Elad Gil has backed over 20 unicorn startups
Elad Gil · 20VC: Elad Gil on Startup Offense and Defence in a Recession, How The Venture Landscape Has Shifted & All Things Valuations, Secondaries and Layoffs · May 26, 2020 · at 3:33
Investor Elad Gil details his personal track record as a seed and early-stage investor in Silicon Valley.
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“I've now backed 23 or 24 companies worth a billion dollars or more, 16 of them at the seed or series A.”
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More from Elad Gil
Gil: Half of Unicorns Are Dramatically Overvalued
“Half of the unicorns are probably dramatically overvalued, and if they were public companies, their valuations would get chopped down pretty dramatically relative to where they are today.”
Gil: In a bad market, market dynamics beat a great team
“Many angels I know are very team driven, and I think the team is important, but I think a great team in a terrible market, the market tends to win.”
Gil: Expecting a 5-10x return on a $1B valuation is highly improbable
“And so if you're investing at a billion and you're hoping for a five or 10 X, that's actually an extremely improbable event on average.”
Gil: VCs applying software metrics to food tech and biotech will burn
“I think the place where it ends poorly is where somebody applies and assumes software-related models to non-software areas, and they don't think about the margin structure, and they don't think about dealing with physical goods, and that's where I think a lot …”
Gil: Winning Startups Recast Existing Behaviors Rather Than Creating New Ones
“So I just think, like often the most compelling things are capturing behavior that already exists, and then revamping it in a new way, or capturing it in a new medium, versus creating entirely new behaviors. I actually think there's very few things that exist …”
Gil: Traditional venture capital unnaturally bundles capital, governance, and advice
“The traditional BC model bundles capital, governance, and advice, and the people who are great investors aren't necessarily good at governance or advice, or vice versa. People who are great advisors may not be great investors. They may not be able to identify …”