SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
EP 99: Will Pinterest IPO in 2016 w/ $4b VC
31 Oct 2015
Chapter 1: What is the main focus of The Top podcast?
This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per top. Five and six million. He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark.
And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Coming up tomorrow, you will hear from Erin Chase, who couldn't afford groceries in 2008, and now she's a mom who makes 200 grand per year. Okay, Top Tribe, good morning, good morning, good morning. I'm actually here in Santa Barbara this morning speaking at Entrepreneur's. I'm speaking all over the place and you're gonna love our guest this morning.
His name is Jay Poe. Jay joined Bessemer Venture Partners in 2014 as an investor in the New York office where he focuses on internet of things, VR, consumer internet, cloud software, and mobile investments. Now, prior to joining Bessemer, Jay studied sociology at Harvard. He's worked at two boutique consulting firms and a multimedia design company.
His interest in tech consumer insight and social behavior led him to found a student run tech startup advisory firm. He's also co-founded a social platform for sharing crowdsourced video playlists, a gift giving service using machine learning and a social local mobile app. Okay, Jay, are you ready to take us to the top?
Absolutely, Nathan. Thanks for having me.
Very good. So first things first, you know, a lot of people look at venture capital these days. They say there's too much money in the market. Yes or no. Do you think VCs have too much money?
Yes, I would agree with the general statement, although there are intricacies within that that I'd love to dive into.
Well, let's do that. So what's your focus at Bessemer?
Yeah, so at Bessemer, so I'm here in the New York office and looking at all different types of companies across different verticals, different stages. So a very exciting time, obviously, within tech.
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Chapter 2: How does venture capital impact startups today?
Oh, man. In terms of number of millions, well, so we were really lucky in that we had a really good group of investors on our side that have been following the company during its early stages of growth. I think they were definitely pre-revenue at the time. Their user engagement was definitely young. This was like in 2000 and 2011, so really back in the day.
I was actually still in high school at this time. But I think what really stood out here was just how the core utility of the product was resonating well with users. And I think that that is a really key area. Being able to find something that is not only sticky in terms of, oh, this can make money, but really having a stickiness factor among users.
So if you're consumer-facing, really focusing on that. And I guess that's something that we saw in the earlier stages in the WE years of 2011. And that's kind of where we were. And so what did you invest? Yeah, the first round was, I think, you know, sub 10 million. Okay. And then over the years, I know they've obviously raised quite a boatload of cash.
So how much of Best Firmers' money has been put into Pinterest? Would you say above or below 20 million?
Above 20 million sub-hundred. Okay. And I hope that's semi-accurate.
Yeah, somewhere in there. Somewhere in there.
Interesting. Yeah, we've been in there for a while.
So I want to come back to the decision you guys go through when you decide whether to invest in a company or not. But first, Jay, yes or no, will Pinterest go public in 2016?
Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What insights does Jay Poe provide about Bessemer Venture Partners?
There you go. I'll tell you the exciting things about why we think that's going to ā or why I think. Let me just make these personal commentaries here.
There you go.
I think not only is their engagement just continuing to grow. They're going to have 150 million MAUs. multi-active users end of this year and that I think is just going to keep growing. I think what has led the way is the examples that Facebook, Twitter have led in terms of the possibilities around advertising. I know Pinterest is looking into video.
I think video now is a huge space but Pinterest is learning quickly that that is an emerging area for opportunities and are going to roll out advertisements through video which is going to be very lucrative. I think Apple and Google have led the way with buy buttons and Amazon, of course, with being able to buy instantaneously.
And given that Pinterest has a huge consumer focus around brands, that is just money-making right there in terms of being able to just buy right when you see it. And I think the combination of user engagement with the monetization around advertising as well as buying, that just is one plus one equals three there.
Yeah.
And so when a company is preparing to go public, what are some of the things you try and focus on in terms of maximizing the market cap on day one, which obviously maximizes Bessemer's return on the money you've invested on? Right.
So we like to invest when companies are not really looking to raise, whereas I think an entrepreneur, rightly so, would try to delay raising until they absolutely need it. But, you know, I think there's a lot of different...
hypotheses around here I've heard you know raise money when you don't need it raise money when you're not looking for it so I think that there's a lot of opportunities I mean I mean like as Pinterest prepares to go public what what kinds of things like like I know some some strategically they like to actually be really conservative on the IPO price because they want the pop on day one
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Chapter 4: What factors influence the decision to invest in a company?
There's too many interesting things to sleep for.
There you go. I love that. I love that. We put our heads on the bed, and then ideas start going, and we can't fall asleep, right?
You got to get the notebook on the nightstand.
You and me both, man. You and me both. Okay, last question. Jay, how old are you now? 22. Okay, take us back two years. If you wish your 20-year-old self knew one thing, what would it be?
Yeah, there's a lot of things that I wish that I knew. But if it's like one thing, is it like a skill set or just anything that I would have known?
Anything about life, business in general.
Okay, I'll tell us something from a little bit of a personal tidbit. Something that I wish I knew was when you are trying to achieve your dreams professionally and career-wise... Always remember the people around you and be very sensitive into a balance of the things that you prioritize.
So prioritization.
Yes, exactly. Prioritization and being able to balance those priorities.
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