The Exchanges

Q So instead of, how do you spell that? Sorry.

A G R O V O. So instead of, um, uh, focusing on, you know, teaching people to be engineers, um, which is going to be a very, very important pocket of the economy and already is, um, Grovo basically says, look, not everybody's going to be a software engineer, but everybody needs, should, uh, know how to use the leading software today. So they teach people how to use things like Salesforce or LinkedIn for, uh, for recruiting or, uh, Uh, HubSpot for content marketing, or, um, you know, the list goes on. Dropbox. And, uh, these are, this is a category of education that didn't exist, uh, 15 years ago. Um, uh, certainly it didn't exist a hundred years ago, and they're basically creating this new category of companies doing really well. And then I'd go as far down as to say, you know, companies like Climb Credit, which, um, is a new, Sort of sits at the intersection of a number of my interests. It's a new financial services company, um, which targets, uh, which targets, um, vocational schools and students to help, uh, people get access to vocational training that wouldn't be able to pay for it otherwise. Um, there's a very, very significant funding gap in our country around, um, uh, tuition associated with, with vocational schools, and they focus exclusively on those. So anything from, um, A coding bootcamp to an aircraft maintenance school to a welding academy. Anything where there's a…

AI assessment note: “G R O V O”

Q And then talking about those markets, you said, obviously, looking at the future and potential markets, where do you see real potential in a future market? Is it three D printing? Is it Bitcoin? Is it VR? What are your thoughts?

A Yeah. So I gave you a little bit of a sense for the areas that I'm interested in. Right now, I am focused on, um, insurance, um, focused on other financial services, um, in kind of what we call non-bank lending, um, which is where, um, you know, companies like Lending Club have emerged, but there are a bunch of other categories, um, where, uh, you're seeing, uh, non-traditional sources of capital, so, uh, hedge funds, uh, family offices, folks like that, Um, starting to provide credit to, um, you know, businesses and consumers in new ways. Um, and so, yeah, insurance is one of the areas we're digging into right now. Can we find acceptance? And so there, there, the question is, you know, insurance is, um, one of the, uh, broad sectors where there is very, very low, uh, consumer satisfaction. Um, in many cases, um, you know, particularly with the transition of millennials, uh, into, um, real heads of household in the economy, there's still relatively low brand awareness of some of the old brand that our parents grew up with. Um, and, uh, there's a real opportunity to use technology in new ways to, um, kind of delight the consumer and to bring, uh, to create new brand values. So Oscar, for example, it's one of our investments, Oscar health and health insurance space, but we're exploring other verticals where potentially a new brand could be created. Um, and similarly looking at ne…

AI assessment note: “Right now, I am focused on, um, insurance, um, focused on other financial services”

Q Um, and so in the education sector, are you interested in them?

A So I'll just kind of give you a full, uh, life cycle, uh, of, of stuff from late stage stuff, which I think demonstrate this point all the way down to early stuff that excites me. So on the most obvious, um, example of this over the course of the past few months, um, folks would look to a company like lynda.com, right? Which was just acquired by LinkedIn for well north of a billion dollars, I think a billion and a half dollars, um, incredible story of a company. Um, and, um, you know, so that would be one example. Um, that's already exited. Another one would be a company called Pluralsight, um, which is a, uh, online, uh, training company for developers, um, software developers, um, not to teach development, but whose audience are people that are already developers to learn their skills. Um, and then I would look down to companies like General Assembly, um, which is sort of this interesting online, offline, uh, sort of next generation vocational school, um, that teaches everything from Um, software engineering in a variety of settings, uh, to digital marketing, to, um, design and others, uh, going down the spectrum, a company that I'm a proud angel investor in is a company called Groppo, um, which is basically teaching people how to use, uh, regular people, how to use business software.

AI assessment note: “give you a full, uh, life cycle... down to early stuff that excites me.”

Q Can we start at the beginning now, and can you give us a little background about you, and tell us how you made your entry into the VC world?

A Sure. Happy to. Um, The VC world is a funny place, and I'm sure you know, having talked to many, um, there, there historically haven't been sort of obvious channels into the industry. Um, I, uh, went about it, you know, pretty, uh, kind of, Lucky way in a lot of ways. Um, when I was in college, um, I forever had sort of dreamed of being a VC, um, even since I was a little kid, about 10 years old. And, um, and when I was in college, I, I had studied, um, economics, um, and always been in technology, kind of grew up, uh, in the same dorm room as, uh, same dorm as the guys, uh, that started Facebook while they were there. So there was a tremendous amount of energy around the startup world at the time. Um, and, uh, there weren't really opportunities to join, uh, venture firms, uh, at the early stages, but there was a later stage venture firm, um, now I guess probably wouldn't be called a venture firm at all, called Insight Venture Partners, um, who had a very particular model for how they, uh, built their sourcing team, uh, or their sort of deal origination team, if you will, which is that they basically recruited kids exclusively out of college from, um, you know, somewhat Uh, notable schools in the, in the U S. Um, they had about, uh, at the time, about 10 or 12 of them at any given time. Um, and you're basically an inside sales team. Um, you know, it was a glorified, uh, sales j…

AI assessment note: “Insight Venture Partners, um, who had a very particular model for how they”

Q And then talking about those markets, you said, obviously, looking at the future and potential markets, where do you see real potential in a future market? Is it three D printing? Is it Bitcoin? Is it VR? What are your thoughts?

A Yeah. So I gave you a little bit of a sense for the areas that I'm interested in. Right now, I am focused on, um, insurance, um, focused on other financial services, um, in kind of what we call non-bank lending, um, which is where, um, you know, companies like Lending Club have emerged, but there are a bunch of other categories, um, where, uh, you're seeing, uh, non-traditional sources of capital, so, uh, hedge funds, uh, family offices, folks like that, Um, starting to provide credit to, um, you know, businesses and consumers in new ways. Um, and so, yeah, insurance is one of the areas we're digging into right now. Can we find acceptance? And so there, there, the question is, you know, insurance is, um, one of the, uh, broad sectors where there is very, very low, uh, consumer satisfaction. Um, in many cases, um, you know, particularly with the transition of millennials, uh, into, um, real heads of household in the economy, there's still relatively low brand awareness of some of the old brand that our parents grew up with. Um, and, uh, there's a real opportunity to use technology in new ways to, um, kind of delight the consumer and to bring, uh, to create new brand values. So Oscar, for example, it's one of our investments, Oscar health and health insurance space, but we're exploring other verticals where potentially a new brand could be created. Um, and similarly looking at ne…

AI assessment note: “Right now, I am focused on, um, insurance, um, focused on other financial services”

Q And then what can college graduates and recent, um, university students do to make themselves more attractive, attractive to VC firms? Is there any type of thing they should be pursuing?

A Sure. Um, So, I think that, um, you know, venture firms typically are attracted to people with points of view, um, and, uh, you know, some degree of, uh, domain expertise. It's possible, um, to get that as a young person. Um, it's possible to, you know, be a, you know, computer scientist that specializes in, you know, a certain type of, um, Um, uh, storage or a certain type of, uh, security. That's possible. Um, but it's also possible, um, and I'll just highlight one of my colleagues who's absolutely amazing to be, um, a college student who stands out based on their sort of leadership within the community and degree of sort of connective tissue across the country. Um, and that's what my colleague Peter Boyce did, um, who now works at GC and was really an organizer of, um, Um, young talent, young entrepreneurial energy, and, um, you know, has, has really been a huge driving force of value for our firm, um, because he's brought a lot of that with him and introduced us to a lot of opportunities. So I would say either, either be a domain expert where you have strong points of view about a particular space or have, uh, differentiated levels of connectivity and leadership within that community.

AI assessment note: “be a domain expert where you have strong points of view about a particular space”

Q Absolutely. Absolutely. Shifting slightly onto the founders perspective, um, what do you look for in founders? What, what's your kind of perfect founder if you could mold one? Or do you like founding teams more than founders?

A Um, what is my perfect founder? Uh, well, I mean, I definitely, um, am not interested in solo founders. I found that to be a unfulfilling journey for most and, and, and very much a lonely one, but there can only, in, in almost all cases, there can only be one CEO. And so, you know, I tend to gravitate towards, uh, CEO founders, um, who, um, Are very clear thinkers who have strong views about the world, but still can be persuaded, um, otherwise, so they're good listeners. Um, people who are great storytellers, uh, I think that in some ways, you know, storytelling is sales, storytelling is fundraising, storytelling is recruiting. Those are the things, the key things that a, a great CEO does, and, um, you really have to do that well.

AI assessment note: “I tend to gravitate towards, uh, CEO founders, um, who, um, Are very clear thinkers”

Q And then what can college graduates and recent, um, university students do to make themselves more attractive, attractive to VC firms? Is there any type of thing they should be pursuing?

A Sure. Um, So, I think that, um, you know, venture firms typically are attracted to people with points of view, um, and, uh, you know, some degree of, uh, domain expertise. It's possible, um, to get that as a young person. Um, it's possible to, you know, be a, you know, computer scientist that specializes in, you know, a certain type of, um, Um, uh, storage or a certain type of, uh, security. That's possible. Um, but it's also possible, um, and I'll just highlight one of my colleagues who's absolutely amazing to be, um, a college student who stands out based on their sort of leadership within the community and degree of sort of connective tissue across the country. Um, and that's what my colleague Peter Boyce did, um, who now works at GC and was really an organizer of, um, Um, young talent, young entrepreneurial energy, and, um, you know, has, has really been a huge driving force of value for our firm, um, because he's brought a lot of that with him and introduced us to a lot of opportunities. So I would say either, either be a domain expert where you have strong points of view about a particular space or have, uh, differentiated levels of connectivity and leadership within that community.

AI assessment note: “either be a domain expert... or have, uh, differentiated levels of connectivity”

Q Absolutely. Absolutely. Shifting slightly onto the founders perspective, um, what do you look for in founders? What, what's your kind of perfect founder if you could mold one? Or do you like founding teams more than founders?

A Um, what is my perfect founder? Uh, well, I mean, I definitely, um, am not interested in solo founders. I found that to be a unfulfilling journey for most and, and, and very much a lonely one, but there can only, in, in almost all cases, there can only be one CEO. And so, you know, I tend to gravitate towards, uh, CEO founders, um, who, um, Are very clear thinkers who have strong views about the world, but still can be persuaded, um, otherwise, so they're good listeners. Um, people who are great storytellers, uh, I think that in some ways, you know, storytelling is sales, storytelling is fundraising, storytelling is recruiting. Those are the things, the key things that a, a great CEO does, and, um, you really have to do that well.

AI assessment note: “I tend to gravitate towards, uh, CEO founders, um, who, um, Are very clear thinkers”

Q Um, and so in the education sector, are you interested in them?

A So I'll just kind of give you a full, uh, life cycle, uh, of, of stuff from late stage stuff, which I think demonstrate this point all the way down to early stuff that excites me. So on the most obvious, um, example of this over the course of the past few months, um, folks would look to a company like lynda.com, right? Which was just acquired by LinkedIn for well north of a billion dollars, I think a billion and a half dollars, um, incredible story of a company. Um, and, um, you know, so that would be one example. Um, that's already exited. Another one would be a company called Pluralsight, um, which is a, uh, online, uh, training company for developers, um, software developers, um, not to teach development, but whose audience are people that are already developers to learn their skills. Um, and then I would look down to companies like General Assembly, um, which is sort of this interesting online, offline, uh, sort of next generation vocational school, um, that teaches everything from Um, software engineering in a variety of settings, uh, to digital marketing, to, um, design and others, uh, going down the spectrum, a company that I'm a proud angel investor in is a company called Groppo, um, which is basically teaching people how to use, uh, regular people, how to use business software.

AI assessment note: “all the way down to early stuff that excites me”

Q So instead of, how do you spell that? Sorry.

A G R O V O. So instead of, um, uh, focusing on, you know, teaching people to be engineers, um, which is going to be a very, very important pocket of the economy and already is, um, Grovo basically says, look, not everybody's going to be a software engineer, but everybody needs, should, uh, know how to use the leading software today. So they teach people how to use things like Salesforce or LinkedIn for, uh, for recruiting or, uh, Uh, HubSpot for content marketing, or, um, you know, the list goes on. Dropbox. And, uh, these are, this is a category of education that didn't exist, uh, 15 years ago. Um, uh, certainly it didn't exist a hundred years ago, and they're basically creating this new category of companies doing really well. And then I'd go as far down as to say, you know, companies like Climb Credit, which, um, is a new, Sort of sits at the intersection of a number of my interests. It's a new financial services company, um, which targets, uh, which targets, um, vocational schools and students to help, uh, people get access to vocational training that wouldn't be able to pay for it otherwise. Um, there's a very, very significant funding gap in our country around, um, uh, tuition associated with, with vocational schools, and they focus exclusively on those. So anything from, um, A coding bootcamp to an aircraft maintenance school to a welding academy. Anything where there's a…

AI assessment note: “G R O V O”

Q And you said about opinions as well. How, how is it Um, suitable to present your opinion? Is it good to do it in a blog? Is it good to interact via social media? What would you suggest in that aspect?

A I would say, um, You know, the first thing is probably to put your opinions out in the world. Uh, you know, you, to be somebody who sits in a library and reads books, you know, proverbially, um, and has strong views is, um, it's certainly one way to develop views. It's not necessarily a great way to be found or to develop a reputation for having those views. And social media is a kind of democratic, uh, in some ways democratic, uh, playing field where anybody can, you know, Blog or tweet or, um, you know, or, or otherwise do a video, um, and distribute it, um, and engage with other people. So I would say, you know, first and foremost, um, kind of get out there. Um, don't be afraid to engage with people. Um, most of the smartest people in the world, um, do, you know, that, that do venture capital, uh, enjoy interacting and engaging with young people, um, with strong views. So, um, you know, I would, I would do that by all means. I think, you know, the, the one caveat being, um, Um, you know, your schedule may not be the same schedule as other people, so I would not be, you know, as the, as the working, um, folk. And so, you know, if it takes a couple of follow-ups, um, or, you know, it takes a couple of times to engage someone, don't worry about it. Don't take it personally. Um, you know, if you have strong views and you're smart, um, I'm sure the people will appreciate, uh, wha…

AI assessment note: “social media is a kind of democratic, uh, in some ways democratic, uh, playing field”

Q And what would you say then to people who say that education's never really produced much in terms of VC returns?

A Um, I would say that, uh, historically that's been true. Um, but I think that there are a lot of companies that, uh, are You know, that, that, that, that was a truism built on old distribution models, um, and a world that hadn't yet fully realized the pain of the skills, uh, sort of, 21st century skills imbalance that our country faces, and in the face of that very, very significant imbalance, the demand for those skills, uh, Um, you know, largely around not just, uh, software engineering literacy, but computer literacy more broadly, um, creates an incredible, uh, appetite to spend on, um, education and, and acquiring those skills. Um, and, um, I think the tide is really shifting and it's going to shift significantly.

AI assessment note: “historically that's been true. Um, but I think that there are a lot”

Q And you said about opinions as well. How, how is it Um, suitable to present your opinion? Is it good to do it in a blog? Is it good to interact via social media? What would you suggest in that aspect?

A I would say, um, You know, the first thing is probably to put your opinions out in the world. Uh, you know, you, to be somebody who sits in a library and reads books, you know, proverbially, um, and has strong views is, um, it's certainly one way to develop views. It's not necessarily a great way to be found or to develop a reputation for having those views. And social media is a kind of democratic, uh, in some ways democratic, uh, playing field where anybody can, you know, Blog or tweet or, um, you know, or, or otherwise do a video, um, and distribute it, um, and engage with other people. So I would say, you know, first and foremost, um, kind of get out there. Um, don't be afraid to engage with people. Um, most of the smartest people in the world, um, do, you know, that, that do venture capital, uh, enjoy interacting and engaging with young people, um, with strong views. So, um, you know, I would, I would do that by all means. I think, you know, the, the one caveat being, um, Um, you know, your schedule may not be the same schedule as other people, so I would not be, you know, as the, as the working, um, folk. And so, you know, if it takes a couple of follow-ups, um, or, you know, it takes a couple of times to engage someone, don't worry about it. Don't take it personally. Um, you know, if you have strong views and you're smart, um, I'm sure the people will appreciate, uh, wha…

AI assessment note: “social media is a kind of democratic, uh, in some ways democratic, uh, playing field”

Q And what would you say then to people who say that education's never really produced much in terms of VC returns?

A Um, I would say that, uh, historically that's been true. Um, but I think that there are a lot of companies that, uh, are You know, that, that, that, that was a truism built on old distribution models, um, and a world that hadn't yet fully realized the pain of the skills, uh, sort of, 21st century skills imbalance that our country faces, and in the face of that very, very significant imbalance, the demand for those skills, uh, Um, you know, largely around not just, uh, software engineering literacy, but computer literacy more broadly, um, creates an incredible, uh, appetite to spend on, um, education and, and acquiring those skills. Um, and, um, I think the tide is really shifting and it's going to shift significantly.

AI assessment note: “historically that's been true. Um, but I think that there are a lot”

Q Okay, absolutely. And, and then what would you say about the traditional ways of getting into VC then? Because you essentially, uh, Got into VC straight away, which is quite a, um, Australian thing in the industry.

A I got into VC straight away, but remember, this is not early stage VC. This is, uh, and this is not, you know, I wasn't doing VC in the way that I do VC now. Um, you know, in the early stage business, for example, um, you know, there's a meaningful amount of deal flow that comes to the venture capital firm. Uh, for a variety of reasons, from a variety of sources, but the, the, the most significant of which is you are investing in companies that actually need cash. Um, the insight model was going after companies that don't need cash, um, that were profitable, had never raised money before, and were somewhat large. So, it was a very different model. The, the way that we found companies was different. Um, you know, it was, Ultimately, um, the early stage venture business typically only has, you know, one, two, or three junior people on a team, non-partners on a team. Um, these guys, you know, today, Insight has 30 people on their junior team.

AI assessment note: “I got into VC straight away, but remember, this is not early stage VC.”

Q Okay, absolutely. And, and then what would you say about the traditional ways of getting into VC then? Because you essentially, uh, Got into VC straight away, which is quite a, um, Australian thing in the industry.

A I got into VC straight away, but remember, this is not early stage VC. This is, uh, and this is not, you know, I wasn't doing VC in the way that I do VC now. Um, you know, in the early stage business, for example, um, you know, there's a meaningful amount of deal flow that comes to the venture capital firm. Uh, for a variety of reasons, from a variety of sources, but the, the, the most significant of which is you are investing in companies that actually need cash. Um, the insight model was going after companies that don't need cash, um, that were profitable, had never raised money before, and were somewhat large. So, it was a very different model. The, the way that we found companies was different. Um, you know, it was, Ultimately, um, the early stage venture business typically only has, you know, one, two, or three junior people on a team, non-partners on a team. Um, these guys, you know, today, Insight has 30 people on their junior team.

AI assessment note: “I got into VC straight away, but remember, this is not early stage VC.”