20VC: Alexa Von Tobel on Raising NYC's Largest Ever Female Led Fund , Portfolio Construction, Compression of Fundraising Timelines, Reserves Management & Personal Branding in Venture
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2020
⏱️ 38 minutes
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Summary
Alexa Von Tobel is the Founder & Managing Partner @ Inspired Capital, announced in 2019 as the largest ever female-led VC fund based in NYC. Prior to co-founding Inspired, Alexa founded LearnVest where she enjoyed an incredible 11-year journey culminating in their $250M exit to Northwestern Mutual in 2015. Alexa is also the author of New York Times Bestseller "Financially Fearless" and is an inaugural member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship for the White House.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Alexa made her way into the world of startups with the founding of LearnVest? How did that experience running LearnVest lead to her founding NYC's largest-ever female-led VC fund in the form of Inspired?
2.) How does Alexa think about portfolio construction with the new $200M fund? What does she mean when she says they have segmented it into 3 distinct and separate buckets? How much is in each bucket? How does Alexa think about reserves and re-investment decision making? What is the process here?
3.) As a former entrepreneur, how does Alexa think about those moments when the VC and the Founder are no longer aligned? What are those moments? How does Alexa approach the aspect of saying no to founders? What is the right way? How does Alexa feel about the compression in fundraising timelines? How does Alexa meet founders before they raise their round?
4.) Why does Alexa believe that capital is no longer the differentiator? How does Alexa think about personal brand in venture today? Where does Alexa believe are the most crucial times for reputation building? How does Alexa approach time allocation across the portfolio? What is the correlation between decision-making and reputation?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Alexa’s Fave Book: The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact
Alexa’s Most Recent Investment: Snackpass
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Alexa on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the show. |
| 0:04.3 | Do ping me on Instagram at H. Stebbings, 1996 with 2Bs. |
| 0:08.0 | It would be awesome to see you there, and I respond to all messages personally there. |
| 0:11.3 | But to the show today, and switching coast to the East Coast, and when I saw this fund announcement back in 2019, |
| 0:16.9 | I knew this was a show that I would love to do, and so I'm super excited to welcome Alexa von Tobel, |
| 0:21.7 | founder and managing partner at Inspired Capital, announced in 2019 as the largest ever female-led VC fund |
| 0:27.9 | based in New York. Prior to co-founding inspired, Alexa founded LearnVest, where she enjoyed an |
| 0:32.4 | incredible 11-year journey, culminating in their $250 million exit to Northwestern Mutual in 2015. |
| 0:39.2 | Alexa is also the author of New York Times bestseller, financially fearless, and is a member |
| 0:43.2 | of the presidential ambassadors for global entrepreneurship for the White House. |
| 0:46.9 | I'd also want to say huge thank you to Satya at Homebrew, Rebecca at USV, and Alexa's partner |
| 0:51.3 | Lucy for some fantastic questions suggestions today. I really am grateful for that. |
| 0:55.5 | But before we move into the show today, this episode is brought you by Silicon Valley Bank. |
| 0:59.7 | For over 35 years, Silicon Valley Bank has been the bank for visionaries of all kinds. |
| 1:04.0 | People and businesses who've revolutionized everything from software to social media, |
| 1:08.5 | from workspaces to wine. With nimble banking services and |
| 1:11.6 | solutions, Silicon Valley Bank helps startups adapt to the changing needs of a growing company. |
| 1:16.4 | Learn more at SVB.com backslash next. That's Silicon Valley Bank, Ideas Bank here. Let's face it, |
| 1:22.9 | though, also, everyone not only needs banking, but everyone today wants to start a podcast, |
| 1:27.4 | but man, the incumbent |
| 1:28.4 | toolset sucks for creating podcasts, take my word for it. And that's why I love Descript so much. |
| 1:33.6 | Descript is the brand new way to record, edit and mix spoken word audio. But for me, the main reason |
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