Rick Zullo is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Equal Ventures. He criticizes the tech ecosystem's reliance on pitching, arguing it focuses on superficial presentation over deep operational understanding.
“I haven't taken a pitch in eight years because I think pitching is bullshit because I think it's all about sales, salesmanship and rather than actually like me understanding your understanding of a company.”
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More from Rick Zullo
Opinion
Zullo: VC board governance degraded into 'patty cake' over founder NPS scores
“We really moved away from that over the course of the last five, 10 years, because, like, just like you were talking about, like, there's a lot of incentive to sell sell a founder, a lot of incentive to be all about the NPS score, and everyone's trying to, you…”
Rick ZulloAug 23, 2023▶ 13:12Jason Lemkin & Rick Zullo: How "Mark to Market" Corrupted Venture Capital | E1052 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Zullo: Secondary offers will reduce peer fund returns from 7x to 1x
“I've definitely heard some secondary offers on some big, big companies that I know that are going to turn Some of our peers from seven X funds to one X funds.”
Rick ZulloAug 23, 2023▶ 28:41Jason Lemkin & Rick Zullo: How "Mark to Market" Corrupted Venture Capital | E1052 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Rick Zullo: Asset management is a better business than traditional venture
“The asset management business is a better business than the venture business. You know, fees are guaranteed. Carry isn't.”
Rick ZulloAug 23, 2023▶ 1:46Jason Lemkin & Rick Zullo: How "Mark to Market" Corrupted Venture Capital | E1052 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Zullo: Downturn will force founders to listen to boards or be fired
“And I think as you go and see a bunch of bridge rounds, down rounds, and all this other stuff that's going to happen in the next couple years, like, The reality is founders are going to have to listen a lot more to their board and because of the board doesn't …”
Rick ZulloAug 23, 2023▶ 18:51Jason Lemkin & Rick Zullo: How "Mark to Market" Corrupted Venture Capital | E1052 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
PredictionDidn’t hold up
Zullo: Venture market will see more startup busts than bridge rounds
“I think there's gonna be more busts than down rounds and bridges.”
Rick ZulloAug 23, 2023▶ 20:16Jason Lemkin & Rick Zullo: How "Mark to Market" Corrupted Venture Capital | E1052 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Zullo: Mega funds have no financial incentive to salvage struggling startups
“The salvage value and loss management really doesn't matter at those funds.”
Rick ZulloAug 23, 2023▶ 20:50Jason Lemkin & Rick Zullo: How "Mark to Market" Corrupted Venture Capital | E1052 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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