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

20VC: Insight Managing Director, Deven Parekh on The Current Funding Mania, Compression of Round Timelines, Fund Deployment Speeds Increasing & How To Think Through Price and Time Allocation Across the Portfolio

May 17, 2021

Deven Parekh, Managing Director at Insight Partners, shares his journey from biochemistry to venture capital, emphasizing resilience during economic crashes. He discusses the current frenzy in fundraising and how rapid decision-making has reshaped investment strategies. Deven dives into portfolio management and the challenges of price sensitivity, leaning on past experiences to navigate ownership complexities. He also highlights the potential of data innovations in life sciences, reflecting on the significance of transparent, trust-based negotiations.

39:26

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Episode guests

Deven Parekh

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Episode notes

Intro

3min

From Science to Venture Capital: An Unexpected Journey

3min

Economic Crashes and Venture Capital Insights

9min

The Art of Trust-Based Negotiation

2min

Navigating Ownership and Decision-Making in Venture Capital

20min

Investing in the Future of Life Sciences through Data Innovation

3min

Deven Parekh is a Managing Director at Insight Partners, one of the leading investing franchises of the last 25 years with $30Bn+ in capital commitments, 400+ primary investments and over 200 portfolio acquisitions. Deven himself has made more than 90 investments since joining in 2000 including in the likes of Twitter, Alibaba, JD.com, Chargebee and Automattic (WordPress) to name a few. Deven also sits on the boards of Checkout.com, Calm, Saks.com, Optimizely and 1stDibs, again naming a few. If that was not enough, Deven also serves on the Board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Board of the Tisch New York MS Research Center. As a result of his investing success, Deven has been named on Forbes Midas List 5 time and has been selected as a Top 100 Venture Capitalist by CB Insights 4 times.

In Today’s Episode with Deven Parekh You Will Learn:

1.) How Deven made his way into the world of venture and how that led to his becoming a Managing Director @ Insight, way back in 2000?

2.) How does Deven analyse the current fundraising mania? Does portfolio discipline and temporal diversification matter anymore? How has Deven and Insight seen the velocity of fundraises change over the years? What can Deven and Insight do to get compress their decision-making timeliness with the compression of fundraising timelines?

3.) How does Deven assess his relationship to price and price sensitivity? What have been some core lessons for Deven when comparing deals that they did which were "cheap" vs "expensive"? How do Insight think about required levels of ownership today? Does Deven believe it is possible to build ownership over time? What is required to do so? What are the challenges?

4.) How would Deven describe his style of board membership today? How has it changed over time? What advice does Deven have for younger board members scaling into the role? How does Deven think about his time allocation across the portfolio? What is the optimal? How does this differ from reality? Why do your winners never need you?

5.) How does Deven evaluate his own insecurities and self-doubt today? In what way have these changed over time? How does Deven analyse the "weight of his words" within Insight? How does Insight structure the internal decision-making process to ensure that everyone's voice is heard? In what ways can firms foster that security for young partners to feel they can bring anything to the table?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Deven Parekh

Deven's Favourite Book: What We Know About Climate Change (The MIT Press), Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process

Deven’s Most Recent Investment: TetraScience

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