20VC: Benchmark's Sarah Tavel on Why Chasing GMV Will Lead To The Wrong Direction, The 2 Crucial Tipping Points For Marketplace Adoption, Why UGC Plays Are Like Marketplaces & How To Determine Between Existential and Non-Existential Risk
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 23 November 2020
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sarah Tavel is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the most successful funds of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Uber, Twitter, Dropbox, WeWork, Snapchat, StitchFix, eBay and many more. As for Sarah, prior to joining Benchmark, she was a General Partner at another globally renowned firm, Greylock, where she led deals in Sonder and Gixo. Pre-Greylock, Sarah was the first PM @ Pinterest where she led three acquisitions, launched Pinterest internationally, and was responsible for closing their $100m Series C financing.
20VC: Benchmark's Sarah Tavel on Why Chasing GMV Will Lead To The Wrong Direction, The 2 Crucial Tipping Points For Marketplace Adoption, Why UGC Plays Are Like Marketplaces & How To Determine Between Existential and Non-Existential Risk
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Sarah made her way from being the first PM at Pinterest to being a General Partner at one of the world's leading venture firms, Benchmark?
2.) What does Sarah mean when she says, "the small things are not the big things"? How does Sarah determine between existential vs non-existential risk? How does this impact the type of board member Sarah is? How has Sarah seen the best board members engage? Who are they?
3.) Why does Sarah believe that in marketplaces, chasing GMV will lead you in the wrong direction? How does Sarah think about good vs great when it comes to 1.) Average order values? 2.) Repeat purchase rates. 3.) NPS? 4.) Net revenue retention? How should they change with time?
4.) In marketplaces, what is a tipping point? What are the 2 crucial tipping points to be aware of? How can marketplaces ensure demand brings further demand? What can they determine from how demand engages with different suppliers? How does Sarah feel about feedback systems?
5.) Why does Sarah believe that UGC plays are like marketplaces? What lessons can be drawn from TikTok to suggest this? How does Sarah think about her biggest lessons when analysing the growth of DoorDash? What do many not see that is important to recognise?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode
Sarah’s Favourite Book: Pachinko: The New York Times Bestseller
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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 wow, I'm so excited for the show |
| 0:03.7 | stay, joined by a master of marketplaces, one of my favourite writers in the venture space also. |
| 0:08.4 | And so with that, I'm thrilled to welcome Sarah Tavell, general partner of Benchmark, |
| 0:12.1 | one of the most successful funds of the last decade, with a portfolio including the lights |
| 0:15.8 | of Uber, Twitter, Dropbox, WeWork, Snapchat, Stitchfix, eBay, and many, many more unicorns. |
| 0:21.8 | As for Sarah, prior to joining Benchmark, she was a general partner in another globally |
| 0:25.5 | renowned firm, Greylock, where she led deals in Sonder and Gixote. |
| 0:29.3 | Pre-Graylock, Sarah was the first PM at Pinterest, where she led three acquisitions, |
| 0:33.7 | launched Pinterest globally, and then was also responsible for closing their $100 million |
| 0:37.5 | series C financing. What an incredible few years it was there. And I do have to say a huge |
| 0:41.9 | thank you to Jonathan at Chain Analysis, Bill Gurley and Chatham Putagunta, some fantastic |
| 0:46.3 | questions suggestions today. I really do so appreciate that. But before we move into the show |
| 0:50.5 | today, I want to take a moment to mention HelloSign, a great example of a company that found success in building a product focused on user experience. HelloSign is an effortless |
| 0:58.7 | e-signature solution used by millions to securely send and request legally valid digital signatures |
| 1:04.2 | and agreements. They raised a total of $16 million in funding and recently got acquired by Dropbox |
| 1:09.2 | for an impressive $230 million. |
| 1:11.7 | Check out HelloSign.com forward slash 20VC to join the thousands of companies and founders |
| 1:17.1 | who value fast, secure and simple e-signatures. |
| 1:20.5 | And last but by no means least, and staying on the theme of amazing, beautiful products, |
| 1:24.4 | the team over at Pendo, the product cloud company, is expanding rapidly |
| 1:28.2 | throughout Europe and recently released a version of their product which is designed and priced |
| 1:32.6 | specifically for startups. So no matter whether you're an operator or you're an investor. In |
... |
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