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Paul Hsiao

Founding Partner, Canvas Ventures · 1 appearance on the record.

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

Paul Hsiao is a Founding Partner at Canvas Ventures, where he has backed companies like Roofstock, Thrive Global, and Zola. Previously, he was a partner at NEA and led an early investment in Houzz.

14statements → 3claims → 2claims resolved → 3.79/5average certainty → 2.86/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 1said about them ↓

1 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 assertions · 3 opinions · 8 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed. 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 Paul 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
Over $600B in LP capital is trapped inside private tech companies
“Yeah, I think for the LPs, for the minimum partners who have trusted their capital with us, there is what, More than six hundred billion dollars currently trapped inside these large private enterprises. And I think it is our fiduciary responsibility and of the…”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 18:15 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
50% certainty 4
none yet 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? →

218 words/min while actually speaking · 3.1 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Paul Hsiao: 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 8 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 2,570 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Paul Hsiao 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 0/10
setup questions received 75%

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

Insight
Raising $100M+ is critical for new tech company success
“I would say going back to the study and also seeing my own data points, The capital efficiency, well, actually, simply, it is important to win the capital arms race. That raising a hundred million dollars is critical to the success of new companies.”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 20:07 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Insight
NEA requires $800M+ exits to move the needle, unlike smaller funds
“I think one realization coming since joining Canvas a few years ago is a small exit, like, easily moves the needle for a fund like Canvas, whereas we used to joke when you don't have an exit more than eight hundred million, you know, it doesn't move the needle…”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 5:48 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Opinion
Female founders consistently under-promise and over-deliver compared to male peers
“One thing that's unique about this cohort of entrepreneurs is that they tend to under-promise and over-deliver, and it's really just more consistent amongst the female entrepreneurs and CEOs.”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 14:07 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Opinion
Venture investors bias female founders' pitch confidence as aggressiveness
“When a female entrepreneur presents, the confidence is viewed as negative. It's been too aggressive.”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 14:41 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Assertion Partly supported
90% of the top 500 tech companies raised $85M+ in capital
“90% of the entire cohort raised more than 85 to a hundred million dollars. I mean, there are always exceptions like Stitch Fix, Zoopla in UK, and Tableau in Seattle, but really the vast majority of them have raised a lot of capital, especially in more recent t…”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 17:55 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Assertion Supported
Over $600B in LP capital is trapped inside private tech companies
“Yeah, I think for the LPs, for the minimum partners who have trusted their capital with us, there is what, More than six hundred billion dollars currently trapped inside these large private enterprises. And I think it is our fiduciary responsibility and of the…”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 18:15 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Insight
Founders should pick individual VC partners over firm brands
“Vice says CEO is that ultimately an entrepreneur's relationship with VCs is with one individual of the firm. You rarely see other partners, so picking the right GP for you is the most important and not the firm, and I've seen that to be very true.”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 6:59 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Insight
Marketplaces should target power sellers over long-tail supply
“One is winning a very differentiated supply first. Always go deep and have a thick network in one specific cluster versus broad and horizontal. And we're just finding that equivalent of power sellers in your target market is really critical. They have volume, …”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 8:14 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Insight
Direct online demand marketing wastes capital for early marketplaces
“When generating early demand, one of the more counterintuitive learnings Is that early marketplace demands are dependent on an existing distribution and offline activities. Like for house, for example, you mentioned early health on Tulia was invaluable. And I …”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 8:35 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Insight
Marketplace founders should give up if supply isn't differentiated
“I think when you know you should give up is when your supply is not differentiated. When the users can actually find your supply at a lot of different places, you have to question whether what you do is truly making your supply size business better. Is it tran…”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 10:53 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
80% of top tech founders started companies in their 20s or 30s
“One commonalities, the most striking one is they are mostly started by young people. You know, we all know some of the extreme examples of Gates, Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs, who started their companies in their teens and early twenties, but I was surprised by …”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 16:39 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Opinion
Consumer tech is in a fallow period lacking viral distribution channels
“I think so, yes, but I can change quickly. You know, I think about Alexa or Google Home, those could all, you know, emerge or become an important new distribution channel. We don't know yet. Too early to tell. But yes, we are in a period where we lack new and …”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 20:27 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Insight
Marketplace growth occurs in step functions driven by supply critical mass
“The other is, third is actually it takes patience. It takes the growth curve, looks more like step function versus a linear curve. You get frustrated that demand looks flat for a period of time, and we see this often. And then suddenly the demand jumps. You ge…”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 9:48 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures
Insight
Monthly repeat cohort data dictates when to scale marketplace capital
“At that level, when deciding whether you put a lot of capital to work, we look at the monthly repeat cohort data. It really tells you a lot how often they come back, and all the things we just talked about play into and contribute to that cohort data, and that…”
Paul Hsiao Apr 9, 2018 ▶ 12:09 20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures

The other half of the tape: Paul Hsiao'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 Rebecca Lynn 1

Every mention by year

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2016 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Star Apr 9, 2018 13m
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