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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

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

James Gibson is Head of Revolut Business. Under his leadership, Revolut Business now processes over $33 billion in monthly transaction volume and generates more than $1BN in annualised revenue. 
 
AGENDA: 
 
04:10 Is Consulting the Worst Background for Aspiring PMs
 
07:09 How Revolut Hires for it’s Product Team
 
17:21 How Revolut Sets Goals: What Works, What Does Not
 
19:37 How Revolut Structures Their Product Teams
 
22:13 How Revolut Structures Product Review Sessions 
 
27:23 New Bets Process at Revolut
 
29:11 How Revolut Balances Super Users and General Customers
 
36:55 How Revolut Drives Product Velocity and Efficiency
 
39:26 Future of Product with AI
 
44:56 Quick Fire Questions and Reflections

20Product: Revolut Business $1BN Revenue: Five of the Biggest Product Lessons | How Revolut Structures Product and Design Teams | How Revolut Experiments and Invests in New Product Bets | How Revolut Ships Product So Fast with James Gibson

AGENDA:
 
00:00 Why I am 100% Equities and 0% Cash
 
04:35 Nvidia's Massive $100BN Investment in OpenAI
 
08:39 Is Anthropic Negatively Positioned by OpenAI Gaining NVIDIA Investment
 
27:30 Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead
 
44:00 Navan Files to Go Public at $8BN
 
49:31 Lockup Periods and Liquidity
 
50:35 Impact of H-1B Visa Changes on Startups
 
01:02:42: Notion Hits $500M ARR Re-Accelerating
 
01:09:42 Why Founder Friendly is Total BS Today

20VC: NVIDIA Invests $100BN Into OpenAI | Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead | Navan Files to go Public & Notion Hits $500M ARR | The Impact of H1B Visas on Startups in the US

Hemant Taneja is the CEO and leader of General Catalyst, the firm he has scaled over the last decade into one of the largest with over $40BN in AUM. He has been one of the most influential investors of the past two decades, leading early bets in Stripe, Snap, Gusto, Samsara, Grammarly, and Canva. He also played a pivotal role in Livongo’s $18.5B merger with Teladoc, one of the largest digital health deals in history.
 
AGENDA: 
 
00:00 Introduction 
 
03:37 Is Hemant a CEO or an Investor?
 
05:42 With $40BN AUM Is General Catalyst Still a VC Firm?
 
12:11 Has Trump Done More to Hurt or Help the US?
 
13:25 No One is Talking About the True Impact of AI on Jobs
 
21:30 Is Hemant Concerned by the Concentration of Value in MAG 7? 
 
27:30 Has Trump Done More to Hurt or Help the US?
 
30:27 GC’s Anthropic Investment: Upside from a $60BN Price 
 
37:06 Do Margins Matter in a World of AI
 
45:23 Does Revenue Growth Matter in a World of AI 
 
49:39 Why it is BS to Turn Down a Company Based on Price
 
56:06 We Have Invested $5BN Into Stripe Over 14 Rounds
 
01:00:02 VC is About To Be Flooded with Retail Investment: What Does It Mean for VC
 
01:08:51 “What I Learned Losing the Series A of Snap, Stripe, Samsara”
 
01:11:25 Future of Venture Capital: Walmart vs Chanel

20VC: General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja on The Future of Venture Capital: Chanel vs Walmart | Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM | Investing $5BN+ Into Stripe Over 14 Rounds | Investing Hundreds of Millions into Anthropic at $60BN Valuation

Jesse Zhang is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Decagon, the conversational AI platform for customer experience. As one of the fastest growing companies in the valley, they have raised over $230M at a last round price of $1.5BN. Prior to Decagon, Jesse founded Lowkey (acquired by Niantic), studied CS at Harvard, and worked at places like Google, HRT, Citadel, and Intel.
 
AGENDA:
 
00:00 Introduction and Sponsor Messages
 
03:43 Olympiad Mathematician to Startup Founder
 
05:34 Selling to Niantic and What I Did Differently the Second Time
 
07:16 Why 90% of Founders Build Companies the Wrong Way
 
12:19 Scaling to $50M ARR in 15 Months
 
31:31 Is the AI Talent War Out of Hand: How To Compete with Meta Pay Packets
 
32:38 Why Remote Work is Total BS
 
34:06 Competitors in AI Customer Experience: Sierra, Intercom and more
 
37:34 AI Market Predictions
 
44:56 Embracing Stress and Winning Culture
 
50:13 Quick Fire Questions: Most Underrated AI Founder, Biggest Changed Opinion

20VC: Why 90% of Founders Build Startups Wrong | Why AI Growth Rates are Sustainable & Remote Work is BS and the AI Talent War | Competing with Brett Taylor and Sierra: Who Wins the Customer Service War with Jesse Zhang, Decagon

Max Levchin is one of the great founders and technologists of our time. As the Founder and CEO of Affirm, he has built am $18.7BN monster in the buy no pay later space. Prior to Affirm he was one of the original co-founders of PayPal. Max is also the co-founder and Chairman of Glow, a data-driven fertility company. Max is also an immensely successful angel investor with a portfolio including the likes of Yelp, Pinterest and Evernote. 
 
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
 
04:19 How to Hire the Best People in the World
 
05:05 How to Manage Extreme Personalities
 
08:18 Biggest Lessons on Trust and What Happens When Lost
 
12:05 Is Grading Talent A and B Players Total BS?
 
15:31 How to Think About Calculated vs Uncalculated Risk
 
27:18 How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems: Step by Step
 
32:08 Why Every Person Must Write and How to Create a Writing Culture
 
36:01 Leadership Lessons from Layoffs
 
38:38 Is Affirm Losing or Beating Klarna in the US?
 
47:03 Peter Thiel or Elon Musk: Who Would Max Rather Start a New Company With?
 
48:37 Quickfire Round

The Twenty Minute VC

20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

20VC: Affirm Max Levchin on Why Grading Talent by Letter (A or B) is Total BS | How to Create a Culture of Post Mortems and Writing | Why You Should Only Study Failure Not Success & The Biggest Surprises Scaling to $18.7BN Market Cap

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