YouSaid · the spoken record

Kathleen Utecht

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27
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2017-09-13
most recent
2017-09-13
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1
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  1. “Yeah, so we do a lot of small pre-CD product checks. So we've done a bunch of those. But the last big one was in a company that's helping to shepherd people into the right health insurance plan. The team is just absolutely amazing, inspiring. I love working with all of them. The market's changing. People looked and they're like, you're crazy. The ACA is going to go through so many changes and they still haven't figured out what's going through it. And I think whenever there's like a lot of chaos and confusion, there's when you have smart people that can build good products, they can really help people understand that market. And I think gain even a greater market share than what they have already. So super excited about that one. And of course, making a big impact by getting people into the right health insurance plans that they need.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Yeah, obviously what I talked about before people investing in and running companies that matter. And then I think just more respect, I think all the time in this world you see a lack of respect for people, for each other. And I think it's very important to realize to be grateful and help other people and realize that sometimes we're going to be on top, sometimes we're not. And so you should help other people.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “So, they scare me. I think there's going to be some really great ones, but I think people are going to lose a ton of money in just everyday people. Whenever there's so much money going around and people think they can make a quick buck and there's a lot of greed involved, you know, you see all sorts of people coming in and some ICOs are going to be real and some aren't. And there's a lot of people that aren't going to know the difference. And so I'm worried about just regular people losing money. And if you look at our own asset class, right, VCs that are doing this as full-time jobs, there's a lot of us that aren't even successful. There's a bunch of people that can't even make market returns. So having an individual retail investor invest in something that they know nothing about, it just screams of trouble.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Yeah, if you want to do it, just do it all the time people explain, like, they're asking me, How do I get into this? I mean, look at you. You got obsessed. You did a podcast. You did it. Like, we work with the sky Rompton Naame, which is great. And he's awesome. And he did the same thing. He wanted to do deals. He started doing deals. He started like creating SPBs. Like, there's no, you have to become a consultant and then a banker and then try to fake being at a startup. So then you can be an investor. If you want to do it, do it.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Ah, well, my favorite book is The Westing game. It's really a kid's book, so you can do it in like a 30 minute flight. Read it twice, and it's one of my favorite books from when I was a child because it doesn't make you see the same things differently when you just have more info. Keep sit into like perspective matters. I think on a longer flight, if you're coming across the pond Atlas shrugged.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “And so those people we won't fund, and we really have to like and respect people. I think it's, you know, you always have to remember sometimes you're on top, sometimes you have hard times, and a lot of this is just good fortune and good timing for why people, like whether it's entrepreneurs or investors are successful, unless like multiple time after time after time, you're consistently doing well, you do have to realize it's a lot of timing and good fortune. And so having this shared set of values of, like I said, fun, kind, humble, that's important to us. And again, we might, this might mean that we're going to miss something. And that's okay because I just want to work with people that I love.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Yeah, so I don't want to invest in people like me for numerous reasons, but I do want to invest in people that I like. And so, and I think that's really important because there's a lot of people that can make us a lot of money and life is short. And so working with those that we like matter a lot. And, you know, I think it's a great question. We question bias all the time. I like many different people that are very different from me. And if you look at our whole team at core, it's diverse in numerous ways, whether it's gender, race, religion. We all have complementary skill sets. I mean, I think what's the tie that binds is our shared values, right? We're fun, we're kind, we're humble. You know, we're all a bunch of misfits. We always say we love, you know, investing in other people that are misfits. So, you know, they don't have to, you know, look like me or sound like me, but it has to be someone that we share values. And there is going to be these values of respect. We have a zero tolerance policy for arrogance or bullying or anything of this.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Doing the Delgence process right, all VCs do due diligence on these deals, you ask the VC to do something, ask them for a connection, ask them for their opinion about something, email them at 10 p.m. or 6 a.m. Make sure they respond within 24 hours. Like if they're like you or me, right, Harry will be responding within 10 minutes. But, you know, there are board meetings, you know, when you're sitting in a four-hour board meeting, if you're actually a good board member, you shouldn't be checking your email so you can't respond. There's other things that happen, but definitely within 24 hours, they should respond to you and especially if they're trying to court you and get into your deal. And they should be able to provide the contact or whatever you need, maybe within 48, right? Obviously, I've always advocated for double opt-in intros. If your investors worth anything, it should be able to get you to the right person, and that person should have enough respect for them to either say, yeah, it's a fair or no, it's not. And so you should have that connection within 48 hours. Super easy to test. And like, if they're not going to pay attention to you, like in the process when they're”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “That we're backing, they're working, they're pouring their hearts and souls, they're putting all their energies, a lot of their financial potential into 10 years in one thing. And so how you cannot be there at 2 a.m. when they're having an incident or, you know, to celebrate successes, to call them when they're about to jump off a ledge because something happened and can walk them through whatever is going on, you have to be there. I think if you're going to be any type of investor, that's any good. You should be there and be there for your entrepreneur. So I think that's why I say it's a lifestyle. And I tell all these young people that are going to try to get into BC, like to realize that this is their life and that it's as important as their family and it should be their top priority.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Yes, this is something you don't punch in, punch out, right? This is a life. And I think if you're going to be a good investor while we have some early exits, arguably I've still only been doing this for so long. But the best investors that I know that watch for, that have been doing this for decades, right? They do. They care a lot. This isn't a job. This isn't like nine to five. They're not like, oh, I need to answer an email. Here's a call. Like this is what they do. They're best friends or other entrepreneurs or other VCs. They live and breathe this. And it's because they love it. It's their life. And it defines them. I don't think here being a VC there's much of a work-life balance. I think it all blends. My balance is just like a blend. And I look all the time. You go out to dinner and you're like, wait, is this a work meeting? Or are these just my best friends? And it's both. And I love that it can be both. And I think if you want to do this and do this well, you have to realize that because the entrepreneurs that”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Learned things that we definitely won't do again, things, characteristics, whether it's of a company, whether it's a team, we're constantly always trying to figure out better ways to get better at identifying who are the best leaders of certain types of teams and try to get a great lexicon for that. Because like right now, if you drink a good glass of wine, I can tell you I like it, but it's not like being a samier where they can say, oh, can you taste the cigars and the mushrooms? And we want to have those kind of words to describe how we think about teams and people. And so yeah, we spend a lot of time looking at that and doing postmortems when things go well and when they don't.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Yeah, we do. And unfortunately, we haven't lost that many companies, but it does happen. And we say if it doesn't, we're probably not taking enough risk. And there's some things that we want to invest in that they're clearly binary. There's other things that we know probably will have good outcomes. We always do postmurdoms, both in good exits and bad. There's a couple things. So one, why we're looking and involved in the company. We do something every Monday at our deal meeting called Better Tomorrow. And we talk about, you know, what could have we done or how can we be help? How can we be better tomorrow? And we do both on our portfolio company side and then on the diligence side. So we're always trying to constantly evolve and be better tomorrow. And it's, you know, we'd like to do that on a daily basis. But I don't know a weekly basis. We actually step back and look at where we fall in within portfolio companies and in the diligence process and write down lessons that we've learned. We do very substantial postmortems of what went wrong, what we could have done.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Yeah, so you can't hack regulations. We have a zero tolerance policy on that. You can hack all sorts of other areas of the business, right? And solutions. But the regulatory part, you can't. I think what we've seen, especially with some of the newer technologies where there's not regulation, starts to regulatory sandboxes. So you see the CFPB coming out with an advisory board that has actually a bunch of our portfolio companies and other great financial services companies in it to really decide what's best for people, you know, what should the CFP be doing, what kind of solution should they be having. And so you're seeing that the regulators are getting more involved in these businesses, you know, and again, the whole regulators are there to prevent bad actors, you know, but we also have to make sure that they don't impede the good actors. And so I think more often it's fine.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “The regulator that can say the regulator hey listen, this is what company X is doing, this is why it's good for people and they really like help bridge that understanding. It's a lot better when the investor can advocate than the entrepreneur trying to have to pitch something themselves, especially as these regulators are just trying to figure out what's bad and what's good. And again, all that can happen without a board seat, but you do have to know where the business is going and what's going on. So a meaningful voice is necessary.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Yeah, so I think you need to have a meaningful voice. I think you can do that without a board seat. Some people do. I mean, we usually take a board seat or an observer seat. I think it's very important that you have someone on there that's an investor that understands the headwinds and the tailwinds, what's coming around, that have the regular regulatory connections that can really get the entrepreneur in with the right people. And you have to understand from the regulator's point of view, because sometimes they get a lot of flack. They really need to understand what's being built. A lot of their whole job is just preventing bad actors. Unfortunately, there's a lot of bad actors out there, not maybe in our ecosystem, but there's all sorts of people that are setting up fraudulent things or trying to fleece consumers in small businesses and even large businesses, right? Fraud's a huge problem, specifically in fintech. And so the regulator is really just trying to protect the average person. And so it's up to have that bridge. And an entrepreneur is working on so many different issues. So they have an ambassador that has an ear.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “So, we think the good companies are having sector specific funds in, and the ones that are getting funded, like I think it's because the investors actually just don't understand what they're investing either and think they'll just be able to break some of the rules here, and that will prove to be untrue.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Yes, in most of what we at Cora think are good deals. There are fintech specific funds in them. Those entrepreneurs realize the benefits of having investors that understand the ecosystem and know the regulators and can help them with commercial contracts. We always joke that FinTech isn't just a Stanford problem, very hard to take two-year-old in a garage and try to solve a problem you really have to understand how the ecosystem works and how you fit into it. In FinTech, though, we do see some deals that get done that don't have these sector-specific people in it. And usually it's because they had went to the FinTech investors and they pass on it because there's some serious regulatory challenges that are going to prevent them, I think, from being successful, especially in these highly regulated industries like healthcare or financial services. You have to realize it's not the hotel industry. It's not the taxi lobby. Like the CFPB, the consumer finance production bureau, they'll shut you down. And so really understand to play within the roles. It matters here. And it's not like in other versions attached.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “I think it's a good question. So our fund will 10 plus 2, and you can see how in some of the things that we're funding that they're going to be take a full 10 years. And so we're very well aware when we're investing to invest in some of those companies in the beginning versus the end. But I do think that they can fit in. I mean, some of the healthcare and some of the drug stuff might be longer. We've seen education companies and we have some great exits in our portfolio that literally like that we've held for four or five years. So I think it is possible. And again, like if you bring tech solutions, there's a lot of ways, and this is why I think fintech got so hot. When you look at financial services, there's a lot that people hadn't even touched anything in financial services for a while. So you bring a little technology to it and there's a way to decrease costs, make processes more efficient like you could in almost any area and you can do it in a normal 10 years, but definitely a good question.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “No, we were there. And you're listening to the people they were watching, the debates on the TV that had been playing from the night before. And you saw how many people and, you know, a 30-year-old black male that's in a lower income situation. And he was all about Trump. And I think if you were in these new neighborhoods and like how he saw it, he's like, Trump's a hustler. I don't want this rich woman whose husband was already the president. And so you listen how they spoke about it. It wasn't like how we had thought about it. And so I think it's important for us to realize and kind of get out of our own bubble and realize what is going on in the world and try to help other people.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Yeah, I wish it was that easy. I don't think there is a person to blame. I think it's all of us that are enabling each other and enabling some of what's happened, right? And it's not just the whole Venture and startup ecosystem that had caused this, right? There's, I think, media has a lot to do with it. I think politicians have a lot to do with it. So I think.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Yeah, and so we'd love our thesis is right investing in empowering financial services. So we like the idea of empowering people. We don't want to be too paternalistic or hopefully paternalistic at all. But I encourage entrepreneurs and investors to really be spending their time on meaningful solutions to serious world challenges. So things in financial inclusion, healthcare, education. I mean, people don't need another app or distraction”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Yeah, it's a great read for any of your listeners that haven't read it. I think it's important with innovation to be aware of unintended consequences. And I think especially in the sort of ecosystem in general, we have to look at what we've done and how we might be accountable for this downgrade. So technology can be great, lots of great benefits. But when you look, we've given all these people these games and this instant gratification. And then we ask them to step back and contemplate major decisions. I think that's just a really hard thing to do right now. And I think you're seeing a whole society. As I said, it's on a downgrade. And I think one of the things we have to do is think of solutions of like, how do we get people to start thinking and being responsible and accountable for themselves and for others? So definitely an interesting question.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “It's a great question. I think starting broadly, especially looking at the world today, think asking what's happened to society and really where are we in the world. I think it's a great question to start with. The Atlantic had an awesome article about have smartphones destroyed a generation.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Yeah, yeah, I think probably most VCs, right, and entrepreneurs feel that way. So I did those see that I didn't want to go into a retail type of business and really like the financial services side. So my whole background ended up being financial services operations and investing. And, you know, that's like what most of our team at core is. So CORE is investing exclusively in empowering financial services for everyday Americans. And so, you know, ended up again financial services, G Capital was a mid-market banker and a financial institutions group and co-founded was the CEO of a company through that company, sold it to a private equity firm in 09, and then have been doing a venture ever since. And I'm sure we'll go into all the great things about venture. But given my background and my personality, it was just a perfect fit for me.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Nine months or different commercial finance rotations. I think I really saw that. I didn't want to go into retail, but I really loved the people I was working with, how smart people were, the kinds of problems they were solving. I think I also realized I didn't want to be in a big company, and I'm not a good employee. I'm really good at running things, but I'm really bad employee.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Probably. Hopefully not the last. But that cell skill set actually comes in handy. But my dad was a car dealer went a bunch of car dealerships in the northeast of the US. My mom was extremely creative, special education teacher. I stayed home with us and did yoga before yoga was ever cool and in vogue and taught yoga. So had a very business oriented father and a very creative mother. And then that's how you produce me. I really thought that I was going to go and be a car dealer. I think it's a great business. I grew up listening all about the business. So one of the reasons why I went to the undergrad I did, which is Baffson, which is known for entrepreneurship and a lot of kids with family businesses went there. So very self-selecting place. I had a great experience there. Dabbled in all sorts of businesses that I was starting and it was going to come out of school for a couple years and then go and be a car dealer. And then when I did my first job at GE Capital, I rotated every six.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Short answer is it seems inevitable given my mix of ADD, OCD curiosity and love of entrepreneurs. It can really be an entrepreneur and invest in them. But I think the background is always the most important. And one of the ways we start with every entrepreneur that walks into our door, we always ask them, you know, what's your background? Where did you grow up? Parents? What's the genesis of the idea? We do think entrepreneurs are a lot are doing things because of things that have happened and influenced them in their background. I'll start from the beginning and promise won't be too long. So I grew up in Connecticut outside New York City. My dad's a car dealer, hence by you're saying, how would I even think about being a car entrepreneur? And I was actually a car salesman. There's probably not many VCs that were used car salesmen.”

    2017-09-13 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why VC Is A Lifestyle Not A Job, Why You Must Do Post-mortems On Good and Bad Deals & Why Society Is On A Downgrade with Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner @ Core Innovation Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source