YouSaid · the spoken record

Aileen Lee

lines on the record: 111
first: 2016-10-03
most recent: 2016-10-03
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, you know, yeah, I think it's. Oh, it sounds like you have good information about things that are happening. Watching all of you, Aileen. Oh, well. Coming on”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's hard to do in this environment, it also had been very hard to do because the process has been so rushed. And I think entrepreneurs are trying to realize, and it's biting some entrepreneurs, right? Where they get like, you get kind of giddy with like all the attention that you're getting in this process. And you get focused on optimizing the process and the valuation and the heat rather than really making long-term decisions about who you're getting married to. And I think entrepreneurs are very.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You just have to put your blinders on and not listen and not even ask who else is in Or, like, well, just make your own decision.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's, I think, that's just not in my dream world. We have enough time to get to know the team and we make an independent decision and we would do it even if everyone else passed. Like I think that's really important. Like you have to have conviction and you have to be willing to be contrarian. A lot of times like the kind of like everyone else is like this will never work and you are the one person or the one firm that's like, but if it works, it's going to be awesome.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Where fear of missing out, right? Where we don't see something early enough, so we don't have a ton of time to make a decision. They've already met with a couple other firms and they've gotten term sheets and they want us in, but they're like, you have to decide in a week. And we don't have the time to really get to know the team and the business and meet with them multiple times. And we were like, well, that firm and that firm are really good firms and we really respect those people. So let's do it.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They can find them themselves. Yeah, and they don't do it. They just want to talk about it. They're not actually doing it and they're not committed. But I do think, and then that's one end of the spectrum. And then a couple notches in is like, we are going to hire one woman. Right, and like that just checking the box, I think, is not”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Totally Yeah, and that's the thing, like sometimes it's funny, you probably get these calls where people want to sit down and like talk to you about like, hey, I'm really concerned my firm doesn't have any women. Like, can we grab coffee and talk about it? Like, I don't want to really do that anymore.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm on the phone, but I'm going to get in my car Totally, like, oh, well, he's Indian. That's awesome. But, like, I just do think that when you go to, if you pay attention to it, if you're cruising the websites of all these firms and you look at all the pictures and like, it's awesome that you have a female CFO and a female GC. But if you look at the investing partners and it is 15 dudes, I do think that those people are going to be left behind if they don't get with where the world is going.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Does but like we just invested in a company that we haven't announced yet in the most recent Y Combinator class. And the founders who are two guys engineers who have been worked in the valley for a while were like, we went to a bunch of the websites of the VC firms and were like, hello, you have 15 guys. Like, do you not get that it's 2016? Like they said that to me. And I feel like venture firms, like there's a lot of data that shows that diverse teams have better outcomes and make better decisions. And also with how competitive this industry is getting, if you don't have women or diverse people on your team, you're going to miss out. Diversible kinds.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I love my job, and like, but I feel a little extra motivation to show how good we can be and how great that Cowboy Ventures is the money you want at seed. And oh, by the way, it's mostly.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I do it all totally works. It does because it's factual, because it's factual. Like, have you noticed, I think, as long as you point out the facts, as uncomfortable as it may be, but I do feel that nothing has changed. I mean, I think women have to push for it. Is that what has to happen?”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think we can have that conversation and people. Yeah, it was interesting. I just advise a friend we're doing something and no men would do it, and they were trying to get her to do it. And I said, say no men have done this. Oh my God, that works. So you do that.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of the case I mean, I do think people are talking about, I mean, eight or ten years ago, if I ever said, like, I remember one time talking to a partner at Kleiner where we had had a meeting or a company present and afterwards were kind of like getting lunch and talking. And I said, hey, what did you think about this? And like, this kind of seemed like a problem. And he was like, why didn't you say that in the meeting? And I was like, I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm still a junior partner and I'm female. He's like, I don't want to hear it. Never ever talk about being a woman again. That was like the conversation that we had. And now actually, I think we can have that conversation and people will listen and hopefully help and be like, no, you can do it.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That we're comfortable with, like, oh, yeah, that guy went to Dartmouth. I love Dartmouth guys. Like, you have to take a chance on people and many people, not just one person. Because then all the weight is on that one person. And if they don't do a great job where they don't work out, it's like, well, we'll never do that again. And I've heard that from so many people. The Ellen case, unfortunately, I think, has caused some people to be like, well, we are for sure never hiring women partners because we do not want to get in that situation. And that is the wrong message to take away.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Crazy. So I think we all men and women, men more so than women in a way because in venture they're 95% of the industry. There's the big thing about what Mike Murt said on Bloomberg about pipeline and stuff. But the reality, I think with due respect, I mean, he's been an amazing investor, but someone took a chance on him. He was a journalist. Right, in our industry, if we want our industry to change, we have got to make very concerted efforts to go outside of things that we know.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Everywhere, not just. I mean, not just in tech. We see this everywhere. We see this in the election right now. Right. Oh, yeah. Right. But I'm saying that.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Why doesn't it happen? The Kleiner case with Ellen Howe, it certainly iterated through the whole industry, and I don't think it's limited to Kleiner things that happen there, whatever side you believe, whatever side you come out on on that one, it's so familiar. It was so familiar so many of the things everywhere, not just.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And if after I said something, he'd be like, I think that's a really great point. And those kinds of things that men can do for people who are different, not just women, in environments, and that women can do for each other or people can do for each other, I think will make a huge difference. I don't think we do it enough.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's totally different. And the other thing I'd say is Kleiner did take a chance on me. I was reading this article yesterday about the Obama administration in the early days about how it was kind of like a very testosterone and the shine thing, right? That you posted it, right? Yeah, yeah. And I remember John doing that for me at Kleiner. Like in a meeting where you have people with big personalities who are awesome debaters, he would say, Alien, what do you think?”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On my company, whether he's Do They're higher standards. Yeah, it's interesting. I always say the only time they bring up the word standards is for people of color and women. And they never bring them up in the good place.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's lazy. The filter for who I'm going to put on my cap table is someone who's a good guy. Like he doesn't rock the boat. He's kind of fun to be with. It has nothing to do with whether he's going to help build value on my company, whether he's going to introduce me to customers, whether he's, you know, but whereas I feel like the filter that I see people apply to females, like do I like her? Is she going to be, does she have specific domain expertise? But can she introduce me to the 15 customers that I need to win in the next year? Like it's a totally different filter.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it's like a totally different set of questions, and there's no she's such a good girl, or she's, and like, so I would request we say he's a good human or she's a good human person, whatever you want to say, good peeps. But I think there's a lot of, we live, and this is just one example of just tons of like unintentional subconscious bias.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Jimmy Brown last weekend, he's such a good guy. Like, we should put him on the list. And then somebody like, oh, I love that dude. He's such a great guy. And then so he put him on the list. And then someone's like, oh, how about Joe Schmoel? Like, oh, love that dude. And then there's”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And there is no female equivalent. Like, what would you say? She's such a good girl. Good girl. No, that's a bad thing, yeah. Right? Or she's a good woman? Like, what is that? She's good at bearing children. Like, so, and it happens, like, you know, you're sitting in a boardroom with a bunch of guys, and it's a hot company that's thinking about raising their series A or their Series B. And usually what we do is like we make a Google Doc with like a list of target investors and someone will be like, oh, I was just with”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But one thing I would say, and we talked about this once, is one request I'd have is I really would like us to stop using the phrase good guy.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we're looking forward to kind Let's finish up talking about being one of the few women. There's just a few women venture capitalists. What is that like? Walking into a room when you're the only woman, or I remember you talking about a dinner once where you literally were the only woman in a room full of...”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't, it sounds like something we're paying attention to and we're looking for kind of like raised our bar a little bit.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right? And I cannot make new investments unless the team is ridiculously special or they've accomplished ridiculous things with almost nothing. And, like, I think that's kind of the world that we're in. And so the entrepreneurs have to be tougher and more thoughtful than I think ever before.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because it's advising people or anything? We did like in 2015, we slowed down our pace of new investments pretty significantly because we kind of felt like winter was coming. And from a fundraising perspective, right? Because people have been parting crazy writing huge checks at very high valuations. They're going to have a massive hangover and they're going to pull back. And they're going to be like, hey, I have this really full, like from a venture perspective, right? I've got this really full dance card. I made a bunch of expensive investments that have to grow into them or I have to figure out how to get them sold. My partners are giving me a lot of shit for the decisions that we made. I'm like sober now.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so many great companies, and maybe it's like, yeah, the entrepreneurs have to really want it bad to start a company in downturn because they know it's going to be harder. And I think we're actually like kind of in that or heading into that. So I'm kind of hopeful that the next year's vintage of companies started will be like super awesome.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think, like, if you looked at the unicorn analysis that we did, if you looked at the prior 10 years, were there better years for unicorns? Yes. Like there are certain years where more great companies are born than others. And some of that has to do with downturns.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But I think there's going to be a lot more. It's not coming off that one. I mean, I think there has been a cooling, and there will continue to be a cooling, which is good. How does that manifest?”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of learning software that basically reads the body of writing and makes proactive recommendations that your writing becomes more effective, like Texio should be applicable. And it's one of the only real world applications of learning loop software that we have found”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Drives me crazy when I call like It's going to basically personalize experience based on who you are, what your role is, what your common activities are. If you do the same thing over and over again, your software is going to learn from that and do it for you. Instead of you having click five things, it's going to basically jump from click one to click five. And in the case of Texio, it basically ingests lots of writing and then can basically make recommendations. Like we haven't had any writing recommendations since spell check. Right. Right. That's true. We're sitting on top of crazy amounts of data from writing an email and seeing if someone, how quickly people, like do they open the email? Do they click on it? And do they take action? And the writing that was in the email, the photos, like how long it was, like what was the tone? What were the words? That's data that you can learn from and then make your writing better so that more people will open the email, more people will click on it. And so Textio does that first for job specs and things that are related to people in HR. But I mean, this kind of...”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think in the next decade, smarter software is going to be kind of like the white nails. What does that mean? It's like you use software all the time that is not learning. Let's say if you open it up and you go to a certain like navigation menu bar and you always do the same things like why doesn't it know that?”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, a couple I'll talk about Textio. I don't know if you're familiar with Textio. It's a really, so like one of the things that we're excited about, which we are not seeing enough of, I think, is what we call smarter software. Like some people call it AI-driven software. Kieran at Textio calls it learning loop software. I think we have the, you know, I think, I don't know if it's Sequoy or someone has this thing, like, what's the reason why? Like, why now? And for the past five years, we've been living in smartphone is the reason why now, right? Like, because everyone has a smartphone, enterprise software has to change because they're not going to be locked to your PC anymore. I'm not going to use that crappy UX that we've had for the past 15 years when my iPhone is such a slick, cool product. Or there are just mobile native products that can disrupt whole industries. I think Slack. Yeah, exactly. I mean, there's so many good examples.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Good to know. I think I'm going to pass on that one Know at seed, for us, it's really a combination of the people and the mission that they're on, market size, the idea and the technology. Like, is it unique? And what have they figured out, like kind of almost with nothing? And what's the plan? Right. So with a reasonable amount of capital, can we get to a good place? And are we headed in a great direction where we're going to build a great company? And the team has the chops to be able to get there.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know if I'd call it retail, but we're investors in a company called Mimi Box, which is a K Beauty company. Okay. If you see this lovely complexion that I have, it's snail cream. It's a Korean snails.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He's shown he can make money. Yeah, yeah, totally. So, I mean, he is super smart. And so I think you have to be super smart. And I mean, if you look at Zali, which I think like that was a very good team. And I do think they built a great business in a relatively short period of time. But it's just tough. Retail is tough.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Potentially decades because this is so huge and I'm going to be doing this for a long time. And he's got super deep pockets and really smart people. Thank you for everyone.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and there's Amazon, right? So you have to have unique inventory or you have to have a unique way of selling the inventory. Yeah, and Amazon is such an amazingly tough competitor because Jeff is such a long-term thinker and planner. Like he's, you know, he said, like, I'm willing to not make money on businesses for. And now he turned on the...”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Invest in an enterprise. I mean, e commerce is really hard, right? In some cases, you have inventory, but even in cases where you don't, margins can be challenging. Cost of customer acquisition is challenging, frequency and retention is challenging.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But on Kings Lane, I think, is an amazing brand. Home is such a huge unaddressed category. It's such a tough one to shop for. I still feel like that category is not done. Like there will be a One Kings Lane 2.0 or 3.0 that I trouble in e-commerce.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I definitely think it was a tough. I was not on the board when it happened, but I think it was a tough call. It's a great outcome for you.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I think Unilever has a lot of resources. And my understanding is the Unilever leadership team, especially the CEO, kind of like Brett talked about, like the rapport with the CEO on seeing how you can actually get where you want to go faster with the deep pocket and the resources of the acquirer. I definitely think that was would I would would would.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it was a good, it was a pretty, I think, a fair valuation. So it wasn't like a crazy price relative to how good the business is.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To invest in Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely Or e commerce. Right. Well, talk first about Dollar Shape Club. Is that a hit or is it? I think it's a hit. You sell it, you have to sell it because it's not going to be, I mean, because”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, I did. I'm actually super careful about retail and e-commerce because I think it's one of the hardest categories to invest in. It's super tricky. And I think one of the maybe like the misperceptions of Cowboy and me, like one is with due respect to my friend Alan, like Alan and I are different people. Sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And that we only invest in women ventures or e-commerce. Right. Like we actually invest in more enterprise companies than we do consumer, especially recently. We'll talk first about dollar shape.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A bunch of, yeah. I mean, Dollar Shafe Club, you mentioned. That worked out well for you, which is good. Yeah, exactly. I mean, lately we have been actually investing in. I think like you want to read.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Conditions apply. Here with Aileen Lee, who runs Cowboy Ventures. Aileen used to be a partner at Kleiner Perkins, and she runs a smaller seed fund. In Silicon Valley. Now, what did you invest in small? Mighty. Right. That's what I say about myself.”
2016-10-03 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Aileen Lee, managing partner, Cowboy Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT