Mike Smith, co-founder of Footwork Ventures and former COO of Stitch Fix, details the operational depth he looks for when evaluating startup founders.
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“The best founders, I think, just know like all three financial statements and can talk really intelligently about how their business needs to scale and what capital is required to scale their business.”
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More from Mike Smith
Insight
Smith: VC firms operate like golf teams rather than true team sports
“On a good day, I think venture firms on their best day Our golf teams, like individuals shooting their best score, their lowest score, and adding them up at the end. We really think about our team and our approach more like a basketball team or a soccer team, …”
Mike SmithSep 23, 2021▶ 32:00Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Smith: Footwork was ~2x oversubscribed on Fund I by early March 2021
“We felt very fortunate to be in a position in early March of being, call it, two X oversubscribed our target.”
Mike SmithSep 23, 2021▶ 35:04Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)
Disclosure
Smith: Footwork raised Fund I without meeting most LPs in person
“Most of the LPs we did not meet in person during this process”
Mike SmithSep 23, 2021▶ 37:26Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)
AssertionSupported
Smith: Stitch Fix scaled to 10,000 employees and $2B in revenue
“The specific seat I got to sit in at Stitch Fix, taking the company from five people to 10,000 people from basically zero revenue to two billion.”
Mike SmithSep 23, 2021▶ 13:27Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)
Disclosure
Smith: Footwork assigns one GP as director and the other as observer
“And so the way we work organically is one of us will take the board seat and the other one will be a board observer.”
Mike SmithSep 23, 2021▶ 17:30Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)
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