Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Geoff Lewis: Bedrock's best-performing deals started with low initial ownership

Geoff Lewis · 20VC: Bedrock's Geoff Lewis on Whether VCs Actually Provide Value or Not, Why Bedrock Does Not Have An Ownership Focus and The Difference Between Principles and Rules When Building a Firm or Company · Feb 14, 2022 · at 18:11

Geoff Lewis is co-founder and managing partner of venture firm Bedrock. He discusses Bedrock's strategy of rejecting strict ownership targets in initial funding rounds.

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“For me, the companies where I've done the best, and wherever I look, you know, retrospectively to our bedrock track record, our pre-bedrock track record, the ownership percentages were actually quite low, and so you basically, for me, it's operating the world, what's worked For me, and what's worked for us at Bedrock, and in terms of cash in, cash out, the best deals have been the ownership percentages are quite low initially, and then you try to concentrate capital into the successive rounds as they were.”

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