Editor’s Note: We are continuing to work on bringing new virtual programming, premium workshops, as well as virtually re-creating the events you’ve come to know us for. We aim to take this time to make our community even stronger.
If you’ve ever been curious to learn more about what CVC does and the value of our programming, this is an excellent chance to hear from some of our members and Board Members.
In partnership with Columbia Venture Partners, we hosted a highly informative webinar about our panelists' personal experiences in CVC, talked about how to get involved, and discussed the future of VC and startups during these uncertain times.
Below are the highlights, please watch the webinar recording to hear the full discussion.
Columbia Venture Community (CVC) — a global network of nearly 6,000 Columbia University alumni, students, and staff who are interested in all aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Panelists:
Stefan Djuknic, CVC Board Member
Linda Tvrdy, CVC Community Member
Joseph Sass, CVC Board Member
Moderated by: Aurnov Chattopadhyay, President, Columbia Venture Partners
Join a global program! You can apply for one of the four programs listed above, as an entrepreneur, as a venture capitalist, or as a mentor.
“I went to a dinner, and over the course of about two and a half hours, went from complete strangers not really knowing what to talk about, or to whom to speak at the table to just this wide-ranging conversation, you know, exchanging numbers and, and having a real community.” — Joseph Sass
“I didn’t know anything and I really didn’t feel like I had any platform or entitlement to speak about entrepreneurship, or technology. I went to a happy hour. And I thought I could just hide — but nobody asked me to justify why I was there. The fact that I was there was sufficient justification for me to be there. It is not an exaggeration to say that CVC gave me the courage and the community to start to figure out what my path was. And now, I’ve founded a tech company and I’m working in a software company right now.”— Linda Tvrdy
Entrepreneurs look to the future
While the future is impossible to predict, it is almost certain that the ways we communicate and relate will be different.
The way we receive healthcare, the regulations surrounding it, and the privacy we’re willing to give up to receive it will be among the first issues to be renegotiated.
We are likely to rethink the way money works and the ways in which VCs invest will likely shift as well.
VCs will possibly be more cautious, but the situation is still developing.
Startup Podcasts and ReadingS
Recode Decode, Podcast
What a Day, news Podcast
a16z, Podcast
Snacks, Podcast, Robinhood
The Substack Podcast
How I Built This, Podcast, NPR
The Pitch, Podcast, Gimlets
CBInsights, Podcast
TechCrunch, Podcasts
Crunchbase
Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
Infinite Powers by Steven Strogatz
MIT newsletters
Stratechery, blog, Ben Thompson
Interested in joining the network?
Interested in volunteering with us?
Full Transcript:
Courtland Thomas: Hi, everyone, thank you for tuning in. The numbers are still climbing, but we’re going to go ahead and get started. Just so everyone knows this is being recorded, just for content and for people to receive it afterward.
Thanks for those who filled out the poll. We’ll talk a little bit about all of these topics, but it seems like out of the poll options, people are most interested in learning about CVC events and programming, and we’ll definitely jump into all of that.
Just a few housekeeping items before we get started. This webinar is being recorded, as previously mentioned. You will receive a link to the recording within about one week, so make sure to look out for the email recap, including the link, in your inbox.
There is a Q&A and we love questions. If you have a question that comes up in the middle of the panel, please add it to the Q&A box. It’s usually at the bottom of your screen, marked Q&A. Go ahead and pop in a question as we go along and we will try to answer as many questions as we can at the end of the webinar.
To start us off, an overview of CVC. CVC was founded in 2006 with the mission of fostering entrepreneurship among any Columbia affiliate, whether that was alum or students or faculty members. We continue to do that through three main channels.
The first channel is through events and programming in our chapter cities. These events and programs build the face-to-face connection in these vibrant cities, including New York, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, London, Seoul, Washington DC, and a few in Asia as well.
Most of the events happen once per quarter or once per month. They tend to rotate around four main themes. The first is our annual demo night. Our demo nights occur usually in the fall, and provide a chance for entrepreneurs working on cutting-edge technologies to present their startup to investors who are willing to invest.
Second is our venture dinners. Two of our panelists today actually met at a venture dinner talking about trends in the industry with entrepreneurs and VCs. We also host a series of roundtable discussions, panels and expert presentations.
The third main initiative is through our online listserv. People can discuss ideas and network with 5,600 community members directly in their inbox. We see perhaps the most resources shared just peer to peer in the form of a listserv. You’ll commonly see a question about fundraising or how to find the right accountant etc., and we’re continuously surprised at how open and willing people are to share these resources.
Last is a new category for us. We’ve recently launched a number of global programs ranging from our content series to our VC matching program, and soon to launch are two initiatives: the female founder accelerator, and the healthcare network.
The female founder accelerator is for any person who identifies as female launching a business, from just the idea all the way down to the inception of that business or that idea.
The healthcare network is a collection of industry experts, regulatory experts, etc. and entrepreneurs working in the industry. As we all know, the industry is pretty heavily regulated, and just having that peer-to-peer expertise for entrepreneurs as they’re exploring the industry, is crucial for the success of their business.
[5:00]
Getting involved is perhaps the most common question we get, and it’s also the biggest answer. There are many ways to get involved with CVC, and you’ll hear some of the stories of how people have gotten involved on the Board through today’s chat. But just so everyone knows, there are four main ways to get involved with CVC.
The first is the most basic: attending events based on your interest. Like I said earlier, we tend to do events ranging from one per month to one per quarter, which have now transitioned to digital and virtual. We continue to do events based on the main interests of the community. If you have an idea for an event that you really wish existed or you don’t see it happening, please tell us. We love getting feedback from members and working that into our programming.
The second main way of getting involved is on the listserv. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s really shocking to see how people are willing to come together to share resources, contacts, lessons learned, etc. If you see a question that you know the answer to or you yourself have a question, please leverage the listserv. It goes to about 5,600 Columbia alum, students, etc. who are willing to help.
Third is to join a global program. You can apply for one of the four programs listed on the previous page as an entrepreneur, as a venture capitalist, or as a mentor.
And then last, if you are really engaged and you would like to be even more involved, there’s also opportunities to join the board. We have a number of positions and three main buckets, the first being the Global Board, the second being a global program, and the third is with your local chapter.
All of these opportunities are available to any Columbia affiliate, whether you’re a Columbia alum, faculty member, student, etc.
And last, before I turn it over to Aurnov, if you’re interested in joining the network, you can go to columbiaventurecommunity.com. There’s a link to apply. And then if you would like to volunteer with us, there’s also a form bitly link where you can apply. Both of these links will be shared out in the event recap that will hit your inboxes within about a week.
We have two main events coming up in the next few weeks. Next week, we’ll be doing this again with the author David Bland, who wrote Testing Business Ideas. He will be in a fireside chat conversation with our CVC Denver Chapter Lead.
Then on May 7, we have our first virtual incubation roundtable. Incubation is sort-of a pitch night capped at around 15 people. So if you have a business idea that you’d like to get feedback on, or you would like to provide feedback to other entrepreneurs, incubation is a great way to meet people in a certain industry or stage of startup.
With that, I’m now going to pass it over to Aurnov.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay I’m Aurnov from Columbia Venture Partners, and thank you so much, Courtland, for introducing CVC. Thank you to our panelists, Stefan, Linda and Joseph who are here today. Before we dive in, we want to share a little bit more about Columbia Venture Community for the Columbia undergrads and CVP members who are on the call today. I also wanted to give a little bit of an introduction about what Columbia Venture Partners does.
Columbia Venture Partners is Columbia’s first and leading undergraduate venture capital initiative. It’s really focused on the undergrad student body, and we try to get as many tech entrepreneurial and investment-oriented undergrads together.
Every year we select a 20-analyst cohort, we match them with venture capital and tech internship opportunities and we provide them training and an academy program, teaching them about term sheet financials, market research and valuation.
CVP represents Columbia in a lot of undergrad venture capital and private-equity competitions, and we also host monthly site visits to top venture capital firms and tech startup offices in the New York City area.
On campus, CVP organizes panels and fireside chats, like this one, but typically in person, and we love bringing in speakers from the venture and tech ecosystem to share their perspectives and experiences.
[10:00]
Our organization also partners with funds, providing analysts a system on their sourcing, investment, research and diligence projects. We have a number of relationships that we continue to maintain around funds not just in the city, but around the states as well.
Some of our newer initiatives have included FoundHer, which is a connective network for undergrad females in venture capital, as well as LatAm, which is an initiative where our members went on venture treks in Mexico City, as well as other Latin American countries, meeting with over 30 top venture firms and startups.
We are constantly in the process of expanding our global partnerships, connecting Columbia with these opportunities and training our undergraduate student body, but we definitely see CVC as a great continuation of that for students and a great opportunity, post-college as well.
We’re really thankful to have this platform to facilitate this panel, learn more about CVC, and connect that with the Columbia undergrad body.
Before we dive in to questions, it would be great if our panelists would introduce themselves and their involvement with Columbia Venture Community, as well as their connection with Columbia.
Linda Tvrdy: I would be happy to start. I’m Linda Tvrdy. I wear two hats right now: I’m the founder of a nonprofit tech organization called DaisyDebt. We help low-income consumers protect themselves against predatory debt buyers.
My day job is as a transaction advisor for Litera which is a legal software company. I teach lawyers that technology won’t bite them.
I started my career as a garden-variety commercial civil litigator. I did that for about seven years, and that was plenty. I bounced around for a little while, started a family, and then decided to go back to school, and that’s where I started my connection with Columbia.
I got a doctorate in history in 2013 ‒ it turned out to be legal history, so my involvement with the law has continued. I have also taught classes as an adjunct with the Committee on Global Thought. I taught a course called The Future of the Global Economy and Society with David Park, who I think is still floating around Columbia faculty somewhere.
I was also an interim associate director for a fintech initiative with the Columbia Business School. I’ve also served occasionally as a pitch coach and sometimes judge for pitch competitions especially with SIPA.
Joseph Sass: Hey everybody, my name is JJ Sass. I am a current student at Columbia. I’m a dual-degree student getting an MBA at the Business School and a Master of International Affairs in SIPA.
Prior to going back to grad school, I was on the west coast in private equity and venture capital. I was out there for just shy of four years with a firm called Jasper Ridge Partners. Prior to that, I was in New York at Goldman in a multi-asset-class quantitative-investing role. So I’ve seen the big investment-bank opportunities, and a smaller private investment shop.
When I first moved back to New York from the west coast, I had no real network here, so I joined CVC partially as a way to create a network. CVC was a great way to snap my fingers and have access to the New York venture and tech and startup ecosystem.
While I’ve been here at Columbia, I am a VC fellow at the Business School where I’ve been working with new enterprise associates. I also just launched a startup of my own this week, so that has been taking up some of my time as well.
[15:00]
Stefan Djuknic: Hi, I’m Stefan. I graduated from Columbia College with a degree in economics and I’m currently working at a startup that connects [audio breakup]. In the past, I worked for a Fintech VC. I interned at a biomedical engineering startup at Columbia that was actually funded by Peter Teal.
Right now I’m working with CVC and the Venture Engagement Program where we connect Columbia-founded startups and VC firms. I found out about it through the Columbia Startup Lab, which some of you may know of, which is basically cohorts of different Columbia startups at a WeWork downtown.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Thank you for the introductions. Diving right in, Columbia Venture Community really has a wide breadth of programming, and one thing we’d love to learn is what aspect of this programming has been your favorite aspect across its social, professional and global dimensions.
Joseph Sass: The first event that I ever did through CVC was one of the family dinners. It’s where Linda and I first met. As I said, I had come from the west coast, and I had no real venture tech network on the east coast. My entire network was on the west coast. There were probably nine of us or so sitting around a big table, and over the course of about two-and-a-half hours, we went from being complete strangers, not really knowing what to talk about or to whom to speak at the table, to having a wide-ranging conversation, exchanging numbers, and having a real community.
I know it sounds kind-of hokey ‒ and as it’s coming out of my mouth, it sounds hokey again, but it really was pretty magical, what happened over the course of that two-and-a-half hours with that small setting. It really set off my great experience with CVC.
Linda Tvrdy: I’ll support you on the hokeyness. For all of you non-tech people out there, I was a historian and a lawyer, and I just had this idea. I had studied how lawyers in the 19th century practiced, and I knew how 20th-century lawyers practice because I did it myself, and I also knew that there is this enormous persistent justice gap where we have more lawyers than we know what to do with and people that are going into court without lawyers in vast numbers. So I just had a little idea that tech might help, but to say that I couldn’t code is such an understatement.
I didn’t know anything, and I didn’t feel like I had any platform or entitlement to speak about entrepreneurship or technology. I went to a happy hour, and I thought I could hide and just see what was going on. It was the most warm and open environment. Nobody asked me to justify why I was there. The fact that I was there was sufficient justification for me to be there. I was interested, I listened, I shared what I could.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the CVC gave me the courage and the community to start to figure out what my path was. I founded a tech company and I’m working in a software company right now.
Stefan Djuknic: I agree. CVC has so many great events. Just last week, there was an interesting webinar on health tech, and I attended NYC Cyber Tech accelerator opening. There are just so many events across all the different chapters. There are events in New York City, in San Francisco, in Korea, in London. Just in New York City, which is where I live and where I attend events, there’s pitch night, there’s demo night, there’s incubation nights. For whatever you’re interested in, there are so many opportunities.
I’ve been fortunate to be able to attend some of these events, for example the CVC Board dinner, where I got to speak with a lot of like-minded people. It’s great to be part of such a wonderful community, meet so many people, and learn so much. Everyone should go to the meetup page and see which events they would be interested in attending, because there are so many great things.
Linda Tvrdy: And don’t be shy, though if you are shy, it’s all good.
Joseph Sass: Last summer I was on the west coast again, working with a VC firm out there, and I wanted to connect to the Columbia community temporarily while I was on the west coast, and what I found valuable was that CVC has a San Francisco chapter. I was able to do that right from the start. It’s kind-of a plug-and-play network, and it’s more than just exchanging LinkedIn invites or business cards. It really is a community, and people are willing to help, which is great.
[20:00]
Linda Tvrdy: And in terms of the willingness to help, it’s not just answering a question or making an introduction. People will dig right in. People would give me meetings about my idea, and even if it was something in which they weren’t really interested in investing, or didn’t see the investment possibility for themselves, they gave me feedback. And not the kind of feedback that makes you feel bad inside, but it was more like the feedback that a friend might give to you ‒ an honest friend. It’s great.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Thanks for providing a lot more color as to how each of you guys had great personal experiences with CVC. I know for a lot of us, we’re wondering whether or not we can stay engaged with Columbia’s venture capital community post college, and so definitely a question that’s top of mind is how you can get involved. It seems like all of you have had a really great breadth and awesome experiences with CVC.
Taking a step back, I know that we are experiencing an unprecedented time. Given the breadth of experiences represented by previous panelists, we’d love to hear about your perspective on trends in technology and investment, and your perspective about current events surrounding COVID-19 and what’s going on, and specifically, the impact of that in terms of the tech and venture ecosystems.
Linda Tvrdy: That is a very big question, and it’s a little bit out of my lane, but that’s never stopped me before. Starting with COVID-19, there are some really interesting things that have happened around how people communicate and how they relate, but that’s boring.
I’m trying to put this in a way that isn’t too controversial. I think we’re going to rethink how money works, rethink how governance works, rethink how healthcare is delivered. A lot of things are going to change. And I think the path that capital is going to take ‒ I don’t know, maybe you guys can tell me how capital is going to make good predictions about where to go.
Joseph Sass: Linda said something really interesting about the way that we communicate and interact. I think what’s happening in this post-COVID world is that all of the abstract is now tangible. To illustrate what I mean by that: one of the spaces that I’ve looked at quite a bit from an investment side for the last six to nine months is the senior living and eldercare space, and it was all very theoretical. We’d think about how to facilitate monitoring ‒ putting cameras in the house, or putting devices on a senior citizen’s wrist or around their neck, or whatever.
Suddenly, we need all of that. Suddenly, it’s not just an abstract idea. It’s about my grandfather who has Alzheimer’s and is in an assisted living facility, while my grandmother who does not have Alzheimer’s and is totally fine is now living by herself at home, and I, as their grandson, have to worry about both of them and connecting to both of them and making sure that we’re able to stay in touch and that I know that they’re being taken care of and that they’re getting enough food.
All of these things were abstract ideas of, “Oh, I wonder if technology can solve this?” Suddenly it’s real life and it’s something that, after this conference is over, I have to worry about in real life. I think that’s what’s happening. The wave is going out to sea and you’re seeing what’s really left behind.
[25:00]
Linda Tvrdy: Just in terms of concrete versus abstract and theoretical, I’ve been following some of the people writing in the modern monetary theory space, and until a month ago, they were considered cranks. They believe that money is a political animal ‒ a creature of politics ‒ and you can spend as much money as your government is willing to spend. There are a lot of arguments about why that sounds ridiculous, except that’s what we’re actually doing right now.
Anthony Scaramucci said on a podcast recently that he’s not a modern monetary theorist, but we’re all MMT now, because that’s what circumstances require. I’m not in the investment space, but a month ago, I can’t imagine that people would have thought that cash payments to everybody in the United States was politically feasible, and it clearly is.
Joseph Sass: Andrew Yang may have been a man before his time.
Linda Tvrdy: Really early on I was following him ‒ I went to one of his fundraisers or something (I didn’t donate anything, but I went). I followed him because we talked about universal basic income in the class that I taught. It was interesting that first-year students thought it was insane, the second-year students were saying, “Okay, I see what that is, but it’ll never work,” and then the third-year students were talking about how to implement it.
Stefan Djuknic: Just to jump on to that, one of my major interests is fintech, and if you look at Scandinavian countries, they are running basically cashless societies. Mobile payments take up, I think, around 95% of Sweden’s transactions. A lot of germs and viruses can pass through money, so I think that this might also lead a trend to more mobile payments in America and other countries.
In general, I think that COVID is going to affect the VC industry quite heavily because VC firms are less likely to deploy capital in the next few quarters. I’ve spoken with a lot of startups, and a lot of the funding that was committed isn’t committed anymore, and the VC firms are holding off to see how this plays out. It’s definitely interesting to see what VC firms are going to do because they have to deploy the capital at some point, but it’s a question of when, given this crisis. Also, the VC firms have to raise their own funds and I think they’re having a lot of difficulty raising the funds from LPs, so it’s going to be interesting to see what the VC firms do.
From a startup perspective, a lot of startups might not have enough runway to survive for the next few months. You might see a lot of startups going under, even if they were promising, just because of this crisis. It’ll be interesting to see how many will be able to weather the storm and how many are going to be in a rush to raise funds right now. It’s a very interesting time to see how this crisis is going to affect VCs, LPs and startups in general.
Linda Tvrdy: Do you mind if I ask you a question? Do you think that the drying-up of some of the capital is going to push VCs to pull back, or is it going to encourage them to look at non-traditional entrepreneurs for that edge? Do you know what I mean?
Stefan Djuknic: I think it’s a combination of both. A lot of VCs, from what they’ve told me, are holding off for the time being, and maybe in the next month or two, when the economy opens back up, then they’ll deploy the capital, but they might also be more selective and maybe wait and see if they can find better opportunities. But I think Joseph has much more experience in VC, so maybe he can jump in.
Joseph Sass: I think there are two things that are going to happen. You’re going to see all these valuations that were sky high and these ridiculous revenue multiples ‒ or multiples that were valuing companies on things other than revenue or EBITDA ‒ all of these are going to come down, But at the same time, growth projections and what these companies are going to do going forward are coming down.
[30:00]
It could lead to just a lower equilibrium, or it could completely dislocate the market. What we’re seeing now is a lot of these companies that three months ago were darlings of the venture capital space, are saying that revenue for 2020 is going to be cut in half, or even more ‒ down 70%, say ‒ and now they’re laying off 20% of their workforce.
Are they going to be leaner companies coming out of that, potentially? I guess the point is, we don’t really know, because we’re still so in the middle of it. It’s an interesting question of whether this will lead to rethinking the types of companies that VCs support. It very well could, but it’s too difficult to know, as we’re still riding the waves a little bit.
A lot of venture capitalists seem to love to proclaim that they’ve been to the mountaintop and they have the good news. Maybe, but I don’t know that anybody has a great read on it.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: We really appreciate the breadth of perspectives you brought. I know this was an extremely challenging question. No one has a crystal ball and can predict this, but it’s always interesting to hear about the kind of insights and the perspectives you guys bring, especially with the breadth of experiences you guys represent.
On a much lighter note, Columbia students love reading The Core, and so we are always curious about what people like to read, and what your interests are in terms of any podcasts, blogs or books that you guys have for a recommendation, especially for students looking to hone in and learn more about business, tech, and entrepreneurship.
Linda Tvrdy: As far as podcasts related to tech, I think Recode Decode is indispensable. It’s accessible, it’s fun, it’s broad, and it isn’t super techie. It’s very accessible.
MIT puts out a whole bunch of different and really great newsletters around tech.
In terms of news ‒ and other people are going to have better suggestions ‒ I’m finding that too much news is too much, right now. For catching up on just what the headlines are and the bullet points that you need to know, my favorite podcast right now is called What a Day. Just imagine the New York Times headlines done by two pleasant, charming, funny people. So that’s my recommendation.
Joseph Sass: I’ll give a couple of mine. I’m sure this is no surprise to any of the students that are on this, but the Stratechery blog that Ben Thompson writes, and also his Exponent podcast, are great in terms of tech strategy, and understanding the chess match that’s often being played. There aren’t many people that get it better than he does, so that’s a good place to start.
As any venture capitalist who wants to ever get invited to another venture capitalist cocktail party, I have to mention the a16z podcasts, particularly, their 16-minute news podcast. I think they do a good job of covering a lot of the trends in tech and help get you a little bit smarter about those things.
One of the daily podcasts that I really like is the Snacks Daily podcast from Robinhood. It’s two guys that are in their early 30s, and they cover three stories. It’s 20 minutes every day. It’s fun. It’s a bit cheesy and corny, but in a funny way.
[35:00]
There are a lot of really smart people who are putting out content on Twitter or Substack, and a lot of it is free. You have to sift through a lot of the garbage to get the good stuff, but there’s a lot of smart people out there that don’t really have wide platforms but are doing some good work. You just have to be discerning about that, but they’re out there and you can definitely find them.
Did you ask for book recommendations as well or just for podcasts and blogs?
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Book recommendations, too.
Joseph Sass: The only reason I asked is I just read this book, and I’m telling everybody that I know about it. It’s called Infinite Powers by Steven Strogatz. He’s a math teacher at Cornell ‒ and I know we’re not supposed to support them, but the book is fantastic. It’s all about calculus, and how calculus helps to explain the world. It’s super user friendly. I read it about a month ago and loved it and have been telling everybody about it since, so I highly recommend that.
Linda Tvrdy: What was that, again?
Joseph Sass: It’s called Infinite Powers by Steven Strogatz.
Linda Tvrdy: I’m sorry, I didn’t know we were recommending books. Can I recommend Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez? It’s dense, but it’s really great. She has some fascinating theories about the relationship between technological innovation and ‒ no surprise from the title ‒ where capital flows throughout the cycles of technological revolutions. It’s just really fascinating.
Stefan Djuknic: Continuing with books, Zero to One by Peter Thiel is an amazing book that I really enjoyed. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz is also an amazing book.
In terms of podcasts, TechCrunch has great podcasts. In general, their website has some of the best tech startup and VC content. If there was only one website that I would pick to read, it would probably be TechCrunch. Crunchbase has an excellent database of different startups and VC firms.
Another podcast is The Pitch by Gimlet. There’s How I Built This, and also CB Insights has an interesting podcast. I just searched “venture capital” in the podcast app, and there are about 20 or 30 that are really high quality.
In terms of blogs, Medium has a lot of interesting content. A lot of VCs write pieces on it, so if you just search for “venture capital”, or “startups” on Medium, you’ll find a lot of interesting content. The founder of Union Square Ventures has his own blog. There’s a lot out there. You just need to find your niche and then dig down and find who’s writing about it on the internet.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Thanks for all the recommendations. I’m sure that many of the attendees will pick up on these, especially now, when some people might have extra time.
Joseph Sass: I love how we all laugh there. It’s like, we should have extra time, but I don’t know. Just quickly, I saw a joke ‒ it was on Twitter and I forget who said it ‒ where somebody said, “How is it always 4:30?” It’s always 4:30pm every day! I don’t know. It’s just always 4:30, no matter what.
Linda Tvrdy: Yeah!
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Yeah, definitely. I guess before we jump into the Q&A (a few questions have been answered already but maybe there’ll be more coming up there), we wanted to circle back to CVC. On a positive note, what’s one CVC event that you guys are really looking forward to?
Joseph Sass: To the extent that we can start doing more family dinners again and the demo days ‒ this sounds like a cop-out, but anything in person. These online events are great, and I’m so excited that we were able to join for a video conference, but ‒ and this goes back, Aurnov, to the question you asked before about some of the macro trends ‒ I think what we’re seeing is the video-conferencing platform and the work-from-home culture and all of that gets us 85–90% of the way there for most things, but that 10–15% that we missed because we’re not in person, I think is really valuable.
While I love being able to work in workout clothes all day and have a seven-step commute from the bed to the desk, I think anything where we can sit around the table and actually see another human would be something I’m looking forward to.
[40:00]
Linda Tvrdy: Me too. There’s a lot of programming, but my favorites are the happy hours and the dinners, especially the dinners because it really is a chance to get to know people. I have met such great people at those dinners, present company included.
Stefan Djuknic: I’ve always wanted to attend a dinner. I hope that when this all passes, I can attend one of them. Definitely the happy hours, and also all the other events such as demo night, pitch night, incubation night. I think that there are going to be a lot of exciting things coming when this pandemic dies down.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Awesome, thanks for sharing. I think we can jump into the Q&As now that have been provided. This was for Joseph: someone wanted you to repeat the podcasts you suggested.
Joseph Sass: Sure. It was the Exponent podcast, which is Ben Thompson, who writes Stratechery ‒ he has a separate podcast, which is free and it’s called the Exponent podcast.
The Andreessen Horowitz a16z podcast, and then their 16-minute news, which is a separate feed. Both of those are great. And then the daily one is the Snacks Daily by Robinhood. It’s two younger guys that just talk about three business or tech news stories each day. It’s a fun, light way to start the day.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Thanks. Plugging along with other questions, another one is from someone who’s looking to get involved with CVC as an investor, and is interested in what your perspectives are on how someone can get involved as an investor in CVC, and on the flip side, how you can benefit from the investors that are part of the CVC community as well.
Joseph Sass: By joining this web conference or web discussion, that anonymous attendee has taken their first step, so just continue to get involved. Go to events, go to the happy hours, meet folks. Feel free to reach out. I put my Twitter handle in my name here so that if folks want to reach out, you can do so on Twitter, and then we can connect and I’m happy to connect you to any of the various projects in CVC that I’m working on. I’m sure Linda and Stefan would agree.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Another question we have for everyone ‒ and this is, again, one of the more nebulous questions about trends: what do you think the future of private capital and private markets is going to be with respect to fewer companies going public and tapping into private markets for financing? Do you think that’s a trend that’s here to stay, or do you think this is a short-term, reactionary trend?
Joseph Sass: It ultimately gets down to a cost of capital question, and it gets down to who’s the right buyer, and whether there’s some intermediary step between VC and the public market who’s willing to hold on to a company into perpetuity.
I can tell you from some experience in that VC to PE continuum, it’s really difficult to raise evergreen capital structures that are going to hold things into perpetuity to provide the financial demands for that bridge. There are some groups that are trying to do it but it’s difficult.
A good case study for this question is Airbnb. Rather than me trying to explain it, there’s a guy who has a good Substack on this called Non-GAAP. If you look up Non-GAAP Substack, his most recent post does a pretty good job of explaining the Airbnb situation which goes to this question.
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Stefan Djuknic: I think that there’s been a general trend for the past few years where companies are staying private longer. They’re delaying IPOs because VC money has been so available. The bad thing that has happened is that SoftBank has been funding companies like WeWork, which has been losing a lot of money. If they went public, all of their problems would be very evident.
This is going to maybe accelerate VCs being more cautious about funding companies in perpetuity, providing private capital forever. IPOs might pick up again in the future, so that’s definitely a trend we should be looking out for.
Linda Tvrdy: If you want the long view, read Carlota Perez.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: I know a lot of these questions have been trying to look into a crystal ball and predict a very uncertain future. A more answerable question, I guess, is: what’s the best way for people to connect with investors that are in CVC?
Linda Tvrdy: In my experience, the best events for those are going to be ‒ they’re not pitch nights, but they’re incubator nights, where people can come with just an idea. You can come with a startup; you can come with an idea where the stakes are very low, where you’re basically explaining your idea or doing a little mini-pitch, and the people around the table will help you to refine your pitch, refine your idea ‒ workshop it. I haven’t been to a ton of them, but in my experience, there are investors who show up to those.
Then obviously pitch nights. Those are good because learning to pitch is a skill. It’s a skill set that is separate from building your business, and it’s important to know how to do it. I stink and will probably always have somebody else do it for me, but it’s really good to know how to pitch and how to field the questions. The better you get, the more likely it is that you’re going to attract the interest of investors.
Joseph Sass: I would plus-one that on the incubation nights. I attended one probably two years ago, when the startup that I just launched was nothing more than an idea ‒ a little twinkle in my eye. I brought it to one of those nights and it was certainly helpful.
Stefan Djuknic: I agree with all that. Just getting involved, attending the events, and meeting new people will help you grow your network. That’s invaluable in this industry.
Joseph Sass: And not seeing it as a transaction, either. Don’t go with the objective of wanting to meet a specific person. I think we’re all playing that game to some extent ‒ you have to, right? But don’t be so transactional about it, and understand that it is a community and that there will be people to support you, but to the extent that you can help other people, be willing and open to do that as well.
Linda Tvrdy: You could think of it in terms of you coming with both an ask and an offer. What can you bring to other people? Even if it’s just your thoughtful critique, that’s okay, too.
Stefan Djuknic: And developing relationships over time is really important. A common piece of advice is don’t microwave relationships at the last minute when you need some help, but develop relationships, meet new people, and just be friendly and be open and try to actually offer something. That’s good advice.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: There were also a few questions about specific involvements with CVC. One was: how can someone get involved with the Venture Matching Program? And another one was: are Columbia students allowed to apply for the VC Fellows Program?
Joseph Sass: I can take the point on VC Fellows. That is a program that exists within the Business School. It’s a Business School program, unfortunately.
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Aurnov Chattopadhyay: And the Venture Matching Program?
Stefan Djuknic: Reaching out to members that are part of it would be the best approach for that.
Aurnov: Another interesting question we have is: are there any tips for introverts looking to break into VC?
Joseph Sass: I love that question. You’re going to just have to push yourself a little bit. There are people in this ecosystem that are happy to just chat that are introverts at heart. I’m one of them. When we see our fellow introverts around, we understand each other, and we have empathy for it. Just try to seek them out. I love the question, and I wish I had a better answer for it, but I’m not sure off the top of my head that I do.
Linda Tvrdy: You can practice extraversion as a second language.
Joseph: Well said. That’s exactly right.
Stefan Djuknic: I think that VC is somewhat technical, and most roles ‒ if you’re doing a lot of modeling or something, you don’t necessarily have to have a lot of client interaction, at least at the lower rungs, compared to, say, wealth management, where you’re just dealing with clients, and that’s your job 100% of the time.
So I think it’s about just getting into these roles, having a good technical background, and then over time, you can work on working with clients, step by step. It’s a long road, and people shouldn’t be too worried about that in the short term.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Great responses. I think that’s a really topical question with a lot of people who are interested in venture capital.
Another trend question to close out the Q&A: what are your thoughts about healthcare IT, specifically with respect to privacy issues? The questions around TelaDoc, telehealth and telemedicine have been in the regulatory backdrop, but is this digital health really sustainable in the long term, especially given the data privacy concerns around it, and regulation? I know this is, again, a nebulous and challenging question, but it was proposed on the Q&A.
Joseph Sass: I think we’re going to emerge from this willing to make sacrifices and willing to give up privacy. Maybe we’re not. Maybe I’m speaking out of school, but my guess is a lot of people are going to come out of this experience willing to give up a little bit for what they think is a lot.
I’m not making a normative statement about that. I don’t know if that’s right, but I think that it’s true. It’s Google and Apple collaborating on the COVID social tracking where they’re able to use Bluetooth data on your phones to check if you’ve been in contact with somebody that ultimately tests positive for the virus. There are all kinds of privacy concerns there. Will people opt in to that? I think now, the percentage that will is going to be higher than it was before.
Linda Tvrdy: Given the mass, casual adoption of apps that track your location ‒ I use Waze myself ‒ the privacy issues associated with whether you’ve been exposed to COVID ‒ it does seem incremental and not different in kind to what people are already accustomed to. But that’s a guess.
Stefan Djuknic: I think that HIPAA is a big concern, and I think that because of this crisis, HIPAA regulations have been loosened a little bit to allow more telehealth services. In the future, with the adoption of more work from home, more Zoom meetings, I think that telehealth is also a next frontier because instead of the [audio breakup]
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That’s definitely one trend that you have to look into and whether that’s going to develop over the next few months and years.
Linda Tvrdy: Forgive my ignorance, but how does telehealth implicate HIPAA more than digital files of medical records? Is it just that the video platform is leakier?
Stefan Djuknic: I think there are some HIPAA concerns with sharing patient information over video where other people might hear it or through a platform that might get hacked or something. In person, there are no concerns. I’m not a healthcare expert by any means, but I think that there might be some HIPAA concerns with doing things virtually.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Thanks so much for your thoughts. I know some of these questions have been a mixture of predicting the future and also getting your thoughts on a wide variety of topics. But CVP and the Columbia attendees are really grateful to all three of you for answering this very broad range of questions and introducing CVC to us.
We’re really thankful again to Courtland, Linda, Joseph and Stefan for being here. If our panelists have any closing words for the attendees, we’d love for you to share.
Linda Tvrdy: I will speak for the non-traditional, non-tech people. Don’t hamstring yourself. If this feels like a community that you want to join, do it. You will find your path.
Joseph Sass: I would absolutely agree with that. Throw as much spaghetti at the wall as you can and see what sticks. Some things will, some things won’t. Feel free to reach out to me personally. I’m always happy to chat and welcome you into the CVC community.
Stefan Djuknic: Just one final thought is that knowledge is the backbone. We all recommended some great resources, and there are so many resources out there. Finding what you’re passionate about is key, so learn more and find what you’re passionate about, and then use CVC as a conduit to explore your passions. CVC is a great platform, and I’m looking forward to meeting some of you.
Aurnov Chattopadhyay: Thank you for those closing words as well. We really enjoyed the panel. I know a lot of undergrads and CVP members are going to be looking forward to joining CVC after learning about your perspectives and awesome experiences with the organization.
Courtland Thomas: Just jumping back in, thanks to everyone here for this great experience. We hope we can spark some sort of moments of joy in this crazy time by bringing you really interesting people, interesting questions and interesting thoughts.
I know we pushed our panelists to think outside of the norm in terms of industry and if we had a crystal ball, but I really enjoyed it, and I hope our panelists did as well. Thank you for bringing us together. This was the joy of my day and I hope it brings everyone here a lot of joy.
Just to close things out. If you are interested in learning more about CVC, you can reach out to Joseph as he kindly offered, but if he feels overwhelmed or you need a little bit more info, you can check out these links. Joining the network is a quick application through the website, and then volunteering with us is also a short application through this link. Again, these links will be shared with you in an event recap email, including the webinar recording.
If you have any other questions in the interim, I’m happy to stay on for the next five or so minutes. You can also email the Board or myself. We want to support the next wave of entrepreneurs and investors. A lot of us have been in your shoes, whether we are a first-time founder, a student, a recent grad, or an older grad, but we’re happy to be there and happy to help. Thank you all for joining.
Thank you to our amazing panelists as well as everyone who attended.