Jul 27, 2015 · 25m · 20vc
20 VC 057: The Investor Checklist with Nicolas Wittenborn, VC @ Point Nine Capital
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In episode 57 of The 20 Minute VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews Nicolas Wittenborn of Point Nine Capital to explore the investor checklist and decision-making frameworks used to evaluate early-stage startups. Wittenborn details fund return math, the importance of Key Usage Indicators (KUIs), team dynamics, and product-driven organic growth strategies.
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 19.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 1.8 Guest teaching 3.0 Guest disagreement 0.5 Harry pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 9:30 Reframing standard TAM applicability
Nicolas gently rejects the standard industry reliance on TAM calculations, noting that TAM by definition only measures pre-existing markets rather than emerging models.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 9:13 Challenging market sizing with Snapchat exampleHarry challenges the guest's market sizing criteria by citing Snapchat as a case where conventional addressable market metrics would have missed a massive outcome.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:45 Breakdown of seed VC fund return dynamicsNicolas breaks down the exact venture return math for their 55M euro fund, educating the listener on how ownership targets and fund size dictate market requirements.
Harry holds his own ▶ 9:13 Citing ephemeral messaging business model dynamicsHarry demonstrates domain knowledge by raising the specific case of ephemeral messaging business models to challenge rigid investment checklist criteria.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicolas Wittenborn's Background and Path to VC | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | The host asks open-ended introductory questions allowing Nicolas to share his origin story of importing iPhones and landing a role at Team Europe. The dynamic is purely collaborative and storytelling-focused with no pushback or expertise demonstration. | |
| Evaluating Market Size and Fund Return Math | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Harry asks a fundamental question about market size thresholds. Nicolas educates the audience on VC fund return math, demonstrating how a 55M euro seed fund requires companies capable of returning the entire fund in single outcomes. | |
| Assessing Emerging Business Models and Usage Signals | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Harry uses Snapchat as a concrete example of an unmeasurable emerging market. Nicolas reframes the notion of TAM, explaining that traditional TAM only measures existing markets and that emerging spaces require looking at engagement proxies and usage signals. | |
| Ideal Founding Team Dynamics | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Harry guides the conversation through founding team preferences and seed stage product expectations. Nicolas provides detailed insights into complementary founding teams and shares the story behind the naming of Point Nine Capital. | |
| Key Usage Indicators (KUIs) vs. Financial Metrics | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Harry asks about key underlying metrics for early stage startups. Nicolas reframes financial KPIs toward what he terms Key Usage Indicators (KUIs), advocating for tracking fundamental user actions over purely financial metrics at seed stage. | |
| Quick Fire Round with Nicolas Wittenborn | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Harry leads a rapid-fire question sequence covering books, advice, and recommendations. Nicolas comfortably answers with book choices, advice on founder passion, and an unannounced investment deal in Green Blender. |
Statements from this episode (14)
Point Nine Capital closed a €55M seed fund in May 2015
“For us at .9, we have a seed fund, right? The most recent fund that we closed in May this year is fifty five million euros.”
Point Nine Capital targets seed investments that can return the fund
“And for us, what we aim for when we do an investment is trying to get to an outcome that at least returns the fund once, right?”
Traditional TAM metrics fail when evaluating entirely new markets
“TAM, in a way, already is defined as a market that's already existing, right? Because you're trying to figure out Which part of an existing market you can address with this company or the solution?”
Massive user engagement allows early startups to figure out monetization later
“If you can show that this is something people really love, and there's just huge traction in terms of usage or growth, then we think that monetization can often, often follow that.”
Point Nine Capital focuses heavily on SaaS and marketplaces
“So at .9, for instance, we're very focused on, on SaaS and marketplaces, right?”
SaaS demands stronger technical and product teams than e-commerce
“Specifically for software as a service where you, you're essentially online or cloud software company, it's super important to have great product people and great technical people, right? Because at the end of the day, it's about really differentiating with th…”
Point Nine Capital is named after software version 0.9
“The name .nine actually comes from the product version.nine, so we want to invest when it's not Product version one point zero yet, right? But it's almost there in a way.”
Point Nine Capital requires 6 to 12 months of usage data
“In, in, in most cases, this means that we invest when there's some six to 12 months of first data of actually usage of the product or maybe customers paying for this.”
Point Nine Capital invested in Typeform before the company began monetizing
“We looked at it quite early in the company's lifetime. They had the product pretty far, but they didn't charge users yet, right? They were kind of in an extended beta version, and we saw the product, and we just really loved it, and so we took a leap there, an…”
Point Nine Capital avoids rigid MRR thresholds for seed investments
“So as some I mentioned right now, it's for us, because we're at such an early stage, hard to set kind of absolute barriers or criteria, because it depends so much on how, how far the company is, right? So we don't like to give out a number of total MRR or some…”
Early startups should track usage metrics over MRR
“And I think in the beginning, especially when there's, you know, it's just so much uncertainty, I think it's very, very good to figure this out on a high level and then track, Tracking this over time, because it doesn't necessarily, you know restrict you to th…”
Organic growth is difficult to fix after a product launches
“This is something that, that is very, honestly, very tough to fix once a product is out.”
Benedict Evans' newsletter is top tier for mobile tech
“Then one more, and I really love this one because I think it's one of the few ones that really focus on mobile and is really good is Benedict Evans' newsletter of Andreessen Horowitz which I follow as well.”
Point Nine invested in smoothie subscription startup Green Blender
“But this is actually one, this is which is a little unusual, I guess, for us, but I still really like it's a New York based company called Green Blender. And what they do actually is a smoothie as a service subscription play. Where, which sounds maybe a little…”