20VC: How Startups Should React To Today's Funding Environment & Why Big Markets Are More Forgiving with Jenny Lefcourt, Partner @ Freestyle.vc

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

🗓️ 18 May 2016

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jenny Lefcourt is a Partner @ Freestyle where she invests in early stage tech companies. Prior to Freestyle, Jenny was the Founder of Weddingchannel.com and Bella Pictures which were both acquired. During this time, Jenny raised funds from titans of VC including Kleiner Perkins, Trinity Ventures, Amazon and more. Jenny has also angel invested and advised some incredible entrepreneurs with the likes of Minted and Style Seat.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How did Jenny made his way into VC from founding and exiting 2 startups?

2.) What were the differences in raising money as a founder and as a VC? What learnings as a founder did Jenny have that have helped her move into VC?

3.) How have the large macro-economic changes affected Jenny's investing style? Has she seen a change in her investment cadence? Does Jenny place more emphasis on burn reduction now?

4.) Why does Freestyle not invest with a thesis? What are the benefits of this? How does Jenny make investment decisions going forward without a thesis?

5.) What does Jenny mean when she says that VCs suffer from duck syndrome? What can VCs do to make them the best and their founders life easier?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode:

Jenny’s Fave Book: Dreamland, Blinkist (Harry's Suggestion)

Jenny’s Most Recent Investment: CREXi

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

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com/VC and enter the promo code VC75 to get $75 off!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back to the 20 minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings.
0:03.0	And if you've not already followed me on Snapchat, then you can do that by adding H.
0:07.1	Stebbings.
0:08.2	Now, today's guest is so awesome.
0:09.9	We initially scheduled a 45 minute call and an hour and 45 minutes we were still there.
0:14.5	I'm thrilled to welcome Jenny Lefko, partner at Freestyle, where she invests in early stage tech companies.
0:21.8	And prior to freestyle,
0:27.3	Jenny founded Weddingchannel.com and Bella Pictures, which were both acquired, and she's raised funds from the likes of Kleiner Perkins, Trinity Ventures, Amazon, and more. She's also invested and advised
0:33.6	incredible entrepreneurs at the likes of minted and style seat, and I'd like to say a huge thank
0:38.9	you to Artie and Arab Shahi at Carlin Ventures for making the intro. But first, it's the 18th day,
0:44.6	and that means it is 12 days to go until the Incredible Sunrise Conference by Blackbird Ventures.
0:49.7	And why do I say incredible? Well, because it's unlike many other conferences. It's simply the best
0:55.1	founders and CEOs from the likes of Atlassian, Canva and Planet Labs, to name a few, sharing their
1:01.1	stories, challenges and how they got to where they are today. So if you're in Oz on 30th, or
1:06.1	believe like me, it's worth the trip, then check out the sunrise.co and enter the promo code H. Stebbings for a
1:12.5	fantastic 20% off. And from sunrise to sunset, what better way to enjoy sunset than in a Lisa
1:18.6	mattress? But did you know in Tromso in Norway it is light for 24 hours a day for two months
1:24.8	of the year? But not even this could stop you sleeping if you had a
1:28.1	Lisa mattress, as they're perfectly crafted of three layers, one of memory foam and one of latex
1:34.0	light foam designed to keep you cool at night. Maybe not so relevant if you're in Tromso in the Arctic
1:38.9	circle. But for everyone else, hey, winning. They also have a real social impact mission, and for every 10 they sell, they give one to a shelter,
1:47.2	and they deliver to the UK, US and Canada, and the entire experience is a painless one,
	...

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