20VC: Elad Gil on Becoming One of Silicon Valleys Top Angels, Why Most People Get Market Sizing Wrong & Should VC Services Always Be Bundled Together?
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 21 June 2017
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elad Gil is the Founder of Color Genomics, however, Elad is also one of the most prominent angel investors in the valley with a portfolio including the likes of Airbnb, Stripe, Square and Pinterest just to name a few. Prior to founding Color Genomics, Elad was VP of Corporate Strategy @ Twitter where he ran various product teams including geo and search. Before that, Elad spent 3 years at Google where he started Google's mobile team and was involved with 3 acquisitions including Android.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Elad made his way into the world of angel investing and came to invest in Airbnb, Square and Stripe?
2.) Why does Elad take a very market-driven approach to investing? Does this go against the very founder-first approach taken by many in the valley today?
3.) Why does Elad believe that people totally mislead themselves when sizing up potential markets? How should markets be addressed and evaluated? What are the core elements to look for?
4.) Should VC services always be bundled together? Is there a smarter way to decouple these services to make the best products for founders? How could this look in reality?
5.) How does Elad approach valuation? Does Elad agree with Peter Fenton that 'all best companies always seem expensive at the time and cheap in hindsight'?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Elad’s Fave Book: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Elad’s Most Recent Investment: Checkr
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Elad on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
eShares is the No 1 Cap Table Management platform, allowing for equity management, 409A valuations, and liquidity, all in one place. eShares is made for companies of all sizes with over 5,000 trusted customers including the likes of Squarespace, Kickstarter, and DoorDash just to name a few. To try out the must have service of the industry, simply head over to esharesinc.com it is a must.
Fond is the employee engagement suite with 3 core products, rewards: a recognition platform for rewarding achievements and milestones, perks: a premium corporate discounts program to show employees you care about them and then finally engagement IQ, a free employee engagement survey that allows you to measure the health of your organization. To check it out head over to fond.co
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome back to the 20 minute VC with me, your host, Harry Stebbings, at H. Stebbings with |
| 0:04.6 | 2Bs on Snapchat. All ads get a personal message from me. Now, for the show today, and if you haven't |
| 0:09.5 | heard Monday's episode with Peter Fenton at Benchmark, please check that out, as in the episode, |
| 0:13.9 | we discussed an individual called Elad Gill and his fantastic piece on the end of cycles. Well, I'm thrilled to say we have Elad joining us in the hot seat today. |
| 0:21.4 | Now, for those that do not know Elad, he is the founder at Color Genomics. However, |
| 0:25.2 | Elad is also one of the most successful and prominent Angel investors in the Valley, |
| 0:29.1 | with a portfolio including the likes of Airbnb, Stripe, Square and Pinterest, just to name a few. |
| 0:34.9 | Prior to founding Color Genomics, El-Lab was VP of corporate strategy at |
| 0:38.5 | Twitter, where he ran various product teams, including Geo and Search. Before that, Elad spent three |
| 0:43.6 | years at Google, where he started Google's mobile team and was involved with three acquisitions, |
| 0:48.0 | including Android. I do also have to say a big thank you to Josh at Gusto and Sarah Guo |
| 0:52.7 | at Greylock for the intro to ELAD today, |
| 0:54.6 | without which this episode would not have been possible. But before we dive into today's show, |
| 0:58.8 | very few pieces of software are a must for the majority of VCs I have on the show. But E-Shairs |
| 1:03.5 | most certainly is. E-Shairs is the number one cap table management platform, allowing for equity |
| 1:08.5 | management, 409A valuations, and liquidity, all in one place. |
| 1:12.6 | And eShares is made for companies of all sizes with over 5,000 trusted customers, including the |
| 1:17.6 | lights of Squarespace, Kickstarter and DoorDash, just to name a few. So try out the must-have service |
| 1:22.9 | of the industry and head over to eshairs inc.com. It really is a must. And once you have all the paperwork |
| 1:28.3 | tied down with eShare's, you can now engage with your employees. And that's where Fond comes in. |
| 1:33.0 | Fond is the employee engagement suite with three core products. Rewards, a recognition platform |
| 1:38.6 | for rewarding achievements and milestones. Perks, a premium corporate discounts program to show |
... |
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