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

20VC: What Is Founder Narrative Fit and How to Detect and Invest In It, How To Avoid Consensus Thinking When Investing, Price Sensititivity; When To Pay Up vs Stay Disciplined & From New York Times To General Catalyst; Why Venture and Journalism are Not S

Oct 1, 2020

Catherine Boyle, a Partner at General Catalyst, shares her journey from journalism to venture capital, emphasizing the similarities between the two fields. She discusses her investment philosophy centered on 'founder narrative fit' and the importance of avoiding consensus thinking in decision-making. Catherine also dives into market sizing strategies and the critical nature of mission alignment between founders and investors. Plus, she explores her recent investments, including innovative solutions for opioid addiction.

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ANECDOTE

From Journalism to VC

Katherine Boyle started as a journalist at the Washington Post, later transitioning to venture capital.
Her journalism background taught her valuable skills like curiosity, quick judgment, and understanding conviction.

INSIGHT

Venture Capital as Journalism

Venture capital and journalism share similarities in seeking protagonists, contrarian hooks, and relevance.
Both involve diligence, snap judgments, and understanding conviction, but venture capital requires probabilistic thinking.

INSIGHT

Reason and Revelation

Investing blends reason and revelation.
Data analysis and logic trees are important, but instinctual choices based on 'revelation' play a key role.

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Katherine Boyle is a Partner @ General Catalyst, one of the leading venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Stripe, Snapchat, Airbnb, Canva, Cazoo, the list goes on. As for Katherine, at GC she has led deals in game-changing companies such as Anduril, Nova Credit, Spring Discovery and Airmap to name a few. Prior to General Catalyst, Katherine entered the world of venture with Founders Fund and before that spent an incredible 4 years at The Washington Post where Katherine investigated entrepreneurship in many forms.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Katherine made her way from investigating entrepreneurship at The Wall St Journal to being an intern at Founders Fund to today, being a Partner @ General Catalyst?

2.) Why does Katherine believe that journalism is like venture? Why does Katherine believe there are two different styles of venture? What were Katherine's biggest takeaways from her formative years in venture with Founders Fund? How did that impact her investing mindset?

3.) What does Katherine mean when she says she "invests solely on founder narrative fit"? Are there leading indicators of this fit? What advice did Katherine take from her conversation with Mike Moritz pre VC career? How does Katherine strategically avoid consensus thinking and decisions?

4.) How does Katherine approach market sizing? How does Katherine think about strategic insertion into niches that expand to much larger markets? How does Katherine assess market timing? How does Katherine determine the velocity of a market tailwind? What is an example of this?

5.) How does Katherine evaluate the rise of pre-empted rounds today? What advice does Katherine give to founders considering taking multi-stage money at seed? Why did it make sense for Anduril? How does Katherine gain the time of the founders when they are not raising?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Katherine’s Fave Book: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success

Katherine’s Most Recent Investment: Ophelia

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