May 29, 2018 · 31m · 20vc
20VC: Lessons From Slack and Opendoor on Price Sensitivity, Why The Best CEOs Are Able To Manage Momentum and Why Being A Board Member is a "Full Contact Sport" with Glenn Solomon, Managing Partner @ GGV 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 this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, Harry Stebbings interviews Glenn Solomon, Managing Partner at GGV Capital, to explore two decades of venture capital history, portfolio management, board governance, and cross-border tech 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 31.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 2.4 Guest teaching 3.7 Guest disagreement 1.4 Harry pushing back 1.1
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 6:50 Rejecting Elad Gil's thesis on waiting for paradigm shifts
Glenn directly disagrees with Elad Gil's viewpoint that investors are currently waiting for the next innovation wave, asserting that VCs are already playing in a massive second act of cloud and mobile.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 18:47 Challenging China optimism with the threat of BAT incumbentsHarry refuses a simple rosy picture of China's market by raising the threat of massive incumbents like Tencent and Alibaba copying startups early or acquiring them prematurely.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:30 Reframing valuation discipline in power-law investingGlenn educates on venture economics, arguing that walking from high-priced winners is usually a mistake and calling valuation concerns a crutch for VCs.
Harry holds his own ▶ 20:39 Distilling GGV's sweet spot in Chinese startup investmentsHarry demonstrates strong market comprehension by accurately summarizing Glenn's lengthy explanation into a crisp thesis about investing pre-giant incumbent but post-traction.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Career Background and Entry into Venture Capital | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | Host asks introductory questions and cites Elad Gil's thesis on market cycles. Glenn reframes the premise, disagreeing with Gil and arguing that cloud and mobile are actively in a massive second act. | |
| Evolving Investment Strategy and Portfolio Focus | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Harry uses Bing Gordon's quote on portfolio management to probe how Glenn allocates time. Glenn provides nuanced perspective on prioritizing power-law winners while managing failing investments respectfully. | |
| Valuation Discipline and the Board Member Role | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | Glenn challenges conventional VC valuation discipline, calling valuation a crutch used to pass on great companies. Harry facilitates standard transitions on board governance. | |
| Anatomy of an Effective Board Meeting | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Glenn outlines the elements of high-performing board meetings using Domo as a benchmark, which Harry warmly agrees with. | |
| GGV's Dual-Engine Strategy in China | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Harry presses on the risk of dominant Chinese incumbents copying or swallowing startups, prompting Glenn to explain GGV's strategic timing before synthesizing the investment sweet spot back to Glenn. | |
| The Opendoor Investment and Managing Momentum | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Harry invites Glenn to address Opendoor skeptics. Glenn explains how coastal VC bias overlooks middle-American consumer dynamics and breaks down momentum management in startups. | |
| Quick Fire Round | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | A friendly quick-fire round covering reading lists, consensus-defying tech trends, and an anecdote on aligning cross-border partner meeting times. |
Statements from this episode (14)
Cloud and mobile are the two biggest paradigm shifts of our lifetime
“These two shifts, the mobile computing and cloud computing shifts, Have been massive. They're interrelated. They're probably the two biggest paradigm shifts I'll see in my life, and they're giving birth to some of the most important network effect businesses a…”
Tencent's WeChat is likely the world's most valuable digital asset
“Tencent's WeChat was created on mobile, and it's probably the most valuable digital asset in the world today.”
Tech is in the second act of cloud and mobile, not waiting
“Where I disagree with Elad is I think we're already in a very important second act of the paradigm shifts around cloud and mobile, and so I disagree that we're waiting for anything.”
Silicon Valley-centric VCs miss the global tech interplay with China
“These are global trends and really for the first time are flattening technology markets so that the interplay between China and the U.S. Where we're focused and other markets as well is as vibrant as it's ever been, and that's where I think some of the folks W…”
Using valuation as a reason to pass on deals is a crutch
“I think it's a crutch to use valuation as a reason to walk from deals.”
None of Glenn Solomon's cheap venture investments ever turned out great
“I can't think of a cheap deal I've ever done in my life that turned out great.”
Silicon Valley is losing its primacy as the hub for tech startups
“Silicon Valley is, losing its primacy for startups. You're seeing great startups getting going in lots of regions throughout the U S and throughout the world.”
Domo gives board members real-time platform access, eliminating basic financial reporting
“The company Domo runs itself on the product Domo, and the board has access to that product. So the result of that is the board meetings at Domo are not about reporting numbers.”
First-time founders make a mistake by excluding executive teams from board meetings
“I'd say that's a mistake I see first time entrepreneurs frequently make is that they make the board meetings all about themselves, when in fact, while scary, it's the right thing to do to give more exposure to your executive team, to the board.”
GGV Capital has over 50% of its investments and team in China
“Today, half our team is in China, half our, over half our investment team, over 50% of our investments have been made in the China market.”
China is no longer a copycat market but a genuine innovation leader
“I think the smart entrepreneur now realizes that China's not a copycat market anymore, that real innovation is happening there, and they just want to learn.”
Chinese tech giants prioritize early investment in breakout startups over copying them
“What I see happening more recently is not that those companies are copycatting and trying to kill startups. They're trying to identify the startups that have breakout potential and get money into them and invest in them as soon as possible.”
Alibaba and Tencent back rival startups rather than co-investing
“It's unlikely, for example, that both Alibaba and Tencent will come into the same company, and if one backs a company, then you can expect that the other will back a competing company in the space.”
Opendoor's value proposition targets Middle America, not San Francisco or New York
“With Opendoor, this is really a middle America play. This is not a play that necessarily resonates in markets where there's a lot of liquidity in residential real estate like San Francisco, Bay Area, and New York, where there also are a lot of VCs.”