20VC: Intercom's Eoghan McCabe on What Makes A Truly Great CEO & What Founders Should Look For In Their Investors

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

🗓️ 23 September 2016

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eoghan McCabe is the CEO and co-founder of Intercom. The customer communications platform that has taken the SaaS world by storm in the last few years with 116m in VC funding from truly some of the world’s best including Bessemer, Social Capital and Index Ventures. Prior to Intercom, he founded Contrast, an award-winning software design consultancy, and co-founded Exceptional, a developer tool startup acquired in 2011 and now a part of Rackspace.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Eoghan came to found Intercom?

2.) Question From Andy McLoughlin: What were the biggest lessons from your previous startups?

3.) How did Eoghan find the early fundraising process? How did he come to meet his angel investors? How did he get them to look beyond the product and invest in him?

4.) Eoghan raised his Series B just 6 months after his Series A. Why was this so quick? How did he select his investors?

5.) What separates good from truly great CEOs? How has Eoghan seen his own management style changed over the Intercom journey?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Eoghan’s Fave Blog: SaaStr, The Intercom Blog

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Eoghan 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.comand also atcooleygo.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the 20 Minute VC and Founders Friday with your host, Harry Stebbings.
0:04.2	And if you haven't already, you can follow me on Snapchat at H. Debbings.
0:07.6	But to today's show, and this one is a special one, as we welcome a truly phenomenal founder in the form of Owen McCabe.
0:13.7	Now, Owen is the CEO and co-founder of Intercom, the customer communications platform that's taken the SaaS world by Storm in the last few years,
0:21.7	with over $116 million in VC funding from truly some of the world's best,
0:26.6	including Bessemer, social capital and index ventures.
0:30.4	And prior to Intercom, he founded Contrast, an award-winning software design consultancy,
0:34.9	and co-founded exceptional, a developer tool startup acquired in
0:38.7	2011 and now forms as part of Rackspace. I also have to say a huge thank you to Jason Lempkin
0:44.1	at Sasta and Mamun Hamid at Social Capital for making the intro to own today without which the
0:49.2	episode would not have been possible. But before we meet the man behind one of the world's hottest
0:53.1	SaaS startups, and speaking of startups, and with it being found as Friday, for the past few days you've heard
0:59.1	about Cooley, the global law firm that formed the first venture fund. Well, they're also one of the
1:03.8	market leaders in working with thousands of entrepreneurs and newly formed companies to ensure
1:08.7	that they're structured for growth and long-term success.
1:12.0	Now, Cooney is a world leader in financings, M&A and IPOs, and since 2005, Coolly's been ranked
1:18.6	the number one most active law firm representing VC-Batt companies going public. So to learn more,
1:24.0	simply head over to cooley.com and also check them out at coolly go.com.
1:29.0	And with the weekend approaching, it's also time for that Saturday morning line.
1:32.9	And so good to know that we have Eve to make that all the more enjoyable.
1:36.0	Now, Eve is the UK's number one direct-to-consumer mattress company.
1:39.7	Because they don't sell through high street stores, they have the ability to cut out
	...

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