Leo Polovets
27 statements across 3 episodes · 6 bullish · 6 bearish · 2 people on the record · first statement Apr 19, 2017 by Leo Polovets · said 7 times in 2 episodes since 2017 · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Leo Polovets's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
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brought up most by Ted Blosser (6), Harry Stebbings (1)
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2019 1 mention in 1 episode
Everything said about Leo Polovets, oldest first
Apr 19, 2017
Polovets: Susa walks away when founder valuations double internal targets
“If I was thinking this should be a six million dollar pre and they said they're raising a twelve million dollar pre, that's usually when either I'll walk away or we'll try to have a negotiation and then see if we could make something work out.”
Apr 19, 2017
Polovets: Good bridge rounds address remaining risks, bad ones fund non-essentials
“I think the good bridges are the ones where you had a checklist of four things, and you hit three of them, and you need a little bit more money to prove that the fourth one is not a big risk either. I think the bad bridges are where somebody spent a million or…”
Apr 19, 2017 negative
Polovets: Bad VCs tarnish venture capital due to lack of public accountability
“I think most VCs are great and then a small number are not. And because there's no public repository of people, you know, saying what it's like to work with a specific investor, a lot of times, like both the good and bad investors will be able to get into roun…”
Apr 19, 2017 negative
Polovets: Staggered valuation caps offer minimal dilution savings over upfront rounds
“Whether you raise all of it on five, or you raise a little bit on four, seven, and 10, most people think that the four, seven, 10 approach is way better, because the valuations go up so much. But it turns out, I think it's within about half a percent of diluti…”
Apr 19, 2017 negative
Apr 19, 2017
Polovets: 80% of his seed role is helping founders raise follow-on rounds
“Yes, I think it's probably 80% of how I view my role, in the sense that, you know, the ultimate goal is to help a founder build a huge company, and a lot of times the next milestone to get there is to figure out what you have to prove and prove it so you could…”
Apr 19, 2017 neutral
Jul 28, 2017 positive
Nov 12, 2018
Susa Ventures tolerates 10-20% seed valuation premiums but reevaluates at 70%+
“We're not religious about it. I think if we're off by 10 or 20%, it's not a big deal. But if it feels like the price is off by 70% or 200%, then we really evaluate, like, how much we actually want to invest in a company.”
Nov 12, 2018
Nov 12, 2018 negative
Nov 12, 2018 positive
Polovets uses post-meeting surveys to gather founder feedback on pitch meetings
“I actually got this idea from Finn at first round where he started sending a survey to founders he met with to basically ask them what they thought of the meeting. So I've been doing that for the last year or two, and it's a really short survey.”
Nov 12, 2018 positive
Leo Polovets: Susa Ventures will not abandon struggling portfolio companies
“I strongly disagree with this. The first reason is, and this is actually kind of a personal reason, but, you know, my fund, Sousa Ventures, we talk about the investors and founders in our fund being a little bit like a family, and I know it's kind of corny, bu…”
Nov 12, 2018 negative
Nov 12, 2018
Leo Polovets: Multi-page pitch emails signal a founder lacks clarity
“I think there's a sync that shows that you know how to pitch your product well, and you have a really good grasp of it. And if you need three pages, I think that means that you still aren't sure exactly how to do that. And you don't know how to engage, you kno…”
Nov 12, 2018 positive
Polovets: Constructive rejection feedback builds long-term founder relationships
“And in my experience, it's best to send a thoughtful pass rather than disappear, and if you give constructive feedback about what you like about somebody's pitching company, and where are your hesitations, or where you see the risks, and you can give that feed…”
Nov 12, 2018 bullish
Polovets: Helpful seed investors usually get follow-on investment access
“And I will also say, I think following on is not a fantasy in my experience. I think if you're helpful and you work hard and founders enjoy working with you, they'll usually give you a chance to follow on, you know, not always, but usually.”
Nov 12, 2018 neutral
Polovets: Overpaying across a seed portfolio cuts overall fund returns in half
“I do believe price is important. I think everybody talks about if you invest in Uber, then the seed price doesn't matter. And I think if you invest in Uber, that's true. The seed price doesn't matter. But I think the challenge is that most investors think most…”
Nov 12, 2018
Polovets: Founders must plan for moats starting on day one
“I really think it's important to think about moats from day one, and you might not actually develop a good moat until year two or year five or even year 10, but I think it's at least important to think about, you know, whether you could build a moat over time …”
Nov 12, 2018
Polovets: Data network effects build continuously, not overnight
“And I also think that most, like you mentioned, proprietary data and like data network effects, those things are not binary. So it's not like you don't have them on day 1000 and then you suddenly have them on day a 1001. And so they grow over time and the more…”
Nov 12, 2018
Polovets: Defensive responses to rejection feedback signal difficult founders
“And if instead their response is more like, well, I think you're dumb and you're just not seeing it, then it's a good signal that maybe this person would be a little bit hard to work with or that they don't take it back well. So that's, you know, that's a grea…”
Nov 12, 2018
Polovets: Deal picking matters more than deal access for venture returns
“I definitely think picking is more important, you know, because if you don't pick well, then it doesn't really matter if you get in or not, like you're not going to have a good portfolio, but if you can pick well, then access may or may not be important. And I…”
Nov 12, 2018
Polovets: Hard work and domain expertise are not sustainable moats
“And the truth is like, those are nice things to have and they'll help you get a headstart for a couple of months or maybe a year or two, but those are not sustainable competitive advantages. Like you can't outwork every company in the world forever.”
Nov 12, 2018 neutral
Polovets: Early-stage unit economics only need to be in the ballpark
“You know, in the early days, I think unit economics, it's important that you're kind of in the right ballpark. So if it takes you a million dollars to acquire a customer that brings you 10,000 in revenue, like that's not good. But if it costs you 5000 dollars …”
Nov 12, 2018 positive
Polovets: Moats determine long-term margins and prevent zero-margin decay
“Well, I think the reason that moats are important is that they basically determine your profit margin over time. So if you build something that no one else can build, you can make 20 or 50 or maybe even 90% margins. But if what you're doing is easy to copy, th…”
Nov 12, 2018 negative
Nov 12, 2018
Polovets: Fund returns depend far more on initial seed checks than follow-ons
“Yeah, you know, I do believe, actually, that you make most of your money on the right initial bets, And the key is just to make those bets meaningful and trying to double down later helps, but I really think it's secondary.”