YouSaid · the spoken record

Jason Mendelson

lines on the record: 22
first: 2017-01-30
most recent: 2017-01-30
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

“We just announced this week an investment in a company called Borrowed in Blue. It is looking to remake the antiquated online wedding industry. Right now you've got the NATO.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I know. So, whatever Dan's going to write is the thing I read every day. Seth and I were at a bar with his wife and my girlfriend at the time, respectively. The girl, his wife and my girlfriend wanted to order a $32 glass of flowers Pinot Noir, which we thought was obscene. And we said, why don't you focus on the $12 ones? Meanwhile, we looked up and there was a McCallan 25. We had both just started drinking scotch. We had no idea that prices went up with age. We had no idea. And we ordered two McCallan 25 NETs. We got the bill. It was $323. We about fell over. Our significant others were not happy that we had walked them down from their more expensive wine to drink $150 glasses of scotch. So like any reasonable human being would do, we charged it to our partner Ryan McIntyre's room, who was also staying at the hotel.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think my biggest mentor was two people, Eric Jensen over at Cooley, who was the partner I reported to when I was there. He taught me everything I knew as a lawyer. He was one who literally kicked me out the door to take the job at Mobius, even though I wanted to stay at Cooley. He foresaw something that I probably didn't at the time. The other one is my dad, who he's always been the guy who's told me I was going to do some great things, even when I had no confidence I would. My favorite newsletter just went away Primac left.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Probably Atlas shrugged. I read it when I was extremely poor. For a number of reasons, I had no parents in my life. And it was sort of my first introduction to entrepreneurship. And it was really impactful that one person could make a difference, but also with the cautionary tale that it's not, you know, there are ways that we can destroy entrepreneurship. So we need to celebrate it and love it, but also protect it and nurture it.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, I don't think the entrepreneurs ever go away. I think the best entrepreneurs in the world don't care about anything except for pursuing their idea and pursuing their dreams. Who goes away are the venture capitalists, right? Venture capitalists in general are Lemmings and when the Times are bad, they get out of the market. You know, we at Founder Group, we've been together 20 years as a team almost. And we consistently invest in the same number of deals every year because we want to be time diversified and we don't care if the times are great or horrible. And if you look at our track records, some of the best deals we've ever done were with entrepreneurs and a down period where no other VCs would invest in them. We were able to invest in these great companies because we were the only people out there writing checks and we had outsized returns from deals done in bad times.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I think the entire ecosystem has become narcissistic in many ways. I mean, the living, the fake lives on social media and the television and the hanging out with Hollywood stars and the big, you know, people, how many people who proclaim themselves the next Mark Zuckerberg in the past three years? And it's just, man, it's incredible. You know, I remember when I started in this industry more than 20 years ago, these were people who had to create these companies because they just had to. It was innate in them. It wasn't about the fame. It wasn't about the fortune. And, you know, as things go in any industry, as things become noticeable and whatnot, there are people who are in this industry because they want to be famous or they want to be rich. And I think it's changed the industry a lot. I mean, I can't even watch the television Silicon Valley because to me, a lot of that looks like a documentary to me. And it just makes me sad.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, it depends. If price, if I'm the only VC talking to the entrepreneur and we're both in love, you're probably right that price shouldn't be a factor because at an early stage is early stage. If we were late stage investors, totally different. It's a financial exercise at that point. But whether it's 10 pre or 15 pre, if the company's huge, we're all doing great. And if the company's a zero, it's the same result. I don't like to be in this situation is that there's multiple term sheets and the entrepreneur is focused on price. Look at the end of the day. that same argument around in the entrepreneur and say look a couple points of ownership to anybody doesn't matter you know i'm not going to play this game of continually being walked up on price either you want to work with my firm or you don't totally cool if you don't we got plenty of other companies we can invest in so that's how i view price you know and i think fred's right but i would put the caveat i'm not going to be a price chaser at any time”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, for us, not really. I think our brand, which is ironic because we don't really try to create one, but there's four partners and there's no associates. So if you want to work with Foundry Group, we're going to work with you. If we want to work together, we'll work together. We're not going to chase deals on price. We're not going to chase deals because of some other term sheet. If an entrepreneur is sincere and wants to work with us and is one of our type of people, to us, there's really no difference no matter where we go. There's probably on the margin a little more valuation creep in the Silicon Valley in New York, but it's not material.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, the first pillar is entrepreneurs, right? You need to have a creative class of people who want to live in a particular area. Second, you need to”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, look, we've been doing this for 10 years. We've invested over 100 companies. If we look at which ones are successful, there are successful companies that are being built all over. We invest all over the United States and we have successful companies all over the United States. There are pros and cons of having a company everywhere. There is no perfect place to start a company. And I think it's laughable that there are people on the coast and primarily in Silicon Valley who openly say you can't build a big business in the Silicon Valley. It is that myopic arrogance which makes me laugh because that gives us great opportunities to build wonderful companies elsewhere that will have a different culture and a different mindset and different advantages because they realize what the realities are as opposed to you have to be in the Silicon Valley, you have to be in Silicon Valley. That being said, we have a lot of companies in the Silicon Valley, but it's certainly not the only place to build a successful company.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so I'm sort of at the point having done this for a lot of years now where board meetings to me are spelled B-O-R-E-D. I could see a music video coming out someday about board meetings. I'd say about 25% of the boards I'm on run really, really well and tight where it, you know, send out the information beforehand. There's discussion whether it's over a Google Doc or over email beforehand and you come in and you hit the important stuff. It's efficient. It's mutually beneficial. The board meetings aren't about me or not about the outside board members. They're about all of us together helping the entrepreneurs have a better outcome. And so long as we're all getting some mutual benefit learning understanding and feeling like we're having an impact on the business, that's good. But unfortunately, that's not the majority. And what you find is a lot of board cultures dumbing down to the lowest common denominator, right? There's somebody on the board who doesn't read the materials. There's somebody on the board who's not mentally engaged. And the discussion quickly takes over and getting this person up to speed.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it should be the only strategy. I think it's critical. When you give me information ahead of time, you as the entrepreneur should hold me accountable that I've read everything, I've digested everything. If I have any questions I ask before the board meeting so that the board meeting becomes a strategy meeting, not a reporting exercise. Boy, three hours of somebody talking at me going, this is what we did next, and this is what we did next. Oh my gosh, I want to shoot myself. I want to talk about the meaty stuff. So all of that should come well in advance of the board meeting. And that is another way of building trust.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think one of the biggest mistakes they can make is over promise and under deliver. Now, that doesn't mean on everything. We all know that revenue numbers are made up, right? We all know that getting products done on time, that's a very difficult thing. But on the expense side, you should have total control telling me what you're going to do and do it. And if you think you're off the rails, telling me quickly, never surprising me at a board meeting. These sort of things make me feel like you're being open with me. When I come to a board meeting and there's 40 pages of marketing materials and then all of the problems are shoved on the last slide that they're maybe hoping we run out of time at the board meeting, that's an erosion of trust, an erosion of transparency. So I want to deal with the hard issues up front and the most important issues up front. And in that case, if I feel like the entrepreneur is being open with me, the relationship usually works really, really well.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, for me, I've decided that having no filter is both my biggest asset and my greatest curse. And it's an asset that not having a filter that when you meet me or when you work with me, you very quickly know what I'm all about. You know what my expectations are. You know what's in my brain. At the same time, it can be off-putting to some people. Sometimes bluntness is off-putting. There's people who think I might be mean or too aggressive. But I will say for the people who I work with, I think they appreciate that they never, ever have to ask themselves, what is Jason thinking? And so if we get along, the relationship becomes where I can be a mentor to them. I can be a business partner to them. I mean, look, let's be honest. Being a CEO is a really lonely job. You really don't have anyone to talk to about the company. Yeah, you're going to have some co-founders and some other people, but you're going to have some deep, dark secrets that you're not sure who to speak to. And I really hope that we have a level of trust between myself and the entrepreneurs, given my bluntness, that we can just have a...”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, in general, I respect people who tell me what they're going to do and get it done and do it in a way that is on the balance good and doesn't have to require somebody else losing to win. And I think being self-aware and resilient and thoughtful and empathetic, these are the types of qualities that make me respect that person. Respect is not to me a mission statement. When I see a company that says, one of our mission statements is respect for each other. I go, you know, respect is earned. It's not something that's forced upon people. And to me, I have a set of very stringent criteria. And when people meet those criteria, I respect them and I'm very loyal to them for a very long time.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One, I look at how much money the VC firm spends on PR and marketing. We don't have a PR firm. We don't have a marketing person. Our marketing is every once in a while we lose our brains and put up a music video or write a book. And that's not marketing. It's just we do whatever we want. And we're one of the very few venture firms, if not the only venture firm, who behaves that way.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Otherwise, you don't need to add the emphasis. Just tell me what's going on. And I think we have a lot of that going on right now where there's a lot of VCs who appear to be out there and transparent but are actually reverting more back to a model of 15, 20 years ago where they're not being honest with the entrepreneurs about what their incentives are and what the real feelings are about the company they're investing in.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, you think about television and radio and podcasting and blogs didn't exist a little more than a decade ago. The information's gotten out there, so things become more transparent. Unfortunately, I think a lot of these tools now are being used the wrong way. There are a lot of VCs who like to claim they're transparent or say, trust me. You know, I've always learned when somebody says trust me or somebody starts a sentence with the word frankly, they're probably lying to me.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we're sort of in a local minima, if I use a math term. So if you go back in history through circa early 2000s, certainly through 2003 or 2004, there was almost no transparency between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. It was a game. It was what VCs can extract from entrepreneurs. It was a very VC-driven world. We had the checkbooks. We had the power. There weren't a lot of us around. And it was really travesty. When Brad and I decided to write the term sheet series on the blog, we had two goals. One was to educate entrepreneurs and remove some of the opacity in the fundraising process, but two, we wanted to screw over all the jerk VCs that we had met who were screwing over entrepreneurs. And it was amazing that the initial feedback was very polar. The entrepreneurs loved it and the VCs skewered us and said, how dare you give away all our secrets? Over time, given social media, given the media's attention to venture.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't remember the year. It was probably six years ago, seven years ago, maybe even longer. There was a point I was saying in my office and I made the most boneheaded lawyer mistake in the world, one that should get me fired. And I said, oh my God, I'm a horrible attorney. And then as I had a moment of like, oh, this sucks. I've lost my skills. I thought about the 10 boards that I was on and all the entrepreneurs who I met and a couple of the companies were doing really well and just raised some new financing and one was getting sold and I was thinking, oh, wait a minute, you're not a general counsel anymore. You are a venture capitalist. That doesn't mean do a crappy job on the legal issues, but like you've made the transition. You are concentrating on the business. You're not concentrating on the practice of law.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And said, Oh my gosh, the entrepreneurs want to work with me because of who I am. And I guess I have on accident become a venture capitalist.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I started off as a lawyer at Cooley Godward in Silicon Valley. I assumed that I would be a lawyer forever and I would run the firm one day. The joke was when I walked in their day when I act like I own the place, not from an arrogant standpoint, but I really wanted to take care of the practice and do as good as I could because one day I figured I'd inherit the firm. Along the way, my music background and my software background started getting me close to entrepreneurs and to VCs. And then I got an offer to become the general counsel over at Mobius Venture Capital, which was the firm where I met Brad, Seth, and Ryan. And from there, I became the accidental VC. It was never a plan of mine to be a venture capitalist. The dot-com era blew up. I started taking boards to help us not get sued. And a couple of these companies turned around and did well. And then after you have a couple successes, people actually start coming to you saying, will you fund my company? And for a while, I just took all that deal flow and handed it off to other people. And over time, I started keeping some of that deal flow. And one day I woke up.”
2017-01-30 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: How 50% Of VCs Hurt Entrepreneurs, How To Build A Relationship Of Trust With Your VC and How Entrepreneurs Can Detect VC BS with Jason Mendelson, Co-Founder @ Foundry Group · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source