Alexa von Tobel
Founder & Managing Partner, Inspired Capital. On 4 shows, 5 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderinvestorauthorhostexecutive@alexavontobel ↗LinkedIn ↗inspiredcapital.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Alexa von Tobel is the founder and managing partner of Inspired Capital. She previously founded the financial planning platform LearnVest, which was acquired by Northwestern Mutual in 2015.
4shows
5appearances
35statements
11resolved
6supported
0contradicted
55%fully supported
3said about them ↓ Everything Alexa von Tobel said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
LearnVest got millions of users spending only tens of thousands on marketing
“And Josh, we spent nothing on marketing. It wasn't like we had a million dollar a year marketing budget. We spent Tens of thousands of dollars. Nothing in the rearview mirror to build a user base of millions of users.”
Venture Returns Come From Category Winners, Not Valuation Haggling
“Venture returns are not made on like a few million dollars evaluation. That in the end, it's about picking the breakout companies that are the category creating businesses of the next And making sure that you are at the table in a handful of those.”
LearnVest Could Have Raised Series B and C at $50M Higher Valuations
“When I was building LearnVest, there were times where I backed our series B and series C, where I could have pushed the valuation by about another fifty million dollars.”
Per Capita VC Funding in NYC is 1:12 Versus Silicon Valley
“There's one dollar here to 12 in the valley. That's the math per capita.”
Products Only Need One Extraordinary Moment for a Great Customer Experience
“We often try to make every part of the product development of a customer experience awesome. You just need one A++++ moment. That is then how the psychology works so that you end up having a great experience.”
Von Tobel: 80% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck
“Right now, 80% of the country lives paycheck to paycheck, and money is your lifeline.”
Von Tobel: Let the five smartest people you know shred your company
“Find the five smartest people you know, and let them shred your company. It sucks for somebody to be like, this is a terrible idea. This part sucks. This part sucks. But I think that the thing that I wish I would have told myself is like, really lean into the …”
Von Tobel: LearnVest sold to Northwestern Mutual for about $375M
“We ended up selling for just about three hundred and seventy five million dollars”
Von Tobel: Loving your work means working nonstop with zero boundaries
“Somebody once said to me, like, do what you love to do, and you'll never work a day in your life, and I, I've actually come up with this one, which is, do what you love, and you will work every day of your life, all the time, with no boundaries, and take thing…”
Founders Should Fundraise in Early Year or Fall, Not Summer
“But it was just for us, our reality, and so we did it, and it ended up going really well, and you know, we got everything wrapped up, but I would just say in general, like fundraising, do it in the beginning of the year when people are super focused, do it in …”
Inspired Capital Splits its $200M Fund 50/50 Between Initial Checks and Reserves
“So our fund is two hundred million. So for a two hundred million dollar fund, you know, we really do think about it as saving a sizable chunk, 50% for reserves, 50% for initial deployment.”
Von Tobel: Entrepreneurs Who Survive Downturns Can Thrive Anywhere
“If you can do it in this environment, you can do it anytime. Like, they were like, the entrepreneurs who survived through this, it's like a gauntlet, right? It's like, literally, it's like multiple, like, jumping through knives and hoops, and if you can get th…”
Von Tobel: Big brokerage firms ignore clients with under $250,000
“Big brokerage firms don't really want to talk to you unless you have over 250,000 dollars, which most of America doesn't.”
Von Tobel: People are either internal achievers or external competitors
“What I figured out is there's two types of people. There's competitors, and there's achievers. And achievers wake up with their own to-do list of things that they want to do by the end of the day, and kind of focus on getting those things done. And it's very m…”
Von Tobel: Good entrepreneurs do not make an exit strategy their goal
“I always say that good entrepreneurs it's not that you don't ever think about an exit strategy, but it's not your goal.”
LearnVest secured 50,000 signups and almost 10 Series A term sheets instantly
“By the end of the month, we had about 50,000 signups, and what was really crazy is then, all of a sudden, I had almost 10 term sheets being like, I want to commit to your Series A.”
Von Tobel: LearnVest held over $50M in cash before acquisition
“We, fifty million dollars, 50 plus million dollars of cash.”
Alexa von Tobel Sold LearnVest for Approximately $375 Million
“Eventually LearnVest got acquired for about three hundred and seventy five million dollars”
Inspired Capital Closed $125 Million on Alexa von Tobel's First Day
“So my last day, as I transitioned off the management team at Northwestern Mutual, the firm, literally the last day that I left Northwestern Mutual and launched Inspired, it was the same day. And on that day, we closed about a hundred and twenty-five million.”
Inspired Capital Raised its Final $75 Million in 90 Days
“And then we finished the final seventy-five million over the summer, 90 days.”
Alexa von Tobel Hosts Monthly No-Agenda Dinners for Entrepreneurs
“I once a month have a dinner where people come over to my apartment and we just totally with zero agenda talk about categories we're interested in.”
Penny Pritzker Co-Founded Inspired Capital With Alexa von Tobel
“I called her back, and she was like, I want to be your business partner. I want to found this with you. Let's go. Let's bring a multi-generational stage to this.”
Von Tobel: New York Had Almost No Tech Startup Community in 2008
“There was not a startup community truly in New York”
The other half of the tape: Alexa von Tobel's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 2 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 2Harry Stebbings 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 2
20VC 1
2020 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
- Birchbox: Katia Beauchamp
- 20VC: Moxxie Ventures' Katie Stanton on What It Takes To Raise A First Time Fund As A Solo GP, The Entrance of Multi-Stage Funds Into Seed Rounds and The Inverse Relationship of Those That Fund Diverse Managers and Those That Say They Do
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Alexa's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder & Managing Partner, Inspired Capital | 1 | 14 | 100% 4/4 | full record on How I Built This → |
| 20VCLEDGER | Founder & Managing Partner, Inspired Capital | 1 | 11 | 0% 0/2 | full record on 20VC → |
 THE PITCHLEDGER | Founder & Managing Partner, Inspired Capital | 2 | 10 | 40% 2/5 | full record on the Pitch → |
 MASTERS OF SCALELEDGER | Founder & Managing Partner, Inspired Capital | 1 | 0 | — | full record on Masters of Scale → |