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Nicole Quinn

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Connect Ventures · 2 appearances on the record.

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

investorfounderanalystathlete@nik_quinn ↗connectventures.com ↗

Nicole Quinn is an early-stage venture investor who spent nearly a decade leading consumer technology and fintech investments at Lightspeed Venture Partners before co-founding Connect Ventures with CAA. She has led investments and served on boards for companies including Calm, Cameo, Lunchclub, and Haus Labs.

26statements → 14claims → 7claims resolved → 43%fully supported → 4.04/5average certainty → 2.35/5average debate potential → 4.3/5argument clarity · the sources → 31said about them ↓

3 supported 2 partly supported 2 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 6 not checkable as stated how the 14 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

5 predictions · 9 assertions · 4 opinions · 4 insights · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 14 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 7 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 6 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 Nicole 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
Quinn: Klarna chose a 90% down round over heavy deal structure
“I think Klan is a good example in Europe, right? And they do a 90% down round rather than taking like a lot of structure because that structure then sticks with you for multiple rounds.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 30:40 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Nicole Quinn: DTC cosmetics brands achieve 95% gross margins rivaling SaaS
“And I am regularly meeting these digitally native vertical brands which have SaaS type margins. You look at cosmetics, for example, and a lot of these cosmetics brands have 95% margins, and so they are just as attractive, if not more attractive, than the margi…”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 9:44 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.3 / 5 directness 4.5 · coherence 4.5 · precision 4.3 · compression 3.7

answered every one of 28 assessed questions directly

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

225 words/min while actually speaking · 11.4 um and uh per 1k words · 0.4 false starts per 1k · 24.8% of pauses land inside a clause

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 6,045 words across 2 episodes of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 2 rated episodes:

host pushback ▾ 5/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 3.5/10
setup questions received 31%

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

Opinion
Nicole Quinn: TAM is unimportant because great consumer companies create markets
“So this is contrarian, but I actually don't think that TAM is very important. The greatest consumer companies of our time have been created in very small markets.”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 8:23 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Quinn: OpenAI's app store will become a major new search channel
“If OpenAI really do the, like, app store of AI, then that's gonna be, like, a new search.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 0:04 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Quinn: Startups should accept significant down rounds over structured deal terms
“I would much rather take a significant down round than having structure on that. And so that's what I'm really encouraging our portfolio companies to do.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 30:30 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Quinn: Startups die more often from indigestion than starvation
“Companies die from indigestion rather than starvation.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 34:04 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Nov 2028
Quinn: Venture investors will return to syndicate co-investing across rounds
“I think we spent far too many years with the multi-stage funds and then suddenly realizing, wow, now I'm the only one on the cap table. There's no one else to turn to. There's no one else around to like help support this company with me. And so I think we're g…”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 40:18 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Nicole Quinn: Brand is a key network effect that outweighs TAM
“I certainly believe that brand is a key network effect. And yes, user economics, TAM are important, but at the end of the day, your margins and the size of the market, not quite as important if no one's buying your product.”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 7:09 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
Assertion Contradicted
Nicole Quinn: DTC cosmetics brands achieve 95% gross margins rivaling SaaS
“And I am regularly meeting these digitally native vertical brands which have SaaS type margins. You look at cosmetics, for example, and a lot of these cosmetics brands have 95% margins, and so they are just as attractive, if not more attractive, than the margi…”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 9:44 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
Opinion
Nicole Quinn: Amazon is not your friend and clones successful products
“My view is always that Amazon is not your friend. They are maybe increasing the size of the overall pie. They are making companies' lives very, very difficult, and anything that's working, they see, and they decide to go after.”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 13:35 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
Opinion
Quinn: Higher valuations for AI startups are worth paying
“The valuations are gonna be slightly higher, but honestly, that's worth paying for.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 0:10 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Partly supported
Quinn: Seed stage startup valuations have not dropped in over ten years
“Like the valuations in Seed have not dropped. And we've looked at this data really over like 10 plus years.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 7:55 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Quinn: Klarna chose a 90% down round over heavy deal structure
“I think Klan is a good example in Europe, right? And they do a 90% down round rather than taking like a lot of structure because that structure then sticks with you for multiple rounds.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 30:40 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Nicole Quinn: Allbirds physical retail stores reach profitability in months
“Clearly all birds have just raised around to focus on retail expansion, and you can see that these retail stores are profitable in a matter of months. Often they're cost-neutral marketing channels.”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 10:21 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Nicole Quinn: The next major computing platform will be voice-first
“My belief is actually that the next platform will be voice first,”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 11:37 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
Assertion Partly supported
Nicole Quinn: Estee Lauder and L'Oreal acquire startups at 7x forward revenue
“If you look at the beauty brands, Estee Lauder and L'Oreal are acquiring these companies on seven times forward year revenue multiples.”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 15:06 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
Assertion Contradicted
Nicole Quinn: Estee Lauder projects 95% of future growth from acquisitions
“Estee Lauder will publicly say, we think that 95% of our growth for the next 10 years is going to come through acquisitions.”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 15:52 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Nicole Quinn: Lightspeed requires a 33% DAU/MAU ratio for social apps
“So we like to think about DAU divided by MAU. If you're A social media app , then we want it to be over a third. If it can be over 50%, then it really is a daily use case, and that's exactly what we saw from Snapchat back in the day, but we definitely need for…”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 23:26 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
Assertion Supported
Quinn: Lightspeed's fund sizes grew from $700M to $7B in ten years
“When I started a decade ago, we were raising seven hundred million dollar funds. They're now seven billion dollar funds.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 1:52 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Quinn: Facebook paying 10% of its market cap for WhatsApp was justified
“Was it worth 10% of Facebook's market cap to buy WhatsApp? Absolutely.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 20:16 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Quinn: Lightspeed has deployed over $1B across 54 AI startups
“We've invested at lightspeed in 54 companies in AI. We've spent, we've invested over a billion dollars in AI, but big, but that was not all this year. That is not all generative AI, right? That's been over the few years, over the last few years”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 21:22 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Quinn: AI tools will save users two to three hours per day
“I would say AI is akin to winning the lottery. And what I mean by that is it is the lottery of time. So in your, like, say, 10 hour working day, you spend maybe an hour writing a newsletter. Well, that could get compressed down to 10 minutes, right? You have B…”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 24:23 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Quinn: Startups growing 2x to 5x year-over-year will continue getting funded
“There is a crunch in terms of valuation. Definitely that is coming down, but I do still believe the best teams and the ones that are growing, you know, two, three, four, five X year on year, they will continue to get funded.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 27:24 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Quinn: The IPO market is looking miserable
“The IPO market is looking miserable. That window is not exactly wide open to say the least.”
Nicole Quinn Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 37:21 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Nicole Quinn: Lightspeed avoids e-commerce startups with 30% gross margins
“So if we're bringing a 30% gross margin e-commerce company to the table, then that to us is not going to quite hit the bill or cut the mustard.”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 9:28 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend
Disclosure
Nicole Quinn: Lightspeed requires $1B+ acquisitions to return its $1.2B fund
“We definitely need billion dollar plus acquisition to move the needle for our funders at 1.2 billion dollars.”
Nicole Quinn Oct 25, 2017 ▶ 16:49 20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Been This Exciting For A Long Time & Why Amazon Is Never Your Friend

Show 2statements(2 left)

The other half of the tape: Nicole Quinn's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 30 times in 10 episodes on 20VC. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 22Jeremy Liew 3Steven Galanis 1Semil Shah 1Mike Mignano 1Jana Messerschmidt 1Barry Eggers 1

Statements about Nicole Quinn, by other people (1)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Jeremy Liew averages two board meetings and seven portfolio calls weekly
“And so on average, I have two board meetings per week. And then seven, I just did a analysis of my calendar for a couple of months as did Alex Taussig and Nicole Quinn. And so, so this, these numbers are sort of top of mind, but two, two board meetings per wee…”
Jeremy Liew Apr 22, 2019 ▶ 28:08 20VC: Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew on Why It Is More Important To Be Right Than Contrarian, The Most Common Mistakes Made By Hyper-Growth Companies & 3 Characteristics That Make An Individual Incredible At Sourcing

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
008215420182019202020212022episodesmentions
02420182019202020212022episodes it came up in
00224420182019202020212022episodesmentions per episode
2022 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2020 5 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode
2019 15 mentions in 4 episodes 4 per episode
2018 8 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC Nov 17, 2023 11m
20VC: Lightspeed's Nicole Quinn on Why We Are Not In A Consumer Downturn, Why M&A Has Not Oct 25, 2017 17m
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