Anu Hariharan

Founder & Managing Partner, Avra · 1 appearance on the record.

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investorfounderengineer@anuhariharan ↗LinkedIn ↗avracap.com ↗

Anu Hariharan is the founder and managing partner of Avra, a firm providing growth funding and scaling programs for startups. She previously served as managing partner at Y Combinator's Continuity Fund and as an investment partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

15statements → 9claims → 6claims resolved → 50%fully supported → 3.87/5average certainty → 2.33/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 32said about them ↓

3 supported 1 partly supported 2 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 9 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 8 assertions · 1 opinion · 5 insights · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 9 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Anu argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

Uber's growth team drove Indian expansion by introducing cash payments

“There's a very good example in Uber where, you know, the whole premise was it's a cashless transaction app. And they went to India, which has no credit cards. And the growth team actually ran an experiment by turning on cash to figure out how much it helped wi…”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 22:36 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted

Facebook delayed expanding beyond Harvard for 18 months to ensure retention

“They first launched in Harvard, and there was a lot of craze about the app. A lot of schools demanded that Facebook be available in those schools, yet they did not launch it for almost 18 months, and the simple reason being, the one metric they measured was ho…”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 11:02 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

How they sound: speaking style how? →

207 words/min while actually speaking · 2.1 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Anu Hariharan: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 18 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.5/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 4,787 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Anu Hariharan is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 0/10

pushed back at the host 0/10

setup questions received 60%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 12:27“How does one stress test and determine the strength of defensibility of a network effect?” ▶ 21:13“Where do you see most scaling startups go wrong in establishing their growth teams, and what does that look like?” ▶ 23:25“what are the commonalities of those successful scaling CEO stories, and what are those which maybe fall short?”

What they said15 What others said32 Episodes1

Everything Anu Hariharan said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion

Silicon Valley has erred too far toward founder-friendly boards

“I think we in the Valley have probably erred to on the side of founder friendly, and especially given, you know, companies are staying private longer as almost 10 to 11 years before they go public. I think the board composition really needs to adapt from Not j…”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 27:23 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Insight

Strong user retention, not fast growth, proves network effects

“Because engagement is a sign of network effect, not growth. This is where the confusion comes. Most people think every fast growing has a network effect. It doesn't. The retention is a strong sign of network effect.”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 11:45 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Uber and Lyft have low user barriers to exit during surge pricing

“Now play the same thing on Uber and Lyft. I find the barrier to exit for the user on Uber or Lyft to be really low because I'm not the one choosing the driver. So if I'm on Uber today, and if the prices are surging, I'm going to check lift automatically, and a…”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 14:32 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Prediction Not checkable as stated

The global tech ecosystem will become a triangle of SV, Beijing, Bangalore

“I think Silicon Valley will continue to play an important role in the tech ecosystem. However, I do think in the future, you will actually see the tech ecosystem be a triangle between Silicon Valley, Beijing, and Bangalore. I don't think it will, it'll no long…”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 29:56 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Insight

Unit economics matter more in venture capital than in private equity

“At scale, really paying attention to the business levers, and paying attention to unit economics, and figuring out if you're truly building a scalable model is really important, and probably more important in the venture world than the private equity world, si…”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 6:28 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Assertion Contradicted

Facebook delayed expanding beyond Harvard for 18 months to ensure retention

Insight

Startups should form growth teams only after hiring 10 to 15 engineers

“I think that once, you know, you have strong retention and you probably have 10 or 15 engineers on your team, it may be time to actually focus on growth.”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 20:56 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Assertion Supported

Uber's growth team drove Indian expansion by introducing cash payments

Insight

A true network effect requires incremental value for existing users

“I think the common confusion arises from the fact that people get confused with systems, nodes, technology, platforms, you know, and I think they forget that it is about measuring the incremental value to the existing user. As more users join it, and if that d…”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 7:32 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Airbnb's review ecosystem creates defensibility that competitors cannot replicate

“A product that's not like Facebook, but it has that same network effect is Airbnb, right? Because it's a marketplace and obviously it's a matching of hosts and guests, but over time they've built so many reviews and ratings, both about the guest and the host. …”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 13:50 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Assertion Supported

Amazon scaled phenomenally as a first-party business without network effects

“Amazon is the prime example of a large company that started off as a first party business, which had no network effects, and they've done phenomenally well as they've scaled it.”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 15:43 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Assertion Supported

Airbnb struggled for its first three years to build marketplace liquidity

“So Airbnb, when they first launched, I mean, they didn't have vital growth. I mean, they really struggled for the first three years to build liquidity in their marketplace, but”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 19:14 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Assertion Partly supported

Stripe's Patrick Collison met 5-6 top executives before making senior hires

“Patrick Collison from Stripe often says this, which is for every senior exec role that he decided to Hired. He first spent time with five or six execs in that role to really understand and establish what is best in class.”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 25:17 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Insight

Post-PMF startups plateau by delaying executive hiring or churning leadership

“Too often, I see companies that are plateauing in the phase two of company building is really because, A, they wait too long to hire senior execs, or they've switched their exec team at least twice, and all these things basically slow down the company because …”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 25:48 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

Assertion Contradicted

Most consumer apps around 2007 and 2008 plateaued at 50 million MAUs

“When they hit around fifty million MAUs, They realized that most apps in that era, around 2007 and eight, had plateaued at fifty million MAUs.”

Anu Hariharan Mar 5, 2018 ▶ 17:00 20VC: Why, How and When To Think About Growth Teams, The Right Way To Think About Network Effects & Scaling from Phase 1 To Phase 2 of Startup Life with Anu Hariharan, Partner @ YC Continuity Fund

The other half of the tape: Anu Hariharan's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 32 times in 11 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 24 TS Anil 4 Jesse Zhang 3 Henrique Dubugras 1