Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Brown: Theoretical investment theses fail when investors ignore execution risk

Ophelia Brown · Ophelia Brown: How We Raised $432M in a Pandemic; What's New in European Venture Capital | E990 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Mar 17, 2023 · at 21:09

Ophelia Brown is the founder and GP of Blossom Capital. She discusses common analytical traps investors face when evaluating early-stage companies.

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“I think investors can get fooled into thinking something is a great investment thesis, and ignore the practicalities of the execution and execution risk, et cetera. So I think a lot about that, like, you can build a beautiful investment thesis around why a piece of software might work, but if the team isn't right, or the geography isn't right, or there's something wrong with the market, then you'll still be wrong.”

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More from Ophelia Brown

Assertion Not checkable as stated
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“The French, what's the French equivalent of EIF? BPI. BPI. They asked me where my older male partner was.”
Ophelia Brown Mar 17, 2023 ▶ 48:03 Ophelia Brown: How We Raised $432M in a Pandemic; What's New in European Venture Capital | E990 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Brown: Reserving capital for follow-on rounds damages overall venture fund returns
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Ophelia Brown Mar 17, 2023 ▶ 11:04 Ophelia Brown: How We Raised $432M in a Pandemic; What's New in European Venture Capital | E990 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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Brown: Startups unable to raise 36 months post-Series A lack viability
“And when we fund them at Series A, we say, you know, here's enough capital for 24, 36 months post our investment. And let's be honest, if you can't raise capital after that point, you probably aren't building a viable business.”
Ophelia Brown Mar 17, 2023 ▶ 13:08 Ophelia Brown: How We Raised $432M in a Pandemic; What's New in European Venture Capital | E990 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Blossom Capital eliminated investment committees from its decision-making process
“That's why we did away with the IC at Blossom.”
Ophelia Brown Mar 17, 2023 ▶ 16:08 Ophelia Brown: How We Raised $432M in a Pandemic; What's New in European Venture Capital | E990 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Didn’t hold up
Blossom Capital will stick exclusively to Series A investments
“We're just going to stay to our swim lane and just do Series A.”
Ophelia Brown Mar 17, 2023 ▶ 25:04 Ophelia Brown: How We Raised $432M in a Pandemic; What's New in European Venture Capital | E990 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Blossom Capital shuns Series A board seats and caps annual deals
“Not at the A stage. So, our model, because we only make five investments a year, coming back to the concentrated approach, we have three partners, and we say, all of us support you at that stage.”
Ophelia Brown Mar 17, 2023 ▶ 26:58 Ophelia Brown: How We Raised $432M in a Pandemic; What's New in European Venture Capital | E990 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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