Trae Stephens
30 statements across 1 episodes · 10 bullish · 13 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Apr 3, 2024 by Trae Stephens · said 25 times in 11 episodes since 2018 · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Trae Stephens's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Mentions by year
brought up most by Harry Stebbings (16), Brian Singerman (4), Katherine Boyle (2), Delian Asparouhov (2), Keith Rabois (1)
tap a year for its mentions
2024 13 mentions in 5 episodes 3 per episode
- Matt Grimm, Co-Founder @Anduril: How a Trump Administration Changes the Defence Industry | E1224 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Shyam Sankar: The Broken Incentive Structure of How Governments Buy Defence | E1104 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Torsten Reil, Helsing Founder: Raising $828M to Build the Defence Champion of Europe | E1237 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Klaus Hommels: Why "Portfolios are Merely a Construct to Make LPs Happy"? | E1231 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Delian Asparouhov: Inside the Walls of Founders Fund: What the World Does Not See | E1183 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2024, scene by scene →
2023 1 mention in 1 episode
2022 2 mentions in 1 episode
2021 2 mentions in 1 episode
2020 5 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
- 20VC: What Is Founder Narrative Fit and How to Detect and Invest In It, How To Avoid Consensus Thinking When Investing, Price Sensititivity; When To Pay Up vs Stay Disciplined & From New York Times To General Catalyst; Why Venture and Journalism are Not S
- 20VC: Anduril Founder, Palmer Luckey: "I Am Here To Build a $50Bn Company", How Palmer Evaluates His Relationship To Money Pre & Post Oculus' $2.3Bn Exit & Why The US DOD Needs To Be More Like China in It's Approach
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
Everything said about Trae Stephens, oldest first
Apr 3, 2024 bullish
Apr 3, 2024 neutral
Stephens: Most Common Founder Failure Mode Is Lacking a Complete Executive Team
“I would say the most common example is where you have a founder that doesn't build a, like a, Diverse enough set of skills around them with the rest of their founding team or their executive team. And they assume that their, you know, specific superpower will …”
Apr 3, 2024
Apr 3, 2024 positive
Stephens: Top Startups Excel at Every Stage Without Late Unlocks
“If you go back and you look at the best companies in any portfolio, they were kind of the best companies at every stage. Like they were incredibly awesome at A, they were incredibly awesome at B, they were incredibly awesome at C. Very rarely do you see a comp…”
Apr 3, 2024 positive
Apr 3, 2024 positive
Apr 3, 2024 positive
Stephens: Plans to Return to Government Civil Service Within 15 Years
“I am deeply committed to the idea of civil service. And I don't know if it's in five years or 10 years or 15 years, but at some point I want to be back as a public servant working for the good of our nation and our allies and partners.”
Apr 3, 2024
Stephens: Founders Are the Atomic Element in Venture, Not Markets
“No, because I think the best founders are going to pick Really strong markets and they will increase the probability of success even in like a middling market. So I think the founder has to be the atomic element always, but obviously like there are going to be…”
Apr 3, 2024
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Stephens: Exploding Term Sheets and False Urgency Lead to Bad Outcomes
“The thing that I actually like a lot less is the false sense of scarcity and urgency. And that was like what was happening in 20, 21, where the founder was saying like, you have 24 hours. I have a, I have an exploding term sheet. I'm going to pull the trigger …”
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Stephens: Repeat Founders Building Simple Enterprise SaaS Should Be Ashamed
“If you're like a multi-time successful entrepreneur and you're starting like fairly simple, trivial enterprise SAS company, like shame on you. Shame on you. Like, you need to go big. Like, have some vision for how you can impact humanity.”
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Stephens: 10x Potential Bets Fail to Return Large VC Funds
“The biggest lesson that I've learned from these is that there are times where I've gone in and I've said, this has 10 X potential from where it is right now, and therefore it's probably worth making a bet. And I look back on some of those investments that I've…”
Apr 3, 2024 positive
Stephens: Founders Fund Will Always Stick to Traditional Series A Strategy
“Our core vision is we just want to invest in the best founders, building the best companies that are going to be category, category defining. And I think you can do that through a very traditional venture model of, can we get a check into the series A and can …”
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Stephens: Institutional Seed Money Risk Lies in Pro-Rata Signaling
“This is by the way, the biggest risk of taking seed money from an institutional fund is that like doing your prorata is super lazy, doing more than your prorata is actually a signal in If you're not going to have real signal, if you don't have high conviction,…”
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Apr 3, 2024 positive
Stephens: Venture Capital Would Be Better if Dominated by Founders
“I think it would be better and more interesting if it were because I think that most of the advice that I've gotten the most out of is from existing founders or former founders or operators. Like they're the ones that have lived in those shoes. They're the one…”
Apr 3, 2024 positive
Stephens: Only $10B+ Winners Move the Needle for Founders Fund
“All upsize maximization. No downside protection silly. Like I think if you go back and you look at our portfolio, like whether or not we got our money back has never impacted fund performance. Like the only thing that moves the needle for a venture fund of our…”
Apr 3, 2024
Stephens: Category-Thesis VCs Arrive Too Late to Back the Monopoly
“It turns out that the core monopoly investment that won is the only one that mattered in the rest of the category matters a lot less. So if you have some vision for what the future looks like and you're looking for a company to invest in that's doing it rather…”
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Apr 3, 2024 positive
Stephens: Great Founders Can Pivot Their Way Into Product-Market Fit
“The founder is the atomic element, a really great founder and team are going to be able to pivot their way into strong product market fit. Whereas a great idea with a weaker founding team are going to get stuck and will likely spin out.”
Apr 3, 2024 neutral
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Apr 3, 2024
Stephens: Investors Should Follow Heuristics Rather Than Justifying Exceptions
“And this is going back to that earlier point I was making about heuristics is that you can't constantly convince yourself that every Exception is actually an exception. Usually it's just wrong. Usually you should just follow your instincts around the heuristic…”
Apr 3, 2024 bearish
Stephens: The 2024 Venture Market Is Repeating 2021 Bubble Mistakes
“And I think now in 20, 24, looking back on what happened, it's very easy in retrospect to say, Wow. We really let that get out of hand. And now we've got, we have to do a recap. We have to do a down round. We have to do all this crazy structure, but we're doin…”
Apr 3, 2024 positive
Stephens: Founders Fund Backed Flexport Based on Individual Partner Conviction
“So when I wanted to make the flex board investment, I had to kind of go through the gauntlet and answer a bunch of questions from the team and pound the table. But at the end of the day, they were like, we made a bet on Trey. Trey has high conviction in this. …”
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Stephens: Mediocre Western Political Leadership Poses a Risk to Civilization
“We have really just allowed Our Western political system to just be destroyed by mediocrity. And, you know, we have our standards for our elected leaders are like bargain basement level. It's really pathetic. And I don't know what it's going to take to convinc…”
Apr 3, 2024 negative
Stephens: Refuses Profitable Vice Investments Driving Dystopia
“And so as an investor, when I look at something and I'm like, yeah, this is a vice investment. Maybe it's probably going to make a lot of money because it leads to addiction or loneliness or You know, whatever. I don't want to be involved in that. I don't want…”