20VC: Why Bundling Does Not Work, How The Best Founders Analyse Unit Economics, Why The Way We Approach Mental Health in Venture and Startups is Wrong with Nigel Morris, Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ QED Investors
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2021
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nigel Morris is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of QED Investors, one of the leading fintech-focused venture firms of the last decade with numerous unicorn investments, including Credit Karma, NuBank, Avant, SoFi, Klarna, GreenSky, and AvidXchange. Prior to QED, Nigel co-founded Capital One Financial Services in 1994. During his 10-year tenure, Nigel transitioned Capital One from an emerging start-up to an established public company valued at over $20 billion with over 15,000 employees. Finally, Nigel also sits on or has sat on the board of Nubank, Prosper, Zopa, Klarna, The Economist and London Business School to name a few.
In Today’s Episode with Nigel Morris You Will Learn:
1.) How Nigel made his way into the world of startups with Capital One back in 1994 and how that journey led to his founding one of the leading fintech investment firms in QED? What made Nigel want to develop QED from a family office into a large scaling venture firm?
2.) Where does Nigel's passion for mental health stem from? Why does Nigel believe VC and entrepreneurship is riddled with mental health problems? How does Nigel deal with his own self-doubt and insecurity? In what way does Nigel analyse his own relationship to money today? How has it changed over time? How has that relationship to money changed how he thinks about investing?
3.) What does Nigel believe it takes to be a great listener? How does Nigel think about asking the risk questions to move the founder to the right insight? How does Nigel create the conditions where the entrepreneur can be much more open? What questions would Nigel never ask? How does Nigel describe his style of board membership? How has it changed?
4.) How does Nigel think about the centrality of unit economics? What does Nigel look for in the way that the entrepreneur thinks through and analyses unit economics? When does Nigel believe you have tangible data to rely on to justify unit economics? What is the biggest challenge with unit economics? What should companies do when their competitors raise massive funding rounds?
5.) Why does Nigel believe that "bundling" is a canard? What does not work regarding how traditional "bundling" works? Why might it be different for the next generation of fintech providers to bundle different products? Why does Nigel believe lending is a much harder insertion point to start than current accounts? How does Nigel think about the right insertion point?
Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Nigel Morris
Nigel’s Favourite Book: Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World
Nigel’s Most Recent Investment: Bitso
As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and as a Brit, this guest's journey has inspired me for such a long time. |
| 0:05.8 | The companies he has built have reshaped their industry and now changing the game in the world of venture. |
| 0:10.5 | And so with that, I'm thrilled to welcome Nigel Morris, co-founder and managing partner of QED investors, |
| 0:15.7 | one of the leading fintech-focused venture firms of the last decade, |
| 0:18.8 | with numerous unicorn investments including Creditcom, New Bank, Avant, SoFi, Klanar, Green Sky, the list goes on. And prior to QED, |
| 0:27.4 | Nigel co-founded Capital One Financial Services in 1994, check this out. During his 10-year tenure, |
| 0:33.1 | Nigel transitioned Capital One, from an emerging startup to an established public company valued at over |
| 0:38.3 | $20 billion with over 15,000 employees. And if that wasn't enough, Nigel also sits on or has |
| 0:44.5 | sat on the board of Newbank, Prosper, Zopa, Zopa, Klana, the Economist, and London Business School, |
| 0:49.8 | to name a few. I'd also want to say a huge thank you though. This schedule was a massive team effort. Frank Rotman, David Vellas at Newbank, Kevin at Motto Refine, Matt Harris at Bain. So appreciate the |
| 0:59.3 | question suggestions today. But before we dive into the show today, I have to say I just love |
| 1:03.6 | using Angel List fund admin platform to manage my investments. The team at Angel List takes care |
| 1:08.5 | of all my back office needs so that I can focus on working with |
| 1:11.4 | great founders. Leading fund managers have made over 10,000 investments into 6,000 startups via AngelList, |
| 1:17.7 | all online and all in one place. And with the recently announced rolling funds, you can easily |
| 1:22.2 | find and invest in these top fund managers on angellist.com forward slash rolling. And speaking of the incredible platform that is AngelList on the business side there, on the |
| 1:31.1 | personal side, harness is the next generation wealth management solution, created for builders, |
| 1:36.3 | individuals founding, scaling and investing in businesses. |
| 1:39.6 | And if you're like me and not ready for an ongoing advisory relationship, then simple. |
| 1:43.7 | Schedule a one-hour tax |
| 1:44.9 | planning session with a tax advisor experienced in working with equity. The accountant will review |
| 1:49.8 | your equity in tax documents, answer any questions you may have, and provide projections for |
... |
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