Jeff Richards

Managing Partner, Notable Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

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investorfounderexecutive@jrichlive ↗LinkedIn ↗notablecap.com ↗

Richards joined GGV Capital in 2008, which transitioned to Notable Capital in 2024, focusing on enterprise SaaS, AI applications, and fintech investments. He has backed and served on boards for companies including BigCommerce, Brightwheel, Buddy Media, Gladly, and Tile.

16statements → 6claims → 4claims resolved → 50%fully supported → 3.94/5average certainty → 1.75/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 23said about them ↓

2 supported 2 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 1 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 assertions · 1 opinion · 4 insights · 4 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 1 names 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 Jeff 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

The 2014-2015 VC boom generated 40x and 20x revenue valuation multiples

“And in particular today, I think we've got a little bit of a hangover from the funding cycle of 2014, 2015, where there was a huge boom in venture capital funding, and a lot of companies raised money at very high valuations. And, you know, these are ten millio…”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 20:29 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1

none yet certainty 2

50% certainty 3

75% certainty 4

75% 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? →

255 words/min while actually speaking · 3.5 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Jeff Richards: 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 24 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 6,350 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Jeff Richards 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 ▾ 3/10

pushed back at the host 1/10

setup questions received 35%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 22:07“How do you assess your own price sensitivity today, Jeff?” ▶ 17:10“In terms of finding that perfect C-suite exec and building out that leadership team at the beginning, would you agree with Jason's assessment there, and the challenges of really ge…” ▶ 7:17“I'd love to hear how it affected your mindset, having seen that firsthand, and maybe how it's changed how you think today investing.”

What they said16 What others said23 Episodes1

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

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Most startups that raised at peak 2014-2015 valuations missed growth targets

“But, you know, two or three years later, some of those companies, and by the way, probably the majority of those Didn't hit their plans that they had given to those investors, and then they're coming back out to the market to try and raise money, and they're s…”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 20:48 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

What-if

A VP of People should be among a startup's first 10 hires

“If I were starting a company tomorrow, a VP of people would be one of my first five or 10 hires because I could delegate so much of, or not delegate, but I could rely on somebody who is senior in that role and to help me put the right infrastructure in place, …”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 15:48 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Assertion Supported

The 2014-2015 VC boom generated 40x and 20x revenue valuation multiples

Opinion

New Relic's Lou Cirne prioritized trusted partners over maximizing round valuation

“Lucerne, a new relic is a great example. You know, a multi-billion dollar public software company today But if you ask Lou, he took money from people that he knew and trusted in Peter Fenton and Dan Skolnick, and he did evaluations that worked for him, but als…”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 21:42 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Insight

Founders must shift to executive manager roles at 50 to 70 employees

“What I've seen is it usually happens around 50 employees. When a company gets to about 50 employees, maybe 60 or 70, where the founder has to start transitioning into more of a professional manager type role.”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 10:26 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Insight

Hiring senior executives is the biggest struggle for first-time founders

“I think being aggressive and hiring senior executives is probably the single biggest area where I see first-time founders struggle, and I would also add to that that it's the area where we see repeat founders really excel.”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 14:36 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Insight

Advice to avoid chasing peak valuations is rarely followed in Silicon Valley

“I would say this is one of the most frequently offered pieces of advice in Silicon Valley that is the least Frequently followed.”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 19:48 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Assertion Supported

GGV Capital invested in Alibaba in 2003 at a $200M valuation

“GGB was an early investor in Alibaba Group, and back in 2003, the two hundred million dollar valuation.”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 22:25 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Disclosure

GGV turned an $8M Series B into a $75M total investment

“One of our largest investments today is a seventy-five million dollar investment. We started out with an eight million dollar investment of a hundred free in the series B. Today, that company is worth over eight and a half billion dollars, and so we've continu…”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 26:05 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Insight

Top VCs like Bill Gurley take more risk later in their careers

“Experienced venture capitalists and some of the most well-known venture capitalists, Bill Gurley, Doug Leone, Jim Getz, the further along they've got in their career, the more risk they take.”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 30:02 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Disclosure

GGV Capital tracks internal investment performance attribution every 90 days

“In our firm, we do a fairly high degree of attribution, and we track performance in a very, very detailed way. We literally go through it every 90 days, and I think at a much more detailed level than most firms.”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 32:31 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Disclosure

GGV offered to lead Electric.ai's Series A but lost to Bessemer

“We actually met Ryan in the Series A. We offered lead the Series A, and he Politely chose Bessemer Venture Partners.”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 33:42 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Assertion Not publicly verifiable

Quantum Shift lost half its $30M revenue in the 2000 crash

“We had grown to about a thirty million dollar revenue business, it was a recurring revenue business, In 2000, we lost about half of that revenue when the market cratered because 85% of our customers were tech companies”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 7:39 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Assertion Partly supported

Qualtrics raised no venture capital for its first 12 years

“Qualtrics, which SAP just acquired for eight billion dollars. They didn't raise their first venture capital until 12 years into the company. I believe it was 18 years old when it was acquired”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 9:01 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Disclosure

Roughly 80% to 90% of GGV-backed founders are first-timers

“About 80, probably 80% of the folks that we back are first-time founders. It may even be 90%.”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 9:50 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

Assertion Partly supported

Salesforce acquired Buddy Media for $800M at $20M to $25M in sales

“Which Salesforce acquired several years ago for eight hundred million dollars, and when we were scaling the company, we got to about 20 or twenty-five million in sales”

Jeff Richards Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 18:22 20VC: The Transition From Founder To CEO, How To Determine When To Stretch On Price in Venture & The Benefits of Attribution for Partnership Dynamics with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner @ GGV Capital

The other half of the tape: Jeff Richards's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 23 times in 10 episodes on 20VC. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 12 Mike Lazerow 5 Ryan Denehy 2 Ilir Sela 2 Hans Tung 2