Alex Rampell is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He cites Mercury to illustrate how startups grow by serving new business creations rather than poaching existing customers from incumbents.
“Like, I was the first investor in Mercury the, you know, SMB bank, and like, until SVB failed, I don't think they never stole a customer from SVB.”
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More from Alex Rampell
PredictionOpen · timeframe Jan 2031
Rampell: Only 5% of current unicorns will ever go public
“So probably of the unicorn class, I would bet that maybe five percent will ever be able to go public.”
Alex RampellJan 12, 2026▶ 30:17Alex Rampell: The Best Founders Materialise Capital, Customers & Labour | The Future of Venture · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Rampell: Massive founder secondaries disconnect founders from employees and investors
“I will say on the record, I hate massive secondaries, because it kind of turns you from the count of Monte Cristo to, like, the, you know, whatever the opposite of that would be, like, the I, I'm now gonna go vacation in you know, Cote d'Azur or something. Lik…”
Alex RampellJan 12, 2026▶ 30:27Alex Rampell: The Best Founders Materialise Capital, Customers & Labour | The Future of Venture · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Rampell: AI could drive Zendesk's seat-based revenue down to zero
“On the other side, you have things like Zendesk, right? Where it's like, how many licenses per seat do you need of Zendesk? If now every customer support ticket can be answered automatically, you need zero license. Like their revenue could go down a hundred pe…”
Alex RampellJan 12, 2026▶ 1:04:55Alex Rampell: The Best Founders Materialise Capital, Customers & Labour | The Future of Venture · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Rampell: The best software companies have hostages, not customers
“The best companies have hostages, not customers.”
Alex RampellJan 12, 2026▶ 22:03Alex Rampell: The Best Founders Materialise Capital, Customers & Labour | The Future of Venture · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Alex Rampell: Asset classes require being a large generalist or small specialist
“My view is most asset classes, you either have to be a large generalist or a small specialist.”
Alex RampellJan 12, 2026▶ 6:07Alex Rampell: The Best Founders Materialise Capital, Customers & Labour | The Future of Venture · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Rampell: Wanting $50M Is Insufficient Motivation for Large VC Funds
“The motivation has to be beyond just, like, I want to make fifty million dollars, because if that's the motivation, that's great motivation. You know, I'm a capitalist. Like, we live in a capitalist society. If that's the only motivation, like, it's not going …”
Alex RampellJan 12, 2026▶ 19:50Alex Rampell: The Best Founders Materialise Capital, Customers & Labour | The Future of Venture · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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