The Founder Files Deep Dive Into Venture Capital & What It Takes To Succeed - Clive Butkow, Conducive Capital
This is an exciting episode, because I had the opportunity of hosting one of South Africa’s most esteemed venture capitalist, Clive Butkow. Clive is the ex-founder and CEO of Kalon Venture Partners, which he left to Start Conducive Capital. He is an expert in building, scaling and investing in businesses, and he has a Silicon Valley exit, a VC firm and more than 10 highly successful startups under his belt! In this episode, we dive deep into the world of venture capital. We discuss the industry and business model of VC, how it operates, what VCs need to succeed, and why it's such a challenging business to run. Clive also shares his vision for the South African VC industry and how he plans to shape its future. You’ll find out Clive’s views on what makes a start up an ideal investment, what he’s seen over and over again that always leads to success and what mistakes to avoid. Clive’s portfolio companies have scaled out of SA and achieved revenues of well over 100 million dollars each, so he gives us a breakdown of how to take a company global. And in between all of that, we unpack valuable principles, strategic concepts and leadership lessons that any founder can learn from. Enjoy this value-packed episode!
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This episode is brought to you by Metavolve.
Metavolve turns highly capable African founders into confident business leaders by helping them develop clear and comprehensive business strategies that make building a great sustainable business less complex. Reach out to our team to learn more: https://metavolve.co/
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00:00 Intro 02:17 Welcomes 02:45 Clive’s Impressive Background 15:11 How The VC Business Model Works 28:42 Why Clive Started A VC 40:28 Brought To You By Metavolve 41:50 The Bigger Scope For Success 45:22 The Reality Of VC Funds 48:20 How To Take A Company Global 1:09:58 How To Improve The Way You Sell 1:21:32 The Three Types Of People You Need In A Tech Business 1:25:10 The 5 Characteristics Of An Investable Founder 1:29:17 The Biggest Challenge Entrepreneurs Have Around Raising Capital 1:31:14 Reflection