Mar 17, 2023 · 1h 2m · news
Ophelia Brown: How We Raised $432M in a Pandemic; What's New in European Venture Capital | E990 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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In this episode of 20VC, Blossom Capital founder Ophelia Brown joins host Harry Stebbings to discuss her journey into venture capital, the highly concentrated, contrarian investment strategies that define Blossom, and her experiences navigating the competitive European VC landscape as a solo female General Partner.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Harry holds 37.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 5.4 Guest teaching 3.7 Guest disagreement 2.8 Harry pushing back 4.6
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 35:12 Direct disagreement over dilution numbers
Ophelia directly rejects Harry's outcome scenario math, telling him that assuming only 5% dilution from Series A to exit is unrealistic.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 53:07 Confronting guest on negative industry perceptionsHarry refuses to soft-pedal reputation feedback, directly asking Ophelia how she responds to people viewing her as 'abrasive or bloody challenging.'
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 37:20 Educating host on European VC storytelling failureOphelia educates Harry on why US VCs win deals in Europe, citing European VC's self-inflicted image problem and explicitly calling on host/media figures to fix it.
Harry holds his own ▶ 25:39 Demonstrating mathematical rigour on fund constructionHarry showcases deep industry domain knowledge by citing Monte Carlo simulation numbers regarding fat-tail returns across seed fund unit sizes.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How Ophelia Wins and Evaluates Deals | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Harry asks open questions about Ophelia's ability to win competitive deals and move fast. Ophelia reframes the industry myth around 48-hour term sheets, clarifying that Blossom builds relationships over 6-8 months prior to investing. | |
| Building Relationships with "Heads-Down" Founders | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | Harry offers tactical advice on founder contact cadence (meeting once a quarter for a year). Ophelia playfully tells Harry to stop asking permission before asking hard questions and outlines how Blossom adds value to heads-down founders. | |
| A Philosophical Detour on Mortality and Motivation | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Harry asks what Ophelia is running from, and she reframes the question through a philosophical lens about escaping human mortality. Harry admits surprise at how deep the conversation went. | |
| Blossom's Concentrated Fund Model and Reserve Strategy | 7 | 4 | 3 | 7 | Harry calculates Blossom's fund math ($475M divided across 20 companies) and challenges Ophelia on whether having minimal reserves hurts founders when Series B funding dries up. Ophelia defends her core thesis that follow-on checks dilute fund returns. | |
| Navigating Reinvestment Conversations and Doing Away with ICs | 6 | 2 | 1 | 4 | Harry pushes on how Ophelia breaks news to founders when Blossom won't reinvest. Both host and guest strongly agree that traditional Investment Committees are political and inefficient. | |
| Conviction, Founder Independence, and Learning from Mistakes | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | Harry shares personal mistakes and operational frameworks like the 'Fred test' at Stride. When Harry probes on investment regret, Ophelia sharply rejects the framing, stating she has 'learning, not regret.' | |
| The Scout Program Experiment and the Choice to Avoid Seed | 8 | 3 | 2 | 5 | Harry demonstrates high technical expertise by running Monte Carlo mathematical simulations on seed portfolio diversification (40 units vs 23 units). Ophelia explains why Blossom shuttered its Scout program and avoids seed. | |
| The Series A Sweet Spot: Hands-on Support and No Early Boards | 6 | 3 | 3 | 7 | Ophelia explains why Blossom avoids formal board seats at Series A. Harry challenges this stance, arguing from experience that early boards stop founders from making easily avoidable mistakes. | |
| Pricing Discipline, 20% Ownership, and Leading Rounds Alone | 8 | 5 | 4 | 7 | Harry presses Ophelia on demanding 20% ownership in modern rounds and challenges her math on exit dilution. Ophelia pushes back directly, disputing Harry's assumption that a company only dilutes 5% between Series A and exit. | |
| The European Venture Capital Landscape and Image Problem | 7 | 6 | 4 | 5 | Harry highlights recent data showing US funds winning top European seed deals. Ophelia turns the tables, pointing out that European VC has an image problem and placing responsibility on media platforms like Harry's to tell better stories. | |
| The Brutal Reality of Fundraising as a Solo Female GP | 6 | 6 | 3 | 4 | Harry asks about fundraising as a solo female GP in Europe and shares tactical LP management advice. Ophelia recounts brutal LP interactions, including a French institutional LP asking where her 'older male partner' was. | |
| Managing Intensity and Navigating the "Abrasive" Label | 4 | 7 | 5 | 7 | Harry directly confronts Ophelia on her reputation as 'abrasive or bloody challenging.' Ophelia addresses the gender double standard in venture capital, noting male peers are praised for the exact same sharp elbows. | |
| Quick-Fire Round: Myths, COVID Travel, and the Next Five Years | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | In a quick-fire round, Harry probes rumors of sleeping in waiting rooms and arm-wrestling founders. Ophelia confirms arm-wrestling Tynes founders in Dublin and explains traveling through Paris via an Estonian residency loophole during COVID lockdowns. |
Statements from this episode (26)
Brown decides to invest or pass after the first founder meeting
“I would say within, you know, the first meeting, for sure, I come out with a decision of go, no go.”
Blossom Capital tracks founders for six to eight months before investing
“So, I did the analysis, now we're a few years in. I think we normally know founders for six to eight months pre-investment, sometimes a bit longer.”
Brown: Founders should not pick VC partners in under a week
“I don't know how people would decide on a VC that they want to work with within, you know, 48 hours or a week. Like you want to know how that person's going to be able to support you, how they're going to work with you, challenge you, open doors.”
Blossom Capital uses only partners for founder outreach, no junior staff
“When we're reaching out to speak or spend time with founders, we're partners only at the firm.”
Blossom Capital targets 20 portfolio companies for its third fund
“Fund one was 10 companies, fund two is 15 companies, and fund three will target 20.”
Brown: Reserving capital for follow-on rounds damages overall venture fund returns
“I think actually like the follow on can really damage fund returns in that you should buy your ownership at the lowest possible cost, which is the initial cost of seed or series A.”
Blossom Capital allocates 90% to 95% of capital to initial checks
“And so, 90, 95% of our investment will be for initial”
Brown: Startups unable to raise 36 months post-Series A lack viability
“And when we fund them at Series A, we say, you know, here's enough capital for 24, 36 months post our investment. And let's be honest, if you can't raise capital after that point, you probably aren't building a viable business.”
Blossom Capital eliminated investment committees from its decision-making process
“That's why we did away with the IC at Blossom.”
Brown: Theoretical investment theses fail when investors ignore execution risk
“I think investors can get fooled into thinking something is a great investment thesis, and ignore the practicalities of the execution and execution risk, et cetera. So I think a lot about that, like, you can build a beautiful investment thesis around why a pie…”
Brown: Founders prefer individual angel checks over pooled scout funds
“What founders wanted was a 10 K check from one angel and a 10 K check from another angel. They didn't want to group at two 50. So it just didn't work for the market.”
Blossom Capital will stick exclusively to Series A investments
“We're just going to stay to our swim lane and just do Series A.”
Blossom Capital shuns Series A board seats and caps annual deals
“Not at the A stage. So, our model, because we only make five investments a year, coming back to the concentrated approach, we have three partners, and we say, all of us support you at that stage.”
Stebbings advocates forming formal startup boards at pre-seed and seed stages
“The conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't have boards too early, but the more I do pre-seed and seed, the more I think you should have them as early as humanly possible, and I do, and it's not an arrogance, it's just like, as an investor, you see hundreds …”
Blossom Capital faced no competing term sheets on its last five deals
“The last five deals that we've done, there has been, like, no competitor. No single competing term sheet.”
Blossom Capital requires a 20% ownership target in portfolio companies
“So, and for our fund model, you know, we're pretty explicit that we want. 20% ownership, because if you're going to be one of 15 or 20 companies, we really want you to matter in the portfolio.”
Blossom Capital solely leads investment rounds without VC co-investors
“So we don't we lead, we don't work with other VCs.”
Stebbings: US multi-stage VCs recently won three hot European seed deals
“Over the last three months, I've seen three deals now where US VCs multistage have come in and won against seed VCs in Europe and multistage VCs competing at seed, and I haven't seen that before. Three in three months where they're like supremely hot deals. An…”
Brown: Early investors in European unicorns were not US multi-stage funds
“If we look back at the history of European unicorns that have been built and look at who supported them as seed and Series A, it wasn't US multi-stage fat.”
Stebbings: European VCs suck at telling inspiring stories compared to US VCs
“European VCs suck at telling stories. I know, often people are like, oh, why, why didn't you have more European VCs? Honestly, they really do not articulate stories well, and they're not inspiring, exciting, they don't resonate in a way that US VCs absolutely …”
Stebbings: Major European pension funds and universities lack venture capital allocations
“Fundamentally, you know, some of the largest pension funds in Europe don't invest in venture. I mean, that's like, unthinkable in the US. You know, I think when you look at a lot of educational facilities in Europe, we don't have any allocation to venture.”
Stebbings: Emerging VC managers should avoid sending full LP data rooms
“Actually don't ever send the data room unless you're raising big, large funds, like, you know, Multi-billion dollar funds or your, you know, multi-stage funds, but generally speaking, because actually you have this paradox of choice where suddenly they give th…”
BPI asked Ophelia Brown where her older male partner was
“The French, what's the French equivalent of EIF? BPI. BPI. They asked me where my older male partner was.”
Brown: Labels like 'aggressive' are gendered double standards in venture capital
“I don't think people would say that if I was a man. I think that's a comment that people level up a woman all the time.”