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

<p dir="ltr">Anish Acharya is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he leads consumer and fintech investing at Series A. He serves on the boards of standout portfolio companies including Deel, Mosaic, Clutch, Titan, and HappyRobot and has led early bets in companies like Runway and Carbonated. Before a16z, he founded and exited two startups—Snowball (acquired by Credit Karma) and SocialDeck (acquired by Google) and scaled Credit Karma's U.S. Card business to over 100 million members.</p> <p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">00:03 - Why building an AI company today requires being in San Francisco</p> <p dir="ltr">06:58 - The "SaaS Apocalypse" myth: Why "vibe coding" everything is a lie</p> <p dir="ltr">09:11 - How AI agents are finally breaking the lock-in of legacy software providers</p> <p dir="ltr">10:13 - Incumbents vs. Startups: Who actually wins the AI distribution war?</p> <p dir="ltr">14:39 - Why the developer tool market looks more like Cloud than Uber and Lyft</p> <p dir="ltr">22:43 - The death of the Chatbox? Why browse-based interfaces are still preferable</p> <p dir="ltr">27:14 - Why power users are 10x more valuable in the age of AI consumption</p> <p dir="ltr">28:36 - Do margins matter in a world of AI?</p> <p dir="ltr">34:46 - Why we are definitively not in an AI bubble right now</p> <p dir="ltr">38:58 - Why the Legal and Customer Support industries will have dozens of winners</p> <p dir="ltr">39:44 - Lessons from Marc Andreessen: Why the "quality of being right" supersedes process</p> <p dir="ltr">44:51 - Is "Triple, Triple, Double, Double" dead? The new physics of growth</p> <p dir="ltr">01:10:41 - The a16z Playbook: How to win 100% of the deals you chase</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">Ariel Cohen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Navan (formerly TripActions), an AI-powered travel and expense platform. Last month, Ariel took the company public, since being a public company, they have faced a torrid time seeing stock price decline by 50%. The company is currently valued between $4BN-$5BN. </p> <p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">0:00 The Truth About Going Public After 11 Years</p> <p dir="ltr">5:50 Why We Couldn't Wait: The Real Reason for the IPO</p> <p dir="ltr">8:15 Disrupting the Giants: Amex, Concur, and the $1T Opportunity</p> <p dir="ltr">11:50 "If We Don't Build This, We're Dead": Seeing ChatGPT Early</p> <p dir="ltr">18:35 Why Navan Built Their Own Customer Service AI </p> <p dir="ltr">23:45 Why Infrastructure is Overrated (and What Actually Matters)</p> <p dir="ltr">28:55 Vibe Coding: How We Rebuilt Our Product in 6 Hours</p> <p dir="ltr">34:55 Are Any Public Company CEOs Actually Happy?</p> <p dir="ltr">38:50 Lessons from Robinhood: Energy, Ethics, and the Stock Price</p> <p dir="ltr">45:10 The Cost of Success: $1B Mistakes and Parenting Regrets</p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">00:00 - SpaceX Completes Acquisition of xAI in $1.25 Trillion Merger</p> <p dir="ltr">08:44 - The Rehabilitation of the IPO and the End of "State Private Forever"</p> <p dir="ltr">15:53 - The 2026 SaaS Massacre: Public Market Collapse </p> <p dir="ltr">31:20 - Next-Gen CRM War: Hubspot Down 50%+ vs Next Gen Heavily Funded</p> <p dir="ltr">45:30 - Microsoft's $360 Billion Market Cap Loss and the Shift in AI Narrative</p> <p dir="ltr">52:45 - Nvidia's Strategic Retreat: The Dispute Over the $100 Billion OpenAI Investment</p> <p dir="ltr">01:03:30 - Waymo Raises $16 Billion at a $110 Billion Valuation</p> <p dir="ltr">01:17:30 - The Launch of OpenClaw and Moltbook: 1.5 Million Agents Join a Social Network</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">Oren Zeev is one of the most prominent solo capitalists in venture. He is one of the most no BS investors of our time. Oren manages over $1BN in AUM and is known for his "radical alignment" approach, often taking $0 in management fees. His track record includes massive successes like Navan, Audible, and Houzz.</p> <p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">03:11 – Why the Best Investments Always Look "Wrong" at the Start</p> <p dir="ltr">05:58 – The AI Tsunami: How to Spot Beneficiaries vs. Victims</p> <p dir="ltr">10:43 – The Death of Incumbents? Why Most AI Predictions Are Wrong</p> <p dir="ltr">14:12 – Why Chasing Hyper-Growth is a "Disaster Waiting to Happen"</p> <p dir="ltr">19:41 – The Biggest Mistakes From 2021 and Investing Lessons From It?</p> <p dir="ltr">25:52 – Is the Future of Venture Boutique or Mega Fund: Does the Middle Die?</p> <p dir="ltr">32:00 – The Great VC Shakeout: Why 50% of Funds Will Slowly Die</p> <p dir="ltr">38:52 – Why Oren Zeev Takes $0 in Management Fees</p> <p dir="ltr">50:48 – Why VCs Should Never Tell Their LPs What They Are Doing?</p> <p dir="ltr">59:11 – How I Missed Investing in Facebook and Lessons Learned</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">Omer Shai serves as the CMO at Wix. Shai leads a team of over 400 people and is responsible for the company's global online and offline marketing activity, which boasts an incredible growth of approximately 3 million new users every month. Under Shai, the marketing department has executed hundreds of worldwide campaigns for television and social including 5 Super Bowl commercials, creative videos, podcasts and more.</p> <p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">00:00 — The AI Agent Revolution: 93% Automation?</p> <p dir="ltr">03:55 — Why I'm Buying TWO Super Bowl Ads This Year</p> <p dir="ltr">08:58 — The $100M Marketing Secret: Brand vs. Performance</p> <p dir="ltr">13:28 — Why LTV is Bullshit (and What You Should Use Instead)</p> <p dir="ltr">18:52 — 10x Your Growth: How to Find Tomorrow's Arbitrage</p> <p dir="ltr">27:10 — SEO is Dying? Why I'm Increasing My Ad Spend Anyway</p> <p dir="ltr">31:14 — The TikTok Fail: Why Even Big Brands Can't Crack It</p> <p dir="ltr">36:11 — Stop Selling the "Why": Put the Product in the Center</p> <p dir="ltr">47:57 — Will AI Make You Unemployed? A Warning for Marketers</p> <p dir="ltr">52:27 — Why Celebrity Endorsements Never Work</p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">03:36 Brex Acquisition by Capital One for $5.15BN</p> <p dir="ltr">10:54 Does Brex's Acquisition Help or Hurt Ramp?</p> <p dir="ltr">16:28 TikTok Deal Completed: Who Won & Who Lost: Analysis</p> <p dir="ltr">19:30 Anthropic Inference Costs Higher Than Expected</p> <p dir="ltr">37:50 Open Evidence Raises at $12BN from Thrive and DST</p> <p dir="ltr">53:56 Wealthront IPO Disaster: Is $1.5BN IPO Too Small?</p> <p dir="ltr">01:07:27 Salesforce Wins $5BN Army Contract: The Last Laugh for SaaS</p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">Max Junestrand is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Legora, the legal AI company that has scaled to $70M in ARR, 750 of the world's leading law firms as customers and over 300 employees in just 2 years. They have raised over $200M from some of the best in the business including Benchmark, General Catalyst, Redpoint and ICONIQ. </p> <p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">04:16 Why Does Everyone Think Harvey When They Hear Legal AI?</p> <p dir="ltr">07:35 Why OpenAI is Toast? Switching to Anthropic!</p> <p dir="ltr">11:47 24 Months: Which Foundation Models Will Win? </p> <p dir="ltr">23:53 Lessons Scaling from Europe into the US</p> <p dir="ltr">28:53 Do Americans Work As Hard As They Say?</p> <p dir="ltr">32:20 Why Seat Models Are Not Dead in SaaS?</p> <p dir="ltr">36:17 How to Use Competition To Drive a Fire in Your Team?</p> <p dir="ltr">40:59 Is Legal AI a Winner-Take-All Market? How Does It End?</p> <p dir="ltr">47:18 The Future of Law Firms: Do Juniors Get Fired?</p> <p dir="ltr">53:19 How We Raised $200M and 3 Rounds with No Deck</p> <p dir="ltr">57:21 Quickfire Round: Best Advice, Closest Mentor, Biggest Mindset Shift</p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">00:03:00 – Harry's Wild Start: Making £1.75M at 19 in 36 Hours</p> <p dir="ltr">00:06:00 – How Harry Got Marc Benioff on 20VC with Cold Emailing Alone</p> <p dir="ltr">00:07:30 – Raising $70M on WhatsApp – Relationship Building Secrets</p> <p dir="ltr">00:12:00 – Decision Framework: What Would Pat Grady (Sequoia) Do?</p> <p dir="ltr">00:15:00 – Chase Your First Million – It Unlocks Everything</p> <p dir="ltr">00:16:30 – Advice for 19-Year-Olds Today: Niche Down, Interview Leaders, Publish</p> <p dir="ltr">00:18:00 – University Is a Waste for Most | Leverage Youth & Risk</p> <p dir="ltr">00:22:30 – How Getting Kicked Out of School Changed Everything</p> <p dir="ltr">00:30:00 – Why Should Everyone Be Creating Content Today and How to Start</p> <p dir="ltr">00:35:30 – 7 Lessons from Billionaires</p> <ul> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">00:36:00 – #1: Never Accept No (The $12M Turnaround Story)</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">00:37:30 – #2: Beat Down the Door (53 Emails to Marc Benioff)</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">00:39:00 – #3: Just Start – 99% Never Do</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">00:40:30 – #4: Use a Role Model Framework for Hard Decisions</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">00:42:00 – #5: Chasing Money Won't Make You Happy – Enjoy the Art</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">00:44:00 – #6: Break Big Visions into Achievable Milestones</p> </li> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">00:45:30 – #7: Win Over the Partner (Power of Pillow Talk)</p> </li> </ul> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">03:30 Can VC Survive With Public Market Prices Today</p> <p dir="ltr">15:20 The Implosion of Thinking Machines</p> <p dir="ltr">21:13 Elon Musk vs. OpenAI: The Legal Battle</p> <p dir="ltr">40:50 Can OpenAI Win Ads?</p> <p dir="ltr">55:50 ClickHouse's $15BN Deal: Analysed</p> <p dir="ltr">58:55 Replit's $9BN Deal: Analysed</p> <p dir="ltr">01:08:35 There Are Only Two Types of Deals VCs Want To Do Today</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">Winston Weinberg is the CEO and Co-Founder of Harvey, the leading professional services platform engineered with AI for law, tax, and finance. Winston has raised over $980M for Harvey from Sequoia, a16z, GV, Elad Gil and more with a last round price of $9.2BN post-money. Before founding Harvey in August 2022, Winston was an attorney at O'Melveny & Myers LLP, specializing in antitrust and securities litigation. </p> <p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">04:10 #1 Thing Every Founder Needs to Do Everyday</p> <p dir="ltr">05:33 Must Do Daily Routines and Productivity Tips for CEOs</p> <p dir="ltr">12:45 How to Get Sequoia and a16z Term Sheets</p> <p dir="ltr">15:06 Why VCs Suck at Helping Companies Hire?</p> <p dir="ltr">27:01 What No One Understands About Enterprise AI Adoption</p> <p dir="ltr">38:06 AI's Impact on Professional Services</p> <p dir="ltr">39:26 Future of Law Firms: Do They Die?</p> <p dir="ltr">43:38 What Everyone Should Know That No One Tells You About Hiring in Europe</p> <p dir="ltr">47:08 I Have Massive Trust Issues…</p> <p dir="ltr">54:17 Biggest Lessons on Effective Deal-Making </p> <p dir="ltr">59:20 Cold Emailing OpenAI and It Leading to a Term Sheet</p> <p dir="ltr">01:02:33 Quick Fire Round</p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">05:02 Anthropic's $10 Billion Fundraise</p> <p dir="ltr">07:54 Has Claude Code Beaten Cursor Already</p> <p dir="ltr">15:54 OpenAI Could Still Go to Zero</p> <p dir="ltr">26:33 Andreessen Horowitz's $15 Billion Fundraise</p> <p dir="ltr">45:16 The Middle is Dead: Boutique vs. Large Platforms in Venture</p> <p dir="ltr">50:01 The Future of Venture Capital</p> <p dir="ltr">01:08:06 The Impact of Wealth Taxes on the Industry</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">Bending Spoons is the acquisition machine of the tech world. They have acquired the likes of Evernote, Vimeo, Eventbrite, Streamyard and more. However, they never open their gates to the secrets behind Evernote's product machine. Today that changes with Federico Simionato joining 20Product. Fede has been a Product Lead at Bending Spoons for 8 years where he has led product teams at Evernote, WeTransfer and more.  </p> <p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">03:02 From Dentist Games to $11BN Bending Spoons</p> <p dir="ltr">04:54 Advice for Aspiring Product Managers</p> <p dir="ltr">05:38 Building a Coveted Brand at Bending Spoons</p> <p dir="ltr">07:43 Evaluating and Testing New Product Ideas</p> <p dir="ltr">13:35 How Evernote has Mastered User Retention</p> <p dir="ltr">25:24 The Impact of AI on Product Design and Prototyping</p> <p dir="ltr">31:19 How Bending Spoons Does Product Launches and Lessons Learned</p> <p dir="ltr">33:27 How Every Product Team Should Do Monthly Updates to Users</p> <p dir="ltr">36:38 Recording and Transparency in Updates</p> <p dir="ltr">38:06 Lessons from Failed Product Launches</p> <p dir="ltr">45:14 Structuring Teams and Acquisitions</p> <p dir="ltr">47:12 Monetization Strategies and Push Notifications</p> <p dir="ltr">57:21 Quick Fire Round: Insights and Reflections</p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">04:47 Cursor Raises $2.3BN at $29BN Valuation</p> <p dir="ltr">11:36 What Gemini 3 Means for Lovable, Cursor and Replit</p> <p dir="ltr">30:54 Peter Thiel and Softbank Sell NVIDIA: The Bubble Bursting?</p> <p dir="ltr">48:54 Oracle Credit Default Swaps: The Risk is Increasing</p> <p dir="ltr">01:07:22 Stripe Does Tender at All-Time High: Why the Best Companies Will Never IPO</p> <p dir="ltr">01:19:18 Why Retail WIll Cause a Surge of Capital into VC Funds</p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">Dr. Andrew Ng is a globally recognized leader in AI. He is Founder of <a href= "https://www.deeplearning.ai/">DeepLearning.AI</a>, Executive Chairman of <a href="https://landing.ai/">LandingAI</a>, General Partner at <a href="https://aifund.ai/">AI Fund</a>, Chairman and Co-Founder of <a href="https://www.coursera.org/">Coursera</a>. As a pioneer in machine learning Andrew has authored or co-authored over 200 research papers in machine learning, robotics and related fields. In 2023, he was named to the Time100 AI list of the most influential AI persons in the world.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span style= "text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Agenda:</strong></span></p> <p dir="ltr">03:19 What are the Biggest Bottlenecks in AI Today? </p> <p dir="ltr">08:51 How LLMs Can Be Used as a Geopolitical Weapon</p> <p dir="ltr">15:48 Should AI Talent Really Be Paid Billions?</p> <p dir="ltr">29:07 Why is the Application Layer the Most Exciting Layer?</p> <p dir="ltr">36:22 Do Margins Matter in a World of AI?</p> <p dir="ltr">38:02 Is Defensibility Dead in a World of AI?</p> <p dir="ltr">45:29 Will AI Deliver Masa Son's Predictions of 5% GDP Growth?</p> <p dir="ltr">49:39 Are We in an AI Bubble?</p> <p dir="ltr">57:31 Will Human Labour Budgets Shift to AI Spend?</p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">Carl Rivera is the Chief Design Officer at Shopify, where he previously led both Merchant Services and the Shop App as VP of Product. Before joining Shopify through its acquisition of Tictail, Carl was the co-founder and CEO of Tictail, the "Tumblr for e-commerce," where he built one of the most beloved design-forward commerce platforms of its era.</p> <p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">05:05 Biggest Lessons from Selling My Company to Shopify</p> <p dir="ltr">09:55 Where Does Shopify Suck at Product: Lessons from that?</p> <p dir="ltr">17:37 What makes Truly Great product Design: The Five Pillars</p> <p dir="ltr">31:02 The Future of Design in an AI-Driven World</p> <p dir="ltr">36:00 Do We Skip the Design Phase in AI: Figma's Evolving Role in Design</p> <p dir="ltr">40:09 Remote Work vs. In-Person Collaboration: Where Remote Loses?</p> <p dir="ltr">42:43 What Happens to the Vibe Coding Market</p> <p dir="ltr">47:06 Product Management and Team Dynamics</p> <p dir="ltr">59:48 Does AI Favour Incumbents or Startups</p> <p> </p>

<p dir="ltr">AGENDA:</p> <p dir="ltr">04:22 Sequoia's Leadership Transition</p> <p dir="ltr">09:46 Michael Burry's Big Short on Nvidia and Palantir</p> <p dir="ltr">17:41 Gamma Raises $100M at a $2BN Valuation</p> <p dir="ltr">32:34 Does Defensibility Exist Today When Copying is Easy</p> <p dir="ltr">40:31 Should All Funds Be Way More Diversified</p> <p dir="ltr">47:12 How to Run a Fundraising Process & What Not To Do</p> <p dir="ltr">57:57 Datadog Surges 20% and Duolingo Crashes: What Happened</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p dir="ltr"> </p>

<p dir="ltr">Ev Randle is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the best funds in venture capital. In their latest fund, they have Mercor ($10BN valuation), Sierra ($10BN valuation), Firework ($4BN valuation), Legora ($2Bn valuation) and Langchain ($1.4Bn valuation). To put this in multiples on invested capital, that is a 60x, two 30x and two 20x. Before Benchmark, Ev was a Partner @ Kleiner Perkins and before Kleiner, Ev was an investor at Founders Fund and Bond. </p> <p dir="ltr"><span style= "text-decoration: underline;"><strong>AGENDA:</strong></span></p> <p dir="ltr">05:25 Biggest Investing Lessons from Peter Thiel, Mary Meeker and Mamoon Hamid</p> <p dir="ltr">14:36 OpenAI Will Be a $TRN Company & OpenAI or Anthropic: Who Wins Coding?</p> <p dir="ltr">22:27 Why We Should Not Focus on Margin But Gross Dollar Per Customer</p> <p dir="ltr">30:25 Why AI Labs are the Biggest Threat to AI App Companies</p> <p dir="ltr">44:26 Do Benchmark Fire Founders? If so… Truly the Best Partner?</p> <p dir="ltr">54:38 People, Product, Market: Rank 1-3 and Why?</p> <p dir="ltr">57:36 Why the Mega Funds Have Just Replaced Tiger</p> <p dir="ltr">01:04:08 GC, Lightspeed and a16z Cannot Do 5x on Their Funds… </p> <p dir="ltr">01:14:09 Single Biggest Threat to Benchmark</p> <p> </p>

Andrew Feldman is Co-Founder & CEO of Cerebras, building the world's fastest AI inference and training. Cerebras recently closed a $1.1BN Series G round at an $8.1 billion valuation, backed by top names including Fidelity, Atreides, Tiger Global,...