YouSaid · the spoken record

Ophelia Brown

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59
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2023-03-17
most recent
2023-03-17
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1
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podcast

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  1. “I love Mickey. Mickey's one of the people that I respect the most. The one thing that really resonated or I took away from was that he told you you have to really follow your own judgment and believe in you and do things your way. I think that serves a lot. In the beginning, when you're starting something, you're so unsure of what's right, what's wrong, or whether you do it one way or whether you build for one LP, etc. But he was very fixed. You just do it like that. And my big thing was whether I started as a single GP and obviously Mickey is a single GP. His piece of advice I couldn't quite follow which hats off to any one adventure if they achieve this to a one and done close as a first-time fund.”

    2023-03-17 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Growth Investors Ruined the Venture Market, Why Marketing in Venture Has No Substance, Why Follow-On Investing Can Damage Returns and The Mistakes VCs Made in the Last 18 Months with Ophelia Brown, Founder @ Blossom Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “The hard guys in Valga going, but the deeply philosophical ones. So I actually did study a lot of philosophy when I was at university. It was part of my undergraduate degree. And I say that because it teaches you enough to know that from what you're running from or everything about your life is basically trying to escape from the very reality of mortality, that life is finite. So that's why we busy ourselves. That's why we seek enjoyment in things is because if you were paralyzed with nothing to do, you wouldn't end up worrying about that.”

    2023-03-17 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Growth Investors Ruined the Venture Market, Why Marketing in Venture Has No Substance, Why Follow-On Investing Can Damage Returns and The Mistakes VCs Made in the Last 18 Months with Ophelia Brown, Founder @ Blossom Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “I get it from a founder's point of view. I've got better things to focus on, but you and I know this from fundraising ourselves. There is so much to be said for the relationship that you built. I don't know how people would decide on NBC that they want to work with within, you know, 48 hours or a week. You want to know how that person's going to be able to support you, how they're going to work with you, challenge you, open doors. And so I try and explain that to a founder whose heads down is, okay, I would like 30 minutes of your time. I'm not going to come with.”

    2023-03-17 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Growth Investors Ruined the Venture Market, Why Marketing in Venture Has No Substance, Why Follow-On Investing Can Damage Returns and The Mistakes VCs Made in the Last 18 Months with Ophelia Brown, Founder @ Blossom Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “I think it's a balancing act, actually. I don't love moving super fast. I think that actually becomes a perpetuating myth in the marketplace. I blossom signed a term sheet within 48 hours. But actually, from first meeting to 48 hours, that's not a reality. So I did the analysis now. We're a few years in. I think we normally know founders for six to eight months pre-investment because I love to get to know them how they work, how they execute, how they hire. The investment thesis and decision, whether or not to invest is actually made pretty early. And then there's a period of time. I'm not a founders like I'm heads down, especially the ones who've got great seed in. Down, and I'm not”

    2023-03-17 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Growth Investors Ruined the Venture Market, Why Marketing in Venture Has No Substance, Why Follow-On Investing Can Damage Returns and The Mistakes VCs Made in the Last 18 Months with Ophelia Brown, Founder @ Blossom Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “I think about this a lot, and I think during a meeting, if there was like a radar, I'm in, I'm out, I'm in, I'm out. I'm constantly trying to test myself. Okay, I've fallen in love within the first five minutes, but is this love real? Are they just too much of a salesperson? Am I caught up in the pitch? Or should I be more cynical here? And the constant questions of going through my mind, I hate pitches, right? Whenever I meet with a founder, I'm always telling me your journey and I want to understand why you're doing this and what your ambition is and what your drive is. I think I come with a lot of questions because I'm just trying to understand. I would say within the first meeting, I come out with a decision of go, no, go.”

    2023-03-17 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Growth Investors Ruined the Venture Market, Why Marketing in Venture Has No Substance, Why Follow-On Investing Can Damage Returns and The Mistakes VCs Made in the Last 18 Months with Ophelia Brown, Founder @ Blossom Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “When I want something to happen, I just focus on making that thing happening. And so when it comes to working with an entrepreneur or wanting to support them or partnering with them, it's just relentless focus on achieving that. Bluntly, I don't think I hear the word no. And I think probably the passion and the commitment and the dedication that comes across, I think it's real, it's genuine.”

    2023-03-17 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Growth Investors Ruined the Venture Market, Why Marketing in Venture Has No Substance, Why Follow-On Investing Can Damage Returns and The Mistakes VCs Made in the Last 18 Months with Ophelia Brown, Founder @ Blossom Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Fell in love with the investing side. I just loved enabling entrepreneurs working with them. And I realized I was much better suited to VAT than building a company. But the passion to start something never really left. And that's why I say Blossom was shorter than the making and that I returned to being an entrepreneur and decided to raise my own funds.”

    2023-03-17 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Growth Investors Ruined the Venture Market, Why Marketing in Venture Has No Substance, Why Follow-On Investing Can Damage Returns and The Mistakes VCs Made in the Last 18 Months with Ophelia Brown, Founder @ Blossom Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “I always hear that blossom is long in the making and short in the making. Long in the making in that, I think I always knew that I wanted to have my own company or build my own thing. My parents taught me in the early days of paying your own way. And I started with a side hustle trying to wash car windows near our house before my mum put a stop to that. And then the big idea when I was a teenager was that I wanted to be a restaurant owning DJ. Again, my parents put a stop to that. When after university, and when I started my MBA, I thought that was finally my journey into being an entrepreneur. And then I realized I had this pattern of bad ideas. And the latest one that I was working on was a peer-to-peer car sharing startup, like Zip Car Without the Assets. I was beaten to Margaret and I thought, okay, we've got to stop this. And I started thinking about venture, thinking, okay, if I'm going to build something, I may as I'll learn the investment side and hopefully come up with a much better idea next time. I was very fortunate to get a job at Index in the London office.”

    2023-03-17 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Growth Investors Ruined the Venture Market, Why Marketing in Venture Has No Substance, Why Follow-On Investing Can Damage Returns and The Mistakes VCs Made in the Last 18 Months with Ophelia Brown, Founder @ Blossom Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “I think actually the follow on can really damage fund returns. You should buy your ownership at the lowest possible cost. And then especially in the growth market that we've been on where the follow-on is done at 4 or 5x. So your initial cost was 5 or 10 million and you were spending an additional five or more in pro rata, but a much higher valuation, then your blended average suddenly looks a lot worse than having just bought your ownership at a lower cost.”

    2023-03-17 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC: Why Growth Investors Ruined the Venture Market, Why Marketing in Venture Has No Substance, Why Follow-On Investing Can Damage Returns and The Mistakes VCs Made in the Last 18 Months with Ophelia Brown, Founder @ Blossom Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source