20VC: Scaling from a $4M Angel Fund to $900M, Why Seed May Be The Best priced Asset Class and Not Overpriced At All & The 3 Stages of Fund Scaling and What it Takes To Build a Firm with Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Partner @ Felicis

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

🗓️ 27 May 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felicis. An original super angel turned multi-stage investor, he has been named on the Forbes Midas List for the past nine years (2014-2022). Felicis has been an incredible 16-year journey starting with a $4M Fund I back in 2006, their most recent fund in 2021 was $900M. Along the way, Felicis has invested in over 45 unicorns including Adyen, Canva, Shopify, Notion, Opendoor, and Plaid. Prior to starting Felicis, Aydin was a Senior Manager at Google where he spent an incredible 6 years.

In Today’s Episode with Aydin Senkut:

1.) The Founding of Felicis:

How did Aydin transition from a successful angel to the first $41M institutional fund with Felicis?
How did Aydin's mindset change moving from investing personal to LP capital?
What does Aydin know now that he wishes he had known when he started Fund I?

2.) Fund Mechanics: Building a Portfolio

Why does Aydin believe portfolios need to have 40-50 positions to be diversified enough?
Given Aydin being multi-stage, how important is ownership on first check for Aydin and Felicis?
Does Aydin believe it is possible to really concentrate capital into your best performers?
How does Aydin think through outcome scenario planning? What is his biggest takeaway from this?

3.) Aydin Senkut: The Investor

What have been the biggest changes in Aydin's style of investing over the last 16 years?
What was Aydin's biggest miss? How did it impact his mindset moving forward?
What is Aydin's biggest insecurity as an investor today? How has it changed?
Where does Aydin still believe he is weak as an investor? What is he doing to combat it?

4.) The Venture Landscape:

Why does Aydin believe that despite the pricing, seed is the best risk-adjusted asset class?
How does Aydin evaluate where crossover funds will move with the death of many growth rounds?
What segment of the market will be hit hardest by the crunch? What worries with this?
What would Aydin most like to change about the venture landscape today? Why?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Aydin Senkut

Aydin’s Favourite Book: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back. This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I'm so thrilled to be joined today
0:04.1	in the hot seat by one of the greatest invention of the last two decades. He has scaled his firm
0:08.8	from a super angel with a fund one of $4 million to their latest 900 million fund just last year,
0:14.6	an incredible 16 year journey involving investing in 45 unicorns, 14 IPOs. And so with that,
0:20.5	I'm thrilled to welcome Aiden Senkut,
0:22.3	founder and managing partner of Felis. Idin's been named on the Forbes Midas list for the past nine
0:27.4	years. And along the way, as I mentioned, 45 unicorns, including the likes of Adien, Canva, Shopify,
0:34.0	Notion, Open Door, Plaid, just to name a few. And prior to starting Felis, Iden was a senior manager at Google, where he spent an
0:40.7	incredible six years.
0:41.9	I'd also want a huge thank you to Victoria and Dash at Felices and Harley at Shopify.
0:46.7	Some amazing questions suggestions today and really made the show so much more special.
0:50.8	But before we move into the episode today, a Harvard management company is constantly seeking out the next generation of great investors and entrepreneurs. HMC has managed
0:59.4	Harvard University's endowment for nearly 50 years and was one of the first institutional
1:03.8	investors in venture capital. Their experience in long-term investment horizon makes them ideal
1:08.8	partners to get world-changing ideas on a path to viability
1:12.4	and success. They work as a true partner providing insightful perspectives to help managers succeed.
1:17.8	I personally have had the pleasure of working with the HMC team and can say that they're
1:21.7	truly exceptional partners, people and incredibly savvy investors. Whether you are launching your
1:26.8	first fund or your fifth,
1:28.4	HMC welcomes the opportunity to partner with both developing and established managers.
1:33.0	Have an idea you want to share with the team?
1:34.8	Just send it to venture at HMC.harvard.edu.
	...

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