20 VC 058: 10 Key Traits To Be A Successful Founder with David Wu, General Partner @ Maveron
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 29 July 2015
⏱️ 24 minutes
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Summary
David Wu is a General Partner at Maveron, which he joined in 2012 to help identify new investments in Web companies that have the potential to become leading consumer brands. He sourced and led Maveron's investment, Eargo and Darby Smart, also serving on their board. David is very much founder focussed and you’ll often find him coaching entrepreneurs at top Bay Area incubators such as Y Combinator, AngelPad, 500 Startups, and Stanford’s StartX and was previously EIR at Redpoint Ventures. His close ties to the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial community have led him to invest personally in over 30 start-ups, including Practice Fusion, Postmates, Tile, Jaunt VR, and SeatMe.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
- How David made his move into the world of venture capital?
- How David perceives the current seed funding environment?
- What makes Stanford the breeding ground of tech unicorns that it is?
- How to create a bay area style culture?
- What is the most frequent problem David sees startups encounter and how do they overcome it?
- How can entrepreneurs know which funding source to go for? Crowdfunding, VC, Angel?
- Why should startups take seed VC money over angel money? What is the difference?
- What are the key traits required to be a great founder?
- How can products with early adopter usage transition to a mass market product?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
- David's Fave Books: Game Of Thrones
- David's Most Recent Investment: Jott
As always you can follow Harry, David, The Twenty Minute VC and Maveron on Twitter right here!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to episode 58 of the 20-minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings, |
| 0:05.3 | and today I am so honoured to welcome a true Silicon Valley legend to the show. |
| 0:10.7 | It is, of course, David Wu. |
| 0:12.7 | David is a general partner at Maveron, which he joined in 2012 to help identify new investments |
| 0:19.1 | in web companies that have the potential to become leading consumer brands. |
| 0:24.1 | He sourced and led Mavron's investment in Eargo, Derby Smart, also serving on their board. |
| 0:30.8 | David is very much founder-focused and you'll often find him coaching entrepreneurs at Top Bay Area incubators, |
| 0:37.1 | such as Y Combinator, AngelPad, 500 |
| 0:41.2 | startups and Stanford StartX, and he was previously entrepreneur in residence at Red Point Ventures. |
| 0:48.3 | And his close ties to the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial community have led him to invest |
| 0:53.0 | personally in over 30 startups, including |
| 0:56.1 | practice fusion, postmates, tile, jaunt VR and seat me. It's an incredible episode and I can't |
| 1:03.3 | wait to hear what you think. But first, we constantly hear how important the team is and how it's |
| 1:09.2 | crucial to have the right team in place for your |
| 1:11.4 | startup to be successful. But that's very hard and that all boils down to one thing and that's |
| 1:16.5 | analysis and hiring screen's unique interface offers in-depth analysis of candidate profiles. |
| 1:23.3 | They make a clear assessment of strengths and weaknesses before building you a shortlist |
| 1:27.6 | with a drag and drop functionality, allowing you to easily prioritise your candidates. |
| 1:33.4 | But now it's time for me to shut up and for David to be introduced. |
| 1:36.8 | Ladies and gentlemen, it is the fantastic David Wu, General Partner at Maveron. |
| 1:41.5 | Three, two, one, zero. |
| 1:47.1 | You have now arrived at your destination. |
... |
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