4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Wes and Scott talk with VC Dan Levine about how developers can raise venture capital, what investors look for in early-stage startups, the realities of bootstrapping vs. fundraising, and why great ideas often start as simple side projects.
Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads
Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | Welcome to Syntax. You want to raise a bunch of money? We got Dan Levine on today, and he's a VC. He's invested in a bazillion different companies. Probably, you'll know, he's invested in Vercel and Century and Mux and Scale AI and a whole bunch of other ones. He's a really cool guy. And I thought, let's have him on and talk to him about how to raise money. |
0:22.1 | You're listening to this podcast. |
0:23.5 | You probably have had ideas for things you want to build. |
0:27.3 | And what is navigating that this whole thing of raising money and what can you do with that money? |
0:34.0 | And how does this whole world work? |
0:36.5 | So welcome, Dan. |
0:37.2 | Thanks so much for coming on. |
0:38.6 | Thank you guys so much for having me. I've been a big fan, long time listener, first time caller. |
0:41.9 | I think it's the right phrasing year, but I'm really excited to try and do my best, although |
0:47.5 | I never promised results. I've been telling my wife I might grow hair for years. I haven't come |
0:51.9 | through, so I'm pretty quick employment. Don't be alarmed. |
0:55.7 | You want to give us a quick rundown of who you are and what you do? |
0:59.7 | Yeah. So my name's Dan. I work at a place called Excel, which has been around for 42 years. |
1:06.7 | And my background before this was I was actually pretty interested in math. And that's what I did |
1:10.0 | most of my undergrad in. |
1:11.0 | And then got into software engineering because I worked at this one place. |
1:14.4 | They're like, you're really good at math. |
1:16.0 | But like, you have to do something with it. |
1:17.9 | So you need to learn the right software. |
1:19.8 | So that's how I got into programming. |
1:21.1 | And then the next summer, I did a bunch of web development stuff back in the summer of |
1:24.4 | 08. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wes Bos, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Wes Bos and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.