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Feb 26, 2015 · 17m · 20vc

20 VC 015: Marketplaces, IPOs and the NY Startup Scene with Lisa Wu

Lisa Wu · 10m spoken Harry Stebbings · 5m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

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In episode 15 of The 20 Minute VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews Lisa Wu, Vice President at Norwest Venture Partners, to discuss marketplace investment strategies, founder dynamics, and startup ecosystem nuances across New York and Silicon Valley. Lisa shares key insights on venture capital decision-making, early-stage pitch advice, and lessons from her transition from entrepreneurship to venture investing.

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 35.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Harry as informed peer 3.2 Guest teaching 3.3 Guest disagreement 0.7 Harry pushing back 2.5
05100:0010:001:20–5:08 · Harry as informed peer 2/10 Lisa Wu's Background and Transition to Venture Capital The host asks open-ended background questions and offers encouraging affirmations while the guest educates on marketplace business models and network effects.5:10–7:34 · Harry as informed peer 2/10 Norwest Investment Criteria and Founder Networking Advice The host asks standard investment criteria questions and has to clarify a vaguely worded question about founder teams when requested by the guest.7:36–10:20 · Harry as informed peer 3/10 Investment Timelines, Portfolio Highlights, and Founder Profiles The host demonstrates basic portfolio knowledge with Jet and Quidzi, while the guest reframes the host's assumption regarding skepticism toward first-time founders.10:24–12:35 · Harry as informed peer 5/10 Comparing New York and Silicon Valley Startup Ecosystems The host displays clear industry knowledge by immediately connecting the guest's explanation of tech startup offspring to the PayPal effect.12:35–14:35 · Harry as informed peer 2/10 Early-Stage Investment Flexibility and Pivotal Career Decisions The exchange is highly cooperative as the host prompts the guest to reflect on career-defining risk-taking moments.14:36–17:10 · Harry as informed peer 5/10 Quickfire Round The host pushes back on a concise quickfire answer about market size by probing deeper and citing Peter Thiel's niche market strategy theory.1:20–5:08 · Guest teaching 4/10 Lisa Wu's Background and Transition to Venture Capital The host asks open-ended background questions and offers encouraging affirmations while the guest educates on marketplace business models and network effects.5:10–7:34 · Guest teaching 3/10 Norwest Investment Criteria and Founder Networking Advice The host asks standard investment criteria questions and has to clarify a vaguely worded question about founder teams when requested by the guest.7:36–10:20 · Guest teaching 3/10 Investment Timelines, Portfolio Highlights, and Founder Profiles The host demonstrates basic portfolio knowledge with Jet and Quidzi, while the guest reframes the host's assumption regarding skepticism toward first-time founders.10:24–12:35 · Guest teaching 4/10 Comparing New York and Silicon Valley Startup Ecosystems The host displays clear industry knowledge by immediately connecting the guest's explanation of tech startup offspring to the PayPal effect.12:35–14:35 · Guest teaching 3/10 Early-Stage Investment Flexibility and Pivotal Career Decisions The exchange is highly cooperative as the host prompts the guest to reflect on career-defining risk-taking moments.14:36–17:10 · Guest teaching 3/10 Quickfire Round The host pushes back on a concise quickfire answer about market size by probing deeper and citing Peter Thiel's niche market strategy theory.1:20–5:08 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Lisa Wu's Background and Transition to Venture Capital The host asks open-ended background questions and offers encouraging affirmations while the guest educates on marketplace business models and network effects.5:10–7:34 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Norwest Investment Criteria and Founder Networking Advice The host asks standard investment criteria questions and has to clarify a vaguely worded question about founder teams when requested by the guest.7:36–10:20 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Investment Timelines, Portfolio Highlights, and Founder Profiles The host demonstrates basic portfolio knowledge with Jet and Quidzi, while the guest reframes the host's assumption regarding skepticism toward first-time founders.10:24–12:35 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Comparing New York and Silicon Valley Startup Ecosystems The host displays clear industry knowledge by immediately connecting the guest's explanation of tech startup offspring to the PayPal effect.12:35–14:35 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Early-Stage Investment Flexibility and Pivotal Career Decisions The exchange is highly cooperative as the host prompts the guest to reflect on career-defining risk-taking moments.14:36–17:10 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Quickfire Round The host pushes back on a concise quickfire answer about market size by probing deeper and citing Peter Thiel's niche market strategy theory.1:20–5:08 · Harry pushing back 1/10 Lisa Wu's Background and Transition to Venture Capital The host asks open-ended background questions and offers encouraging affirmations while the guest educates on marketplace business models and network effects.5:10–7:34 · Harry pushing back 2/10 Norwest Investment Criteria and Founder Networking Advice The host asks standard investment criteria questions and has to clarify a vaguely worded question about founder teams when requested by the guest.7:36–10:20 · Harry pushing back 2/10 Investment Timelines, Portfolio Highlights, and Founder Profiles The host demonstrates basic portfolio knowledge with Jet and Quidzi, while the guest reframes the host's assumption regarding skepticism toward first-time founders.10:24–12:35 · Harry pushing back 3/10 Comparing New York and Silicon Valley Startup Ecosystems The host displays clear industry knowledge by immediately connecting the guest's explanation of tech startup offspring to the PayPal effect.12:35–14:35 · Harry pushing back 2/10 Early-Stage Investment Flexibility and Pivotal Career Decisions The exchange is highly cooperative as the host prompts the guest to reflect on career-defining risk-taking moments.14:36–17:10 · Harry pushing back 5/10 Quickfire Round The host pushes back on a concise quickfire answer about market size by probing deeper and citing Peter Thiel's niche market strategy theory.

speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Harry 48.1% · guest 51.9%0:00 · Harry 48.1% · guest 51.9%3:00 · Harry 23.9% · guest 76.1%3:00 · Harry 23.9% · guest 76.1%6:00 · Harry 33.3% · guest 66.7%6:00 · Harry 33.3% · guest 66.7%9:00 · Harry 20.8% · guest 79.2%9:00 · Harry 20.8% · guest 79.2%12:00 · Harry 30.9% · guest 69.1%12:00 · Harry 30.9% · guest 69.1%15:00 · Harry 57% · guest 43%15:00 · Harry 57% · guest 43%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 9:45 Challenging first-time founder skepticism

The guest directly counters the host's premise that VCs are skeptical of first-time founders, noting there is no correlation between prior founder status and success in consumer tech.

 Hardest push from Harry ▶ 15:15 Challenging market size criteria

The host refuses to accept a brief quickfire answer about market size and presses the guest on whether too small or too big is the issue, referencing Peter Thiel's thesis.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 4:06 Explaining marketplace network effects

The guest delivers a clear, structured lesson on why inventory-light marketplaces create defensible winner-take-most dynamics.

 Harry holds his own ▶ 11:16 Identifying the PayPal effect

The host demonstrates sharp tech sector domain knowledge by immediately jumping in with 'Kind of like the PayPal effect' to summarize the guest's point on startup mafia networks.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicHarry as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementHarry pushing backWhy
Lisa Wu's Background and Transition to Venture Capital 2401 The host asks open-ended background questions and offers encouraging affirmations while the guest educates on marketplace business models and network effects.
Norwest Investment Criteria and Founder Networking Advice 2312 The host asks standard investment criteria questions and has to clarify a vaguely worded question about founder teams when requested by the guest.
Investment Timelines, Portfolio Highlights, and Founder Profiles 3312 The host demonstrates basic portfolio knowledge with Jet and Quidzi, while the guest reframes the host's assumption regarding skepticism toward first-time founders.
Comparing New York and Silicon Valley Startup Ecosystems 5413 The host displays clear industry knowledge by immediately connecting the guest's explanation of tech startup offspring to the PayPal effect.
Early-Stage Investment Flexibility and Pivotal Career Decisions 2302 The exchange is highly cooperative as the host prompts the guest to reflect on career-defining risk-taking moments.
Quickfire Round 5315 The host pushes back on a concise quickfire answer about market size by probing deeper and citing Peter Thiel's niche market strategy theory.

Statements from this episode (11)

Insight
Lisa Wu: Lifestyle businesses require the same 24/7 effort as IPO-bound startups
“Time is all of our most valuable asset. And whether you create a company that is a profitable lifestyle business, or one that eventually goes public one day, it still takes the same amount of effort, which is 24 seven of your time.”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 1:58
Insight
Lisa Wu: Working in VC raises the bar for launching a startup
“What happens in venture is the longer you stay in, it's almost harder for you to go start a business because your bar becomes super high because you understand all the challenges and how difficult it is to actually scale a business,”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 3:17
Disclosure
Norwest Venture Partners was the Series A investor in Lending Club
“At Northwest, we've made several bets on marketplaces. We were The Series A investor in this company called Lending Club, which is a marketplace for peer-to-peer lending.”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 4:55
Assertion Supported
Lisa Wu: Norwest's $1.2B fund invests from $100k to tens of millions
“Given that we are a 1.2 billion dollar fund, we have a lot of flexibility in our investment size, so we can invest anywhere from a couple 100,000 dollars to as large as tens of millions of dollars”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 5:24
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lisa Wu: Norwest rarely converts cold inbound pitches into actual investments
“We get a lot of inbound via LinkedIn and also through our website, and we do review each of those opportunities that come through those, but it's actually pretty rare that an opportunity that comes in through those channels actually converts into an actual inv…”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 7:10
Insight
Lisa Wu: Founder track record does not correlate with consumer startup success
“There really hasn't been a correlation in the consumer space of You know, having to be a prior successful entrepreneur and the success of their current business.”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 10:11
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lisa Wu: New York startup ecosystem remains behind Silicon Valley
“The New York startup ecosystem is just still behind Silicon Valley.”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 10:51
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lisa Wu: New York will take decades to catch Silicon Valley
“It's gonna take several, you know, maybe even decades for it to catch up to Silicon Valley just because the West Coast has really been a breeding ground for innovative tech companies for a while now.”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 11:51
Opinion
Lisa Wu: West Coast VCs take bigger risk bets than East Coast
“I would say that people, the investors in the West Coast are probably more likely to swing for the fences and take those big visions versus on the East Coast. There might be a little more I guess, you know, wanting a business model and all that stuff.”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 12:19
Insight
Lisa Wu: Maintaining principles 100% of the time is easier than 98%
“It's easier to hold to your principles a hundred percent of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 14:55
Disclosure
Lisa Wu: Market size is the top reason Norwest rejects startups
“I would say, given our fund size, it would be market size.”
Lisa Wu Feb 26, 2015 ▶ 15:12
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