John Borthwick
Founder & CEO, Betaworks. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderinvestorexecutivebetaworks.com ↗
John Borthwick is the founder and CEO of Betaworks, a New York startup studio, venture fund, and accelerator. He has incubated companies including Bitly and Giphy, while investing in platforms like Tumblr and Twitter.
1shows
1appearances
11statements
3resolved
3supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
10said about them ↓ Everything John Borthwick said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Borthwick: Venture capital industry suffers from widespread mediocrity
“There are extraordinary VCs out there. But there's also, I think, a lot of mediocrity in the business, and I think the returns overall in the VC business are indicative of a business that's going through change.”
Borthwick: Tech startup power is shifting from product back to distribution
“I think in the last five to eight years, because of many of the reasons we discussed earlier, is distribution has been available through the app store, and so a lot of power has moved to product. I think it is now moving back to distribution,”
Borthwick: Under 40% of YC and Techstars startups raise $750k within one year
“I believe the exact numbers are, is 36 for Techstars and 38 for YC.”
Borthwick: Time Warner Has Failed to Adapt to Evolving Digital Video Distribution
“They are not a technology company, and they've really struggled, you know, over the years to understand how they interface with new forms of distribution, new technology, and how they integrate that both into their business to make their business run better, b…”
Borthwick: Traditional VC has failed to adapt to market shifts
“And so I think that what we have today is that the market is actually changing and I can talk about that in detail, but I think that generally the market is changing and has changed over the last five, 10 years. And I think the VC hasn't adapted to that becaus…”
Borthwick: Venture capital fund cycles must be longer than 10 to 12 years
“I think that they have to be longer. I think so. I do. Because I think that the fundamental trends that we are working, you know, the transformation that technology is driving in our society is much longer than that.”
Borthwick: Conversational AI and frontier tech will take 5 to 10 years to mature
“Well, you know what? Is that I wouldn't have expected them to be anything but disappointing, because they are going to take, it is going to take five to 10 years for us to figure out how to talk to machines.”
Borthwick: The Washington Post succeeded under Jeff Bezos rather than becoming a plaything
“And then you match with that what he's done personally with the Washington Post. I mean, I think that the Post is, you know, was one of the single best sources of journalism in And, you know, most people expected after he acquired it that it would become sort …”
Borthwick: Giphy reaches over 100 million daily users
“Because last year, you know, we raised a lot of money for Givy, and Givy's tapping more than a hundred million people every day.”
Borthwick: Balance sheet capital does not scale effectively for VC
“That said is, is that it doesn't scale very effectively. And so balance sheet based capital because for a whole series of reasons I can dig into. So funds are really good at that.”
Borthwick: Time Warner's Corporate HQ Is a Thin Holding Company of Lawyers
“Time Warner is a big company. It's in essence a holding company. Most people don't realize that, but it's, you know, the corporate entity is, is fairly thin, and it's mostly inhabited by lawyers and accountants, the corporate headquarters, and all of the sort …”
The other half of the tape: John Borthwick's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 10 times in 7 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 4Peter Rojas 3Nicholas Chirls 1Gary Liu 1Adam Leibsohn 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 10
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 1 mention in 1 episode
2016 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2015 6 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
- 20 VC 079: BETAWORKS WEEK: East vs West Coast Investing with Peter Rojas, EIR @ Betaworks, Co-Founder @ Weblogs & Engadget
- 20 VC FF 025: Crowdfunding Gimlet Media and Why The Nature Of Startup Equity Is Changing with Erin Glenn, CEO @ Betaworks' backed, Quire
- 20 VC 071: Pre-Seed Investing, Why Now Is The Best Time with Nicholas Chirls @ Notation Capital
- every mention in 2015, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens John'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 & CEO, Betaworks | 1 | 11 | 100% 3/3 | full record on 20VC → |