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Harry Stebbings

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) interviews the world's greatest venture capitalists with prior guests including Sequoia's Doug Leone and Benchmark's Bill Gurley. Once per week, 20VC Host, Harry Stebbings is also joined by one of the great founders of our time with prior founder episodes from Spotify's Daniel Ek, Linkedin's Reid Hoffman, and Snowflake's Frank Slootman. 

If you would like to see more of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC), head to www.20vc.com for more information on the podcast, show notes, resources and more.

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Alex Bouaziz is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Deel, the $17BN global payroll juggernaut that just last week announced their latest $300M fundraise led by Ribbit, a16z and Coatue. Deel has been on the most insane journey, they do $1BN+ in ARR, they just had their first $100M revenue month and they have been profitable for over 3 years. 
 
AGENDA:
 
03:38 Announcing $300M Fundraise at a $17BN Valuation
 
06:24 Rippling vs Deel: WTF is Going On? Where is the Lawsuit? 
 
14:01 Why 1-1s Are BS and Leaders Should Stop Doing Them
 
17:31 Do Rich Leaders Make Better Leaders
 
28:33 Biggest Lesson from Ben Horowitz? Why Most CMOs Are Bad?
 
34:48 Lessons from Nik @ Revolut and Why Companies Need to Make Their Own Software
 
42:23 Deel’s Acquisition Playbook: Lessons from 13 Acquisitions
 
45:17 How to Price Acquisitions? How to Align Incentives with Founders?
 
55:45 Deel is Profitable and Growing Fast: When is the IPO?
 
01:01:35 Best Acquisition Ever + Worst Ever: What Did We Learn?

20VC: Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz on Raising $300M+ at a $17BN Valuation | Deel vs Rippling: WTF is Going On | Management Lessons from Ben Horowitz and Nik Storonsky | Deel's M&A Playbook: Lessons from 13 Acquisitions: What Works & What Doesn't

Zach Lloyd is the Founder and CEO of Warp, the next-generation developer terminal reinventing how engineers build and collaborate. Warp has raised over $70M from top-tier investors including Sequoia Capital, GV, Dylan Field, and Elad Gil. Before founding Warp, Zach was Principal Engineer at Google, where he led development of Google Docs, and later served as CTO at Time. He’s one of the most respected engineering minds redefining the future of developer tools.
 
AGENDA: 
 
04:14 Biggest Product Lessons from Rewriting Google Sheets
 
07:10 Why I Would Short Google: Leadership and AI Strategy
 
09:55 Comparing AI Models: GPT, Claude, and Gemini: Who Wins and Loses
 
17:04 Do Margins Matter in AI?
 
24:57 Adding $1M in ARR Every Week: Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead?
 
33:58 How to Build Defensibility in a World of AI?
 
43:05 OpenAI vs Anthropic: Who Wins and Why?
 
44:25 Biggest Fundraising Lessons Raising from Sequoia, Elad Gil and GV
 
50:56 Why Sequoia are the Best VC
 
53:51 What Every Founder Gets Wrong in Fundraising
 
01:01:30 Quick Fire Questions and Final Thoughts

20VC: The Startup Adding $1M ARR Every Week | Competing Against OpenAI's Codex and Claude Code: Who Wins | Why Gemini is Failing and GPT-5 Is Winning | Do Margins Matter in a World of AI | The Ugly Truth About AI Coding with Zach Lloyd, Warp

AGENDA:
 
03:44 Rory Is So Old He Worked with Arthur Rock!!!
 
07:28 Goldman Sachs Acquires Industry Ventures for $665M
 
16:37 Thinking Machines Co-Founder Raises $2BN and Then Leaves for Meta
 
29:36 SoftBank Goes for $5BN Leverage Against ARM Stock To Buy More OpenAI
 
39:35 More Data Centres Than Offices: Are We In a Bubble
 
43:28 Where is the Alpha in Venture in 2025
 
51:48 What 90% of Managers Get Wrong About Portfolio Management

20VC: $3.5BN - The Price Zuck Paid for Thinking Machines Co-Founder | Goldman Sachs Acquires Industry Ventures for $665M | Softbank Borrows $5BN Against ARM Holding to Invest More Into OpenAI

Mike Cannon-Brookes is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Atlassian, the $50BN software giant behind products like Jira, Confluence, and Trello. Since founding the company in 2002, he has scaled it to over 300,000 customers globally, generating more than $5BN in annual revenue. Atlassian now employs over 10,000 people across 13 countries and is one of the most successful bootstrapped-to-IPO stories in tech history. Mike is also a leading climate investor and co-owner of several major sports teams.
 
AGENDA: 
 
00:00 Why Unreasonable Men Win in Startups
 
07:22 How to Make Co-CEOs Work 
 
13:22 Are We in an AI Bubble? Is Everything Overvalued?
 
26:46 The Future of Software Development: More or Less Devs
 
32:53 Do Margins Matter in a World of AI
 
34:02 The Future of Vibe Coding…
 
36:35 Does Defensibility Exist in a World of AI
 
42:09 Is Per Seat Pricing Dead in a World of AI
 
49:01 The Founder Journey and Leadership
 
54:28 Quick Fire Round: Parenting Advice, Relationship to Money

20VC: Atlassian CEO on Why Everything is Overvalued & Are We in an AI Bubble | Do Margins Matter & Does Defensibility Exist in an AI World | Is Per Seat Pricing Dead & The Future of Vibe Coding with Mike Cannon-Brookes

Chris Degnan is the former Chief Revenue Officer at Snowflake, where he was instrumental in scaling the company from less than $1M in ARR to over $3B in annual revenue. He joined as the first sales hires and built Snowflake’s go-to-market engine from scratch, growing the team from to more than 6,000 globally. Under his leadership, Snowflake became one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in history, achieving a record-breaking IPO in 2020.
 
AGENDA:
 04:34 How to Build a Sales Team from Scratch 07:49 How to Hire and Evaluate Sales Leaders 15:23 Four Big Lessons Scaling Snowflake to $3BN ARR 31:30 Comparing Snowflake and Databricks: What Databricks Did Better? 35:26 How to Manage Sales Team Morale in Competitive Markets 43:53 Why Customer Success is BS and What To Do With It 48:31 How Every Sales Leader Needs to Change in An AI World 49:37 Biggest Reflections on Sales Leadership 54:38 Quick Fire Questions and Final Thoughts 20Sales: Scaling Snowflake from $0-$3BN in ARR | Snowflake vs Databricks: My Biggest Lessons | Why Customer Success is BS and What Replaces It with Chris Chris Degnan

20Sales: Scaling Snowflake from $0-$3BN in ARR | Snowflake vs Databricks: My Biggest Lessons | Why Customer Success is BS and What Replaces It with Chris Chris Degnan

AGENDA: 
 
03:29 OpenAI and AMD's Major Partnership
 
07:35 Microsoft Have F***** Up the OpenAI Partnership 
 
17:08 OpenAI's Developer Day Announcements
 
20:45 Why VC is the Most Forgiving Asset Class on Price and Valuation
 
29:10 What Does it Take to IPO in 2025: Why Snyk Will Not IPO
 
42:30 Four Strategies Companies Need to Take to Own Their Own Destiny
 
49:31 Vercel Raises $300M at $9BN: Suicide Round or Strategic
 
55:39 Does King Making Really Work in Venture Capital: Legora vs Harvey
 
01:08:11 Chamath Raises Latest SPAC: SPACs are Back
 
01:10:56 Polymarket Raises $2BN at a $9BN Valuation
 
01:14:53 Quick Fire Questions and Wrap-Up

20VC: OpenAI's Multi $BN Deal with AMD | Polymarket, Vercel and Supabase Raise Mega Rounds | Does King Making Really Work in Venture Capital: Harvey vs Legora | Chamath is Back: The SPAC is Back

Andrew Feldman is Co-Founder & CEO of Cerebras, building the world's fastest AI inference and training. Cerebras recently closed a $1.1BN Series G round at an $8.1 billion valuation, backed by top names including Fidelity, Atreides, Tiger Global, Valor Equity and 1789 Capital. Under his leadership, they’ve leapfrogged GPU limits in inference, operate at trillions of tokens per month, and are filing to go public soon.
 
AGENDA:
 
02:43 Why We Did Not IPO and Raised $1BN From Fidelity
 
05:03 Analysis of Chip and Compute Landscape Today
 
07:14 NVIDIA Showing Signs They Are Running Out of Ideas
 
13:57 The Real Questions to Ask on Chip Depreciation
 
24:54 Energy Requirements for AI: Is it Feasible?
 
29:25 Mag7 Value Concentration: Feature or a Bug
 
31:57 Talent is the Bottleneck and Trump Makes it Worse
 
32:55 The War for Talent: Secrets No One Sees
 
34:22 Evaluating the Data Centre Economy: Many Will Lose Money
 
38:01 Three Changes the US Could Make to Beat China in AI
 
42:30 Why 80% of our Revenues are in the UAE
 
47:26 Quick Fire Questions
 
58:59 Why Work Life Balance is Total BS

20VC: Cerebras CEO on Why Raise $1BN and Delay the IPO | NVIDIA Showing Signs They Are Worried About Growth | Concentration of Value in Mag7: Will the AI Train Come to a Halt | Can the US Supply the Energy for AI with Andrew Feldman

Ketty Slonimsky is Chief Growth Officer at Palta, the platform behind apps like Flo (the #1 female health app with 77M+ MAU), Simple, and Zing AI, where she leads a centralized growth function across the portfolio. She was previously first VP Product & Growth at HeliosX (£900M+ ARR, bootstrapped D2C healthtech), has advised companies like SonderMind, Runna, Guardio, Cheddar, P&G Digital Ventures, and is a board advisor at HeliosX.
 
AGENDA:
 
02:33 What is Growth and When to Hire For It
 
06:04 Three Profiles of Successful Growth Leaders
 
10:07 Challenges and Learnings from Failed Ventures
 
21:17 How to Optimise User Onboarding for Growth
 
26:14 Biggest Lessons on Retention 
 
30:25 How to Artificially Create Organic Growth and Community Building
 
32:10 Why LTV Models are BS
 
37:35 How to Use Influencers to Grow Insanely Fast
 
47:07 The Metrics that Matter in Growth
 
49:48 Push Notifications and Engagement: What To Do vs What Not to Do?
 
51:57 Quick Fire Round

20Growth: How to Use Influencers to Scale Growth Insanely Fast | How to Optimise User Onboaring for Growth | How the Best Growth Teams Create Organic Growth and Community | Why LTV/CAC Models are BS with Ketty Slonimsky

AGENDA:
 
03:58 Understanding Burn Multiples and Capital Efficiency in an AI World
 
11:54 What Metrics Founders Need to Focus on in a World of AI
 
19:31 The Role of Kingmakers in Venture Capital: Harvey, Abridge, Profound
 
33:42 Klarna, Figma, Stubhub, all Down: Are Public Markets Turning?
 
36:35 OpenAI Needs the Same Energy as Japan… WTF!
 
41:09 How Can We Fund the $1TRN Sam Altman Needs for Energy
 
52:39 FiveTran and DBT: Is the Wave of Consolidation About to Begin?
 
59:44 Does Private Equity Need to Change in a World of AI
 
01:06:23 Political Expression and Corporate Responsibility

20VC: Are Burn Multiples BS in an AI World | Sam Altman Needs $1TRN of Energy | Klarna, Figma, Stubhub, all Down: Are Public Markets Turning? | FiveTran and DBT: Is the Wave of Consolidation About to Begin?

Jonathan Ross is the Founder & CEO of Groq, the AI chip company redefining inference at scale. Under his leadership, Groq has raised over $3B from top investors. The company has reached a valuation of nearly $7B, positioning itself as one of NVIDIA’s most formidable challengers. Previously at Google, Jonathan led the team that built the first Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), making him one of the leading architects of modern AI hardware.
 
AGENDA:
 
00:00 The Future of AI and Compute
 
05:07 Why the Hyperscalers Have to Keep Spending Recklessly on AI
 
12:49 Why OpenAI and Anthropic Will Have to Build Their Own Chips
 
19:47 OpenAI and Anthropic Will be $5BN Companies: The Bull Case
 
29:50 Why China is Behind the US in AI and Deepseek is More Expensive to Run
 
33:55 How Europe Could Compete in AI and Why the US is More Risk Averse Than Europe
 
42:51 Why AI Will Lead to Too Many Not Too Few Jobs
 
43:19 Deflationary Pressures and New Job Markets
 
45:51 The Future of Vibe Coding
 
47:14 Why AI Companies Should Strive to Have Low Margins
 
49:31 Why We Have to Have Nuclear Energy and How to Bring it Back
 
56:55 How Permits are Ruining the Potential of AI
 
01:03:58 Why OpenAI and Anthropic are so Undervalued
 
01:16:53 Quickfire: Biggest Fear, Nvidia: $10TRN, Zuck Buying AI: Work or Not

20VC: OpenAI and Anthropic Will Build Their Own Chips | NVIDIA Will Be Worth $10TRN | How to Solve the Energy Required for AI... Nuclear | Why China is Behind the US in the Race for AGI with Jonathan Ross, Groq Founder

Quote of the Day: "Capital is a crappy differentiator". Dustin Dolginow

Christian Claussen is a Managing Partner with Ventech, a VC firm with offices in Munich and Paris. He has 16 years of experience investing in innovation and he leads Ventech investment activities in the German-speaking regions of Europe. He serves as a board member for Picanova and TV Smiles.

In today's amazing episode with Christian we learn:

 • Which value adds are most important for founders to look for?

 • How can Founders determine whether VCs will carry out on their 'Value Add'?

 • What are the signs of VC bulls***?

 • Will we see all VCs transition to Andreesen Horowitz service based VC model?

 • How have VCs offerings to startups changed over time?

 • What advice would Christian provide to founders entering a round of funding?

Items Mentioned in Today's Show:

Christian's Favourite Book: Phillip Roth: Everyman

Christian's Article on VC Value Add

Speex: Online Language Training That Really Works

Andreesen Horowitz

As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!

20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech

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