20VC: Benchmark's Mitch Lasky on The Snapchat Journey From Series A to IPO, Why Small Is Beautiful In Venture Partnerships & Why Venture Is Very Much Like Hollywood

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The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2017

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mitch Lasky is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the world’s leading VC funds with a portfolio including the likes of Twitter, Uber, Snapchat, eBay, WeWork, Yelp and many more revolutionary companies of the last decade. As for Mitch himself, Mitch has made investments or is on the boards of Snapchat, Riot Games, Discord, Outpost Games and Cyanogen, just to name a few. Prior to Benchmark, Mitch was CEO @ JAMDAT Mobile where he led the mobile gaming company from a 10 employee startup to a 700 employee global business leading their IPO on the NASDAQ in 2004 and later negotiating their sales to Electronic Arts for $680m.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Mitch made his way from leading a 700 person gaming company to IPO to being General Partner with Benchmark?

2.) What does the investment decision-making process look like at Benchmark? Why does Mitch believe small is beautiful when it comes to VC teams? What is it that makes the Benchmark partnership the very special partnership it is?

3.) What makes Mitch say that "venture is very much like Hollywood? What does he mean by this? How does he apply this to talent evaluation? The hits-driven nature of the business?

4.) Why does Mitch struggle when analysing the future for VR? What is it about the current crop of innovation around VR that makes Mitch nervous? Where does Mitch see potential within the realms of VR & AR?

5.) How does Mitch view the continued rise of eSports? Does he believe that the industry will ever be as large as the traditional sports industry? What aspects of the industry does Mitch think is highly investable or not investable?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Mitch’s Fave Book: The Genius of System

Mitch’s Fave Blog: Above The Crowd

Mitch’s Most Recent Investment: Outpost Games

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

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

eShares is the No 1 Cap Table Management platform, allowing for equity management, 409A valuations, and liquidity, all in one place. eShares is made for companies of all sizes with over 5,000 trusted customers including the likes of Squarespace, Kickstarter, and DoorDash just to name a few. To try out the must have service of the industry, simply head over to esharesinc.com it is a must.

Fond is the employee engagement suite with 3 core products, rewards: a recognition platform for rewarding achievements and milestones, perks: a premium corporate discounts program to show employees you care about them and then finally engagement IQ, a free employee engagement survey that allows you to measure the health of your organization. To check it out head over to fond.co

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You are listening to the 20-minute VC and welcome back to another week in the world of venture with your host Harry Stebbings at H. Stebbings with 2Bs on Snapchat.
0:07.5	It would be so fantastic to you there and all ads get a personal message from me.
0:11.3	However, to the show today, and you might remember we interviewed Benchmarks Peter Fenton.
0:15.1	If you haven't listened to that, then that really is a must. And today I'm very honored to say we are joined by Peter's partner, Mitch Lasky,
0:21.2	general partner at Benchmark, one of the world's leading VC funds with a portfolio including
0:25.1	the likes of Twitter, Uber, Snapchat, eBay, WeWork, Yelp, and many more revolutionary companies
0:30.8	of the last decade. As for Mitch himself, Mitch has made investments or is on the boards of
0:35.1	one of my very favourites, Snapchat, Riot Games,
0:37.7	Discord, Outpost Games and Synogen, just to name a few. Prior to benchmark, Mitch was CEO at Jamdat
0:43.1	Mobile, where he led the mobile gaming company from a 10 employee startup to a 700 employee
0:48.1	global business, leading their IPO on the NASDAQ in 2004, and later negotiating their sale
0:53.3	to Electronic Arts for $680 million.
0:56.1	I do also have to say a massive thank you to Tim Chang at Mayfield and Peter Phantom for the
1:00.3	intro to Mitch today, without which this episode would not have been possible.
1:03.5	But before we dive into today's show, very few pieces of software are a must for the majority of
1:08.1	VCs I have on the show, But E-Shares most certainly is.
1:11.4	E-Shares is the number one cap table management platform,
1:14.3	allowing for equity management, 409A valuations and liquidity, all in one place.
1:19.2	And E-Share's is made for companies of all sizes with over 5,000 trusted customers,
1:23.7	including the lights of Squarespace, Kickstarter and DoorDash, just to name a few.
1:28.1	So try out the must-have service of the industry and head over to eshares inc.com. It really is a must.
1:33.8	And once you have all the paperwork tied down with e-sharees, you can now engage with your employees.
	...

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