YouSaid · the spoken record

Jonathon Triest

lines on the record
33
first
2015-07-20
most recent
2015-07-20
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1
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podcast

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  1. “Oh, thank you so much for having me. And I mean, look at you are really getting access to some wonderful people. I'm not including myself in that.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “We invested in a company called Rapify, W-R-A-P-I-F-Y. It's a play on a to disrupt outdoor advertising, which is just so stale and gross. It's a lot to bite off into, but if they can do it, it could be enormous. And it's one of those companies where I just really have no idea of what the future holds, but I'm excited about the potentials.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Our most recent investment, they have not made public yet, unfortunately, so I can't talk about it. But the most recent that we can talk about.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “By the way, you should know that my kids are on the letter. One of my kids has just finished the letter X, which is really exciting. I'm sure you're very interested. Other one learned some very fun songs. Those are my favorite newsletters.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “My favorite newsletter are my children's What We Did in School This Week Newsletters. I know that's not what you were looking for, but I'll tell you, I find that way more interesting than a lot of the nonsense about every single company that's up and coming.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “No, definitely not retired. I love what I do and I wake up every morning excited to do what I do. So I just hope and pray that in five years time I continue to be doing what I'm doing now, but potentially in a position to get more involved in philanthropic work. That would be my dream.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I get that question a lot. It's really interesting. It's not my job. Well, maybe it is, but I'm not good at it if it is to think of what the next industry is. I really want to find the founders who know what the next industry is and who can attack it at a really, really deep level. That's who I'm looking for. I'm looking for the founder who knows what the next industry is. It's not my strongest suit. It won't be me.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “It sounds scary Thief of always, it was like by Clive Barker. It is the first book I read from page one till the end, period. It was the only book I ever completed as a younger children. It was the first book I read as a young kid. I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I was young that I actually finished a real book”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Yeah, it's unusual. I mean, when you get as big as them and you're as successful as they are, most individuals of that stature become, it's a sad reality, but unfortunately, to be fair, it could be because they become very, very busy or they do other things. But it's hard to give altruistically, to really give and not expect anything in return is not easy. I mean, everyone struggles with that. These guys have mastered that craft. And I think that's one of the reasons why they're so successful.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “I cherish the time I get to spend with these people. I was in San Francisco yesterday and I was able to sit down with him for a few minutes. And there was something that I really was struggling with internally, like with raising this new fund. And I wanted his opinion on it. And it just provided a ton of clarity. I mean, I'm not pretending at all to know more than anybody else. I learn every single day from these people. And I feel very, very fortunate to say that.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Oh, yeah, I think that it is the most important factor of anything. I mean, again, I still have little idea of what I'm doing. This industry changes every single second, and if you surround yourself with smart people, it's certainly to your benefit. Again, I know that you had Jason on a few weeks”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “I think, I don't know, you can ask him next week, but the truth The truth is, I didn't need capital from him, which probably put me in a separate scenario immediately, a separate category immediately. But I very generally wanted to learn from him. It wasn't very complicated. This is many years ago. And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing, but I have access to capital. And you are the best at what you do. I want to learn. And again, it doesn't happen overnight. You have to really build a relationship and you have to build trust. I just feel very, very fortunate that people like Brad and Eric have given me a chance and have taught me so many, so many things.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “So I basically researched what a restraining order is and then tried with all of my power to move right up into that point but not pass that line. Brad specifically so you know here's an individual who I can virtually offer nothing to. I mean, he's at the top of the VC game for sure. He's prolific in his writing. He's networked. He could get anybody on the phone he wants to. I literally can offer him nothing, especially professionally, like zero. And this individual has been so giving and wonderful, a strong mentor of mine. He is a really, very, very special person. And it's a big inspiration too, and it's a good lesson.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Yeah, I mean, whether or not the companies are interested in implementing any of it is up to them, but we really do love to dive into product. At any given time, we're testing tons of products. In fact, a lot of our diligence process is really playing with a product and seeing how it feels and what we would potentially do differently and then seeing how the founders respond to that feedback as well.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “No, but I would say that his craftsmanship of telling a story is Because it needs to be mine. But that's a very, very powerful ability. And for a founder to be able to sell internally and externally, that's really, really special.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Passionate enthusiasm goes a long way in the obvious sector. It's a combination of both of those, clearly. But again, it's like, you know, my litmus test is basically like if you have a founder and he or she is speaking in front of hundreds and hundreds or thousands of people, do people stand up and cheer? And are they just pumped and go and tell everybody they know about that speech and what that product is? If that's, you know, if that's the reality, then that's someone that we're interested in talking to.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Yeah, so we just optimized 100% on founders. I mean, there's certain things we don't do. So we don't do life sciences. We don't generally do any medical devices or things of that nature. But we cast a very broad net. And whether it's consumer or enterprise or hardware or software, it doesn't matter to us. All that matters is that the people we're investing in are stellar. I mean, like, I guess that's not even a great adjective. Beyond that, they have to be people who can communicate their ideas to the public, to their teams, who can really articulate the vision to themselves, really, and they can rally a troop of people and supporters around them. And those are really special people. And if we can identify and find those individuals, then we're excited to invest in that person, regardless of what they're building.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “I love attending, but more for just meeting people and connecting with people and trying to help our current companies. In terms of investing, once a company's in an accelerator, it depends on which accelerator, but if you take like a YC, for example, it's generally too, you know, we've kind of missed our premier opportunity to invest in the company. Our goal is to find the companies before they get into these accelerators and kind of ride the momentum once they're in them.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Are expensive, especially to hire a production team like Adams, because they're so good and they're very in demand. So a lot of these companies can't afford a video right away. But they deserve one because they're really, really good and we're excited about these companies as well. So the deal we struck is that we pay for the company's video so they don't have to go out of pocket. And in exchange, Adam and Ludlow take equity in the company. So it allows us to see deals many months, if not a year before other outfits. And it gives the company an asset to launch with that is really beneficial to them as well. So that's been interesting. We have another thing in the similar creative fashion that we'll be launching in the next four to six weeks. I can't really talk about right now. But again, it's a high level. It's a platform to help launch companies through media.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “So, just an example we're all product people, so we really love to design and help move product forward. But also, we're trying to find new and meaningful ways to help promote the companies we invest in. One example would be we launched this thing called Sandwich Fund, where Adam Lissiger, who is a creative genius in LA. He runs sandwich video. They've made videos to help launch enormous tech companies when they were much smaller. And the asset they produced, this video, is very, very significant and meaningful to these companies. It helps drive lots of revenue at a launch or lots of signups or whatever the metric these founders are optimizing for. We launched this fund with Adam, which is really a carve-out of our current fund. And video...”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Yeah, it's really works well. And to both of our advantages, I think the better question would probably be, how do we differentiate ourselves from all the other seed funds? And there's a lot now. Yeah, so at the end of the day, it all comes down to the best seed funds are going to be the ones who can attract the best founders. When a really strong founder or company is raising money, they do not have trouble at all. So it really becomes like, who do they want to work with? And so for us, we have to surface these deals before anyone else. And again, we're in Detroit, Michigan, and the great majority of our companies are Bay Area, New York, LA. So how do we do that from Detroit? We've found that we've had to get really, really creative and do interesting and unique things to show these founders that we're going to bring something interesting to the table, something different than they're used to, a different type of relationship, and a different type of value add. And we can dive more into that if you have any interest.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “So we don't compete against Andreasen and Sequoia. They're more upstream. In fact, we have a great relationship with a lot of the big firms. Generally what happens is we're coming in early on a seed round. And if you take a larger firm, they're either coming in later on a seed round or Series A, Series B. So the way that the relationship works now is we promote a lot of our companies to them that are doing really, really well so they can get first look at them. And they give us access to a lot of their companies that they're impressed with but are a little too early for them. So it's a really great ecosystem. So it's a great fun.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “I think our sweet spot is really still with high net worth individuals and family offices. Again, our relationship with RLPs is very similar to our relationship with the founders we invest in. We want to build really strong, meaningful friendships with all these people. It's hard to do that on the institutional level. And vice versa, I also think we're also still a relatively small fund. And for an institution, we're probably not the best fit.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “It's a great question. I would prefer if I didn't have to fundraise, as would anybody, I imagine. But it really, the benefits of fundraising are more than just getting capital for your fund. You're building a network and you're building friendships with people throughout the entire process. There are lots and lots of individuals who I'm now close with who I would have had no relationship with if I had not have the need to fundraise. I think this actually becomes an advantage.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Well, there's still a number of operating companies from the very first allotment of capital, and they're doing very, very well. We've had a number of exits from that capital too. But that allowed us to create a track record of sorts and build out a network and really push our brand forward a little bit. And then we raised the proper fund in 2013. That was close to $16 million. And then we're actually on the road quite shortly to raise our next fund, which we're hoping to be a little bit larger than that.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “So we put about a million dollars to use in 2009. That was kind of like our figure out what on earth it means to be a VC. And through the greatest gift beyond our expectations, because it is not because we were sophisticated or knew what we were doing, we were able to actually turn a profit on that money. And that was, again, very fortunate.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “And accordingly. So when we talk to new founders now and when we invest in companies, we're very, very cognitive of the fact that our job only exists because of them. And that switch in perspective, I think, is a big differentiator. It allows us to become very, very close with the people we invest in. There's not a lot of ego involved. And then through that, it breeds this very fine level of transparency that is helpful to both us and the company.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “When we first started, there's always been this notion amongst a number of VCs. Certainly not, although there are a lot of fantastic VCs, and I've had the great pleasure of being coached and mentored by many of them. But there was this common feeling amongst entrepreneurs that VCs were bullies. And VCs would start negotiating with entrepreneurs and they would back them into a corner and they would just, there was this, again, this mentality that money kind of was the lead and it was like this top-down mentality. And it never started a relationship off on the right foot between founder and VC. So when we started, we said, like, this is backwards. The entrepreneurs are the ones who are doing the work that enables us to do our work. And so I wanted to treat founders similarly.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “So I unfortunately passed on some really fantastic opportunities with emails like, okay, great, sounds good, good luck. And that was a good lesson to learn. And I really hope that in five, six years from now, too, I look back at this conversation and also cringe and say, God, you're such an idiot. And hopefully that means I'm learning still.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “I mean, you know, I would talk to a specific company, this is a good example. Today we're all about hustle. That word is overused, but we really, really, really, if we're excited about a company, we will do whatever it takes to get involved in that company. And back then, you know, I would reach out to a company and they'd say, sorry, I think our round is full and I'd reply, oh, thank you so much for your time, appreciate it. Good luck. Today, sorry, our round is full. I fly to wherever that company is and bang on their door until they let me in.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “The beginning was learn. I didn't have a strategy. I had zero strategy. I made a billion mistakes. I mean, I continued to make mistakes, and I hopefully continue to learn forever. If I look back, this was in 2008, 2009, if I look back at some of the things that I did, then I cringe with embarrassment.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “I know, right? So strike three. So previously in my previous life, I was a designer. And I loved making and working on interfaces for technology products. I did that for a number of years and really loved it. But there came a time where design was becoming a much more common industry for people to dive into and a lot of the people getting involved in the design community were way better than I was. The writing was on the wall. Like if you want to continue to make a paycheck, you're going to have to find something else to do. But I loved working with all these companies and I didn't want to give that up. So I was fortunate enough to have a little bit of capital to start. And I figured the best way to continue working with these companies was to start investing in them. And I feel very fortunate to have had that opportunity. It's been a blast.”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Sure. My spur is actually a little bit strange compared to most VCs, I imagine. I did not come from a prestigious B school. I did not come from a previous company that exited for hundreds of millions of dollars. I was actually...”

    2015-07-20 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 055: VC Done Right with Jonathon Triest @ Ludlow Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source