20VC: Lerer Hippeau's Ben Lerer on 'Investing With Imagination', Strategies To Avoid Fomo & Develop Pattern Recognition As An Investor and Why We Have Seen The Rise of Direct To Consumer Business & Will This Continue With Further M&A
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2016
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Lerer is a Managing Partner at Lerer Hippeau Ventures and co-founder & CEO of Thrillist Media Group. Ben was among Ernst & Young’s 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winners, Forbes list of “Most Powerful CEOs Under 40”, ” Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Top 5 Entrepreneurs of the Year,” and Silicon Alley Insider’s “100 Coolest People in Tech”. Ben is also an active mentor for NYC Venture Fellows, TechStars and E[nstitute].
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Ben came to found Thrillist and then join the founding team at Lerer Hippeau?
2.) How did Ben's mentality shift from investing angel money to the fiduciary responsibility of a fund?
3.) How does Ben view FOMO? How does he look to negate and contol his emotions when investing?
4.) How has Ben seen his personal pattern recognition change over time? How does Ben use data to further improve his ability of pattern recognition?
5.) Why have we seen the rise of direct to consumer businesses? Is it easier to build a brand today than in previous years? Will we see continued M&A in the retail world with the likes of Jet.co and Dollar Shave Club?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Ben’s Fave Book: The Goldfinch
Ben’s Most Recent Investment: Everytable
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Ben 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 at cooleygo.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome back to another week in the world of the 20 minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings, |
| 0:04.7 | and you can add me on Snapchat at H. Stebbings, where all ads get personal thank you selfies from me. |
| 0:10.4 | My word, poor them. Anyway, to today's show, and I'm thrilled to welcome a guest I've been wanting |
| 0:15.0 | to have on the show for a while now. You might remember a while ago we had Eric Hippo at Lira Hippo Ventures on the show. And joining me to |
| 0:21.4 | say, I'm thrilled to welcome Ben Lira. Now, Ben is a managing partner, Lira Hippo, and he's also |
| 0:26.6 | the co-founder and CEO at Thrillist Media Group, as if being managing partner at a top venture fund |
| 0:32.0 | is not enough. So, but it's not just us who think he's awesome. He was also named amongst Ernst & Young's |
| 0:38.6 | 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year award, Forbes list of most powerful CEOs under 40, Entrepreneur Magazine's |
| 0:45.6 | top five entrepreneurs of the year, and Silicon Alley, Insiders, 100 coolest people in tech. |
| 0:50.8 | I'd also like to say a huge thank you to Kate Schillow at Galvanise for making the introduction today to Ben, without which the show would not have been possible. |
| 0:58.1 | But before we dive in today, I've always been a big history man, and so I want to talk about |
| 1:01.7 | Cooley, the global law firm built around startups and venture capital. Now check this out, |
| 1:06.7 | since forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley in I believe the late 50s, |
| 1:12.0 | Coolies formed more venture capital funds than any other law firm in the world with 50 plus years |
| 1:17.7 | working with VCs. They help VCs form and manage funds, make investments, handle the myriad of |
| 1:23.7 | issues that arise through a fund's lifetime. So to learn more about the number one most |
| 1:27.5 | active law firm representing VC bat companies going public, head over to coolly.com and also at |
| 1:33.8 | cooley go.com. That's C OOL EY go. And in today's episode with Ben, we also discussed the rise |
| 1:41.6 | of D to C businesses. And Eve is the UK's number one direct-to-consumer |
| 1:45.8 | mattress company, because they don't sell through high street stores. Eve cuts out 70% of traditional costs |
| 1:51.7 | and pass those on to the customer. Developed over four years with thousands of prototypes, |
| 1:56.6 | Eve is so confident of their product, they give customers 100 nights to try it at home before committing. |
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