YouSaid · the spoken record

Michael Maher

lines on the record: 25
first: 2017-07-26
most recent: 2017-07-26
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

“Equid grew its revenue while better serving customers with WePay. That's wepay.com forward slash Harry. You'll also be made eligible for a year of free premium support on wepay.com forward slash Harry. And how could we forget PipeDrive? Something we use here every day at the 20-minute VC to manage the pipeline for guests. PipeDrive is the sales CRM and Pipeline Management Software to use with the primary view being the pipeline, a clear visual interface that prompts you to take action, remain organized and stay in control of a complex sales process. This is why sales pros and deal makers love it. My words, not pipe drives, but it easily lets you find the stats you need and even better it's fully customizable and if you're like me and don't like paying for products up front without knowing how good they are this is for you as you can sign up for free on PipeDrive.com it really is a must as always I so appreciate all your support and I cannot wait to bring you Friday's episode”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Huge hand to Michael for giving up his time again to be on the show today. Such a pleasure to have him on and hear the exciting journey ahead for Liquid 2, and if you'd like to follow me on Snapchat and see behind the scenes at the 20-minute VC, then you can follow me on at H. Stebbings with 2Bs. It would be fantastic to see you there. But before we leave you today, I want to tell you about WePay. WePay helps online platforms increase revenue through integrated payments processing, constant contact, Equid and GoFundMe use WePay. Why? Because WePay uniquely helps platforms offer ROI positive integrated payments to their users. Within their UX and without taking on fraud and regulatory exposure, others make you trade off between UX friction or fraud, not WePay. WePay also offers a war-winning support and can even work with your team through Slack or Zendesk. Get the payments revenue you want without getting bogged down every time a user has a payments question. But don't trust me, visit wepay.com forward slash Harry. Oh yes, I have my own URL for a video case study on how”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. But Michael, as I said, I heard so many great things from IRIS, from MZ, from Captain 401k, so I cannot thank you enough for joining me today. And it was so great to hear more about Liquid too.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I'd love to finish today with a quick firearound. So I say a short statement and then you give me your immediate thoughts in 60 seconds or less. How does that sound? So let's start with your favorite book and why? What should I add to my reading list?”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, absolutely. Peter Fanton told me that you have to have a founder that's so smart that he makes you feel uncomfortable. I often feel, to be honest.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I know I absolutely agree. I'm very also pleased that you said about commonalities within founder trace because I have Sean Rad at Tinder on the show recently and he said that he always looks for founders to have a sense of a chip on their shoulder when kind of evaluating opportunities. I'm intrigued would you agree with this? And from seeing so many founders pass through the funnel now, what are the common character traits amongst the best founders that you've worked with and invested in”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now do you look to scale the learning curve on kind of radically new industries so quickly when making such kind of fast decision made deep tech investments?”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And speaking of good fits for funds, I'm intrigued and the team at Iris Automation ask how do you think about deep tech investing, especially with the kind of traditionally longer exit environments given the kind of high-tech proprietary development cycles that are required for the exits to take place and kind of applications to take place? How do you think about that within the traditional 10-year venture fund cycle?”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“saying about high quality companies and not projecting my own views, I hear from a lot of people that with the scaling of YC, the quality of the companies has reduced significantly. I'm intrigued to hear your thoughts on this.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But we spoke about differentiation earlier in the show. One area where you seem to be specialists is in terms of selecting YC companies. Let's start with this. Assess the landscape.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You sit there about being the advisor. I'm always stuck in the dichotomy of can a founder be your friend as well as your portfolio company.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Incredibly modest of you there in terms of don't expect much from us because I've seen many of your entrepreneurs who say you are exceptional. But I'm intrigued to ask then, what's your thesis on board seats and taking board seats at seed and when's the right time to construct the board?”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I often hear from VCs that one of the hard elements of value provision, it comes whether you provide it pre-investment or post investment and leaving enough post after you've given so much pre to get the deal done. How do you think about pre-investment value and post-investment value and kind of getting enough but also retaining enough to be a worthy candidate following on?”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Mentioned there about kind of the desire to increase allocation on the LP behalf. I'm intrigued. Do you have the desire to increase the size of the fund and really scale this up as the next enduring fund, or do you want to be the micro VC fund?”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You said about kind of the special partnership that you have there and the different backgrounds. I'm intrigued. What impact did having Joe on the team do for your fundraise and communication with LPs?”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, no, absolutely. I'm intrigued. You said you stay out of seed extensions there. I had Mike Maples on the show recently, and he said that all bridges lead to nowhere and they're more like piers. Is that something that you would agree with in general, having observed so many companies come out of what I see, having started your own company and now investing with Liquid 2?”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ways because most of the times people tend to work together because they all are very similar, which I think is great because it just makes sometimes decision making easier because they all have the same views on things. With us, it's very different. And honestly, I think it made it easier for us to fundraise to have a GP quality team that's really high and very differentiated. You said about decision making there. How do you guys make decisions at Liquid 2? And what have you found to be the optimal decision making structure? Is it the unanimous? Is it the conviction driven? And how does this change with follow-on funding? So it's a majority vote plus everybody gets a silver bullet. So internally, nobody, like I think one issue you often find VCs is everybody feels like they have to sell the deal. There's not that in this case. And like we've said that before it's like, hey, if you feel strong about this, just use your silver bullet. There's no need to feel like you have to sell. You have to convince others. And I think that's good.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They hide it so well. But you mentioned your generalist status there with liquid too. So I want to start then with that. And you said before that it was very different raising liquid two versus micro VC raising today. What are the key differences do you think? I think there's a couple. I would start off by saying that everybody has to say that. So keep in mind I have to say nobody's going to come and say, I would just like every other Micro BC. I do think when I work, and I think it becomes obvious when you see us all working together, we are unique fun. I mean, a lot of credit goes to Joe Montana, our managing partner. He really could have done this himself and you see a lot of celebrity types should do that themselves. And he said, no, let's put together a team that is differentiated. So we have a PhD in physicist who worked at CERN, started one of the first databases of service companies talking about my other partner, Mike Miller, Harvard MBA, myself, who said, Google and a Super Bowl champion all-on-one fun. And that to me is unique because we can offer value in very differentiated.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To all those end you agree with specialization being a key differentiator? I do think it's a differentiator. And keep in mind where generalist fun are going to feel like I contradict myself sometimes. I do think it's one way that Maccavisis are used to solve that. I have a mess respect for like there's a whole bunch of Seth Bannon's 50 years. It's presence capital who just done a great job of that. But I usually push back against people, especially LPs when they ask about it. It's like, look, what are the best funds of all time? Benchmark lowercase. They're all generalist funds. And I say, look, no matter what somebody pitches you about being a specialist fund, if it comes down to it, and let's say there's a great founder that they've known for a while. Is that fund going to back that founder, not even if it's outside of their sort of sweet spot? And if they do, I'm like, well, that just means you're a gentle fund is just what percentage of a generalist fund, right? So I was like, we might as well be up front and just be like, let's just be a generalist fund. Listen, I completely agree with you. I think strategy drift is so common.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I want to start today on the micro VC market more broadly speaking so many are suggesting and many have told me on the show that there's simply too much cash chasing too few deals. I'm intrigued to what extent do you believe and agree with this to having really operated in the market for a while now? I agree in general. Like Silicon Valley Bank keeps sending out this list of Michael Mecs and they just keep seeing it growing more and more. And the truth is the amount of companies, it's growing, but it's not growing to the extent where the funds are growing at. It's still a great asset class micro res in particular venture, but there's just a lot of people chasing the same deals, especially out here. So I do think that that is the case. Whenever I talk to LPs, I'm like, look, this is what I enjoy doing. I'm passionate about. I'm going to keep doing it. It's up to you to decide how much allocation you really want. And my could be seen. I'm up front about that. Might be an issue. No, I'm interested though, because we've seen specialization emerge as a differentiator amongst the plethora of microV.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ended up working out, end up going to Yale and then Harvard Business School. My sister went to Duke and Harvard Law. So that's really where I got my start. What made your way into tech, though? Harvard Business School often leads to Morgan Sanley and Goldman Sachs. You seem to see the light. The great thing is that, you know, I actually owe it to the financial crisis 2009. So I was economics at Yale. Couldn't get a job in finance. I remember being devastated when, you know, Goldman turned me down. All those companies, you know, the big investment banking firms turned me down, but I actually ended up turned out better for me because I ended up going down the startup route because my first job out of college wasn't in finance. It was in retail strategy during the turnaround situation at Sears Holding Company. And that's where I met my co-founder, Caster Eunice, Sonny Dillon. And both those guys basically started talking with me. And that's what really led to success I've had at the time talking was the fastest exit YC had ever had. Unbelievable. But I do want to start today. And before we dive into all things Liquid 2,”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Michael, such a pleasure to have you on the show today. Huge thanks to MZ At Kleiner for the intro, but thank you so much for joining me today, Michael. Thank you for having me. I mean, the quality of your guests are insanely impressive, so I'm honored that you would put me in the same category. Well, I think it's a terrible, nerdy British accent that does it. But I'd love to get started today by discussing your start in the world of tech and how, with parents starting as immigrants with $300 to you selling your company to Google as a YC alum, how did you make your way in? So I always like to start a little bit earlier than most people when I talk about my career because I just owe my parents so much. It's just even beyond the start of my dad and mom coming to US with only $300 when growing up, they wanted the best educational opportunities. They're very Asian parents. They wanted my sister and I had a great educational opportunities, couldn't afford private school. So my parents actually rented a small apartment in Beverly Hills. Dad worked in Hong Kong because his English wasn't great to support the family. And my mom slept on a sofa bed for four years.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We use here every day at the 20 minute VEC to manage the pipeline for guests. Pipe Drive is the sales CRM and Pipeline Management Software to use with the primary view being the pipeline, a clear visual interface that prompts you to take action, remain organized and stay in control of a complex sales process. This is why sales pros and deal makers love it. My words, not pipe drives, but it easily lets you find the stats you need and even better it's fully customizable. And if you're like me and don't like paying for products upfront without knowing how good they are, this is for you as you can sign up for free on pipedrive.com it really is a must. But enough from me and I'm now thrilled to hand over the mic to Michael Maher, founding partner at Liquid2 Ventures.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Without which this episode would not have been possible. But before we dive into the show today, I want to tell you about WePay. WePay helps online platforms increase revenue through integrated payments processing, constant contact, Equid and GoFundMe use WePay. Why? Because WePay uniquely helps platforms offer ROI positive integrated payments to their users. Within their UX and without taking on fraud and regulatory exposure, others make you trade off between UX friction or fraud, not WePay. WePay also offers award-winning support and can even work with your team through Slack or Zendesk. Get the payments revenue you want without getting bogged down every time a user has a payments question. But don't trust me, visit wepay.com forward slash Harry. Oh yes, I have my own URL for a video case study on how Equid grew its revenue while better serving customers with WePay. That's wepay.com forward slash Harry. You'll also be made eligible for a year of free premium support on we pay dot com forward slash Harry. And how could we forget Pipe Drive?”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is the 20 minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings at H. Stebbings with two Bs on Snapchat and I'd love for you to join me there where if you add me to date you might even see a holiday snap or two. It'd be great to see you there. But to the show today and as you know we have guests that range from billion dollar growth funds to benchmarks of the world to the youngest and most exciting seed funds. And today's guest sits in the latter camp. So I'm thrilled to welcome Michael Maher, founding partner at Liquid Two Ventures to the hot seat today. Liquid2 is one of San Francisco's younger and most exciting seed funds. Not sure if I'm allowed to say that, but let's go with it. Also unique in having Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana as another founding partner. Their portfolio includes the likes of previous guest work ramp, nerd wallet and fan jewel just to name a few. Prior to Liquid 2, Michael was the co-founder of TalkBin, a YC alum that later sold to Google, and he was also an investment team partner at first rounds dormroom fund. I do also want to say a huge thank you to previous guest, MZ at Kleiner Perkins, for the intro to Michael Stay.”
2017-07-26 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why YC Is The Exact Opposite of Proprietary Deal Flow, Why Having No Follow On Dramatically Aligns Incentives & Why Founders Do Not Have To Be Passionate About Their Idea From The Start with Michael Ma, Founding Partner @ Liquid 2 Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source