20VC: Why the SaaS Apocalypse is BS | Why China Will Win the AI War | Why 50% of VCs Should Not Exist and are Tourists | Why Stock-Based Comp is the Hidden Sin of the Valley with Mitchell Green, Lead Edge Capital
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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
1h 0m
3 speakers
8 chapters
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Why do some believe the SaaS apocalypse is exaggerated?
What I'm the most excited about is there's going to be a really bad downturn. If you don't have earnings or EBITDA, there is no floor in a lot of these things. AI is not going to be about the next call center company or the next workday. ByteDance is the most advanced AI company in the world. Don't count China out. I bet they win the AI world. Don't underestimate Chinese creativeness and ingenuity to figure out how to reverse engineer and engineer things in much cheaper ways than Americans can do. Buying is glamorous.
What lessons can we learn from the 1999 retail crash?
Selling is the job. There's 50% too many VCs. 50, 60% of people in this industry that actually probably add negative value to companies.
This is 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings. And for the show today, we have Mitchell Green at Lead Edge joining us. I freaking love Mitchell and I'll tell you why. In a world of fluff and framework thinking investors, Mitchell Green is a moneymaker. Mitchell has co-led or led investments in insane companies like Alibaba, Benchling, ByteDance, Grafana, among many others. Across different cycles, he's shown ability to make money, real DPI, unlike anyone else. This was an investor nerd's dream show to do. But before we dive into the show today, this one's for the finance pros who want to drive real business impact with travel and expense, rather than waste time chasing receipts or force people onto outdated tools that only add to month-end chaos.
Enter Navan, an AI-powered travel and expense platform that helps save your company money through real-time visibility, policy control, and high employee adoption.
How does stock-based compensation impact Silicon Valley?
It's easy to use. You can book a trip in seven minutes compared to, and this is mind-boggling, the industry average of a whopping 45 minutes. And smart AI approves in-policy bookings and blocks everything else automatically. And you can track travel spend in real time.
Why is China positioned to lead in the AI race?
See exactly how you're saving up to 15% on your travel budget. That's why the world's smartest companies like Anthropic, Figma, Stripe, Canva use Navan. Go to navan.com forward slash 20VC today to see for yourself and to find out how you could win two business class flights anywhere in the continental US because we all deserve a vacation, right? No purchase necessary. Rules apply. Good luck. While Navant streamlines travel and expense end-to-end, Airwallis helps you pay and move money globally.
What does it mean to sell versus buy in venture capital?
Founders, let's get real about the growth tax. You've raised VC funding and you're scaling globally, and it's no longer about shipping product. It's about orchestrating operations across continents. But suddenly your payments and finance stack is choking your growth.
Why do many VCs lack the necessary skills for the industry?
You're logging into lots of different banking portals, waiting days for transfers and reporting across entities. It's operational drag and it's at your scale. It's costing millions. That's why I'm so excited to partner with Airwallex. Airwallex are more than just a banking alternative to HSBC or Citi. Airwallex brings you an intelligent financial operating system that powers how global businesses operate and grow, allowing you to manage and automate banking, treasury, payments, and spend. The most exciting part for me, they're heavily investing in agentic finance. If you're scaling globally, you need a banking and finance platform that's borderless, real-time, and intelligent. Check out Airwallex today and see how they're helping thousands of businesses like Canva, McLaren, and Deal scale at airwallex.com forward slash 20VC.
What is the significance of gross dollar retention in SaaS?
Terms and conditions apply. Your monies are safeguarded, not FSCS protected. See airwallets.com for more details. You have now arrived at your destination. Mitchell, dude, it is so good to have you back in the studio. I love doing these with you and Larry are my favorites. You know why? You could have us on together. Do you want to be great to have you on together? If you're in London together, we should do it. And we should do it actually over like a dinner and mic everyone up.
100%.
It'll be amazing. Listen, I want to start with something that's actually quite disarming for a lot of investors today, which is bluntly the saspocalypse, the sassica.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why do some believe the SaaS apocalypse is exaggerated?
0:00–0:27
2
What lessons can we learn from the 1999 retail crash?
0:27–1:31
3
How does stock-based compensation impact Silicon Valley?
1:31–1:46
4
Why is China positioned to lead in the AI race?
1:46–2:16
5
What does it mean to sell versus buy in venture capital?
2:16–2:29
6
Why do many VCs lack the necessary skills for the industry?
2:29–3:15
7
What is the significance of gross dollar retention in SaaS?
3:15–20:33
8
How will AI change the investment landscape in the next decade?
20:33–1:00:21
Speakers
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