Woody Marshall
General Partner, TCV. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorexecutiveLinkedIn ↗tcv.com ↗
Woody Marshall is a General Partner at TCV, where he has focused on fintech, internet, and digital media since 2008. He has backed companies including Spotify and Airbnb, and serves as the lead independent director on Spotify's board.
1shows
2appearances
26statements
2resolved
2supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
8said about them ↓ Everything Woody Marshall said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Woody Marshall: There are no downsides to going public
“So I actually don't think there are cons. I think it's a positive. It causes a company to be crisp in your execution. You have to tell your story thoughtfully. You have to deliver. You are accountable. And I think all of those over the long term for great comp…”
Woody Marshall: Large venture firms face strict auditing on portfolio valuations
“If you're a firm as big as mine or as Devon's, there's a very sophisticated process that gets reviewed by auditors, which is a little different than, you know, with a lot of the early stage guys, so it's hard for us to play around with valuation”
Woody Marshall: The tech IPO market is open for companies resetting valuations
“So to me, I actually think the markets are open. But people have to, you have to rip the bandaid off and not be wed to, you know, oh, but in 2021 I was valued at X. It doesn't matter. If you're a public company today, that's in the rearview mirror. The public …”
Woody Marshall: Entry valuation matters less if competitive durability is high
“Getting that durability of the value proposition, and whether that's competitive modes, whether that's management execution, those are the important things to get right. But if you get those right, I do agree, valuation in hindsight can be a little less releva…”
Woody Marshall: Refusing to reset inflated valuations causes suboptimal business decisions
“The smart companies are, you know, resetting the deck. They're ripping bandaid off because the problem with companies that hold on to some of those valuations is they're going to make decisions that are suboptimal.”
Woody Marshall: TCV's 2021 investments will take longer to yield returns
“If you look at the things we invested in, in 21, we like those companies a lot. It may take, it's gonna take us longer. To get our returns. It just is, because multiples have come down.”
Woody Marshall: Penalizing venture partner mistakes creates risk-aversion and mediocre fund returns
“If all of a sudden you start smacking people on the hand for, if they make a mistake in a risk business, what are you going to end up with? You're going to end up with a risk averse set of, You know, investors and you're guaranteed your next fund is going to b…”
Marshall: Market size is the last concern when evaluating tech companies
“And I think if we're interested in a business and it's leveraging technology in an interesting way for either an enterprise or for a consumer, the last concern that you have is, is it a really big market?”
Marshall: TCV underwrites expecting half of hold periods post-IPO
“A lot of times we will underwrite an investment understanding that maybe half or more of the hold period could be as a public company.”
Woody Marshall: Secondary markets provide adequate liquidity without company approval
“I think now with all of the secondary liquidity options that are out there, if you want to sell as a private company, even if The company doesn't want to sell, but you want to sell your shares. I think there's adequate liquidity sources”
Marshall: Subscription startups with unit economics should aggressively front-load CAC
“If you have this durable relationship with customers, and it's something we see a lot having invested in many subscription businesses, and if the economics works, you'd be crazy not to front end load as much of the customer acquisition as you can.”
Woody Marshall: Near-death experiences benefit companies in the long term
“Near-death experiences are actually good over the long term.”
Woody Marshall: Different venture capitalists often hold the same startup at different valuations
“You can have many different investors in the same company, you know, holding, holding a particular security or a particular company at different, different prices.”
Woody Marshall: Public markets shifted Rule of 40 expectations toward balanced margins
“Two years ago, if you had talked to the public market... It used to be 60 to 70% growth with the -20 to -30% EBITDA. Today, depending on who you talk to, it's like 30 and 10, 20 and 20. Like they want to see both.”
Woody Marshall: TCV has made no direct AI investments as of late 2023
“We have not made any AI specific investments, although I would say. 100% of our companies are leveraging AI in lots of different ways, whether it's, you know, how you touch the end customer or how you make some of your processes more efficient.”
Marshall: Only high-quality businesses survive major economic downturns
“Well, I think that the way that we think about it is the way that I think about it is that only quality is durable, and if you look at 2000 and then the 2008, you had some folks that just came into the market talk about bubbles. Only the true quality businesse…”
Woody Marshall: Less than 20% of TCV's investments are in the Bay Area
“Less than 20% of the investments that we make are in the Bay Area.”
Marshall: Expanding market value of tech companies justifies venture capital mega-funds
“The first thing I would say is if you look at the size of the global technology pie, it's bigger than ever before. You know, look at the top 10 highest market cap public companies today. You know, Apple's over a trillion dollars. I think five years ago was pro…”
Marshall: Deploying larger VC checks is harder due to fewer scalable opportunities
“It's always more challenging to find places for larger and larger checks. There's just fewer opportunities that are out there, but”
Marshall: Delaying executive changes is the biggest mistake boards make
“The biggest mistake that boards and CEOs can make is waiting too long sometimes to make changes.”
Marshall: TCV avoids market risk and invests only after commercial acceptance
“With us at TCV, we're looking for commercial acceptance. So we're not taking the risk of whether there's a market or the answer in the question, will the dogs eat the dog food?”
Marshall: Startup CAC is most efficient early on before market competition increases
“There's sometimes, like, we look back at companies and say, God, we should have spent twice as much on customer acquisition because customer acquisition was remarkably efficient in the early days, and over time, it gets more and more competitive.”
Woody Marshall: Effective board members prioritize listening over airtime
“I think to me, the most important thing is to really understand the core drivers of the business. And there's a lot of people that like airtime. In board meetings, and I'm sure I talk too much in board meetings at some point, but I think it's about listening, …”
Woody Marshall: Board meetings should engage on strategy, not report on numbers
“Keep the board informed with up-to-date data, and then your discussion should focus on strategic questions, or maybe it's an operational problem. But you don't want to spend a board going through like, okay, here's the quarterly results. Let's go through 35 pa…”
The other half of the tape: Woody Marshall's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 8 times in 6 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 4David Pakman 3Jason Lemkin 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 8
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- 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
- 20VC: Spotify Founder Daniel Ek on Optimising Decision-Making, Structuring Effective Learning Processes, The Trials and Tribulations in The Transition From Founder To CEO & The Future of Building Prima Materia with Shakil Khan
- every mention in 2021, scene by scene →
2018 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
- 20VC: Why Entrepreneurs Should Let Everyone Rip Apart Their Business Idea, How To Construct Frameworks for Success & Why You Should Not Always Test Your MVP with Afton Vechery, Founder & CEO @ Modern Fertility
- 20VC: The Right Way For Founders To Think About Capital Efficiency, How To Create A Culture of Continuous Learning & The Secret To Talent Assessment and Optimisation with Mariam Naficy, Founder & CEO @ Minted
- every mention in 2018, scene by scene →
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Woody'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, TCV | 2 | 26 | 100% 2/2 | full record on 20VC → |