The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Eléonore Crespo is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Pigment, one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies. With Pigment, Eleonore has raised over $397M from the best in the world including ICONIQ, Greenoaks and IVP to name a few. Prior to Pigment, Eléonore was on the other side of the table as an investor with Index Ventures. In Today's Episode We Discuss:  [04:10] “I had 3 surgeries. That’s when I knew I had to become a founder.” [06:50] Why Index Ventures isn’t on her cap table [08:40] Eleonore’s CIA-style co-founder hunt (she literally made a target list) [11:50] Co-CEOs: “We talk 3x a day. That’s our superpower.” [13:30] The boutique coffee metaphor for product excellence [15:40] Yuri Milner’s 4 traits of legendary founders (one is shocking) [17:30] “Hiring is everything. I hunt talent like a football scout.” [19:00] Wild Olympic Games story → led to hiring a top CFO [24:50] How she filters out title-chasers and political hires [29:30] “Too much process? I make teams list the dumbest ones.” [33:00] Her blunt answer on whether Europe can produce scale execs [35:00] Why she raised so much money… even when they didn’t need it [38:50] Board power is real: “They can fire you. I’ve seen it.” [43:30] Rob Ward’s counter-cyclical advice: double down during a downturn [44:50] “We closed a massive US deal… at 2am… while drenched in rain.” [47:10] Selling into the US as a European founder—her full playbook [50:20] The hardest part of being a CEO no one talks about [54:00] “Children remind you what happiness is.” [56:30] “I don’t fast. That would make me unhappy.” On longevity culture [59:20] Why her husband knows nothing about Pigment [01:04:20] “Forget $50B. I want to build a $200B company.” Follow Eleonore Crespo * LinkedIn: Eleonore Crespo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleonorec/] * Pigment: pigment.com [https://www.pigment.com] Subscribe to 20VC for more conversations with the world’s best founders and investors.

Today’s Topics: 04:44 Analysis of $3 Billion Windsurf Acquisition 12:39 Will Mega Funds Win the Future of Venture Capital 18:39 Does Every Fund Have to do Pre-Seed to Win Series A and B Today 27:53 Why AI Will Create Massive Unemployment 31:06 The $100,000 Bet on the Future of Work  35:52 Why Venture Has Become a Bundled Good 37:52 Why Stage Specific Firms Will Win: a16z vs Benchmark 40:16 What Does Harvard Losing It’s For Profit Status Mean for Venture 42:57 Why AI is Maiming and Not Killing Growth Companies on the Path to IPO 45:41 Decagon Raises 100x ARR: The Breakdown 52:50 Why VCs Are Upside Junkies and What That Means Today 01:03:37 Olo Looking to Sell: What Happens When Public Companies Want to Sell

Bucky Moore is a Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners, announced exclusively in the show today on 20VC. Prior to Lightspeed, Bucky spent an incredibly successful 7 years at Kleiner Perkins working with Mamoon Hamid to build one of the most successful early stage firms of the last decade. Bucky has made investments in the likes of Prisma, Netlify, Browserbase and more.  In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 03:07 Big News: Joining Lightspeed Venture Partners 04:09 Why Mega Platforms Will Win the Next 10 Years of VC 09:33 Are Foundation Model Companies Good Venture Investments 16:04 What Applications Will Model Providers Buy/Build? What Will They Not? 22:03 How to Approach Price Sensitivity in a World of AI 28:25 Why is it BS to do Market Sizing When Making Investments in AI 34:03 Is the Future of VC Domain Specialization 38:38 How to Know What Company Wins in Super Competitive Markets 41:06 Why Every Firm Has to do Pre-Seed To Win in VC Today? 44:43 The Risks of Multi-Stage Investing: Is Signalling Risk Real? 48:53 Investing Lessons from Leading Rounds in Glean and Windsurf 56:54 Quick Fire Round: Lessons from Mamoon, Fave CEO, Next 10 Years

Reggie Marable is the Head of Global Sales at Sierra, a conversational AI platform for businesses. Sierra enables companies like ADT, Sonos, SiriusXM, and WeightWatchers to build AI agents that transform customer experiences. The company has rapidly become a hypergrowth leader in Silicon Valley, recently securing a funding round that values it at $4.5 billion. Before joining Sierra, Reggie was the Head of Sales in North America at Slack and the Area Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Salesforce.  In Today’s Episode We Discuss:  02:50 “What I Learned from Failing Early as a CRO” 06:06 The Most Effective Sales Strategy and the BS Sales Methodology 06:55 How to Build Sales Processes from Scratch 12:28 When and How to do Verticalised Sales Teams 14:15 How to Become World Class as Sales Prospecting and Outbound 17:21 How to Use Proof of Concepts to Win Enterprise Deals 22:04 Enterprise vs. Self-Serve: Both or One and How 30:09 Building a Sales Team from Scratch 37:39 Structuring the Hiring Process 41:14 How Founders F*** Up Hiring in Sales 46:25 Handling Salary and Title Expectations 51:36 How to Run Effective Deal Cycles 57:06:07 How to do Onboarding for New Sales Hires 59:07:48 How to do Post Mortems in Sales Processes 01:04:24 Negotiating Enterprise Deals 01:08:04 Quick Fire Round: Sales Tactics and Strategies

In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 03:56 Why The Risk Lever Has Been Turned Higher than Ever in VC 06:04 Why IRR is the Hardest Thing to Control 09:36 Is Lack of Liquidity Short Term Temporary or Long Term Structural 12:17 Why Fund Returners Are Not Good Enough Anymore 16:03 Sequoia: The Best Strategy at the Worst Time 26:30 What it Takes to be Good at Series A and B Today 34:14 Only Three Company Types Survive AI 41:35 ServiceNow: 25% Pop, WTF Happened 45:29 Palantir and SAP Ripping: Do Incumbents Win AI 49:43 Are Benchmark Wrong to Invest in Chinese Made Manus 01:00:52 Geopolitical Risks in Investments 01:11:36 European vs. US Tech Culture