| | | Saturday, June 8, 2019 By Danny Crichton |
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| Unraveling the "Secrets of Sand Hill Road" and the VC thought process, with Andreessen Horowitz's Scott Kupor | | | | | | | MicroStockHub via Getty Images | | | Our Silicon Valley editor Connie Loizos hosted an Extra Crunch live conference call with Andreessen Horowitz GP Scott Kupor, who manages all ops for the firm and was formerly head of the National Venture Capital Association. He just published a new book entitled "Secrets of Sand Hill Road" which is a guide to the venture capital industry and how to attract the attention of VCs to your startup. This was our most popular conference call so far, and it was great to see so many people coming out to chat with Scott. In case you missed it, we have published the full transcript for Extra Crunch members. Connie: Talking about demystifying venture capital, you've been with Andreessen Horowitz for roughly 10 years, pretty much from the outset of the firm. Can you tell us, beyond a warm introduction, what does it take to get a meeting at Andreessen Horowitz? What do you start looking for on paper? Scott: What we're really looking for is a couple of things. First, we always think about market initially, because we know that we're going to be wrong a lot of times and the way we have to invest is we have to believe at the time we make the investment that the market size is big enough to be able to support a standalone, hopefully, public company at some point in time. So, that's always the threshold question we're trying to ask — is the opportunity that they're going after is as big as it possibly can be? And then, most of the analysis, particularly the early stage, tends to be based on team, because, we don't really have the benefit of the product yet. We definitely don't even know, quite frankly, how the markets going to evolve. And so, the real question is what is it about this team or set of individuals that makes them uniquely qualified to go after this opportunity? What do they know? We use this term internally, called an "earned secret", which is what have you learned that other people might not know that's going to really enable you to go build something that we know is going to be tough and competitive, and a long slog? And, a lot of the evaluation really starts there. | | | | | | | | This year's Computex was a wild ride with dueling chip releases, new laptops and 467 startups | | | | | | | CHRIS STOWERS/AFP via Getty Images | | | Our Taipei-based correspondent Catherine Shu attended the local Computex conference, which has long been a major hub in the semiconductor, next-generation silicon, AI and 5G circuits. She wrote up her observations of what's on the cutting edge of these fields, and what the opportunities for startups are in these hot spaces. In addition to chips, many of the major keynotes focused on new laptops. Lenovo's senior vice president of consumer devices Johnson Jia appeared at both Intel and Qualcomm's presentations. At Intel, he showed off the 1.2kg Yoga S940 laptop, built on Intel's new Project Athena specifications for laptops. The previous day at competitor Qualcomm's keynote, he unveiled the first Snapdragon-powered laptop, called Project Limitless, that features an integrated 5G modem. Project Limitless is a big deal for two reasons. First, the modem, Snapdragon X55 5G, was designed for use in smartphones. Secondly, Intel announced in April that it will not build 5G modems for smartphones, with Swan explaining that "in the smartphone modem business it has become apparent that there is no clear path to profitability and positive returns." Qualcomm rubbed its new release in Intel's face by placing large banners for Project Limitless throughout Taipei International Convention Center on the day of Intel's keynote. | | | | | | | | Peloton's opportunity and risks ahead of IPO | | | | | | | champlifezy@gmail.com via Getty Images | | | Peloton confidentially filed for its long-anticipated IPO this week. Darrell Etherington dived into the details on the upshot and downsides of the hot consumer IPO. But in seven years of operation, Peloton has put out exactly two pieces of hardware, and seems unlikely to ramp that pace. The cost of their equipment makes frequent upgrade cycles unlikely, and there's a limited field in terms of other hardware types to even consider making. If hardware innovation is your measure for success, Peloton hasn't really shown that it's doing enough in this category to fend of legacy players or new entrants. There's also the cyclical and generally fickle nature of consumer interest in fitness equipment and programs – anyone can probably rattle off a litany of come-and-gone gadgets, routines and diets. And there's also a tendency for people to pivot over time from favoring solo, at-home workouts, to doing more class-based communal activity (Peloton actually rose on the general wane of the spin fad, for instance) | | | | | | | | Tackling 'big tech' issues through storytelling, with Jessica Powell | | | | | | | Our resident tech ethicist Greg Epstein interviewed Jessica Powell, who spent six years as head of PR for Google and has since spent time writing a novel called "The Big Disruption: A Totally Fictional But Essentially True Silicon Valley Story," which was the first novel published on Medium. Epstein and Powell discuss her background, working at Google, handling some of the most challenging years for the company, and how her novel attempts to address the issues plaguing the tech industry. Jessica: What really drives a lot of these companies is not [so] simple. It's more this ceaseless expansion that actually knows no bounds. When you have a philosophy of 'why can't we do this?' there is no stopping point, and I think that's what frightens people. That where it's headed isn't clear. I wanted to capture that and have it not necessarily hit you right over the head the moment you open the book, the way I think some of these data privacy dystopiates do, but rather have it build, where you actually see why these companies expand. You can see how a company starts off saying, "Hey, we're going to the moon." And you think the moon is the end game, and then you actually discover the moon isn't the end game, it's actually a nation-state end game, it's the whole world. | | | | | | | | Why identity startup Auth0's founder still codes: It makes him a better boss | | | | | | | Our cybersecurity editor Zack Whittaker continues his series interviewing prominent security startup CEOs and how they build their startups. This time, he interviews Eugenio Pace of Auth0, an identity management company. He also said the company's efficiencies come from his global employees, most of which work remotely. "About 60 percent of our workforce of our team works from remote," he said. "I think we have a strategic advantage by being able to tap into the global talent pool." "For us, zip code is less important than time zone and time zone is less important than talent," he said. "So we find the talent we like to bring in." "We have teams that are built in such a way that the time zone allows them to live a good life — too good work-life," he said. "But that doesn't require you to be in the same location to the same building same office all the time." | | | | | | | | The 10 benefits and policies any modern workplace should have | | | | | | | Georgene Huang and Liv McConnell of Fairygodboss, a community for women, have put together a guest post for Extra Crunch members on how to think about the HR package you offer for employees. They offer some cutting-edge ideas as well as more familiar ones on how to offer more to your employees while also building a better culture. 9. "Healthy lifestyle" credits In the past, companies have typically translated this kind of benefit as a discounted rate on gym memberships for employees. However, modern employers have expanded on this definition, said Michael Alexis, manager at Museum Hack. "Employees in 2019 have a wide range of health preferences, and an even wider stance on what constitutes healthy living," Alexis said. "They may do yoga, or tai chi, or go for massages or some other way of keeping their body healthy. Because of this, a more 'up to date' benefit is a flexible health credit: one that can be used for a gym membership, but also a yoga studio, boxing club, therapy, home-gym equipment or one of many other alternatives." | | | | | | | | Verified Expert Growth Marketing Agency: Ampush | | | | | | | Yvonne Leow has her next growth marketing firm Verified Expert profile, this time of Ampush, which specializes in using rigorous quantitative methods to improve full-funnel growth marketing exclusively for DTC companies. The firm was founded and is run by Jesse Pujji, and it has worked with Uber, Dollar Shave Club, and more. Jesse Pujji: Sure, Ampush can scale your product and have better analytics, capabilities, and resources, but that's not the 0 to 100 part of the process. So I advise most founders, and I've invested in a bunch of companies, by saying: 'No third party can help you solve the actual first principles marketing problem of what do people want and what do they react to. Once you've gotten the base figured out, then yes, Ampush can help you can pour kerosene on the fire, but you don't want a third party to light the fire.' At the same time, what founders need to zoom out and see is that there is no single silver 'growth bullet' which will fix everything. | | | | | | | | Economic development organizations: good or bad for entrepreneurial activity? | | | | | | | Finally this week, we have a guest post from Bill Baumel, who is MD for the Ohio Innovation Fund. He explores the opportunities and challenges with building out and working with economic development organizations — those agencies often attached to cities and states whose job it is to expand employment and growth in their economies. Training grants are another avenue often supported by local governments. There are skills gaps that exist in many high-tech and high-growth industries and markets, and grants to train both new and existing employees can help startups avoid these gaps by improving the skills of their workforce. Governments are often willing to help with such training because it not only helps one company, it helps entire communities develop a deeper pool of tech talent. In Ohio, much economic development from government-backed organizations takes place at the seed stage. It can help make it cost-effective to hire new talent, secure new or expanded office space, or purchase necessary manufacturing equipment. | | | | | | | | ICYMI: Earlier this week: | | | | | | | To every member of Extra Crunch: thank you. You allow us to get off the ad-laden media churn conveyor belt and spend quality time on amazing ideas, people, and companies. If I can ever be of assistance, hit reply, or send an email to danny@techcrunch.com. | | | | | | | U.S. Region: Privacy Policy Oath Inc.: 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Canada Region: Privacy Policy Oath (Canada) Corp: 99 Spadina Ave, Suite 200, Toronto ON M5 J1A7, Canada European Region: Privacy Policy Oath (EMEA) Limited: 5-7 Point Square, North Wall Quay, Dublin 1, Ireland |
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