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

20VC: The Two Largest Changes in the Investing Market Today, Why The Scarce Resource in Venture is Access & Why Investors Are Acting Mostly Rational and Upside Scenario Planning Needs To Change with Anton Levy, Co-President @ General Atlantic

Oct 5, 2021

Anton Levy, Co-President of General Atlantic, shares his insights from over two decades in growth investing. He discusses two major shifts in the venture landscape and how founders should navigate the challenge of active versus passive cash. Anton emphasizes adapting investment strategies by moving earlier in the process and being selective in scaling investments. He also reflects on missed opportunities, such as Facebook, highlighting the importance of conviction in decision-making. This engaging conversation blends personal anecdotes with keen industry observations.

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ANECDOTE

Career Path

Anton Levy's career began by combining computer science and finance, landing him at Morgan Stanley.
Working with General Atlantic as a client led him to join their two-year program, which turned into 24 years.

INSIGHT

Lessons from the Dot-Com Crash

The dot-com crash taught Anton Levy that making deals is easy, but generating returns is difficult. He learned to prioritize great companies to avoid painful situations like letting go of employees or CEOs.

INSIGHT

Rationality in Pricing

While acknowledging stretched valuations, Anton Levy argues for rationality in pricing due to larger outcomes and low interest rates.
He believes the math has changed, and higher prices are justified by the potential for trillion-dollar companies.

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Anton Levy is Co-President, Managing Director and Global Head of General Atlantic’s Technology sector. Anton has led General Atlantic’s investments in the likes of Alibaba, CrowdStrike, Facebook, Slack and Snapchat and co-led investments in Adyen and Bytedance. As a result, Anton has been named to the Forbes Midas List of top investors each year from 2014 to 2021. Anton has also enjoyed board positions either as a member or observer in companies such as Uber, MercadoLibre, Klarna and Meituan to name a few.

In Today’s Episode with Anton Levy You Will Learn:

1.) How Anton made his way into the world of growth investing? What have been some of Anton's biggest lessons from seeing the booms and busts of the macro-environment?

2.) The Landscape: What does Anton believe are the two largest changes/trends in the venture landscape today? What does Anton think is the right way to respond to the threat of Tiger Global? How should founders think about active vs passive cash? How does Anton reflect on his own price sensitivity? What have been some of his biggest lessons on pricing?

3.) Portfolio Construction: How have GA had to change their approach to investing over the last few years? Why have they decided actively to move earlier and write smaller checks? How does a $50M investment from an $8BN impact portfolio construction thinking? How does GA determine which of their winners to size up into and write a $500M check? What is the process for that?

4.) Deployment Cycles: How does Anton think about the compression of deployment cycles in venture? Are people acting rationally? When will the bubble burst? How do interest rates impact capital inflows into venture? Why does Anton believe we are entering a golden age of innovation? What elements concern him?

5.) Culture- Building: What have been Anton's biggest lessons when it comes to culture building internally? Where do many make mistakes here? What have been the most surprising elements of scaling GA to Anton? What mistakes did they make? How did they move to correct them?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Anton Levy

Anton’s Favourite Book: Bridge to Terabithia

Anton’s Most Recent Investment: Articulate