The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
01:19:01 · Harry Stebbings, Jack Zhang
[01:19:01] S1: Why would you not like it? [01:19:02] S0: Ultimately, you wanted to work with the best investor, not only an investor, but also a friend and people you get along with and you like. It's not saying I don't like the investor in Sequoia, but just saying that you just choose the brand over the people. [01:19:17] S1: Which investor do you not have that you would like to have? [01:19:20] S0: I wish I have someone like Michael Morris that invests in Stripe. Like a true visionary investor supported the founder from day I think Michael Morris played a very important role of Stripe's success, waving the flag of Stripe, early days of Silicon Valley like early days of Stripe and Silicon Valley saying, you know, John Patrick going to be the next Sergey Brann or Larry Page, you know, that they're going to build a trillion dollar company, blah, blah, blah. I don't think I had that support. [01:19:49] S1: Have you met him? [01:19:50] S0: Yeah. I mean, Michael Morris invited me to his home and tried to convince me to sell the company. Oh. I mean, I wish I have an investor do that for me, you know? [01:19:58] S1: How was that? [01:19:59] S0: It's a beautiful home and there's nice conversation. [01:20:02] S1: And it didn't convince you?
01:20:02 · Harry Stebbings, Jack Zhang
[01:20:02] S1: And it didn't convince you? [01:20:03] S0: Well, I mean, argument makes a lot of sense that he's saying, you know, like, I said, you know, why don't I just keep building and maybe sell later? Like, what now? I haven't really figured it out, you know, what I want to do with my life yet. It's like, you know, the earlier you can compound, the faster you can build a trillion dollar business. I mean, kind of makes sense. [01:20:21] S1: Listen, I want to do a quick follow-up. I've so enjoyed this. When I ask you about a founder you deeply admire, other than the Collisons, who comes to mind first? [01:20:30] S0: I really like Elon. I think what he has done is able to ultimately is pushing the humanity forward. [01:20:37] S1: If you could put all of your money into one company other than Airwallex, which company would you put all of your money into? [01:20:43] S0: I would put half of my money in SpaceX. [01:20:46] S1: I'd do a third. I'd do OpenAI, SpaceX, and then Revolut. [01:20:49] S0: I don't know about Revolut. I mean, that's my competition ultimately in the future. At 40 I put some money in Stripe. [01:20:57] S1: You put some money in Stripe? Yeah. What's the hardest thing about your role today? [01:21:01] S0: Make decisions knowing that more than 50% probability is gonna be a wrong decision. [01:21:06] S1: You should be a venture investor.
01:21:06 · Harry Stebbings, Jack Zhang
[01:21:06] S1: You should be a venture investor. [01:21:07] S0: Do you like investing? I don't think I'm a great investor. I don't really know how to assess early stage founder very well. Why do you think that is? Before product market fit is really just based on people's personality, I don't know how to make an investment decision based on people's personality or the history of people, right? That's why I said I wasn't able to invest in myself. I just haven't seen enough data to build that confidence. [01:21:31] S1: What worries you that you think not enough people are spending time on? [01:21:35] S0: Generally, people are making decisions based on the knowledge they have. And generally, that is not the right thing to do because the biggest mistake you make is from making a decision based on the knowledge you don't have. [01:21:49] S1: Penultimate one for you. You're in London now. Are you impressed by London's tech scene? What do you make of it? [01:21:55] S0: I think it's better than Melbourne. I love the global nature of London, and so far enjoyed meeting a lot of entrepreneurs. I think it's going to be an exciting place [01:22:04] S1: for Do you love people living here? [01:22:06] S0: Yeah. Apart from it's very expensive, you know, everything else is pretty good. [01:22:10] S1: Final one for you, dude. Airwallet is in 2035, ten years out. Yeah? Where are you then?
01:22:10 · Harry Stebbings, Jack Zhang
[01:22:10] S1: Final one for you, dude. Airwallet is in 2035, ten years out. Yeah? Where are you then? [01:22:17] S0: I hope we have built one of the largest global payments and banking platform to power modern businesses around the world. I hope we have built a bigger business than Citi or HSBC, because when we succeeded doing that, millions of businesses around the world will benefit from the success of our mission. Public? Public or not. Doesn't matter. Would you like to be a public company at some point? Inadvertibly, we kind of all have to think about that. But right now, we... We've been really head down building. [01:22:49] S1: Dude, this has been one of the most awesome, fun, fascinating stories. Thank you so much for sharing it with me, and I cannot tell you how much I've enjoyed it. [01:22:59] S0: Thanks, Harry. I really enjoyed it, the conversation.
01:23:03 · Harry Stebbings
[01:23:03] S1: I think that has to be the greatest angel investment that I've heard of in a long time. A million to 1,000,000,000? Incredible. Eight years of a 100% growth year on year. What an insane story. I feel Airwollyx is just this untold gem. I cannot thank Jack enough for sharing that story. What an episode. And you heard my gasps when he revealed some of those elements. But before we leave you today, I love seeing the team come together to make this show happen. What I don't love is trying to keep track of all the information, the data, and the projects that we're working on across dozens of platforms, products, and tools. That's why we use Coda, the all in one collaborative workspace that's helped 50,000 teams all over the world get on the same page. Offering the flexibility of docs with the structure of spreadsheets, Coda facilitates deeper teamwork and quicker creativity. And their turnkey AI solution, the intelligence of Coda Brain, is a game changer. Powered by Grammarly, Coda is entering a new phase of innovation and expansion aiming to redefine productivity for the AI era. Whether you're a start up looking to organize the chaos while staying nimble or an enterprise organization looking for better alignment, Coda matches your working style. Its seamless workspace connects to hundreds of your favorite tools, including Salesforce, Jira, Asana, and Figma, helping your teams transform their rituals and do more faster. Head over to coda.io/20vc right now and get six months off the team plan for startups for free. That's coda, coda,.io/20vc, and get six months off the team plan for free, coda.io/20vc. And while Coda keeps the engine running smoothly, Shopify puts the pedal to the metal when it's time to sell. When I was 18, I dreamed about being an investor with zero contacts in the industry, and through persistence, I'm now living that dream. Maybe you're dreaming of your own business, and that's where Shopify steps in. I spend my time exploring successful businesses online. Often, there's a business behind the business driving success. For millions, that's Shopify, powering 10% of US commerce. Shopify offers beautiful templates, AI tools for product images, and descriptions, easy marketing campaigns, and twenty four seven support. Their number one checkout boost conversions by 50%. Fewer abandoned carts, more sales.
01:25:32 · Harry Stebbings
Winner, turn dreams into success with Shopify. Go to shopify.com/20vc for your $1 per month trial today. That's shopify.com/20vc. And while Shopify helps you make the sale, Gusto makes sure your team gets paid without the headache. Look. Payday's awesome, but running payroll, calculating taxes and deductions, staying it's not easy. Unless, of course, you have Gusto. Gusto is a simple online payroll and benefits tool built for small businesses like yours. Gusto gets your team paid while automatically filing your payroll taxes. Zi Yang, CEO of video game studio, Serenity Forge, said Gusto was the first step in turning their basement project into a real company. It helped them scale globally, saving him thirty hours a month and letting him focus on building great games instead of doing boring admin. Plus, you can offer benefits like four zero one k, health insurance, and workers' comp. Just for listening today, you also get three months free. Go to gusto.com/20vc. That's gusto.com/20vc. As always, I so appreciate all your support, and stay tuned for an incredible episode coming on Thursday with me, Jason Lampkin, and Rory O'Driscoll. It's the favorite show of the week.