20VC: Index's Ilya Fushman on The Key Lessons From Scaling Dropbox To 400m Users, Is Excessive Amounts Of Capital Driving Valuations Too High In The Valley & Why Venture Is Like Being On A Swim Team Not A Soccer Team
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2016
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ilya Fushman is a Partner at Index Ventures where he has made investments in the likes of Slack, Intercom, Dropbox and Optimizely. Prior to joining Index, Ilya was the head of product at Dropbox. As one of Dropbox’s first 75 employees, he helped build and run the company’s business and corporate development functions, before taking on a product leadership role and building out Dropbox, Dropbox for Business and the developer platform. Before Dropbox, he was a principal at Khosla Ventures and the Director of Technology at the solar cell startup Solar Junction.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Ilya made his transition from Dropbox to return to the world of VC with Index?
2.) Does Ilya agree that to scale successfully you have to reinvent yourself every 6 months? Why does Ilya believe you must infuse an element of delight into the people side of the business? How can this be done effectively?
3.) How did Ilya and the Dropbox team look to effectively manage and scale the employee on boarding process with the growth of the company?
4.) Question from Lars @ Balderton: Does Ilya believe his extensive operational background allows him to get into deals he would otherwise not have been able to win?
5.) Question from Lars: Does Ilya believe an excess of capital is driving prices in the valley excessively high? Will we continue to see this in the coming years?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Ilya’s Fave Book: Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master & Margarita
Ilya’s Most Recent Investment: Slack, Culture Amp
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Ilya on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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Cooley are the global law firm built around startups and venture capital. Since forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley, Cooley has formed more venture capital funds than any other law firm in the world, with 50+ years working with VCs. They help VCs form and manage funds, make investments and handle the myriad issues that arise through a fund’s lifetime. So to learn more about the #1 most active law firm representing VC-backed companies going public. Head over to cooley.com and also atcooleygo.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome back to the 20 minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings on H. Stebbings on Snapchat. |
| 0:05.5 | Now, what a week we have here for you on the show and to kick off this incredible week of guests. |
| 0:09.7 | I'm thrilled to welcome Ilya Fushman to the show today. |
| 0:12.2 | Now, Ilya is a partner at Index Ventures in San Francisco, where he's made investments in the likes of Slack, Dropbox, optimizely, and Intercom. |
| 0:25.3 | And you can listen to Intercom founder Owen McCabe on Saster today and then 20 minute VC on Friday for Founders Friday. |
| 0:27.0 | But prior to joining Index, Ilya was also the head of product at Dropbox. |
| 0:30.5 | And as one of Dropbox's first 75 employees, he helped to build and run the company's |
| 0:36.1 | business and corporate development functions |
| 0:37.9 | before taking on a product leadership role and building out Dropbox, Dropbox for business and |
| 0:42.9 | the developer platform. Before Dropbox, he was a principal at Coastal Ventures and the director |
| 0:47.5 | of technology at the Solar Cell Startup Solar Junction. Now, I have to also say a special thank you |
| 0:52.6 | to Iliad for welcoming us so warmly into the index office to record the also say a special thank you to Iliac for welcoming her so warmly |
| 0:54.5 | into the Index Office to record the episode, and a huge thank you to Jason Lemkin for making |
| 0:58.8 | the introduction to Iliac, without which the episode would not have been possible. But before we |
| 1:02.8 | meet the man himself, many things make up a great venture fund, and one of them is the highest |
| 1:07.1 | quality backstage operational support. And that's where Kuli come in. They are the global |
| 1:11.8 | law firm built around startups and venture capital. Since forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley |
| 1:17.5 | in the late 50s, Kooleys form more venture capital funds than any other law firm in the world, |
| 1:22.5 | with more than 50 years of experience working with VCs. They help VCs form and manage funds, make investments, |
| 1:29.2 | and handle the myriad of issues that can arise through a fund's lifetime. So to learn more about |
| 1:33.6 | the number one most active law firm representing VC-backed companies going public, simply head over to |
| 1:39.5 | coolly.com and go to coolly go.com. However, whether you're a VC or a lawyer, everyone needs sleep. |
... |
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