20VC: Max Altman on The New Seed War: Can Anyone Compete with Sequoia and a16z | Leaving $2BN on the Table with Reddit | Lessons from Backing Rippling at $25M Post | Why Climate Tech is a Mirage and Disaster
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 693 Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2025
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Max Altman is Co‑Founder & Managing Partner at Saga Ventures, a US$125 M early‑stage fund. Before Saga Max was an investor with Apollo Projects, Hydrazine Capital and Altman Capital (where he helped deploy over US$500 M) into breakout names such as Rippling and Reddit.
AGENDA:
03:55 – Venture Capital Is FULL of Tourists With Single-Digit IQs
06:20 – Inside the Madness of Parker Conrad: Genius, Chaos, and WTF Emails
10:35 – The Rippling Deal That Changed Everything
12:40 – Living in Sam Altman's Shadow: The Confession
17:30 – $200M Fund Mistakes: Max's Brutal Lessons From Hydrazine
22:05 – The $2B Reddit Return… and the $2B Left on the Table
25:00 – Why Climate Tech Is a Total VC Mirage
28:40 – The New Seed War: Can Anyone Survive Sequoia & Andreessen?
46:55 – Max's Boldest Predictions
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, joining me in the hot seat today, we have Max Altman. |
| 0:04.9 | Max is the co-founder and managing partner at Saga Ventures, a $125 million early stage fund. |
| 0:11.2 | And before Saga, Max was an investor with Apollo projects, Hydrazine Capital and Altman Capital, |
| 0:16.6 | where he deployed over $500 million into breakout names like Rippling and Reddit, to name a few. |
| 0:22.7 | But before we dive into the show today, |
| 0:24.8 | Secureframe empowers businesses to build trust with customers by simplifying information security and compliance through AI and automation. |
| 0:32.5 | Thousands of fast-growing businesses, including NASDAQ, Angel List, Doodle and Coder, |
| 0:37.2 | trust Secureframe to expedite |
| 0:38.8 | their compliance journey for global security and privacy standards, such as SOC2 and ISO-27,01, |
| 0:45.8 | CMMC, NIST standards, and more. Backed by top-tier investors and corporations like Google and |
| 0:51.5 | Kleiner Perkins, the company is among Forbes's list of the top 100 |
| 0:55.2 | startup employers for 2024, G2's best software awards for higher satisfaction products, and a recipient |
| 1:01.5 | of the 2024 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, something I definitely never got in school myself. |
| 1:07.3 | Learn more today at secureframe.com. |
| 1:09.8 | Once compliance is handled with Secureframe, |
| 1:12.5 | Tessie makes sure AI handles the rest. Hiring shouldn't take months. Tessie's AI agents |
| 1:18.3 | work 24-7 to keep your recruiting pipeline full, instantly reviewing inbound applications, |
| 1:24.5 | sourcing top talent, rediscovering those hidden gems in your ATS, detecting fakes |
| 1:29.7 | and pre-qualifying candidates before your team even starts interviewing. What makes Tessie so |
| 1:35.1 | different? Well, it's all in one. AI agents across the workflow from open to offer a built-in |
| 1:41.8 | ATS plus a 750 million candidate database. |
| 1:46.3 | That means added recruiting capacity when you don't have enough hours in the day. |
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