Drew Taggart

Co-Founder & General Partner, Mantis VC · 1 appearance on the record.

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

entertainerinvestorfounder@drewtaggart ↗mantisvc.com ↗

Drew Taggart is a Grammy Award-winning producer and vocalist in the DJ duo The Chainsmokers, known for massive global hits such as "Closer" and "Don't Let Me Down". In technology, he co-founded the early-stage venture capital firm Mantis VC alongside bandmate Alex Pall, backing companies such as MoonPay, FitOn, and LoanSnap.

6statements → 3claims → 1claims resolved → 3.67/5average certainty → 1.67/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated → 1said about them ↓

0 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 1 assertion · 1 opinion · 1 insight · 1 disclosure · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 1 is resolved, and 2 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 Drew 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? →

299 words/min while actually speaking · 0.9 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Drew Taggart: 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 13 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.0/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 2,215 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Drew Taggart 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 ▾ 2/10

pushed back at the host ▾ 1/10

setup questions received 85%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 7:29“How do you feel, especially, you know, you said you wrote the first check there into Ember as your first tech check. Like, how do you feel about making the transition? Are you nerv…” ▶ 13:04“Can I ask on that element, how are you finding allocations? Because I'm finding personally just allocations are getting squeezed and squeezed and squeezed, and I'm always happy to …” ▶ 23:57“What vulnerability do you have? It could be public already, I'm not asking for any spoiler alerts, but like, which is a vulnerability for you and relates a little bit to the mental…”

when Drew pushed back ▶ 18:44“That was really nice. I should have gone with something better than World's Best Hassler.” ▶ 25:41“I guess A, and I guess that's a scary one to choose now that I'm thinking about it, because there's a lot, if I said I knew where it would be, I would be blind.”

What they said6 What others said1 Episodes1

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

Opinion

Drew Taggart: Mantis VC is bearish on investing in music tech startups

“We actually are pretty bearish on investing in music tech companies, which I feel like we see probably most of them that are out there as of our profile, but we haven't made an investment in the music space yet.”

Drew Taggart Sep 21, 2020 ▶ 9:52 20VC: The Chainsmokers on Raising Their First $35M Fund and Entering The World of Venture, Dealing with Vulnerability and Insecurity Today & How Music and Venture Compare; The Similarities and Differences

Disclosure

Drew Taggart: Making Mantis VC succeed is live-or-die for The Chainsmokers

“This is a new space and there's a lot riding on this and it's very live or die for us to make this work.”

Drew Taggart Sep 21, 2020 ▶ 8:39 20VC: The Chainsmokers on Raising Their First $35M Fund and Entering The World of Venture, Dealing with Vulnerability and Insecurity Today & How Music and Venture Compare; The Similarities and Differences

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Drew Taggart: Alex Pall relentlessly hassles founders until they explicitly reject him

“Alex's superpower, too, is he's the world's greatest haggler, and he'll just hassle people. Like, if you say you're like, yeah, we're interested in having you in this round, you're not gonna not hear from Alex once or twice a day until you, like, officially pa…”

Drew Taggart Sep 21, 2020 ▶ 17:19 20VC: The Chainsmokers on Raising Their First $35M Fund and Entering The World of Venture, Dealing with Vulnerability and Insecurity Today & How Music and Venture Compare; The Similarities and Differences

Prediction Partly held up

Drew Taggart: Mantis VC will not lead investment rounds

“Due to the size of our fund and the check size that we write, we're not leading rounds. Typically, we're not taking up the lion's share of a lot of these rounds.”

Drew Taggart Sep 21, 2020 ▶ 13:33 20VC: The Chainsmokers on Raising Their First $35M Fund and Entering The World of Venture, Dealing with Vulnerability and Insecurity Today & How Music and Venture Compare; The Similarities and Differences

Insight

Taggart: Resume achievements do not protect against depression and anxiety

“The thing about depression and anxiety is it doesn't matter what is on your resume. It's about how you feel about yourself”

Drew Taggart Sep 21, 2020 ▶ 24:07 20VC: The Chainsmokers on Raising Their First $35M Fund and Entering The World of Venture, Dealing with Vulnerability and Insecurity Today & How Music and Venture Compare; The Similarities and Differences

Prediction Not checkable as stated

Taggart: Mantis VC will narrow its thesis around synergistic investments

“Just narrowing our thesis to the point where like the investments we make, the businesses that we have access to, We'll have great synergy with all of the other things that we do and who we are as people.”

Drew Taggart Sep 21, 2020 ▶ 25:48 20VC: The Chainsmokers on Raising Their First $35M Fund and Entering The World of Venture, Dealing with Vulnerability and Insecurity Today & How Music and Venture Compare; The Similarities and Differences

The other half of the tape: Drew Taggart'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

mentionsepisodesper episode tap a year for its mentions

2022 1 mention in 1 episode

Tony Fadell: Product Marketing Lessons I Learned from Steve Jobs | 20VC #884 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings Jun 6, 2022 · 1 mention · from 1:00:41
every mention in 2022, scene by scene →

Appearances (1)

Episode	Date	Speaking time
20VC: The Chainsmokers on Raising Their First $35M Fund and Entering The World of Venture,	Sep 21, 2020	7m