20VC: Clubhouse Founder Paul Davison on What Went Right and What Went Wrong | What Does Clubhouse Do Now To Regain Mindshare? | Why Clubhouse is not a Content Platform? | What is the Next Wave of Consumer Social and Does Web3 Play a Role? |

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

🗓️ 26 September 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Paul Davison is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Clubhouse, the startup that believes people are at the centre of every moment, providing a platform to talk with friends and meet new friends. To date, Paul has raised over $310M with Clubhouse from a16z, DST, Elad Gil, Naval Ravikant, and many more. Prior to co-founding Clubhouse, Paul was the Founder of Highlight, a location-based consumer social service backed by Benchmark. Before Highlight, Paul actually spent time at Benchmark as an EiR.

In Today's Episode with Paul Davison We Discuss:

1.) Entry into Startups:

How Paul came to found Highlight in the early days of consumer social?
What elements worked with Highlight that he took with him to Clubhouse? Which elements did not work that he learned from?

2.) Clubhouse: What Worked:

What does Paul believe are the primary reasons that Clubhouse grew so fast?
What metrics does Paul use to determine true product-market-fit and stickiness?
What is good retention on Day 1, Day 7 and Day 30? How important is 12-month retention?

3.) Clubhouse: What Did Not Work:

COVID: Does Paul believe that Clubhouse was the COVID antidote we all needed? How sustainable is that if so? What trends make it more sustainable?
Live Does Not Work: How does Paul respond to Mike Mignano's comments that "live does not work"? Why does Paul believe that Clubhouse is not a content platform?
Quality: Does Paul agree that the quality of live is not as good as the quality of produced content? Is that a problem? If the quality is worse, what is significantly better about live?

4.) The Future of Social:

Does Paul agree that we are seeing the disregard of the once hailed social graph in favour of a new era of recommendation media? What does this mean for Clubhouse?
With the rise of the likes of BeReal, how does Paul think about the importance of authenticity in the next wave of consumer social?
How does Paul forsee Web3 and the next generation of consumer social being interlinked? What will it take for Web3 to break through? What are the core barriers today?
Does Paul agree that the best consumer social tools empower creators with Superhuman powers?

5.) Lessons on CEOship:

What are Paul's biggest lessons on successful company building?
How does Paul manage the criticism and negativity of the press personally?
How does Paul maintain the morale internally when the press cycle is so negative?
How has Paul adapted himself to gain a thicker skin and not pay as much attention?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Paul's Favourite Book: Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity, Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'm so excited for the show today. I've wanted to do this one for a long time.
0:05.5	Today's guest took the world by storm, becoming one of the hottest apps in the world in 2021.
0:10.8	It's had its ups and downs, and today we talk about them and the future plans.
0:15.2	And so I'm thrilled to welcome Paul Davison, co-founder and CEO at Clubhouse,
0:19.2	the startup that believes that people are at the
0:21.1	center of every moment, providing a platform to talk with friends and meet new friends. To date,
0:26.6	Paul has raised over $310 million with Clubhouse from Andreessen Horace, DST, Ila Gill, Naval
0:32.7	Ravikant, and many more. Prior to co-founding Clubhouse, Paul was the founder of Highlight,
0:37.2	a location-based consumer social service backed by Benchmark. And before Highlight, Paul actually
0:42.1	spent time at Benchmark as an EIR. I'd also want to say a huge thank you to Bubba Muraka
0:46.7	for some amazing questions suggestions today. Really did make such a difference. But before we
0:51.3	move into the episode today, Harvard Management Company is constantly
0:54.6	seeking out the next generation of great investors and entrepreneurs. HMC has managed
0:59.7	Harvard University's Endowment for nearly 50 years and was one of the first institutional
1:04.1	investors in venture capital. Their experience and long-term investment horizon makes some
1:08.9	ideal partners to get world-changing ideas on a path to viability and success.
1:14.0	They work as a true partner, providing insightful perspectives to help managers succeed.
1:18.8	I personally have had the pleasure of working with the HMC team and can say that they are truly exceptional partners and savvy investors.
1:25.5	Whether you are launching your first fund or your fifth,
1:28.2	HMC welcomes the opportunity to partner with both developing and established managers. Have an idea
1:33.5	you want to share with the team? Just send it to venture at HMC.harvard.edu. And speaking of amazing
1:40.3	partners with HMC there, Mercury is building full-stack banking for startups.
	...

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