20VC: Why 95% of Venture Capital is Not Really "Venture Capital" | The Five Core Levers Needed To Assess Risk and Price a Startup | The Future of Venture; Who Wins, Who Loses, What Happens to the Crossover Funds with Will Quist, Partner @ Slow Ventures
Will Quist, a Partner at Slow Ventures, brings a wealth of experience from investing in over 500 startups including Robinhood and Airtable. He challenges the notion of what defines venture capital, claiming 95% is misclassified. The conversation delves into the critical questions investors should ask to evaluate potential success. Will also shares insights on the evolving landscape of venture capital, the balance between risk and opportunity, and how organizational mindsets must adapt as startups shift from growth to capital efficiency.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Will's Path to Venture
Will Quist, growing up near Stanford, had little awareness of startups.
His first real exposure came while at Berkeley, then working at Red Herring.
insights INSIGHT
What is Venture Capital?
Will Quist believes 95% of venture capital isn't true venture capital.
True venture capital funds experiments with knowable, testable hypotheses.
insights INSIGHT
Capital Games Converge
All capital games eventually converge, becoming either zero-sum or collaborative.
This shift occurs as consensus builds and scale increases, demanding specialized playbooks.
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Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing
Michael Mauboussin
In this book, Michael Mauboussin helps readers understand the interplay between skill and luck in achieving successes and failures. He provides a framework to analyze the relative importance of skill and luck, offering concrete suggestions for applying these insights to improve decision-making. The book covers various concepts such as the continuum of activities from pure luck to pure skill, the importance of sample size, and the use of tools like checklists to enhance performance. Mauboussin draws on examples from sports, business, and investing to illustrate his points, making the book a valuable resource for anyone seeking to make better decisions in both professional and personal life.
Will Quist is a Partner @ Slow Ventures. Over the last decade, the team at Slow Ventures have invested in the earliest rounds of over 500 companies including Robinhood, NextDoor, Airtable, Solana and many more. As for Will, prior to Slow he spent over 8 years at Industry Ventures and before industry, cut his teeth in the world of finance at Banc of America.
In Todays Episode with Will Quist We Discuss:
1.) Entry into Venture:
How Will made his way from 6th generation San Francisco to Partner @ Slow?
What are 1-2 of the biggest takeaways from his early 1-1s with Don Valentine?
What does Will know now that he wishes he had known when he started in venture with Industry?
2.) WTF Really is Venture Capital?
Why does Will believe that 95% of venture capital today is not really venture capital?
What is true venture capital in Will's mind?
How does Will divide the world of VC into two with; venture classic and new venture?
How are they different? How are their return profiles different?
3.) The Questions: Discovering Greatness:
Why does Will believe “for the most part, investors across asset classes are just asking the same questions”?
What are those questions? What different answers are each looking for?
What are the 5 core questions that will needs to understand to determine conviction and accurately price an asset?
How does Will think through and analyze the question when meeting founders of; “what needs to come true for this business to become a great business”?
4.) The Future of Venture Capital:
How does Will predict the venture capital ecosystem will look in 5 and then 10 years?
What are the most concerning traits of the venture ecosystem for Will today?
Who will be the winners of the next decade? Who will be the losers?
What happens to the crossover funds? What will happen to Tiger?
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch 