20 VC 073: Life Inside Accel Partners with Michael Treskow @ Accel

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

🗓️ 21 September 2015

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Treskow is a VC @ Accel Partners, one of the world's most successful venture firms having funded the likes of Facebook, Dropbox, Spotify, Etsy and many more. At Accel, Michael is responsible for the firm’s investments in SpaceApe, a mobile games developer, and GoCardless, an online direct debt provider. Michael was also instrumental in Accel's investments and ongoing work with Funding Circle, Packlink, Qubit, Semmle, Trufa and WorldRemit. Prior to Accel, Michael focused on early-stage investments in technology companies at Warburg Pincus in San Francisco, invested in publicly traded technology companies at Highside Capital, and helped advise technology companies as part of Morgan Stanley's investment banking team in New York.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Michael made his way into the VC industry? Do you think it is very important for VCs to have entrepreneurial experience?

2.) How does Michael compare the investing environments between London and SF? What was his biggest takeaway from Warburg Pincus in SF?

3.) Accel is stage agnostic, why is that? What size market attracts Michael? How can Michael tell whether founders have the ability to exploit the market?

4.) What Michael believes are his key value adds? Have these changed over time?

5.) We often hear startups being described as ‘uber for’, ‘tinder for’. Do VCs like this simplification of business? How else would Michael suggest a complex concept can be broken down into something easily digestible?

6.) Does Michael still believe there is room for improvement in the consumerisation of enterprise software? Does Emergence Capital's pivot signal a turning tide?

Items Mentioned In Todays Episode:

Michael's Fave Book: The Innovator's Dilemma, Crossing The Chasm

Michael Productivity Tools: Wunderlist

Michael's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Dan Primack, Term Sheet

Michael' Most Recent Investment: CartoDB

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Michael on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito night, you can follow him on Instagram here!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the 20 minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings. I hope you enjoyed last week's
0:05.4	feature of the seed stage funding environment in New York. And this week takes us back to London and to one of the
0:12.2	most successful venture funds of all time. It is of course Axel partners who have invested in the
0:18.1	likes of Facebook, Dropbox, Spotify, Etsy and many more.
0:23.0	And joining us from Axel is Michael Tresco.
0:25.6	Michael is responsible for the firm's investments in SpaceApe and GoCardless.
0:31.0	Michael was also instrumental in Axel's investments and ongoing work with Funding Circle,
0:36.1	Packlink, Qubit, Trufer and World Remit.
0:40.1	And prior to Axel, Michael focused on early stage growth and equity investments in technology
0:45.0	companies at Warburg-Pinkus in San Francisco, and he helped advise technology companies on
0:50.5	strategic alternatives as part of Morgan Stanley's investment banking team in New York.
0:56.1	However, I first want to talk about business agreements. They are the cornerstone of all
1:00.5	startup's financial success, and I cannot reiterate how important it is to have them created,
1:06.9	monitored and revised by experts in the legal startup industry.
1:12.3	That's where Vidal Law come in.
1:17.1	They have decades of experience dealing with startups from all spectrums of the startup cycle and allow you the founder to focus on what matters, growing your business.
1:22.3	To secure the legal foundations for your business, head over to www.org.harlaw.com or send an email to my personal friend
1:30.6	and partner at Vidar, Chris Werner, by sending it to C-Virner, C-W-E-R-N-E-R at Vidar-Law.com.
1:40.8	But back to this show and without further ado, I would like to introduce Michael Tresco, VC at Axel Partners.
1:48.0	Three, two, one, zero.
1:53.0	You have now arrived at your destination.
1:57.0	Michael, it's absolutely great to have you on the 20 minute VC. Thank you so much for joining us today.
	...

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