Deep Dive: What you should know about early stage venture capital with Jyri Engeström
Deep Dive is a brand-new segment of Understanding VC where I explore discrete concepts related to venture capital with our guests. This episode is inspired by the remarkable deck that Jyri Engenstrom has created on the functioning of early-stage VCs, which you can find in the show notes. Jyri is a partner and co-founder at Yes VC, an early-stage VC firm based in San Francisco.
Jyri's deck - What You Should Know About Early-Stage Venture Capital
Jason Lemkin's tweet that started this discussion.
In this episode, you will learn:
- The mechanics of early-stage VC, their 2 and 20 compensation structure and the brutal math of VC
- Why do VCs raise new funds every 2-3 years?
- How are rolling funds and evergreen funds different from traditional VC funds?
- What is a capital call and why don't VCs hold a lot of cash in the bank?
- Why is it important for VCs to negotiate pro rata rights with startups?
- Why was minimum ownership in a startup traditionally important for VCs and what are the reasons that seems to be changing?
- What are the different approaches VCs adopt to support their startups with better alignment?
- What is the most consequential decision that you would make when building a startup?
- How does building products and services for growing social movements create multi-billion startups?
- Why do early-stage firms succeed by saying 'Yes' more than saying 'No'?
About
Jyri Engeström is an early investor in Unity, Dapper Labs, Oura, and many other successful companies. Together with his partner Caterina Fake he runs Yes VC, an early stage firm based in San Francisco. Before starting Yes VC he founded two companies. The first one sold to Google, the second one to Groupon.
Partner & Co-Founder at Yes VC
Jyri Engeström is an early investor in Unity, Dapper Labs, Oura and many other successful companies. Together with his partner Caterina Fake he runs Yes VC, an early-stage firm based in San Francisco. Before starting Yes VC he founded two companies. The first one sold to Google, the second one to Groupon.
