Rob Go @robgo Twitter profile | Pikagi

Pikagi

Rob Go

@robgo

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Lucky husband of @ntduke and father of two amazing girls. Cofounder of NextView. Built some product at Ebay and learned some investing at Spark Capital

Boston, MA

https://t.co/RaQXJD44sm

Joined March 2008

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

I'm launching a new Substack called "The Idea Maze" It's focused on how founders figure out what to build. Think of it like origin stories, but focused on the path from having no idea to finding something that works. Subscribe here!

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The Idea Maze | Rob Go | Substack

An honest look at the winding road that leads to great startup ideas. Click to read The Idea Maze, by Rob Go, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

theideamaze.substack.com

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

I’ve seen so many tweets and posts shitting on Peloton and its founder. The dude started a $10B+ company in a category that almost everyone would have said was stupid. He made some big mistakes in his 10th year of leadership. Give the guy a break.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

I started in VC in 2007. When I learned the business, there were a lot of rules of thumb that I found arbitrary. Looking back, I realize that many of these made sense because they were formed during a much tougher market environment. Long 🧵

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Today is a big day @NextViewVC . We are making two announcements that we are super excited about. First, we are pleased to announce that we have closed $200M across two new funds. 🎉 Second, we are welcoming @stephpalmeri to our team as a Partner based in SF. 🤯

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

Should you "test the waters" for a VC fundraise? TLDR: Don't Quick thread:

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

A few weeks ago, one of our portfolio companies completed an investor buyout. The founders now own 100% of their business. Investors got a positive return. All parties I think walked away feeling pretty good about how things transpired 🧵

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

A few weeks ago, one of our portfolio companies bought out current investors (for a positive return) resulting in the founders and team now owning 100% of the business. Going to write a blog post about this. What do folks want to know?

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

I've probably talked to 100+ YC founders over the years. A lot of VC's get frustrated when speaking to YC companies, but I generally admire them. There are clearly some best practices that are inculcated into YC companies. Here are a few that I think are worth learning from:

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

I’ve noticed an interesting trend among early stage VC funds: A heightened focus on fast markups and early fund performance metrics. It got me thinking – is this a good or bad thing? 🧵

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@robgo

Rob Go

8 months

I presume @bfeld and the other Foundry folks don't really care. But I do wish that the coverage of the Foundry news was more celebratory. The team publicly stated early on that they would retire and not perpetuate the fund indefinitely. I believe their performance has been

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

Due diligence is a funny thing. It's very easy to find an industry "expert" that will give strong negative feedback on a company. The more prepared your mind is, the more you can tease out the nuance and still get to "yes" despite negative feedback.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

As early stage markets have gotten more efficient, there exists only four ways for a investor to lead a seed round: 1. Having a truly proprietary relationship 2. Having a top decile reputation 3. Paying above market 4. Making a contrarian bet But it's easy to fool yourself.

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@robgo

Rob Go

4 months

I find a lot of people do much worse investing as a VC as they do as an angel? The obvious reason is that as a VC you need to write bigger checks, and so one' access gets worse. But I think there are three other, more avoidable issues.

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@robgo

Rob Go

4 months

We've had quite a few portfolio companies raise funding rounds over the last few months. I'll try to consolidate some thoughts in a longer post closer to the fall, but a few learnings/observations:

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

Raising follow-on rounds is a beast at the moment. But we had a few companies raise solid A's and B's over the summer. Both were doing well and had strong teams. But neither had blockbuster traction nor were they in AI. Some observations:

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

This seems like a good time for the @nvca to make some sort of a statement. @SVB_Financial has been a rocksteady partner for our industry and preserving its stability is in everyone's interest.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

One of my biggest shortcoming as a VC is that I’m bad at articulating why we don’t get there on an investment :(

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

2 term sheets signed this week. One pre-product pre-seed, one post revenue second seed. Very much in business.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

It's remarkable how much VCs hate consumer these days. It's also amazing to think about how many large scale consumer businesses got there with little/no VC investment. Weird paradox.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

The best investors I’ve seen are patient and are willing to look foolish 🤡 for quite some time. They are rewarded by years of quiet compounding, which leads to legendary companies. That is way better than a quick markup 😀 /End

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Honestly, now is an amazing time to invest, for anyone who has the guts to say yes and offer a fair price.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

I was speaking to a founder that I've known for nearly a decade yesterday. We shared some personal struggles with each other, and it got me thinking about the nature of founder and investor relationships and how that changed over the last several years.

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

VC feedback is mostly a rorschach test. We see what we want to see based on our experience. For this reason, most VC feedback is useless. It's not based on practical insight about your business. It's mostly based on how your plans conflict with the investor's mental model.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

This is going to be fun!

Tweet media one

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

Note to my future self. Every time you think it makes more sense to fly to NYC vs. train... you are wrong.

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@robgo

Rob Go

11 months

I had a realization recently about the state of the early stage market. During the ZIRP boom, we enjoyed a great bull market. But we are not in a bear market right now. Instead, we are in what I'll call a receding market. This is actually even more difficult to navigate.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

This isn’t new, but boy do I dislike the high school popularity contestification of VC

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

This week, a founder who could easily raise 3 to 5M at the concept stage told me that he plans on just raising 500k for his new company until he builds a product that shows some early user love. It’s pretty awesome to see this discipline return to the market

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

I had 3 kinds of conversations with VCs at Upfront depending on the age of their firms. Fund I&2: who should I meet for my next fund? Fund 2&3: let me tell you about these cool companies we are involved with. Fund 4+: what do think about Hunter and Satya’s announcement?

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

As tough as this market is, I am seeing solid companies not in AI getting clean term sheets for series A/B rounds. Pricing levels circa 2017. Seems like some normalcy may be returning?

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Seriously though, isn’t now exactly the time that SoftBank and Tiger should be leaning in? I bet we will start to see Sequoia quietly do a bunch of amazing growth and late stage investments over the next 12 months.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

2021 was one of my least active years in VC personally. I have a hard time in a market driven so much by greed and momentum. Something tells me that 2022 might be my most active year in a while :) LFG!

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

1. YC founders go broad and hard when fundraising. They move with a massive sense of urgency to find true believers. They assume that most investors aren't interested unless proven otherwise, and thus, their funnels are larger than >80% of other founders at the same stage.

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

I’m thinking of becoming a raging bull about the startup market on twitter. Good idea? I’m tired of all the pessimism. It’s totally backwards looking.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

The leaders of VC firms today are wrestling with more strategic questions about their business than ever before. It's an incredible moment of reflection for the industry. Here are the biggest questions folks are grappling with 🧵

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

In a weaker market I think syndication will become more of an emphasis. Having good partners that are predictable, share the heavy lifting, and have reserves to support companies is more important now vs. 3 years ago.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Overall, I think some rules of the past will come back in favor. But I hope the market doesn't become as dogmatic as it used to be. The art of investing is balancing competing truths amid the uncertainty of markets and outcomes.

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@robgo

Rob Go

4 months

2. Speaking of secondary reasons, the biggest issue is that once one is investing out of a fund, you start to impose constraints on what sort of a deal "fits with the firm strategy". Usually this means a price, stage, or ownership band.

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

Boston really has an insanely disproportionate share of meaningful companies that scaled largely without venture capital. Wayfair, Klaviyo, Butcherbox, Tripadvisor, CarGurus, etc. As a VC, it makes me self conscious :) But here are a couple thoughts on why this is the case

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

In fact, one LP remarked to me that there was pretty good data that the relative performance of an early stage fund in the first five years of life had almost no correlation to their ultimate performance. This was pretty surprising 👀 /5

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@robgo

Rob Go

18 days

years ago, my sister was walking alone in the dark while she was in college at Georgetown. Dikembe Mutumbo approached her, introduced himself, and walked her to her dorm to make sure she would get home safely. RIP.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

I'm often shocked at the companies that investors I respect choose to invest in. Like "really? I don't get what they saw" It's always a reminder of how random this business can seem, and how much a prepared mind can help you see things that others don't.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

2023 is the heartbreak hill of VC careers

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@robgo

Rob Go

4 months

1. As an angel, your decision-making criteria is usually very simple. It's either, do I love what this company does or do I love this founder? Or maybe both. I find as angels transition to VC's they start to overthink investments and say no for secondary reasons.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

@bhalligan Every city has a primary idol of worship. Boston's idol is intellectual pedigree. So the risk of looking foolish feels 100x greater here. This leads to more conservative behavior from all participants. Plus, the weather is worse.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

I can't believe some startups are still proudly announcing their valuations in recent financing rounds. Have we learned nothing?

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Second, "series B is the sucker round". This was drilled into my head. The idea was that at the series B the price is high but the company isn't actually that de-risked. Early PMF might be there, but is it durable? Is there a repeatable growth machine? Can the team scale?

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

@HustleFundVC 1. Nextview 2. 500k-$3M 3. Pre-seed - Late seed 4. rob @nextview .vc

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

As an investor, at minimum, do no harm. Especially now. And as a small investor (<5% of invested capital) harm = nervously harassing founders about runway, burn, plans, etc. Trust me, the founders are 1000x more on top of the situation than you are.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

I’m at the age now where I am regularly seeing new startups with names that have been recycled from earliers in my venture career.

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@robgo

Rob Go

11 months

Scott Maxwell at OpenView was very kind to us when we started NextView, even though we had a confusingly similar firm name. He was very generous with his time and network as we were figuring things out. I don't know anything about what transpired recently, but I always

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

@philshungry @dunkhippo33 @hpierrejacques @garrytan @epaley @fredwilson @rabois @HarryStebbings @Alfred_Lin @jasonlk @SamaraMHernandz @mgv_vc @MacConwell @lpolovets There was a Harvard Business School case about a VC firm that had a strategy of winning through excellent due diligence. That firm shut down after 2 funds

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

But there are downsides. First: Less independent thinking. Focusing on near-term markups means piling into markets that you know are hot and looking for qualities that you know others will value. Not good ingredients for contrarian thinking 🙃 /11

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@robgo

Rob Go

7 months

I shared this with a friend today and I think it's apt. Fundraising for a first time fund is like a hike up a mountain at altitude. Unless you are extremely fit, it's hard to succeed by sprinting to the top. It's more of a steady walk. And sometimes it goes so slowly it feels

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

Is early stage investing really all about the people? A quick thread:

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

During an 18 hour flight to Singapore, I wrote about my 4 predictions for 2023. During my jet-lagged induced stupor, I forgot all about it until now. So, we few weeks delayed, here are four thoughts and predictions about the VC and tech market in 2023

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

Looking at notes from a company's fundraising prospect list. One investor is quoted as saying "I will invest if a top-tier VC invests" Mental note to never ever ever have anything to do with this idiot

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

A friend of mine just pointed me to the standard @ycombinator SAFE templates. I noticed that since I last looked, the template for a SAFE with both a cap and discount were removed. I'd argue that this is a mistake, and I'd encourage YC to consider bringing it back.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Founders, it is possible to stand up to egregious terms from predatory investors. Existing investors - part of our job is empowering founders to have the confidence to say “no” to a bad deal. I saw something like this unfold today and it was awesome.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

First, "build a strong syndicate". Even though funds were reasonably big back in 2007, VC's really liked to partner with other funds to syndicate early stage rounds. Part of it was that pricing allowed for this from an ownership perspective. But part of it was defensive.

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@robgo

Rob Go

8 months

One of my learnings from my podcast interviews is that VC's pouncing on repeat founders to take money very early in the idea maze is often harmful. But for VC's, this act of trying to "lock up" access to a founder's next project tends to work. It's an interesting misalignment.

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@robgo

Rob Go

4 months

5/ Investors are extremely skilled at two things. 1) saying what founders want to hear to maintain optionality. 2) Reading the situation to assess whether there is real demand for a round.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Congrats to our portfolio company Setpoint on their Series A led by A16Z. Stu was the first founder that I backed many many years ago. So glad to be able to support him again in this extraordinary business!

@StuartWall

Stuart Wall

2 years

Big news today - Setpoint is announcing a $43M Series A led by @a16z . Excited to partner with @dhaber @mandrusko1 to deliver infrastructure for asset-backed lending

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

It’s been a minute :) so glad to sit down with ⁦ @HarryStebbings ⁩ once again. This time, we talk about raising funds for a VC firm. I tried to be super transparent about the highs and lows and learned a lot from Harry too!

Tweet card media

20VC: How to Raise a Venture Fund from Deck to First Meetings to Final Close, Why Venture is a...

Podcast Episode · The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch · 06/23/2023 · 55m

podcasts.apple.com

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

Investors are very good at seeming like they want to invest until they decide that they don't. This gives the signal of a false positive, which can lead you to burn lots of extra time on what might be a fruitless process.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

I find that most great founders and investors are simultaneously hyper market-aware while also being highly independent in their thinking. That combination is actually very rare. Most are one but not the other. The worst are neither but think they are both.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Almost every time I fly to NY instead of taking the train I massively regret my decision.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

Founders should be wary of investors that seem too focused on short-term marks. Instead, steer towards investors that are non-anxious and are committed to building with you for the long term. /16

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Personally, I think ownership matters a lot. But being in the right companies matters more. And, having a business model that supports some flexibility might be the best weapon of all.

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@robgo

Rob Go

29 days

@zehranaqvi_ I'd take a look. We did Bobbie and Whoop pre-product, as well as a bunch of others.

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

My favorite question I get from founders is "do you want to know who else is investing"? To which I can give my favorite reply: "Not really"

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@robgo

Rob Go

4 months

2 (con't): These are good in aggregate, but can be overly restrictive in an outliers business. Many of a fund's best investments were outside of the center of their strike zone

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Had two conversations recently with founders that built popular products, raised very little money, and competed for many years against better funded competitors. Both had great exits at the top of the market. I like happy endings :)

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@robgo

Rob Go

7 months

When people ask me the biggest difference between VC investing and operating, I always talk about the negativity of being a VC. As an operator, you feel like you are pushing the ball down the field quite often. Even if it's a long journey, there are many wins along the way.

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

Wow, this is proving to be one of the busiest summers at NextView in quite a few years. Likely 4 new investments and 2 new op fund investments (plus several follow-ons). LFG!

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

Instead of testing the waters, the best approach is to speak to trusted advisors that have great market knowledge. Get their brutally honest feedback. Pick the best time to raise the appropriate amount of capital, then run a broad, parallel process.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Today, I think the series B is again one of the trickiest rounds. I'd also lump the large series A rounds into this. I think these are potentially the riskiest spots in venture, which would suggest that they will continue to be pretty tough rounds to raise.

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@robgo

Rob Go

4 months

4/ Experience matters. I've found that newer funds have been massive time wasters. I think quite a few are pretending to be active but are licking some massive wounds. The best processes have been run by relatively established funds that still move with conviction.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

Around this time last year, I was completely debilitated by a herniated disc. I couldn’t sleep more than a couple hours at a time, and I couldn’t sit for more than 20 minutes. I’m not 100%, but am grateful to be much better now.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

4. YC really focuses on traction. Sometimes, that makes the traction metrics a little suspect, but overall, it's amazing how much traction YC companies are able to achieve with limited resources. Yes, growth at all costs is bad. But traction really does solve most problems.

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@robgo

Rob Go

4 months

6/ In hot markets, narrative can trump substance because the momentum of a deal can just pull folks over the finish line. In a weaker market, narrative is still important to generate interest, but substance pulls you through. You have to be good.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

It's worth stopping for a moment every time a person chooses to join a company that you lead or create. The thought that someone entrusts a big part of their life to this thing you helped create is humbling, frightening, and motivating all at once.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

6+ years ago, everybody claimed to be an AI company. Almost all of it was complete BS. AI was code for “we use software and algorithms”. The promise of 2015 is coming to fruition in 2022.

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@robgo

Rob Go

7 months

Fun story I have shared many times but never tweeted about. One of the most valuable words of advice I ever received was from a consultant I hired to review my business school application. Yes, this seems like a ridiculous thing to do, but this advice was well worth it. She

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

When I started in venture, “unicorn” referred more to a person with a very unique combination of skills. Not a company with a $1B unrealized valuation. Perhaps we’ll go back to that definition. Would be an improvement.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Honestly, I’m going to be limping into 2023. I’m sure I’m not alone. Chin up!

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

@dmitristern @bryce The good news is that VC’s don’t need to time the market bottom. Just just need to invest in great companies at fair prices, and win the best deals when the rest of the market is full of fear.

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@robgo

Rob Go

4 months

3 (con't): By the time one becomes a VC, you may have hit a lull in this organic deal flow, or you start to stretch beyond it because of the pressure of investing as one's profession. You either need to be patient, or figure out new deal flow channels, or both.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

It's F*ing amazing what some founders are able to pull off when their backs are against the wall. But it makes me wonder how we could have avoided being there in the first place. Was it a failure of the board to set the right conditions for that brilliance to emerge?

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

This may be contrarian, but I hate the saying that “startups don’t die because they run out of money.” Sometimes they do, even when founders make reasonable choices and give it their all. And I bet hearing that kind of “advice” really really sucks.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Today, Twilio has a sub $10B market cap. Everyone's. sense of upside is being refactored. I think stringent ownership requirements will be coming back in full force. But this is one rule that I'm less convinced about. Hot take!

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

I’m sad that summer is nearly over. But the cool but sunny august mornings in New England are hard to beat.

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@robgo

Rob Go

1 year

Finally, these rounds got done with clean terms and fair valuations. Not 2021 valuations, but pretty solid. I was glad to see this. It gave me some optimism that the markets are somewhat functional, even if they are much more difficult than they were a few years ago.

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

Please wish a very happy birthday to my Partner @davidbeisel ! We wouldn't be where we are today if not for his excellent judgement, independent thinking, and steadfast commitment to founders. Glad to be on this adventure together! 🎉🎂🥳

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@robgo

Rob Go

4 months

3/ For all the talk about unit economics and rationality returning to the market, growth is still king. It's not that investors will accept 80% growth with great economics. It's that they will wait until they see 200%+ growth and great economics.

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@robgo

Rob Go

10 months

Just listened to a podcast with some VC’s and investing legends. 90% was excellent. But the 10% spent talking about the products and businesses that will exist in the next few years was absolutely terrible. Good reminder that the great ideas come from entrepreneurs.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

I’m very moved by the courage and ferocity of the Ukrainian resistance.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

I think we are wierdly back to “what are other people saying about you?” being the main driver of why people invest in companies and funds. No bueno.

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@robgo

Rob Go

3 years

Excited to take the covers off the new @NextViewVC website. Hat tip to @rayrayhodes for driving this big refresh. Check it out at 🚀 A couple things to highlight:

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Cheers to 10 years! We celebrated a decade of investing this summer, and while a lot has changed since we started NextView, our high-conviction, hands-on ethos has…

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@robgo

Rob Go

2 years

I get the sense that people are working with renewed vigor and that things are happening. Maybe 2023 will not be as grim as everyone thinks it will be.

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