20 VC: How To Say No Fast and Efficiently and Why UX Must Always Be At The Core Of What You Do with Sitar Teli, Managing Partner @ Connect Ventures

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

🗓️ 30 December 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sitar Teli is Managing Partner at Connect Ventures and has been a venture capitalist for eight years, focusing on early-stage investments in both consumer and B2B companies. Previously with Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, where she led their Series A round in SoundCloud, she has experience with content, gaming and ecommerce startups. Sitar has a dual degree in Mechanical Engineering and Economics from Duke University.

A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today's show and you can find out more about Mattermark here!

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How did Sitar make her way into the wonderful world of VC?

2.) How does Sitar approach the difficult task of saying no to entrepreneurs? What is the framework she has adopted over her 8 years in venture?

3.) There are a large amount of sources of capital for business in the seed stage, why did Sitar believe this was the stage with the most opportunity? Is too much capital chasing too few deals?

4.) With the increasing prominence of crowdfunding, is it a viable alternative to VC? Is Sitar concerned that quality deal flow is being lost to Crowdfunding?

5.) What is driving the growth of the European tech startup scene?

6.) Prior to making investments such as that of Citymapper, one obviously has to look at the team and the product. So what do you look for in a founder and what to you makes a great product?

Items Mentioned In Today's Episode:

Sitar's Fave Book: The Amazing Adventures of K avalier and Clay

Sitar's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Benedict Evans Newsletter

Sitar's Fave Apps: Outlook, Sunrise, Citymapper

Sitar's Most Recent Investment: Knyttan

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

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

Free Ebook: How to boost your Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) by over 100%

Have you ever wished more of your website visitors would convert into a sale, signup or referral? If so, you need Loyalty Bay. With their saas conversion optimizer tool they increase any conversion metric by offering potential customers a choice of personalised rewards to get them to convert. They work with large enterprises like Virgin Media through to startups and have increased conversions on average by over 100%. Free 30 day trial at www.loyaltybay.co.uk

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You are listening to the 20-minute VC and the last episode of 2015 with your host, Harry Stebbings.
0:06.7	And to mark this very special episode, I'm delighted to be joined by an incredibly special guest in the form of Cetar Tele, managing partner at Connect Ventures, one of London's most exciting new seed funds.
0:19.2	Citar herself has been a VC for the last eight years, focusing on early stage investments
0:24.4	in both consumer and B2B companies.
0:27.4	Previously with Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, where she led their series A round in SoundCloud,
0:33.7	she also has extensive experience with content, gaming and e-commerce start-ups.
0:39.4	And do not forget to check out the two-minute takeaway, which accompanies each episode of the 20-minute VC.
0:45.1	This highlights the key facts and theses discussed in each show.
0:49.1	And you can find today's episode takeaways from CETAR's show on the site at the 20 minute VC.com under the page
0:57.1	the two minute takeaway or on our medium page under Harry Stebbings. I'd also like to say a huge
1:02.7	thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data and analysis for today's show. And as always,
1:08.5	for anyone looking for more startup and VC reading material, don't forget to
1:12.7	check out at Thinker on Twitter for some amazing recommendations. But before we dive into the show today,
1:19.0	loyalty bay are giving away a free e-book to usher in the new year in style. The e-book is on
1:25.0	conversion rate optimization, and it clearly lays out how they increase sales
1:29.5	by over 100% for their clients, along with tips, tactics and resources that you too can use
1:36.1	to increase your conversion rates. You can find the download link in the show notes or on the
1:41.2	20 minute VC.com, so don't forget to check that one out. However, it is now time for me to hand over the reins, so without further ado, I'm delighted to introduce and welcome Cetar Telly, managing partner at Connect Ventures.
1:55.4	3.2.1.0. You have now arrived at your destination.
2:04.1	Sita, hugely excited to have you on the 20 minute VC.
2:07.0	Thank you so much for joining us today.
2:09.4	It's my pleasure.
	...

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.