20VC: Wealthfront and Benchmark's Andy Rachleff on Why Delight Is The Greatest Form Of Virality, Why Competition Does Not Matter & What The Future Holds For Automated Personal Finance

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

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

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2017

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From 1995 until 2004 Andy Rachleff was a co-founder and General Partner of Benchmark Capital, who have backed the likes of Twitter, Snapchat, Dropbox, Uber and Instagram. Upon his retirement from Benchmark, Andy joined the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business to teach a variety of courses on entrepreneurship. In 2008 he co-founded Wealthfront Inc, the online financial advisor and investment management solution, where he now serves as Executive Chairman. In just 3 years, Wealthfront now have over $2bn AUM.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Andy made his way into the world of VC, became the Co-Founder @ Benchmark and what was the origin story behind the founding of Wealthfront?

2.) On rejoining Wealthfront as CEO Andy stated, 'I am an investor, not a CEO but what I did not realize was that I am a founder'. At what point did Andy realize this? Would Andy say that this is a strategic inflection point for Wealthfront with his return?

3.) What are the few elements that will make or break Wealthfront in the coming years? It it the best CEOs that are able to both balance the challenges with the opportunities?

4.) What does the future hold for Wealthfront? What is the exciting news? What does this mean for the road ahead and the world of automated personal finance?

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

X.ai is AI-poweredered personal assistant for scheduling meetings bringing you Amy or Andrew. The assistant you interact with like you would to any other person and it allows you to avoid the tedious hours of email ping pong in order to schedule one meeting. Even better, there is no sign in, no password, no download, all you do is cc [email protected] beautiful! And you can check it out now on x.ai it really is a must!

Workable is the all-in-one recruiting software for ambitious companies. From posting a job to tracking and managing candidates, Workable provides everything you need to hire better. Transparent communication, organized candidate profiles, structured interviews and a full reporting suite gives hiring teams the information they need to make the best choice. Workable is available for desktop and mobile and you can find out more on workable.com where you can try it for free.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is the 20 minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings, and if you'd like to see behind the scenes from all things here at the 20 minute VC, then you can follow me on Snapchat at H. Stebbings with 2Bs, or check out the new blog MahitoVC.com, where you can find an article from today's episode with some of the key takeaways. Trust me, there are many. So I'm delighted to say, rejoining me in the Hot Seats Day for round two. We have Andy Rackcliffe.
0:21.5	Now, Andy is the co-founder of Benchmark, where he was general partner from 1995 to 2004.
0:27.0	Benchmark are one of the world's leading funds with investments in the likes of Twitter, Snapchat, Dropbox, Uber and Instagram, just to name a few from their incredible portfolio.
0:35.4	Upon his retirement from Benchmark, Andy joined the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business to teach a few from their incredible portfolio. Upon his retirement from benchmark, Andy joined the
0:38.0	faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business to teach a variety of courses on entrepreneurship,
0:42.8	and in 2008 he co-founded Wealthfront, the online financial advisor and investment management
0:47.5	solution, where he now serves as founder and CEO. In just three years, Wellfront amassed over
0:52.1	$2 billion in assets under management.
0:54.8	But before we dive into the show today, there are some products that you simply cannot
0:58.1	remember what life was like before them. For me, that's x.a.I. They bring you Amy and
1:02.8	Andrew, their AI-powered personal assistance for scheduling meetings. And the beauty of Amy or
1:07.6	Andrew is you interact with them like you would any other person. And it allows you to avoid the tedious hours of email ping pong in order to schedule one meeting.
1:15.5	Even better, though, there's no sign in, no password, no download, all you do is CCAmy at
1:20.7	X.A.I. Absolutely fantastic. And you can check it out now at X.AI, it really is a must.
1:26.3	And on the topic of streamlining, traditionally
1:28.0	long and cumbersome workflows, you must check out Workable, the all-in-one recruiting software
1:32.5	for ambitious companies. From posting a job to tracking and managing candidates, Workable
1:37.0	provides everything you need to hire better. Transparent communication, organized candidate
1:41.4	profiles, structured interviews and a full reporting suite,
1:44.7	gives hiring teams the information they need to make the best choice.
1:48.1	Workable's available for desktop and mobile, and you can find out more on workable.com,
1:52.4	where you can try it for free.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Twenty Minute VC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Twenty Minute VC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.