Oren Zeev: Agreed to invest $2 million in Houzz within 24 hours
Oren Zeev · 20VC: Oren Zeev on Why Diversification Does Not Work, Thesis Based Investing Is Sceptical & Partners Mostly Stay Together For LPs · Nov 6, 2017 · at 19:57
Oren Zeev, founder of Zeev Ventures, recounts offering Houzz's founders $2 million in initial funding right after meeting them at their kitchen table.
0:00 / 0:19exact quote · 19.9s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And I told them right there and then, how much money do you want? They said, two million. I'll give you two million. And we agreed on terms. It was very easy, and I put them in touch with the lawyer, because they, you know, they literally, you know, they didn't have a lawyer, they didn't have a company, and we set up the company, so I put them in touch with the lawyer, he incorporated the company, so it took a few weeks to incorporate the company and everything, but that was it, 24 hours”
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 Oren Zeev
Zeev: I banned an LP who complained about rapid fund deployment
“I had a, an LP who joined in the third fund, and four months later, I tell him that you know, I'm raising our fine for, I finished, I'm raising, and he totally freaked out, and he started lecturing me on, he didn't call it what you called it, he called it vint…”
Zeev: Predictions that AI will kill software incumbents are provocative BS
“So the bottom line is, I think this notion that all the incumbents are going to die, you know, this notion that is being promoted by some People who I think whose main motivation is to make provocative statements, you know and get attention as thought leaders …”
Zeev: GP-level diversification provides no value to LPs
“By the way, from the LP perspective, diversification at the level of the GP makes no sense, because they have multiple GPs, so, so the diversification gives nothing to LPs.”
Zeev will not change deployment pace for LP vintage preferences
“I'm going to do my thing, and if it works for them, fine, and if not, they can opt themselves out, and some of them have, and it's fine. Good people opted out, and it's fine. I'm not going to do things differently.”
Oren Zeev: Traditional mid-sized VC partnerships are in deep trouble
“If you are traditional five, six person partnership without anything Very, very, very unique and special in the friendship that you bring to the table, then yes, I think you are in trouble because it's almost like, you know, worse off. On one hand, you're not …”