Geoff Lewis
Founder & Managing Partner, Bedrock. On 1 show, 2 appearances, plus 2 compilation re-airs not counted. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorfounder@GeoffLewisOrg ↗bedrockcap.com ↗
Geoff Lewis is a venture capitalist who founded Bedrock Capital in 2018 following his tenure as a partner at Founders Fund. He has led major investments in and served on boards of companies including Rippling, OpenAI, Lyft, Nubank, and Vercel.
1shows
2appearances
44statements
5resolved
3supported
1contradicted
60%fully supported
18said about them ↓ Everything Geoff Lewis said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Lewis: Vengeance is a crucial motivator for historic entrepreneurs
“I think the greatest entrepreneurs in history, and this is a sort of declassé thing to say, it's not really a appropriate thing to say, but I'm going to say it anyways. I think the greatest entrepreneurs in history, it's this combination of a life's work surfa…”
Lewis: Rippling will dominate globally without leaving room for European clones
“Why does some of these European payroll and HR, workforce management companies, not knocking on Europe, but why do you need a rippling for Europe? There's no Airbnb for Europe. There's no Google for Europe. Why do you need a rippling for Europe? Why do you nee…”
Geoff Lewis: Only about a dozen VCs globally actually add value
“I think that some do. And by some, I mean maybe a dozen or so. And so I think there's probably a dozen VCs that you could say are actually value added.”
Geoff Lewis: VC board seats do not add significantly more value
“And then in practice, I don't actually think there's that much that a board can do to help a company. I don't think that being on the board enables you to add an order of magnitude more value than being a involved investor who's not on the board.”
Lewis: Parker Conrad is the most vengeance-driven founder he has backed
“And Parker has that in spades more than any entrepreneur I've backed. He's got it.”
Lewis: Rippling will become the AdWords for SaaS software distribution
“In March of twenty-twenty-two, Parker and the company articulated a very specific and detailed product roadmap around how they can really become, through their employee graph, over time, I don't think he would phrase it this way, but I'm going to, the AdWords …”
Lewis: Rippling's preferred stack will grow linearly or sublinearly relative to revenue
“Because of their approach to product building and go to market, I believe the preferred stack Grows either linearly or sub linearly versus revenue over time versus hyper linearly.”
Lewis: Bedrock refuses to participate in competitive VC fundraising processes
“By the time a company's in a formal financing process, it's kind of dead to us. Like, we still love it, we still love the entrepreneurs, but once they've circulated a memo to 12 VC firms, we're not engaging.”
Lewis: Bedrock lost Rippling's Series B after trying to lower agreed valuation
“We agreed on evaluation with Parker. He's like, send me the term sheet. I'm ready to sign. And we were like, wait, Like all of their business at the time was SMBs. Now, since then they've extended, expanded surface area phenomenally into mid-market. They're st…”
Bedrock exited Bitcoin and Ethereum to fund its investment in Rippling
“And so we traded out of Bitcoin and Ethereum via our second fund and for it, right before the crash for a great multiple and recycled those proceeds to fund our rippling investment.”
Lewis: Pay up for transcendent startups at 300x ARR or invest zero
“The difference between a hundred X AR multiple and a 150 X AR multiple. The reality is those are both insane. And so you have to have extremely high conviction and to have done your diligence and really believe this set of entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs, this com…”
Geoff Lewis: The public-private valuation disconnect has never been greater
“Is the disconnect between the public market valuations and the private market valuations to me has never been greater. And so that is the new variable where I think how that variable ends up playing out is going to be really key.”
Geoff Lewis: At 100x ARR valuations, invest your maximum or zero
“The difference between a hundred X AR multiple and a 150 X AR multiple, the reality is those are both insane. And so you have to have extremely high conviction and to have done your diligence and really believe this set of entrepreneurs, this company is going …”
Geoff Lewis: Uncapped note in Rippling was one of Bedrock's best investments
“I think one of our best investments at Bedrock was doing an uncapped note investment in Rippling”
Geoff Lewis: Bedrock does not require minimum ownership targets in startups
“Lots of VCs will say, we need to own a certain percent of a company. We don't have that as a rule here.”
Lewis: Pay 300x ARR with extreme conviction, or invest zero
“And so you have to have extremely high conviction and to have done your diligence and really believe this set of entrepreneurs, this company is going to transcend. And if you feel that way, I would go for it at 300 versus 200. If you don't, I would do zero.”
Lewis: Rippling reached nine-figure ARR with nearly 3x annual growth
“Now they're already at, you know, nine figures of air are growing extremely fast. They grew almost three acts over the past. 1212 months.”
Lewis: Bedrock's VC loss ratio is under 50 basis points
“We at Bedrock have only lost a few million dollars. You know, we've invested hundreds of millions of dollars over almost five years at this point. I think our loss ratio is less than 50 basis points, so we, we've lost almost no money.”
Lewis: Deploying capital via uncapped notes is not real investing
“Uncapped notes aren't actually investing. That's why I hate them. Investing is You know, you should know the price you're paying. That's what an investment is. It's not an investment if you don't know what the price you're paying is for the security.”
Bedrock returned over 10x cash to Fund One LPs from crypto
“So we returned a 10 plus X life to date multiple on our Bitcoin and Ethereum investments on fund one. To our LPs in cash. Nobody even emailed us to thank us.”
Geoff Lewis: Bedrock deployed 20% of first three funds into Rippling
“It's around 20% of those first three funds now. All in is rippling across all of our investments.”
Geoff Lewis: Youth is a venture manager's biggest asset
“Youth, I would say, is the biggest asset one can have as a venture capital manager. The youth enables you to not be jaded and to rebuild these mental models for every new market, for every new company that you encounter.”
Geoff Lewis: The best companies do not fit pre-existing patterns
“But I do believe that there's a pattern match thing in venture capital. And I think there's some value to that, but the best companies just don't fit any preexisting patterns is what I've found.”
Geoff Lewis: Bedrock's best-performing deals started with low initial ownership
“For me, the companies where I've done the best, and wherever I look, you know, retrospectively to our bedrock track record, our pre-bedrock track record, the ownership percentages were actually quite low, and so you basically, for me, it's operating the world,…”
The other half of the tape: Geoff Lewis's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 18 times in 6 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 18
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 18
2024 3 mentions in 1 episode
2021 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: Rippling's Parker Conrad on Why The VC/Founder Marriage Analogy is Weird, Why The Notion of Focus, Focus, Focus is Overrated, Why Narrow Point Solutions Are Not Best in Class Products & The Rise of the "Compound Startup"
- 20VC: Nubank CEO David Velez on Scaling Nubank to a $25BN Company, Why What Makes a Great Founder Does Not Make a Great CEO & The Responsibility Framework and How Leaders Can Use It To Drive Efficiency
- every mention in 2021, scene by scene →
2020 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
- 20VC: Zach Weinberg on Whether A Company is a Democracy, The Importance of Ownership, The Rise of Pre-Emptive Rounds, Multi-Stage Funds Entering Seed and How he Approaches Both Risk and Personal Capital Allocation
- 20VC: What Is Founder Narrative Fit and How to Detect and Invest In It, How To Avoid Consensus Thinking When Investing, Price Sensititivity; When To Pay Up vs Stay Disciplined & From New York Times To General Catalyst; Why Venture and Journalism are Not S
- every mention in 2020, scene by scene →
2019 8 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Geoff's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Founder & Managing Partner, Bedrock | 2 +2 | 44 | 60% 3/5 | full record on 20VC → |