20VC: Turning Peter Thiel's $100K into $10M Angel Portfolio | The One Man Accelerator at The Four Seasons | Why VCs Can Be Sharks and What Founders Need to Know | Why Stocks and Cash are BS and You Should Invest in Land with Josh Browder
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 693 Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Josh Browder is my favourite emerging manager. As the Founder of Browder Capital he has been the first check into unicorns like Micro1, Owner.com and Yuzu Health to name a few. He turned his Thiel Fellowship Grant of $100K into a whopping $10M angel portfolio. All new investments move into Josh's Four Seasons Residence where he then trains them on company building. They are only allowed to leave when they raise their seed round. In addition to this, Josh is the Founder & CEO @ DoNotPay, the now profitable company that has raised $22M from Marc Andreessen and others.
AGENDA:
00:00 Why I believe young founders make the best founders
02:10 What do I look for in founders I'm investing in?
10:00 How I test for founder commitment pre-investment
11:00 What do I want to see in the childhoods of the entrepreneurs that I back?
12:05 Why I make founders live with me in my Four Seasons residence after investing
14:00 There are three reasons why pre-seed companies fail and how I solve for them
15:45 What do I look for in a team to assure me they will last?
16:50 Is $5 million post still attainable in this world?
17:15 Should we be worried about the increasing levels of fraud at the early stages?
18:10 Which Silicon Valley investor was the most impressive?
20:00 Do VCs really add value?
20:50 Does university carry less value than ever and should founders drop out if they have a dream and an idea?
24:00 The advice of one lawyer changed the entire trajectory of this multi-million dollar company
28:10 I would never invest in someone that I met over Zoom
29:20 Are all the best founders you invest in delusional?
31:10 What is the biggest benefit of being a Thiel Fellow?
36:20 The problem of accelerators and why artificial constraints can enforce quality
38:20 How we used Mark Zuckerberg's house as a viewing instrument tool to get users
41:20 My pre-seed cheque in Micro One is now worth hundreds of millions and my lessons
43:20 The biggest mistake VCs are making in assessing founders
44:10 Why I will never tell the entrepreneur what to build and why I place little value on ideas
47:00 Why kingmaking is real and why you should accept half the price from a tier one firm
49:00 My biggest lessons on reserve investing
53:00 Why price rounds are bullshit and we should do more SAFEs
54:20 What all founders need to know about signing with a VC
55:10 Single biggest advice to founders on how to get the best price
57:30 What role does not exist today that will be massive in five years' time?
59:10 Stocks are bullshit. Cash is bullshit. I put my money in land. My personal investing strategy
1:01:00 Why the Trump administration is unwaveringly good for US business
1:03:20 Why competitive markets are the best investments
1:05:40 The serendipity of San Francisco is unmatched
1:08:10 What things does no one know about Marc Andreessen that everyone should know?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you're not motivated by the fear of losing, I think you're asleep at the wheel. At the very beginning, there's three reasons why precede companies fail. They run out of money, they run out of hope, and co-founder disputes. There are three types of people. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happened. Pitching VCs is like a game of poker. You should never reveal too much information |
| 0:22.0 | about what you're seeking. I put all my Tiel Fellowship money and I invested it in Adam Guild and |
| 0:27.8 | other amazing entrepreneurs. I think when it's all said and done, it'll be in the eight figures. |
| 0:32.4 | If you back someone who's above average IQ, very smart and never give up, of course they'll succeed. |
| 0:39.4 | The VCs will say anything to get you to sign right there and then, anything. |
| 0:43.7 | For every anthropic employee who's making 20 to 100 million, there's 7,000 block employees |
| 0:51.0 | being laid off. |
| 0:52.5 | It's not sustainable. |
| 0:53.8 | You can't have 50,000 people with all the money. |
| 0:56.2 | I think actually there could be a revolution in our lifetime. Something has to change. |
| 1:00.3 | Do you think you will make more money from your investing and you will do not pay? |
| 1:04.0 | I think, unfortunately, I'll make more money from the investing. |
| 1:07.4 | This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, if I could invest in one emerging manager, sub-50 million dollar fund, it would be this manager today, Josh Browder, Browder Capital. Honestly, I thought this guy was amazing when I came into this interview, but I didn't know the show would be quite as good as this turned out to be. So there's some insane points that are important to remember with Josh. He makes founders that |
| 1:28.4 | he invests in live in his spare room at the four seasons until they raise a seed round. Also, he turned |
| 1:34.9 | his teal fellowship 100K grant into a 10 million dollar angel portfolio. He was one of the first |
| 1:42.4 | investors in companies like Micro One, Yuzu, and many more. |
| 1:47.0 | I've never had such good founder references on any GP that we've ever had on the show, |
| 1:54.0 | as I have with Josh. I spoke to 12. Josh got an average of 9.2 out of 10 across those 12 founder references. |
| 2:02.6 | This is one of the best shows that we've done in a long time. |
| 2:05.6 | And I honestly just felt really grateful to have made a new friend after doing this show with Josh. |
| 2:10.5 | But before we dive into the show today, did you know the industry average for booking a business trip is 45 minutes? |
| 2:16.7 | That's a massive waste of your team's time. |
... |
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