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Jerry Neumann

Managing Director, Neu Venture Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

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

investoracademicauthorfounder@ganeumann ↗neuvc.com ↗

Jerry Neumann is a seed investor who backed companies including Datadog, The Trade Desk, and Flurry, and publishes venture essays on Reaction Wheel. He teaches entrepreneurship at Columbia University and co-authored the book Founder vs. Investor.

18statements → 5claims → 3claims resolved → 33%fully supported → 4/5average certainty → 2.39/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

1 supported 2 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 5 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

5 assertions · 4 opinions · 4 insights · 5 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are 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 Jerry 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
Neumann: $500K pre-seed startups almost certainly need $1M+ before Series A
“So if you raise a pre-seed round of 500 K, you're almost certainly going to need At least another million to get to the series A.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 21:49 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann

How they sound: speaking style how? →

283 words/min while actually speaking · 2.7 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Jerry Neumann: 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 17 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 4,822 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Jerry Neumann 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 ▾ 3/10
setup questions received 75%

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

Opinion
Neumann: Startup founders should establish a board of directors from day one
“I think they should have a board from day one, and I know that's not a popular opinion, especially with founders”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 8:25 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Neumann: Startups almost always perform worse after removing their founders
“When you remove the founder from a company, the company almost always does worse.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 10:50 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Neumann: Top seed funds like USV outperform when market prices are low
“If you look at the best performing venture funds in history, at least seed stage, like things like USV, you will find that they started investing in a market where the market price was below the indicated discounted price. When the market is above where the in…”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 17:13 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Opinion
Neumann rejects Jason Lemkin's view that VC is just packaging startups
“I don't look at it that way. If you say it that way, it makes it sound like you're trying to gild the lily, right? You're trying to sell them something that's not actually true. I do think that you need to know what the company needs to look like to raise more…”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 19:34 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Opinion
Neumann: Spray-and-pray VC strategies fail without active lead investors
“If you're making a hundred investments where you're the lead or there is no lead and nobody is helping the entrepreneur, then I think that's not going to work.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 6:03 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Insight
Neumann: Early-stage startups without active board members perform significantly worse
“My experience is the companies where there is nobody involved from the beginning on the board helping the entrepreneur tend to do a lot worse than the companies where there is somebody involved.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 6:33 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Insight
Neumann: Seed entry pricing matters despite Silicon Valley binary outcome beliefs
“I don't believe in the binary outcome that Silicon Valley has been sort of talking about for the past 10 years. You know, it doesn't matter what the entry price is because the outcome is either going to be huge or nothing. I think that even if that were true, …”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 15:46 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Disclosure
Neumann: Always secures pro-rata because follow-ons are superior investments
“I always insist on getting pro rata in a company because I think that the second investment is a much better investment than the first investment.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 20:24 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Assertion Partly supported
Neumann: Power law dynamics make larger VC portfolios yield higher returns
“With a power law, the more investments you make, the higher your average.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 5:00 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Insight
Neumann: VCs should limit portfolio size to what they can actively support
“You can only have as many companies as you can actively help.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 6:52 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Opinion
Neumann: Josh Koppelman challenges founders effectively without creating defensiveness
“Because he had been an entrepreneur. He could challenge Founders on their premises from a base of experience, and also because when he did so, he didn't do it in a way that the founder would have a hard time, except he'd never made the founders defensive. He c…”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 12:06 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Disclosure
Neumann allocates twice as much capital to follow-ons as initial checks
“So I have twice as much money in second rounds as first rounds.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 20:57 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Assertion Supported
Neumann: $500K pre-seed startups almost certainly need $1M+ before Series A
“So if you raise a pre-seed round of 500 K, you're almost certainly going to need At least another million to get to the series A.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 21:49 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Disclosure
Neumann always re-invests if a portfolio company secures an outside lead
“So if they have a lead for the second round, I will, I think I have always invested. I don't tell them I always will, but I have always, but that means they have to convince somebody else that the company is worth investing in.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 22:29 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Assertion Partly supported
Neumann: NYC ranks second only to SF Bay Area in major companies
“If you look at the number of big companies, New York is well ahead of any other place except for the San Francisco Bay Area”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 25:55 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Insight
Neumann: Half of early-stage investors enter venture capital by accident
“So I think half of the early stage investors out there did it on purpose, and the rest of us got into it by accident.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 2:47 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Disclosure
Neumann tracks hundreds of enterprise software exits to set seed pricing
“As to determining price, the way that I keep close track of exits in the markets that I'm in, so I have a spreadsheet of hundreds of exits in enterprise software, and I kind of have a feel, having done all that research, for what the sweet spot for an exit is,…”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 16:34 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann
Disclosure
Neumann writes internal investment memos for every deal as a solo investor
“I write myself an investment memo. I kind of feel stupid doing it because nobody else reads it, but I force myself to do it.”
Jerry Neumann Apr 30, 2018 ▶ 18:30 20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investing Is Like The Stock Market & Why Startups Need A Board From Day One with Jerry Neumann

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Why Follow-On Investments Are Always A Better Investment, Why Spray and Pray Investi Apr 30, 2018 18m
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