20VC: Why Entrepreneurs Should Let Everyone Rip Apart Their Business Idea, How To Construct Frameworks for Success & Why You Should Not Always Test Your MVP with Afton Vechery, Founder & CEO @ Modern Fertility

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

🗓️ 5 October 2018

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Afton Vechery is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Modern Fertility, the startup that guides you through your fertility hormones now so you have options later. To date they have raised over 7m in funding from some of the leading players in venture including USV, First Round Capital, Maveron, SV Angel and Y Combinator. As for Afton, prior to Modern Fertility, Afton was a Product Manager @ 23andMe where she was the sole product manager responsible for all consumer-facing genetic tools. Before 23andMe, Afton was a Strategy and Finance Consultant @ Willow Pump where she participated in fundraising that led to successful $15M fundraise.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Afton made her way into the world of startups with 23andMe and then came to change the way we think about fertility with Modern Fertility?

2.) Afton has previously emphasised the importance of having "frameworks for success". What does that mean? How do those frameworks break down? How does Afton think about the decision-making process around prioritisation? How does Afton think about the difference between being customer informed and customer driven?

3.) Why does Afton believe that there are times when you should not test the MVP? Why is this? What would Afton do differently in the MVP process if she had her time again? How does Afton think about and respond to the statement "move fast and break things"?

4.) Why does Afton believe it is important to let everyone "rip apart your business"? What are the fundamental benefits of this? From the ripping aparts, Afton has experienced, what have been the biggest takeaways? What was their argument? How did Afton respond? How did her thinking and mentality change as a result?

5.) Why does Phin Barnes @ First Round say Afton is "hard as nails"? What were some of Afton's biggest learnings from her early engineering role? How does Afton think about entrepreneurial resilience today? What advice does Afton give to emerging entrepreneurs and first-time founders?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Afton’s Fave Book: Motherhood Rescheduled

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

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We are back for another episode in the world of the 20 minute VC and Founders Friday with me,
0:04.2	Harry Stebbings, and I'd love to see you on Instagram at H. Stebbings, 1996 with two bees, and I'd love
0:09.4	to see you there. But to the show today, and if you listen to our episode on Monday with Rebecca
0:13.4	Kaden at USV, you'll remember she discussed her most recent investment, being in Modern fertility. Well today I'm thrilled to welcome Afton Vicari, co-found
0:21.5	and CEO at Modern Fertility, the startup that guides you through your fertility hormones now,
0:26.4	so you have options later. To date, they've raised over $7 million in funding from some of the
0:30.9	leading players in venturing, including USV, first round capital, Mavron, SV Angel and Y Combinator.
0:37.3	As for Afton, prior to modern fertility,
0:39.2	she was a product manager at 23 and me, where she was the sole product manager responsible
0:43.4	for all consumer-facing genetic tools. And before 23 in me, Afton was a strategy and finance
0:48.6	consultant at Willow Pump, where she participated in fundraising that led to a successful $15 million
0:53.7	fundraise,
0:54.6	and I'd also want to say huge thank you, both to Rebecca Caden at USV and Finn Barnes at first round.
0:59.5	For the intro to Afton today, I really do so appreciate that.
1:02.7	But before we dive into the show with Afton, I want to spend a minute to talk about Brex.
1:06.5	The first corporate card for startups.
1:08.5	Brex founders, Henrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil,
1:11.9	but found themselves rejected for a corporate card when they were in Y Combinator. They decided to build
1:16.5	Brex. With instant online sign-up, no founder liability and limits 10 to 20 times higher than
1:22.0	standard cards. Pretty incredible. I know, and you can sign up for Brex and get card fees waived
1:26.7	by entering the code Harry during sign-up.
1:29.0	Honestly, it truly is a special service.
	...

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