Fritz Lanman, CEO of ClassPass and angel investor, argues that federal QSBS tax exemptions in the US provide a structural advantage for investing in technology startups.
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“Beating taxes can lead to supernormal ROI or IRRs, and so that just feels like an advantage that I can get that makes it hard for me to win in other asset classes.”
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More from Fritz Lanman
Disclosure
Lanman holds his personal wealth entirely in cash and early-stage tech
“So, I'm basically all cash or Hyper speculative early stage technology equities.”
Fritz LanmanJul 20, 2018▶ 5:3520VC: ClassPass CEO Fritz Lanman on Betting His Career Facebook Would Be A $10Bn Company, Lessons From Travis and Uber on Scaling A Global Marketplace & Whether Growth and Capital Efficiency Are Mutually Exclusive
Opinion
Angel investors never solve startup problems or drive company success
“An angel, at least, has never solved, as far as I know, solved the business's problems or been responsible for a startup success. It's always about the operators figuring it out on their own with some guidance and some coaching and feedback”
Fritz LanmanJul 20, 2018▶ 9:3620VC: ClassPass CEO Fritz Lanman on Betting His Career Facebook Would Be A $10Bn Company, Lessons From Travis and Uber on Scaling A Global Marketplace & Whether Growth and Capital Efficiency Are Mutually Exclusive
Opinion
Startups should celebrate venture financings as lagging indicators of performance
“And this industry always says we shouldn't celebrate financings, and I say bullshit to that. The reason is that a financing is a lagging indicator of whatever you've done over the last six, 1218 months, and so it's a reflection that you did something good, tha…”
Fritz LanmanJul 20, 2018▶ 10:2420VC: ClassPass CEO Fritz Lanman on Betting His Career Facebook Would Be A $10Bn Company, Lessons From Travis and Uber on Scaling A Global Marketplace & Whether Growth and Capital Efficiency Are Mutually Exclusive
Disclosure
Steve Ballmer asked Lanman to bet his career on Facebook's $10B valuation
“I remember Steve Ballmer asked me if I'd bet my career on Facebook being worth ten billion, which is what my team and I had kind of come up with, and we didn't have much downside, so we were willing to take the bet”
Fritz LanmanJul 20, 2018▶ 15:3320VC: ClassPass CEO Fritz Lanman on Betting His Career Facebook Would Be A $10Bn Company, Lessons From Travis and Uber on Scaling A Global Marketplace & Whether Growth and Capital Efficiency Are Mutually Exclusive
Insight
Thesis-driven angel investing fails because modeling world opportunities is too hard
“I used to be a thesis driven angel investor where I would come in and I had a thesis about a given sector and I'd look for a company that fits that thesis and then I'd invest in it. But I very quickly learned that it's too hard to model the world and all of th…”
Fritz LanmanJul 20, 2018▶ 17:2420VC: ClassPass CEO Fritz Lanman on Betting His Career Facebook Would Be A $10Bn Company, Lessons From Travis and Uber on Scaling A Global Marketplace & Whether Growth and Capital Efficiency Are Mutually Exclusive
Disclosure
Lanman invested in Square without understanding the payments industry
“I mean, my first one was square and I had looked into payments a bit for Microsoft because, you know, we had so much cash in the balance sheet that one of the things we could have done was become a bank. And we could have gone after digital currencies and stuf…”
Fritz LanmanJul 20, 2018▶ 17:4220VC: ClassPass CEO Fritz Lanman on Betting His Career Facebook Would Be A $10Bn Company, Lessons From Travis and Uber on Scaling A Global Marketplace & Whether Growth and Capital Efficiency Are Mutually Exclusive
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