20VC: AngelList's Parker Thompson on How He Evaluates Startup Founders & Why The Move To Series A Is Harder Than Ever?

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 December 2016

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Parker Thompson is a Partner @ AngelList and creator of popular parody Twitter Account, Startup L Jackson. At AngelList Parker has made investments in the likes of former guests, Algolia, Realty Shares and Keen IO. Prior to joining AngelList, Parker was a Partner at 500 Startups in SF and his illustrious path prior to investing includes Pivotal Labs, co-founding PlaceSite, preserving the interwebs at the Internet Archive, and working on digital copyright at UC Berkeley’s iSchool.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Parker made his way into the world of early stage investing from the world of operations?

2.) How does Parker look to evaluate startup founders? What questions does he like to ask? What traits does he like to see in the core exec?

3.) Why does Parker think "not enough traction" is a BS VC excuse? How should VC's approach saying no to founders? What are the real reasons a VC is saying no in this case?

4.) Why does Parker believe the jump to Series A is bigger than ever? What has caused this? What metrics do startups have to achieve to make this move successfully?

5.) How should founders determine how much money to raise? If they can should they raise a 'warchest'? Why should founders not be concerned with dilution in the early days?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Parker’s Fave Blog: Stratechery, Nuzzel

Parker’s Fave Book: The Modernist Cuisine

Parker’s Most Recent Investment: Common Networks

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

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is the 20 minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings at H. Debbings on Snapchat, and this is the final VC episode before Christmas.
0:06.6	We do have a Founders Friday on Friday, but this is the final VC episode before Christmas.
0:10.9	And over the Christmas break, there will be a slight change to schedules, as we will not be releasing a show as we usually do on Monday, due to it being Boxing Day, but we will be back on the 28th and commence as usual from there.
0:24.7	However, to the show today, and I'm delighted to welcome Parker Thompson to the show's day.
0:29.3	Now, Parker is a partner at Angel List and creator of popular Twitter parody account,
0:33.8	Startup L Jackson. At Angel List, Parker's made investments in the likes of former guests,
0:39.1	Algolia, Realty shares, and Keene I.O. And prior to joining Angel List, Parker was a partner at 500 startups in San Francisco, and his illustrious path prior to investing includes pivotal labs,
0:44.2	co-founding place site, preserving the interwebs at the internet archive, and working on digital
0:49.0	copyright at UC Berkeley's I School. I do also want to say a huge thank you to Eric Torrenberg
0:53.6	for the intro to
0:54.3	Parker to today, without which the episode would not have been possible, very grateful for bad.
0:58.3	However, before we meet one of the most connected and quite frankly cool guys in startup world,
1:02.7	what if accounting could be easy, efficient, maybe even enjoyable? Well, that's where Zero
1:07.1	come in. Zero is beautiful, easy to use online accounting software for small businesses.
1:12.1	With Zero, you can easily manage your accounting anytime, anywhere from your computer or mobile
1:16.7	device. When you add zero to your small business, you're able to send online invoices and get paid
1:21.7	faster, get an instant view of your cash flow, track your payroll and keep tabs on your inventory,
1:27.0	partner with your accountant and bookkeeper in real time keep tabs on your inventory, partner with your
1:27.6	accountant and bookkeeper in real time whenever you like. You can even customize your Zero
1:32.0	experience with over 500 business apps, including advanced solutions for point of sale, time
1:37.1	tracking, e-commerce, and more. It's no wonder over 860,000 customers in more than 180
1:43.0	countries use zero.
	...

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