The Exchanges

Q How did you come to three hundred and fifty million being the right size fund? And stage wise, this is seed and A?

A That's, it's seed and A. It's lead checks at seed and A. And it was really a bottoms up exercise. We thought about what is the right pacing for each, each GP. And for us, when we looked at our investment history over the last 10 to 15 years, it was about two to three investments per year. There were years that, you know, in 20, 21, I did far more and, you know, which was the wrong decision at that point. But when we looked at what was the right number, it was about two or three investments per year. And that's how we built the fund, which is, that's about the pace that each GP should have in the fund. Um, it's about a three-year fund, and we'll have, you know, about 25 investments in each fund.

AI assessment note: “it was really a bottoms up exercise. We thought about what is the right pacing”

Q I'd love to hear your thoughts. We've seen the rise of Monzo and Revolut largely dominating in terms of the UK for sure and large parts of Europe. And for me, my concern investing today is, are they actually not just going to add these ancillary products, student loans, mortgages, consumer lending, and own the entire stack having owned the nucleus, which is your current account and your credit account?

A The best ones will. And I don't think this is specific to the UK. I think in every geography right now, whether that's what Robin Hood and Chime are doing in the US or New Bank's doing in Brazil, you're going to see companies start with a specific product. And I agree with you that I think the stickiest one is a current account and then cross sell the rest of a bank's products around that. But to me, that's actually the opportunity, which is these companies, the best companies are still growing, still doubling year over year. And they have an ability to dramatically increase the amount of revenue they're generating per customer. So to me, this is what we're seeing is the germination of the next generation of banks, which is going to be massive.

AI assessment note: “The best ones will. And I don't think this is specific to the UK.”

Q Um, that was a. Where did that net out?

A We, we are doing it, but I'll give you some of the color around it. So I came in with more perspective, um, that we need to be extremely streamlined and that, you know, having a, a GP only group is going to be You know, an advantage in, in terms of the, the ecosystem. I think Ethan and Christina had a much stronger feeling that, that working with, with, um, with a junior team is going to add an element and a dynamic element in terms of different ages, different networks. That's really going to compliment the GPs. What all of us were aligned and not wanting to recreate was the hierarchy and institution and bureaucracy of a really large organization. So what we netted out to is just a very small junior team. We're going to have two folks. We've hired one so far who's fantastic. Fantastic and already making a massive impact on the fund. Um, so we, we kind of, but that was something we really needed to unpack and, and try to think about the pros and cons.

AI assessment note: “what we netted out to is just a very small junior team”

Q the lesson that I have. It's different to what people think. People think younger people will take a new firm, younger people. They crave the brand more. I find the second tier serial founders have had the multi-stage product before. They've seen that it's not all it's cracked up to be, and they actually go for the person the second time around. Do you agree or am I missing that?

A So I would, I agree with the framework, though I don't think it's the age. I think it's the, the, um, the relationship to kind of insider outsider in Silicon Valley. If you've never heard You know, if, if you're coming into the ecosystem and you don't really know a lot of venture, what you're thinking about is the big brands, the Andreessen's, the Kleiner Perkins, the Sequoia's, and you should, those are the names that are household names that if you stopped a founder on the streets of Austin or Portland, you know, those are what you're going to hear about. I think that's very difficult for a new brand to, to, to access from day one. Our strategy is we've been in the industry for, for a long time. We've been on, I think it's You know, 12, uh, unicorn boards from the early stage, 50 boards in general, a hundred investments. There's a large blast ratio of people that we know that we've invested in. Um, you know, people spinning out of our former portfolio companies. I think that's where a new fund is most successful kind of in the network that already knows you. So I think to me, it's less about the age and more about kind of the proximity to your kind of networks.

AI assessment note: “I agree with the framework, though I don't think it's the age.”

Q How did you come to three hundred and fifty million being the right size fund? And stage wise, this is seed and A?

A That's, it's seed and A. It's lead checks at seed and A. And it was really a bottoms up exercise. We thought about what is the right pacing for each, each GP. And for us, when we looked at our investment history over the last 10 to 15 years, it was about two to three investments per year. There were years that, you know, in 20, 21, I did far more and, you know, which was the wrong decision at that point. But when we looked at what was the right number, it was about two or three investments per year. And that's how we built the fund, which is, that's about the pace that each GP should have in the fund. Um, it's about a three-year fund, and we'll have, you know, about 25 investments in each fund.

AI assessment note: “it's seed and A. It's lead checks at seed and A. And it was really a bottoms up exercise.”

Q No, honestly, I see it being more crazy than ever. I mean, I've met three companies that raised it north of seven 50 pre-product. How do you structure decision making as a new firm?

A So we are a single trigger model, which means that any one of the three of us can make a decision on an investment and go with it. Um, now the biggest mistake that I have seen from kind of other, you know, from my own personal experience and from other funds is when you try to make consensus decisions at the early stage, I think you end up with consensus funds. And I think it's the errors of omissions at the early stage where one person or two people have super strong conviction and an idea that ended up being the outliers. So if you think about the outliers, you're going to get, you know, when you open the aperture, you're when you've got kind of the decision framework that I just described, you're going to get both. You're going to get deals that don't do as well, but I think you're also going to solve for the extremes that do very well. And that was the model that we, we landed on.

AI assessment note: “we are a single trigger model, which means that any one of the three of us”

Q That is so kind of you, but I do want to kick off today with a little on you, Mark. So tell me, we both know it's a slightly weird and wonderful world, but how did you make your way into the world of venture and come to be a partner at Index today?

A Uh, really by accident. The way that I got to Index was I had been at Dropbox before this. I was running a business operations And I had seen the company go from about 200 to 1500 people. I picked my head up looking for the next thing, and what I thought I wanted to do was to do another operating role. So I actually, the way that I started looking for kind of the next generation One of the smartest VCs I knew, which led me to Index, who had actually been an investor in Dropbox, a large investor. When I spent more time with the team, I just kind of fell in love with a group of people working here, and I knew that at some point I wanted to get into investing, wasn't sure when, but ultimately decided not to do another operating role and to jump right into venture. That was just over four years ago, and it's been a really great move for me.

AI assessment note: “The way that I got to Index was I had been at Dropbox before this.”

Q And that's why I prefer Serial Founders, because they have an existing network, they've worked with Mark before, they know how Mark works, sign Mark next week, he on boards a week later, job done, and he's fully ramped by week four. I then have so many people say, but the naivety, the brilliance of first-time founders, How do you, I'm forcing you to pick one. Which one and why?

A First time founders. I think the, I think the, um, The ability to, to think from a, a clean slate to do, um, foolish, potentially foolish, but on the other side, potentially visionary and transformative things, the hunger and the, um, the naivety that you described, uh, and a first time founder, I think outweigh a lot of the benefits of having seen the show from one, two, three times in the past. There are caveats. I love founders that have tried and not broken through with a first business. So a founder who feels like they gave it a shot, but ended in a place that they weren't happy with, and they have a chip on their shoulder, I think is a great profile. Um, a founder who has done so well, um, that, you know, they are financially independent, or they might not have the same level of hunger that they brought to their first business. I, I I'm, I'm less excited about that.

AI assessment note: “First time founders. I think the, I think the, um, The ability to”

Q I always say this to people, like, having your name above the door is the most special thing, and building your own is, it's just so special. So I, I do just want to start with that, which is like, there are so many venture firms, respectfully, why did you feel like the world needed another one, and, and what was that kind of realization with the founding of Chemistry?

A The world doesn't need another venture fund, it needs a new venture fund. Um, there are too many VCs right now. Um, but we wanted to do something different. And what Christina, Ethan and I started talking about was, and we've been talking about this for a long time, is if you were going to design a fund where you fully aligned the values of the investors with the founders, what would it look like? That was kind of the question that was the jumping point to getting started here. And what we thought about is first off, it would be smaller. It would be focused. It would be a combination of experienced investors from some of the biggest multistage platforms coming together, together avenger style and seeing if you could do something different. And you just talked about, you know, what it feels like to be an owner. I wanted that Christina and Ethan wanted that. And we felt like the combination of experience and hustle was something that would kind of be the blueprint for a new fund. Um, So that was kind of the, the origin of, of how we started talking about this and, and it's been a huge amount of fun so far.

AI assessment note: “The world doesn't need another venture fund, it needs a new venture fund.”

Q They would say that they have incredible teams and they have IR and they have legal and accounting and portfolio services, which mean they are able to just be finding the next Dylan field. What do you say back to that?

A I would challenge the notion that when you talk about, for example, some of the portfolio services teams, I think one of the dirty secrets of multi-stage investing is that portfolio services teams are not for founders. They're for the VCs. They are a way to make something unscalable scale. And I think right now we're starting to see the cracks of an industry that has relied on kind of subdivisions of the job, whether it's, you know, a talent team or a team that's going out and finding customers. But I think what founders really want is not to be disintermediated between the relationship between an investor and the founder. That that's really the premise of our fund. And one of the things that I think that some of the industry has gotten wrong now would also clarify, I don't think it started that way. I think the intention, and if you go back to the innovation from 1015 years ago, when Andreessen Horowitz started, it was a great idea. It was this sense of, you know, excitement and innovation for venture. But I think where we are now is it's become more of a crutch to these organizations. To try to get leverage in an area that's very difficult to do.

AI assessment note: “portfolio services teams are not for founders. They're for the VCs.”

Q Okay. Why does fund size correlate to alignment to founders?

A I don't necessarily think the fund size does. I think it's the purview of the responsibilities of the fund. Um, so for us having a stage focus, I think is very important. I've seen, I think, you know, all three of us had seen what the growth of different products And the size of a portfolio does to the focus of an investor. And I think there's a paradox at a lot of the, the larger legacy institutions where the most experienced VCs have the least amount of time to spend on new deals. And I think that's a problem for founders. Um, and that was something that we thought a lot about as we were debating whether or not we were going to jump into this. And one of the things we thought we could help solve with, with, with chemistry.

AI assessment note: “I don't necessarily think the fund size does.”

Q the lesson that I have. It's different to what people think. People think younger people will take a new firm, younger people. They crave the brand more. I find the second tier serial founders have had the multi-stage product before. They've seen that it's not all it's cracked up to be, and they actually go for the person the second time around. Do you agree or am I missing that?

A So I would, I agree with the framework, though I don't think it's the age. I think it's the, the, um, the relationship to kind of insider outsider in Silicon Valley. If you've never heard You know, if, if you're coming into the ecosystem and you don't really know a lot of venture, what you're thinking about is the big brands, the Andreessen's, the Kleiner Perkins, the Sequoia's, and you should, those are the names that are household names that if you stopped a founder on the streets of Austin or Portland, you know, those are what you're going to hear about. I think that's very difficult for a new brand to, to, to access from day one. Our strategy is we've been in the industry for, for a long time. We've been on, I think it's You know, 12, uh, unicorn boards from the early stage, 50 boards in general, a hundred investments. There's a large blast ratio of people that we know that we've invested in. Um, you know, people spinning out of our former portfolio companies. I think that's where a new fund is most successful kind of in the network that already knows you. So I think to me, it's less about the age and more about kind of the proximity to your kind of networks.

AI assessment note: “I agree with the framework, though I don't think it's the age.”

Q You said about execution being everything that I so agree with you, dude. What are the reasons why from zero to one execution goes wrong most often you see?

A To me, it's the founding team. I think that no company I've been a part of from the early days has been a straight line success. Everybody takes a punch in the face and the founders that have the grit to take the punch in the face and get back up are the ones that I think have the highest correlation of going from zero to one and ultimately from one to a public company. Um, so I think a lot about not, you know, did they, uh, um, did they miss their OKR by 30%, you know, this quarter, and therefore this isn't gonna work? No, it's, is this somebody who's resilient enough to take the adversity, to learn from it, and the velocity of their learning is ultimately what crosses the chasm.

AI assessment note: “To me, it's the founding team.”

Q What makes you say that we're seeing the oxygen sucked out? Because I don't, I don't see that.

A I, I think that Just calling yourself a dot AI company is no longer tacking the same premium onto your business as it would have a year and a half ago. Um, and the people that were the same camp of founders that were a dot XYZ during the crypto boom that have migrated to dot AI for the AI boom are starting to recognize that they actually need a sustainable business and that's what they're going to be evaluated on. Now that doesn't mean that there aren't rounds happening at the, you know, the red hot center of the AI Infrastructure ecosystem. Um, but I do think they're starting, you're starting to see some pullback and some, some proportionality brought back into the other side of the market. So when you, it doesn't sound like you're seeing that by the way you looked at me.

AI assessment note: “calling yourself a dot AI company is no longer tacking the same premium onto your business”

Q No, honestly, I see it being more crazy than ever. I mean, I've met three companies that raised it north of seven 50 pre-product. How do you structure decision making as a new firm?

A So we are a single trigger model, which means that any one of the three of us can make a decision on an investment and go with it. Um, now the biggest mistake that I have seen from kind of other, you know, from my own personal experience and from other funds is when you try to make consensus decisions at the early stage, I think you end up with consensus funds. And I think it's the errors of omissions at the early stage where one person or two people have super strong conviction and an idea that ended up being the outliers. So if you think about the outliers, you're going to get, you know, when you open the aperture, you're when you've got kind of the decision framework that I just described, you're going to get both. You're going to get deals that don't do as well, but I think you're also going to solve for the extremes that do very well. And that was the model that we, we landed on.

AI assessment note: “So we are a single trigger model, which means that any one of the three”

Q Okay. Why does fund size correlate to alignment to founders?

A I don't necessarily think the fund size does. I think it's the purview of the responsibilities of the fund. Um, so for us having a stage focus, I think is very important. I've seen, I think, you know, all three of us had seen what the growth of different products And the size of a portfolio does to the focus of an investor. And I think there's a paradox at a lot of the, the larger legacy institutions where the most experienced VCs have the least amount of time to spend on new deals. And I think that's a problem for founders. Um, and that was something that we thought a lot about as we were debating whether or not we were going to jump into this. And one of the things we thought we could help solve with, with, with chemistry.

AI assessment note: “I don't necessarily think the fund size does. I think it's the purview”

Q And that's why I prefer Serial Founders, because they have an existing network, they've worked with Mark before, they know how Mark works, sign Mark next week, he on boards a week later, job done, and he's fully ramped by week four. I then have so many people say, but the naivety, the brilliance of first-time founders, How do you, I'm forcing you to pick one. Which one and why?

A First time founders. I think the, I think the, um, The ability to, to think from a, a clean slate to do, um, foolish, potentially foolish, but on the other side, potentially visionary and transformative things, the hunger and the, um, the naivety that you described, uh, and a first time founder, I think outweigh a lot of the benefits of having seen the show from one, two, three times in the past. There are caveats. I love founders that have tried and not broken through with a first business. So a founder who feels like they gave it a shot, but ended in a place that they weren't happy with, and they have a chip on their shoulder, I think is a great profile. Um, a founder who has done so well, um, that, you know, they are financially independent, or they might not have the same level of hunger that they brought to their first business. I, I I'm, I'm less excited about that.

AI assessment note: “First time founders. I think the, I think the, um, The ability to”

Q They would say that they have incredible teams and they have IR and they have legal and accounting and portfolio services, which mean they are able to just be finding the next Dylan field. What do you say back to that?

A I would challenge the notion that when you talk about, for example, some of the portfolio services teams, I think one of the dirty secrets of multi-stage investing is that portfolio services teams are not for founders. They're for the VCs. They are a way to make something unscalable scale. And I think right now we're starting to see the cracks of an industry that has relied on kind of subdivisions of the job, whether it's, you know, a talent team or a team that's going out and finding customers. But I think what founders really want is not to be disintermediated between the relationship between an investor and the founder. That that's really the premise of our fund. And one of the things that I think that some of the industry has gotten wrong now would also clarify, I don't think it started that way. I think the intention, and if you go back to the innovation from 1015 years ago, when Andreessen Horowitz started, it was a great idea. It was this sense of, you know, excitement and innovation for venture. But I think where we are now is it's become more of a crutch to these organizations. To try to get leverage in an area that's very difficult to do.

AI assessment note: “portfolio services teams are not for founders. They're for the VCs.”

Q How do you determine when to pay up versus when to sit it out? Like when it's just not a chemistry deal? So, um, I look at like my biggest mistakes this year have been Suno, And 11 labs, and both of them I didn't do because they were small checks, probably like one percent each, and that didn't fit the model, and that was my lack of mental plasticity.

A Yeah, so I think one of the lessons I learned from Index Ventures, and certainly two of my mentors, Mike Volpe, Ilya Fushman, was you want to be in the category winner, and when you need to pay up to be in a category winner, that's something that I think a lot about, um, You know, you don't want to be in the number two or the number three in a category. And there are times when I'm willing to take risk in that direction. Um, it's an ex, if, if your, your risk is the valuation, but you feel extreme conviction in the, in the, you know, the leader in, in a category, you know, that's, that's in time when I'm willing to kind of stretch the other time, Harry, just before you jump in and really the way I think about early stage investing is so much of a founder focus of, do I have insane conviction in this individual, in this founding team? And when those variables line up, I tend to, um, I tend to feel more confidence in my ability to kind of stretch on the deal price in terms.

AI assessment note: “when you need to pay up to be in a category winner”

Q You said about execution being everything that I so agree with you, dude. What are the reasons why from zero to one execution goes wrong most often you see?

A To me, it's the founding team. I think that no company I've been a part of from the early days has been a straight line success. Everybody takes a punch in the face and the founders that have the grit to take the punch in the face and get back up are the ones that I think have the highest correlation of going from zero to one and ultimately from one to a public company. Um, so I think a lot about not, you know, did they, uh, um, did they miss their OKR by 30%, you know, this quarter, and therefore this isn't gonna work? No, it's, is this somebody who's resilient enough to take the adversity, to learn from it, and the velocity of their learning is ultimately what crosses the chasm.

AI assessment note: “To me, it's the founding team.”

Q Um, that was a. Where did that net out?

A We, we are doing it, but I'll give you some of the color around it. So I came in with more perspective, um, that we need to be extremely streamlined and that, you know, having a, a GP only group is going to be You know, an advantage in, in terms of the, the ecosystem. I think Ethan and Christina had a much stronger feeling that, that working with, with, um, with a junior team is going to add an element and a dynamic element in terms of different ages, different networks. That's really going to compliment the GPs. What all of us were aligned and not wanting to recreate was the hierarchy and institution and bureaucracy of a really large organization. So what we netted out to is just a very small junior team. We're going to have two folks. We've hired one so far who's fantastic. Fantastic and already making a massive impact on the fund. Um, so we, we kind of, but that was something we really needed to unpack and, and try to think about the pros and cons.

AI assessment note: “So what we netted out to is just a very small junior team.”

Q Are you worried by the extended window of privatization by great, great founders like the Collison's, bluntly just continuously being private for years and years and years?

A No, I'm not. First off, I think products will evolve to create liquidity for those late stage private companies that give liquidity options to early stage investors. So I think the market will evolve. So just because companies are staying private longer, doesn't mean I think the liquidity duration will be as long as it is today. I think there'll be, we'll see innovation in that area. Um, so there'll be more secondary opportunities for early stage invest. I mean, my, my belief is the capital markets will, will create new products to solve for that. I do think that you need to have A long-term outlook in this industry. And, you know, even when, when I started fundraising, I thought the duration of a fund was 10 years, and I was surprised to learn that many of the LPs said, we rarely see closed funds before 15 years. And, you know, that's, I think, just, you have to have, kind of, the stomach to be in this for a long time.

AI assessment note: “No, I'm not. First off, I think products will evolve to create liquidity”

Q What makes you say that we're seeing the oxygen sucked out? Because I don't, I don't see that.

A I, I think that Just calling yourself a dot AI company is no longer tacking the same premium onto your business as it would have a year and a half ago. Um, and the people that were the same camp of founders that were a dot XYZ during the crypto boom that have migrated to dot AI for the AI boom are starting to recognize that they actually need a sustainable business and that's what they're going to be evaluated on. Now that doesn't mean that there aren't rounds happening at the, you know, the red hot center of the AI Infrastructure ecosystem. Um, but I do think they're starting, you're starting to see some pullback and some, some proportionality brought back into the other side of the market. So when you, it doesn't sound like you're seeing that by the way you looked at me.

AI assessment note: “calling yourself a dot AI company is no longer tacking the same premium”

Q machinations, but we see more angels never enter the market. It seems that everyone's an angel today. And you said something that was really interesting before the show, and you said angel investing is not for everyone. Most Most people are going to lose their money. It's a contrarian statement, which I always love on the show, obviously. But why will most people lose their money, do you think, Mark?

A I'd start by saying, first off, I can understand the allure of angel investing. I mean, it's exciting. It's fun. It can be financially rewarding. But I think what most people fail to understand is that it's extremely risky. I mean, you probably have a better shot at going to a casino and winning roulette than making money angel investing. So I think the other thing that people Might misunderstand is even when you get it right, which statistically you won't, but when you do, the upside has its limitations as well. I mean, best case scenario, you're talking about having your money locked up for probably over a decade, at which point the company has raised so much additional capital that your position could be diluted down to less than half of what it started with. So it's really not for the faint of heart. And I think that listeners who are debating whether or not to get into angel investing should just be really open-minded about why they're doing it. And if why they're doing it is to make money, they're probably going to be disappointed.

AI assessment note: “what most people fail to understand is that it's extremely risky.”

Q That is so kind of you, but I do want to kick off today with a little on you, Mark. So tell me, we both know it's a slightly weird and wonderful world, but how did you make your way into the world of venture and come to be a partner at Index today?

A Uh, really by accident. The way that I got to Index was I had been at Dropbox before this. I was running a business operations And I had seen the company go from about 200 to 1500 people. I picked my head up looking for the next thing, and what I thought I wanted to do was to do another operating role. So I actually, the way that I started looking for kind of the next generation One of the smartest VCs I knew, which led me to Index, who had actually been an investor in Dropbox, a large investor. When I spent more time with the team, I just kind of fell in love with a group of people working here, and I knew that at some point I wanted to get into investing, wasn't sure when, but ultimately decided not to do another operating role and to jump right into venture. That was just over four years ago, and it's been a really great move for me.

AI assessment note: “Uh, really by accident. The way that I got to Index was”

Q I'd love to hear your thoughts. We've seen the rise of Monzo and Revolut largely dominating in terms of the UK for sure and large parts of Europe. And for me, my concern investing today is, are they actually not just going to add these ancillary products, student loans, mortgages, consumer lending, and own the entire stack having owned the nucleus, which is your current account and your credit account?

A The best ones will. And I don't think this is specific to the UK. I think in every geography right now, whether that's what Robin Hood and Chime are doing in the US or New Bank's doing in Brazil, you're going to see companies start with a specific product. And I agree with you that I think the stickiest one is a current account and then cross sell the rest of a bank's products around that. But to me, that's actually the opportunity, which is these companies, the best companies are still growing, still doubling year over year. And they have an ability to dramatically increase the amount of revenue they're generating per customer. So to me, this is what we're seeing is the germination of the next generation of banks, which is going to be massive.

AI assessment note: “The best ones will. And I don't think this is specific to the UK.”

Q machinations, but we see more angels never enter the market. It seems that everyone's an angel today. And you said something that was really interesting before the show, and you said angel investing is not for everyone. Most Most people are going to lose their money. It's a contrarian statement, which I always love on the show, obviously. But why will most people lose their money, do you think, Mark?

A I'd start by saying, first off, I can understand the allure of angel investing. I mean, it's exciting. It's fun. It can be financially rewarding. But I think what most people fail to understand is that it's extremely risky. I mean, you probably have a better shot at going to a casino and winning roulette than making money angel investing. So I think the other thing that people Might misunderstand is even when you get it right, which statistically you won't, but when you do, the upside has its limitations as well. I mean, best case scenario, you're talking about having your money locked up for probably over a decade, at which point the company has raised so much additional capital that your position could be diluted down to less than half of what it started with. So it's really not for the faint of heart. And I think that listeners who are debating whether or not to get into angel investing should just be really open-minded about why they're doing it. And if why they're doing it is to make money, they're probably going to be disappointed.

AI assessment note: “your position could be diluted down to less than half of what it started with”

Q Are you worried by the extended window of privatization by great, great founders like the Collison's, bluntly just continuously being private for years and years and years?

A No, I'm not. First off, I think products will evolve to create liquidity for those late stage private companies that give liquidity options to early stage investors. So I think the market will evolve. So just because companies are staying private longer, doesn't mean I think the liquidity duration will be as long as it is today. I think there'll be, we'll see innovation in that area. Um, so there'll be more secondary opportunities for early stage invest. I mean, my, my belief is the capital markets will, will create new products to solve for that. I do think that you need to have A long-term outlook in this industry. And, you know, even when, when I started fundraising, I thought the duration of a fund was 10 years, and I was surprised to learn that many of the LPs said, we rarely see closed funds before 15 years. And, you know, that's, I think, just, you have to have, kind of, the stomach to be in this for a long time.

AI assessment note: “No, I'm not. First off, I think products will evolve to create liquidity”

Q What are the reasons why execution breaks most post product market fit? You've worked with some incredible companies post.

A I think hiring is, is probably the biggest limitation I've seen. When you were an early stage company, this is where, you know, going back to our conversation on what is the value out of a VC, you know, again, do no harm should be beating 80% of the industry, but I wouldn't agree with your zero. So I think that at every stage and when you go, when you, when you, you feel the pull of product market fit, You need to really consider who are the leaders of your functions, especially your go-to-market functions, and are they the right people? And when you move from founder-led sales into a professional organization, really asking yourself, do I have the right people in those seats? And back to the point of, you know, what can a VC do to be helpful? Showing people what great looks like one, two, three stages in front of where they are, and giving them a way to evaluate where their team is relative to that, I think is a very helpful thing. And the folks that I've seen take longer to get from that one to 10, 10 to a hundred, Are the folks that tend to make the wrong decisions around hiring in their leadership teams. And by the way, I'm very bullish on their leaders, you know, and I can give you examples that have scaled from the early days all the way to, you know, an exit. Uh, it's unusual, but it's possible. But I think having a way to give founders, uh, a sense of this is what great…

AI assessment note: “I think hiring is, is probably the biggest limitation I've seen.”

Q What was the single best LP meeting that you had?

A We did have some funny stories from the fundraise itself. And at one point I remember, um, Christina was having what I thought was her best fundraising meeting. She's just, just, you know, really doing a nice job with her talking points. And I look over and she's, she's, and she's, you know, laughing and having fun. And I look over and it's, it's nine o'clock in the morning. And instead of a seltzer water, we had, we had, you know, we're borrowing somebody's office. She had grabbed a white claw instead. And so she's drinking, you know, her second white claw thinking that she's drinking seltzer water. And, uh, you know, we had a few things like that where, you know, you just kind of have to laugh in hindsight. And we had to, we had to tell her afterwards, you know, we didn't want to stop the train at that point, but we had to tell her she wasn't drinking, you know, something that was, uh, that was seltzer water.

AI assessment note: “Christina was having what I thought was her best fundraising meeting.”