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Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

906: Tech Startups and Raising Money with Dan Levine (Vercel, Sentry, Mux…)

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

Wes Bos

Js, Technology, Css, Html5, Tech News, Webdevelopment, News, Javascript, Html

4.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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.

Show Notes

  • 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
  • 00:55 Dan’s background and career
  • 03:10 Is it common for tech investors to come from a tech background?
  • 04:40 How can developers raise money?
  • 08:35 What investors look for
  • 12:39 How much funding is enough?
  • 15:41 Are founders working with multiple investors?
  • 18:26 What can you use the money for?
  • 22:49 How much influence do investors have in the business?
  • 29:56 Brought to you by Sentry.io
  • 29:56 How involved are VCs in the business?
  • 34:22 How do you know a startup is in trouble—and what can you do about it?
  • 38:56 How much of the company do investors own?
  • 40:43 What’s the endgame for investors?
  • 44:02 How do acqui-hires work?
  • 46:29 Is the AI space a real opportunity or just hype?
  • 53:22 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs

Sick Picks

Shameless Plugs

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Transcript

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.

...

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