The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Why Founder Mode is Dangerous & Could Encourage Bad Behaviour | Why Fundraising is a Waste of Time & OKRs are BS | Why Angel Investing is Bad for Founders to Do and the VC Model is on it's Last Legs with Zach Perret @ Plaid
Wed, 16 Oct 2024
Zach Perret is the CEO and Co-Founder of Plaid, a technology platform reshaping financial services. To date, Zach has raised over $734M for Plaid from the likes of NEA, Spark, GV, Coatue and a16z, to name a few. Today, thousands of companies including the largest fintechs, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks use Plaid. In addition, Zach is also a Co-Founder of Mischief, an early-stage venture fund in San Francisco. In Today’s Episode with Zach Perret We Discuss: 1. Founder Mode: Why “Founder Mode” will be the most dangerous blog post written in the last decade for founders? What is most misleading about it? What are “grinder problems”? Why does Zach believe that grinder problems are the best problems for startups to try and solve? Why does Zach believe that OKRs are BS and should be removed? What should be used instead? 2. Lessons from Raising $734M for Plaid: What is the worst advice that VCs give that most founders take? Why does Zach believe that angel investing is more distracting than helpful for founders to do? What are the pros of investing alongside running a company? Why does Zach encourage founders to raise money as infrequently as possible? What does this mean for the size and price of rounds Zach thinks we should see occur? 3. The $5BN Exit and the $13.4BN Round: Why did Zach turn down the $5BN exit to Visa? Was it the right choice? Does Zach regret raising at such a high price of $13.4BN when the exit did not happen? Would Zach sell the company today for $13.4BN if offered it? What did Zach not do that he wish he had done? What did he do that he wishes he had not done?
Full Episode
I think it's going to be one of the blog posts that is the most misused and actually causes a lot of the worst behavior in startups for a long time. OKR is another one. OKRs were built for manufacturing. We don't manufacture software. I think that raising money is like a big waste of time. So we try to raise money as infrequently as we possibly can with implied.
Angel investing actually, I think, is very distracting to founders.
Wow, this show packs a punch today, and such a joy to welcome Zach Paré to the hot seat. Zach is the co-founder and CEO at Plaid, where he's raised over $734 million from the likes of NEA, Spark, GV, KOTU, and Andreessen, to name a few.
He's also a co-founder of Mischief, an early-stage seed fund in San Francisco, and you can watch this full live episode from the studio on YouTube by searching for 20VC, that's 2-0-V-C. But before we dive in, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite brands, Atio. Atio is the next generation of CRM.
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