EP 18: Parker Conrad, Sequoia’s Leaked Deck, a Different Kind of Crisis and VCs vs. Hedge Funds

The Logan Bartlett Show

Zenefits

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"There's a lot about the public sort of story about zenefits that i just vehemently disagree with," she says. "i was like hiding in my house, like, not talking to, like anyone, like, any friends or family." The company is now under new ownership and has raised more than $100 million from investors so far this year.

(00:08) Welcome Zach Weinberg

(00:55) Andreessen Horowitz/Flow Carbon

(10:41) Crypto Litigation Risk

(16:27) Venture vs. Hedge Funds

(22:25) Sequoia’s Leaked Deck

(27:04) Different Kind of Crisis

(28:20) Tech Companies Had It Easy

(30:21) Uber vs. Lyft

(34:16) Down Rounds

(40:27) High Valuation Doesn’t Mean Good Employment

(45:31) 2008 Work Force

(49:50) Parker Conrad Intro

(50:13) Working on Harvard’s Crimson

(52:45) Left School for a Little Rock Newspaper

(55:13) Cancer Diagnosis

(57:16) Starting SigFig

(58:52) Raising Money Pre-2013

(1:05:29) Challenges in Automating

(1:08:36) The Public Narrative

(1:10:36) Forced Out of Zenefits

(1:19:50) VC’s Role in Narrative

(1:22:59) What Do Founders Want From VCs?

(1:25:46) Do VCs Increase Success?

(1:30:09) Discussing Rippling

(1:38:16) Building a Compound Company

(1:46:56) Hiring People With a Chip On Their Shoulder

(1:49:02) Most Important Job of a CEO

(1:51:05) Raised the Next Round

(1:54:47) Determining the Valuation

(1:58:09) San Francisco

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Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky

Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir

Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

Music: Griff Lawson

Links:

Sequoia’s Leaked Deck - https://fortune.com/2022/05/25/sequoia-capital-slide-dek-warning-to-founders-downturn/

Zack’s Twitter Battle - https://twitter.com/zachweinberg/status/1527107650911186944?s=20&t=DN_FdiP-WW6rDwmHNkJPTA

Parker Conrad Discussing Chip on Their Shoulder - https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/18/parker-conrad-i-like-working-with-people-who-have-a-chip-on-their-shoulder/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAqlH6GlRJ8EA-ptL8cD-XPUGeoXNRqKe9l_Qegi--qyyHZQrMTJ8bwlg47vSJ9rkc2eaJlUKyMvb3wA-Rw2PjFYJl5gUwZfO0WPMLF-tRT_lVDYq_uoEnC29d6L45AlVFRTnPJqbCPEJM0_ICBeqES_kZ8t5gUQkVg7BwMKsGs7

Chesa Boudin and San Francisco - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/chesa-boudin-recall-san-francisco-crime/629907/

Andreessen Horowitz/Flow Carbon - https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2022/05/25/a16z-crypto-record-4th-fund-doubles-down-on-web3-amid-market-crash/?sh=7f704b7f34ff

VCs Driving Down Valuation Narrative - https://twitter.com/bgurley/status/1528535418076995584

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir

Producer: Leah Clapper

Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

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About the Show

Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.