Loved this framing. Seeing fundraising as a board recruitment decision.
Also for those who follow this, throwing some shade on that famous crossover fund which doesnt usually take board seats:)
One of the questions Roelof asks is abt motivation for starting up. It helps identify the missionary founders, as opposed to the mercenary ones. Great example of a missionary founder here.
Why he focuses on value creation (and not value capture) in his seed bets.
On his insight into and understanding of 'crucible moments'.
Book reco: 'The Hinge Factor' by Erik Durschmied.
On preparing for board meetings.
Also "for every single company I work with, what are the three most important things that need to happen over the next six months?" I am going to steal this!
But Roelof, Evernote?
We need to find these memos!
Also Goetz not Gates.
Loved this framing of accountants looking 1 yr back, and actuaries thinking 20 yrs ahead.
And why compounding is the one intuitive biz model we struggle to wrap our brains around.
Hmmm.....another idea to steal! Preparades and premortems.
This was a really fun read! If you are on the venture side, this is a must read. If you aren't still a great one!
Enjoy!
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Really proud of the high-quality content being published by us at Blume. My colleagues @seekingn0rth & @dishambles hv an Edit calendar. One of the few orgs in the world with an edit calendar & capital call schedule😊
Highlighting the key pieces we published recently.
I loved @dishambles’ profile of spacetech play @pixxelspace that is putting up hyperspectral satellites in the air. @awaisahmedna & @kshitijgokul are building something special. Their immense ambition comes through in Disha’s piece!
My colleague @riashroff who leads our people function, spoke to Mudita from our Investor Success (IR) team on her role & what happens behind the scenes.
If you're interested in breaking into VC through non-investment roles, this should be a good read.
Indian ecommerce + commerce majors and their GMVs (FY21) - via Bernstein.
(Reliance's digital / nondigital colours seem to have inverted. The lighter blue is for offline, and darker blue is online).
Meesho's $5b is interesting. (Flipkart includes Myntra)
Here is Meesho's growth.
Grew 6-fold in yr1 of the pandemic & up 15x+ Mar-20. Clearly led by accelerating direct by consumer (vs reseller). Hearing as much as 70% is direct by consumer.
Have tried to find why they went direct. Seems more opportunistic than strategic i hear.
If we take ecommerce ($53b GMV in 2021 per Redseer) then mobiles are a third. Flipkart & Amazon own 95% of this category. At their core, they are really mobile distributors.
Mi was in the top 10 list of ecommerce platforms once (have dropped since). Apple will cut into this soon
This 20VC podcast featuring Ian Seigel @ZipRecruiterCEO w @HarryStebbings is exceptional. It is a masterclass in how to run a company; esp useful for growth founders.
I thought the episode was so good I got it transcribed! (you are welcome!)