20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid

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The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2016

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David Cohen is the founder and managing partner at Techstars, so a few amazing stats on techstars first, they have a total of 762 companies of which 90% are active or have been acquired, having raised more than 2bn in funding, as for David he is a serial entrepreneur having founded Pinpoint Technologies which was acquired by ZOLL Medical Corporation in 1999. and David was also the founder and CEO of earFeeder.com, a music service which was sold to SonicSwap.com in 2006.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How David made the transition from Founder to VC with Techstars and Fund I?

2.) Fund I is one of the most successful funds in history; what was the structure with Fund I? Why did David choose a $5m fund size? How did he decide initial to follow on ratio?

3.) Why was David so valuation sensitive with Fund I? Why was David so rigid on a consistent cheque size on Fund I?

4.) Why did David decide to expand from being a solo GP fund? What are the challenges and complexities of fund scaling and did David approach this?

5.) Question from Ari Newman: What does David think about uncapped notes? Why does David like big boring companies? Brett Jackson: How did you meet Ryan Graves @ Uber and how did the Uber deal come about? Jason Seats: Where does David still see inefficiencies in the current venture model?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

David's Fave Book: The Soul Of Money

David's Fave Blog: Mattermark Daily

As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and David on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!

If you are looking to make your move into the world of VC or improve your investing skills, Venture Capital Unlocked: Secrets of Silicon Valley Investing is a must! It is a 2 week crash course at Stanford run by Stanford Professional Development Centre and 500 Startups. You will learn the mechanics of all things Silicon Valley investing, check it out here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm your host, Harry Stebbings, and you're listening to the 20-minute VC for all behind-the-scenes
0:04.6	majito making shenanigans follow at H. Stebbings on Snapchat to be taken inside the world of some of the
0:10.7	biggest and best VCs and startups. But now for the show today, and I asked Bradfeld, of all the
0:16.1	people in the industry, name three who you think I should have on the show. And today's guest was immediately there.
0:22.1	So joining me today is David Cohen. Now, David is the founder and managing partner at TechStars.
0:27.6	So a few amazing stats on TechStars first. They have a total of 762 companies of which 90% are
0:33.9	active or have been acquired. And they've raised more than $2 billion in funding.
0:38.8	And as for David, he's a serial entrepreneur, having founded Pinpoint Technologies, which
0:43.2	was acquired by Zol Medical Corporation in 1999. And David was also the founder and CEO of
0:48.8	Earfeeder.com, a music service which was sold to Sonic Swap in 2006.
0:58.6	But before we meet David, did you know that in Santa Ana, California, it's illegal to let a horse sleep in a bakery?
1:00.6	Yes, not sure how to segment into Lisa mattresses from that.
1:04.4	But if you have not checked out Lisa from here, then they really are a must.
1:08.8	They are like the Warby Parker or the Tombs of the mattress industry.
1:12.0	So first off, for every 10 they sell, they give one to a shelter.
1:16.1	Second, they partner with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant one tree for every mattress they sell.
1:21.4	And finally, they donate their time and resources to help support local and national organizations.
1:27.2	Such a fantastic ethos, so sleep well and do
1:30.4	good with Lisa and you can check them out at Lisa.com forward slash VC and you can even get the mattress
1:36.6	and try it out with their 100 night trial policy. But don't forget before you buy to enter the
1:41.5	promo code VC-75 at checkout for a whopping $75 off. Also, if you're
1:46.8	inspired by listening to incredible VCs on the 20-minute VC and would like to make your move into
	...

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