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Adam Fisher

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2024-01-22
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2024-01-22
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  1. “That's humanity. That's what separates us from animals. We can teach our young, so to speak, what we've learned. They don't always listen, and sometimes you have to go through the same experiences. It doesn't matter what somebody tells you. You actually have to make the mistakes. And that's fair. This is what progress is. Progress is we actually get to learn from those that came before us, even if it's 10 years before us or five years before us. And so I think it's an important part of our role in society, in business, and technology.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Well, it's more about how I'll spend my time. I'm hoping that I'll have a smaller board load and that I'll have more time to read and write and probably also more mentoring. I really enjoy working with younger investors or newer investors and imparting whatever wisdom I can.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “I'm sure most people would say just the valuations. I think it's more about thinking you could be number three or four or five in a market and still succeed. That's such a mistake on the part of entrepreneurs, investors, and even employees who joined these companies. Obviously, there are exceptions, and everybody will cite the exceptions, but that's so often the clearest path for failure because you knew it from the get-go that you're not the pioneer, you're not even the second, and you're just kind of riding somebody else's wave, so to speak, that they've created for you that's easing, it's helping you raise money more easily to recruit, maybe even to sell, but it's not your wave.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “The company was doing very well. Other investors thought it was also amazing. They wanted to lead a very large round and a very high valuation. And I had to decide, do I just bow out saying this is way too much? Or do I do my pro rata? But in these cases, my pro rata is enormous. You know, it's 30, 40, $50 million. And then all of a sudden I'm truly doubling down on ways that I never imagined. In a few cases, I did. I'm not sure yet whether I read it or not, but I feel uncomfortable in a few cases.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “But that I believe need to have that initial foundation of investor confidence. Even when it's unfounded, that helps a lot.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Generally, when they're starting out, I tell them just get points on the board, which is to say, again, don't try and back the biggest thing. That's just not the way it works. Just get some exits. I'm a person that really understands the psychology of investing, and I know what it's like to get ahead of yourself and to have $30 million going, I feel like they're going down the drain. It really affects every subsequent decision you're going to make on that company and any other investment. But if you've invested $5 million and there's been since been an upround and the company's doing well and it's now valued at, let's say, three acts of that, you're going to feel good. You're going to have a lot more confidence in making your next investment. And so my view is get points in the board. Of course, when I mean points, I mean actual exits, but you don't have much control over when that happens.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I would say there are two pieces of advice which are contrary. The first is that when things are just going awfully right in the beginning, just get out. Stop right there. In other words, if within 12 months or 18 months, all your assumptions are wrong. The entrepreneur is awful to work with. The market doesn't look right. Just stop right there. Don't try and fix it. But the second piece of advice that I received was that oftentimes 90% of the value that is created in the company happens in the last 12 or 18 months of the company's life. And so that requires both patients, but also recognition that sometimes that's the way it works out. And there are companies, that's the way it's going to manifest itself. And so it's that combination of being able to cut, but also being patient and knowing when to apply what.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Oh, it's probably that they're all techies and they're all in cybersecurity, which is just not the case. I've backed a lot of entrepreneurs that have no technical background or minimal technical background. And obviously, I have very few, if not any, cybersecurity companies. I've got entrepreneurs who were lawyers in HR, you name it. And so I think that's a big misconception.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “No, again, short term I am, but I worry about loss. There's a lot of long term trends in the case of in the US I worry a lot about isolationism. Which I actually think is the natural state of the United States.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Yes, yes. In the context of Israel and business, I think business has bottomed out and things are getting better for now. But I do worry, for instance, in venture capital that there's still far too much capital to make this a business that we can all do, or even a lot of us can do well in. And in the context of Israel, yes, I think back where we were even 12 months ago in terms of this judicial coup, we're in a much better situation. I think security-wise, over the last three months, things have actually improved, even though it doesn't look like that. But I do worry a lot more about the long term. And that's a bit of a flip in my mindset. I hope I revert back to where I was over the next 12 months.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Well, I'm usually the kind of person who says that I am pessimistic about the short term but optimistic about the long term. And the last 12 months, I've felt the opposite. I hope that reverts.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “No, I'm not aware of it. Actually, there was never a debate. Most people I've engaged with, they blocked me right away. So I'm not interested in any alternative opinions. I would have liked to have a discussion. No, I mean, the Israeli market's very different. That's my market. It's not a name that's spoken about much. Mine is more prominent, so I didn't think much of it.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I didn't realize that there were a few others who felt exactly as I did. Venture capitalists in this case who also spoke out. Within days the entire tech sector. 90% was on the same side. That's reassuring. I think maybe a better question would be, what if there was more of a backlash? Would you have continued? I think so. I think carefully about all these issues. And I attempt to think carefully and patiently before I write. Obviously, sometimes you write quickly on platforms like Twitter without thinking at all through. But again, I trust myself. I know the issues. And I'm not afraid to say also if I make a mistake that I misspoke or I miswrote, although I don't think I have in the past year.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “I think I just reached a stage in my career when I don't really care for any repercussions and that I trust myself to express myself in a way that is honest and non-antagonistic. If you're going to have an independent mind and live in a place that's free, if you don't feel comfortable expressing it, then it's just not worth that much. And so that was a realization I made. The first was in 2022 when the new government in Israel was formed, even before the so-called judicial reform was announced, I could see it happening and I wrote about it on my medium blog. I said this government's going to try and gut the independent judiciary. And I explained why and explained why it was so bad in the context of Israel's political structure. And it was a very vocal move. But I said, I don't care if there are some people, entrepreneurs, that don't agree with me. What's the worst that can happen? They won't come to me, fine. But I felt that was a fraction.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Yet timing is so important. It's hard to know where you are. All you know is the past. You have no sense of the future, but it's critical. And ultimately, these companies that I mentioned within certain amount of time, it was clear that, wow, we sold a peak. Either it was market peak or company peak or the choir themselves afterwards, their stock dropped. Now, I've had the opposite. I've had situations where acquisition offers were pulled because something happened to that acquire. In other words, the worst possible time. But that's how you engineer. And of course, it's easier when it's not a very well-known company, when there weren't a lot of headlines, when they're not burning a lot, you know, acquires don't want to buy ongoing losses. So you have to have a manageable burn. And of course, various ways of looking at that, but it's typically as a percentage of the acquirers, EPS, how much they can absorb, how many kind of losses they can absorb.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “It's a combination. It's never just technology. It's usually a team technology and, of course, timing. You have to ensure that the buyer feels like they're getting something that they couldn't otherwise get.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “And so I would say at least six or seven times, I've had exits where, I mean, the company was almost worthless. Less than $2 million of revenue. And we had offers that shockingly good”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “To ensure that they're going to make money on any kind of outcome, you can work together and figure out, okay, what do we do now? Who are the likely buyers? How do we get close to them? And this is not a decision that within three months, then you have offers. It's typically a year-long, if not more process. Now, this takes me back to how I invest in entrepreneurs and what I look for. I look for people who are, like I said, storytellers, have charisma. I look for people who I think acquirers would want to buy. Like the person, not just the company and the product, that they get excited about that person leading a division or a group within their company. And then I tell the entrepreneur, listen, as much as you build a great product and you're in a hot market, let me tell you something. We're not going to be acquired for that. They're going to acquire you. Don't let this get to your head. Being understand that if you can win them over the way you won me over, five, six years ago, you got it in the back.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “I think I am. That's one of my skills. I am because I have a lot of exits where that is the case. And it's a combination of the business just not really working the way we want it to. It might not be efficient. The market might not be as big as we thought. We may not be able to spend money to make money, if you know what I mean. We can double the headcount, but it won't really change anything. Maybe because competition is really gaining and this whole market's going to be awful. Low margins, too much competition. And so you have to be ahead of it. You just got to be slightly ahead of everybody else. It's just like investing. You just want to be six months ahead of everybody else. Same thing in exit. You want to be the first to exit. You don't want to be the last. And so in orchestrating this, the first thing is to make sure that the CEO is on the same page. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they're the first to come. Other times you have to actually work with them and explain the risks of continuing with the same strategy. And that takes time. But if you have a good relationship, if they understand that they're still going to do well, make money, or that you're going to take steps.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “When to sell, it's typically when I think the company is peaked or is about to peak, I would say, ahead of it. If it's peaked, I'm already probably it's too late.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “So often in an upmarket, it's the other way around. You want the next deal because it all goes up. But in this market, you want the previous deal, but it's much harder psychologically to realize that, to realize that you're on your way down. You don't need to act like it. You actually pretend that that's not the case, but you need to decide as if that is the case. You're sliding down the side of a mountain. If time is not on your side, you're going to hit bottom. And so you want that previous deal. Just preempt it. try and find a way to get the acquirer to make an offer you don't really want, but then to take it.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “I think there will be. I think it's just a matter of price and matching it. A lot of these companies grew very quickly, burned a lot of money, but without burning a lot, they can't grow at all. And they have to right size and all of a sudden that company that was doing, it was growing 100% and is at 50 million is now still at 50 million and not growing at all and still burning money. And how much is that worth? It's worth a very low multiple of that. And I do think that requires for these companies. But it's hard to get there. You know, you always want the previous deal. This is the stage where you always want the previous deal. You want what you could have had before. You have to preempt that, meaning you have to realize that it only gets worse from here. And so you actually have to get ahead of it and accept what is ostensibly a low offer. Because if you wait, you're going to want that offer, but it won't be around anymore.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Yeah, I'm not on those boards, to be honest. Not yet at least. I think if I was, I would tell the entrepreneur to ignore them and to figure out, to tell them why they need to be patient and why you still appreciate them as an investor and understand that it might not be the outcome that they had hoped for, but there's a way in which to do this that is in the interest of all shareholders, including them. And they still get their money, they still will get their money back, but that's it.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “100%. That is exactly what's going to happen over the next 24 months. Various ways in which to get your 1x. And when you know that you want your 1x, you want it now. You don't want to wait two, three, four years from that. Not only from an IRR perspective, just in terms of the time commitment and the risk. As time goes on, the risk can get worse. That 1x can become 0.75x or half an x. And then you get even more stressed about it. And I don't think entrepreneurs fully appreciate that situation when they have a set of investors that just wants their money back and how that affects decision making at the board level.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Early stage, there's not that much because generally at a certain point you've acquired enough, hopefully the company has accreted in value and you're kind of both in the money. I think for later stage investors, there's misalignment, especially when founders start to sell secondary, those gross stage investors are kind of stuck. And I think it's just less appreciation for that growth stage where founders tell themselves, listen, I work to get to this point. I spent seven years.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “But if we're looking over a finite period of time, that's easy in retrospect to say that. If you now tell me to change my strategy, this could be the worst decision of my career. I could be investing three times and every single company thinking everything I do is fantastic and discover that I've just erased half my gain. Someone thinks that's really possible, but you know what I mean. No, I don't think so. And I don't think you can really change your style that easily. You get out of your comfort zone when you invest a lot more money at a lot higher valuations. You actually end up behaving a little bit different as a board member even. When all of a sudden you have 100 million of cost basis in a company, in which I do have several companies where that's the case, the way you think about things is more risk averse. All of a sudden you kind of shift gears and you start thinking, wait a minute, how do I ensure that I get 1x? Forget about the 5x that I dreamed of. And if you don't want to be in that situation, then don't get there.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Every decision you make just affects your next decision. So it's really hard to do this kind of counterfactuals. I may have gotten ahead of my skis, so to speak, in some of these investments where all of a sudden I double down, let's say, on Wix, and then there was a challenge. And there were challenges. And that might have affected my confidence to then invest the next company, which in this case might have been Fiverr. And I might have said, you know what? I've gone too far in Wix. I'm going to hold back on Fiverr. So you have to think by every decision you make, whether it's successful or not, how it may impact your next decision.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “That's right. Again, everybody has their own personality in terms of investing. Mine is, I'm risk averse. I worry more about losing on those types of investments than having missed an opportunity to make a bit more money. It works for me. I don't necessarily recommend it for everybody, but I don't mind. I don't mind having missed an opportunity to invest three more million dollars in a company that could have generated another $30 million of gains. But I do worry a lot about doubling down on a company, investing another $20 million when it was growing at an unsustainable rate with way too much burn. That causes me much more pause. I'll pull back on those ones.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “I think reserves are for fund management. I don't think reserves are a commitment to a company or a team. I think in order to manage a fund properly in terms of resources, you have to have some sense. It's just important to realize you have to assume that there are going to be some companies that you abandon to a certain extent in terms of not investing much more. It can't be a situation where everything you've invested in is going well. You always have to decide which ones are just not good enough relative to the others. And so I think it's very important to have allocations, but you also very important to constantly adjust them.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “I don't know if I fit either. There's no question that at the end of the day, most of your returns are going to come from very few deals. It's not going to be spread evenly. That's a fact. The question is, can you recognize it early on, or can you recognize it really at any point? And I don't think you can. I think we delude ourselves into thinking we know exactly which company is going to be a big outcome. We don't. These are all retrospective stories that we tell ourselves, and we do it over and over again. And even I do it myself. And I have to go back and look at what I actually wrote to see what I actually thought and remind myself, no, Adam, you didn't think that was going to happen. That was not yet a term. That was not yet a concept. And you've just told yourself the story that makes you feel good.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “But you're going to say, you know, I cease here something that I haven't seen before, and I really like it. And so when I go back to Wix and I think, what did I like so much? Yes, I like the concept of the product and I like the entrepreneurs. There was something else they were doing that shocked me. They were doing things in the area of marketing, online marketing that I didn't know you could do. There were all these types of, they called a gorilla marketing. That was the term they used. But it fascinated me that they were thinking about that so early on and that they would spend at the time $50,000 to buy a three-letter URL. Now we think, oh, that's obvious, but this is 2006 that they decided they should definitely do that. I love that way of thinking. I had never heard that before. And I realized, you know, this is something special. If they could do that over the last 12 months, I think that was about the time I invested, they probably need some other interesting things over the next 12 months and over the next 12 months after that.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “It means doing things that are within your control. Like I said before, I don't think that the way you build a big company or the way you get a big exit is by investing in the most ambitious companies, growing the fastest. Those are also the companies that crash and burn. My experience has been different. It's been companies that require patience and that over time figure it out and surprise everybody out of nowhere. I mean, Wix, by the time it was known, it was already public for two or three years. And then people look back and they say, in retrospect, oh, yes, it was obvious. I mean, when we invested, these days we call it a SaaS company. But back then, even though we used the term SaaS, it wasn't a SaaS company. It didn't fit our strict definition of SAS. We were learning as we went. It was PLG, but PLG hadn't been invented yet. This is what you're looking for. It's not just being ahead of the curve in terms of the market. It's being ahead of the curve in terms of how you think, how you build the company. You're going to miss some of the terms. It's not going to be a term to apply for it. And you may be a loss of words.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Well, I know it's hard to sit out in an entire market. It feels like AI is like the equivalent of cloud. And so I'm not suggesting sitting out of anything related to AI. Of course not. I'm talking about some of the very mainstream type AI use cases. Especially those that consume enormous amounts of capital with very low margins. As an investor, you decide, are you going to make your mark by having hit one out of the park, so to speak, using”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “Right. I made several AI investments early on before AI was hot. And luckily I got out with nice exits. But since AI has become what it is, I've run the other way. The simple reason that I just can't make sense of the competition. I don't like betting on a horse race. And this is what it feels like to me. You're sitting down in the stands and there are 10 horses and you have to assess which one is going to win.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “No, I don't. I don't do them, but for different reasons. I don't do them because the way they rationalize needing $20 million is because their six competitors also raise $20 million. And in that sense, they're absolutely right. Why would you be number six and raise less money, if anything, you need to raise more money and show them that the number sixth company is even bigger or better and more ambitious? That makes sense, but it's the backwards way of thinking.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “No, at seed, I don't think so. I think it distorts everything. I think you create everything from the go-to-market model to how you hire to the offices and the culture you're creating. It's all wrong. So I completely disagree.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “I think it depends on the stage. I think there are growth stages where there's just tremendous opportunity. The company is growing very quickly.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “I think it's inflated. I think if you were talking to a public company CEO, they wouldn't know what you're talking about. They'd say, I understand my stock goes up and down every day. Why should a private company be any different? Six months ago, the market thought we were valued at this. Luckily, we raised at that price, and I avoided dilution for all of you, but now it's back down. That's the way the market works. I think being honest as a CEO and speaking to your employees like adults, not children, is the way to get past it.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “It really depends on the strength of our different shareholder classes. Sometimes, if they need a lot more money, it's a recap opportunity or it's a sale at very depressed price in which the latter investors just want to get their money back. It's not pretty either way. I don't think that entrepreneurs and their investors understand how bad that situation is. And it's not so much that it's a potential down round. Down rounds are not problematic. Much more problematic, again, our valuations that are essentially an exit territory or far in excess of exit territory. It's really hard to recover from that.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “To explain what exactly that looks like when your last round evaluation is essentially ahead of the valuation you want to sell now and how acquires interpret that, how you work with different sets of preferred shareholders, one that's in the money, one that's completely out of the money, it's a nightmare.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “Typically, the first institutional investor, sometimes the second. Rarely have I turned down deals in the very early stages due to price alone. That price is often a function of raising too much money, meaning they didn't ask for a $40 million pre-money valuation. They asked for $25 million in their first round of financing. That was the problem. Now, I realize that as a result, it required a high valuation. But the issue for me in that situation was much more about what do they think they're going to do with so much money? They don't know what they're doing yet. And that was a mismatch for me. So rarely is valuation alone the issue that caused me to back off. Again, being early stage, I'm not exposed to some of the growth stage valuations where really you get into Exoterritory, and that is very challenging. I'm very conscious of that. I try and make sure the companies I back never raise at valuations that they want to sell the company at, and I warn them of that. And again, I have the scars.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Partner, as a quasi founder of sorts. Somebody's going to be with you really through ups and downs is really important. I see my role as a VC as picking up an entrepreneur when they're like on the ground because of some kind of disappointment or challenge, but also pulling them down when their heads in the clouds and they get too giddy about some recent success or about the recent valuation or some interest from the choir. And that's what I try to do. And so the entrepreneurs that come to me, they realize that I have that balance. When you express that kind of balance, when you react to entrepreneurs, whether it's good news or bad news with some kind of composure, they become more transparent with you, more forthcoming. They'll share the good information, the bad information, as soon as it comes in, and ultimately that's the secret of a great partnership that can last.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “Well, in my local market, they choose me based on reputation. I hope it's personal reputation, not just the brand of Bessemer, although the brand of Bessemer definitely helps. I've been doing this for a long time, one of the few that are still very active and very active across many sectors. So I've done everything, as I mentioned, semiconductors to consumer software to SaaS and infrastructure. I hope that my name precedes me, but in a way that relates to the ups and downs. I mean, I make it very clear to the entrepreneur that I'm choosing them more than I'm choosing the market or the particular product and that I'm choosing them because I'm also not just choosing somebody that I hope will succeed or want to succeed, but somebody that I look forward to working with, even if ultimately we fail. And there are companies that I look back at and I think, wow, we didn't really do that well, but that was fun. I like working with him or her. And you know what? I do it again. I think when you go back to what I said before about thinking about an investor as a”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “But also knowing yourself as a manager or leader, everybody's different and the more experience you have having been in that situation, the better you are about hiring the people that are a good match for you. Are you the type of CEO that wants to kind of give somebody a mission and they're off? And they just come back when they've delivered. Or are you the type that needs to know all along what's going on and I want to collaborate and want to contribute? Those are two different styles. They're both legitimate, but sometimes there's a lack of self-awareness if you don't have experience having been a CEO before.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “That's right. Experience and hiring is definitely underrated. You're absolutely right. That's one of the greatest skills of second-time entrepreneurs is that they actually don't need me to interview any of the candidates. Typically, they move so fast”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “Let's say. It's often the first executive hire because they're not one of the founders. Being the first VP of sales when there are no customers or when only few customers they have are really friends of the founders and coming in when there are 20 customers or 100, it's a very different type of workload and it's not just sales. It requires a lot of thinking. It requires a lot of patience. And so that's often where you get it wrong. The person just was not ready to handle that stage or they realize that, you know what, they can't do anything on their own anymore. They really need everybody else to do the work for them.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “The latter because hopefully I've done my work and I figured out the personal chemistry and the founder is pretty good at that themselves, which I again I look for when I fund people. But sometimes there's a mismatch in the stage. There's a big difference between being the first VP of sales.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “In not making a mistake with a higher than making sure that this is the best possible candidate we could hire. And a lot of that rests on the personality. Do they understand what it's like working for an entrepreneur? Do they understand what the stage is like and what they actually need to do? Perhaps they need to roll up their sleeves when they're familiar with. Perhaps they need to hire on their own instead of relying on a recruiting team to hire. These are all the types of things I'm trying to look for. And so I ask questions about them to understand what experiences they've gone through. How have they handled stress? How have they handled sensitive personnel situations? How have they handled disagreements or other types of macro crises? And slowly I can try and figure out what this kind of a person this is and are they a good fit.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “I don't structure it much. I don't duplicate the interview that the CEO had, which is about their background and they know what they're doing and what they did. I assume that he or she has already done that. I'm trying to find things that may not have asked. So I'm going to ask different types of questions. I'm going to assess the personality, their temperament, with the goal to see if they're a right match for this entrepreneur, who hopefully at this point I also know their personality and temperament and style, and for the company. And for the company, that's often really just the stage of the company. So often, it's just a mismatch. And so similar to what I said before, I'm not so much looking for, is this the best candidate as much as I'm looking, is this going to be a horrible hire that you're going to regret? Because as you know, if you've hired somebody and end up being a disaster, you've lost an incredible amount of time. And there's also damage. And then your next hire, you're even more hesitant about making that higher. So I'm much more interested.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “That's it. That's exactly it. The analogy that I use is that we're not like the entrepreneur is the captain of the ship, and we're not next door shouting which way to go. We're like the lighthouse. We just tell them where the rocks are so they don't crash. But we actually don't know how to get there. That's the entrepreneur's job.”

    2024-01-22 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Small Markets are Better Than Big Markets, The Biggest Delusion of Early Stage VC, Why AI Investing is like a Horserace and Why The Most Ambitious Companies Growing the Fastest are not the Best Investments with Adam Fisher, Partner @ Bessemer · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source