Jul 3, 2017 · 26m · 20vc
20VC: Kleiner Perkins GP, Eric Feng on How The Best Funds Use Tech and Data To Find Companies, Why Entrepreneurs Start The Fire and VCs Add The Rocket Fuel & Why Consumer Is Harder Than Ever Today
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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 Eric Feng, General Partner at Kleiner Perkins, about his journey from founder to venture capitalist. Feng discusses the structural challenges in consumer tech, data-driven investing strategies, and emerging models in content commerce.
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 22.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 4.0 Guest teaching 4.2 Guest disagreement 1.0 Harry pushing back 2.5
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 7:40 Dismissing early VC value
Eric candidly admits his past contrarian view that VCs were unhelpful and should just write checks and get out of the way.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 18:14 Challenging iterative strategyHarry pushes back on Eric's iterative investment focus, arguing that great VC firms like USV win by being ahead of macro technological shifts.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:00 Explaining clogged distribution channelsEric breaks down why consumer tech startups face structural headwinds, explaining how organic channels like SEO, app stores, and Facebook open platforms have become pay-to-play.
Harry holds his own ▶ 18:14 Citing USV's ahead-of-the-curve thesisHarry showcases deep industry domain knowledge by contrasting Eric's thesis with USV's historical shift from network effects 1.0 to decentralization 2.0.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eric Feng's Career Path from Engineering to Kleiner Perkins | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Harry opens with a standard personal background question. Eric shares an extensive career summary covering Trilogy, Microsoft, Hulu, Kleiner Perkins, and his relationship with Al Gore. | |
| Operational Insights Applied to Venture Capital Strategy | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Harry asks how Eric's operational experience shapes his investing. Eric explains his initial skepticism toward VCs before realizing how valuable board-level operational help can be. | |
| Analyzing the Current Consumer Tech Lull and Challenges | 6 | 5 | 1 | 4 | Eric outlines three reasons for the current consumer tech lull. Harry actively contributes by bringing up incumbent M&A dominance, citing acquisitions like Instagram, WhatsApp, and DeepMind. | |
| Future Opportunities: Content Commerce and Transactional Models | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Eric highlights areas for optimism including commerce content convergence and transactional revenue models. Harry listens as Eric shares engagement metrics for companies like OfferUp. | |
| Data-Driven VC Tools and the Barbell Investment Strategy | 7 | 5 | 2 | 6 | Harry challenges Eric's emphasis on iterative opportunities by referencing Union Square Ventures' thesis-driven evolution from network effects to decentralization. Eric defends his position by explaining data tools and Kleiner's barbell strategy. | |
| Quick Fire Round: Insights, Habits, and Recent Deals | 5 | 3 | 1 | 4 | In the quick fire round, Harry pushes back on climate tech investing by pointing out the mismatch between long development cycles and standard VC fund lifespans. |
Statements from this episode (12)
John Doerr Answered Flipboard Support Emails During Launch Crash
“I remember at Flipboard, for example, when the service first launched, The load was so tremendous that it actually took down the back end for a few weeks, and our board member John Doerr came by and actually answered customer support emails all night. He even …”
Snapchat Was the Last Breakout Consumer Tech Company, Says Feng
“The last breakout iconic consumer company that's proven today is Snapchat, and that launched in 2011, so it's been almost six years since we had that level of success on the consumer side”
Consumer Distribution Channels Are Now Clogged and Pay-to-Play
“If you're social companies, you could grow off the backs of Facebook distribution and Twitter distribution, but all of those channels are now clogged down. They're now incredibly optimized and they're largely pay to play. So it's very difficult for a startup t…”
Tech Incumbents Are the Most Nimble in History, Says Feng
“They're not afraid to directly compete with companies, copy companies, do whatever it takes because they have grown up in this next wave of innovation, and they are the savviest Strongest, most nimble, fast-moving group of incumbents that I think the world has…”
Solving Low-Hanging Mobile Problems Is No Longer Enough
“Most of those low hanging problems, they are solved. You're not walking around every day with a very broken experience. So the bar to actually create something that can provide meaningful value that consumers really appreciate and that's memorable and that's s…”
Venture Timing Is Wrong for VR and Autonomous Vehicles
“And I think for a lot of those big categories, the timing is likely not now in terms of making smart investments that deliver meaningful returns or LPs.”
OfferUp Matches Instagram With 22-Minute Daily User Engagement
“The startup offer up the mobile Craigslist company up in Seattle. They get 22 minute average daily session times. 22 minutes. That's as much as A news app. That's as much as Instagram. That's as much as a media service.”
Ad-Supported Business Models Are Unsuitable for Early-Stage Startups
“Advertising just takes an immense amount of scale, and you get incredibly low ARPUs because It just requires hundreds of millions of users to actually build a meaningful ad business these days. So that's really hard for a startup to have to rely on that as the…”
Kleiner Perkins Builds Internal Tech Tools to Detect Venture Signal
“Here at Kleiner, we have a bunch of interesting tools that help us look for early signal in companies, look for inflection points, look for interesting derivative movements on the app store charts, look for signals in transaction data.”
Consumer Tech Startups Are Binary; Entry Valuation Does Not Matter
“Consumer companies are binary. They work or they don't work. And when they work, it just really doesn't matter what your entry price is.”
Autonomous Tech Is Overhyped, Climate Tech Is Underhyped
“Most hyped, I would say autonomous. Autonomous everything. We've got autonomous chairs, we have autonomous water bottles, everything is autonomous these days. Under-hyped, climate change. I wish that we would pay more attention to the great things coming on ar…”
Holler Browsing and Daily Engagement Rival Social Media Apps
“First is the percentage of orders that came from browse, not search. It was the vast majority. And that's amazing. It's people not going through with an intent to buy one item like you see on Amazon, but opening up the service just to discover what is going on…”