Michael Skok, Founding Partner at Underscore VC, explains why focusing on a Minimum Viable Segment is necessary prior to market-wide scaling.
0:00 / 0:25exact quote · 25.2s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“MVP is great, but I'll tell you the next big milestone that most people miss is in product market fit. They say, Oh, well, you're going to go prove that that product's being accepted by the market. Yes. But the market's huge if you're going up to something significant. So you can't just say we're going to prove the whole market. You actually need to break it down another step into what I call a minimum viable segment. And you have to pick off your first segment that you can really dominate uniquely well, where customers have the same set of needs.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Michael Skok
Opinion
Michael Skok: Early-stage startup valuation is a stunningly stupid concept
“Well, first of all, valuation is just a stunningly stupid concept. Who on earth can value a person? I can't. And at the stage that we're working at, we're valuing people.”
Michael SkokSep 21, 2016▶ 21:5420VC: Why Valuation Is A Stupid Concept, VC Is Ripe For Disruption & Not All LPs Are Made Equal with Michael Skok, Founding Partner @ Underscore VC
Disclosure
Underscore VC runs diligence and deal flow transparently in the cloud
“In fact, our core members, when they're investing with us, get to watch us and participate in a whole cloud based investing program, because the way in which we do our investments is, you know, we eat our own cooking here. So everything is in the cloud because…”
Michael SkokSep 21, 2016▶ 24:1220VC: Why Valuation Is A Stupid Concept, VC Is Ripe For Disruption & Not All LPs Are Made Equal with Michael Skok, Founding Partner @ Underscore VC
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Skok: Venture capital suffers from poor alignment between founders, VCs, and LPs
“There isn't good alignment, whether people like it or not, between the entrepreneur, their VC, and the VC, and their GPs, and sorry, and their LPs in many instances.”
Michael SkokSep 21, 2016▶ 4:2720VC: Why Valuation Is A Stupid Concept, VC Is Ripe For Disruption & Not All LPs Are Made Equal with Michael Skok, Founding Partner @ Underscore VC
Disclosure
Underscore VC shares carried interest with community advisors
“First of all, we're going to take a chunk of our carry, and we're going to make it accessible to what we call our community, which is the cause.”
Michael SkokSep 21, 2016▶ 7:1620VC: Why Valuation Is A Stupid Concept, VC Is Ripe For Disruption & Not All LPs Are Made Equal with Michael Skok, Founding Partner @ Underscore VC
Disclosure
Underscore VC commits $5M Series A checks alongside initial seed funding
“We'll give you a seed check to get the initial team together, but we'll also do something we've called vector funding, which is right. Very clear basis for them, for the entrepreneur to go from seed all the way through to series a and commit to that series a, …”
Michael SkokSep 21, 2016▶ 15:5320VC: Why Valuation Is A Stupid Concept, VC Is Ripe For Disruption & Not All LPs Are Made Equal with Michael Skok, Founding Partner @ Underscore VC
Insight
Skok: Venture capital is a commodity while founder time is priceless
“Capital is clearly a commodity and entrepreneurs lives clearly aren't.”
Michael SkokSep 21, 2016▶ 3:3020VC: Why Valuation Is A Stupid Concept, VC Is Ripe For Disruption & Not All LPs Are Made Equal with Michael Skok, Founding Partner @ Underscore VC
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 1,200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.