Unicorn Bakery - For the World's Most Ambitious Founders & Teams How to win in the AI hype, is Growth Financing back? & European venture ecosystem with Matt Turck, FirstMark Capital
In this episode, I talk with Matt Turck General Partner at the New York based Venture firm Firstmark Capital about succeeding as a VC. Firstmark invests in a very focused way, primarily in Series A rounds.
Matt himself has been focused on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Data for more than 10 years.
AI Hype: What do companies and founders need to survive the hype?
Growth Fundraising: Matt's portfolio companies Pigment and Synthesia just raised large growth roungs. Are growth financing rounds back?
European Startup Ecosystem: As a French living in New York for 20 years, how does Matt perceive the European ecosystem?
ALL ABOUT UNICORN BAKERY:
What you learn:
What makes a good VC? How should startups choose their investors?
What founder qualities are most important to Matt?
Matt's take on the European ecosystem comapred to the US
Matt Turck
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turck/
FirstMark: https://firstmark.com
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(00:00:00) What makes a successful venture investor?
(00:06:36) How do you personally manage FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)?
(00:12:58) What should founders look for when fundraising and choosing investors?
(00:20:51) Why did your opinion change from looking for technical founder to accepting business founders, too?
(00:24:52) What are your thoughts on the AI hype?
(00:30:24) How do I survive the hype cycle as an AI startup?
(00:38:07) How important is defensibility for startups in the (pre-)seed phase?
(00:42:39) How is the growth financing dynamic changing at the moment?
(00:46:14) How would you compare the European startup ecosystem to the U.S. ecosystem?