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Sean Seton-Rogers

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35
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2015-09-02
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2015-09-02
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  1. “Yes. So the most recent was actually a follow-on investment that we made into it's made.com and it's one of these companies where we've had the opportunity to work alongside the founders for a number of years. And we really think they're building towards the next unicorn. Oh, I used the U-term. Damn it. Sorry, I shouldn't swear either. But it's a fantastic company. And we passionately believe that when you've had the opportunity to work with founders for a number of years and they're doing great things, you invest as much as you can into their businesses. So we continue to support them.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Oh, yes. So definitely. So Benedict Evans. He's a Brit that just moved over the West Coast at Andreessen Horowitz, and he talks about kind of the structural market and what's taking place from an analyst perspective. And his Monday morning newsletter, Sunday night newsletter on the West Coast is spectacular. It is my must-read every week. Ben Evans, Benedict Evans.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Successful VC. So from the Old Guard, Mike Mortz at Sequoia on the West Coast, and he's actually, most people wouldn't know this, but he is a Welsh journalist before he moves to the West Coast and became the most successful investor probably in history. Google and others among his investments. Of the new generation, there's a guy Chris Saka in New York. He's invested in, gosh, Twitter and seed investor into Uber and other things. And he's Just Google Image him. He's a really cool guy.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “The ability to search efficiently, to respond efficiently, the depth of the keyboard shortcut, I feel like I'm twice as productive as I was in the old Microsoft product.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Yep, so two for me. One is Evernote. I use it to kind of catalog every business interaction meeting that I have, eminently searchable. And the other is a more recent one. Most startup companies will have done this years ago, but I switched over from Exchange and Outlook to Google Apps, Google Mail. And it has been absolutely fantastic. So absolutely loving it. It's been good.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Yes, two. So fiction book, Neil Stevenson is my favorite author, and his book Cryptonomicon, I'd really recommend. From a professional perspective, there's a great book by Robert Chaldini called Influence Psychology of Persuasion. And it's a fantastic book about why the human body's condition to do certain things and how you can influence others to do things. So it's not hypnosis, but just a fascinating intellectual read into why we all respond in the way we do.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “It's probably can't be spoken on a podcast or ever printed, but it's a very good time. Very good time. Time was had by all. From a career perspective, I think definitely being involved with being party to great companies with good outcomes is what it's about. So whether it's something like Bebo that was sold AOL or others, it's not the ability to work alongside those great entrepreneurs.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Career highlight in a fun manner was going to one of the very early Sean Parker crazy parties just after he had exited Facebook and kind of mixing with the intelligentsia of the West Coast, which is in a crazy environment. So that was a fun environment. I think from a professional perspective for me, it's not only.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “I definitely noticed that the quality of the companies is going up on these crowdfunding platforms. I'm not sure if deals are being lost to the crowdfunding platform, but definitely there are some very good companies raising money on these platforms.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “That is 100 excerpt. And so for us, a 3x, and you never sniff at that. You won't turn it down, but it's not what drives the bulk of a venture capital funds return”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “A lot of about renewed, I think, continued belief. Now, actually, I think none of us actually know what the size of the exit was, so I can't really comment on whether that was good or bad. For investors, Reacts okay, good to learn. So, yeah, so that's not bad. Now, what I don't know is how people are diversifying and if a 3x is an”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “The legal documents are very light compared to what venture capital investors will get. And it does potentially leave itself open for abuse. We haven't had any stories on that. But actually, what I worry about is not someone loses their money, but let's say the next Facebook comes through one of these platforms and through some quirk or some twist, the investors aren't fairly rewarded for it. I think that's actually where the bigger stink will come and the bigger hullabaloo if there's been any sort of shenanigans around a fantastic billion dollar plus type exit. And then what I fear is that the regulation will swing too much in the other direction and it will close off what is a fantastic source of capital for founders and a fantastic source of access to a different investing asset class for the average punter. So I think we just have to”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “You know, what's right now the regulation is very light on this. Actually, I made my first crowdfunding investment and I looked at some of the legal documents. As an investor, it was a brewery, actually, so not profound as related at all. Not that one, a different one, signature brewery. In East London, try their beer. It's fantastic.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “And others are saying, you know what, actually, I do see the benefit that a venture investor could bring. And so we're still thinking through what it means, but the crowdfunding keeps me up at night, if you will. That's the one thing I think a lot about because I think it's great for entrepreneurs. It can be fantastic. And listen, it's forcing us to up our game a little bit as investors as well. We really have to improve our value now.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “So the way I think about it is the benefits to entrepreneurs, and I'm not going to talk about it from my perspective, but from an entrepreneur perspective, they can skip all the annoying meetings with VCs and the thousands of questions that we like to throw at them. And just the way I see the pricing happen, they're getting much higher prices on these crowdfunding platforms than investors will give them than VCs will give them. It's less equity that they have to give up. and a different kind of process. Now, the flip side is it's a different kind of investor as well. And through CrowdCube and Cedars and all of these, it's cash only. And that means they have to weigh whether they feel the benefit that an venture capital investor will bring them, makes up for the Delta in price. And I think some people are saying, nope, frankly, I can do it myself. And that's fine. Good luck.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Yes, so it's interesting. So I started paying attention probably, it's called three years ago, the crowdfunding platform. I've known Jeff Linnet Cedars for a very long time and have huge amounts of respect for the way he's built that company. It's interesting. When they first started, I thought, oh, look at that. It's cute. This company's raising $50,000 to $100,000, $100,000 on Cedars. And I thought, huh, if I'm an angel investor, you got to kind of watch out a little bit. And then more recently, I've seen the size of the rounds that have taken place on these platforms grow and grow and grow. And I remember sitting there three months ago going, ah, look at this. Companies raising 2 to 3 million pounds. Gosh, if I was a VC, I'd be worried. I thought, oh my God, I am a VC. I should be worried about what's taking place. Or I should pay attention to it. Because frankly, it's a competitor to what we're doing. And it's got its pros and cons to the way that it operates.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “And others about the ones that are doing incredibly well. And so it is a bigger market out there. So sheer number of companies that are getting funded will be higher out there. I don't believe Europe is underrepresented. I mean, if you think about the number of new, and I hate the term, but billion dollars, I'm not going to use the U term, but the number of billion dollar companies that have been valued at a billion dollars here in Europe in the last year, there's a very strong number. And I think it's an incredibly positive environment. I really am very bullish.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “So, you know, I might disagree a little bit with thesis that there aren't enough getting funded. I do believe in a very equitable kind of marketplace right now from an investing perspective. And good companies are able to raise all the money that they want. I passionately believe that's true. And even maid.com, which is a portfolio investment of ours, just announced a $60 million round of financing very recently, or one fine stay announced a $40 million round in the last couple of months. And so I believe capital will flow to the good ideas. I think one thing to keep in perspective is it's not all milk and honey in the US as well, right? Not every company on the West Coast or the East Coast raises untold amounts of money and continues to push forward. There are companies that don't make it there as well, but we don't hear about those. We only hear about, we read on TechCrunch or Panda.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Absolutely, it is. It is. But actually, you know, when you're talking about these company scalars, they're not cheap. And you look at what Google pays, this kind of very strong senior management level or Facebook. It's expensive. And by the time you need these people, that shouldn't be the driving factor because they make good money anyway.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Business development, sales, operations, and can help rapidly scale companies to the next level. And this kind of leads into the immigration policy, which is a pet peeve, a pet area of mine, like I said, where I think a lot of times in the current environment, we're throwing the baby out with the bathwater and making it tougher for companies to really recruit that global talent. And I think if anything”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “So my pet topic, kind of side project that I constantly think about is talent recruitment. And I think if you look at what's potentially, sorry, sorry, people have said Europe doesn't have any of the mega unicorns, the platform type businesses, the Google, the Facebooks, et cetera, Salesforce, Oracle, all these kind of companies. And I think what's held back Europe a little bit is it's the access to the company scaling talent. I think Europe's got great founders. It's got the capital now. It's got the great technical expertise as well. But what we don't have, we haven't had people that have been through big companies multiple times and can take companies from 50 million in revenue to 500 million in revenue. And I'm thinking someone that went through Google early, then jumped over to Facebook and has now maybe been a Twitter. This kind of senior management talent that are...”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “London is the central hub, but watch out because Berlin is doing a fantastic job and what they've done to educate a generation of founders there. But also the big change for Germany is that Germany was very regional sort of play, and they were founders in Munich, founders in Hamburg, founders in Dusseldorf and founders in Cologne. And they're all coalescing into Berlin now. And that quantum of people coming together and the services and the infrastructure around supporting entrepreneurs is making a really big difference. And so London is ahead. But if you look Berlin's on a faster growth trajectory.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “The depth of knowledge and experience base. And now because the web is not about the infrastructure, it's about what you do with it. Once again, Europe is producing some amazing leading fashion companies, whether it's Bont Prev ⁇ five, six years ago that came out of France or Ukes and Netzeporteur merging recently, or Farfetch here in the UK, right? And List in East London, some of the global leading fashion companies are coming out of this experience base that is here. And so”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Just music broadly. And so if you go back in time, whether it's Beethoven, Mozart, or even like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, Europe and the UK were always leading players in the global music scene. And there's a history and a knowledge and expertise in that area. And now if you look at where the new generation of music companies, global leading music companies, are coming from, Europe is producing the bulk of them. So think about it. Shazam, SoundCloud, Deezer, Songkick. I mean, these are all UK-European businesses that are leading the way. So I'm hugely bullish about what can take place in the music space. And then pick another vertical, but fashion, for example, right? If you go back in time, London, Paris, and Milan were always the fashion capitals of the world.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Yeah, absolutely. And so listen, I've been in Europe now for 10 years. I came over in 2005 to London, and it's one of those things I originally thought I'd spend a year here or so and travel on the weekends, then head back to the US. But I've decided to build a career and build a venture fund here in Europe because I'm so passionate about the opportunities that are here for all the founders. And for me, it's because, and the reason for this is that the web has shifted away from an infrastructure-led play to what you do on top of the platforms that are already there. It's about the creative, the design led, the services led businesses that you can build on top of what is there. And so I think there are a number of verticals where Europe is incredibly well positioned because they have a history and a legacy and a knowledge base in that space. And let me give you just a couple of examples, right? So think about music.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “That's exactly the idea. Yep, indeed. So they help us. The great thing about having founders as investors is, listen, they get asked to invest all the time so they can funnel that deal flow through to the co-founders fund. They can help us choose the right deals because we can use them for due diligence in companies. They can help us win the deals. So the ability to say, hey, listen, why don't you go talk to Michael who's been written books on viral loops and viral coefficients and speak to Brent who's built multi-billion dollar business in the travel space. That helps us actually win those deals. And then most importantly, after we have invested, their advice can be helpful. And we've seen it make a big difference to companies in their growth trajectory.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Now, as far as profounders specifically, we are also structured and our unique selling point, if you will, is that all of the money in our fund comes from entrepreneurs who have actually built and exited companies. So people like Brent Oberman from lastminute.com or Michael Birch from Beamo or Karen Hampton from Top Table. And they've been through the tough times. I mean, they've been through the point where you're worried about having to shut down the company or you're worried about whether if you strike the steel, it's the right thing to do. And so they're there to provide some level of counsel and advice as well. And that's the reason they are part of the ProFounders Network is because they want to find a way to give back to the next generation of founders.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “Yeah, from my perspective, location doesn't matter. Oh, no, sorry. In the early stages, it does matter because as much as we like to use Skype and Google Hangouts and all this sort of stuff, the ability to meet face-to-face on a regular basis with someone is just hugely valuable. And so in the early days, when founders going through the crucible, they're hiring their first proper employees that expect real paychecks. They're signing their first business development deals. They're really on the early stages of that exponential growth. Having someone to basically just converse with, someone to get advice act as a sounding board, especially for the top level kind of CEO and key management is important because frankly, there's not many other people they can interact with on a daily basis and share the frustrations and the concerns and so forth. And so we try to be a confidante.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “To prove more with your money as an entrepreneur. And that's where we want to spend our time actually is helping those companies allocate those precious resources to be able to prove real value for the next round of financing. And at those stages, listen, you have to be good to get funded. Honestly, when you're raising $20, $30, $40 million, it doesn't happen by accident. There's a viable business model. There are strong traction proof points, and there's a belief that the company can build to something very substantial. So very positive about that sort of stuff.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Yes and no. So I invest in the very early stages. So we're looking to invest when companies are raising their first proper round of capital. So generally it's a team of seven, eight, nine. They've got an early product that's in market. They're raising Paulin sterling, kind of $1 to $3 million. And at that stage, relative to four years ago, absolutely, there's a lot more capital coming into these businesses, which is, you know, self-servingly, maybe it's not great for me because there's more competition. But hey, I don't mind competing against everyone else and trying to prove my value to the founders. So broadly from a founder perspective, it's absolutely fantastic that there's more capital available. However, what it's done is it's actually raised the bar for the follow-on rounds of financing. There hasn't been the commensurate growth in capital available at those stages, which means the bar is higher.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “At the early stages, it's still local. So when you're investing in the first two rounds of a company, you need to be close by. And the U.S. funds are just too far away to do that. But frankly, for a New York-based large fund, if they're writing a 20, 30, 40 million dollar check to hop on a flight once every two months, quick four, five, six hour flight to London is not tough to do. And if you look back, it's been happening for a while, right? I mean, even gosh, Klarna raised money last year from Sequoia in General Atlantic and blah, blah, car lay race from lead edge as well. And funding circle raised from Union Square. So this has been happening for a few years now. And I think it's something we want to have happen. We want to have the best investors come and support these companies. So I think it's a great development.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “So it's not necessarily sudden right now. This has been a trend we've been noticing over the last few years actually. And part of it is kind of structural. So if you're in the US now, it gets very expensive to invest in some of these high-growth companies. And there's a little bit of an arbitrage play for these people to come over to Europe. There's less capital available in Europe. And so the prices are a little bit cheaper. But the bigger component actually is that Europe is now producing what can be global leaders. And I'm very adamant about this. I think Europe's incredibly well positioned going forward to create the next, not billion, but 10 billion dollar companies. And we have all the right resources now to be able to do that. The one thing we have been lacking are a couple of things. I think one of them has been the capital. But for the U.S. investors now,”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Yeah, it is, and it continues to be today. It's all about laser focus. So I think where companies get things wrong is when they try to bite off more than they can chew. And when you're a young company and you're really growing well, you keep saying to yourself, well, we should also do this. We should also do this. And you expand the product set, the reach of the business, and you try to do too much. And if you look at the great companies, they were laser focused on delivering one product incredibly well. And listen, during the tough times, when you have to consolidate down and save cash and just try to survive, you could only do one thing. And I still, I don't say preach, but I still counsel every company I meet. You've got to have one thing that you do much better than anyone else out there. And that is what you live or die by.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “And then things kind of came to a crashing halt in June or July of 2000. And the next three years were really a slong. And actually, I learned the most I've ever learned during that time because that was when companies couldn't get funded. They were failing. You were consolidating departments and divisions and doing the horrible stuff about reducing workforce and doing everything you could to get by and survive. And it was a fantastic learning experience and everything that I do nowadays is actually shaped by the experience of the tough times.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “I would say I'm a grizzled veteran with gray hair, but actually don't have any hair at all and haven't had hair since I was about 19 years old. I actually joined the Venture World in January of 2000. So if you go back in the history books and remember what things were like back then, this was the peak of the first bubble. And actually, I'd been a consultant and engineer before that. And what I realized was that in any of the consulting projects I'd had, what I loved were the smaller companies. I really loved working with very tiny companies where you could actually make a difference. And so I also loved investing. I had some investing experience. And I thought, where can I tie together investing and working with early stage companies and venture kind of hit the spot? So I'm one of those traditional life or VCs, right? I joined as an analyst at a venture fund in 2000. It was an amazing first six months, right? We had dinners celebrate IPOs and acquisitions and champagne quirks popping.”

    2015-09-02 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 068: Why Now Is The Best Time To Be An Entrepreneur with Sean Seton-Rogers @ PROfounders Capital · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source