20VC: Evernote & mmhmm Founder Phil Libin on Why We are Beginning a Multi-Trillion Dollar Restructuring of the World, Why Shortcuts are the Biggest Mistakes Startups Make & The Future of Video and The Unbundling of Zoom
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2021
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Phil Libin is the Founder and CEO @ mmhmm, the app that allows you to level up your remote presentations, making high-quality video content in minutes. To date, Phil has raised over $30M for the company from an incredible investor base including Sequoia, Kevin & Julia Hartz, Tony Fadell, Instagram's Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and Brianne Kimmel. Prior to mmhmm, Phil was a Managing Director @ General Catalyst and prior to his time in venture, Phil most famously founded Evernote, where he led the business with phenomenal success, as CEO for over 8 years.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Phil made his way into the world of startups, came to found Evernote and how that led to his founding of mmhmm, most recently?
2.) How would Phil describe his management style today? How has it changed over time? Why does Phil believe shortcuts are the greatest mistakes startups make? What does Phil believe you can vs cannot take shortcuts on? What have been some real world lessons there?
3.) What were Phil's biggest takeaways from his time in venture? How did it change his operating mindset? Does Phil believe there is an incentive misalignment between founder and VC? Why is Roelof Botha the best board member Phil has worked with? What makes him so special?
4.) How does Phil think about the unbundling/verticalisation of Zoom? How does he predict the market evolving? How does Phil see the differing usage patterns between consumer and business? Why does Phil believe more can be learned from looking at similarities and not differences?
5.) What does Phil believe are the two classes of mistakes when scaling startups? What have been Phil's biggest lessons on acquiring and retaining the best talent? How does Phil create an environment of dissent where anyone can bring their entire self and beliefs to the table?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode
Phil’s Favourite Book: Kafka on the Shore
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back. This is the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings. So I'm so excited for the episode today. |
| 0:04.1 | I think it's one of the greatest branding tactics when it comes to the naming of this company. |
| 0:08.0 | And I'm definitely going to butcher it, so I want a warning ahead of time. |
| 0:11.0 | But here it goes, and I'm so thrilled to welcome Phil Libin back to the hot seat today. |
| 0:14.8 | Now, Phil is the founder and CEO at M. The app that allows you to level up your remote presentations, making high-quality video content |
| 0:22.5 | in minutes. Phil has raised over $30 million for the company from an incredible array of |
| 0:26.9 | investors including Sequoia, Kevin and Julia Hart's Tony Fidel, Instagram's Kevin's sisterman Mike |
| 0:32.3 | Krieger, and Brian Kimmel, to name a few. Prior to... |
| 0:35.0 | Phil was a managing directorate General Catalyst, and prior to his time in venture, Phil most |
| 0:41.4 | famously founded Evernote, where he led the business with phenomenal success as CEO for over |
| 0:46.0 | eight years. |
| 0:46.8 | I'd also want to say a huge thank you to Bidstone and Julia Hart's two prior guests on the |
| 0:50.7 | show for some fantastic questions suggestions today. |
| 0:53.3 | They really did so help me |
| 0:54.5 | been preparing this schedule. But before we dive into the show today, I have to say I just love |
| 0:58.5 | using Angel List's fund admin platform to manage my investments with 20 VC. The team and the platform |
| 1:03.7 | with Angel List takes care of all my back office needs so that I can focus on working with great |
| 1:08.0 | founders. Leading fund managers have made over 10,000 investments |
| 1:11.5 | into 6,000 startups via Angel List, all online and all in one place. And with the recently |
| 1:16.9 | announced rolling funds, you can easily find and invest in these top fund managers on |
| 1:21.4 | angellist.com forward slash rolling. And speaking of incredible products that allow you to do things |
| 1:26.3 | that you simply didn't think were possible before, in 2021, every business is a global business. But how do you pay your |
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