YouSaid · the spoken record

Jeff Clavier

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28
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2015-09-07
most recent
2015-09-07
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1
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  1. “I can't talk about the company, but I can share that this is in the wireless power charging arena. So those two guys out of MIT have invented a, well, using a technology which has been refined at a lab at MIT, where in three years from now you'll have a device or earlier, you will have a device on your nightstand or your desk in the office that will automatically recharge your cell phone, your watch, your Fitbit, your keyboard so that you don't think about plugging those devices or changing the batteries anymore.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “I get to see the world or the future through the lenses of entrepreneurs who sometimes have really crazy ideas. And it's my job to sort of figure out whether I can make it happen this sort of view of the world or whether it's just not going to happen.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Only go for a startup that you're truly passionate about because it's so hard that doing a startup because it's cool or because you see your friends sort of doing it is the wrong motivation.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “June, because that's what sort of got me looking at the world through sort of different lenses and got me interested in innovation”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Thing that the market can bear a company like Fitbit at a couple, if someone had told them, look, it's going to be a $2 to $3 billion company, they would have said, oh, send me up. Obviously, it's 3x that, and now they're looking at it going, like, what the hell is going on? And as I've pointed to. Because in the case of Fitbit, they've gotten to where they are just using roughly 50, 40, 50 million dollars in actual sort of equity capital. And now that they have 10x that on the balance sheet, I can't wait to see what they have for us in the store. So I'm extremely bullish about the future of Fitbit as a publicly traded company.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “But also we sort of clear the market and it's not always the same list of VCs, even though the people investing in media will be different from the guys investing in SaaS, from the guys investing in marketplaces, from the guys investing in hardware. A good example with hardware, you have just a handful of VCs who will be comfortable sort of taking an early stage risk with hardware companies at series and series Bs. And I mentioned Fitbit sort of being very challenging to race for, I tried to get some great VCs to invest in the B and the C of Fitbit and they just wouldn't budge and they wouldn't do it. And now they look at this $10 billion public market publication and they go, what the hell have I done? Because the sort of regret to have said no, which obviously is sort of the default answer of VCs when they don't.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Well, it's, we have a subset of the market that we tend to work with over and over because we've built a strong relationship and they are sort of the best at building a marketplace company or a SaaS company or consumer company and so on and so forth. But it sort of depends where you need to take into account the other investments that firms have makers. Typically most investors will refuse to make competing or overlapping investments. So you have to take into account everything which has been done by the firm and that's what is changing in this environment where so many companies are floating around and so many investments are made is that you have to sort of keep a clear sense of the market map for each of your companies so that you know who you're going to be reaching out to. We sort of play”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “An interesting company that is raising through a process where you could end up with multiple termsheets and therefore a tendency of beating up the price.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “challenges, appreciate the opportunity so that it's a quick process whenever they actually need to go and raise. The thing which is interesting is that about a third of our companies actually don't go and raise the round just comes to them in the form of a preemption. So at some point those VCs who have cultivated the relationship with our companies will sort of say, look, whether you execute for another three to six months will not change my mind. I can see what you guys are doing. I like the team. I believe in the opportunity. Let me drop a term sheet now. And it used to be that preemptions were a way to try and get a sweet deal. So not pay market price. Whereas now if you try and get out of bidding wars that end up happening if ever you have”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “I would say dominant, but we take a very active role in helping our startup founders sort of build their companies, whether it's hiring, whether it's executing, whether it's on the strategy, whether it's on anything that you sort of need to do to clear those hurdles with next batch of investors. And yes, we sort of do this sort of homework, which I mentioned, that people have to do before they go and raise the seed round. We do it with them, sort of looking at the few partners or series A firms that they should engage with six months before they go out fundraising so that they can get to know them and so that the partners get familiar with the business, understand the”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Six months of sandbagging if you want to make sure that you don't run enough cash before you hit the next milestone. And I've never had any of my founders tell me you had me raise too much money. They would tell me afterwards, damn, thank God we raised that much money because we end up typically using it.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Every day, every week we have one or two companies sort of raising funds. And so we know the pulse of the market and we know what it takes to clear those hurdles. And so we just want to make sure that what companies have the runway to actually iterate and then clear the hurdles that series investors have in B2B in consumer and marketplaces. And, you know, we might want them to succeed. We don't want to take a chance. And so that's why most of our companies will go out and raise a $2 million seed round on average unless their hardware company, in which case they might go and raise a three to four million dollar round because hardware is so hard it takes so much time, typically more time than entrepreneurs and founders had originally anticipated that you want to have that extra.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I can feel the Sarah quote where I forced my companies to raise longitude round, which is sort of true and not true. We have always sort of looked at an average of an 18 months runway as what it takes for a company to take the seat around, hire a few engineers, get the product to market, start building traction, do a few revisions of the product, and then hit some kind of a growth path that will sort of get it to clear Series A hurdles. Series A hurdles can vary dramatically from one company to the next, from one sector to the next. But being in the market every day helping, so 35 of our companies have raised the Series A, B, and C over the last 18 months, a total of 550 million dollars raised, which means that, you know,”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Whereas if someone sort of sends us something over a transom that doesn't go through an introduction from a trusted source, it's not even obvious that we'll take the meeting. It's not that we don't want to. It's just that we don't have time. So we have to prioritize somehow this deal flow that which is add to us. And that's why we always say, yes, you can sort of reach out to us, but figure out who is this sort of in-between connection who can really vouch for you and put you on top of the stack. Because if you're not on top of the stack, then it's actually more difficult to get the attention.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “And consumer healthcare. So if your company sort of is part of those markets that I just mentioned, the next step that you want to go for is identify a connection, someone who basically knows you and can vouch for you with us because we get to see about 3,000 or more companies per year and we only invest in 15. And so the strength of the signal that comes with the introduction is actually a determining factor as to whether we're going to take something. I wouldn't say seriously but we'll jump on something like for example if one of my CEOs says those are two entrepreneurs I've worked with in the past they're awesome you absolutely want to meet with them they will get in the calendar with extreme priority in the next”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Your building. So if you look at Softech, what do we do? We're a B2B slash SAS investor. So we do a lot of enterprise mix of enterprise software and SAS investments in both horizontal infrastructure, vertical SaaS and mobile infrastructure. We do a lot of marketplaces, both B2B and B2C. On the back of my success with Fitbit, we've done a number of connected devices in investments, both in the home, in payments or in healthcare. And those are sort of core markets that we've clearly identified. We're looking now at industrial IoT, for example, Internet of Things. And then we have a few sort of sectors that we like a lot, like education tech.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “In five years tenks that amount has been raised. So we're not looking at 250 micro VC funds having raised a total of $4 billion. So you really have sort of noise on both sides. So to get to us, first and foremost, and this is true for NEVC, you want to understand based on the type of company that you're building, the location of the company, the market that you're in, which are the five or ten most likely investors that you should be reaching out to. Not every VC is equal, especially in this environment where you have very specialized firms that only do some type of B2B, some type of B2C, some type of geography, some type of market. And so you really want to do your homework to figure out what are the firms, who are the partners who have expressed interest in whatever it is that you're all.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “So and you're right, there is there is a massive clutter on both sides to be honest where you have two or three x the number of companies being started, but you also have, you know, when I started there were literally 10 or 20 individual angels funding the bulk of those companies. And most of those angels have turned into micro VCs by raising their own funds based on the success that they had as angels, which means that by 2010, you were looking at a market of 20, 25 sort of institutional micro VC funds.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Very good friend of mine was in San Francisco for a month. And so he said, Orion is going to take a fresh look at the company and is going to spend time with the guys. And he kept me and my co-investor sort of updated on their progress. And he said, look, yes, we sort of missed that. And we really sort of digging in, but this looks good in a few months. I mean, after a couple of months of due degence and reference checks and spending time with the team, they led a $9 million Series A that we participated into and we actually bought more shares of Fitbit from our other Fund three, which we had raised by then, which means that Fitbit is a mega winner for both of our funds, Fund 2 and Fundry.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “He's done an amazing job, is one of the very best VCs I've had the privilege of working with. And so his service on the board of Fitbit has created this massive win. I mean, this massive company, which when we get out of lockup and each of us starts selling some shares or whatever, will produce massive returns and generate a lot of profits for investors. And that's enough for me, to be honest. But what I respect Brad for is that despite the fact that he had already made a decision and formed an opinion on Fitbit, he accepted that he might have been wrong. And so he said, you know, we're going to take a fresh look. It just turns out that his partner, Ryan, who's also a”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “There was basically no one to fund Fitbit, like no one would touch it, despite the early progress and early liftoff in terms of sales, Brad has actually looked at Fitbit a few months prior and passed. And so I went back to him and I wrote him an email sort of saying if I have any credibility with you guys, please read this email. And those are the few reasons why I believe that Fitbit is going to be a massive company and those are the early signs and this is why I beg you to sort of take a fresh look at the company.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “So I had known Brad for a while. We started as blogging buddies. So he had one of the very early VC blogs and I sort of joined him on that bandwagon in 2004. And so we got to know each other through our blogs and then we started to co-invest as angels. And we did a few sort of great investments together and we had a few great misses together, which meant that I had sort of built a bit of credibility with him and he was actually one of my great supporters when I raised Fund 2. Fund 2 was one of the first MicroBC funds in the industry back in 2007. It was a small $15.15 million fund. And that's the fund that invested in Fitbit. I think he had grown to respect the kind of investments that was making and the hunch I had that sometimes got to fund companies like Mint and a few other.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Bradfeld to invest in the Series A, saving Fitbit, because without that investment from Brad, they would be dead. And even the Series B or the Series C were not easy despite how remarkable the company is and how great their trajectory has been.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “And I knew I was onto something a few months, a couple of months later actually, when they launched the company on stage at TechCrunch 40. And I saw the reaction of people sort of looking at the design, the concept, and basically saying, I want this and I want this now. You know, it was sort of the reaffirmation that we were onto something. As you said, it was a no-no or no-go or no investment zone for the other VCs. And the thing which is striking given today's success of Fitbit and the fact that they trade at roughly $10 billion in valuation is the fact that every single round of financing was either close to impossible to raise, I had to beg”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “weeks or a few months later, I got introduced to James and Eric, the founders of Fitbit, by my good friend Seth Sternberg, who at the time was the CEO of Meebo. And he said, you know, this is awesome guys, awesome, awesome concept, awesome prototype. It was actually very ugly, but it worked. And I met those guys and I was like, hmm, so let's see, you could buy a Protometer for $13 at Walgreens or the local pharmacy, and you want to make it a connected object that's going to push your calorie information steps information, steps count in the cloud, and you're going to sell that for whatever, 119 bucks at the time. And for some reason, that Thought it was a really interesting idea, and I really liked that.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “So this capital efficiency which I just mentioned, which basically allowed entrepreneurs to get going on a few hundred thousand dollars investment was something that I had applied to software. And after a couple of years of seeing that work for software services, consumer companies, I had a hunch or a question as to whether it would work for hardware companies. And I said, hmm, let's see whether it's feasible to build a hardware company on the cheap, on a capital efficient basis. And a few”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “In the market where entrepreneurs were looking for a few hundred thousand dollars to get started and VCs at the time were really sort of geared towards investing millions, if not tens of millions of dollars in those companies. So got Softech Going and now 11 years later, we've done 165 investments, roughly 15 per year. We're investing out of our $85 million fund for and it's been working pretty well for us.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “Modern happy to, and thanks again for having me I was born, raised, and educated in France, did a startup in the financial services market that was acquired after five years by Reuters in the UK. And seven years later, after going through a number of technical jobs with a lot of responsibilities, I moved to the Valley in 2000 to become a venture capitalist. And I was the partner at the Reuters Greenhouse Fund, which was the corporate BC Arm of Reuters. And then after four years, I started Softech on my current farm, which was slightly different, actually quite different. It was really sort of focused on the very early stage part of the industry. And I saw in 2004, 2005, sort of funding gap.”

    2015-09-07 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 069: Jeff Clavier, King of Seed Funding @ SoftTech VC on Brad Feld, Fitbit and Standout Startups · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source