20VC: Inside Accel's $4BN Growth Investing Machine | Cursor is Dead is Total BS: Here is Why | What Missing Rippling and ElevenLabs Taught Us | Are $2BN-$10BN IPOs Dead | Why Now is a Great Time to be Thoma Bravo with Miles Clements
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 693 Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Miles Clements is a Partner @ Accel where he helps to lead their growth fund. At Accel, Miles has led or invested in Atlassian, Cursor, Linear, and more.
AGENDA:
03:38 Where is True Alpha and Value in a World of AI
05:10 Why it is Total BS that Cursor is Dead
07:55 Why Cursor Were Not Wrong to Build Their Own Models
09:38 What is the Upside When Investing in Cursor at $27BN?
15:12 Do Sub $10BN Outcomes Even Matter to a Fund the Size of Accel?
17:07 Losing ServiceTitan: Investing Lesson Learned…
19:55 Missing Rippling: What We Learned
27:20 What is Accel's Win Rate
30:22 How VCs Approach Ownership Has Changed
35:09 Does Miles Feel Happier or Sadder to be an Anthropic Investor Post Pentagon Debacle
36:45 What Happens to Companies Like Miro and Snyk with High Prices to Live Upto?
38:05 Why it is a Great Time to Be Thoma Bravo and Vista
38:36 Why Founder-Led Companies Are Always Better
41:12 Why Would Any Founder Go Public Today
43:48 When is the Right Time to Take Chips Off The Table?
45:24 Should VC Firms Have Evergreen Funds and Be Responsible for Public Positions
50:28 You Can Pick Any VC to Join Accel, Who Does Miles Choose…
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | sometimes getting overly fixated on the financial metrics in this environment can leave you |
| 0:04.6 | just like with an unsatisfying taste in your mouth. Growth can obscure and blind you to a lot of |
| 0:10.4 | underlying ills in the business. I think you can actually be successful in this market investing |
| 0:15.7 | in consensus. Investing is in art in a science. The science is understanding how to properly value |
| 0:20.6 | a company and the art is understanding how to properly value a company, |
| 0:21.1 | and the art is understanding when to break the rules. Focus on hitting singles and doubles and let |
| 0:25.0 | the home runs take care of themselves. This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, stay. I'm thrilled |
| 0:29.2 | to welcome a dear friend to the show, Miles Clements. Miles helps lead Excel's growth investing practice, |
| 0:36.1 | where he's back some of the best in the business, |
| 0:38.2 | including Atlassian, Linear, Cursor, and many more incredible companies. |
| 0:43.6 | Now, Mars is an old friend, and so this was a very, how do I put it? |
| 0:48.1 | No holds barred discussion. |
| 0:50.0 | I think he put up with a lot of very pressing and prying questions, and I don't think you've ever heard an Excel partner be quite as open and honest as this, |
| 0:58.6 | which was just fantastic. |
| 0:59.8 | Miles really was very special to have on. |
| 1:02.0 | But before we dive into the show today, over 80% of Fortune 100 companies are running their businesses with Airtable. |
| 1:09.0 | Airtable Airtable, Airtable, |
| 1:10.0 | Airtable, with the scale of an award-winning infinitely flexible no-code system, |
| 1:14.4 | a platform where you can see all of your data in one place and use it to make really big |
| 1:19.7 | picture decisions. |
| 1:21.4 | Think of it like mission control for your company. |
| 1:24.0 | Airtable goes beyond organization and automating repetitive tasks. It lets you use your |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Twenty Minute VC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Twenty Minute VC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.