20VC: Maximising Engagement and Retention on Mobile & Why There Should Always Be Availability To A Free Product with Sean Brecker, CEO @ Headspace

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

🗓️ 26 August 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sean Brecker is the CEO @ Headspace where he is the driving force behind all financial and commercial matters including overseeing the company's growth of it's product line which now has over 8m downloads. Sean was also instrumental in attaining the first institutional round of financing which included investment from the likes of LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner, Jim Breyer, Jessica Alba and Jared Leto, just to name a few. Prior to Headspace, Sean spent 15 years in banking with the likes of JP Morgan, Lehmann Brothers and Citigroup.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Sean made the move from banking to CEO of meditation service, Headspace?

2.) Meditation can be viewed with some hippy stereotypes, how does Sean look to optimise the onboarding for new users and incorporate elements of education?

3.) How does Sean implement a strategy of habit forming within the users? In the words of Nir Eyal, how do we get them ‘hooked’? How long on average does it take for an action to be completed before it becomes a habit?

4.) How does Sean try and optimise the transition from free to paid user with Headspace? How does Sean try and remove as much friction as possible in the process?

5.) How has Sean seen the growth of the health and wellness space over the last few years? We obviously have the likes of Calm, is this market a winner takes all and how does Sean approach market competition at Headspace?

6.) How was the fundraising process for Sean? How did he come to meet investors like Jeff Weiner, Jim Breyer, Jessica Alba and Jared Leto?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Sean’s Fave Blog and Newsletter: The Information, Recode

Sean’s Fave Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things, A Man In Full

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Sean 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	This is a 20-minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings at H. Debbings on Snapchat. Now today I'm
0:05.5	thrilled to bring you part two of our special double on LA's tech ecosystem this week. And as it's
0:10.8	Founders Friday, I had my pick of LA founders to choose. But there was one I was particularly drawn to.
0:16.7	For long-term listeners of the show, you will know that I'm a huge fan of meditation and Headspace in particular. So I'm thrilled to welcome Headspace CEO Sean Brecker to the show today.
0:26.1	Sean is essentially the driving force behind all financial and commercial matters at Headspace,
0:31.0	as it continues to expand the product, which has been downloaded a whopping 8 million times now.
0:36.8	Sean was also instrumental in raising
0:38.5	the first institutional round of funding for Headspace from some incredible names like Jim Breyer,
0:43.3	LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner, Michael Linton, Sony CEO. Hey, they're so cool. They even have movie stars
0:49.0	Jared Lato and one of my favorites, Jessica Alba as investors.
0:58.8	But I'd like to say huge thank you also to Christian at White Star for making the intro to Sean today.
1:06.8	But before we dive into the show today, how could we do an LA feature week without a feature from We Are LA Tech and my good friend, Esprie, who runs the show?
1:12.4	We are LA Tech is the number one resource uniting the LA startup community, offering a unique combination of curated offline experiences, the number one LA Tech podcast called We Are LA Tech,
1:18.6	and the only mobile app that keeps you in the know with a full calendar of events.
1:23.0	So make sure you go to we arelatec.com forward slash VC to explore and learn all about everything
1:29.3	LA Tech and Silicon Beach. You'll also get access to a private LA Tech immersion call exclusively
1:35.7	for 20 minute VC listeners. Again, that's we are LA Tech.com forward slash VC. It really is a
1:42.5	must check out. But before we meet the main man at Headspace,
1:45.3	just like meditation, getting the perfect night's sleep is a core element of a healthy mind,
1:50.0	and that's where Eve comes in. They're the makers of the perfect mattress that will allow you
1:54.8	to have that perfect sleep and recharge those batteries. With three-layer technology and next-generation
2:00.5	memory foam, it comes packaged
	...

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