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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: How Great VCs Handle Themselves In An M&A Process, Why M&A Has Become The Primary Method of Exit & How The Best M&A Teams Operationalise Their Process with James Loftus, Corporate Development Lead @ Square

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 March 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

James Loftus is Corporate Development Lead @ Square where he has made multiple acquisitions and investments including the likes of acquiring OrderAhead and investing in Eventbrite. Prior to Square, James was responsible for strategy, business development and operations at STX Digital. Before that James was a Partner @ Andreessen Horowitz where he led strategic coverage for the firm’s 45+ consumer-facing portfolio, advising them on everything from capital raising to partnerships to M&A. Prior to VC with a16z, James was VP & Head of Corporate Development @ Yahoo and also spent time in the M&A team at Google.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How James made his way into the world of corporate development and M&A with Andreessen and how that translated to leading Square's M&A efforts today?

2.) Why does James fundamentally disagree with the notion that "companies are bought and not sold"? What are the nuances behind the scenes that make this wrong?

3.) 514 VC backed exits in 2017, 499 were M&A, so how does James assess the M&A landscape at present? Is it now the undeniable leader in primary exit method? How does James believe we will see the M&A market evolve over the next year? Who are the new entrants? How will their entering effect both volume and pricing of M&A?

4.) How does James respond to Paul Graham's article titled "Don't Talk To Corp Dev"? How does James and Square think about operationalizing the tracking of companies in the landscape? When is the right time for startups to relationship build with corp dev? How does James most like to interact with VCs in the processes? What makes the best so good?

5.) Paul Graham has also called the process "grueling", would James agree with this? What does James do to minimise pain and friction both for startup and acquirer? How does product play a pivotal role in this "grueling" process? How should cor dev also be thinking about the emotional and sentimental elements of selling companies?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

James’s Fave Book: A History Of The World In 10 1/2 Chapters

James’s Most Recent Investment: Eventbrite

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

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

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You are listening to the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings. You can find me on Instagram at

0:04.4

H. Stebbing's 1996 with two Bs for all things behind the scenes, which is mostly health and nutrition

0:10.1

right now, but it would be great to see you there. Now, to the show today, and as you know,

0:13.9

I love speaking to VCs, but there's a crucial element of our business that I think

0:17.8

simply not covered enough, and that's corporate development and M&A. And so I'm thrilled to be joined today by a leader in the space in the form of James Loftus,

0:25.6

corporate development leader Square, where he's made multiple acquisitions and investments,

0:29.6

including the likes of order ahead and investing in Eventbrite. Prior to Square, James was responsible

0:34.6

for strategy, business development and operations at STX Digital.

0:38.8

Before that, James was a partner at Andreessen Horrors, where he led strategic coverage for the firm's 45 plus consumer-facing portfolio,

0:46.3

advising them on everything from capital raising to partnerships to M&A.

0:50.3

And then before Andreessen, James was VP and head of Corp-Dev Yahoo, and prior to that, was in the M&A team at Google.

0:56.4

I do also want to give a big hand to Matt Switzer at Hoot Suite for the intro to James today, without which this episode would not have been possible.

1:02.8

We really do appreciate that.

1:04.4

But before we dive into the show today, what are we without a great night's sleep?

1:08.0

And that's where Lisa comes in.

1:09.5

Lisa is the Warby Parker or Tom's shoes

1:11.5

of the mattress industry. They've done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience

1:15.8

by creating this luxury premium foam mattress that's ordered completely online and shipped

1:20.7

for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with three

1:25.6

unique foam layers for a universal adaptive feel,

1:28.5

including two inches of memory foam and two inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena,

1:33.3

designed to keep you cool. All Lisa matches are 100% US or UK made, and for every 10 mattresses

...

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