David Lawee
Co-Founder, Crucible Labs. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorfounderexecutiveoperatorLinkedIn ↗cruciblelabs.com ↗
David Lawee spent 18 years at Google and Alphabet, serving as VP of Marketing, leading acquisitions as VP of Corporate Development, and founding CapitalG. He directed investments into companies including Lyft, Airbnb, Stripe, and Robinhood before co-founding Crucible Labs.
Everything David Lawee said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Lawee: Venture diversification yields diminishing returns beyond six investments
“I think people overvalue perceived diversification. I think you get a diminishing return in our business once you get past five or six investments.”
Lawee: Venture capital is overly clubby and white male-oriented
“It's incredibly clubby. And white male oriented. And I don't think that's helping the entrepreneurial world. It's kind of not helping the venture world decision making. So that's the biggest thing. It's also the hardest thing, but it's kind of the biggest thin…”
CapitalG operates as an investment club where partners make individual decisions
“At the core of it is kind of the decision process, and for us, which is extremely unusual for a growth equity fund, we make the investments individually. The group can and does hopefully help inform that, but it's more of an investment club than kind of an inv…”
Investment clubs generate better returns than traditional venture partnerships
“And I was born from kind of looking at a whole bunch of different investment firms and comparing their returns to that of clubs and coming to the conclusion that clubs were actually doing better.”
Lawee: Experience with market cycles causes risk aversion disadvantage in bull markets
“I do feel that there's a little bit of a disadvantage in protracted bull markets of having lived through these cycles, because your experience has taught you to be more risk-averse, and as you're kind of living through a bull market, that's kind of a negative.”
Lawee: Conservative venture investing will ultimately prove correct despite missed gains
“Ultimately, being a little more conservative is going to prove out, but it's not after kind of years of money-making.”
Lawee: Public market swings irrationally distort Series B and C valuations
“People are very impacted by short-term gyrations in the public markets. So we have kind of frothy public markets or fully valued public markets right now, and that affects B rounds, C rounds. Kind of makes no sense.”
CapitalG Underwrites Deals to 3X Base Market Growth and 10X Upside
“We'll make three X with a reasonable expectation of market growth. If things go as we hope, then this could be a 10 X. And that's independent of multiple. We're just talking about market expansion.”
David Lawee: Minority board members should be mirrors, not directive
“I find it's not very effective to tell people what to do as a minority investor. I'd say it's a lot better to try and get them to see you as a mirror and be an honest reflection of what they're saying and help them think about whether they're focused on the ri…”
Winning growth rounds requires pre-built theses and pre-set target valuations
“The rounds in growth are extremely competitive, just like any segment. And the way to compete is by being in the ready position, like already having your thesis, already kind of knowing what price you would invest, already kind of being able to activate dilige…”
Paying Premium Growth Valuations Requires Believing in Superior Market Compounding
“When you're investing in growth rounds, In order to pay the top price, you need to believe that things are going to compound more than other people. Like, the growth is going to compound. The size of the market expansion is going to compound. And so, you need …”
David Lawee: CapitalG Targets 25-30% IRR With Low Loss Ratios
“I think our funds are still going to perform in the same IRR neighborhood as venture funds, but the distribution, so we're a three X IRR could be 30% depending on how long it takes you to get the three X. So the IRR for the fund is going to be the same, but th…”
Larry Page convinced David Lawee to launch CapitalG internally at Alphabet
“At that point, I was in the mindset of leaving Google, and I talked to Larry Page, and the idea was, for me, in that conversation, was to see if he wanted to invest his own capital in my firm, and he said, why don't you do this within Alphabet? And I thought a…”
Lawee: Ben Horowitz's granular operational knowledge makes a real difference for CEOs
“I was always struck with how much detail he has around the functionings of a business. Like he could explain in detail how the planning group of The finance team versus the accounting group thinks, and the challenges of having someone who's doing one role doin…”
The other half of the tape: David Lawee's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 10 times in 3 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 6Laela Sturdy 4
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 10
2021 3 mentions in 1 episode
2020 6 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens David'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, Crucible Labs | 1 | 15 | — | full record on 20VC → |