20VC: Lightspeed's Alex Taussig on VC Risk Mentality, The Current State of Retail & The Mechanics of Cash Flow
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2018
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Alex Taussig is a Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners, one of the leading firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Snapchat, Mulesoft, Max Levchin’s Affirm, The Honest Company and many more incredible companies. As for Alex, at Lightspeed, he has made investments in Zola, Daily Harvest, Vector & Poncho. Before moving to the West Coast, Alex spent 7 years at Highland Capital Partners, where, as a Partner, he made investments in thredUp, JauntVR and RentJuice (acq by Zillow) and was involved in several IPOs. Alex is also the writer of a fantastic newsletter: Drinking From The Firehose.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Alex was inspired by being at Harvard at the time of Facebook to make the move into tech and how that landed a role in VC with Highland Capital Partners?
2.) Why is Alex optimistic about the current state of the retail environment, despite media skepticism? What are the value propositions that physical retail provides online retailers (Warby Parker, Real Real etc)? How does Alex believe we will see the re-platforming of retail in the future?
3.) In today's incumbent world, how can consumer apps demonstrate breakout growth? What does Alex mean when he discusses the importance of product channel fit? Once found, should fuel be poured on the fire to exploit the fit? What would suggest sustainable vs non-sustainable product channel fit to Alex? Who has done this particularly well?
4.) Why does Alex believe that Amazon's cash flow is one of the main reasons for it's success? What is the key working capital metric? How does this unpack into 3 core elements? What is "negative working capital"? What are the core benefits of this? How can startups use these mechanics to use cash flow as their prime advantage?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Alex’s Fave Book: The Divine Comedy
Alex’s Most Recent Investment: The Daily Harvest
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Alex on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We are back on the 20 minute VC and I'd love to see you behind the scenes here on Instagram at H. |
| 0:04.9 | Debbings, 1996 with 2Bs. It's mostly health, fitness and mehitos these days, but it would be great to see you there. |
| 0:10.9 | Now, for the show, and the 20 minute VC's brought a huge amount to my life, and one element |
| 0:15.0 | is the ability to build great relationships with some very, very special people. And that is the case today, with a friend and one of |
| 0:21.0 | Silicon Valley's most exciting younger partners, joining us in the hot seat today, Alex Tausig. So, |
| 0:26.1 | Alex is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, one of the leading firms of the last decade, |
| 0:30.4 | with a portfolio, including the likes of Snapchat, Mulesoft, Mattis Levchin's a firm, The Honest |
| 0:35.4 | Company, and many more incredible companies. As for Alex, |
| 0:38.5 | at Lightspeed, he's made investments in the likes of Zola, Daily Harvest, Vector and Poncho. And before |
| 0:43.8 | moving to the West Coast, Alex spent seven years at Highland Capital Partners. Whereas a partner, |
| 0:48.2 | he made investments in Threadup, jaunt VR and rent juice acquired by Zillow and was also |
| 0:53.1 | involved in several IPOs. You know me, |
| 0:55.2 | I never plug guest blogs or newsletters, but I do have to say Alex's is always a must read for me |
| 1:00.7 | and you can find it in the show notes or by searching for drinking from the fire hose. That really |
| 1:05.1 | is a must. It's my favourite. I'd also have to say a big thank you to both Jeremy Liu and Nicole Quinn at Lightspeed. For the intro to Alex today, I really do so appreciate that. |
| 1:14.0 | But before we dive into the show today, what are we without a great night's sleep? |
| 1:17.6 | And that's where Lisa comes in. |
| 1:19.1 | Lisa is the Warby Parker or Tom's shoes of the mattress industry. |
| 1:22.4 | They've done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience |
| 1:25.4 | by creating this luxury premium foam mattress |
| 1:28.2 | that's ordered completely online and shipped for free to your doorstep. |
| 1:31.8 | The 10-inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with three unique foam layers |
... |
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