David Wu
General Partner, Maveron. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
He joined Maveron as a General Partner in 2012, focusing on consumer web companies. He sourced and led investments in Eargo and Darby Smart and coaches entrepreneurs at Bay Area incubators.
1shows
1appearances
11statements
2resolved
1supported
0contradicted
50%fully supported
5said about them ↓ Everything David Wu said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
New York's rational financial mindset limits growth compared to Bay Area ambition
“One of the big differences between the financial mindset of New York is and in the Bay Area, New York starts off with, well, you know, this is as big as you possibly can get, and this is what's rational for, you know, what could happen in the Bay Area is still…”
Consumer startups offer minimal IP differentiation compared to founder execution
“There's less and less differentiation on the IP of consumer deals and much more around how well the team understands how to connect with end consumers.”
Revisionist history is one of the most common traits among successful CEOs
“I think on the entrepreneur side, I almost, I often tell people that one of the most common traits in successful CEOs and successful entrepreneurs is revisionist history.”
Maveron exclusively invests in direct-to-consumer startups
“Every investment we make is something that is direct to consumer, so no enterprise, infrastructure, and hardly even B to B to C.”
Unprecedentedly favorable conditions for founding a company in the Bay Area
“It's probably never been a better time to start a company in the Bay Area if you're a founder.”
Series A deal volume remains flat despite the seed funding explosion
“There's so many seeds getting funded out there, but at the end of the day, the A's are still happening, and they're happening later in larger figures, but there's not that many more Series A deals getting funded.”
Easy seed funding creates peak competition in startup recruiting
“On the right team side, I think the recruiting environment's getting as competitive as it's ever been, and that's sort of the downside to how easy it is to get seed funding, and not only in terms of the talent”
Founders should reference check VCs with their least successful portfolio companies
“Do that same amount of diligence. And, you know, go talk to, Portfolio companies, probably the most successful and the least successful portfolio companies in some of the investors that you're thinking of taking money from, and really understand, you know, how…”
Non-startup achievements predict success for first-time founders
“Past success is often indicative of future success, and so even a first-time founder, you know, maybe a nineteen-year-old coming out of the UK has had some body of work of things they've accomplished in their life, whether it's winning awards in sports or scho…”
David Wu passed on investing in Stitch Fix, Instacart, and Dollar Shave Club
“But from an investor perspective, I would probably say that, you know, the biggest mistakes have to be, you know, my personal portfolio to date. Or anti-portfolio. And three that come to mind are all for different reasons where companies that I passed on that …”
Maveron evaluates potential CEOs using a 10-trait scorecard reviewed post-investment
“We, we've kind of put together a list of 10 key traits that we believe are kind of the key success traits for a Maveron consumer successful founder, and we actually score all our potential investments CEOs against this scorecard, and we often look back six mon…”
The other half of the tape: David Wu's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 5 times in 2 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
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2016 5 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per 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 | General Partner, Maveron | 1 | 11 | 50% 1/2 | full record on 20VC → |