Neil Mehta

But there's a select number I don't know how many meetings happen in our markets. It's tens of thousands at this point. There's probably 200 that happen a year where we think we'd be a differentially great partner to that person and we know it well in advance. And so we prepare an incredible amount before that first meeting. I don't mean like go on the website and use the product a little bit.

But there's a select number I don't know how many meetings happen in our markets. It's tens of thousands at this point. There's probably 200 that happen a year where we think we'd be a differentially great partner to that person and we know it well in advance. And so we prepare an incredible amount before that first meeting. I don't mean like go on the website and use the product a little bit.

Our first meeting should feel more like a fifth or sixth meeting, the founder, rather than a first meeting. It allows us to go much deeper. And the things I'm looking for... If someone just asked me, I'm going to give you a tangential side. Usually I like to visit a company rather than them come to us, which is also counterintuitive because you can do less meetings if that's the case.

Our first meeting should feel more like a fifth or sixth meeting, the founder, rather than a first meeting. It allows us to go much deeper. And the things I'm looking for... If someone just asked me, I'm going to give you a tangential side. Usually I like to visit a company rather than them come to us, which is also counterintuitive because you can do less meetings if that's the case.

So I love to go visit. And I'll give you a battery of things I'm looking for. But if you put a gun to my head and you said, there's only one thing you could ask this company or people at this company. And I never actually ask it, but I always think about it right away.

So I love to go visit. And I'll give you a battery of things I'm looking for. But if you put a gun to my head and you said, there's only one thing you could ask this company or people at this company. And I never actually ask it, but I always think about it right away.

is when I visit a company and I watch people and I meet people, I'm trying to evaluate just one thing, which is if you polled everybody at this company and you asked them, are your best days ahead of you or behind you? What would the proportion of people say? And especially the most important people. It's not year over year growth. It's not margins. It's not strong form competitive advantage.

is when I visit a company and I watch people and I meet people, I'm trying to evaluate just one thing, which is if you polled everybody at this company and you asked them, are your best days ahead of you or behind you? What would the proportion of people say? And especially the most important people. It's not year over year growth. It's not margins. It's not strong form competitive advantage.

It's not JDC. All of those things matter. But if I picked one thing very early on, even in the startup, you could tell if the energy is not there, I'm more excited about the future. I mean, I just was in Europe a couple of weeks ago. A vast majority of people for it seems like 40 years have believed the best years are behind them, not ahead of them.

It's not JDC. All of those things matter. But if I picked one thing very early on, even in the startup, you could tell if the energy is not there, I'm more excited about the future. I mean, I just was in Europe a couple of weeks ago. A vast majority of people for it seems like 40 years have believed the best years are behind them, not ahead of them.

If you were running a company, that's the one stat you should care about more than anything else in the world. When I spend time with a founder and I'm talking to them about their business, I'm trying to figure out, are they high-focused, high-ambition, determined?

If you were running a company, that's the one stat you should care about more than anything else in the world. When I spend time with a founder and I'm talking to them about their business, I'm trying to figure out, are they high-focused, high-ambition, determined?

Do they have divergent thinking that allows them to see something in the world and in their business that other people would overwhelmingly disagree with but is right? So it starts with the founder, personality of that founder. And I haven't been able to sit down and write on a piece of paper I think every great founder looks approximately the same. Every bad founder looks different.

Do they have divergent thinking that allows them to see something in the world and in their business that other people would overwhelmingly disagree with but is right? So it starts with the founder, personality of that founder. And I haven't been able to sit down and write on a piece of paper I think every great founder looks approximately the same. Every bad founder looks different.

You know, there's some quote about- Yeah, that's exactly. This is controversial. I do believe there's an archetype for a great founder. And I think that once you see it and learn it, it's a repeatable process. And I think some of the things I mentioned are part of that. I think that you're looking for usually someone that's built a jaw-dropping customer experience.

You know, there's some quote about- Yeah, that's exactly. This is controversial. I do believe there's an archetype for a great founder. And I think that once you see it and learn it, it's a repeatable process. And I think some of the things I mentioned are part of that. I think that you're looking for usually someone that's built a jaw-dropping customer experience.

That's why we invest at the stage we invest in. Because it takes some time. It takes some time. It takes some time to get that experience right, especially in things like infrastructure SaaS, where at the beginning, the infrastructure process is not that good. It just takes time to get the product into a performance level where it can actually delight customers. Consumer is a little bit different.

That's why we invest at the stage we invest in. Because it takes some time. It takes some time. It takes some time to get that experience right, especially in things like infrastructure SaaS, where at the beginning, the infrastructure process is not that good. It just takes time to get the product into a performance level where it can actually delight customers. Consumer is a little bit different.

You could feel it right away. We're looking for defensibility in that. What technical or operational trade-offs have you broken that allow you to have the early signs of a moat? We're looking for competitive advantage. We have network effects, shared scale economies, counter-positioning, quartered resources.

You could feel it right away. We're looking for defensibility in that. What technical or operational trade-offs have you broken that allow you to have the early signs of a moat? We're looking for competitive advantage. We have network effects, shared scale economies, counter-positioning, quartered resources.