20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2021
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Anton Levy is Co-President, Managing Director and Global Head of General Atlantic’s Technology sector. Anton has led General Atlantic’s investments in the likes of Alibaba, CrowdStrike, Facebook, Slack and Snapchat and co-led investments in Adyen and Bytedance. As a result, Anton has been named to the Forbes Midas List of top investors each year from 2014 to 2021. Anton has also enjoyed board positions either as a member or observer in companies such as Uber, MercadoLibre, Klarna and Meituan to name a few.
In Today’s Episode with Anton Levy You Will Learn:
1.) How Anton made his way into the world of growth investing? What have been some of Anton's biggest lessons from seeing the booms and busts of the macro-environment?
2.) The Landscape: What does Anton believe are the two largest changes/trends in the venture landscape today? What does Anton think is the right way to respond to the threat of Tiger Global? How should founders think about active vs passive cash? How does Anton reflect on his own price sensitivity? What have been some of his biggest lessons on pricing?
3.) Portfolio Construction: How have GA had to change their approach to investing over the last few years? Why have they decided actively to move earlier and write smaller checks? How does a $50M investment from an $8BN impact portfolio construction thinking? How does GA determine which of their winners to size up into and write a $500M check? What is the process for that?
4.) Deployment Cycles: How does Anton think about the compression of deployment cycles in venture? Are people acting rationally? When will the bubble burst? How do interest rates impact capital inflows into venture? Why does Anton believe we are entering a golden age of innovation? What elements concern him?
5.) Culture- Building: What have been Anton's biggest lessons when it comes to culture building internally? Where do many make mistakes here? What have been the most surprising elements of scaling GA to Anton? What mistakes did they make? How did they move to correct them?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Anton Levy
Anton’s Favourite Book: Bridge to Terabithia
Anton’s Most Recent Investment: Articulate
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbington. What a show we have in store for you today. I just love recording this one with someone I've long admired and respected. |
| 0:07.0 | And so with that, I'm thrilled to welcome Anton Levy. |
| 0:09.3 | Anton is co-president, managing director and global head of General Atlantic's technology sector. |
| 0:14.2 | Anton has led General Atlantic's investments in the likes of Ali Barbar, Crowdstrike, Facebook, Slack and Snapchat, |
| 0:20.1 | and co-led investments in Adyen and |
| 0:22.1 | Bight Dance. As a result of this incredible track record, Anton has been named to the fourth Midas |
| 0:26.6 | list of top investors each year from 2014 to 2021. If that was enough, though, Anton's also enjoyed |
| 0:32.9 | board positions either as a board member or board observer in companies such as Uber, Macardo Libre, |
| 0:38.3 | Clana and Maytoine, to name a few. I'd also want to say huge thank you to Anthony at Squarespace, |
| 0:43.1 | Adam and articulate, Kevin at Tilting Point and many more for some fantastic questions suggestions |
| 0:47.6 | today. Really did make it so special. But before we move into the show today, I just love |
| 0:52.0 | using AngelList's fund admin platform to manage my investments. |
| 0:55.3 | The team in the platform with AngelList takes care of all my back office needs so that I can |
| 0:59.5 | focus on working with great founders. Leading fund managers have made over 10,000 investments |
| 1:04.1 | into 6,000 startups via Angel List, all online and all in one place. And with the recently |
| 1:09.0 | announced rolling funds, you can easily find |
| 1:11.4 | and invest in these top fund managers on angel list.com forward slash rolling. And harness is the next |
| 1:17.1 | generation of wealth management solution created for builders, individuals founding, scaling, |
| 1:21.9 | and investing in businesses. Are you approaching a liquidity event and looking for expertise on |
| 1:26.3 | how to navigate stock sales, receiving your K1 partnership updates and wondering whether there is a better tax firm to help you or simply need tax advice on your crypto holdings? |
| 1:34.9 | Harness helps tech employees and investors find the optimal solutions for their finances. |
| 1:39.5 | Their algorithms helps identify the right services for your needs and recommends the right advisors for you. |
... |
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