Nov 2, 2020 · 29m · 20vc
20VC: The Implications of a Biden vs a Trump Administration on Venture and Startups, How The Rise of Rolling Funds, SPACs and Solo Capitalists Will Impact Venture & What We Can Do To Swing the Race Pendulum in VC with Barry Eggers, Founding Partner @ Ligh
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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 special pre-election episode of The 20 Minute VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews Barry Eggers, founding partner of Lightspeed Venture Partners and chair of the NVCA, to explore how political policy, capital oversupply, and novel structures like SPACs, solo capitalists, and rolling funds are reshaping the venture capital landscape.
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 37.4% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 3.6 Guest teaching 4.0 Guest disagreement 1.7 Harry pushing back 2.4
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 15:35 Refuting the 10-Year Fund Death Timeline
When Harry asserts that VC funds take ten years to die, Barry directly challenges the premise by explaining how failing to raise capital triggers an immediate death spiral with founders.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 8:22 Challenging Personal Politics vs. WalletHarry strays off-script to press Barry on the direct contradiction between an investor voting with their personal values versus their financial self-interest.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 15:47 Explaining the VC Death SpiralBarry educates Harry on market mechanics, clarifying that formal fund lifespan matters far less than market perception once dealflow freezes.
Harry holds his own ▶ 9:01 Framing Capital Oversupply and Macro Interest RatesHarry displays strong market expertise by synthesizing Bill Gurley's oversupply analysis with macroeconomic interest rate projections to challenge long-term market valuation dynamics.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Show Opening and Welcoming Barry Eggers | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Harry warmly welcomes Barry back to the show, and Barry responds with a playful joke about receiving an SNL jacket before explaining how he entered VC in 1997 and co-founded Lightspeed. | |
| The Challenges of Firm Building and People Management | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Harry asks Barry about firm building challenges and the political environment. Barry draws on his NVCA chairmanship to deliver a thorough breakdown of policy impacts under Biden versus Trump. | |
| Personal Voting Choices and Capital Oversupply | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | Harry pushes Barry with an off-schedule question about voting with one's wallet versus one's heart, then cites Bill Gurley on capital oversupply and low interest rates before probing SPAC structures. | |
| The Solo Capitalist Movement | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | Harry challenges the rise of solo capitalists and rolling funds, raising concerns about market discipline and arguing funds take 10 years to die; Barry refutes this, explaining how fast a fund spiral actually occurs. | |
| Operating a Firm vs. Investing: EQ in Management | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | Harry pushes for action on diversity beyond 'writing very nice manifestos.' Barry responds with hard numbers from Lightspeed's 100% minority scout cohort and articulates the clear business case for inclusion. | |
| Board Dynamics: Maintaining Calmness and Adding Value | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Harry cites Tom Tunguz praising Barry's calmness on boards and asks how to manage dynamic friction. Barry outlines clear frameworks on long-term perspective and distinguishing board leverage from overhead. | |
| Quickfire Round: Books, Impact, History, Cleantech, and Netflix | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Harry runs through quickfire topics including books, impact, history, cleantech, and Netflix. Barry takes the opportunity to reject the common myth that impact investing requires reduced financial returns. |
Statements from this episode (23)
Eggers: Lightspeed launched with four partners, no LPs, and no fees
“The four of us splintered off and started Lightspeed and started from scratch, really. We had no LPs. We had a track record, which was helpful, but we had no portfolio, no fees coming in, so we raised a fund and started from there and then started hiring out t…”
Eggers: VC Partnerships Differ From Corporations Due to Lack of Hierarchy
“Partnerships are way different than corporations. Corporations at least have some formal hierarchy. Partnerships are supposed to be flat, and so there's sort of this unusual element of sort of lack of hierarchy, and it sort of finds its way over time, but the …”
Eggers: Startups, not big corporations, will solve climate change
“I do think that climate change is going to be solved by technology, largely, and by people changing their daily routines, but technology is key, and I don't think it's going to be necessarily solved by the big companies. I think the solutions are going to come…”
Eggers: Biden administration will raise general capital gains tax rates
“And then on tax policy, I think there's going to be increased taxes on capital gains.”
Stebbings: VC market will become increasingly frothy over next 2-3 years
“I'm not seeing interest rates going up anytime soon, especially not for the next two to three years. And I think we'll continue to see this inflow of capital into the venture market, making the market ever more frothy than it's been for the next two to three y…”
Eggers: Buying high and selling higher in venture capital is unsustainable
“In some cases we're buying high and selling higher, but there's only a matter of time while that works.”
Eggers: SPAC timeline is two to three months versus traditional IPOs
“You can put a SPAC together in two to three months in terms of the acquisition part and going public versus taking six, seven, eight months to really get a company ready for an IPO.”
Eggers: SPACs are here to stay as permanent alternatives to IPOs
“I think SPACs are here to stay, and we're going to see a lot of companies using that as a alternative to IPOs and direct listings over the next several years.”
Eggers: Lightspeed's 2020 seed rounds resemble Series A rounds from 2010
“When we refer to seeds today within Lightspeed, they look a lot like what we used to call Series A's 10 years ago. We've just almost shifted everything to the right one.”
Eggers: Solo Capitalist Model Is Not Restricted to Top 1% of Investors
“I don't think it's just a game of the .one percent. I think if people have been successful as operators or as investors, and they want to go on their own, they can be solo capitalists, and they can raise funds from the outside, because there's a lot of LPs out…”
Eggers: Venture capital will see increased adoption of rolling funds
“I think we'll see more of rolling funds, and if you can do it, it's great.”
Eggers: Venture capital will consolidate as capital inflows slow
“And I think over time, we're going to have a consolidation that capital is not going to be as plentiful coming into our industry and the best funds will survive and some won't.”
Eggers: Failing to raise a new fund triggers rapid VC death spiral
“Well, it takes 10 years to be out of business, but I think once you're not able to raise a new fund, it's a slow death, and it's hard for you to be active in the market because entrepreneurs know that you're having trouble raising capital, so it's sort of a de…”
Eggers: VCs choose investing because they are notoriously poor people managers
“I think VCs are notorious for being poor people managers. That's why they become VCs and not operating people.”
Eggers: Managing a VC firm requires more EQ than IQ
“It takes a lot more EQ than IQ to do that part of the job.”
Eggers: Lightspeed expanded its female investor team from one to ten
“We have one female investor four years ago. We have 10 now, which I think might be the highest in the industry.”
Eggers: Lightspeed allocated 100% of 2020 scout slots to racial minorities
“For twenty-twenty, we decided that our entire Lightspeed Scout program would be a hundred percent racial minorities, and so we put the word out in our network informally that we were going to do this. Within two weeks, we had 350 people apply for 25 spots, and…”
Eggers: Diverse venture teams drive broader reach and superior fund performance
“You shouldn't do it just because it feels good and it gives you good PR. You should do it because it was a business reason for doing it. And we believe the business reason is by having a more inclusive team, we reach a broader set of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneu…”
Eggers: VC firms will collaborate on diversity rather than compete
“I think generally the industry wants to collaborate, and we want to learn from each other as peers to accelerate the industry faster versus treating this as an area of competitive differentiation between firms. So I expect to see a lot more collaboration among…”
Eggers: Board leverage accelerates CEOs while overhead slows them down
“Leverage is helping a founder or CEO get something done faster than they would have without you. And overhead is making them get it done slower than without you.”
Eggers: Unhelpful investor introductions waste CEO time without adding value
“A lot of people like to make introductions to CEOs and CEOs oftentimes will have to take them because they feel obliged to do that, but the introductions don't lead anywhere.”