EP 74: Laela Sturdy (Head of CapitalG) on Why Alphabet Invests in Startups

Laela Sturdy is the managing partner at CapitalG, Alphabet's $4B independent growth fund. Laela has invested in a number of iconic companies across both consumer and enterprise, including Duolingo, Stripe, Gusto, UiPath, and more.

In the episode, Laela gives a behind-the-scenes look at Alphabet’s startup bets and discusses how CapitalG makes their investment decisions. She shares how she stays ahead of the curve in different markets and what she looks for in great founders and great investors.

(0:00) Intro

(1:44) What is CapitalG?

(5:31) Why does Alphabet invest in startups?

(12:31) Laela's role as Managing Partner

(14:16) Making investment decisions at CapitalG

(17:50) Top lessons from investing

(21:26) Getting lucky early in your career

(24:55) Consumer vs enterprise investing

(31:06) What the best investments have in common

(36:48) Avoiding false precision in investing

(45:36) Making concentrated bets

(47:31) How to develop talent

(51:09) Advice for young people in venture

(1:04:24) Thoughts on the artificial intelligence industry

(1:07:37) Immigrating from Jamaica

Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky

Produced: Rashad Assir

Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

Music: Griff Lawson

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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.

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir

Producer: Leah Clapper

Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA

🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1

Follow on Socials

📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow

📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow

🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow

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 of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.

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