The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch - 20VC Exclusive: Sahil Bloom on Raising his Debut Venture Fund (SRB Ventures), Why Traditional Venture Firms Are Going to Lose and How Sahil Built a Twitter Audience to 500K+ in 18 Months

20VC Exclusive: Sahil Bloom on Raising his Debut Venture Fund (SRB Ventures), Why Traditional Venture Firms Are Going to Lose and How Sahil Built a Twitter Audience to 500K+ in 18 Months

02/25/22 • 41 min

3 Listeners

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

Sahil Bloom is the Founding Partner @ SRB Ventures, a $10M fund that leverages the 500K followers Sahil has amassed to invest at the intersection of venture and media. Previously, Sahil spent 7 years at a large investment fund managing >$3.5 billion in capital and serves on the board of 4 companies. He has also been an active angel investor in over 30 companies.

In Today’s Episode with Sahil Bloom You Will Learn:

1.) How Sahil made his way from a career in traditional finance to building a media company and leveraging that to raise the latest SRB fund? How does Sahil advise others is the best way to "find their zone of genius"?

2.) How To Build a Media Engine:

What have been some of Sahil's biggest lessons on what works on Twiter and what does not work?
What is the golden rule for Twitter?
How does Sahil plan and come up with ideas for his Twitter threads? What tools and software does he use? How long does each thread take?

3.) The End of the Road for Traditional Venture:

Why does Sahil think traditional venture is dying?
What newcomers will take the place of the existing incumbents?
Why does he think they are weak? What do new players provide that they do not?
Which existing players will remain and be strong? Which will fade out?
Does Sahil believe that VCs really provide any value?

4.) SRB Ventures:

Why did Sahil decide to raise the new fund?
How did he decide on size of the fund? What is the strategy? What is the portfolio construction?
How does SRB provide media services others do not?
How did Sahil meet Tim Cook and get him to invest in the fund?
What is the biggest thing Sahil believes most people misunderstand about luck?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Sahil Bloom

Sahil’s Favourite Book: When Breath Becomes Air: Kalanithi Paul

Sahil’s Most Recent Investment: Wander

In Today’s Episode with Sahil Bloom You Will Learn:

2.) How To Build a Media Engine:

What have been some of Sahil's biggest lessons on what works on Twiter and what does not work?
What is the golden rule for Twitter?
How does Sahil plan and come up with ideas for his Twitter threads? What tools and software does he use? How long does each thread take?

3.) The End of the Road for Traditional Venture:

Why does Sahil think traditional venture is dying?
What newcomers will take the place of the existing incumbents?
Why does he think they are weak? What do new players provide that they do not?
Which existing players will remain and be strong? Which will fade out?
Does Sahil believe that VCs really provide any value?

4.) SRB Ventures:

Why did Sahil decide to raise the new fund?
How did he decide on size of the fund? What is the strategy? What is the portfolio construction?
How does SRB provide media services others do not?
How did Sahil meet Tim Cook and get him to invest in the fund?
What is the biggest thing Sahil believes most people misunderstand about luck?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Sahil Bloom

Sahil’s Favourite Book: When Breath Becomes Air: Kalanithi Paul

Sahil’s Most Recent Investment: Wander

Previous Episode

The Tiger Global Memo: From Sequoia Capital to Benchmark and Thrive: The World's Best on the Rise of Tiger Global

Tiger Global are one of the most discussed venture firms on the planet. With a deal cadence and capital deployment speed that is unmatched, they have made their mark on the venture landscape like no other over the last 24 months. Today we are joined by leaders from Sequoia, Benchmark, Thrive Capital, General Atlantic, GGV and Aleph to discuss the rise of Tiger and how it impacts the venture ecosystem.

In Today’s Episode on Tiger Global You Will Learn:

1.) Doug Leone: Sequoia Capital

Why we need to change the words when use in venture? Why we need to get rid of "the game"?
How does the rise of Tiger compare to the rise of prior entrants with the same approach?
Why does Doug believe that the craft of venture will persist despite these new entrants?

2.) Bill Gurley: Benchmark Capital

How does Bill analyse the change in late stage venture today?
What are the main drivers of the increased competition in late stage venture?
Why does Bill get concerned not by Tiger but how others respond to Tiger's model?
How does Bill analyse the entry of hedge funds and PE funds into traditional venture models?

3.) Michael Eisenberg: Aleph

How does Michael think about the "weaponisation of capital"?
What are the significant benefits for a fund of having more capital than their competitors?
How does this capital advantage change in boom and bust times?

4.) Anton Levy: General Atlantic

Why does Anton believe that funds are leveraging their assets more efficiently than ever?
How does Anton approach the mindset of AUM scaling without lowering returns?
Why does Anton never want to compete on price?
How does GA think about competing in a world of Tiger and hedge funds investing in tech?

5.) Hans Tung: GGV

Why did Hans always believe the model to look at moving forward was Tiger?
Why does Tiger's business model allow them structural and financial advantages over their competitors?
What does Hans make of the data network effects of Tiger with their strategy?

6.) Kareem Zaki: Thrive Capital

Why does Kareem think Tiger's approach makes absolute sense?
Why does Kareem believe so many in venture like to try and discredit the Tiger model?
How does Tiger's approach differ to Thrive's?

Next Episode

undefined - 20VC: 3 Biggest Mistakes Founders Make When Scaling, Management 101 on Trust Building, Morale Maintenance and Hiring & What We Can Learn About Parenting From Nature Programs with Scott Dietzen

20VC: 3 Biggest Mistakes Founders Make When Scaling, Management 101 on Trust Building, Morale Maintenance and Hiring & What We Can Learn About Parenting From Nature Programs with Scott Dietzen

Scott Dietzen is Vice Chairman of the Board of Pure Storage and served as the Company’s CEO from 2010 to 2017. Under his leadership, Pure grew to thousands of employees and completed an IPO in 2015. Dietzen is a four-time successful entrepreneur with WebLogic, Zimbra, and Transarc. Before Pure, he was President and CTO of Zimbra (now part of VMware), but originally acquired by Yahoo!, where Dietzen served as interim SVP of Communications and Communities. Prior to Zimbra, Dietzen was CTO of BEA Systems, where he helped craft the technology and business strategy for WebLogic that drove BEA from $61m in annual revenues prior to the WebLogic acquisition to over $1B.

In Today’s Episode with Scott Dietzen You Will Learn:

1.) The Journey to Pure Storage CEO:

How did Scott make his way into the world of tech and startups?
What was the hardest element of making the transition from CTO to CEO?
What advice would Scott give to more technical leaders looking to make the move to CEO? Where do so many make mistakes?

2.) How To Build Trust in a Team:

What are the most important ways that leaders can build trust with their teams?
How can leaders be honest and share the hard truths without damaging role?
What is the right tone to communicate both the big wins and big losses?
Why does Scott always believe the losses teach more? How does Scott approach post-mortems?

3.) The Biggest Mistakes Founders Make:

What are the single biggest hiring mistakes that founders make?
What are the single biggest firing mistakes executives make?
Why should founders sometimes say no to customers?
How should founders approach investor selection and valuation for rounds?

4.) How to Optimise a Board:

What specifically can founders do to optimise their board?
What are the biggest errors founders make when communicating with their board?
What is the value per word framework? How does it tell which board member is the best?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Scott Dietzen

Scott’s Favourite Book: The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing