The Exchanges

Q Can I be blunt, Nos? When you look at the progression of company, you put in a twenty-five million dollar check. What does that decision-making determination process look like that takes you from a 25 to a five-hundred million dollar check? And how do you determine efficiently where to allocate and concentrate capital efficiently within the portfolio when so much is looking so good right now?

A Yeah, it's a good question. Well, we have a different process for sub-seventy-five million dollar checks. We call it internally. It's just an internal name. We call it emerging growth, which are sort of that click earlier, but very fast growing checks. And so we have a different decision-making process for that. It's a committee that meets off cycle because often those decisions need to, A, happen fast, and B, they sometimes happen on a Thursday afternoon. You can't say, oh, our traditional investment Committee's meeting once a week or whatever the time. So it's a more flexible, faster moving. Often diligence is happening in two weeks, not two months, and so on and so forth. So it's a faster process that allows us to be more nimble. And the truth is we give more rope to our teams that want to do those checks. And so that one, when you want to write the bigger checks, it's actually easier than you think to commit that kind of capital to your portfolio. And the reason is, Harry, is that you know these companies better than anyone. We've been watching, keep in mind, we've been watching monthly results. Since we invested, so for instance, I give you a thirty million dollar check, and then for the following 18 months, I'm watching you beat your numbers, I'm watching you roll out a new product, I'm watching you roll out Europe, I'm watching you hire a Latin American head, so on and s…

AI assessment note: “we've been watching monthly results. Since we invested”

Q Is that what you want to build with GA? Because right now, Series A is not your home necessarily. Is that what you want to build?

A I think it's inevitable. In terms of what do I want to build? I want to build the best firm with the best culture and back the best entrepreneurs. And I think in order to do that, it's inevitable. We even ourselves, we've moved much earlier stage. So if you look at General Atlantic a decade ago, we used to have a minimum seventy five million dollar check. We've now, we're now probably, you know, I don't know the exact numbers, but call it four X the size in terms of capital deployment. And we've taken our seventy five million dollar check down to 15 to 20. You say, well, wait a sec. You know, cause it used to be, you know, I think a decade ago, we're probably deploying like two billion dollars a year, whatever the case may be. And you're saying, well, how are you going to move the needle on two billion a year of capital? If I'm putting fifty million dollar checks, geez, I got to do so many fifties to get to two billion. Well, now we're trending, you know, probably 8,000,000,009 billion plus of capital deployment. And now we're writing 50 in the twenties. You would say, well, how does that make sense? But the reason is, is because it gives you access. It gives you a seat at the table. It's lets you start to add value and build a really close relationship with the entrepreneur and Such that all of the future financings for the winners, you can have a seat at that table and partic…

AI assessment note: “I think in order to do that, it's inevitable. We even ourselves, we've moved much earlier stage.”

Q Can I be blunt, Nos? When you look at the progression of company, you put in a twenty-five million dollar check. What does that decision-making determination process look like that takes you from a 25 to a five-hundred million dollar check? And how do you determine efficiently where to allocate and concentrate capital efficiently within the portfolio when so much is looking so good right now?

A Yeah, it's a good question. Well, we have a different process for sub-seventy-five million dollar checks. We call it internally. It's just an internal name. We call it emerging growth, which are sort of that click earlier, but very fast growing checks. And so we have a different decision-making process for that. It's a committee that meets off cycle because often those decisions need to, A, happen fast, and B, they sometimes happen on a Thursday afternoon. You can't say, oh, our traditional investment Committee's meeting once a week or whatever the time. So it's a more flexible, faster moving. Often diligence is happening in two weeks, not two months, and so on and so forth. So it's a faster process that allows us to be more nimble. And the truth is we give more rope to our teams that want to do those checks. And so that one, when you want to write the bigger checks, it's actually easier than you think to commit that kind of capital to your portfolio. And the reason is, Harry, is that you know these companies better than anyone. We've been watching, keep in mind, we've been watching monthly results. Since we invested, so for instance, I give you a thirty million dollar check, and then for the following 18 months, I'm watching you beat your numbers, I'm watching you roll out a new product, I'm watching you roll out Europe, I'm watching you hire a Latin American head, so on and s…

AI assessment note: “when you want to write the bigger checks, it's actually easier than you think”

Q just a bit of a divisive one, but I'm just intriguing. Tiger have proven that it's popular, and it works, and founders actually love it. Does that worry you? And I had a GP the other day be like, if we're not doing that Tiger in our partnership meeting, we're lying to ourselves. Does that worry you that actually it's just becoming really, really popular to have passive, not active?

A You know, the honest answer is I don't think so. It doesn't worry. We talk about it, so you're right. We definitely talk about it. Does it worry me? I think not so much. I mean, look, we've gone the other ways, so we've reacted to it maybe a little bit. We've moved To being much more active, but the reason I don't, and this could be naive, Harry, we'll be talking here hopefully in friends in a decade from now, and you'll see like, remember you said you weren't so worried about it? That was the wrong call. But the reason I'm not is that in my experience, when I talk to an entrepreneur, just like this, unfortunately, recently on Zoom calls, and I say, if you want passive capital, and you know what you're doing, and you've got all the right people you want around the table, and you're like, give me the highest price possible, but kind of leave me alone. I want passive capital. Or do you want group that can help you scale around the world? Most of the entrepreneurs want help. They want access to our global network. They want access to our pricing experts. They want access to our capital markets experts. They want access to introductions to the biggest companies. So I'm obviously selling a little bit in this conversation, but I think that the passive capital commoditizes really fast. If you're looking for passive capital and you're saying, give me money at the highest price and leav…

AI assessment note: “You know, the honest answer is I don't think so. It doesn't worry.”

Q just a bit of a divisive one, but I'm just intriguing. Tiger have proven that it's popular, and it works, and founders actually love it. Does that worry you? And I had a GP the other day be like, if we're not doing that Tiger in our partnership meeting, we're lying to ourselves. Does that worry you that actually it's just becoming really, really popular to have passive, not active?

A You know, the honest answer is I don't think so. It doesn't worry. We talk about it, so you're right. We definitely talk about it. Does it worry me? I think not so much. I mean, look, we've gone the other ways, so we've reacted to it maybe a little bit. We've moved To being much more active, but the reason I don't, and this could be naive, Harry, we'll be talking here hopefully in friends in a decade from now, and you'll see like, remember you said you weren't so worried about it? That was the wrong call. But the reason I'm not is that in my experience, when I talk to an entrepreneur, just like this, unfortunately, recently on Zoom calls, and I say, if you want passive capital, and you know what you're doing, and you've got all the right people you want around the table, and you're like, give me the highest price possible, but kind of leave me alone. I want passive capital. Or do you want group that can help you scale around the world? Most of the entrepreneurs want help. They want access to our global network. They want access to our pricing experts. They want access to our capital markets experts. They want access to introductions to the biggest companies. So I'm obviously selling a little bit in this conversation, but I think that the passive capital commoditizes really fast. If you're looking for passive capital and you're saying, give me money at the highest price and leav…

AI assessment note: “the honest answer is I don't think so. It doesn't worry.”

Q a very different mindset. If you were a seed investor, And suddenly you want an opportunity fund, and you're doing series Bs. They are fundamentally different assets to judge, to ascertain quality, and the same vice versa, you know, early, sorry, late going early. Do you think it is fundamentally different mindsets, or actually do you share my perception that in the majority of cases it is so people-centric still?

A I am more in your world where I think with one exception I'm going to mention in a minute, I think there's much more that rhymes than doesn't rhyme. I think you're looking at unit economics, And whether you're looking at unit economics, if a company's doing three million of ARR or a company's doing three billion of ARR, I think unit economics are often unit economics. I think when you look at how big a TAM is in the, you know, the ten billion dollar company, the five billion dollar company, the five hundred million dollar company, the fifty million dollar company, I think the TAM is often the same work to understand TAM, competitive landscape, so on and so forth. I think assessing the strengths of a management team often rhyme more than not. You could say, hey, look, you're an incredible entrepreneur to go from zero to fifty million of revenue. And you're a different kind of entrepreneur to go from 50 to 500. Those are, again, those same judgment skills, I think, are similar. I think the one that really is different, though, which I think would be the biggest leap of faith for us to get into, is the seed business. I think where you literally show up with a business plan and there's no data, there's no product for me to diligence, there's no unit economics, there's no customers, there's no data. It's literally somebody sitting across from you and saying, here's my idea. I think …

AI assessment note: “I am more in your world where I think... there's much more that rhymes”

Q bit of a divisive one, but I'm just intrigued. You know, Tiger have proven that it's popular, and it works, and founders actually love it. Does that worry you? And I had a GP the other day be like, if we're not doing that Tiger in our partnership meeting, we're lying to ourselves. Does that worry you that actually it's just becoming really, really popular to have passive, not active?

A You know, the honest answer is I don't think so. It doesn't worry. We talk about it, so you're right. We definitely talk about it. Does it worry me? I think not so much. I mean, look, we've gone the other ways, so we've reacted to it maybe a little bit. We've moved To being much more active, but the reason I don't, and this could be naive, Harry, we'll be talking here, hopefully, and friends in a decade from now, and you'll see like, remember you said you weren't so worried about it? That was the wrong call. But the reason I'm not is that in my experience, when I talk to an entrepreneur, just like this, unfortunately, recently on Zoom calls, and I say, if you want passive capital, and you know what you're doing, and you've got all the right people you want around the table, and you're like, give me the highest price possible, but just kind of, I mean, you're nice about it, but kind of leave me alone. I want passive capital. Or do you want group that can help you scale around the world? Most of the entrepreneurs want help. They want access to our global network. They want access to our pricing experts. They want access to our capital markets experts. They want access to introductions to the biggest companies. And so I'm obviously selling a little bit in this conversation, but I think that the passive capital commoditizes really fast. If you're looking for passive capital and you…

AI assessment note: “You know, the honest answer is I don't think so. It doesn't worry.”

Q Having had that incredible insight into multiple different macro cycles, it's something that I haven't seen. How did seeing both the dot-com, 2008, some of these very seismic financial environments take place, how did that impact your investing mindsets Stage, you think? And I guess the types of companies that you'd like to invest in as a result.

A It influenced me a lot. I've been lucky in many, many different ways across my life and career, but in particular, joining at the time I joined, which was in 1998, I still got to see the beginning almost pre the dot-com mania, and I got to see the old General Atlantic venture investing and investing before that happened. Then I got to see the explosion and lack of and loss of irrationality Into 99 and 2000, and then I got to see the crash, and so when I say I was lucky, what was really lucky about that is I was young enough, so I got to sort of sit as an observer and watch a lot of that, and then I was tasked with cleaning up some of the challenging companies, and we had a lot less than most. I think we maintained a lot more discipline than a lot of firms, but we still had some investments. We went into some investments that were early even for us and much more speculative, and a lot of those didn't work out, and we had to help wind down some companies and So you say, how did it impact me? What you realize very quickly, at least going through a time period like that, which shaped me for the rest of my career, was doing deals is easy. It's easy to give capital to someone. It's easy to lead around. You just pay the highest price. And if you think about what we do, at the end of the day, we give money to people. And so it's not that hard to give money to people. I don't know if yo…

AI assessment note: “So you say, how did it impact me? What you realize very quickly”

Q construction. It's much easier to map out. Okay, a hundred million checks, and you have a two billion fund, that's 20. It's pretty decent diversification with no reserves policy, but if you come in late, that seems to make sense. When you're doing 15 to 20 from eight billion, How do we think about portfolio construction and bluntly the number of lines that we're going to have in this portfolio?

A That's been talked about for a long time. I think it's the wrong math to do. And the reason I believe that is that what's going to happen, and I've seen this again, just because I happen to have a front row seat in our business and other businesses for the last 20 plus years. What happens is, even within that portfolio, there's still only going to be 20 that matter. There's going to be 20 investments that matter. Maybe it's less over a vintage. Maybe it's 10. The problem is you don't know which ones they're going to be When we start. So for instance, if you go to a venture fund, a venture fund will often make, you know, two to 300 investments. There's still going to be 10 that matter that really drive it. They become, you know, if you're a Sequoia, become a WhatsApp and eye-popping returns in some of those. Well, same thing to a lesser extent in our business. I mean, if you go to the other extreme, so if you think sort of here's two extremes, you got the series, the seed and the series A business, and they're going to make 300 investments and 10 are going to matter, but they're going to have great returns. It's just going to have a lot of high loss ratio. And the other extreme, you may have a traditional Big buyout firm, you know, your Helman and Freeman. Maybe they'll make 10 investments, and you know, that'll be it, and they hope all do decently. And by the way, those two may…

AI assessment note: “we make a hundred investments for a vintage, somewhere between the 10 and 300”

Q Would you like to change that culture? As you said, like, you know, this is a game of upside maximization, and sometimes, you know, we shouldn't be optimizing for dollars lost. Would you like to change that? And is that needed in this environment?

A I think we needed some of that. And when I say some of it, I think we've been willing to accept some additional risk. I mean, I think we're still never going to change we hate losing money as a cultural thing. And I don't want to change that part of our culture. And I don't think we're ever going to change the culture of unit economics matter. But I think what we're doing a better job of here, I don't know if we'll go all the way to investing in the upside down unit economics business. I don't think we'll ever do that. That's not how we invest, and I don't think we will. But I think what we've done a better job is giving people credit for things you can't see or underwrite. So it's, hey, we have this platform. Here's how we're monetizing today. I think what we've started to give more and more credit for in our underwriting case is Well, you could roll out more products. You can roll out more modules. You can perhaps increase price. You can start selling advertising where you're not. And I think our creativity around that, we've always had the creativity there as a firm, but we've never been willing to underwrite it. So what happens is some other firm would come in and pay 30% more than we are because they're saying, well, geez, of course at some point you'll sell advertising, and so therefore I'll give you credit in today's price for that. I think we've gotten much more competi…

AI assessment note: “I don't want to change that part of our culture.”

Q Having had that incredible insight into multiple different macro cycles, it's something that I haven't seen. How did seeing both the dot-com, 2008, some of these very seismic financial environments take place, how did that impact your investing mindsets Stage, you think? And I guess the types of companies that you'd like to invest in as a result.

A It influenced me a lot. I've been lucky in many, many different ways across my life and career, but in particular, joining at the time I joined, which was in 1998, I still got to see the beginning almost pre the dot-com mania, and I got to see the old General Atlantic venture investing and investing before that happened. Then I got to see the explosion and lack of and loss of irrationality Into 99 and 2000, and then I got to see the crash, and so when I say I was lucky, what was really lucky about that is I was young enough, so I got to sort of sit as an observer and watch a lot of that, and then I was tasked with cleaning up some of the challenging companies, and we had a lot less than most. I think we maintained a lot more discipline than a lot of firms, but we still had some investments. We went into some investments that were early even for us and much more speculative, and a lot of those didn't work out, and we had to help wind down some companies and So you say, how did it impact me? What you realize very quickly, at least going through a time period like that, which shaped me for the rest of my career, was doing deals is easy. It's easy to give capital to someone. It's easy to lead around. You just pay the highest price. And if you think about what we do, at the end of the day, we give money to people. And so it's not that hard to give money to people. I don't know if yo…

AI assessment note: “What you realize very quickly, at least going through a time period like that”

Q up so wonderfully here, because there's many shoes shoots. I want to take this. The first is like you mentioned, well, it's simple. You just pay up. Well, that's what everyone seems to be doing today. And Keith, your boy said recently, there are no funds with price discipline. That's quite a bold statement. Do you agree? And how do you view your own relationship to price as a result?

A I don't fully agree with, with Keith. I think Keith is amazing, and we've been involved in a number of companies together and have incredible respect for him. I think that's overstating it. I mean, I think he's right to say discipline, but I think for a lot of people, they've been aggressive. Valuations have stretched, and there's some situations where there's some eye-popping deals that have done, and there's some people who've lost discipline, for sure, maybe completely. I think for the vast majority of people who've been in this business for a while, people are acting mostly reasonably rationally, and in this case, reasonably rationally, Could be very high prices. I mean, if you think about it, the same valuation framework maybe that existed a decade ago or two decades ago, you know, maybe that should be revisited. I mean, if you look at a number of statistics, Harry, for instance, what are the five largest companies in the world? Basically, the five largest companies in the world, these are all technology companies that didn't exist 35 years ago. These companies now have trillion dollars, sometimes two trillion dollar market caps. When you were running your math a decade or two decades ago, and you said, well, what's an upside case? What happens if I have a super, super home run? That used to be, I'm going to have a ten billion dollar winner. But if you look today, now it's…

AI assessment note: “I don't fully agree with, with Keith. I think Keith is amazing... I think that's overstating it.”

Q bit of a divisive one, but I'm just intrigued. You know, Tiger have proven that it's popular, and it works, and founders actually love it. Does that worry you? And I had a GP the other day be like, if we're not doing that Tiger in our partnership meeting, we're lying to ourselves. Does that worry you that actually it's just becoming really, really popular to have passive, not active?

A You know, the honest answer is I don't think so. It doesn't worry. We talk about it, so you're right. We definitely talk about it. Does it worry me? I think not so much. I mean, look, we've gone the other ways, so we've reacted to it maybe a little bit. We've moved To being much more active, but the reason I don't, and this could be naive, Harry, we'll be talking here, hopefully, and friends in a decade from now, and you'll see like, remember you said you weren't so worried about it? That was the wrong call. But the reason I'm not is that in my experience, when I talk to an entrepreneur, just like this, unfortunately, recently on Zoom calls, and I say, if you want passive capital, and you know what you're doing, and you've got all the right people you want around the table, and you're like, give me the highest price possible, but just kind of, I mean, you're nice about it, but kind of leave me alone. I want passive capital. Or do you want group that can help you scale around the world? Most of the entrepreneurs want help. They want access to our global network. They want access to our pricing experts. They want access to our capital markets experts. They want access to introductions to the biggest companies. And so I'm obviously selling a little bit in this conversation, but I think that the passive capital commoditizes really fast. If you're looking for passive capital and you…

AI assessment note: “the honest answer is I don't think so. It doesn't worry.”

Q construction. It's much easier to map out. Okay, a hundred million checks, and you have a two billion fund, that's 20. It's pretty decent diversification with no reserves policy, but if you come in late, that seems to make sense. When you're doing 15 to 20 from eight billion, How do we think about portfolio construction and bluntly the number of lines that we're going to have in this portfolio?

A That's been talked about for a long time. I think it's the wrong math to do. And the reason I believe that is that what's going to happen, and I've seen this again, just because I happen to have a front row seat in our business and other businesses for the last 20 plus years. What happens is, even within that portfolio, there's still only going to be 20 that matter. There's going to be 20 investments that matter. Maybe it's less over a vintage. Maybe it's 10. The problem is you don't know which ones they're going to be When we start. So for instance, if you go to a venture fund, a venture fund will often make, you know, two to 300 investments. There's still going to be 10 that matter that really drive it. They become, you know, if you're a Sequoia, become a WhatsApp and eye-popping returns in some of those. Well, same thing to a lesser extent in our business. I mean, if you go to the other extreme, so if you think sort of here's two extremes, you got the series, the seed and the series A business, and they're going to make 300 investments and 10 are going to matter, but they're going to have great returns. It's just going to have a lot of high loss ratio. And the other extreme, you may have a traditional Big buyout firm, you know, your Helman and Freeman. Maybe they'll make 10 investments, and you know, that'll be it, and they hope all do decently. And by the way, those two may…

AI assessment note: “Somewhere in the middle, we make a hundred investments for a vintage”

Q an incredible culture at GA, and many of your founders said it. Help me out here, Anton. I'm building a firm now from scratch. But seriously, what would you advise me in terms of, you know, I'm day one. How can I build and set the right culture for a firm that I want to be incredible and generational defining over the next 30 years? What would you advise me?

A I think a couple things would be my advice to you, Harry. I mean, one is, I think you've got to lead by example. So whatever the behavior you want In the culture, you need to live it. You can't just talk about it. You can't write about it. People need to see you doing it. So if you want to build a firm that transcends generations, you're going to have to often do things that might not be in your short-term interests that are in your long-term interests, which means always doing the right thing. And the reason that's in your interest to do that is that's who the great people want to work for. The great people are going to want to work for people they respect, who do the right thing, and are good people, and You know, you kind of may rail your eyes at that and say, at least when I started at GA, if you had said to me, people want to work for people that, you know, they respect and do the right thing, you'd be like, no, they don't. They just want to make a lot of money or, you know, whatever, you know, other short-term or even medium-term thing, and I can tell you that's not the case. I mean, it is maybe for, you know, your very first couple years in a job, but once what you realize is, look, our business and the tech business is at the benefit of having a great business model and has created lots of economics for people, so people don't work hard and stay at places where they don…

AI assessment note: “one is, I think you've got to lead by example.”

Q Is that what you want to build with GA? Because right now, Series A is not your home necessarily. Is that what you want to build?

A I think it's inevitable. In terms of what do I want to build? I want to build the best firm with the best culture and back the best entrepreneurs. And I think in order to do that, it's inevitable. We even ourselves, we've moved much earlier stage. So if you look at General Atlantic a decade ago, we used to have a minimum seventy five million dollar check. We've now, we're now probably, you know, I don't know the exact numbers, but call it four X the size in terms of capital deployment. And we've taken our seventy five million dollar check down to 15 to 20. You say, well, wait a sec. You know, cause it used to be, you know, I think a decade ago, we're probably deploying like two billion dollars a year, whatever the case may be. And you're saying, well, how are you going to move the needle on two billion a year of capital? If I'm putting fifty million dollar checks, geez, I got to do so many fifties to get to two billion. Well, now we're trending, you know, probably 8,000,000,009 billion plus of capital deployment. And now we're writing 50 in the twenties. You would say, well, how does that make sense? But the reason is, is because it gives you access. It gives you a seat at the table. It's lets you start to add value and build a really close relationship with the entrepreneur and Such that all of the future financings for the winners, you can have a seat at that table and partic…

AI assessment note: “I think it's inevitable. In terms of what do I want to build?”

Q I mean, speaking of the accommodating policy, it allows for deployment speeds to be compressed to levels that unseen previously, you know, we often have 12 month deployment cycles now. I remember when it was three, three and a half years. How do you think about deployment speed, and is it purely a velocity game now?

A I don't think so. I think there are components of it. I think what matters when you're investing in the state businesses that I am and we are, and that increasingly, by the way, is, is cross-stage. It's about people. It's about being able to do diligence, and it's about, for a lot of people, trying to, how can you scale helping companies? And I do think the world is dividing, I think there's two very, very large themes that are going on in the broader tech investing environment. One is that you're seeing a bifurcation into active versus passive. So there are increasingly, and some people will try and straddle the lines, but I think it's a pretty bright line. You're either saying, I'm largely a passive investor, and this is a lot of hedge funds, you know a lot of them, that are bringing their public style of investing to To the private markets. And as you know, when you buy a public investment, you know, you buy Google, Google doesn't even know you buy their stock. You're in and out. Maybe if you get large enough, you have to make a certain filing with the SEC. You're largely passive. Google doesn't even know you're a shareholder. That same style of investing to the private markets, and they're saying, listen, we're going to leave you alone. You know what you're doing, Mr. and Mrs. Entrepreneur. Here's a bunch of capital. Call me if you need me or if you have any questions, but …

AI assessment note: “I don't think so. I think there are components of it.”

Q Give me a mojito, my friend, and I'm yours. Tell me, who's your closest advisor, and what's been your biggest takeaway from them?

A My closest advisor, probably one of the partners, I've had so many, first of all, I've had so lucky to have so many close advisors and mentors over the years. You know, I'd say my closest advisor, original principal, is at General Atlantic, and what he taught me, he said two things that when I mentioned to you, Harry, you're going to roll your eyes and say, that's the dumbest advice I've ever heard. At least that's what I thought initially. And I've realized there are two of the most thoughtful, valuable pieces of advice. One is that he told me, he said, great management teams do great things and bad management teams do bad things. And you'd go, God, that's a stupid thing to say. Of course, bad management teams do bad things and good management teams do good things. But as I've spent now decades in this business, nothing is more accurate. So, you know, what that means is basically when you have a great team who's innovating, creating new products, hiring great people, expanding in new markets, acquiring companies smartly. It's just when you can put a great team together. It just makes value happen, and you can give advice and counsel, and bad management teams just continually make bad decisions. They exit the wrong products, they get in the wrong markets, they put out shitty product, and getting that right team is almost everything at the end of the day. Even in a crappy market…

AI assessment note: “my closest advisor, original principal, is at General Atlantic, and what he taught me”

Q Not at all, but I do want to start today with a little on you. So it's been a phenomenal 23 years in venture for you with GA, but take me back. How did you come to GA and enter the venture industry in 1998 when I was two?

A Well, it has been a while. Well, first I'll take you all the way back just for a minute of background. So I was born in South Africa, even though I don't sound South African. I immigrated when I was two and grew up in my formative years outside of Washington, D.C. But what really drove me ultimately in my path is I've always been a bit of a computer geek. In my formative years, I would, this was, uh, well pre-mobile phones and really even almost pre-the PC. This was back in the day where Compaq, I think, came out with the first PC, and it was bigger than your largest piece of luggage, and they called it a portable computer. I think you had to carry it with, like, three people to move this thing around. It had, like, a screen. That was like the size of your current mobile screen, but that was the first mobile PC. There are a lot of things that didn't come easy to me, but for whatever reason, computer programming and computer languages came easy to me, and when I went to university, I was looking to be a computer science major, and that's what I did, although there was one small thing. I went to University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and there was a requirement at that point that I had to have a language requirement, and at that point, the language requirement was a foreign language requirement, And the only way to get out of the foreign language requirement was to go in our …

AI assessment note: “double majored in both computer science and went to our undergraduate business school”

Q What would you most like to change about the world of ventures, say?

A I mean, a little bit of a cheeky answer comes to mind initially, which is, you know, it'd be nice if I had a lot less competition. That would be great. But I think that's also the nature of a great business, right? I mean, just like I tell a lot of our companies when we work with them, which is competition means you have a great business. So people are going to come after you. People are going to start companies if you're in a great space. Same thing with the venture space and the tech investment space more broadly, which is There is so much opportunity. It's such a big market that all of the competition is a reflection of what a great market opportunity is. It's not a winner-take-all market. There's going to be, I think, at least a handful of winners and probably many, many more than that. But I think if you could say, hey, I could wake up tomorrow and have, you know, 10% of the competitors, that would be fun for a while.

AI assessment note: “it'd be nice if I had a lot less competition”

Q think about your biggest miss, what was your biggest miss and how did your Process change as a result. I've said it before, but you know, mine was a company six-minute pre-seed, and I listened to a reference from their former boss, which said they were useless as an employee, and I turned it down. It turned out they just sucked at working in a big company. What was yours?

A I'd say a couple things just to set up, and then I'll give you the exact answer you're looking for. One is that if you've been in long tech for twenty-plus years like I have, there are a lot of misses. So the list is long. I mean, I probably have just sort of, I should have done everything. I probably would have done decently being long tech the last 25 years. I'd say the second comment, which is actually, I think in some ways, the biggest misses are not doing more of your winners. So, you know, I was lucky enough to invest in Alibaba out of China back in 1998, where people were like, who's this company from Hangzhou that no one's, I mean, first of all, no one heard of Hangzhou, and second of all, no one had heard, particularly in the west of Alibaba, and, you know, we ended up investing seventy-five million into the business at that time, and, you know, I probably had pushed it, could have put three hundred million into it, but I was like, seventy-five million, we don't really know this So some of the misses are not the misses, right? It's companies you did that made incredible returns, but you had the option if you could go back in time to say fully back up the bus in the winters, or Snapchat, or any of these early stage investments that, you know, had really worked. So that's one of some of the misses. Now, that's it. Let me answer your question specifically. I've got a lot …

AI assessment note: “a big one that stings was I had a full shot on goal... Facebook”

Q Can I ask you, I understand that perception in terms of, you know, we never ever modeled for trillion dollar outcomes, you know, 1020 years ago. The concern that I have suddenly is you have companies that are pre-scale getting a hundred million dollars, two hundred million dollars, Are we for growing startups to a point where actually it deteriorates that quality of execution?

A I think there are certain circumstances where maybe there's too much capital, too many companies, but no, I actually think we're in the golden age area of innovation right now, and I think that golden age could be decades plus. I think when we look back and historians study the time period that we're living in, I think it's an incredibly special time in terms of all the components of the flywheel spinning in concert. Like, for instance, you have the capital flows, the talent, Sometimes now, you know, multi-generational talent coming in. So no, I'm a believer that I think now, and it's spinning around the world, and not just spinning in Silicon Valley, the flywheels. I believe that now it's going to turn out to be, with some of the heightened values, you know, an incredibly special time to be putting capital to work in these areas.

AI assessment note: “there are certain circumstances where maybe there's too much capital... but no”

Q Not at all, but I do want to start today with a little on you. So it's been a phenomenal 23 years in venture for you with GA, but take me back. How did you come to GA and enter the venture industry in 1998 when I was two?

A Well, it has been a while. Well, first I'll take you all the way back just for a minute of background. So I was born in South Africa, even though I don't sound South African. I immigrated when I was two and grew up in my formative years outside of Washington, D.C. But what really drove me ultimately in my path is I've always been a bit of a computer geek. In my formative years, I would, this was, uh, well pre-mobile phones and really even almost pre-the PC. This was back in the day where Compaq, I think, came out with the first PC, and it was bigger than your largest piece of luggage, and they called it a portable computer. I think you had to carry it with, like, three people to move this thing around. It had, like, a screen. That was like the size of your current mobile screen, but that was the first mobile PC. There are a lot of things that didn't come easy to me, but for whatever reason, computer programming and computer languages came easy to me, and when I went to university, I was looking to be a computer science major, and that's what I did, although there was one small thing. I went to University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and there was a requirement at that point that I had to have a language requirement, and at that point, the language requirement was a foreign language requirement, And the only way to get out of the foreign language requirement was to go in our …

AI assessment note: “I'll take you all the way back just for a minute of background.”

Q think about your biggest miss, what was your biggest miss and how did your Process change as a result. I've said it before, but you know, mine was a company six-minute pre-seed, and I listened to a reference from their former boss, which said they were useless as an employee, and I turned it down. It turned out they just sucked at working in a big company. What was yours?

A I'd say a couple things just to set up, and then I'll give you the exact answer you're looking for. One is that if you've been in long tech for twenty-plus years like I have, there are a lot of misses. So the list is long. I mean, I probably have just sort of, I should have done everything. I probably would have done decently being long tech the last 25 years. I'd say the second comment, which is actually, I think in some ways, the biggest misses are not doing more of your winners. So, you know, I was lucky enough to invest in Alibaba out of China back in 1998, where people were like, who's this company from Hangzhou that no one's, I mean, first of all, no one heard of Hangzhou, and second of all, no one had heard, particularly in the west of Alibaba, and, you know, we ended up investing seventy-five million into the business at that time, and, you know, I probably had pushed it, could have put three hundred million into it, but I was like, seventy-five million, we don't really know this So some of the misses are not the misses, right? It's companies you did that made incredible returns, but you had the option if you could go back in time to say fully back up the bus in the winters, or Snapchat, or any of these early stage investments that, you know, had really worked. So that's one of some of the misses. Now, that's it. Let me answer your question specifically. I've got a lot …

AI assessment note: “a big one that stings was I had a full shot on goal”

Q Can I ask you, I understand that perception in terms of, you know, we never ever modeled for trillion dollar outcomes, you know, 1020 years ago. The concern that I have suddenly is you have companies that are pre-scale getting a hundred million dollars, two hundred million dollars, Are we for growing startups to a point where actually it deteriorates that quality of execution?

A I think there are certain circumstances where maybe there's too much capital, too many companies, but no, I actually think we're in the golden age area of innovation right now, and I think that golden age could be decades plus. I think when we look back and historians study the time period that we're living in, I think it's an incredibly special time in terms of all the components of the flywheel spinning in concert. Like, for instance, you have the capital flows, the talent, Sometimes now, you know, multi-generational talent coming in. So no, I'm a believer that I think now, and it's spinning around the world, and not just spinning in Silicon Valley, the flywheels. I believe that now it's going to turn out to be, with some of the heightened values, you know, an incredibly special time to be putting capital to work in these areas.

AI assessment note: “I think there are certain circumstances where maybe there's too much capital, too many companies, but no”

Q My word, it's so wonderful talking to you. This is so positive. I'm glad that I'm bringing the cynicism to this chat. Now, I do have to ask, in terms of, like, you mentioned the low interest rate environment, help me out here, and the capital flows associated, How does that change when interest rates change? And is that something that I, that fund managers should be thinking about?

A Listen, for all my optimism, which I do share, I'm a glasses have full person. I'm a glasses have full investor. I think it's hard not to be investing in growth companies. You know, that said, look, I do think we're also in a special time period that won't last. I think the innovation will continue. So I would be long tech. I'd be long innovation for the next 50 years. That said, I do think you're going to see booms and busts in terms of cycles. I've been around, as you mentioned, 23, 24 years. In this business, and I've seen multiple cycles, and we'll continue to see cycles. The idea that cycles have gone away is, you know, I don't believe. But I also don't think you're going to be able to predict what's going to move out of the current cycle. What's going to be the event? You're going to, you may say to me, hey, Anton, well, you know, what's going to make it go away? Is it higher interest rates is one of the ideas that maybe you're posturing right now. I think it's not going to be something that we're all going to be able to predict, where you're going to say, hey, within 12 months, X is going to happen, and that's going to be the validation, you know, paradigm that shifts Into the next, you know, down cycle. You know, I think it could be a war. I hope that doesn't happen, but it could be a lot of unexpected things. If you think about what happened in March, 2000, if I said, …

AI assessment note: “Is it higher interest rates is one of the ideas... not going to be something that we're all going to be able to predict”

Q My word, it's so wonderful talking to you. This is so positive. I'm glad that I'm bringing the cynicism to this chat. Now, I do have to ask, in terms of, like, you mentioned the low interest rate environment, help me out here, and the capital flows associated, How does that change when interest rates change? And is that something that I, that fund managers should be thinking about?

A Listen, for all my optimism, which I do share, I'm a glasses have full person. I'm a glasses have full investor. I think it's hard not to be investing in growth companies. You know, that said, look, I do think we're also in a special time period that won't last. I think the innovation will continue. So I would be long tech. I'd be long innovation for the next 50 years. That said, I do think you're going to see booms and busts in terms of cycles. I've been around, as you mentioned, 23, 24 years. In this business, and I've seen multiple cycles, and we'll continue to see cycles. The idea that cycles have gone away is, you know, I don't believe. But I also don't think you're going to be able to predict what's going to move out of the current cycle. What's going to be the event? You're going to, you may say to me, hey, Anton, well, you know, what's going to make it go away? Is it higher interest rates is one of the ideas that maybe you're posturing right now. I think it's not going to be something that we're all going to be able to predict, where you're going to say, hey, within 12 months, X is going to happen, and that's going to be the validation, you know, paradigm that shifts Into the next, you know, down cycle. You know, I think it could be a war. I hope that doesn't happen, but it could be a lot of unexpected things. If you think about what happened in March, 2000, if I said, …

AI assessment note: “I think it's not going to be something that we're all going to be able to predict”