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Daniel Levine

Partner, Accel · 1 appearance on the record.

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

investorfounderoperator@daniel_levine ↗accel.com/people/daniel-levine ↗

Daniel Levine is a partner at venture capital firm Accel. He previously co-founded data visualization startup Chartio and worked on the platform team at Dropbox.

15statements → 3claims → 3claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 4.13/5average certainty → 2.13/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 1said about them ↓

3 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 2 assertions · 2 opinions · 4 insights · 6 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved. 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 Daniel 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
Levine: Sequoia's seed deals in Airbnb and Dropbox are history's best
“Two of the best deals of all time were seeds by Sequoia. I think an initial almost 600,000 dollar investment in Airbnb and a million dollar investment in Dropbox to get very large ownership positions.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 29:27 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
83% certainty 3
none yet certainty 4
100% 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

How they sound: speaking style how? →

322 words/min while actually speaking · 0.3 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Daniel Levine: 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 25 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 9,267 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Daniel Levine 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 ▾ 5/10
pushed back at the host 2/10
setup questions received 30%

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

Disclosure
Levine has never invested right around the $1M ARR threshold
“As far as I know, I have not once done a deal right before, right after hitting a million dollars of ARR.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 15:58 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Insight
Levine: Investors make the most money in a market's second or third inning
“And so a lot of markets, when people think, oh, that's new, it's interesting, that's actually not when you make the most money as an investor. You often make the most money in the second or third inning or later of a market, because all of a sudden the market …”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 18:03 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Opinion
Levine: Y Combinator founders' skepticism toward VCs is often merited
“I think the default posture of YC companies and founders is a little bit of fun, fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the venture community, which I think is merited in some cases”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 4:16 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Insight
Levine: Venture capitalists are not the difference makers in startup success
“I'm trying to do my marginal best, and the company's doing extremely well, and I like to think I'm helping somewhat, but I'm not the be-all, end-all. I'm not the difference maker.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 8:59 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Disclosure
Levine refuses to invest in unlikable founders despite potential financial returns
“There's a lot of ways to make money backing people you might not particularly like, and I effectively will forego those.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 14:24 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Opinion
Levine: Individual personal branding within a VC partnership hurts firm cohesion
“I'm very nervous anytime somebody tries to develop an individual brand at a venture firm, because I really believe that it's a team sport. I really, really, really fundamentally believe that you need a group and a partnership, and it makes everyone stronger.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 25:17 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Assertion Supported
Levine: Sequoia's seed deals in Airbnb and Dropbox are history's best
“Two of the best deals of all time were seeds by Sequoia. I think an initial almost 600,000 dollar investment in Airbnb and a million dollar investment in Dropbox to get very large ownership positions.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 29:27 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Disclosure
Levine: Accel typically buys over 10% ownership in seed rounds
“So typically in our seeds, we're buying over 10% of a business.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 31:18 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Disclosure
Levine: Accel bought 20% of Sentry at $6M, 25% of Scale
“The first investment I led in Century was at a six million dollar post money, and we purchased about 20% of the business. That was five years ago. Scale, the first deal was at a fifteen million dollar post money, and we bought 25% of the business.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 31:27 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Insight
Levine: Liquid, Fast-Moving VC Markets Favor Established Market Leaders
“A very liquid market where things move quick tends to bias towards market leaders over periods of time”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 13:00 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Prediction Held up
Levine: Solo Capitalists Will Persist as a Long-Term VC Model
“I think the sole capitalists are here, and I think many of them will continue to be a thing for a long period of time, and it might become a new mode in our industry, a bimodal or trimodal situation”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 26:13 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Disclosure
Levine: Accel's Slack, Sentry, and Cloudera investments originated as seed deals
“Even at Excel, our first investment in Slack was a seed. Our investment in Sentry started as a seed. Our investment in Cloudera was an EIR.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 29:35 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Disclosure
Levine: 18 of 25 mature Accel seed deals successfully raised Series A
“So every deal we'd done at the seed stage in three years, we'd done about 40 deals, and we termed 25 of them at maturity. So 15 of them were still too new at the time we did this analysis. So they were like, you know, six months in, so they weren't looking to …”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 33:01 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Insight
Levine: Founders should deeply interview prospective board members
“Really interview the person you're working with. These people are going to be with you forever. You should really want to get to know them, and it doesn't mean you get to know them by telling them about your business. Ask them about theirs. Ask them about thei…”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 37:58 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?
Assertion Supported
Levine: Y Combinator provided $17,000 in summer batch funding for Chartio
“Back then, YC gave us 17,000 dollars for the summer, and I had no savings, so I was broke.”
Daniel Levine Nov 12, 2020 ▶ 3:56 20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Solo Capitalists and Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed & Market, People and Product; What To Prioritise?

The other half of the tape: Daniel Levine's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 1

Every mention by year

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2025 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Accel's Dan Levine on The Current State of Seed & Series A, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Nov 12, 2020 30m
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