Eric Paley
Secretary, Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development. On 1 show, 3 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorfounderexecutive@epaley ↗epaley.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Eric Paley is the Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development and a co-founder of Founder Collective. He previously co-founded Brontes Technologies and led early-stage venture investments in companies such as Uber, The Trade Desk, and Airtable.
1shows
3appearances
58statements
6resolved
4supported
0contradicted
67%fully supported
102said about them ↓ Everything Eric Paley said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Paley: Founder Collective owned 12.5% of The Trade Desk at IPO
“We owned, I think, 12 and a half percent of the company at the IPO.”
Paley: The Trade Desk Burned Only $7 Million Before Its IPO
“The company burned seven million dollars before going public.”
Eric Paley says capital should accelerate proven models, not search for fit
“It's using capital to accelerate those things that are working as opposed to using capital to find things that work.”
Eric Paley says extending runway is the healthiest use of additional capital
“Yeah, I think the healthiest thing that founders could do with more capital is drive a longer runway.”
Founder Collective's small Uber seed check would move the dial for anyone
“Yeah, so, ok, so we are, you know, as investors in Uber, and we didn't write a very big check, I think that current value alone of that small check would be very attractive to any venture fund of any size, even though our check that we started with was small, …”
Founder Collective has three unicorns in its first fund
“We have three, what people like to call unicorns in our first fund right now, and that's great.”
Founder Collective's first fund has fully returned invested capital to LPs
“We've, you know, given back all the money our investors have given us, and then some in our first fund”
Eric Paley calls dentistry the world's largest remaining cottage industry
“What later we learned or came to believe was the largest remaining cottage industry in the world, where every unit of production was a completely unique unit of production.”
Founder Collective writes $200K to $2M seed checks depending on lead status
“We write checks at the seed stage between sorry, between 200,000 dollars and two million dollars. So it depends if we're leading or participating. We don't have a Is there an opportunity to lead, and who's the most qualified fund for this particular opportunit…”
Kelsey Wirth built Invisalign into a billion-dollar company in five years
“I was very lucky to have Kelsey Wirth on my board who was the founder of Invisalign, and we had gone after this industry that I never imagined we'd go after that was certainly very quirky to the venture community, and Kelsey had built a billion dollar company …”
The other half of the tape: Eric Paley's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 97 times in 18 episodes across the shows. 5 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most David Frankel 58Harry Stebbings 29Micah Rosenbloom 4Chris Dixon 4Roger Ehrenberg 1Beezer Clarkson 1
Statements about Eric Paley, by other people (5)
Clarkson: Absolute TVPI-to-DPI gap is likely largest since dot-com crash
“The only other time that would be equivalent would be about 99 and 2000, and I don't know if there is the volume of funds in the market then, so, and absolute numbers, he's probably right.”
Frankel: Founder Collective funded The Trade Desk when nobody else would
“Eric invests in Trade Desk as a follow on because nobody else was going to give them money.”
Maples: Seed venture capital is about micro 'bird spotting' for novel startups
“Yeah, for me, the job is sort of like, you know, when you're in the Galapagos Islands and you spot some, Finch with a weird looking beak that nobody's ever seen before. Like, I think that's kind of what Eric and I try to do, right? We're trying to, but like, i…”
Frankel: Nobody could have predicted Uber's market size at seed stage
“Uber, which Eric participated in at the get-go, looked like a better way of calling limos. No one in their mind could have known how big that was going to be.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 97
2026 5 mentions in 1 episode
2024 23 mentions in 3 episodes 8 per episode
- David Frankel, MP @Founder Collective: Investing Lessons from Seeding Coupang, Pillpack & Suno|E1214 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Chris Dixon: Who Will Win the Next Generation of Venture? | E1132 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- Roger Ehrenberg: Why VC Returns Will Get Worse & Why LP Incentive Structures are so Broken | E1117 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
- every mention in 2024, scene by scene →
2023 3 mentions in 1 episode
2022 19 mentions in 2 episodes 10 per episode
- 20VC: Biggest Lessons and Challenges Building One of the Most Successful Seed Funds, How To Manage Investor Psychology, Self-Doubt and Insecurity & The Secret to Truly Successful Venture Partnerships with David Frankel, Co-Founder @ Founder Collective
- 20VC: Whoop Founder, Will Ahmed on How CEOs Can Perform at their Highest Level, Why There is Value in Struggle Early On, Why Realism is Overrated in Startups and How To Create a Culture of Delegated Decision-Making
- every mention in 2022, scene by scene →
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 15 mentions in 4 episodes 4 per episode
- 20VC: Lessons Learned Scaling PillPack from Seed to Amazon Acquisition, Why Investors Should Spend More Time Assessing Human Capital Risk Taken by Founders & The Right Way To Think About Capital Efficiency in Scaling with David Frankel, Managing Partner @
- 20VC: Why Your Board Are Right 50% of The Time, Biggest Lessons From Being Mentored By Reed Hastings & Raising $130m in Funding and The Balance Between Growth and Capital Efficiency with James Reinhart, Founder & CEO @ ThredUp
- 20VC: CB Insights' Anand Sanwal on The Most Dangerous Myth Some Investors Have Promoted, Why Most B2B Content Is Crap and How To Make It Successful & Why Predigree Is Overrated and The Right Way To Scale Teams
- 20VC: Why Every Startup Will Either Fail or Rebrand, How To Do OKRs The Right Way & How To Know The Reversible From the Irreversible Mistakes with Jack Groetzinger, Founder & CEO @ SeatGeek
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
2017 14 mentions in 2 episodes 7 per episode
- 20VC: Why Founders Should Not Focus On Top Line Valuation, Why Capital Efficiency Is Key To Returns And Investment Success & Why Despite Popular Thought, $100m Is An Exciting Exit For VC with Micah Rosenbloom, Managing Partner @ Founder Collective
- 20VC: The Power Of A Concentrated Seed Portfolio, Why Operational Value Add Models At Seed Do Not Make Sense & Why We Will See A Shakeout Of Growth Stage Investors with Roger Ehrenberg, Founder & Managing Partner @ IA Ventures
- every mention in 2017, scene by scene →
2016 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Eric's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Secretary, Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development | 3 | 58 | 67% 4/6 | full record on 20VC → |