20VC: Investing Lessons from Fred Wilson and Why Small Funds Outperform Large Funds | Why the Secret to Winning in Venture is Splitting Deals |Learnings From the Biggest Hits and Biggest Losses | Why Anyone That Always Does Their Pro-Rata is Wrong with Mo

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

🗓️ 8 August 2022

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mo Koyfman is the Founder and General Partner @ Shine Capital, who announced earlier this year Shine II, a $200M early-stage fund, and Shine Opportunities I, a $100M vehicle. Prior to founding Shine, Mo was the Managing Member @ Moko Brands where he made angel investments in Coinbase, Polychain, Harry's to name a few. Before Moko, Mo spent over 7 years as a General Partner @ Spark Capital where he made investments in Plaid, Warby Parker, Skillshare and Hivemapper, to name a few. Finally prior to Spark, Mo spent over 5 years at IAC where he oversaw group of companies that included Connected Ventures, parent of Vimeo, CollegeHumor & BustedTees.

In Today's Episode with Mo Koyfman:

1.) From Entrepreneurial Parents to IAC, Spark Capital and Founding Shine:

How did Mo make his way into the world of venture having worked with Dara Khros, Barry Diller and Jeremy Liew?
What were some of the biggest takeaways from his time with Barry Diller and IAC?
How did Mo's time at Spark impact his investing mindset? What did he learn that he took with him to founding Shine?

2.) Investment Firm vs Investment Partnership:

What are the biggest differences between investment firms and investment partnerships?
What are the biggest risks founders are taking when they take money from investment firms?
Mo has very strong beliefs, how does he manage and inspire debates within his firm without shutting down or intimidating younger, less experienced team members?
What does Mo mean when he says, "firms are great but partners matter".

3.) How To Win in Venture:

Why does Mo always believe that small funds outperform large funds?
What have been some of Mo's biggest lessons from Fred Wilson on fund strategy and sizing?
How much of an emphasis does Mo place on the importance of ownership?
Why does Mo believe the way to win in venture is to be collaborative?
Why does Mo believe in the macro conditions we are entering, the landscape is about to become a lot more collaborative?
Why does Mo believe any firm that says they will always do their pro rata is lying?

4.) The Lessons: Success and Failure:

What are some of Mo's biggest lessons from his biggest wins, like Plaid at seed?
That said, why does Mo believe it is so dangerous to try and learn lessons from the wins?
What failures have been most impactful to Mo? What did he take away from them?
Why does Mo believe that making great burgers is like building great companies?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Mo's Favourite Book: Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'm very excited for the show stay as this guest does not do many podcasts.
0:05.7	They do not speak in public much.
0:07.4	I know what you're thinking, how incredibly rare for a VC these days, but it made this discussion even more special.
0:12.9	And so with that, I'm thrilled to welcome Mo Coiffman, found and general partner at Shine Capital,
0:17.4	who announced earlier this year, Shine 2, a $200 million early stage fund,
0:22.0	and Shine Opportunities won, a $100 million vehicle. Prior to founding Shine, Moe was the managing
0:27.2	member at Moco Brands, where he made angel investments in Coinbase, Polychain, Harries, to name
0:32.2	a few. And before Moco, Mo spent over seven years as a general partner at Spark Capital,
0:36.8	where he made investments in Plaid, Warby Parker, and HiveMapper. Finally, prior to Spark, Moe spent over seven years as a general partner at Spark Capital, where he made investments
0:37.8	in Plaid, Warby Parker and HiveMapper. Finally, prior to Spark, Mo spent over five years at IAC,
0:43.6	where he oversaw group of companies that included connected ventures, parent of Vimeo, college
0:48.2	humor and busted T's. But before we move into the episode today, if you are a venture capitalist
0:53.2	or corporate strategist, I want to tell you about Teegas.
0:56.2	Teagis is the only company in the world that aggregates qualitative information on private companies from Seed Stage to pre-IPO.
1:03.5	With Teegas, you can access other VCs and founders expert called transcripts from previous rounds to help source fast-growing companies, create compelling
1:11.9	emails to get a founder's response, and diligence companies when a round is moving fast.
1:16.5	I use it personally, and I think it's insanely brilliant.
1:19.3	Tegas is also providing the most flexible and highest-quality way to run your own expert calls.
1:24.5	With no upfront fees or call minimums, the abilities to do 30 minute calls
1:28.5	and simply paying the experts rate at an average cost of $300. Teegas makes expert calls easy.
1:34.6	Find out why a majority of the top venture funds are using Teegas on a daily basis.
1:39.2	Head over to teagas.co forward slash growth for your free trial.
	...

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