20VC: Why Signalling Risk is Real, What Founders Need to Know About Taking Multi-Stage Money vs Seed Fund Money, Lessons Scaling to $600M AUM, The Secret to Hiring in VC; Hire People with No VC Experience & How Venture Will Be Disrupted with Rob Lacher
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2023
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rob Lacher founded Visionaries Club in 2019, in just 3 years he has scaled the firm to $600M AUM and backed some of Europe's best including Xentral, Personio, Miro, and Ledgy. Prior to Visionaries, Rob founded the fashion platform AMAZE in 2014 which he sold to Zalando, and founded the European seed and growth stage venture capital fund La Famiglia in 2016.
In Today's Episode with Rob Lacher We Discuss:
1.) From Novice Tennis Player to Investing on a Global Stage:
- When Rob realized beating Federer wasn’t an option, how did he make his way into the world of venture capital?
- When did Rob know he wanted to be a VC?
- What did Rob learn about himself after leaving La Famiglia?
- What characteristics make business partners compatible?
2.) The Secret to Building a Fund? Hire People With No Experience:
- What does Rob think is the hardest element of building a firm?
- What advice would Rob give to emerging managers when starting their firms?
- What is the single biggest mistake that Rob sees hiring managers make?
- Why does Rob prefer to hire people with no VC experience?
3.) The Red Ocean of European Venture:
- Does Rob think the Series A product in Europe is any good?
- How would Rob advise founders debating a US multi-stage fund or a European offer?
- If Rob could choose one European board member, who would it be and why?
- In Rob's dream, what would the Europe venture ecosystem look like in 2028?
- How does Rob think Europe’s family institutions can become Europe's Google?
4.) Lessons on Investing From a Pro:
- Where does Rob think VCs, founders, and boards are misaligned?
- When Rob invests, how central of a role does price actually pay?
- What is Rob’s single biggest investing mistake? How did it impact his mindset and approach?
- What are the three ways reserve management strategy has changed?
- What does Rob absolutely hate about VC?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | That's something I hate about VC. There are a thousand ways to be a great entrepreneur. |
| 0:03.0 | In the VC space there's too much hype about what's right, what's not right? |
| 0:07.0 | As a founder, just think totally independently, how much money do I need, which people do I want to hire, |
| 0:12.0 | and what are my mouth salts in the next one or two years, and I think there are not enough firm managers who are entrepreneurs in terms of how they think about building their firms. |
| 0:24.0 | Today's guest is a dear friend and an incredible firm builder, Rob Locker. |
| 0:28.1 | So Rob founded Visionaries Club in 2019. |
| 0:31.1 | In just three years, he scaled the firm to $600 million in AUM and backed some of Europe's best, including Central, |
| 0:38.8 | pigment, Personio, Mero and Legi, to name a few. |
| 0:40.9 | And before Visionaries, Rob founded the fashion platform Amaze in 2014, which he sold to Zolando, |
| 0:46.3 | and then he founded La Familia, the European Seed Stage venture firm in 2016. |
| 0:51.2 | But before we dive into the show's day, you've heard me talk about Coda the docks that brings it all together, and how it can help your team run smoother and be more efficient. |
| 0:59.7 | I know this because Coda helps me in 20VC. We have a team of amazing researchers who do 10 reference calls before each episode. |
| 1:07.0 | With Coda, that reference process and team runs so much more smoothly and they're just so much more efficient. |
| 1:12.6 | Coder allows your team to operate on the same information and collaborate all in one place. |
| 1:17.6 | So by putting all of that data in one centralized location, regardless of format, it just eliminates so many roadblocks that can stop your team in their tracks. |
| 1:25.6 | With Coda, you'll never ask, where are the latest project updates? Anyone know what the performance stats are? This is |
| 1:31.3 | really what bogs down teams and slows their productivity. With Coda, your team |
| 1:35.7 | can operate on the same information and collaborate in one place to get projects |
| 1:39.7 | across the finish line faster. Help your team run more smoothly, more efficiently with Coda. |
| 1:45.0 | Get started today for free. Head over to coda.io slash 20VC and get started for free. |
| 1:54.0 | And speaking of tools we cannot live without, you probably know Brax. Brax was the first corporate |
| 1:59.0 | card for startups, but Bryce has grown a lot since then |
... |
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