Great discussion today moderated by
@spencer_crawley
@firstminutecap
on:
1/ the implications of hacking/gaming culture on national security, and how to foster the next generation of cybersecurity builders (exp. to cost $23.8T by 2027)
2/ the regulation of adjacent gaming and AI
Epic London launch for
@a16z
this evening! ๐ฌ๐ง
Great to see
@bhorowitz
,
@sriramk
and
@cdixon
here on the ground. Absolutely packed room ๐ซ
Special kudos to
@sriramk
for the multiple Love Actually references ๐
Me, literally laying in hospital bed with sepsis ๐
No one:
VC/Founder: Hey hey! hope recovery is going well, still looking at deals ? Or on hold for the moment ?
Get well soon!
Since moving into VC, the single most supportive person has without a doubt been
@HarryStebbings
. Letโs see why.
๐๐ฝAlways positive. Always makes time.
โ๏ธLessons come first hand.He built everything from ground up.
๐คFamily always come first.
Happy bday!May this be the best yet๐
Calling London-based consumer founders!๐ข๐ฌ๐ง
Hosting an informal founder meet up tomorrow morning with
@kirbyman01
and
@a16z
to come and hang out over coffee, fruit and pastries. โ๏ธ๐๐ฅ
Which founders should be there ? Registration + details below!๐ซ
New ๐ investment alert:
Thrilled to partner w/
@withmedley
on their $3.7M seed led by
@conniechan
@anneleeskates
@a16z
, transforming personal+professional development amongst individuals/enterprise employees.
First mother-daughter founding team I've backed and what a duo! ๐ฅ
Awesome turnout at this morningโs London consumer founder meet up with me and
@kirbyman01
from
@a16z
! โ๏ธ๐๐ฅ
Even theโ๏ธcame out!
Thanks so much to everyone for coming. Loved chatting with lots of you- pls dm me if we didnโt get a chance to speak ๐
HSBC acquisition of UK SVB subsid is the missing jigsaw piece we were hoping for. Very happy that the impacted founder community can breathe a sigh of relief.
What a week. ๐ฎโ๐จ
Always so good to see the one and only
@meaganloyst
on London soil and discuss all things GenZ! ๐ฌ๐ง
Such a fun dinner with Meagan and two founders in my portfolio
@ReubenSelby
and
@Maisie_Williams
๐ง๐ฝโโ๏ธ
Super excited for her GenZ event tomorrow (def crashing as a millennial ๐)
Have to applaud my friend
@HarryStebbings
on this interview with Prime Minister (then Chancellor)
@RishiSunak
๐ฌ๐ง - now officially the first global leader to be featured on
@twentyminutevc
! ๐
Worth a listen to today, if you havenโt already. ๐ช
Fundraising is BACK! ๐ฃ๐
Have met several exceptional teams this past week. All were solving huge, complex problems, and doing it with unbelievable energy.
First term sheet of the month already in the books โ
More to come.๐
One of my biggest pet peeves is being the only woman on the cap table.
Canโt justify it.
To this end, I absolutely loved hosting an โangel investing 101โ breakfast w/ my friend
@BMagistretti
this morning. Thank you to the
@ArtsClub_London
!โ๏ธ
Letโs get more women to the table.
Announcing a fun one today:๐ฉโ๐ณ๐ด
Congrats to the team at Flavrs on their $7M Seed led by
@a16z
@conniechan
along w/incredible chefs incl
@ericripert
+
@tomcolicchio
, building a shoppable-video platform w/an industry-first custom
@Instacart
integration๐
.
@alice__LG
is not only one of my oldest friends and former housemate (we lived together in a freezing hutong in Beijing, 2010 ๐ฏ; ~transition below!!), but one of my absolute favourite people to discuss all things:
- frontier tech
- next gen social communities
- virtual beings
Just took two trips to ๐บ๐ธ from ๐ฌ๐ง without taking a single physical bank/credit card with me: ie, fully relied on paying everything with my phone.
Was almost seamless (emphasis on *almost*)
ama ๐
since installing ID
@amoamoamo
Iโve addeD
- games centre (no entrants yet๐ฅ)
- jukebox๐ถ
- gift corner๐
- library (buy my sisters book!)๐
- a noticeboard๐
-small petting zoo๐ฆ
DIMSUM BAR= latest edition (ONLY open 1030am-1230)๐ฅ
what else to add
@an21m
@michaeljames
๐
NEWS๐ชthe future of creativity online๐ฝ
super excited to be speaking on stage at
@SlushHQ
this year w/the one and only Cyan Banister
@cyantist
@LongJourneyVC
where we will be discussing the future of self-expression, creativity and knowledge sharing online๐จ๐ค
w/
@JosefiinaIda
๐๏ธ
Spent hours this weekend adding final touches to a long awaited work trip this week (sweet founders retreat then LA, SF).
Was feeling huge anxiety about getting stuck somewhere w omicron, but didnโt want to let ppl down.
Realised that putting health first is
#1
.
โ๏ธ Postponing.
.
@Mira404
texts to me:
Sat: things are crazy. Weโre
#39
in App Store and opening 100 accounts an hour
Sun morn: Weโre
#9
in App Store and opening 800 accounts an hour
Sun eve: Weโre
#3
in App Store and opening 7,000 accounts an hour
I love my job. When things go, they GO ๐คฏ๐
And this is what a Female Founders Office Hours looks like in 2020!
Thanks
@localglobevc
for organising a great panel this morning, โOperating in a Crisisโ, covering gvt aid, fundraising (now/later?), adjusting ops, metrics, and whether to pivot. Thx
@checkwarner
for moderating.
UNBELIEVABLY proud of two of my founders for being named to
@TIME
's 100 Most Influential Companies of 2022!
๐ฅ
@shellkennedylon
at
@peanut
- redefining conversations for women, from fertility to menopause
+
โป๏ธ
@sanchalipal
at
@joroapp
- helping users live more sustainably
I used to call
@peanut
my best kept secret in consumer social.
Guess I can't do that anymore!
๐JUST NAMED IN THE APP STORE BEST OF 2021!๐
โPeanut connected women at all stages of life and made that connection even more personalโ
Well that was fun! Just joined
@jason
's LIVE
@LAUNCH
accelerator cohort pitches as a judge with 900+ viewers on YouTube. How's about this for an attention grabbing format??
๐ 7 teams
๐๏ธ3 min presentations
๐ฃ๏ธ2 min to reply to investor qus
Thanks for having me, had a blast! ๐ฅณ
Another huge milestone today and such a smart move.
20 under the leadership of
@HarryStebbings
is a masterclass in how to build out a modern media brand + execute on vision with razor precision
one of the best in the biz and still just getting startedโฆ
๐จ Big Day Tomorrow at 20 ๐จ
Weโre eating the operational stack at the new 20 Media Company.
Last month we launched 20 Growth.
Tomorrow we launch 20 Sales, taking you inside the mind of the best sales leaders to uncover tips, tactics and strategies.
@KyleHParrish
@figma
Great to see these topics being covered outside the usual tech press. I spoke with
@BMagistretti
at
@VanityFair
:
๐จโ๐ฌGrowing up around entrepreneurship (clue: vector software for school projects)
โก๏ธThe need for greater diversity at the VC + startup table
UPDATE: The Cold Start Problem has officially landed in the UK! ๐ฌ๐ง๐
Congrats
@andrewchen
- canโt wait to read it after all your hard work ๐๐ผ
โMan, VCs are the worst. Talk about herd mentality! I mean like, why do they need validation from a crowd?โ
โTotally. So howโs your YC application coming along?โ
โYeah good thanks. Think weโre guna crush it.โ
โAs a quantum physicist, ChatGPT is pretty boring. Itโs just classical stuff based on historical data, doing pattern recognition in a deterministic way. Itโs not intelligent or creative. Itโs just brute force data processing.โ
๐ก GenZ consumers donโt want to bank like their parents did.
Winning products will be social, mobile first, and integrated from day1.
Fun milestone today:
@mosdotcom
is now ranked
#3
in the App Store BETWEEN TikTok, YouTube, IG and Snap ๐คฏ
My toxic trait is Warren Buffett-isms
ยซย When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.ย ยป
Something I used to believe that I no longer believe.
A great entrepreneur can create amazing value, even in the hardest of markets.
Not true. Some markets are just really shit to be in. Even if they kinda work, opportunity cost of great entrepreneurs time is so high.
This is huge. Canโt speak more highly of a teamโค๏ธ
Congrats to
@PalluaCharlotte
+
@EstelleTopi
on raising a $4.5M pre-seed to transform b2b payments๐ธ
@PalluaCharlotte
has supported me in more ways than she knows and I couldnโt be more excited for her!
Always a great way to start to the morning =
#FemaleFounders
Office hrs w/
@localglobevc
!
So much awesome talent:
- Founder in Kosovo pushing kids STEM education across the region;
- 2x cancer survivor building better patient support;
- Tool for mothers navigating 2-5yr old care
Whirlwind in Lisbon for
@WebSummit
2022 ๐
Had a lot of fun on stage with
@cee
@seedcamp
Itxaso
@NotionCapital
discussing the status of Europe from both a macro and fundraising perspective (+special shoutout to the one and only
@tonyfaddell
who we hid out with backstage) ๐
๐ซAngel investing just took on a whole new meaning...
Huge congrats to the team at
@glorify_app
on their $40M Series A led by
@conniechan
at
@a16z
and
@SoftBank_Group
!
It's been so inspiring to learn about the founders' missions and watch them bring them to life through tech๐ฏ๏ธ
So incredibly proud of my friend
@HarryStebbings
.
As well as being a brilliant mind and total work horse, heโs just been THE most supportive person to me since I started working in VC.
Congratulations! Onwards ๐
6 years ago I recorded my first 20VC episode from my mother's kitchen and asked if we could unplug the home phone.
Today we announce two new 20VC Funds:
20VC Early
๐ Pre-Seed-Series A
๐ต $250K-$750K
20VC Explorer
๐ Series B-onwards
๐ต $1M - $5M
So this is what happens when you're on a Partner Call with the founders of Candy Crush??
Looks like I forgot my gaming chair...๐
Shoutout to my colleagues Riccardo Zacconi and Sebastian Knutsson for bringing their chair "A" game ๐ฅ p.s.
@shellkennedylon
you can sit with us ๐
So much fun to be a part of the "How an investor reads your pitchdeck" session at the
@beautystack
business summit today w/
@SuzanneAshman
@YvonneBajela
@sharmadeanreid
.
Core takeaway = Tell a story is short, clear and easy to follow.
Why you, why the company, and why now.
London Tech Week 2023 is here!๐
Excited to be taking the stage w/ the amazing
@ChrisSheldrick
of
@what3words
for a fireside chat, learning about his journey to build a purpose-driven business. A founder Iโve admired for a long time.
Register below ๐
๐ฌ๐ง
@LDNTechWeek
@EFSeries
SO thrilled to congratulate
@Mira404
and the whole
@mosdotcom
on their Series A raise from
@sequoia
, with participation from a whole host of rockstars!๐
I wrote about what it's been like working with Amira, and why her story is so inspiring to others.๐
Europe's tech ecosystem is on ๐ฅ!
- funding up 143% YoY; the highest of any major ecosystem in at least the past 5y
- growth > Asia or US markets, for 2nd time
- At its current rate, Europe will hit โฌ95bn in VC investment by EOY
@MStothard
@Siftedeu
-
Michael Lynton (MBA โ87) is one of the most experienced executives in the media and entertainment industry. Most recently in 2017, Lynton stepped down as CEO and Chairman of Sony Pictures to become Chairman of Snap Inc.
Just caught up w/one of my Seed founders.
Their core product is mobile w/ a strong consumer social component,but instead of only focusing on growth,theyve spent the last 12mo cracking unit econ+monetisation.
The results are incredible.
2022 will see more Series As like this.๐ฅ
A year ago, we asked
@georgethepoet
to help us tell the REALITY of life as an entrepreneur.
I was blown away by the result.
We always hear the glossy stories, but go deeper, and you'll find it's turbulent, often dark, yet deeply gratifying for the right person
Feel familiar?๐ค
Being a carer for a loved one is immensely tough.
Huge congrats to
@WeAreWellthy
on raising a $35m Series B led by
@rethinkimpact
, bringing much needed support to the 53 million caregivers in the US (20% of adult population) + soon expanding overseas