20VC: Mike Lazerow on Why How You Operate As a VC Is More Important Than Who You Are and What You Have Done, Why Boards Are More Important for the Entrepreneur than Investor & How The Best Entrepreneurs Prep Their Boards & Extract Value From Them
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2021
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mike Lazerow is a serial entrepreneur and now Co-Founder and Managing Partner @ Velvet Sea Ventures alongside his wife, Kass. Prior investments from the Velvet Sea Partners include Twitter, Square, SpaceX, Snap Inc., Facebook, Pinterest, Domo, and more. Prior to becoming an investor, Mike founded Buddy Media in 2007, selling the company to Salesforce just 5 years later for $745M. Before Buddy Media, Mike co-founded Golf.com, a multi-million dollar profitable golf media property that Mike and Kass sold to Time Inc in 2006.
In Today’s Episode with Mike Lazerow You Will Learn:
1.) How Mike made his way into the world of startups way back in 1993, how that led to Golf.com and Buddy Media? Why did he decide he wanted to be a VC? How did seeing the dotcom era fundamentally impact Mike's approach to business and investing?
2.) Why does Mike believe how you operate as an investor is more important than who you are and what you have done? How does Mike aim to invest and operate with this in mind? What are 3 core elements that Mike looks for in every deal? How does Mike approach his own investment decision-making process? How has it changed over time? How does he use gut to make decisions?
3.) What does Mike believe are his biggest insecurities as an investor? How does Mike think about the challenge of moving from a collaborative angel to a competitive VC? How does Mike think about the importance of ownership today? What has Mike learned about how the best VCs engage with round construction?
4.) How does Mike analyse his own style of board membership today? Why does Mike believe that boards are more helpful for the entrepreneur than for the investor? As an entrepreneur, how did Mike prepare for his boards? How does Mike advise founders to get the most out of their boards? Where do many make mistakes? How can one optimize the board member/founder relationship?
5.) Why does Mike believe that "having sex with your partner is a feature, not a bug"? How do Kass and Mike work together in such a complementary fashion? How do they ensure that personal matters never intrude on work decisions? How does Mike think about his relationship to money today? How does Mike want to imbue the same hard work and ethics to his children?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Mike Lazerow
Mike’s Favourite Book: Man's Search for Meaning
Mike’s Most Recent Investment: LeoLabs
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back. This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and today we're joined by an incredible entrepreneur turned investor, and I'd heard so many great things about this guest from so many former guests on the show. And so with that, I'm thrilled to welcome Mike Lazaro, serial entrepreneur and now co-founder and managing partner at Velvet Sea Ventures alongside his wife Cass. Prior investments from Velvet C partners include Twitter, Square, SpaceX, Snap, Facebook, |
| 0:23.4 | Pinterest, and many more incredible companies. And prior to becoming an investor, Mike co-founded Buddy Media |
| 0:28.9 | in 2007, selling the company to Salesforce just five years later for $745 million. Before Buddy Media, |
| 0:36.2 | Mike co-founded golf.com, a multi-million dollar profitable golf media property |
| 0:40.4 | that Mike and Cass sold to Time Inc in 2006. |
| 0:43.4 | And I do want to say a thank you to a range of people. |
| 0:45.9 | This schedule was such a team effort. |
| 0:47.5 | So thanks to Karen Klein, Ian Sigelow, Roger Aaronberg, Jules Maltz, Howard Linsen, Jeff Richards, |
| 0:52.9 | and Mike's wonderful wife, Cass Lazaro. |
| 0:54.8 | For some amazing questions suggestions today, I really did so appreciate that. |
| 0:58.8 | But before we move into the show today, I have to say, I just love using AngelList Fund |
| 1:02.8 | admin platform to manage my investments. The team and the platform at AngelList takes care |
| 1:07.4 | of all my back office needs so that I can focus on working with great founders. |
| 1:11.4 | Leading fund managers have made over 10,000 investments into 6,000 startups via Angel List, |
| 1:16.5 | all online and all in one place. And with the recently announced rolling funds, you can |
| 1:20.8 | easily find and invest in these top fund managers on AngelList.com forward slash rolling. |
| 1:26.2 | And let's face it, this new world of remote work is here |
| 1:28.6 | this day. And so all of the new headaches that come with running a remote team, though, which |
| 1:32.6 | is a nightmare. Ripling, though, helps fast-growing startups automate their HR and their IT, |
| 1:38.0 | and now they're making it super easy to manage employees and contractors anywhere. When you hire |
| 1:42.4 | people in new states, Ripling can now automatically |
| 1:44.9 | register your startup with each state tax agency and keep you compliant with all the different |
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