20 VC 026: Chris Redlitz on The Importance of People, Pivoting and The Last Mile

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

The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2015

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chris Redlitz is Managing Partner at Transmedia Capital, an early stage venture fund specializing in digital media. Their portfolio includes the likes of Snapchat, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook, just to name a few. Chris also Co-Founded The Last Mile with his wife Beverly, a program that integrates the nation’s penal system with the technology business. Prior to Transmedia and The Last Mile, Chris launched the first online independent yellow page directory, automated coupon platform and content syndication system. As a result, he received Ad Age's prestigious i20 award for his contributions to the development of interactive marketing and advertising.

Items Mentioned in Today's Show:

In today’s Episode you will learn:

1.) How Chris made his transition into the Venture Capital industry?

2.) How do VCs compete to be involved in the funding rounds of such attractive startups, such as, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook etc?

3.) How has Chris’ investment strategy changed over the years? What were his early deals? What did he learn from them? What does he do differently now?

4.) What is the premise of The Last Mile?

5.) How does Chris plan to scale the Last Mile to be nationally adopted in all prisons in the US?

6.) What has been the most challenging aspect of Chris’ journey with the Last Mile and how did he overcome it?

The episode will then finish with a quick fire round where we hear Chris plans for the next five years for The Last Mile, the resource he would most recommend to aspiring entrepreneurs and his most recent investment and why he said yes?

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to episode 26 of the 20-minute VC with Harry Stebbings. Today, I'm incredibly
0:06.1	honoured to welcome Chris Redlitz to the show. I mean, where do I start with Chris's introduction?
0:12.2	He is a founding partner at TransMedia Capital, whose portfolio includes the likes of Snapchat,
0:18.2	Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, just to name a few.
0:27.7	Furthermore, in 2011, Chris and his wife Beverly co-founded the last mile in San Quentin Prison.
0:32.2	The program works with prisoners to help them build relevant skills and technology so they can easily transition into productive employment once they are out of prison.
0:38.3	If that wasn't enough, Chris launched the first online independent yellow pages, the first automated coupon platform,
0:44.5	and the first content syndication system. Before we dive into the interview, I just wanted to say
0:49.8	thank you to all of you who have signed up for the 20-minute VC book club. The book of this week is Ben Horace's The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
0:57.9	If you haven't signed up yet, don't worry.
0:59.9	It's absolutely fine.
1:01.1	You can find the book on the website,
1:02.8	and we will be doing a discussion on the website on Sunday.
1:06.0	I look forward to hearing what you all think about the book.
1:08.4	But without further ado, it's time for me to hand over to Chris.
1:12.1	Three, two, one, zero. You have now arrived at your destination. Chris, welcome to the 20-minute VC. It's a great
1:22.5	honor to have you on the show. Thanks for having me. First, can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got into the
1:28.9	VC world? Yeah, I took a fairly non-traditional route. I actually, early on, worked for Reebok.
1:38.2	I was a competitive runner, but really it was, that was my sort of passion was, was always been sports and athletics.
1:47.6	And I joined the company very, very early on in the early 80s when the company was doing, you know,
1:54.5	just, I think we were doing about $10 to $12 million in sales and was with them for about
2:00.8	11 years through the whole growth period
	...

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