Harry Stebbings

Harry is the Founder of 20VC. Our mission is to leverage our media company to build products that allow us to be the best investors in the world. 

*DO NOT SEND INVITES UNLESS THERE IS A SPECIFIC REASON FOR THE INVITE, STATED IN THE INVITATION!

Founder

Building the next great financial institution at the intersection of venture capital and media. 20VC raised $140M across two separate vehicles from some of the most renowned limited partners in venture including MIT, Harvard, Sequoia Heritage, and RIT Capital Partners. Early breakout investments include BeReal, Sorare, Linktree, Nex Health, Merge API, Linear, TheyDo.io, and many more.

I always get in trouble for these types of posts, but age or arrogance, I do not care anymore. 

I have interviewed 100 of the best sales leaders over the past 5 years. None has impressed me as much as Carles Reina at ElevenLabs. He scaled their GTM from $0 to $330M in ARR in just 3 years. 

Today I released our episode with him and have gone over it to condense my biggest lessons from the discussion. 

🚀 8 Lessons on Building a $330M+ Revenue Machine

1. The "20x" Quota Rule
Forget the standard SaaS 6x–8x multiple. At ElevenLabs, the rule is simple: you must bring in 20 times your base salary in revenue. If your base is $100k, your quota is $2M. It sounds aggressive, but it sets a high-performance bar where over 80% of the team hits their targets.

2. Hire "Hunters," Not Just Product Experts
A common mistake is hiring for product knowledge and hoping to "train" the sales muscle. Carles learned the hard way: you need people with a natural "hunter" mentality who are hungry, driven, and passionate. You can teach the tech, but you can’t teach the hustle.

3. Be "Ruthless" with Pipeline Reviews
Carles holds monthly pipeline reviews where he drills into every detail in front of the entire team. If you aren’t doing your job, you get called out publicly. This transparency ensures everyone learns from each other's mistakes and keeps the team on their toes.

4. Salespeople Belong on the Road
If the sales team is in the office for multiple days, Carles starts getting worried. A remote culture works if it’s a "road" culture. Sellers need to be out talking to customers face-to-face, not just hiding behind virtual meetings.

5. Land Small, Expand Fast
Don't get bogged down waiting months for a six-figure enterprise deal. Land with a $12k contract to bypass layers of approval. Once the MSA is signed, the "land" is over, and the "outbound" mission begins to capture every other team in the organization.

6. Forecast with Brutal Negativity
Optimism kills sales organizations. Carles advises being as negative as possible when forecasting. If a deal is worth $500k, forecast it at $24k. This prevents "inflated" pipelines and forces the team to work twice as hard to ensure the real targets are hit.

7. The 72-Hour "First Contract" Goal
Onboarding at ElevenLabs isn't about weeks of reading manuals. New hires join calls immediately. The target? Sign your first contract within your first two weeks. Some have even closed enterprise deals within 72 hours of joining.

8. Treat Customers as a Community, Not a Transaction
Transactional selling leads to churn. Building a community—where you give customers your WhatsApp, interact constantly, and do what's right for them even if it costs you money—is how you retain them forever.

Huge thanks to Mati Staniszewski and Luke Harries for helping to make this one happen. 

(link in comments)

#founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

This week my mother had to change her MS medication for the third time. Sadly it had very painful and difficult side effects for her (managing it now). 

This is her four days later, at her grandchild’s first birthday party. As always, the life and soul of the party. 

As she always taught me, “you are so much more capable than even you think” and everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about; be kind. 

#Founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

Founder @ 20VC

I really need to find unhinged founders. 

I'm not looking for intellectually curious. 

I am looking for unwaveringly obsessed, borderline psychotic individuals intent on changing a generation.

When you have that as a bar, it makes investing and founder assessment a lot clearer. 

#Founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

Morgan Oliveira

Three of the most useless statements early stage investors often ask or say: 

1. I want to see high margins. WRONG: 90% of truly great businesses from Uber to Anthropic had poor margins at the start. 

2. They ask founders at pre-seed. Would you sell for $100M? When the founder says yes, they say they aren’t committed. WRONG. When you have 0 and are offered $100M. Pure logic to accept. 

3. The market size is not big enough. WRONG. Technology expands market size. The biggest sins of investing are underestimating the size of your winners. 

Follow @hstebbings1996 on Instagram for more direct no BS takes 🤣 

#Founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

Jure Malešič

If you are a SaaS founder today growing 2x-3x YoY, you have a very important decision to make:

1. How am I going to use AI to accelerate revenue growth to 8x-10x?

2. How do I reduce burn and change the course that I'm on so that I never need to raise external funding again?

It really is that simple. The game has changed. 

#Founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

Philip Butler

Venture capital is about unfair advantages. It is that simple. 

In 2024, for some insane reason, Zuck shut down Workplace leaving millions of customers with a desperate product need. 

My partner, Julien Codorniou built and scaled Workplace to $200M ARR serving the biggest customers in the world. He literally sold to all of them (unfair GTM advantage if there ever was one!!!!) 

Welcome 20VC's first incubation. 

JC came to me and said, this is not right. We have to do this. 

So he brought together Jackson Gabbard, Josh Watzman, Dave Miller who have built and scaled products used by billions of people (insanely brilliant founders).

And now we announce their $3.5M seed round led by 20VC. 

I have had 172 companies over a 10 year period announce a fundraise. I have never seen such inbound on the back of an announcement (yesterday). The biggest companies in the world, are waiting to be Slashwork customers. The founders' inbox is insane right now. 

Important to note, you have to use your cap table as a strategic asset. So joining us, we literally have the best of the best Sheryl Sandberg, Cal Henderson (Slack co-founder), AJ Tennant (Slack GTM lead, Glean, Facebook), Carolyn Everson (Permira, Disney, Facebook), David Fischer (Facebook), Des Traynor (Intercom co-founder), William S. (Deliveroo), Soleio ​(Dropbox, Facebook, Figma), Xavier Niel, Eléonore Crespo (Pigment), Philip Su (Facebook, Microsoft, OpenAI), Blaise DiPersia (Facebook), Olivia Calvert (Deel), Akin Babayigit, Julien Lesaicherre, Quentin Nickmans, Tudor Havriliuc.

Slack sold for $27BN. The race begins! The moment the term sheet was signed (apologies for short shorts!)

#founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

In every category; voice, video, legal, email, European startups are crushing their US counterparts. 

We can build mega companies in Europe. 

20VC invested in Fyxer when it was 4 people and $1M in ARR. 

12 months later, it is $35M ARR and 63 people. 

This is our time. LFG. 🚀 

#Founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

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Oren Zeev is truly one of a kind in venture capital.

The man manages $2.7BN AUM as a solo capitalist. 

He has 30% carry. (wow) 

He is the largest LP in every single one of his funds. (13% per fund = over $20M per fund, wow again!!!) 

He does not adhere to traditional rules around deployment period or cross-fund investing. 

The man is the most authentic and awesome GP in venture. 

Spotify 👉 https://lnkd.in/eJdyCU7z
Youtube 👉 https://lnkd.in/egHy2Y7Z
Apple Podcasts 👉 https://lnkd.in/eMs8RUm4

My 6 takeaways with oren zeev 👇

1. The Best Companies Look Weird and That Way They Have a Head Start

- If the company looks weird or wrong, there probably won’t be 15 other startups doing it.
- You will have 2-3 years without real competition & can build a real moat.
- If you happen to be right, these will be some of the greatest outcomes.

2. Investing Lessons From the Boom of 2021

- In 2021, I probably paid 3-4x more than I should have for almost every deal.
- Some of them are still going to be winners despite overpaying.
- In any given market, you want to do the best deals you can, and some vintages are going to be better than others.

3. 50% of Funds Will Go Out of Business

- If you are not a platform, then it is much harder for you to raise.
- At least 50% of funds today cannot raise or aren't sure if they’re able to.
- Many of them are not going to be able to raise.

4. My Advice to Founders on Pre-Emptive Rounds

- Take the money, but continue to behave as if you didn’t.
- Companies can be overfunded & lead to a loss of focus.
- Spend it based on the signals from the market, not the pressure from the boardroom.

5. What I Want to See When Leading a Series A:

- I want to see real risk reduced, not better-looking milestones.
- Logos without renewal are just noise.
- You want to see real product-market fit.

6. Why You Shouldn't Judge a Decision by the Outcome    

- Like poker, you can have the odds in your favor, make the right decisions, and still lose.
- Judge the process, not one result, or you’ll learn the wrong lesson.
- If you make the right decisions, you will win eventually.

#founder #funding #business #investing #vc #entrepreneur #startup #investment #20VC

“We are not allowed to believe in luck at a16z. 

We must see every deal in our domain. 

We must win 100% of them. 

I have not lost a deal in 6 years”. 

It has never been a more uncertain time to be an investor.

- Is SaaS dead? 
- Do margins matter? 
- Is triple, triple, double, double dead? 
- Will foundation models eat the apps layer? 

Spotify 👉 https://lnkd.in/e6vr-_BA 
Youtube 👉 https://lnkd.in/efmirsFd
Apple Podcasts 👉 https://shorturl.at/k3qPG

My 8 takeaways with Anish Acharya 👇

1. Why if You Are Building in AI Today You Have to Be in SF?

- There is a network effect for builders in SF.
- For AI, so much key info gets spread around tight networks.
- You can make it happen anywhere, but there is something different about giving up everything & moving to SF to make it happen.

2. It Is Bullsh*t That We’re Gonna Vibe Code Everything

- IT spend is approximately 8-12% of enterprise spend.
- If you have an innovation machine with AI, why would you focus on building another ERP to save 8-12% when you can use it to optimize the remaining 90%?
- The idea that we’ll vibe code everything is flat out wrong.

3. Agents Are Reducing the Switching Costs of Large Legacy Providers

- Switching legacy enterprise providers used to be extremely expensive and risky.
- With coding agents, the complexity of switching providers will be dramatically reduced.
- It’s a positive incentive for the entire ecosystem.

4. Who Will Win in a World of AI: Incumbents or Startups?

- Incumbents will make their product better for their existing categories.
- Microsoft will make a better word processor, Google will make a better search engine…
- Startups will win in native categories that did not exist before the product cycle.

5. Why Are We Not in an AI Bubble Now?

- Three reasons:
- Demand is matching new supply, not lagging it.
- Prices are rising, not collapsing.
- Subsidies exist, but they are strategic subsidies by big tech and AI labs.

6. Why We Should Be Skeptical of a Chat-Based UI and Browse-Based Is Preferable

- Chat-based UIs are designed by the most high agency people in the world who want to save time.
- Most people do not want to save time; they want to spend time & browse.
- Browse-based UI will still dominate.

7. How Should We Change How We Think About Margin as Investors Today?

- When there is a lot of organic traffic, I would look at their M1 as traffic.
- I would look at the margin cost of free-trials as CAC.
- I would  look at the margin profile of people who convert as a sort of durable margin profile of the business.

8. Lessons From Marc Andreessen on Process Versus Outcome

- Marc’s advice: “Just be right a lot.”
- Your process does not matter as long as you are consistently winning.
- The quality of being right supersedes the why or the how.

#founder #funding #business #investing #vc #entrepreneur #startup #investment #20VC

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