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David Lawee

Co-Founder, Crucible Labs · 1 appearance on the record.

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

investorfounderexecutiveoperatorLinkedIn ↗cruciblelabs.com ↗

David Lawee spent 18 years at Google and Alphabet, serving as VP of Marketing, leading acquisitions as VP of Corporate Development, and founding CapitalG. He directed investments into companies including Lyft, Airbnb, Stripe, and Robinhood before co-founding Crucible Labs.

15statements → 3claims → 0claims resolved → 3.93/5average certainty → 2.47/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 10said about them ↓

3 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 2 assertions · 3 opinions · 6 insights · 3 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 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 David argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: speaking style how? →

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

No argument clarity score for David Lawee: 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 22 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 3,230 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of David Lawee 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 ▾ 1/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 2/10
setup questions received 80%

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

Insight
Lawee: Venture diversification yields diminishing returns beyond six investments
“I think people overvalue perceived diversification. I think you get a diminishing return in our business once you get past five or six investments.”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 15:32 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Opinion
Lawee: Venture capital is overly clubby and white male-oriented
“It's incredibly clubby. And white male oriented. And I don't think that's helping the entrepreneurial world. It's kind of not helping the venture world decision making. So that's the biggest thing. It's also the hardest thing, but it's kind of the biggest thin…”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 21:00 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Disclosure
CapitalG operates as an investment club where partners make individual decisions
“At the core of it is kind of the decision process, and for us, which is extremely unusual for a growth equity fund, we make the investments individually. The group can and does hopefully help inform that, but it's more of an investment club than kind of an inv…”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 8:29 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Investment clubs generate better returns than traditional venture partnerships
“And I was born from kind of looking at a whole bunch of different investment firms and comparing their returns to that of clubs and coming to the conclusion that clubs were actually doing better.”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 8:46 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Insight
Lawee: Experience with market cycles causes risk aversion disadvantage in bull markets
“I do feel that there's a little bit of a disadvantage in protracted bull markets of having lived through these cycles, because your experience has taught you to be more risk-averse, and as you're kind of living through a bull market, that's kind of a negative.”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 5:54 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Lawee: Conservative venture investing will ultimately prove correct despite missed gains
“Ultimately, being a little more conservative is going to prove out, but it's not after kind of years of money-making.”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 6:08 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Opinion
Lawee: Public market swings irrationally distort Series B and C valuations
“People are very impacted by short-term gyrations in the public markets. So we have kind of frothy public markets or fully valued public markets right now, and that affects B rounds, C rounds. Kind of makes no sense.”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 7:49 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Insight
CapitalG Underwrites Deals to 3X Base Market Growth and 10X Upside
“We'll make three X with a reasonable expectation of market growth. If things go as we hope, then this could be a 10 X. And that's independent of multiple. We're just talking about market expansion.”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 14:20 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Insight
David Lawee: Minority board members should be mirrors, not directive
“I find it's not very effective to tell people what to do as a minority investor. I'd say it's a lot better to try and get them to see you as a mirror and be an honest reflection of what they're saying and help them think about whether they're focused on the ri…”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 18:49 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Insight
Winning growth rounds requires pre-built theses and pre-set target valuations
“The rounds in growth are extremely competitive, just like any segment. And the way to compete is by being in the ready position, like already having your thesis, already kind of knowing what price you would invest, already kind of being able to activate dilige…”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 12:10 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Insight
Paying Premium Growth Valuations Requires Believing in Superior Market Compounding
“When you're investing in growth rounds, In order to pay the top price, you need to believe that things are going to compound more than other people. Like, the growth is going to compound. The size of the market expansion is going to compound. And so, you need …”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 13:46 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Assertion Not checkable as stated
David Lawee: CapitalG Targets 25-30% IRR With Low Loss Ratios
“I think our funds are still going to perform in the same IRR neighborhood as venture funds, but the distribution, so we're a three X IRR could be 30% depending on how long it takes you to get the three X. So the IRR for the fund is going to be the same, but th…”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 14:52 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Disclosure
Larry Page convinced David Lawee to launch CapitalG internally at Alphabet
“At that point, I was in the mindset of leaving Google, and I talked to Larry Page, and the idea was, for me, in that conversation, was to see if he wanted to invest his own capital in my firm, and he said, why don't you do this within Alphabet? And I thought a…”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 4:04 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Opinion
Lawee: Ben Horowitz's granular operational knowledge makes a real difference for CEOs
“I was always struck with how much detail he has around the functionings of a business. Like he could explain in detail how the planning group of The finance team versus the accounting group thinks, and the challenges of having someone who's doing one role doin…”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 21:17 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves
Disclosure
Lawee Planned CapitalG Succession from Day One Under Alphabet Mandate
“People were asking me, who's my successor from the beginning? So I didn't feel that it's something I kind of need to think of all of a sudden. I've always been thinking about that.”
David Lawee Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 17:29 20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Investment Clubs Are More Successful Than Investment Partnerships & How Growth Funds Think About Portfolio Construction, Loss Ratio & Reserves

The other half of the tape: David Lawee's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 10 times in 3 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 6Laela Sturdy 4

Every mention by year

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: CapitalG Founder David Lawee on Why People Overvalue Diversification in Venture, Why Oct 8, 2020 14m
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