20VC: DFJ's Josh Stein on Why VCs Must Adapt To Their Founders, The Major Transition Points For Aaron Levie @ Box & Why SaaS Startups Are Growing At A Rate Never Seen Before
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2017
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Josh Stein is Partner @ DFJ where his current board responsibilities include Box (NYSE: BOX), Chartbeat, LaunchDarkly, LendKey, SugarCRM, and previous guests with me on SaaStr in Periscope and Talkdesk. He is also actively involved with the firm's investments in AngelList, Doximity and Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) just to name a few. Prior to joining DFJ, Josh was a VP at Telephia, where he managed a group providing strategic analysis and information to the nation's largest wireless carrier. Previously, Josh was a co-founder for ViaFone (NYSE: SY), a DFJ portfolio company and a leading provider of wireless enterprise applications. Josh met the DFJ team when the firm co-led ViaFone's Series A investment.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Josh made his way from the world of operations to Partner @ DFJ?
2.) How does Josh analyze the VC/ Founder fit? How does Josh look to build trust and transparency in that relationship? What is an example of how Josh has changed his style to fit the character of an entrepreneur?
3.) Question from Greg Sands: What did Josh see in the early days of Box with a young Aaron Levie, what was it that made him so excited?
4.) Question from Mamoon Hamid @ Social Capital: Looking at Box today, what will it take for Box to 10x their value? What needs to happen in the market? What needs to happen to the product roadmap?
5.) Question from Jason Lemkin @ SaaStr: How is it that we are seeing companies like TalkDesk and Twilio grow at a rate never seen before in today's SaaS environment?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Josh’s Fave Blog: TermSheet
Josh’s Fave Book: Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success
Josh’s Most Recent Investment: LaunchDarkly
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome back to the 20 minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings and you can find me on |
| 0:03.9 | Snapchat drinking mehito's mostly on at H. Debings with two bees or check out my newfound love of |
| 0:09.3 | writing on mahitovc.com. I'd absolutely love to hear your thoughts and feedback on that. I'm also |
| 0:14.4 | immensely excited for this week on the show as we feature one of the most prominent funds of the last decade, with investments in the lights of Skype, Tesla, Twitter, Angel List. Have you guessed who it is yet? Well, this week we'll |
| 0:25.2 | be featuring DFJ and joining me from DFJ today, I'm thrilled to welcome Josh Stein, partner at |
| 0:30.1 | DFJ, where his current board responsibilities include box, chart beat, launch darkly, lend key, sugar |
| 0:36.1 | CRM, and previous guests with me on Saster, in the form of |
| 0:39.1 | periscope data and talk desk. He's also actively involved with the firm's investments in Angelist, |
| 0:43.9 | Doximity and Twilio, just to name a few. And prior to joining DFJ, Josh was a VP at Telefia, |
| 0:48.9 | where he managed a group providing strategic analysis and information to the nation's largest wireless carrier. |
| 0:59.4 | Prior to that, Josh was a co-founder for Viaphone, a DFJ portfolio company and a leading provider of wireless enterprise applications. It was there that Josh met the DFJ team when they co-led |
| 1:03.9 | Viaphone's Series A investment. I also want to say huge thanks to Jason Lemkin, the main man for |
| 1:08.5 | the intro to Josh today, without which this episode would not have been possible. However, before we welcome Josh to the show today, you heard about |
| 1:14.6 | my newfound love of writing there. Well, I also have a newfound commitment to sleep and sleeping more, |
| 1:19.4 | and that's where the Simba hybrid comes in. It's the most advanced mattress in the world, |
| 1:23.3 | with a unique combination of 2,500 conical pocket springs and responsive memory foam. |
| 1:28.7 | It offers the perfect support for two people, a mattress that responds to you and your partner's |
| 1:33.0 | sleeping patterns, delivered for free, and with a 100-night sleep trial, free returns and a 10-year |
| 1:37.9 | guarantee. What's the risk? Simply start your free trial at simba sleep.com. Another target of |
| 1:42.9 | mine for the new year is productivity, and there's |
| 1:44.8 | no better for that than Cirrus Insight. The plugin for sales pros who use Gmail and Outlook, |
| 1:50.0 | it automatically updates activities in Salesforce, so you don't have to, and it was named number 41 on the |
... |
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