20VC: The Power Of A Concentrated Seed Portfolio, Why Operational Value Add Models At Seed Do Not Make Sense & Why We Will See A Shakeout Of Growth Stage Investors with Roger Ehrenberg, Founder & Managing Partner @ IA Ventures
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 1 March 2017
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Roger Ehrenberg is the Founder and Managing Partner @ IA Ventures, one of New York’s leading early stage funds with investments in the likes of TransferWise and The Trade Desk. Prior to IA, Roger was a prolific angel investor making investments in over 40 companies including BuddyMedia and previous guest, Howard Lindzon’s StockTwits. Before that, Roger served as President and CEO @ DB Advisors, Deutsche Bank’s internal hedge fund trading platform which managed $6Bn in capital across multiple geographies.
In Today’s Episode with Roger You Will Learn:
- How Roger made his way into VC from the world of Wall St?
- How does Roger view the diversification model of 50+ in a portfolio in micro VC? What levels of ownership does that require?
- With regards to small and honed portfolios Roger has previously said that ‘small is beautiful’. How does Roger approach this with IA and what capital pools does this allow his partners?
- Roger has also said that ‘VC platforms are not a panacea’. What does he mean by this? What do founders really want from an investment partner today?
- What is the effect of Roger and IA being outside the traditional echo chambers of Silicon Valley? How does this affect Roger’s dealflow? Hiring ability? Partnership opportunities?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Roger’s Fave Blog and Newsletter: Maria Popova: BrainPickings
Roger’s Fave Book: Out Of The Crisis
Roger’s Most Recent Investment: Octane Lending
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Roger 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 | You are listening to the 20 minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings and I'd love to see you on Snapchat at H. |
| 0:05.1 | Stebbings with 2Bs. All ads get a personal message from me. In all likelihood, I will have a |
| 0:09.6 | mehito in hand for the Snap too, so that's an extra bonus. However, talking of a bonus, we have that |
| 0:15.0 | for you today with this fantastic episode. So joining me in the hot seat, I'm thrilled to welcome Roger Ehrenberg, founder and managing partner at IA Ventures. |
| 0:22.6 | IA Ventures is one of New York's leading early stage funds, with investments in the likes of transfer-wise and the trade desk. |
| 0:28.6 | Prior to IA, Roger was a prolific angel investor making investments in over 40 companies, including Buddy Media and previous guest Howard Linson's company Stocktwitz. Before that, |
| 0:39.0 | Roger served as president and CEO at DB Advisors, Deutsche Bank's internal hedge fund trading platform, |
| 0:44.7 | which managed six billion in capital across multiple geographies. I also want to say a huge |
| 0:49.1 | thank you to Roryo Driscoll at scale for the intro to Roger today, without which this interview |
| 0:53.7 | would not have been possible. |
| 0:55.0 | But before we dive into the show today, there are some products that you simply cannot |
| 0:58.3 | remember what life was like before them. For me, that's X.a.I. They bring you Amy and |
| 1:03.0 | Andrew, their AI-powered personal assistance for scheduling meetings. And the beauty of Amy or |
| 1:07.8 | Andrew is you interact with them like you would any other person, |
| 1:15.6 | and it allows you to avoid the tedious hours of email ping pong in order to schedule one meeting. |
| 1:20.9 | Even better, though, there's no sign in, no password, no download, all you do is CCAmy at X.A.I. Absolutely fantastic. And you can check it out now at X.AI, it really is a must. And on the |
| 1:26.8 | topic of streamlining traditionally long and cumbersome workflows, |
| 1:29.9 | you must check out Workable, the all-in-one recruiting software for ambitious companies. |
| 1:34.1 | From posting a job to tracking and managing candidates, |
| 1:36.9 | Workable provides everything you need to hire better. |
| 1:39.5 | Transparent communication, organized candidate profiles, |
| 1:42.5 | structured interviews and a full reporting suite, |
... |
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