20VC: Benchmark's Scott Belsky on What Makes Truly The Best VCs? Why Entrepreneurs Must Focus on 'The First Mile' & The Key Ingredients To The Perfect Onboarding Process
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2017
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Scott Belsky is a Venture Partner @ Benchmark, one of the world's leading VC funds. As an early-stage investor himself he has made investments in the likes of Uber, Warby Parker, Pinterest and Flexport just to name a few. Prior to Benchmark, Scott co-founded Behance in 2006, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Behance in 2012. After Behance's acquisition, Scott served as Adobe's Vice President of Products, rebooting Adobe's mobile product strategy and leading Behance until 2016. If that was not enough Scott is also, the co-founder and Chairman of a new marketplace product under development.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Scott made his move into VC with Benchmark having founded Behance and been a VP @ Adobe?
2.) How did Scott see his investment decision making process change when comparing being an angel to a VC? What was it about VC that made Scott realise that he would not be a traditional VC?
3.) Why does Scott believe that when momentum is growing too fast it is generally likely to fade out? At what point is the transition point between large momentum that is and is not sustainable?
4.) Why is Scott fascinated by 'the journey in between'? What gives Scott hope when reviewing a company in this stage? What does he always look for?
5.) Why does Scott think that autonomous vehicles in cities will be a public utility? Will the data sets produced be publicly or privately owned? Who will operate mass transit systems?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Scott’s Fave Book: Tribe: On Homecoming & Belonging
Scott’s Fave Blog or Newsletter: The Information
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Scott on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to another week in the world of the 20 minute VC with me, your host, Harry Stebbings, found on Snapchat at H. Debbing's with 2Bs, and then find writing more these days on MahitoVC.com. |
| 0:10.0 | I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on that. But to the show today, and what a cracker we have in store for you today, as we welcome Scott Belski to the show. Now, Scott really is a man of many skills, so I'm not really sure where to start. |
| 0:27.0 | Scott Belski is an entrepreneur, author and investor. Scott co-founded Bihans in 2006 and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Bihans in 2012. After their acquisition, Scott served as Adobe's |
| 0:32.5 | vice president of products, rebooting Adobe's mobile product strategy and leading Bihans until |
| 0:37.3 | 2016. |
| 0:38.6 | He's now a venture partner at Benchmark, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, |
| 0:42.6 | and as an early stage investor himself, he's made investments in the likes of Uber, |
| 0:46.4 | Warby Parker, Pinterest and Flexport, just to name a few staggering companies. |
| 0:50.5 | If that wasn't enough, he's also the co-founder and chairman of a new marketplace product |
| 0:54.3 | under development. I also want to say a huge thank you to Mike Miniano at Anker for the intro to |
| 0:58.9 | Scott today, without which the show would not have been possible, so I really appreciate that. |
| 1:03.1 | But before we dive into the show today, there are some products that you simply cannot |
| 1:06.4 | remember what life was like before them. For me, that's X.a.I. They bring you Amy and Andrew, their |
| 1:11.7 | AI-powered personal assistance for scheduling meetings. And the beauty of Amy or Andrew is you interact |
| 1:17.0 | with them like you would any other person. And it allows you to avoid the tedious hours of email |
| 1:21.5 | ping pong in order to schedule one meeting. Even better though. There's no sign in, no password, |
| 1:26.2 | no download. All you do is |
| 1:27.7 | C-C Amy at X.A.I. Absolutely fantastic. And you can check it out now at X.A.I. It really is a must. |
| 1:34.6 | And on the topic of streamlining, traditionally long and cumbersome workflows, you must check |
| 1:38.5 | out Workable, the all-in-one recruiting software for ambitious companies. From posting a job to |
| 1:43.2 | tracking and managing |
| 1:44.1 | candidates, Workable provides everything you need to hire better. Transparent communication, |
... |
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