20VC: Bessemer's Jeremy Levine on Why We Are In A Fallow Period For Consumer, Why It Is Bogus That Operational VCs Can Add More Value & 2 Golden Rules To Always Tell Entrepreneurs Pre-Investment
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2017
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jeremy Levine is a Partner @ Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the world's leading venture funds with prior investments in the likes of Skype, Shopify, LinkedIn and Twitch, just to name a few. As for Jeremy, 4 of the companies he has invested in with Bessemer have become $Bn companies with 2 of the above; LinkedIn and Shopify, in addition to Yelp and MindBody. If that was not enough, Jeremy is also on the boards of some phenomenal companies in the likes of Pinterest, Yelp and Shopify to name a few.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Jeremy made his entrance into the world of venture and came to be a partner @ Bessemer?
2.) What are the 2 rules Jeremy has with every founder he invests in, prior to making the investment? Why does Jeremy have these rules? At what stage of the pre-investment process are they illustrated?
3.) What are the 2 main reasons that Jeremy believes we are entering a fallow period for the world of consumer? What elements of the incumbency advantages of Facebook, Apple and Google concern Jeremy most? Where does he also see great opportunity?
4.) How has Jeremy seen his style of board member change over the last 16 years? How does Jeremy believe founders can optimize their board through strategic positioning of the VCs they have and where they are placed?
5.) Why does Jeremy believe that it is bogus that operational VCs can provide more value than non-operational VCs? What is the thesis behind this? Where are the core strengths of operational VCs? Where founders must be wary of operational VCs?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Jeremy’s Fave Book: The Outsiders
Jeremy’s Fave Blog: Dan Primack
Jeremy's Most Recent Investment: Toss
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Jeremy 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 | Hello and welcome back to the 20 minute VC with me, your host, Harry Stebbings, and it would be fantastic |
| 0:04.5 | to see you on Snapchat at H. Stebbings with 2Bs, and I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on |
| 0:09.3 | the show through there. All ads get a personal message from me, but to the show today, and it's been a long |
| 0:13.7 | time since we had a themed week on the show. So today, I'm thrilled to change that, with our feature of the globally renowned Bessemer venture partners with a portfolio including |
| 0:21.5 | the likes of Skype, Shopify, LinkedIn and Yelp, they are one of the world's leading venture funds. |
| 0:26.7 | And joining us in the hot seat today from Bessemer, I'm thrilled to welcome Jeremy Levine. Jeremy is a partner in |
| 0:31.4 | Bessemer's New York office and four of the companies Jeremy's invested in with Bessemer have become |
| 0:35.8 | billion-dollar companies with two of the |
| 0:37.5 | above, LinkedIn and Shopify, in addition to Yelp and Mindbody. If that wasn't enough, Jeremy's also on |
| 0:42.7 | the boards of some phenomenal companies in the lights of Pinterest, Yelp and Shopify, just to name a few. |
| 0:47.6 | I do also want to say a big thank you to Byron Dita for the intro today to Jeremy, without which |
| 0:51.9 | this episode would not have been possible. But before we dive into today's show, very few pieces of software are a must for the majority |
| 0:58.0 | of VCs I have on the show, but E-Shares most certainly is. |
| 1:01.5 | E-Shairs is the number one cap table management platform, allowing for equity management, |
| 1:05.9 | 409A valuations, and liquidity, all in one place. |
| 1:09.2 | And E-Shares is made for companies of all sizes with over |
| 1:11.9 | 5,000 trusted customers, including the lights of Squarespace, Kickstarter and DoorDash, just to name a few. |
| 1:18.2 | So try out the must-have service of the industry and head over to eshares inc.com. It really is a |
| 1:23.4 | must. And once you have all the paperwork tied down with e-shares, you can now engage with |
| 1:27.3 | your employees. And that's where Fond comes in. Fond is the employee engagement suite with three |
| 1:32.4 | core products. Rewards, a recognition platform for rewarding achievements and milestones. |
| 1:37.6 | Perks, a premium corporate discounts program to show employees you care about them both in and |
... |
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