20VC: Why Great Companies are Defined by How Many Things They Say No To, Why Being First Does Not Matter & Why Market Over Traction or Team is the Most Important Thing with Guillermo Rauch, Founder & CEO @ Vercel

Guillermo Rauch is the Founder and CEO @ Vercel, giving developers the frameworks, workflows, and infrastructure to build a faster, more personalized Web. To date, Guillermo has raised $312M from Accel, Bedrock, Greenoaks, GV and more. Prior to founding Vercel, Guillermo co-founded LearnBoost and Cloudup where he served the company as CTO through its acquisition by Automattic in 2013. In Today's Episode with Guillermo Rauch We Discuss: 1. From Argentina to SF: The Boy Making Money Online: • How did Guillermo first get into computers and start making money online? • Does Guillermo still believe the US and SF offers the same opportunities it did when he came? • Did Guillermo feel the weight of responsibility of providing for his family at a young age? 2. Timing, Markets and Narrative Violations: • Why does Guillermo believe it does not matter being first but being right? • Why does Guillermo believe the most important thing for a company is market selection? • Why does Guillermo believe it is crucial that founders and companies have "narrative violations"? 3. The Future of AI: • What model will win in the future; open or closed? • Where does the value accrue; startups or incumbents? • How will the SaaS business model change in a world of AI? 4. Silicon Valley's Most Successful Angel You Did Not Know: • What are some of Guillermo's biggest lessons from angel investing? • What is his single biggest miss? How has it changed how he thinks? • What have been his biggest hits? How did they impact how he thinks about what it takes to win?