Oct 12, 2015 · 29m · 20vc
20 VC 078: BETAWORKS WEEK: Matt Hartman, Director of Seed Investments @ Betaworks
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of The 20 Minute VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews Matt Hartman, Director of Seed Investments at Betaworks, to explore early-stage investing strategies, network architecture, and mobile product design. Hartman shares the investment logic behind backing Product Hunt and Gimlet Media while offering insights on emerging social platforms.
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 25.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 2.5 Guest teaching 4.3 Guest disagreement 1.2 Harry pushing back 2.2
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:48 Rejection of host's sympathy for Meerkat
When Harry asks if Matt feels bad for Meerkat in its battle with Periscope, Matt directly rejects the host's premise, asserting that the space is not settled yet.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 21:17 Challenging Gimlet Media on VC return power lawsHarry directly challenges Matt on whether a podcast network like Gimlet Media violates the core VC mandate of needing a billion-dollar exit potential.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:41 Data-driven network graph analysis of communitiesMatt educates the host on how Betaworks' data scientists map Twitter connection graphs to identify high-density community leaders like Ryan Hoover prior to investing.
Harry holds his own ▶ 21:17 Demonstrating VC fund return mechanics knowledgeHarry demonstrates his sharp grasp of venture capital fund math by confronting the guest with the strict requirement for fund-returning billion-dollar exit opportunities.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Hartman's Career Background and Path to Betaworks | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Harry introduces Matt and playfully labels Betaworks as a rather confused organization in terms of its definition. Matt gently corrects the host, clarifying that it is confusing from the outside but clear on the inside, as he breaks down the dual studio and seed investment structure. | |
| The Appeal of Seed Stage Investing | 3 | 5 | 1 | 3 | Harry prompts a discussion on how network structures alter user behavior and distribution, then follows up by asking if reducing friction guarantees user retention. Matt educates the host on how follow versus friend models act like reproducing DNA and explains how ephemerality acts as a design pattern lowering posting friction. | |
| Community Building and the Product Hunt Investment Case Study | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 | Harry asks what makes a strong community and how Betaworks spotted Product Hunt early. Matt provides an insightful lesson on network mapping, detailing how Betaworks data scientists mapped Twitter connection density to identify key community nodes before investing. | |
| Live Streaming App Innovations: Meerkat, Periscope, and Up Close | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Harry asks a crowd-sourced question from Ryan Hoover about impressive apps and pushes Matt on whether he feels bad for Meerkat against Periscope. Matt politely counters that the live video battle is far from over and breaks down subtle product latency differences between platforms. | |
| Product Design Philosophy and Native Interaction Patterns | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | Harry demonstrates solid VC fund mechanics knowledge by asking if investing in Gimlet Media breaks the classic rule requiring potential billion-dollar exit outcomes. Matt educates the host on why audio advertising monetization is actually further along than early social platforms were, justifying the investment. | |
| Quick Fire Round: Tools, Resources, Books, and Recent Deals | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | During a lighthearted rapid-fire round, Harry asks about tools, books, and deals. Matt introduces Harry to the Drafts iOS workflow app and describes Ryan Leslie's direct SMS fan engagement model for Disruptive Multimedia. |
Statements from this episode (14)
Betaworks invested in Airbnb, Twitter, and internally built Bitly and Chartbeat
“Matt is Director of Seed Investments at Betaworks, who have invested in the likes of Tumblr, Airbnb, Groupon, and Twitter, and have internally built startups such as Chartbeat, Bitly, and Socialflow.”
Hartman: Betaworks studio built 19 companies, currently hosting 10 startups
“I think we've done about, built about 19 companies from the ground up in various stages, and they, they're, if you come into our office, we have, there's probably a hundred, over a hundred people here. All working at the moment on 10 different companies”
Hartman: Network architecture drives Twitter to news and Facebook to friends
“The difference between Facebook and Twitter is a bi-directional arrow, basically. So if the follow versus friend model actually creates these totally different ecosystems, it's kind of like DNA replicating, and it turns into a different type of organism. Well,…”
Hartman: Ephemerality is a design pattern lowering friction to post
“On the ephemerality side, I think that that actually, think about that not as a feature, but as a design pattern. What has ended up happening is that it lowered the friction to post. So I know that it's not going to everybody, and I know that it's going to dis…”
Hartman: Betaworks requires weekly recurring user activity for early investments
“That is one of the key things that we look for in our investments is we were very introspective with our early companies that were working with that haven't launched yet. The only thing we have is kind of our view of how we're using the product and how it fits…”
Betaworks used Twitter network analysis to identify Product Hunt's Ryan Hoover
“I remember when we first started talking to Ryan from product time, one of the things that we had done was this network analysis with our data. I had sat down with our data scientists and started mapping out the networks of this on Twitter. Because it's so pub…”
Product Hunt originally started as an email newsletter
“A bunch of people at Betaworks were on the early on an early version, I think it was an email before it was even a website.”
Hartman: Meerkat executed one of the best recent product launches
“I thought that that was sort of in retrospect now, one of the best product launches I've seen in a while.”
Hartman: The competition between Meerkat and Periscope is not over yet
“I don't think it's over yet.”
Hartman: Native audio app design must enable eyes-free usage
“What's native about something like an audio app, you know, is that probably you want to make sure that, that the experience is native, that you can look at it, use it without looking, and so things like that.”
Hartman: Demand for Great Podcasts Exceeds the Supply of High-Quality Shows
“So I think at the moment there's not as many great podcasts as there are people looking for great podcasts. There are a lot of podcasts, not necessarily great ones.”
Hartman predicts Gimlet Media has the potential to become an enormous company
“One is I think that Gimlet could, has the potential to be enormous.”
Hartman: Podcasting Monetization Is Straightforward Due to Existing Audio Ad Ecosystems
“In, in the case of podcasting, there are, there's already an established ecosystem of how to do audio ads. And so I think there's actually, in that sense, it's much further along and in many ways can be monetized in a very straightforward way.”