 19 mentions in 9 episodes 2 per episode
2022 6 mentions in 6 episodes 1 per episode
2021 34 mentions in 6 episodes 6 per episode
2020 21 mentions in 7 episodes 3 per episode
2019 10 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2018 28 mentions in 7 episodes 4 per episode
2017 26 mentions in 11 episodes 2 per episode
2016 52 mentions in 10 episodes 5 per episode
2015 1 mention in 1 episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Greylock, oldest first

Apr 4, 2016
Insight
Elman: Great founders treat fundraising as hiring an investor
“I see a lot of founders try to engineer a process instead of necessarily figure out who they really want to team up with and work with. And the great ones I think actually have in their mindset I'm going out to hire an investor.”
Josh Elman Apr 4, 2016 ▶ 18:50 20VC: Greylock's Josh Elman on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, The Next Wave Of Social and What Twitter Should Do Next
Apr 6, 2016 positive
Insight
VC Blogging Acts as a Freemium Model for Founders
“I think of blogging and doing all these types of things as essentially the equivalent of the VC freemium model. You know, we're trying, like, as much as we can, like, we're getting ourselves out there because otherwise, you know, founders should be making a de…”
Sarah Tavel Apr 6, 2016 ▶ 18:14 20VC: Greylock's Sarah Tavel on What Founders Need From A Good Investor and Why Products Need To Be 10X Better & Cheaper
Apr 6, 2016
Insight
Multi-Billion Dollar Consumer Businesses Must Be Free or Better and Cheaper
“If you want to build a truly mid-market, kind of, you know, I'm focused on businesses that will become large, enduring, multi-billion dollar businesses, and I think in order to build one of those, You either have to figure out how to give something away for fr…”
Sarah Tavel Apr 6, 2016 ▶ 21:56 20VC: Greylock's Sarah Tavel on What Founders Need From A Good Investor and Why Products Need To Be 10X Better & Cheaper
Apr 6, 2016 positive
Insight
Founders Need VCs to Be Truth-Seekers, Not Just Founder Friendly
“Oftime, what a founder really needs, I believe is for someone else to be a truth seeker and ask the hard questions or show a blind spot that they might have or push them in some way. And, Sometimes when I hear founder friendly, I hear, I think of like, oh, jus…”
Sarah Tavel Apr 6, 2016 ▶ 14:46 20VC: Greylock's Sarah Tavel on What Founders Need From A Good Investor and Why Products Need To Be 10X Better & Cheaper
Jul 6, 2016 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Kim predicts SoftTech VC will build a multi-generational platform like Greylock
“And if you look at the absolute top tier VC funds, they've done a phenomenal job of generational shift, and, you know, the older generation handing off to the younger generation, certainly firms like Greylock, have transformed themselves, and I think that is t…”
Michael Kim Jul 6, 2016 ▶ 24:27 20VC: What It Takes To Raise A VC Fund & Investing in First Time Fund Managers with Michael Kim @ Cendana Capital
Jul 6, 2016 negative
Insight
Kim: Top VCs maximize ownership and squeeze LPs out of Series A
“If there is, at the earliest stages, a company that is High quality with high quality investors coming in. LPs are probably the last in line in terms of getting access to that. So imagine a seed funded company by one of our fund managers, a high quality firm l…”
Michael Kim Jul 6, 2016 ▶ 11:59 20VC: What It Takes To Raise A VC Fund & Investing in First Time Fund Managers with Michael Kim @ Cendana Capital
Jul 18, 2016 positive
Opinion
Bussgang: Prior operating experience is not required to become a top VC partner
“I don't. I never believe there's one path to the final journey. Great examples of VCs who never have any operating experience, and I have one of them sitting next to me in my office, and Chip Hazard, who's an incredibly successful investor, was my co-founder h…”
Jeff Busgang Jul 18, 2016 ▶ 4:58 20VC: Flybridge's Jeff Bussgang on Why It Is Not All About Unit Economics & Why VCs Are Big Data Decision Makers
Oct 14, 2016 positive
Disclosure
Uretsky: DigitalOcean favored Jerry Chen and Peter Levine during Series A
“The two investors that we loved the most was Jerry Chan from Greylock and Peter Levine from Andreessen Horowitz.”
Moisey Uretsky Oct 14, 2016 ▶ 21:10 20VC: How You Can Learn To Be A Great Business Leader & Why All Successful Business Must Be Loved or Needed with Moisey Uretsky, Founder @ Digital Ocean
Jan 23, 2017 neutral
Disclosure
John Lilly consistently makes exactly two venture investments per year
“I did two investments this year, I had two investments last year, I had two the year before, so I've been pretty consistent.”
John Lilly Jan 23, 2017 ▶ 13:23 20VC: Greylock's John Lilly on How Greylock Continues To Invest In The Next Big Markets, The Importance Of Building Tribes & Why There will Be Another Boom In Mobile
Jan 25, 2017
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Guo: Many startup founders cannot explain why customers buy their product
“And so, like, I, I'm always trying to ask the very direct question of, like, why do customers pay you, or why do people find and want your product? And a lot of founders can't answer that question.”
Sarah Guo Jan 25, 2017 ▶ 6:33 20VC: Preparing For The Next Big Trend, Why Conversational Will Be The Next Big Thing & How Entrepreneurs Should View Market Size with Sarah Guo @ Greylock Partners
Jan 25, 2017
Insight
Guo: A founder's storytelling ability correlates directly with company success
“And so I am always surprised by how correlated the ability to describe why a company is important and good and winning is to sort of your ability to actually go be those things. Because if you tell the story right, you can get the highest quality people on you…”
Sarah Guo Jan 25, 2017 ▶ 6:12 20VC: Preparing For The Next Big Trend, Why Conversational Will Be The Next Big Thing & How Entrepreneurs Should View Market Size with Sarah Guo @ Greylock Partners
Sep 18, 2017 positive
Opinion
Volpi: Benchmark proves VC success doesn't require heavy firm services
“I do think that firms like Andreessen and Kleiner and Greylock have done a phenomenal job building services organizations. And there is no question that there is value in doing that. And then there are other firms like say benchmark who have done a terrific jo…”
Mike Volpi Sep 18, 2017 ▶ 16:26 20VC: Index's Mike Volpi on Making The Move From Player To Coach, What It Takes To Build Generation Defining Brands & How Europe Really Stacks Up To The US Venture Market
Sep 29, 2017 bullish
Opinion
Roger Dickey compares LPing in Sequoia or Andreessen to a mutual fund
“Like if you can LP with Sequoia Greylock, Kleiner, Andreessen, you're probably going to get your money back. You know, that's almost like a mutual fund.”
Roger Dickey Sep 29, 2017 ▶ 19:19 20VC: If You Do Not Like VCs, You Have Not Worked With a Good One, How Andreesen Have Added The Same Level of Value As A Co-Founder, Why Market Is The First Thing To Consider When Angel Investing & Why Series A Is A Hiring Decision with Roger Dickey, Foun
Apr 2, 2018
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Jerry Chen: Greylock aims to make one or two investments annually
“But the truth of the matter is our goal is to find one or two great investments a year, not five or 10 good investments a year.”
Jerry Chen Apr 2, 2018 ▶ 27:20 20VC: Greylock's Jerry Chen on The 2 Fundamentals To Assessing Startup Risk, Why Good Investors Have To Be Optimistic & Why VCs Get In Trouble When They Move Outside Their "Strike Zone"
Apr 2, 2018
Insight
Chen: Venture risk divides into quantifiable probabilities and unquantifiable uncertainties
“There's really two or three categories of risk to think about. There's probabilities and uncertainties. I think probabilities are quantifiable risks, right? So the execution risk, the market risk, and you and I as investors can make an educated bet or guess on…”
Jerry Chen Apr 2, 2018 ▶ 9:41 20VC: Greylock's Jerry Chen on The 2 Fundamentals To Assessing Startup Risk, Why Good Investors Have To Be Optimistic & Why VCs Get In Trouble When They Move Outside Their "Strike Zone"
Aug 21, 2020 bearish
Disclosure
Meerkat realized live video was unsustainable three months after raising $14M
“Within three months after raising fourteen million dollars from Greylock and other investors, we were like, guys, there's no broadcaster attention in the average person, in the 99% who are not celebs, media and news. And because of this, we cannot build an ind…”
Ben Rubin Aug 21, 2020 ▶ 18:15 20VC: Biggest Lessons From Scaling Houseparty To Millions of Users, Why Today's Metrics Are Insufficient To Determine Product Success & What Breaks with Scale From Team To Product with Ben Rubin, Co-Founder @ /talk & Houseparty
Dec 7, 2020 bearish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
David Sze warned Reid Hoffman that Airbnb could be his learning failure
“David turned to me and said, look, every venture capitalist Has to have a deal that they cratered, and it is a disastrous amount of work, and that doesn't work in order to learn, and Airbnb can be yours.”
Reid Hoffman Dec 7, 2020 ▶ 23:04 20VC: Reid Hoffman on Investing in Airbnb and Passing on Stripe, The Different Styles of Truly Great Leaders, How To Think Through Ownership and Price in Venture & How To Ensure Venture Partnerships Always Have Trust and a Learning Mindset
Dec 7, 2020 positive
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Greylock recruited three key engineers for Instagram within four days
“And to give you an example, when we were talking to Kevin Systrom about investing in Instagram, and they were 13 employees, and they said, well, what's their major pain point in terms of how they operated? We said, okay, great. Because we have this network of …”
Reid Hoffman Dec 7, 2020 ▶ 39:56 20VC: Reid Hoffman on Investing in Airbnb and Passing on Stripe, The Different Styles of Truly Great Leaders, How To Think Through Ownership and Price in Venture & How To Ensure Venture Partnerships Always Have Trust and a Learning Mindset
Dec 7, 2020
Disclosure
Hoffman discloses confidential portfolio info to select partners to maintain trust
“And so, for example, some of the things that I do within kind of the venture partnership is I will sometimes say, okay, because by the way, you always have to second guess yourself on these things. I go, all right, this is something that's super secret that th…”
Reid Hoffman Dec 7, 2020 ▶ 19:47 20VC: Reid Hoffman on Investing in Airbnb and Passing on Stripe, The Different Styles of Truly Great Leaders, How To Think Through Ownership and Price in Venture & How To Ensure Venture Partnerships Always Have Trust and a Learning Mindset
Dec 7, 2020 positive
Opinion
VC portfolio support quality depends on network design, not team size
“So it actually, in fact, is your operational throwaway, your strength of how you deploy the network, not necessarily the size of the operation, but you have to design it with that in mind, right? So like, for example, as I understand it, the Andreessen pattern…”
Reid Hoffman Dec 7, 2020 ▶ 40:27 20VC: Reid Hoffman on Investing in Airbnb and Passing on Stripe, The Different Styles of Truly Great Leaders, How To Think Through Ownership and Price in Venture & How To Ensure Venture Partnerships Always Have Trust and a Learning Mindset
Apr 1, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Common Room raises over $50M from Index, Greylock, and 20VC
“To date, Linda has raised over fifty million dollars with Common Room, from the likes of Danny Reimer at Index, Sarah Grew at Greylock, Dylan Field at Figma, Dick Costolo, and of course, TwentyVC Fund.”
Harry Stebbings Apr 1, 2021 ▶ 0:35 20VC: How To Deliver Feedback with Compassion and Clarity, WTF Are Values Really and How To Instill Them & Raising $50M+ From Index and Greylock but Remaining in Stealth for 12 Months with Linda Lian, Co-Founder & CEO @ CommonRoom
Apr 19, 2021 negative
Disclosure
Greylock passed on Baidu at a $14M valuation over travel requirements
“I looked at Baidu at fourteen million pre. And because we had this rule of thumb that said we had to be boots on the ground all the time at that time, it was that narrow a definition again back in those days, I was told that I was going to be going to China ev…”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 34:08 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021 positive
Insight
Sze: Walking away after conditional deal approval builds maximum partnership trust
“The most powerful moment is when the partnership gives the conditional yes. And when the partner who owns the deal goes away and thinks about it, when they come back in those cases, when they come back and they go, you know what? I took the feedback. I did som…”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 17:52 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sze: Greylock partners can pass almost any deal if they push hard
“The reality is, at Greylock, if you do your work, you can get most deals through the partnership if you really believe in it, and the way we are. You'll get challenged, but if you do the work, and you push, and you believe in it, most of the cases, and the vas…”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 17:31 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021
Assertion Supported
Greylock's $500M Facebook valuation check faced intense internal and external criticism
“Facebook was very controversial, both internally and externally at Greylock when it was announced, because we invested at a five hundred million plus pre and wrote one of the biggest Checks that Gerlach had ever written at that time, and that was considered in…”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 9:24 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021
Disclosure
David Sze almost left Greylock in 2003 over consumer tech focus
“I almost left the firm in 2003.”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 6:21 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021 positive
Insight
Senior venture capital partners must actively aim to become obsolete
“And the partners who are senior, one of their biggest goals is to get out of the way, to become obsolete, because that is the definition of success for the next generation, and it'll be the definition of success for Greylock in the long run.”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 24:29 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021
Insight
Sze: Ignoring team feedback is a fast failure mode for VC partners
“I mean, we've had folks fail because they didn't understand how to navigate the dialectic between team and individual. Usually more too individual in the sense of like running over people or not listening to feedback or not learning. That's something that I th…”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 24:57 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021
Insight
David Sze: Founder-friendliness isn't blindly backing whatever founders say
“I came in early on, like I said, believing that founder-friendly meant you backed the founder, whatever they said you did and whatever they said you backed. And what I learned is that's not always the case, that you need to help founders be better. You need to…”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 28:40 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021 positive
Insight
David Sze: Domain-focused VC investors must be stage-agnostic
“The business was becoming very specialized and much more focused, and so I was pushing to say, we need to have people that have expertise in a domain, and as a result, if you're going to narrow down your domain focus, we need to have to give them the freedom t…”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 7:47 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021 positive
Insight
Sze: Valuation flexibility is justified for winner-take-all markets with great leadership
“So I do think that you need to have price discipline, and so you need to think about, does this have the ability to run to a huge outcome? Does this Show the potential to be a winner takes most or winner takes all kind of business. If that's the case, and you …”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 10:21 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021
Insight
David Sze: VCs only truly control investment journeys and team selection
“The two things you do control are what journeys you go on and who you go on them with. So make sure that the journeys you go on are ones that you really want to be on through the bad times and the good times, whether it works out or not, that you don't say, oh…”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 27:37 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021 positive
Disclosure
Sze: Bonding with Reid Hoffman in China led to LinkedIn investment
“We sat at the back of the bus each time on every stop on this tour through China, and we just mind melded. It was great. We got along so well. We were fast friends, and that led to the investment in LinkedIn and me inviting him to come to Greylock”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 38:18 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sze: New Greylock partners hold high relative power in firm decisions
“But I would say on average, on basis, someone who is new to the partnership on a relative basis has an incredible amount of power to say things. And so we really work as a team where we empower every partner to say what they mean, do what they say, and to own …”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 19:22 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021
Insight
David Sze: Venture investment decisions require a three-step heart-head-heart process
“I tend to start with the heart, which is, I have to, like, sort of fall in love with the idea, or fall in love with the founder, or some combination of that, and what it could be. Then you go to the head, and you do all your work, and you crunch all the number…”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 26:31 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Apr 19, 2021
Insight
Sze: Founders should prioritize long-term partner alignment over fast funding deals
“Be really careful that you get too wrapped up on the wedding because it's a long-term marriage.”
David Sze Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 14:36 20VC: Greylock's David Sze on His Biggest Lessons Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Reid Hoffman, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, How To Think Through Price Discipline Today and How Truly Strong Venture Partnerships Function
Feb 16, 2023 positive
Insight
Duboe: A startup's capacity and speed are constrained by its number of 'barrels'
“If you only have five barrels, you can only do five things simultaneously, right? And so as you're hiring people, just keep an eye out for who those barrels are. And when you find one, do everything in your power to keep them engaged, throw more responsibility…”
Mike Duboe Feb 16, 2023 ▶ 32:29 Mike Duboe: Top 5 Lessons Scaling Stitch Fix to IPO; Why CAC/LTV is a BS Metric | 20VC #978 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 5, 2023
Disclosure
Salguero: Greylock offered funding only if founders accepted a replacement CEO
“We went out to Greylock to convince them to invest in custom made, which they said they would if we moved out to California and worked for the CEO that they were going to place into the business.”
Mike Salguero Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 1:20:45 Mike Salguero: How I Grew ButcherBox to $600M/year in Revenue; Tips for Influencer Marketing | E998 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Dec 18, 2023
Disclosure
SCS Financial manages money for partners of Accel and Greylock
“And we manage money for the partners of founding partner of Excel and Greylock. So I knew that it was tough to get into those funds because I had it in and it still wasn't like”
Peter Lacaillade Dec 18, 2023 ▶ 4:29 Peter Lacaillade: Why Now is the Best Time to Invest in Emerging Managers | E1096 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 6, 2024
Disclosure
Sarah Tavel names passing on Ethereum as her biggest investment miss
“Without question, Ethereum. I, you weren't expecting that. I can see, you know, what, well, Ethereum, I mean, I remember I was at Greylock. And the ICO had just happened, I believe, or just closed. And I was reading more about what's possible with smart contra…”
Sarah Tavel May 6, 2024 ▶ 59:28 Sarah Tavel: Will Foundation Models Be Commoditised? | E1149 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 10, 2024 positive
Assertion Supported
Cresta Study Shows Entry-Level Workers Benefit Most From AI
“Like one of Greylock's portfolio companies, Cresta, did a study of which people in the customer service were most benefited by early AI, and it was the entry level people. It was the people coming in, right, and learning the job much more quickly.”
Reid Hoffman Jun 10, 2024 ▶ 49:32 Reid Hoffman: The Future of TikTok and The Inflection AI Deal | E1163 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 neutral
Assertion Supported
Motamedi: No new horizontal system of record SaaS company launched in 5-6 years
“Now, why has there not been a new deep horizontal system of record SaaS company built over the last five or six years? I can't think of one.”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 16:48 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Stebbings: Top VC brands give startups extra runway to achieve product-market fit
“Because Sequoia and Greylock have such great brands, they will generally, 90% of the time, always get more money, and because they get more money, they have more time to get product market fit.”
Harry Stebbings Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 34:20 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 bullish
Insight
Motamedi: Moving up the application stack protects focused AI models
“If you can start with a better focused model and then very quickly move up the stack into the application layer, it's actually a very good strategy.”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 1:03:52 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024
Disclosure
Motamedi: Greylock regularly leads defensive inside rounds when startups hit air pockets
“Reserves aren't just for when things are going great. It's also for when like companies hit an air pocket. And many of the great companies we've been a part of have been Have hit those air pockets and we've had to step up and we have gladly done that and let i…”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 38:34 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 negative
Insight
Motamedi: Young VCs focus too much on personal metrics over firm success
“I think most young investors make a big mistake, which is they think too about too much about themselves and not enough about the firm.”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 55:39 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024
Disclosure
Motamedi: Greylock frequently scales $5M initial checks into $70M-$100M positions
“And so, as I said, it's not uncommon for us to start with a five million dollar position. It yields a 70, seventy, five hundred million dollar position.”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 38:28 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 neutral
Assertion Supported
Motamedi: Series A valuations range from $80M to $200M post-money
“For series A, based on what we're saying, again, for that kind of cohort of companies, If you have a little bit of product market fit, again, we're seeing pricing between 80 and maybe a 152 hundred post on the high end.”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 24:11 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024
Insight
Saam Motamedi: Founders cannot overcome poor market dynamics late in growth
“Markets have gravity. And I don't think even the best founder can overcome a market that has the wrong dynamics when it's too late.”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 44:33 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 positive
Disclosure
Motamedi: Greylock's 17th fund is $1B and targets 20-25%+ ownership
“For us, you know, we invest, you know, we're investing in our 17th fund. It's a billion dollar pool of capital. We are more ownership sensitive than price sensitive within a range, and so the lens we take on our kind of core early stage positions is how many o…”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 29:07 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 positive
Disclosure
Motamedi: 80% of Greylock investments start before company inception
“In this case, we got to know these people when they were still full-time employees elsewhere, and we're helping them before the company even existed, and that actually, I think something like 80% of our investments, they're of that flavor, where we met the per…”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 32:15 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 bullish
Insight
Motamedi: VCs shouldn't pass on elite founding teams over early-stage valuations
“So when you find one of those teams, I really don't believe you should be passing on price in those ranges. Because whether you do it at 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, if that company goes on to get to a hundred million plus of ARR with high growth, you're going to be ve…”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 25:53 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 positive
Insight
Motamedi: Greylock Backs Flawed Ideas if General Market 'Zip Code' Is Right
“I think we are more likely to do it if we think the general zip code is good, right? So, like, if you're in a good zip code, but the street you've picked to build your house on is a bad street, like that we're more willing to get behind because we're like, hey…”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 46:23 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Motamedi: VC reference checks do not correlate with founder quality
“I would say in my experience, it's not correlated. Like I have backed great founders who did 12 references on me and I've backed great founders who did zero references on me. And so for what it's worth in my data set, it hasn't been correlated”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 1:07:01 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 bearish
Prediction Open · timeframe Jul 2034
Motamedi: Sales reps won't use Salesforce's interface in 10 years
“And I would argue in 10 years, sales reps won't even know what the Salesforce UI looks like because the interface to the underlying system of record has changed.”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 19:01 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 bullish
Disclosure
Motamedi: Greylock led a $26M seed round in cybersecurity startup Upwind
“We backed a team coming out of NetApp, where they had previously built and scaled a business and they sold it to NetApp for half a billion dollars, and they're building a new cybersecurity company called Upwind that's off to the races, and we led a really larg…”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 26:58 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 negative
Disclosure
Motamedi: Greylock's Biggest Seed Misses Came From Disliking Iconic Founders' Ideas
“Our biggest mistakes where we have not, you know, pursued the investment has been where we've met someone truly iconic and we did not like the idea. And by the way, Harry, often we're right. Often two years later, the founder is working on something different,…”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 46:49 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 positive
Prediction Held up
Motamedi predicts SaaS will shift to hybrid seat and work-based pricing
“I think we're going to see hybrid pricing models. Where you're going to layer on to seats the type of work that you're doing for the end user, and you're going to monetize that separately, and that will allow these companies to continue growing inside accounts…”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 15:48 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 negative
Opinion
Motamedi: Venture capital signaling risk is total bullshit
“I think it's total bullshit.”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 33:18 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Greylock refuses to invest in fast-growing startups lacking retention
“And if we don't like the answers to those questions, it doesn't matter if the company's gone zero to twenty million in six months, we're not going to invest.”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 7:35 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 positive
Assertion Supported
Abnormal Security reached $100M ARR growing over 100% year-over-year
“We were fortunate at Greylock to initiate a company called Abnormal Security, which recently announced they've crossed a hundred million of ARR growing north of a hundred percent.”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 43:01 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 15, 2024 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Motamedi: Foundation models with tightly coupled applications will generate strong venture returns
“On the other hand, we do think there are some applications where you need to own the model because the model needs to be tied to the application. Whether it's a personal agent, as an example, you referenced inflection. And for those, we actually do believe mon…”
Saam Motamedi Jul 15, 2024 ▶ 14:17 Saam Motamedi: Why Series B Won’t Make Money & Why $1M ARR is a BS Milestone for Series A | E1177 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 16, 2026 negative
Opinion
Lemkin: Benchmark's flat partnership model is optimized for profit, not discipline
“This is one of these things we manufacture, like how wonderful it is. Benchmark has a flat partnership. I mean, who cares, right? It's not disciplined. It's optimized to make the most money.”
Jason Lemkin Jul 16, 2026 ▶ 1:23:29 Zuckerberg Back on X Challenging Codex & Claude Code | SK Hynix’s $26BN IPO · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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