Every argument clarity score on this site is built from rows on this page. Each
question and answer was assessed with names hidden, the host's own answers included, on
four things from 1 to 5:
directness (does it answer the question asked), coherence (do the ideas follow),
precision (concrete details and clear references), compression (says a lot per word). The weighted
mix (30/30/25/15) is the exchange score. A person's published score averages their exchange
scores on raw tape only, at least 8 of them, shrunk toward the cohort mean.
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Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 5 5.00
Q Jeff, I'm absolutely ecstatic to have you on the show today. Now, we, we see this titan of industry, this leading VC, but can you tell us a bit about your start, your entrance into the VC industry?
A More than happy to, and thanks again for having me. I was born, raised, and educated in France, um, did a startup in the financial services market, um, that was acquired after five years by Reuters, um, in the UK. And, um, seven years later, um, after going through a number of, um, technical jobs with a lot of responsibilities, I moved to the Valley in 2000 to become a venture capitalist. Um, and I was, um, the partner at the Reuters Greenhouse Fund, which was the corporate VCM of Reuters. And then after four years, I started Softech, my current firm, which was, um, sort of slightly different, actually quite different. It was really sort of focused on the, um, very early stage part of the industry. Um, and I saw in Sort of a funding gap, um, in the market where entrepreneurs were looking for a few 100,000 dollars to get started, and VCs at the time were really sort of geared towards investing millions, if not tens of millions of dollars, um, in those companies. So, got SoftTech going, and now, 11 years later, um, we've done 165 investments, uh, roughly 15 per year, We're investing out of our, um, uh, eighty-five million dollar fund for, and, um, it's been working pretty well for us.
AI assessment note: “moved to the Valley in 2000 to become a venture capitalist”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 5 5.00
Q Jeff, I'm absolutely ecstatic to have you on the show today. Now, we, we see this titan of industry, this leading VC, but can you tell us a bit about your start, your entrance into the VC industry?
A More than happy to, and thanks again for having me. I was born, raised, and educated in France, um, did a startup in the financial services market, um, that was acquired after five years by Reuters, um, in the UK. And, um, seven years later, um, after going through a number of, um, technical jobs with a lot of responsibilities, I moved to the Valley in 2000 to become a venture capitalist. Um, and I was, um, the partner at the Reuters Greenhouse Fund, which was the corporate VCM of Reuters. And then after four years, I started Softech, my current firm, which was, um, sort of slightly different, actually quite different. It was really sort of focused on the, um, very early stage part of the industry. Um, and I saw in Sort of a funding gap, um, in the market where entrepreneurs were looking for a few 100,000 dollars to get started, and VCs at the time were really sort of geared towards investing millions, if not tens of millions of dollars, um, in those companies. So, got SoftTech going, and now, 11 years later, um, we've done 165 investments, uh, roughly 15 per year, We're investing out of our, um, uh, eighty-five million dollar fund for, and, um, it's been working pretty well for us.
AI assessment note: “I moved to the Valley in 2000 to become a venture capitalist.”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q And I'd like to say a massive congratulations for Fitbit. Um, I recently had Brad Feld on the show, and obviously he mentioned you alongside him in the Fitbit, uh, IPO. And I have to ask, though, you invested back in 2008 when hardware was really a no-go zone. I think you'd probably agree for VCs. So what attracted you to Fitbit when, when it wasn't to others?
A So the, this capital efficiency, which I just mentioned, which basically allowed entrepreneurs to get going on a few 100,000 dollars investment, um, was something that had applied to software, um, And after a couple of years of seeing this, seeing that work for software services, um, consumer companies, I had a, um, a hunch or question as to whether it would work for hardware companies. And I said, hmm, let's see whether it's feasible to build a, um, hardware company on, on the cheap, you know, on a capital efficient basis. And a few, um, Weeks or a few months later, I got introduced to James and Eric, uh, the founders of Fitbit by my good friend, Seth Sternberg, who at the time was the, um, CEO of Meebo. And he said, you know, this is awesome guys, awesome, awesome, you know, concept, um, awesome prototype. This was actually very ugly, but you know, it, it worked. And I met those guys and I was like, Hmm, so let's see, you could buy a potometer for 13 dollars at Walgreens or the local pharmacy, and you want to make it a connected object that's going to push your, um, calorie information, steps information, uh, steps counts in the cloud, and you're going to sell that for a hundred and, and whatever, a 119 bucks, uh, at the time. And for some reason, I thought it was a really, Uh, interesting idea, and I really like it. And I knew I was onto something a few months, a couple of m…
AI assessment note: “let's see whether it's feasible to build a, um, hardware company on, on the cheap”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q Absolutely. And, and then moving to that next stage of the seed, the seed round itself, it's been said before that you encourage companies to raise large seed rounds, maybe larger than they need. Why is that? And how do you approach the kind of runway?
A Uh, I can feel the, um, sorry, Lacey quote where I forced my companies to raise large seed rounds, um, which is sort of true and not true. Um, We've always sort of looked at a, an average of, uh, an 18 months runway as what it takes for a company to, you know, take the seed round, hire a few engineers, get the product to market, start building traction, do a few, you know, revisions of the product, and, and then hit some kind of a growth, um, path that will sort of get it to clear series A hurdles. And series A hurdles can vary dramatically from one company to the next, from one sector to the next. But, you know, being in the market, um, every day, helping, so, you know, um, 35 of our companies have raised the series A, B, and C over the last, uh, 18 months. A total of, uh, five hundred and fifty million dollars raised. Which means that, you know, every day, every week, we have one or two companies sort of raising funds. And so we know the pulse of the market, and we know what it takes to clear those hurdles. And so, We just want to make sure that our companies have the runway to actually, you know, iterate and then clear the hurdles that, um, series investors have in B to B in consumer and marketplaces. And, you know, we might be, um, we want, we want them to succeed. We don't want to, um, take a chance. And so that's why most of our companies will, you know, go out and raise …
AI assessment note: “We've always sort of looked at a, an average of, uh, an 18 months runway”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q Absolutely. And, and then moving to that next stage of the seed, the seed round itself, it's been said before that you encourage companies to raise large seed rounds, maybe larger than they need. Why is that? And how do you approach the kind of runway?
A Uh, I can feel the, um, sorry, Lacey quote where I forced my companies to raise large seed rounds, um, which is sort of true and not true. Um, We've always sort of looked at a, an average of, uh, an 18 months runway as what it takes for a company to, you know, take the seed round, hire a few engineers, get the product to market, start building traction, do a few, you know, revisions of the product, and, and then hit some kind of a growth, um, path that will sort of get it to clear series A hurdles. And series A hurdles can vary dramatically from one company to the next, from one sector to the next. But, you know, being in the market, um, every day, helping, so, you know, um, 35 of our companies have raised the series A, B, and C over the last, uh, 18 months. A total of, uh, five hundred and fifty million dollars raised. Which means that, you know, every day, every week, we have one or two companies sort of raising funds. And so we know the pulse of the market, and we know what it takes to clear those hurdles. And so, We just want to make sure that our companies have the runway to actually, you know, iterate and then clear the hurdles that, um, series investors have in B to B in consumer and marketplaces. And, you know, we might be, um, we want, we want them to succeed. We don't want to, um, take a chance. And so that's why most of our companies will, you know, go out and raise …
AI assessment note: “We just want to make sure that our companies have the runway”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q Absolutely. And then do you play a very dominant role in raising that money with the startups?
A I wouldn't say dominant, but, you know, I mean, we're, We take a very, uh, active role in helping our startup founders sort of build their companies, whether it's, you know, hiring, whether it's executing, whether it's on the strategy, whether it's on anything that you sort of need to do to, um, sort of, uh, clear those hurdles, uh, with, with the next batch of investors. And yes, we sort of do this, this sort of homework. Which I mentioned that people have to do before they go and raise the seed round. We do it with them, you know, sort of looking at the, um, the few, you know, partners or series A firms that they should engage with, you know, six months before they go out fundraising so that they can get to know them and, and so that the partners get familiar with the business, understand the, um, the challenges, appreciate the, uh, the opportunity, uh, So that, you know, it's a quick process whenever they actually need to grow and raise. The thing which is interesting is that about a third Of our companies actually don't go and raise a round. The round just comes to them in the form of a preemption. So at some point, you know, those VCs who have cultivated the, um, the relationship, uh, with our companies will sort of say, look, whether you execute for another three to six months will not change my mind. I can see what you guys are doing. I like the team. I believe in the op…
AI assessment note: “I wouldn't say dominant, but, you know, I mean, we're, We take a very, uh, active role”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 4 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.55
Q And I'd like to say a massive congratulations for Fitbit. Um, I recently had Brad Feld on the show, and obviously he mentioned you alongside him in the Fitbit, uh, IPO. And I have to ask, though, you invested back in 2008 when hardware was really a no-go zone. I think you'd probably agree for VCs. So what attracted you to Fitbit when, when it wasn't to others?
A So the, this capital efficiency, which I just mentioned, which basically allowed entrepreneurs to get going on a few 100,000 dollars investment, um, was something that had applied to software, um, And after a couple of years of seeing this, seeing that work for software services, um, consumer companies, I had a, um, a hunch or question as to whether it would work for hardware companies. And I said, hmm, let's see whether it's feasible to build a, um, hardware company on, on the cheap, you know, on a capital efficient basis. And a few, um, Weeks or a few months later, I got introduced to James and Eric, uh, the founders of Fitbit by my good friend, Seth Sternberg, who at the time was the, um, CEO of Meebo. And he said, you know, this is awesome guys, awesome, awesome, you know, concept, um, awesome prototype. This was actually very ugly, but you know, it, it worked. And I met those guys and I was like, Hmm, so let's see, you could buy a potometer for 13 dollars at Walgreens or the local pharmacy, and you want to make it a connected object that's going to push your, um, calorie information, steps information, uh, steps counts in the cloud, and you're going to sell that for a hundred and, and whatever, a 119 bucks, uh, at the time. And for some reason, I thought it was a really, Uh, interesting idea, and I really like it. And I knew I was onto something a few months, a couple of m…
AI assessment note: “let's see whether it's feasible to build a, um, hardware company on, on the cheap”
Answered raw tape
D 4 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.55
Q Fantastic. And, and I'd love to move to the other end of the funding spectrum now, and maybe start from the very beginning, and there are massive startups now vying for VC attention. What do you think they can do to really kind of cut through the clutter and get, get through the soft tech doors?
A So, and you're right, there is There is a massive clutter on both sides, to be honest, where you have, you know, two or three X the number of companies being started, but you also have, um, you know, when I started, there were literally 10 or 20 individual angels funding the bulk of those companies, and most of those angels have turned into micro VCs by raising their own funds, you know, based on the success that they had Um, as angels, which means that by 2010, you were looking at a market of 20, 25, um, in sort of institutional micro VC funds. In five years, 10 X that amount has been raised. So we're now looking at 250 macro VC funds having raised a total of four billion dollars. So you really have sort of noise on both sides. Sure. So to get to us, First and foremost, and this is true for any VC, you want to understand based on the type of company that you're building, the location of the company, the market that you're in, which are the five or 10 most likely investors that you should be reaching out to. Not every VC is equal, especially in this environment where you have very specialized firms that only do, you know, uh, Some type of B to B, some type of B to C, some type of geography, some type of market. And so you really want to do your homework to figure out who, who are, what are the firms, who are the partners who have expressed interest in whatever it is that you're…
AI assessment note: “you really want to do your homework to figure out who, who are, what are the firms”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.30
Q Absolutely. And then do you play a very dominant role in raising that money with the startups?
A I wouldn't say dominant, but, you know, I mean, we're, We take a very, uh, active role in helping our startup founders sort of build their companies, whether it's, you know, hiring, whether it's executing, whether it's on the strategy, whether it's on anything that you sort of need to do to, um, sort of, uh, clear those hurdles, uh, with, with the next batch of investors. And yes, we sort of do this, this sort of homework. Which I mentioned that people have to do before they go and raise the seed round. We do it with them, you know, sort of looking at the, um, the few, you know, partners or series A firms that they should engage with, you know, six months before they go out fundraising so that they can get to know them and, and so that the partners get familiar with the business, understand the, um, the challenges, appreciate the, uh, the opportunity, uh, So that, you know, it's a quick process whenever they actually need to grow and raise. The thing which is interesting is that about a third Of our companies actually don't go and raise a round. The round just comes to them in the form of a preemption. So at some point, you know, those VCs who have cultivated the, um, the relationship, uh, with our companies will sort of say, look, whether you execute for another three to six months will not change my mind. I can see what you guys are doing. I like the team. I believe in the op…
AI assessment note: “I wouldn't say dominant, but, you know, I mean, we're, We take a very, uh, active role”
Answered raw tape
D 3 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 3 3.55
Q Fantastic. And, and I'd love to move to the other end of the funding spectrum now, and maybe start from the very beginning, and there are massive startups now vying for VC attention. What do you think they can do to really kind of cut through the clutter and get, get through the soft tech doors?
A So, and you're right, there is There is a massive clutter on both sides, to be honest, where you have, you know, two or three X the number of companies being started, but you also have, um, you know, when I started, there were literally 10 or 20 individual angels funding the bulk of those companies, and most of those angels have turned into micro VCs by raising their own funds, you know, based on the success that they had Um, as angels, which means that by 2010, you were looking at a market of 20, 25, um, in sort of institutional micro VC funds. In five years, 10 X that amount has been raised. So we're now looking at 250 macro VC funds having raised a total of four billion dollars. So you really have sort of noise on both sides. Sure. So to get to us, First and foremost, and this is true for any VC, you want to understand based on the type of company that you're building, the location of the company, the market that you're in, which are the five or 10 most likely investors that you should be reaching out to. Not every VC is equal, especially in this environment where you have very specialized firms that only do, you know, uh, Some type of B to B, some type of B to C, some type of geography, some type of market. And so you really want to do your homework to figure out who, who are, what are the firms, who are the partners who have expressed interest in whatever it is that you're…
AI assessment note: “you want to understand based on the type of company that you're building”
Redirected raw tape
D 2 · C 4 · P 2 · Cm 3 2.75
Q And you mentioned there a list of kind of four or five Uh, VCs that you may potentially take investments to. Can you share with us any of those, and, and why you like to co-invest alongside them?
A Well, you know, they sort of, it's, it's, well, we have a subset of the market that we tend to, um, uh, work with over and over, because we built a strong relationship, and they are sort of the best at building, you know, a marketplace company, or a SaaS company, or a consumer company, and so on and so forth. But, you know, it really sort of depends where you need to take into account, um, the other investments that firms have made, because, uh, Typically, most investors will, will refuse to make, um, competing or overlapping investments, so you have to take into account, you know, everything which has been done by the firm, and that, that's what is changing in this environment, where so many companies are floating around, and so many investments are made, is that you have to sort of, uh, keep a clear sense of the market map for each of your companies, so that you know who you're going to be, uh, reaching out to. Uh, and so, we don't, I mean, we sort of, Play favorites, but also we sort of play the market, and, and it's not always the same, the same, um, list of, of the PCs, even though You know, the, um, the, the people investing in media will be different from the guys investing in SaaS, from the guys investing in marketplaces, from the guys investing in hardware, like, uh, a good example with hardware, you know, you have just a handful of, of VCs who will be, um, comfortable…
AI assessment note: “it's not always the same, the same, um, list of, of the PCs”
Redirected raw tape
D 2 · C 3 · P 2 · Cm 2 2.30
Q And you mentioned there a list of kind of four or five Uh, VCs that you may potentially take investments to. Can you share with us any of those, and, and why you like to co-invest alongside them?
A Well, you know, they sort of, it's, it's, well, we have a subset of the market that we tend to, um, uh, work with over and over, because we built a strong relationship, and they are sort of the best at building, you know, a marketplace company, or a SaaS company, or a consumer company, and so on and so forth. But, you know, it really sort of depends where you need to take into account, um, the other investments that firms have made, because, uh, Typically, most investors will, will refuse to make, um, competing or overlapping investments, so you have to take into account, you know, everything which has been done by the firm, and that, that's what is changing in this environment, where so many companies are floating around, and so many investments are made, is that you have to sort of, uh, keep a clear sense of the market map for each of your companies, so that you know who you're going to be, uh, reaching out to. Uh, and so, we don't, I mean, we sort of, Play favorites, but also we sort of play the market, and, and it's not always the same, the same, um, list of, of the PCs, even though You know, the, um, the, the people investing in media will be different from the guys investing in SaaS, from the guys investing in marketplaces, from the guys investing in hardware, like, uh, a good example with hardware, you know, you have just a handful of, of VCs who will be, um, comfortable…
AI assessment note: “it's not always the same, the same, list of, of the PCs”
