This Week in Startups

0:42 Jason intros PlayVS CEO & Founder Delane Parnell 2:59 What is PlayVS, how do they make money & how fast are they growing? 5:37 Attracting investors, leveraging an exclusive contract to scale across US high schools & average hours spent on the platform by players 13:26 Delane shares his backstory, from flipping shoes to owning cell phone stores in high school to getting tickets to the LAUNCH Festival in SF 26:38 How Delane turned LAUNCH Festival networking to deal flow & a job in venture capital 32:52 Meeting Peter Pham at SXSW, moving to LA to start PlayVS 38:16 Delane on his relationship with Michael Ovitz 40:20 PlayVS' go-to-market strategy & relationship with game publishers 45:51 PlayVS being co-ed & giving female gamers a safe environment to play in 51:08 Race in tech & Delane's advice on breaking into the industry as an outsider 55:57 Not taking any checks from firms who hadn't previously backed black founders 59:05 Does Darnell's intentionality about diversity create a talent advantage for PlayVS? 1:06:06 Relief of hiring high-level operators 1:11:41 LA restaurant scene discussion 1:13:39 Bird vs. Lime vs. Uber, pricing model discussion, thought on Travis Kalanick 1:23:10 Top 5 Tech entrepreneurs of all-time 1:33:40 What's going on at Airbnb?

2:42 — Electric vehicle startups receive PPP loansAs thousands of small business owners struggle to pay rent and keep their employees on staff, two high-profile electric vehicle startups have applied and received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA).

0:50 Jason thanks the front-line workers & intros freeCodeCamp's Quincy Larson 7:45 Why & how did Quincy start freeCodeCamp? What is freeCodeCamp? 12:16 Jason & Quincy discuss starting & running large online communities, benefits of Discord & Slack 15:36 Can you jump right in on freeCodeCamp.org? What types of certifications do they offer? 17:38 COVID-19's impact on user growth & why Quincy is emulating Red Cross, YMCA & other non-profits 21:19 Do they track outcomes at freeCodeCamp, how do they compare to Lambda School? 26:05 Can anyone become a web developer? How many hours would it take for an average high school graduate to be able to build a 1.0 version of Twitter or Shopify? 35:09 Quincy shares some freeCodeCamp success stories 41:21 What's the quickest way to get a job through coding? What program should an aspirational developer start learning first? 45:57 Should new developers prioritize mobile development to maximize earning potential? 48:24 What % of freeCodeCamp users are non-US? Which country has shown the most potential? 50:44 What does the post-COVID world look like for developers? 53:21 freeCodeCamp's developer cards project

1:00 Jason thanks all frontline workers and intros Dreamit Ventures’ Steve Barsh 3:33 How did Dreamit start, what is the goal and how is their program structured? 9:43 How often does Dreamit follow-on with their portfolio companies, how do they think about pricing, valuation & leading rounds? 15:15 Steve goes over some of Dreamit’s top portfolio companies: SeatGeek, LevelUp & Houseparty and explains how SeatGeek pivoted while going through Dreamit’s program 18:20 How early will Dreamit Ventures go? Pre-revenue? What verticals do they focus on how do they improve their program? 27:24 What is the most important thing Dreamit does for founders: advice, anointing or money? 30:07 At what point during the process does Dreamit turn on the criticism? What questions do they ask during Accelerator interviews? 42:58 How much of Dreamit’s program focuses on the fundraising process? 48:59 Lightning round: How founders should judge accelerators, nailing interviews, multiple accelerators, follow-on philosophy, bridge rounds, top firms that Dreamit works with

0:01 Jason intros today's #AskJason and talks about the This Week in Startups Slack! 4:04 Ethan asks where and how Jason gets his news for general industry knowledge 6:43 Sean asks Jason how to acquire talent during a crisis 9:54 Vik asks Jason about building strong corporate culture while working remotely 15:44 David asks about SF mayor London Breed capping fees for delivery companies 19:32 Craig asks for Jason's perspective on investing in fully distributed startups 23:52 Mayur asks which audience do you sell to first when starting a marketplace 28:23 Stuart asks about how to price when launching - Free trials or charge right away? 33:05 Rob asks what investors think when they hear a CEO has 1 or 2 other side hustles 33:18 David asks about the importance of market timing - Will a great business always succeed, and how much of it is due to timing? 39:40 Onyx asks for Jason's take on the future of growing & scaling emerging natural food (or food tech) brands in this environment 41:21 Paulo asks how CEOs should act to motivate a remote team 48:08 Allen asks about syndicates that don’t contribute any money into a deal

0:37 Jason intro Alex Wilhelm & Sam Lessin & checks in on how their quarantines are going 5:59 Are they all working more during quarantine then they were beforehand? 9:58 Will we see a birthrate drop due to the crisis? 15:45 Having & raising children in the digital age/COVID crisis 18:24 How are Apple & Google helping with tracking COVID-19, and when do their efforts become a privacy risk? 27:29 For how long would big-tech need personal health data? 31:54 Differences between Facebook & Twitter, Twitter usage for Jason, Alex & Sam 37:41 What is Sam working on with Fin? How has he transitioned his team to remote? 39:47 Who will be impacted by the move away from luxurious big-tech campuses? Will it lead to a competitive disadvantage for companies that are hesitant? 56:19 Disconnect between optimistic public investors & pessimistic private investors 1:00:38 Why early-stage investors are most at-risk in the private market? 1:05:33 Misaligned metrics in VC, understanding massive unemployment numbers 1:11:26 Is government-backed healthcare good for capitalism & entrepreneurship?

0:51 Jason intro 15Five's David Hassell & checks in on how his company is doing 4:23 What does a great leader need to do in a crisis? 8:26 How to share information with your team about potential layoffs 10:27 What is 15Five? What have they set out to accomplish? 15:22 Tips on transitioning an in-person team to fully remote 22:24 Defining trust in terms of business & how 15Five keeps their employees engaged 32:16 How increasing trust has resulted in hardly any employee turnover at 15Five 35:13 How remote work is revealing 42:24 How are employees feeling about getting back into the office? 47:43 What will COVID-19 change? 57:09 What is David hopeful about?

0:01 Jason & Chamath catch us up on their quarantines 1:20 Chamath intros David Sacks 4:40 David explains what their poker group chat has been like since COVID-19 started, and how Jason, Chamath & himself fall on the optimistic/pessimistic spectrum 6:58 How have the past few months defined David's view on the world, and what is his reaction to the US government's response? 12:22 Did the US health apparatus do its job? How could it improve? Why aren't masks already mandated? 19:33 Culture clash between scientific experts & entrepreneurs, thoughts on Chloroquine as a treatment method 27:00 Are US bureaucrats taking the intelligence of US citizens for granted? How liable is Trump?

0:01 Jason previews today's Ask Jason & drops some hints about the Super Secret TWiST Slack room 2:29 Aaron asks how investors view no-code startups 6:33 Andrii asks if an economic crisis is a good time to start a company 9:52 Jesse asks if he should start trying to raise a round of funding now, or wait until this crisis passes 14:48 Juan asks how he can leverage his first committed angel investor to attract more 19:11 Marcel asks how he can use a "startup mentality" to effectively run his small private school 23:28 Matt asks how to bring on advisors and how he should compensate them 29:46 Mike asks what % of revenue a company should spend on brand & marketing 35:27 Peter asks how much diligence is appropriate for an Angel Investor writing small checks ($5K & under) 41:52 Talha asks what COVID's economic impact will be on Cloud Kitchens, UberEats, DoorDash, etc. 47:56 Ryan asks for Jason's thoughts on solving the unemployment issues due to COVID-19

0:01 Jason thanks the sponsors, guests, listeners & the team for Angel Season 4! 4:38 Jason intros Menlo Ventures' Shawn Carolan 7:26 Thoughts on the market's reaction to COVID-19, when will it get back to normal? 11:51 What advice is Shawn giving to his portfolio founders? 19:07 How has the job of a VC changed with the influx of hundreds of new funds, and what impact has the large amount of dry powder done to the industry? How has Shawn adjusted his approach in response to this? 26:07 Why paying a high price on valuation for dialed in startups (like Shawn did for Uber's Series B) is still a great bet 34:13 Shawn on passing in investing on Mahalo & Jason 36:20 What was it like having a "Force of Nature" portfolio founder like Travis Kalanick, who would destroy any obstacle in his path? What are some great founder attributes? 51:24 Shawn takes us through his Siri investment 57:55 Shawn takes us through his Roku investment 1:02:25 With the influx of Seed & Series A startups, how has Shawn adjusted how he meets founders? 1:05:00 Shawn takes us through his JUMP Bikes investment, are micro-mobility unit economics broken? 1:07:43 What will the outcomes of COVID-19 be in the startup community? 1:28:05 Shawn asks Jason how to best utilize his domain expertise to create high-quality content for Menlo Ventures