20VC: From Seed To Series A: The Due Diligence, The Valuations, The Investment Decision Making Process with Steve Schlafman @ RRE Ventures

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Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2016

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Steve Schlafman is an early stage investor @ RRE Ventures, where he specialises on marketplaces, mobile services, and hardware. Steve is responsible for RRE’s investments in theSkimm, Hightower, TinyBop, Breather, and Managed by Q. Prior to joining RRE as a Principal, Steve was a Principal and rockstar seed investor at Lerer Ventures. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Steve worked at Stickybits Inc. and Turntable.fm, and served as Director of Venture Investments at The Kraft Group. Steve also worked at Massive Inc. and at Microsoft, where he focused on Biz Dev Strategy and Corporate Finance.

In Today’s Episode with Steve You Will Learn:

How Steve made his way into VC from Microsoft, to Kraft to startup to VC?
Why does Steve think Seed to Series A is such a different ball game? What are the different characteristics encompassed within each?
With such little data at seed, what does Steve’s DD process look like? How does that affect his investment decision making process @ RRE?
What is the valuation comparison between Seed and Series A? How is this determined and how has this changed since Steve’s time at Lerer?
Why do the best markets often appear small and become meaningful? How does Steve look to detect these small markets?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Steve’s Fave Book: Who (Hiring Process), Work (Hiring @ Google), Leading (Michael Moritz)

Steve’s Fave Blog or Newsletter: AVC, Stratechery, The Skimm

Steve’s Most Recent Investment: Brightwheel

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Steve on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to another episode of the 20-minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings, and you can find me, as I'm sure you will know by now, on Snapchat at H.
0:07.5	Stebbings with 2Bs, for all things behind the scenes at 20-minute VC.
0:11.3	But now for today's show, I'm thrilled to welcome a good friend of mine and fantastic VC, Steve Schlaffman,
0:17.1	Schlaff, in other words, early stage investor at RRE Ventures in New York, where he specialises
0:22.6	in marketplaces, mobile services and hardware. And at RRRE, Steve has led investments in the
0:28.0	lights of the skim, high tower, tiny bop, breather, and managed by Q. And prior to joining
0:33.8	RRRE, Steve was the principal with our friends at Lira Hippo Ventures in New York.
0:37.9	And if you haven't heard our interview with Eric Hippo, then that really is a must and can be found on the site at the 20 minute VC.com.
0:45.1	However, before we jump into the interview today with Steve, if you've not had a chance to check out the amazing design crowd, then it really is a must.
0:52.2	They really are the online marketplace for design with over 500,000
0:55.9	registered designers. They have the ability to refresh or create the most immense designs for your
1:01.6	site, for business cards, logos. Hey, they even do billboards and t-shirts. I also love the process,
1:07.6	which is three steps in three days. Step one, launch your project with what you're
1:11.6	looking for. Step two, wait and watch as designs come in from designers around the world, and then you
1:16.8	simply choose your favourites. Three, the designs will then be sent to you, and the process is complete. It's
1:22.4	really that simple, and it takes only three days and avoids the long wait times and high fees of agencies.
1:28.1	So check them out on design crowd.com forward slash VC
1:31.0	and enter the promo code VC100 for a fantastic $100 off.
1:35.6	But now it's time to welcome the main man, Steve Schlaffman, at RRE Ventures.
1:40.0	Three, two, one, zero.
1:45.7	You have now arrived at your destination.
1:48.5	Ready?
	...

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