20 VC 028: Co-Founding TechCrunch and The Benefits of Not Raising Venture Funding with Keith Teare

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

🗓️ 16 April 2015

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Keith Teare is the Founder of Palo Alto incubator, Archimedes Labs whose incubated startups include the likes of M.Dot (acquired by GoDaddy), TechCrunch (acquired by AOL) and Ivan Kalanick's Red Swoosh. Keith is also the Co-Founder of TechCrunch alongside Michael Arrington. Prior to TechCrunch Keith founded RealNames Corporation raising more than £130m of venture funding before filing for an IPO with an implied valuation of £1.5bn.

Items Mentioned in Today's Show:

What you will learn in todays show:

How did Keith get into the tech world at a time when technology was not mainstream?
A venture of Keith's, Cyberia was heavily used by women. Does Keith believe that there have been improvements in balancing the gender gap?
What Keith believes can be done to reduce the gender inequality that persists throughout the tech sector?
How did Keith's Co-Founding of TechCrunch with Michael Arrington come about?
Why did Keith try and persuade Michael not to create TechCrunch?
What are the benefits of bootstrapping your startup and not raising venture funding?
Why Keith was never able to raise venture funding in the UK?
How is the valley different from creating a company in the UK?
Keith's beliefs on the barbell venture capital ecosystem that persists in the US?

We then finish today's episode with a quick fire round where we hear the best advice Keith has ever been given, the highlight of his career so far and the 3 companies that he is most excited about and why?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You are listening to episode 28 of the 20-minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings.
0:05.6	Now, today is an extremely special day as we welcome a legend onto the show.
0:10.5	He is the co-founder of TechCrunch alongside Michael Arrington.
0:14.5	He founded Real Names Corporation, raising more than 130 million for the company
0:19.7	before filing for an IPO with an implied valuation of 1.5 billion.
0:24.9	Nowadays, he is the founder at Palo Alto Incubator Archimedes Labs,
0:29.5	whose incubated startups include the likes of MDOT, TechCrunch, and Travis Kalanix, Red Swoosh.
0:36.6	If that wasn't enough, he is also CEO and founder of just.combe,
0:41.6	and Context Plain Inc.
0:43.4	Two of the incubated companies from Archimedes Labs.
0:46.6	I'm so excited to welcome to you today.
0:49.3	Keith Tear.
0:58.2	You have now arrived at your destination.
1:02.4	Keith, welcome to the 20 minute VC. It's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show.
1:08.4	Now, you've been in the internet and technology world since the early 80s, I believe.
1:12.2	Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into the tech world at a time when it really wasn't very mainstream and consumer-friendly?
1:18.5	Well, wow, we need more than 20 minutes to answer that question.
1:23.9	I went to college in Canterbury in the mid-70s, and the mid-70s for those youngsters
1:33.5	listening, was a time of political turmoil. It was when the Vietnam War was in full throw,
1:40.2	when both Labour and Conservative governments were bringing in discriminatory laws against immigrants,
1:46.7	when British troops were in Northern Ireland and shooting people like a Bloody Sunday.
1:53.7	So my generation was very political.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Twenty Minute VC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Twenty Minute VC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.