This Week in Startups

E39: “Angel” Podcast: Sarah Guo, General Partner at Greylock Partners shares insights on Greylock’s “Zero to One” investment thesis, sharpening her decision-making skills, ranking team, market & product as investment criteria & the changing landscape of VC

Mar 25, 2020
In this engaging talk, Sarah Guo, a General Partner at Greylock Partners, dives into the art of early-stage investing. She shares insights on Greylock's 'Zero to One' investment thesis and her criteria for evaluating teams, markets, and products. Sarah reflects on her journey in venture capital, emphasizing the importance of sharpening decision-making skills and work-life balance. She also discusses the evolving challenges in the VC landscape, especially for female founders, and reveals missed investment opportunities like Zoom—all while identifying key traits in promising startup products.
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ANECDOTE

Early Tech Exposure

  • Sarah Guo's parents, both engineers and entrepreneurs, fostered her early interest in technology.
  • Her first job, building a website for her parents' company at 13, solidified her passion for tech.
INSIGHT

Zero to One Investing

  • Greylock Partners focuses on "Zero to One" investments, targeting companies pre-product-market fit or just as they achieve it.
  • This approach allows venture capitalists to repeatedly participate in the exciting, early-stage growth of companies.
ADVICE

Sharpening Decision-Making

  • To sharpen decision-making in venture capital, obsessively document your investment thinking process.
  • Track companies, your thoughts on them, and how those thoughts play out to shorten the feedback cycle.
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