20VC: Bolt; The Most Insane Story in Startups | Turning a $5K Loan into an $8BN Company | Why Every VC Turned Down One of Europe's Biggest Winners | Competing with Uber & The Future of Micromobility and Self-Driving

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

🗓️ 13 November 2024

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Markus Villig is the Founder and CEO of Bolt, a global mobility platform with more than 200 million lifetime customers in more than 50 countries and 600 cities. Bolt has raised over €1 billion in funding from investors like Sequoia, D1 and G Squared, making Markus the youngest founder of a billion-dollar company in Europe.

In Today’s Episode with Markus Villig:

1. Starting an $8BN Company:

How did Markus come up with the idea for Bolt before Uber existed?
How did Markus find his co-founder? Why did 30 people turn down the chance to co-found Bolt? What are Markus’ biggest tips on finding a co-founder?
How did Markus use a $5K loan from his parents as the pre-seed round?
How did Markus get the first riders for Bolt? What worked? What did not work?
How did Markus get the first driver for Bolt? What worked? What did not work?

2. Expanding to be a Global Champion:

How did Markus expand Bolt to $10M in ARR on just $1M of funding?
What did the international expansion playbook look like? What worked? What did not work? How has it changed over time?
What one simple change led to their becoming the leader in Africa?
What was the best country to launch? What was the worst?
What is the most profitable country today? What is the least?

3. The $8BN Company that no VC Wanted to Fund:

Why did every large VC in Europe turn down Bolt early on?
How did a real estate company in the Baltics save Bolt with lifeline funding?
When did Sequoia come into the mix? Does Sequoia move the needle for your company when they invest?
How do New York financially driven investors differ to the traditional VC ecosystem?
What would Markus most like to change about the world of VC?

4. The Future: Micromobility, Self-Driving Cars, Uber:

Will the rise of self-driving cars harm or help companies like Bolt and Uber?
What is the future for micromobility? Does it cannibalise the core business for Bolt and Uber?
What is Uber better at Bolt doing? What are Uber worse at than Bolt? How will that change moving forward?
Waymo, buy or short? Why?

Transcript

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0:00.0	We tried to raise every way we could. I met all the VCs around Europe. No matter how many of
0:04.3	these meetings I took and there was dozens, maybe even hundred, they all told us no. Probably got to
0:08.8	the point of doing about 25 million ARR, growing multiple hundred percent a year and still no VCs
0:14.7	wanted to invest. We went from zero to two million ARR in about 18 months. And then from there,
0:20.5	we went to about 10 million ARR in the next 18 months. And then we went from that to 100 million ARR in less than two years.
0:28.5	So now we have 2 billion ARR in sort of the next few years. So it was extremely rapid exponential growth throughout this whole business.
0:35.6	This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, today we have Bolt.
0:39.3	Bolt is one of the most incredible stories in venture capital and startups.
0:43.3	The company has scaled over $2 billion in annual recurring revenue,
0:48.3	but along the way, every single top-tier European venture investor turn them down.
0:53.3	They got lifeline funding from check this out,
0:56.4	a Baltic real estate company which kept them alive and now they have over 200 million customers
1:02.9	and challenge Uber on a global scale. Today, the story of Bolt to an incredible $8 billion
1:09.0	valuation with their founder, Marcus Villig,
1:11.8	joining us in the hot seat. Before we begin, let me share an exciting development from Hive. It's called
1:17.2	the Hive 50, and it's the first live index of large-cap private securities generated directly
1:23.3	by customer orders and transactions on the platform. Over 70% of US-based Decacorns have traded on Hive,
1:30.1	and the Hive 50 ranks the 50 most liquid securities on its platform
1:34.3	based on transaction volume and liquidity.
1:36.7	The index equally weighs the top 50 stocks,
1:39.7	effectively acting as a barometer for the market's direction and momentum
1:43.5	in private tech company
	...

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