Jeff Clavier founder and Managing Partner, SoftTech VC -TWiST #314

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It's our first TWiST Live! Jason travels to San Francisco to talk with Jeff Clavier in front of a live audience! The two talk about the current Venture Capital community and Jeff's experiences as a reputable investor.

Read the full transcript

 [ time codes begin at start of interview ]1:00: Jeff: I invested my own money for 3.5 years until 2007
1:15: First investments were?
3:15: How many investments have you made?
4:00: What is your pattern recognition now, things that make you say I have to invest?
5:30: What makes you immediately say, "I cannot wait till this meeting ends?"
7:00: Emotion can impact entrepreneurs and VCs
8:00: Christmas - tell me what that means
10:00: Series A crunch - Sarah Lacy's great article (Jason calls it a random act of journalism). Seems to be real, right?
12:30: What exactly is happening? We're seeing acquihires.
13:30: Better to have a Series A crunch than drought of angel investors? If you had to pick one?
15:00: Because the standard has gone up, those who get an A round are going to be strong companies, right?
17:00: Y Combinator now pulling back on the number of companies - was it overwhelming as an angel to process?
18:30: How did you perceive the "free money" for YC startups when it was announced?
19:30: Did people know Sequoia backed YC?
21:30: Where are we today - everything being valued so low, seems like the angel bubble is over, the valuation bubble?
23:00: Jason: If a Mark Pincus or Ev Williams shows up, you're not going to care about the valuation
24:00: Did we ever see chickens come home to roost with convertible notes?
26:00: What do you think you do particularly well as an investor?
27:30: You invested in Mint before or after TechCrunch 40?
28:30: What was it about Aaron that made you want to invest? Was it your best or one of your best investments ever?
30:00: 17 or 18x return on Mint, Jeff confirms
30:15: Does a win like that make you want to invest in 10 more companies?
31:00: What are your expectations for investments, do you have a thesis about that?
32:00: SendGrid - the most successful of all TechStars startups, yes?
32:30:  A company I invested in is not doing well and wants to be intro'd to an important contact. This must have happened to you, how do you handle it? [ Jeff: you say no ]
34:30: How much of your time is getting them to the next round?
35:30: You must have faced an acquihire where you get hosed but the founders did well -- how do you handle that?
37:30: Jeff on his fellow micro VCs: Even though we have our own funds, we don't compete
38:15: What are the worst traits of VCs you've seen that entrepreneurs should be wary of?
39:45: VCs behave better now because there's more transparency?
41:45: What do you think of Dave McClure?
42:20: Chris Sacca?
42:45: Naval?
43:10: Mike Arrington? or MG Siegler

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Full Transcript

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