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

20VC: Why Spray & Pray Investing Is Wrong, Why Data-Informed VC Beats Data Driven VC & What To Look For When Investing In A Marketplace with Josh Breinlinger, Managing Director @ Jackson Square Ventures

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

4.4637 Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2017

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Josh Breinlinger is a Managing Director @ Jackson Square Ventures where he has made investments in the likes of Contently, OfferUp and rented.com, just to name a few incredible companies. He is also the ultimate master of all things marketplaces, especially when early stage startups must deal with the inevitable chicken and egg problem. Prior to life as a VC with JSV, Josh was part of the founding team @ ODesk, a co-founder @ Rev and the Head of Product and Marketing @ Adroll.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Josh made the transition from the world of startups to investing with Jackson Square?

2.) Josh previously said, 'data informed VCs will always beat data-driven VCs'. What makes Josh say this? What does being data-driven lead to weak investment decision making?

3.) Josh also said, 'we will see the rise of the master marketplace'. What does he mean by this? How is this different from current marketplace startups today? With such specialization does this not make it an unattractive sector for VCs with a smaller TAM?

4.) Following from Josh's statement that 'not all GMV is equal', how does that affect how Josh views; transaction size and frequency, share of wallet, value post-match being made and disintermediation?

5.) Why does Josh think rewarding VC activity is fundamentally wrong? What does it show that is, in reality, a falsehood?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Josh’s Fave Book: The Wright Brothers

Josh’s Fave Blog: Bill Gurley: Above The Crowd

Josh's Most Recent Investment: ScriptDash

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

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

Foundersuite makes the leading CRM for raising startup capital. Since March of 2016, Foundersuite customers have raised over $130M in seed and venture capital. Foundersuite’s CRM sits on a database of over 50,000 investors, which will help you quickly populate your fundraising funnel including a beautiful and easy-to-use investor update tool, and the recently launched a new portal that helps investors and accelerators track their portfolio companies on a single dashboard. For a whopping 40% off a Monthly or Annual subscription use the code “20MinuteVC” at checkout.

Greenhouse Software designs tools that help companies hire great people and ultimately build better businesses. Greenhouse works with over 1,500 of the world’s most innovative companies such as Airbnb, Slack, Snap Inc. and Lyft. A wrong hire is not only costly for a company but can also turn an employee into an unhappy one. With Greenhouse’s Applicant Tracking System, companies can make well-informed decisions and hire qualified candidates who are empowered to do the best work of their careers. Anybody who has a company that’s scaling quickly but has trouble hiring and retaining the right people. Visit www.greenhouse.io today to discover how your company can grow.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You're listening to The 20 Minute VC with me, your host, Harry Stebbings, and you can find me on Snapchat at H. Stebbings.

0:05.5

It would be fantastic to see you there.

0:07.2

However, to the show today, and I cannot state enough how excited I am for this one.

0:11.0

This guest has written a blog that I've loved for such a long time now, and so the show really was a personal pleasure for me.

0:16.4

So, joining me on the show today, we have Josh Brynlinger. Now, Josh is a managing director at Jackson Square Ventures,

0:22.0

where he's made investments in the likes of contently, offerup and rented.com, just to name a few

0:26.8

incredible companies. He's also the ultimate master of all things marketplaces, especially when

0:31.9

early stage startups must deal with the inevitable chicken and egg problem. Prior to life as a VC, though, Josh was part of the

0:37.6

founding team at Odesk, he was a co-founder at Rev, and the head of product in marketing at AdRole.

0:42.5

I do also want to say a special thank you to Sarah Tavell at Greylock for the intro to Josh today,

0:47.0

without which the episode would not have been possible. But before we dive into the show today,

0:51.0

Foundersuite makes software for raising capital. In the last 12 months,

0:54.7

startups using Foundersuite have raised over $130 million in Angel and VC funding. Founder

1:00.0

Suite's Investor CRM is the market leader. It includes a searchable database of over 50,000

1:05.1

investors, as well as a beautiful new investor update tool for creating monthly or quarterly progress

1:10.0

reports. Founderweets used by

1:11.6

startups in Y Combinator, tech stars, 500 startups and every other major accelerator. And listeners of this

1:17.7

podcast get a whopping 40% off a monthly or annual subscription using the promo code 20 minute VC. That's

1:24.0

2.0 minute VC. Speaking of incredible software, greenhouse software designs tools that

1:29.1

helps companies hire great people and ultimately build better businesses. Recognise as the 2017

1:34.6

best place to work in the US by Glass Store, greenhouse currently works with over 1,500 of the

1:39.5

world's most innovative companies, such as Airbnb, Slack, Snap, Inc, and Lyft, a wrong hire is not only costly

...

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