20VC: Using Valuation As A Litmus Test, Why Valuation Does Not Matter At Seed Stage & How Seed Funds Can Serve Founders Better with Kent Goldman, Founder @ Upside Partnership
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2016
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kent Goldman is the Founder of Upside Partnership, one of the leading seed-stage investment firms in SF with investments in the likes of Laurel and Wolf, Digit and Lily. In 2015, he was named to the Midas Brink List. Prior to forming Upside Partnership in 2014, Kent was a Partner at seed investment pioneer First Round Capital. While there he led investments in companies including Airware, Hotel Tonight, and MemSQL. He also served on the board of Mashery (acquired by Intel). Earlier in his career, Kent was a member of Yahoo!’s corporate development team and also led business strategy for Yahoo! products generating $1 billion in annual revenue.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Kent made his way into the world of early stage investing and came to found Upside?
2.) What were the big takeaways from First Round for Kent? How has he applied those learnings to his formation of Upside?
3.) What does Kent look for in the LPs that invest in his fund? Why should founders look to learn which LPs are invested in the fund investing in them?
4.) How has Kent seen his investment decision-making process alter with time? What have been the big changes?
5.) Why does Kent believe valuation does not matter so much at the seed stage? What does really matter to him at the seed stage? How does this progress with rounds?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Kent’s Fave Blog: Howards Marks: Oaktree Capital
Kent’s Fave Book: A River Runs Through It And Other Stories
Kent’s Most Recent Investment: Live Neighborly
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kent 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 | Welcome back to the 20-minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings at H. Stebbings on Snapchat, |
| 0:04.6 | or for some hopefully more thoughtful and academic thoughts, you can find me on the appropriately named |
| 0:08.6 | MahitoVC.com. I hope you've had a fantastic Christmas with far too much food and booze. I know I have, |
| 0:14.7 | but back to business today. And as I always say, venture capital sleeps for no man or woman. And I'm delighted to welcome |
| 0:21.3 | today's guest to the show stay. So joining us in the hot seat, we have Kent Goldman. Now, Kent is the |
| 0:25.9 | founder at Upside Partnership, one of the leading seed stage investment firms in San Francisco, |
| 0:30.8 | with investments in the likes of Laurel and Wolf, Digit, and Lily, just to name a few. And in |
| 0:35.0 | 2015, he was named to the Midas Brinklist. And prior to forming |
| 0:38.7 | upside partnership in 2014, Kent was a partner at the prestigious Seed Stage Investment Pioneer, |
| 0:44.4 | first round capital. While there, he led investments in companies including airware, hotel tonight, |
| 0:49.7 | and MemSQL. He also served on the board of Mashery, which was acquired by Intel. And earlier in his career, |
| 0:55.3 | Kent was a member of Yahoo's corporate development team and also led business strategy for Yahoo products, |
| 1:00.2 | generating $1 billion in annual revenue. However, before we meet the main man that is Kent, |
| 1:05.0 | although Christmas is over, it does not mean you cannot treat yourself, and what better way to do that |
| 1:08.9 | than with Pearl? Pearl believes the latest automotive technology should be available to every driver, whether it's time for you to buy a new |
| 1:14.9 | car or not. And Pearl Rear Vision is their first step in driving this commitment forward. Pearl |
| 1:20.1 | Rear Vision is the only wireless backup camera and alert system that installs in minutes and updates |
| 1:24.9 | throughout its lifetime. Pearl literally takes less than 10 minutes to install and is completely wireless because it's solar powered. |
| 1:31.3 | And since Rear Vision is software-based, they're also able to push updates and new features over the Pearl app |
| 1:36.3 | in the exact same way you receive updates for other apps on your phone now. |
| 1:40.3 | Pearl Rear Vision is perfect for anyone who wants to upgrade their car in minutes and cost |
| 1:44.6 | $499 and is available at pearl auto.com, where you can find it on Amazon or through Crutchfield. |
... |
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