20VC News: Anchor Founder, Mike Mignano Joins Lightspeed as Partner: The Future of Social Media | Why Clubhouse Has a Challenging Model | Why TikTok Could be a $2TN Company | Why BeReal is Defensible | What Happens To OpenSea in a New World for NFTs
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 7 September 2022
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mike Mignano is a Partner @ Lightspeed, one of the most successful venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Snap, Affirm, Epic Games, Mulesoft and more. As for Mike, prior to venture, he was Head of Talk for Spotify where he led the podcast, live, and video businesses for the world’s leading audio streaming platform. Michael came to Spotify through their acquisition of Anchor, a company he co-founded and is credited for democratizing podcasting globally. Mike has also been a prolific angel investor with a portfolio including Cameo, Pipe, Sandbox VR and Stir.
In Today's Episode with Mike Mignano We Discuss:
1.) Exclusive News:
- What exclusive news does Mike have to share today?
- What would Mike most like to change about the way founders experience the product of venture capital? How can VCs be better?
- What is Mike most nervous about in the new role?
2.) The World of Social is Changing Forever:
- Why does Mike believe there has never been a better time for the next social media giant to be born?
- Why are the largest social giants leaving behind the social graph?
- What is recommendation media? Why is it a better business model?
- How does the shift from social graph to recommendation media change the way large social giants operate and interact today?
3.) Startups: Risers, Fallers and Is There Room For Another Giant?
- What does Mike believe Clubhouse did well? What was their undoing?
- Does Mike believe BeReal is defensible? What features make it both sticky and defensible?
- Will TikTok be a $2 trillion dollar company? Will Meta catch TikTok or have they gone too far ahead?
- Will OpenSea be able to sustain and make the market for NFTs, despite crypto crashing?
- Should startups be concerned about large social giants "copying" their features?
- What does true defensibility look like in consumer social today?
4.) Angel Investing: Hits, Misses and Lessons:
- From writing over 50 angel checks, what are the single biggest lessons Mike has learned?
- What has been his biggest hit? How did that change the way he thinks about investing?
- What has been his biggest miss? In what way did that change how he invests?
- What advice does Mike give to all angel investors looking to invest today?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We are back. I hope you have an amazing Labor Day weekend. Welcome to 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings, |
| 0:04.8 | and what a show we have in store for you today. Today's guest has some incredibly exciting news. |
| 0:09.2 | I'm not going to do a spoiler, despite me really wanting to. All I will say is it's a joy to welcome back, |
| 0:14.6 | Mike Miniano to the hot seat. When I first met Mike, he was the co-founder of Anchor, |
| 0:18.8 | often credited for democratizing podcasting globally. |
| 0:22.0 | In 2019, Anker was acquired by Spotify, and since he's been the rock star head of talk for Spotify, |
| 0:28.3 | where he led the podcast, live and video businesses. Mike's also been a prolific angel investor |
| 0:33.0 | with a portfolio including cameo, pipe, sandbox VR and stir. And as I said, no spoilers on the news, |
| 0:39.3 | but this is an incredible discussion on the future of social and content, and which is immensely |
| 0:44.1 | fun to do. But before we move into the episode today, Harvard Management Company is constantly |
| 0:48.9 | seeking out the next generation of great investors and entrepreneurs. HMC has managed |
| 0:53.9 | Harvard University's Endowment for |
| 0:55.6 | nearly 50 years and was one of the first institutional investors in venture capital. Their experience |
| 1:00.9 | and long-term investment horizon makes some ideal partners to get world-changing ideas on a path to |
| 1:06.5 | viability and success. They work as a true partner, providing insightful perspectives to help managers succeed. |
| 1:13.0 | I personally have had the pleasure of working with the HMC team and can say that they are |
| 1:16.9 | truly exceptional partners and savvy investors. Whether you are launching your first fund or your fifth, |
| 1:22.4 | HMC welcomes the opportunity to partner with both developing and established managers. Have an idea you want to |
| 1:28.2 | share with the team? Just send it to venture at hmc.harvard.edu. And speaking of amazing partners |
| 1:34.9 | with HMC there, Mercury is building full stack banking for startups. Apply in under 10 minutes |
| 1:40.5 | from anywhere for FDIC insured bank accounts, physical and virtual debit cards, domestic |
| 1:46.1 | and international wires, and integrations with gusto, stripe, quickbooks, plaid, basically |
... |
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