Lessons from a $7 Billion exit: Founder Bets That Pay off Big

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Seed to Sequoia

Silverwood

22 episodes

3 days ago

Practical advice on go-to-market from leading investors, founders, and advisors. Host Alex Shartsis has been it all–founder, employee, investor, even the guy at the big company whose job is buying little companies. Learn what works and what mistakes to avoid. Hear unvarnished stories of the tough times, the pivots, and the big wins. But mostly what to avoid. Whether you’re hiring your first salesperson, or preparing for your next financing round, you’ll learn something useful you can use right away.

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Entrepreneurship

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Lessons from a $7 Billion exit: Founder Bets That Pay off Big | Lars Leckie of Aspenwood Ventures

Seed to Sequoia

1 hour 7 minutes 15 seconds

1 year ago

Lessons from a $7 Billion exit: Founder Bets That Pay off Big | Lars Leckie of Aspenwood Ventures

Lars Leckie is the managing director and partner of Aspenwood Ventures. He and his partner Steve started their career at the first ever software focused venture capital firm that started back in the late eighties, and took over that firm turning it ino Aspenwood Ventures.

They look for disruptive technologies and market shifts, aiming for companies to reach $100 million in revenue and stressing the importance of building real businesses and identifying founders with a track record of success.

The investing history Lars draws on includes multi billion dollar exits like Hyperion, Omniture, Mulesoft, and five nine.

Join Host Alex Shartsis in this episode as Lars shares with us the significance of sequential focus on product development, sales, and scaling, in that right order and how founder bets in these areas can lead to massive wins for startups.Show Notes:1:57 Aspenwood Ventures' Focus on Enterprise Software

4:12 Early Investments in Founders: Hyperion, Omniture, Mulesoft

8:53 Criteria for Early-Stage Investments: Disruption and Potential

14:14 Mulesoft's Journey: From Startup to Billion-Dollar Acquisition

17:30 Timing the Pivot: Proof Points over Rebuilding

21:10 Capital Efficiency: High Margins Fuel Enterprise Growth

33:57 Founder Priorities: Product, Sales, Then Massive Scaling

37:27 Fundraising Evolution: Adapting Pitches for Each Stage

Guest: Lars Leckie (www.linkedin.com/in/larsleckie/)

Host: Alex Shartsis (linkedin.com/in/shartsis)

Audio Engineer & Video Editor - James Fixx (fixxmusic.com)

The Seed to Sequoia podcast is created by Silverwood Advisors to help founders with practical advice on building successful startups.

If you would like to get expert advice for your startup reach out to us on:

Website: silverwood.ai

Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/silverwood-advisors

Companies Aspenwood Ventures has invested in:

Aria Systems Sonatype Klue Amberdata ArkoseLabs InsideSales Influitive Alpharank

Aspire Clarify Health Closefactor Connect The Dots Kloudfuse Klue MobileForce Nfinite Oomnitza Screenmeet Smartaccess Sonatype Stepfunction Symbium Vendia Wundergraph

Lars is also an active angel investor in companies like Tonal, BetterPlaceForests, Masterclass, Uberflip and others.