Chad Byers

Co-Founder and General Partner, Susa Ventures · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

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Chad Byers co-founded Susa Ventures in 2013, an early-stage venture firm investing in fintech, healthcare, enterprise software, and logistics. He is best known as an early seed-stage backer of Robinhood, alongside investments in companies such as Andela, Mux, Stord, and Newfront Insurance.

20statements → 10claims → 4claims resolved → 0%fully supported → 3.95/5average certainty → 1.7/5average debate potential → 4.6/5argument clarity · the sources → 19said about them ↓

0 supported 0 partly supported 4 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 5 not checkable as stated how the 10 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 predictions · 4 assertions · 4 insights · 6 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 10 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 5 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 Chad argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable contradicted claim

Prediction Didn’t hold up

Chad Byers: Susa Ventures Will Permanently Cap Fund Size at $150M

“The end state for us is 125, one hundred and fifty million dollar fund capped at that size, never getting bigger. Focus exclusively at early stage.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 18:48 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1

none yet certainty 2

0% certainty 3

0% certainty 4

0% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.6 / 5 directness 4.8 · coherence 5 · precision 4.6 · compression 4.1

answered every one of 16 assessed questions directly

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

265 words/min while actually speaking · 17.3 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 4,044 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 3/10

pushed back at the host 1/10

setup questions received 50%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 20:26“And do you perceive there to be any potential troubles in terms of having six GPs with regards to the investment decision making process itself in lengthening it with the extension…” ▶ 10:35“I've spoken to many fund managers and they say kind of LP money is LP money. It's, it's all green. So, so what makes a good fit LP wise?” “So in terms of the professionalization of moving from angel to VC, I'm really intrigued to hear how the mindset shifts for you from the fiduciary responsibility of having LP and in…”

What they said20 What others said19 Episodes1

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

Prediction Didn’t hold up

Chad Byers: Susa Ventures Will Permanently Cap Fund Size at $150M

“The end state for us is 125, one hundred and fifty million dollar fund capped at that size, never getting bigger. Focus exclusively at early stage.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 18:48 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Prediction Didn’t hold up

Chad Byers Predicts Facebook or Amazon Will Hit $1 Trillion First

“So I think it's Facebook. You know, my second answer, although this is kind of cheating, would probably be Amazon. So Facebook or Amazon, I don't think it's Apple. I don't think it's Google. I think it's going to be one of those two.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 21:25 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Disclosure

Susa Ventures Seeded Fund I With Marked-Up Angel Deals at Cost

“One of the things we did when we raised the first fund, I think that helped in a tremendous way, is we pulled some of our angel investments into FundOne at cost. So we took some investments we had made the year before, put them in the fund at cost, even though…”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 6:20 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Insight

Chad Byers: Early-Stage Funds Over $100M Must Lead Investment Rounds

“Because you're going to have to be leading deals if you have a fund of over a hundred million.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 20:15 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Insight

Chad Byers: Institutional LPs Rarely Back First-Time Venture Funds

“So when you start talking about fund to funds or endowments or institutions, they typically aren't funding first, first funds, unless there's a rare circumstance with the GP.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 8:05 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Disclosure

Susa Ventures Raised $50M for Fund II After Targeting $40M

“We were targeting forty million. All the existings came in for about 30 of that. We landed one of the big institutions I'd kept warm for three and a half years. They kind of anchored the fund with ten million. And then We went up to the hard cap relatively qui…”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 9:39 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Insight

Chad Byers: Institutional LPs Reject First-Time Distributed Venture Teams

“At the time we were in LA, SF and New York, literally the team was distributed. Most big institutions, that was an immediate no. Felt the team had to be in the same place.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 10:09 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Insight

Chad Byers: The best modern moats rely on data and network effects

“So we strongly believe that for businesses to create long-term value today, you have to have some form of strong defensibility or moat. And we think the best moats today are built with data network effects or economies of scale.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 12:35 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Prediction Didn’t hold up

Susa Ventures Limits Portfolio Companies to 6-8 Per Partner

“And so we'll always maintain in a really low partner to company ratio, ideally long-term kind of six to eight companies per partner, which is very unique at seed because we want to be so operationally involved.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 13:12 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Disclosure

Chad Byers: Susa Ventures Avoids Investing Based on Brand Defensibility

“I think in our opinion, we'd rather see one of those other three than just a strong brand. So I think, you know, a good example of this is in the commerce space. There's some companies I think where their most defensible aspect is brand. There's examples of ma…”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 14:47 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Disclosure

Robinhood Scaled to a $50M Series B in 18 Months

“What we learned in fund one, which is really important to inform what we did in fund two was that these companies that grow really quickly for us, it was companies like Robin hood where we invested at seed and a year and a half later they had raised a fifty mi…”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 16:39 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Chad Byers: LP Sentiment on Opportunity Funds Is Mixed

“The feeling in the LP community is pretty mixed on them. And so we haven't, you know, gone there yet, but it's something we've thought about and we've seen quite a bit of.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 18:00 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Prediction Didn’t hold up

Chad Byers: Susa Ventures Aims to Lead Every Deal Within 10 Years

“You know, essentially becoming moving from a follow on fund and hopefully, you know, 10 years from now being the investor of record in every deal, right?”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 19:48 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Prediction Open · timeframe Aug 2021

Chad Byers: Susa Ventures Aims to Grow to Six General Partners

“Our long-term vision for this fund is to have six GPs On a seed fund which would be pretty unique.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 13:23 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Susa Ventures' Anchor LP Reference-Checked 30 of 40 Portfolio Founders

“The proof for us in that was our anchor LP and fund two called probably 30 of our 40 portfolio company founders and just said, is Sousa helpful?”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 14:10 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Disclosure

Susa Ventures Fund I Maintained a 1:1 Reserve Ratio

“So in fund one, just to give you a benchmark, we were about a one-to-one in terms of upfront to follow-on capital in terms of the ratio.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 16:28 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Susa Ventures Fund II Allocates $2 in Reserves Per $1 Upfront

“And so in fund two, we've shifted to a dollar up front to two dollars follow on. And who knows in the future that might change again, but that's the model in which we're going to operate this time.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 17:05 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Disclosure

Susa Ventures Doubled Check Size to $500K in Fund II

“So our check size and fund one was 25, 250 K in this fund is 500 K.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 19:26 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Chad Byers Flipped Beanie Babies on eBay at Age 11

“I remember being one of the first sellers on eBay during the beanie baby craze in the late nineties. So I was 11 years old. I'd set up this like little business flipping beanie babies on eBay.”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 2:24 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Chad Byers Co-Wrote Silver Spring Networks' S-1 at Age 23

“I got to be there doing a tremendous amount of growth from about a 150 people to 600 people, and eventually see the IPO which was kind of just a fantastic first company experience, dream come true. Got to write part of the S-One, which for a twenty-three-year-…”

Chad Byers Aug 24, 2016 ▶ 3:30 20VC: Why Raising A Fund Is Like Raising A $25m Seed Round with No Product & Why Not All LP Money Is Equal with Chad Byers, General Partner @ Susa Ventures

The other half of the tape: Chad Byers's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 19 times in 10 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 15 Matt Murphy 3 Ted Blosser 1