Bijan Sabet

Everything Bijan Sabet said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.

20VC Insight

VCs wrongly expect first-time founders to be market-ready immediately

“I don't think anyone's market ready from the get go. I think it's a flawed assumption with VCs where they try to imagine that, that these first time founders or any founders are going to just figure it all out.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 13:21 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Prediction Not checkable as stated

A new breakout consumer mobile company will emerge in 2016 or 2017

“If history is a guide, you know, this year, next year, we're going to see a breakout in a brand new company.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 17:15 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Insight

Startups needing under $2M in deficit financing should not raise VC

“I think if your company needs probably, you know, less than a million or two million dollars of deficit financing to accomplish the mission, You know, you shouldn't raise venture capital for that.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 19:08 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Insight

First-time founders possess a unique audacity and fearlessness

“I think first time founders have a level of audacity that, you know, sometimes more experienced people don't have because they, they're just, there's no fear.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 5:25 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Insight

Founder vision and instincts matter more than academic pedigree

“And I also, I've just never bought into this kind of elitist way of thinking about like where you went to school You know, where you work, you know, whether you work at Google or, you know, Apple or something, it's more of, you know, what's your idea? What, wh…”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 5:54 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Opinion

Bijan Sabet favors VR over AR as an investment sector

“Yes. I mean, yes. If I have to pick one, I pick VR over AR, but AR, AR is certainly interesting.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 20:25 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Opinion

Investing in post-bubble consumer tech was non-obvious in the mid-2000s

“The idea of backing entrepreneurs that were first-time entrepreneurs after the bubble burst in consumer, you know, right now it seems very obvious, but I can tell you at the time, it wasn't obvious.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 4:33 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Assertion Supported

Twitter had under 250,000 daily active users when Spark Capital invested

“There was less than 250,000 daily active users.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 7:57 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Opinion

No other platform matches Twitter's viral retweet distribution model

“This is a very unique distribution platform where things like retweets and things like that can take a piece of content or information and spread it in a way that no other platform, you know, could do or at the time, certainly, and even today, I don't think ot…”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 9:46 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Opinion

David Karp became a great CEO after hiring Derek Godfrey

“David Karp's CEO chops went from good to great when he brought in Derek Godfrey to run engineering.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 12:45 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Opinion

Facebook is more likely to acquire breakout products than build them

“There's a higher chance that there's a breakout that Facebook wants to buy than Facebook creates themselves.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 17:58 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Opinion

Google offers enormous utility but is not a fun product

“Google has enormous utility, but I don't think Google's was, is a fun product.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 7:05 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Assertion Partly supported

Tumblr operated with just two employees for its first two years

“David Karp, you know, 19, he starts Tumblr, and him and another fellow named Marco Arment, you know, for two years, just two of them were working on it, and they had the ability just to focus on the product.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 10:44 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Disclosure

Spark Capital was the first investor in Oculus

“We're the first investor in Oculus”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 14:42 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

20VC Disclosure

Bijan Sabet makes only one to two new investments annually

“I don't make a lot of investments. I make one to two new investments a year.”

Bijan Sabet Jun 6, 2016 ▶ 22:56 20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

The other half of the tape: Bijan Sabet's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 27 times in 9 episodes across the shows. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nabeel Hyatt 12Harry Stebbings 6Kevin Thau 4Fred Destin 2Peter Rojas 1Mo Koyfman 1Katie Stanton 1

Statements about Bijan Sabet, by other people (2)

20VC Assertion Supported

Bijan Sabet's Twitter Series B Catapulted Spark Capital Into Top Tier

“As I was joining Spark, Bijan Sabat at Spark led Twitter series B and that investment catapulted us into the upper echelon of VC firms.”

Mo Koyfman Aug 8, 2022 ▶ 6:25 Mo Koyfman: The Secret to Winning in Venture; Why Small Funds Outperform Large Funds | 20VC #915 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

20VC Insight

Thau: VC approaches split into thesis-driven and founder-driven models

“You can either be a very thesis-driven venture capitalist like Fred, or you can be a very founder-driven venture capitalist like Bijan, and I think, you know, what fits better for my personality and the way I see things is being a founder-driven venture capita…”

Kevin Thau Jan 3, 2018 ▶ 11:38 20VC: Why VC Is A Game of Maximising Serendipity, How VCs Can Characterise Their Approach To Working & Product Lessons from Jack Dorsey & Sonos' John MacFarlane with Kevin Thau, General Partner @ Spark Capital

Every mention by year

One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Bijan's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.

Show	Role there	Eps	Statements	Record
20VCLEDGER	Co-founder & Partner Emeritus, Spark Capital	1	15	50% 1/2	full record on 20VC →