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QED Investors

also referred to as: qed

29 statements across 6 episodes · 11 bullish · 3 bearish · 4 people on the record · first statement May 24, 2021 by Nigel Morris · said 56 times in 9 episodes since 2021 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (29), Bill Cillufo (9), Nigel Morris (8), Frank Rotman (4), Shu Nyatta (1), Sahil Bloom (1), Nick Shalek (1), Mike Chalfen (1)

tap a year for its mentions
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035202120222023episodes it came up in
0052.5105202120222023episodesmentions per episode
2023 2 mentions in 1 episode
2022 25 mentions in 5 episodes 5 per episode
2021 29 mentions in 3 episodes 10 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about QED Investors, oldest first

May 24, 2021 bullish
Disclosure
Morris: QED invested in Bitso despite his crypto denial
“There are two that we've just done now. One is investment in Bitso, which we announced a few days ago. I've been a crypto denier. I don't get it. I can't predict if it's going to go up or down. But what I do know is crypto is a thing, and people want it.”
Nigel Morris May 24, 2021 ▶ 42:04 20VC: Why Bundling Does Not Work, How The Best Founders Analyse Unit Economics, Why The Way We Approach Mental Health in Venture and Startups is Wrong with Nigel Morris, Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ QED Investors
May 24, 2021
Insight
Morris: Growing a 4x return to 5x is easier than saving a 0x
“In venture, it's much easier to turn four X into five X than turn zero X into one X. Clearly mathematically the case.”
Nigel Morris May 24, 2021 ▶ 20:38 20VC: Why Bundling Does Not Work, How The Best Founders Analyse Unit Economics, Why The Way We Approach Mental Health in Venture and Startups is Wrong with Nigel Morris, Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ QED Investors
May 24, 2021 bearish
Insight
Morris: Unprofitable heavily funded startups will ultimately fail
“There's a thing called the just world hypothesis, and in the end, unit economics drive P&Ls. And if your business is built on a house of cards, and your unit economics don't make any sense, in the end, your business will not succeed. And that competitor, albei…”
Nigel Morris May 24, 2021 ▶ 28:39 20VC: Why Bundling Does Not Work, How The Best Founders Analyse Unit Economics, Why The Way We Approach Mental Health in Venture and Startups is Wrong with Nigel Morris, Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ QED Investors
May 24, 2021
Insight
Morris: 4x return with founder respect beats 5x while despised
“I much prefer to get four X and be loved and respected than five X and be despised and feel like we took advantage.”
Nigel Morris May 24, 2021 ▶ 6:47 20VC: Why Bundling Does Not Work, How The Best Founders Analyse Unit Economics, Why The Way We Approach Mental Health in Venture and Startups is Wrong with Nigel Morris, Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ QED Investors
Aug 26, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rotman: Startups now grow faster during deal closing than 2008 winners did annually
“When I first started in this industry in 2008, you know, 2009, 2010, the early vintages of companies that we ended up investing in, the best companies would grow by two X. And now you're looking at companies that between the signing of a term sheet and the fin…”
Frank Rotman Aug 26, 2021 ▶ 20:59 20VC: Has Price Discipline Disappeared? Is it Possible to Build Ownership Over Time? Why Venture Is Less Collaborative Now Than Ever? How fast Do Breakout Companies Become Obvious? How To Construct an Optimised and Repeatable Investment Decision-Making Pr
Aug 26, 2021 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rotman: QED portfolio non-participation creates no signaling risk
“No, there's no signaling risk because some of the companies that are the absolute rock stars in our portfolio, like they grow beyond our ability to even fund them given the market dynamics.”
Frank Rotman Aug 26, 2021 ▶ 32:44 20VC: Has Price Discipline Disappeared? Is it Possible to Build Ownership Over Time? Why Venture Is Less Collaborative Now Than Ever? How fast Do Breakout Companies Become Obvious? How To Construct an Optimised and Repeatable Investment Decision-Making Pr
Aug 26, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
Rotman: Fintech funding grew from under $1B annually to $30B+ quarterly
“Less than a billion dollars of capital was deployed globally in fintech in a year. And now you're looking at 30 plus billion a Quarter being deployed into fintech.”
Frank Rotman Aug 26, 2021 ▶ 46:14 20VC: Has Price Discipline Disappeared? Is it Possible to Build Ownership Over Time? Why Venture Is Less Collaborative Now Than Ever? How fast Do Breakout Companies Become Obvious? How To Construct an Optimised and Repeatable Investment Decision-Making Pr
Aug 26, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rotman: Breakout companies QED passed on pivoted completely from original decks
“A lot of the biggest companies that we passed on, if you actually saw the original thesis behind the company, the original investor deck, the ultimate business didn't look anything like what the original thesis was.”
Frank Rotman Aug 26, 2021 ▶ 42:54 20VC: Has Price Discipline Disappeared? Is it Possible to Build Ownership Over Time? Why Venture Is Less Collaborative Now Than Ever? How fast Do Breakout Companies Become Obvious? How To Construct an Optimised and Repeatable Investment Decision-Making Pr
Aug 26, 2021
Insight
Rotman: Every startup experiment produces either proof or anti-proof
“Everything that you do is either proof or anti-proof, right? Everything that you learn falls into one of those two categories. You're either proving that the assumption that you had is correct, Or you're getting anti evidence that it actually isn't correct.”
Frank Rotman Aug 26, 2021 ▶ 25:52 20VC: Has Price Discipline Disappeared? Is it Possible to Build Ownership Over Time? Why Venture Is Less Collaborative Now Than Ever? How fast Do Breakout Companies Become Obvious? How To Construct an Optimised and Repeatable Investment Decision-Making Pr
Mar 1, 2022 positive
Disclosure
SRB Ventures made an early investment in short-term rental platform Wander
“One of the companies, one of the first investments out of the fund is this business wander. QED and red point were leading the series a very cool short-term rental vertically integrated platform.”
Sahil Bloom Mar 1, 2022 ▶ 10:01 How I Built a Twitter Audience of 500K+ in 18 Months | Sahil Bloom Full Interview · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 22, 2022
Disclosure
Cillufo: QED passed on Nubank and Loft seed rounds over high valuations
“We turned down both NewBank and Loft at their seed stage, right? So in both cases, we knew the CEO long before they had the idea for the company... And in both cases, they had what at the time looked like offer sheets with really high valuations. We looked at …”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 24:08 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022 positive
Disclosure
Cillufo: Multiple QED portfolio companies made three to five annual acquisitions
“We've seen a number of our companies in our portfolio actively buying three, four, five companies a year over the last couple of years.”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 22:11 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022 bearish
Insight
Cillufo: Growth companies should plan to avoid fundraising for 12–18 months
“Related to the growth stage companies, I think very similar conversations are happening across geographies, across business types, and it's almost all of the flavor of, look, you shouldn't be planning on needing to raise money in the next 12 to 18 months.”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 19:46 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022 negative
Disclosure
Cillufo: QED's consensus orientation has sometimes slowed down its deal execution
“Because of this consensus orientation and this desire to get so much input, I think at times we haven't been as fast as we've needed to be.”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 31:53 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022
Insight
Cillufo: VCs cannot rely on operator skills to fix incomplete founder teams
“One of the terms we use is operators masquerading as investors. A lot of us have experience either at Capital One or at startups or other places operating businesses. And I do think at times we've fallen in love with an idea. We may not have been totally sold …”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 25:17 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022
Insight
Cillufo: Retrofitting unit economics into a startup later is extremely difficult
“And it is one of the things I've learned now working with the 150 companies in our portfolio. It's really not easy. And if you don't do it from the start, it's much harder to add later.”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 6:05 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022
Disclosure
Cillufo: QED favors upfront monetization but navigates deferred models better now
“Admittedly, it's a little easier sometimes for QED to invest in businesses where monetization is built in upfront. That's not always the case. And I think over the years, we've learned how to be much better at partnering with so-called act two businesses where…”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 7:19 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022
Disclosure
Cillufo: QED's biggest investment misses resulted from balking at high valuations
“Our biggest misses have been on this question of valuation. Love the team, love the business, love the opportunity, have a great relationship, feel like this is going to work, and then we just sort of balk at the price.”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 23:46 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022 bullish
Disclosure
Cillufo: Multiple QED investments doubled in size between term sheet and close
“The number of companies that we've invested in the last couple years that have literally doubled between when we submitted a term sheet and when we closed the deal, it's stunning.”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 11:45 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022
Insight
Cillufo: Most fintech businesses are default local and need regional adaptation
“I think most fintech businesses are default local, and that unless you sort of go through heroic efforts, they're probably not going to work in the next country unless you really adapt.”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 26:47 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022
Assertion Supported
Cillufo: Single-lead investment rounds have largely replaced shared venture rounds
“Venture firms used to share rounds. I think it's much more common for one of them to lead than the next one to do the next round.”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 29:10 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022 positive
Disclosure
Cillufo: QED urged portfolio founders to take preemptive hot-market money
“By and large, our advice over the past several months is take the money because the market is so hot. You never know if that market's going to continue. You never know if you're going to be able to tap that again. I think we've been pretty aggressive over the …”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 18:23 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Apr 22, 2022 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cillufo: Later-stage startups raised massive war chests in early 2022
“So many of the later stage companies, both in our portfolio and around the world, have raised a ton of money over the last three to six months. And so many businesses are sitting on very impressive war chests that they were assuming they would use to grow real…”
Bill Cillufo Apr 22, 2022 ▶ 20:15 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf
Aug 12, 2022
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rotman: Modern startup growth velocity far outpaces 2008 benchmarks
“When I first started in this industry in 2008, You know, the best companies would grow by two X year over year. And now you're looking at companies that between the signing of a term sheet and the final documentation, a company could have doubled or tripled.”
Frank Rotman Aug 12, 2022 ▶ 14:02 20VC: 13 of the Great Investing Minds on When to Pay Up vs When To Remain Disciplined and Walk Because the Price is too High: The Ultimate Guide to Price Sensitivity
Aug 12, 2022
Disclosure
Rotman: QED offers intended as top bids were outbid by 2x
“We've done it with a number of companies over the past year where the environment has just shifted so quickly, where I thought we were offering the highest price that we could, and it was the lowest by a factor of two.”
Frank Rotman Aug 12, 2022 ▶ 13:14 20VC: 13 of the Great Investing Minds on When to Pay Up vs When To Remain Disciplined and Walk Because the Price is too High: The Ultimate Guide to Price Sensitivity
Aug 11, 2023 positive
Disclosure
Rotman: QED's 100x+ wins de-risked their business models on minimal capital
“If I look at the history of our 20 X pluses and we have a few hundred X pluses, like these were businesses that for very limited amounts of money were able to de-risk the business so that you knew that you were on, on a path to something very big.”
Frank Rotman Aug 11, 2023 ▶ 18:18 DEBATE: State of Seed Investing w/ Jason Lemkin, Sam Lessin, Frank Rotman & Harry Stebbings | E1047 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 11, 2023 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rotman: Generating 12x early investor returns on $300M exit requires under $30M raised
“In order to do that with a three hundred million dollar outcome, it means you have to have invested less than thirty million dollars of capital to get to that point.”
Frank Rotman Aug 11, 2023 ▶ 28:13 DEBATE: State of Seed Investing w/ Jason Lemkin, Sam Lessin, Frank Rotman & Harry Stebbings | E1047 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 11, 2023 bullish
Disclosure
Rotman: QED Has Another 6 to 12 Potential IPOs in Portfolio
“We see the potential in our own portfolio for, you know, another half dozen or dozen like IPOs that are kind of orienting themselves and getting ready when they get to sufficient scale”
Frank Rotman Aug 11, 2023 ▶ 56:07 DEBATE: State of Seed Investing w/ Jason Lemkin, Sam Lessin, Frank Rotman & Harry Stebbings | E1047 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 11, 2023 positive
Disclosure
Frank Rotman: QED Investors acts as hands-on employees for portfolio companies
“I mean, we almost become employees of the company. In the early days to help them accelerate their path.”
Frank Rotman Aug 11, 2023 ▶ 45:55 DEBATE: State of Seed Investing w/ Jason Lemkin, Sam Lessin, Frank Rotman & Harry Stebbings | E1047 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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