Michael Skok
Founding Partner Emeritus, Underscore VC. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorfounderexecutive@mjskok ↗LinkedIn ↗mjskok.com ↗
After spending over two decades as a software entrepreneur and CEO founding companies like AlphaBlox, Michael Skok transitioned to venture capital at North Bridge Venture Partners before co-founding Underscore VC. He has backed companies including Acquia and Demandware and created the Startup Secrets curriculum taught at Harvard Innovation Labs.
1shows
1appearances
16statements
3resolved
2supported
1contradicted
67%fully supported
3said about them ↓ Everything Michael Skok said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Michael Skok: Early-stage startup valuation is a stunningly stupid concept
“Well, first of all, valuation is just a stunningly stupid concept. Who on earth can value a person? I can't. And at the stage that we're working at, we're valuing people.”
Underscore VC runs diligence and deal flow transparently in the cloud
“In fact, our core members, when they're investing with us, get to watch us and participate in a whole cloud based investing program, because the way in which we do our investments is, you know, we eat our own cooking here. So everything is in the cloud because…”
Skok: Venture capital suffers from poor alignment between founders, VCs, and LPs
“There isn't good alignment, whether people like it or not, between the entrepreneur, their VC, and the VC, and their GPs, and sorry, and their LPs in many instances.”
Underscore VC shares carried interest with community advisors
“First of all, we're going to take a chunk of our carry, and we're going to make it accessible to what we call our community, which is the cause.”
Underscore VC commits $5M Series A checks alongside initial seed funding
“We'll give you a seed check to get the initial team together, but we'll also do something we've called vector funding, which is right. Very clear basis for them, for the entrepreneur to go from seed all the way through to series a and commit to that series a, …”
Skok: Venture capital is a commodity while founder time is priceless
“Capital is clearly a commodity and entrepreneurs lives clearly aren't.”
Skok: Underscore VC founders committed 5x traditional GP capital
“I mean, we put five times as much capital in individually as the founders here than would traditionally be the case.”
Skok: Emerging VCs should target endowments over individual investors
“It's very important to look at this as a business that is At least a decade long fund at a time, and you never really know the results of your fund's performance for some number of years. So you need to get investors who are very patient, and you have the you …”
Mautic Acquired Over 50,000 Customers in First Year
“And for him, what that's meant is in his first year, he's gone from zero customers to well over 50,000 customers”
Startups should target a Minimum Viable Segment before broader market fit
“MVP is great, but I'll tell you the next big milestone that most people miss is in product market fit. They say, Oh, well, you're going to go prove that that product's being accepted by the market. Yes. But the market's huge if you're going up to something sig…”
Skok: Infrastructure startups take up to 3 years to reach MVS
“In some cases, I've seen it, for example, when you get into infrastructure products, you know, this is things like, for example, data warehousing as a service, companies like Casino that are doing that. That could take three years, because you're knocking down…”
Skok: Category-creating startups begin by addressing latent, unrecognized customer needs
“In many instances, if you're creating something, you're going to start at a latent aspirational level. You really won't have customers begging for what you're doing because you're creating it. They don't know they have that need.”
Skok: Blogging helps founders organize thoughts and attract relevant support
“I do encourage entrepreneurs to blog because I think rather than reading other people's blogging for yourself is actually, first of all, great therapy, and secondly, it brings people to understand how they might help you.”
Underscore VC's inaugural fund is backed by a $40B+ LP base
“The fund has been oversubscribed very quickly. We were able to select the VC, sorry, the LPs who really understood the model and wanted to get behind it. I'm happy to tell you that, you know, that's well over forty billion dollars worth of capital in the found…”
Michael Skok: Demandware raised $70M before going public
“I've invested in companies like Demandware, for example, which probably took about seventy million dollars worth of capital before we got it public.”
The other half of the tape: Michael Skok's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
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20VC 3
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Michael's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20VCLEDGER | Founding Partner Emeritus, Underscore VC | 1 | 16 | 67% 2/3 | full record on 20VC → |