20VC: Y Combinator's New President, Geoff Ralston on The Single Most Important Perspective An Investor Can Provide A Founder, The Biggest Lessons From Working Alongside Paul Graham & Why You Will Lose As An Investor If You "Profile Invest"

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

🗓️ 27 May 2019

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Geoff Ralston is President @ Y Combinator, the world's leading accelerator with a portfolio that includes the likes of Stripe, Airbnb, Dropbox, Coinbase, Instacart, DoorDash, Flexport and so many more. As for Geoff, he started his career running engineering at Four11, where he built RocketMail, which in 1997 became Yahoo! Mail. At Yahoo! Geoff worked in engineering, then ran a business unit, then became Chief Product Officer. After Yahoo! he was CEO of Lala, which was acquired in 2009 by Apple. Post Lala, Geoff then co-founded the world’s first educational technology accelerator, Imagine K12 which funded dozens of edtech companies including ClassDojo, Remind, and Panorama Education. Imagine K12 merged with YC in 2016.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Geoff made his way into the world of technology and startups, came to found Imagine K12 and how that led to becoming President @ Y Combinator today?

2.) What were Geoff's biggest takeaways from seeing the boom and bust of the macro environment in the dot com and 2008? How did those times impact both his operating and investing mentality? Why does Geoff believe 2000 was "purifying"? Why can the same not be said for 2008? How was 2008 so different?

3.) Frederic Kerrest @ Okta said: "it is 70% market, 20% team and 10% product", would Geoff agree with this weighting? How has his weighting changed over time? YC has "10 Minute Meetings", how can YC really determine whether someone is investable in 10 mins? How does Geoff think about the hailed VC term, "pattern matching"? Why does Geoff believe you lose as an investor if you fall back on "profiles"?

4.) Geoff has worked with 100s of founders in the idea validation stage, how does Geoff know when a founder has the right idea? How does Geoff think about the balance between mission and vision but then also being realistic about when something is not working? When do you quit? Why is the decision internal not external? What is the most important perspective any investor can give a founder?

5.) How does Geoff think about the coined term "product-market fit" and how does he analyse it in terms of retention and growth? If they have some signs of it, how should founders think about when is the right time to raise their first round? How does Geoff think about the benefits for founders of convertibles and now SAFE's? What does Geoff believe will be the future of legal round mechanics?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Geoff’s Fave Book: Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller

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

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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back to the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings. I always love to hear your thoughts on both
0:04.2	guests and questions you'd like on the show, and you can do that on Instagram at H. Stebbing's
0:08.6	1996 with two Bs. It would be great to see you there. But to our guest today, and last week there was
0:13.4	some very exciting news from Wycombinator. Why Combinator has a new president, Mr. Jeff Ralston. And I've wanted to have Jeff on the show for a very long time now,
0:21.0	and so what better time for our episode than stay with the start of this very exciting new chapter?
0:25.5	Jeff Ralston, though, is the president now at Y Combinator, the world's leading accelerator with
0:29.6	a portfolio that it includes the likes of check this out, Stripe, Airbnb, Dropbox, Coinbase, Instacart, DoorDash, Flexport, and so many more incredible companies.
0:39.0	As for Jeff, he started his career running engineering at 411, where he built Rocket Mail,
0:43.7	which in 1997 became Yahoo! At Yahoo, Jeff worked in engineering, then ran a business unit,
0:49.4	then became chief product officer. After Yahoo, he was CEO of Lala, which was acquired in 2009 by Apple.
0:55.2	Post-LLLAR Jeff then co-founded one of the world's first educational technology accelerators,
0:59.6	Imagine K-12, which funded dozens of ed tech companies, including Class Dojo, Remind, and Panorama
1:05.1	Education. Imagine K-12 then merged with YC in 2016. And I'd also want to say huge thank you,
1:11.9	both to Gary Tan and Justin Kahn for some fantastic questions suggestions today. I really do so appreciate that.
1:17.0	But before we dive into our episode today with Jeff, a lot of what we do on the 20 minute VC
1:21.2	is discuss scaling businesses, talk to experts, pick the brains of founders and investors
1:25.7	who tell us about the trends to watch out for,
1:27.9	offer tips on fundraising, and teach us how to excel at any company stage.
1:32.0	But there's no playbook for building a great business, but we can certainly learn from people
1:35.9	who've done it before.
1:36.9	Beyond listening to this podcast, and talking to mentors and advisors in your own network,
1:40.9	it's important to have resources you can turn to when you're tackling a new challenge.
	...

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