Assertion certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Ibrahim: Startup burn rates became secondary during 2009–2015 tech growth

Maha Ibrahim · 20 VC 031: Investing in Gaming, Luxury Goods and Disruption with Maha Ibrahim, General Partner @ Canaan Partners · Apr 27, 2015 · at 3:13

Maha Ibrahim, General Partner at Canaan Partners, reflects on learning fiscal discipline during the dot-com crash versus the lax attitude toward burn rates in the 2009–2015 bull market.

0:00 / 0:24exact quote · 24.1s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“It was a very slow five years but on the other hand, I got to see what it meant to have companies close down, and companies really have to concern themselves with expenses, and burn rates, and all of that yummy stuff that Is less of a concern these days as things have been going up and to the right for the past five or six years.”

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 Maha Ibrahim

Prediction Partly held up
Ibrahim: Container technology will replace VMware and traditional virtual machines
“In my area in particular containers are now the new thing. So you see companies like Mesosphere and Docker and CoreOS coming up and really Trying to supplement, but truly the, what they're trying to do is completely replace very, very large companies like VMwa…”
Maha Ibrahim Apr 27, 2015 ▶ 18:58 20 VC 031: Investing in Gaming, Luxury Goods and Disruption with Maha Ibrahim, General Partner @ Canaan Partners
Insight
Maha Ibrahim: Accelerate growth spend only after securing product-market fit
“I believe in getting to profitability and having a business plan that gets you to profitability. But having said that, if there's truly a market there that you feel, sorry, let me step back. If there's a product market fit that you feel is dead on and you're s…”
Maha Ibrahim Apr 27, 2015 ▶ 3:54 20 VC 031: Investing in Gaming, Luxury Goods and Disruption with Maha Ibrahim, General Partner @ Canaan Partners
Opinion
Ibrahim: Mobile gaming is a consolidated winner-takes-all market of 10-12 players
“If I were to do it today, it would be very hard for me to make an investment in the mobile gaming space for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason is that it is a winners, and I say that plural, take all market. The market has consolidated into, let's say, 1…”
Maha Ibrahim Apr 27, 2015 ▶ 7:24 20 VC 031: Investing in Gaming, Luxury Goods and Disruption with Maha Ibrahim, General Partner @ Canaan Partners
Opinion
Ibrahim: The market size for mobile gaming is virtually infinite
“The size and scope of the mobile gaming market is, is just almost infinite at this point.”
Maha Ibrahim Apr 27, 2015 ▶ 6:20 20 VC 031: Investing in Gaming, Luxury Goods and Disruption with Maha Ibrahim, General Partner @ Canaan Partners
Assertion Supported
The RealReal grew sales from $10M to $105M and aims to double again
“They've grown from first year, ten million in sales to fifty million in sales to last year, about a hundred and five million in sales, and they're looking to double this year, which there's no reason they can't, given the quality of merchandise on the site.”
Maha Ibrahim Apr 27, 2015 ▶ 10:36 20 VC 031: Investing in Gaming, Luxury Goods and Disruption with Maha Ibrahim, General Partner @ Canaan Partners
Insight
Ibrahim: Domain specialization is the best way for new VCs to differentiate
“So what I advise new entrants into the VC market or junior people to do Is really to differentiate based on a franchise. So pick an area, and it need not be a niche area. It could be a pretty broad area, and really develop a thesis in that area for where the w…”
Maha Ibrahim Apr 27, 2015 ▶ 12:24 20 VC 031: Investing in Gaming, Luxury Goods and Disruption with Maha Ibrahim, General Partner @ Canaan Partners
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.