@DaveMcClure @500Startups http://500.co Stockholm TechFest
- Sept 2016 Farming Unicorns Building Startup & Investor Ecosystems

Dave McClure Founding Partner, 500
Startups 00’s & 10’s: • VC: Founders Fund, Facebook fbFund, 500 Startups • Angel: Mashery, Mint.com, SlideShare, Twilio, Wildfire, SendGrid • Marketing: PayPal, Simply Hired, Mint.com, O’Reilly 80’s & 90’s: • Entrepreneur: Aslan Computing (acq’d by Servinet/Panurgy) • Developer: Windows / SQL DB consultant (Intel, MSFT) • Engineer: Johns Hopkins‘88, BS Eng / Applied Math

• What is 500? –
$250M global seed fund + startup accelerator – 125 people / 25 languages / 20 countries – 1600+ Companies / 3000+ Founders / 200+ Mentors – Investment, Accelerator, Distro, Marketing, Events, Education – Community + Content + Conferences • 1600+ Co’s / 60+ Countries – Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) – Credit Karma – Grab (aka GrabTaxi) – Wildfire (acq GOOG, $350M) – MakerBot (acq SSYS, $400M) – Viki (acq Rakuten, $200M) – Behance (acq Adobe, $150M) – Simple (acq BBVA, $117M) – Sunrise (acq MSFT, $100M) – Udemy – Ipsy – TalkDesk – Intercom 500 Startups Global Seed Fund & Startup Accelerator

Investor Ecosystem Angels & Accelerators
($0-10M) “Seed” Funds ($10-100M) “Traditional” VC Funds ($100-500M) “Unicorn” VC Funds (>$500M) Incubation 0-$100K Seed $100K-$1M Series A/B $1-10M Series B/C $10-100M Bootstrap, KickStarter, AngelList, Crowdfunding

Football West Coast Offense Baseball
MoneyBall Basketball 3 point revolution Venture Capital 500 Startups “Lots of little bets” 500 Strategy: MoneyBall for Startups Re-inventing a 50-year old sport

500 Startups Mission 1.Find Smart
People. 2.Give Them Money. 3.Wait for Good Shit to Happen.

500 Startups Mission • Provide
capital, community, education to smart people (founders, investors) • Build functional startup ecosystems (founders, team, angels, accelerators, VC funds, capital, exits, liquidity, etc) • #HFGSD: Have Fun, Get Shit Done.

Dinosaurs vs. Cockroaches LEAN Startup:
Simpler, Faster, Cheaper, Smarter 1996 ”Big, Fat, Dinosaur Startup” • Sun Servers • Oracle DB • Exodus Hosting • 12-24mo dev cycle • 6-18mo sales cycle • <100M people online • $1-2M seed round • $3-5M Series A • Sand Hill Road crawl 2016 ”Lean, Little, Cockroach Startup” • AWS, Google, PayPal, FB, TW • Cloud + Open Source SW • Lean Startup / Startup Wknd • 3-90d dev cycle • SaaS / online sales • >3B people online • <$100K incub + <$1M seed • $1-3M Series A • Angel List global visibility

Platforms: Search, Social, Mobile, Video,
Messaging

How Many Startups to Get
to 1 Unicorn?

Perils of Becoming a Unicorn
(Before/After IPO) 2009 2016 Jeff Lawson, Founder/CEO Twilio (NYSE:TWLO)

The Unicorn “Hedge” https://500hats.com/welcome-to-the-unicorn-hedge-2fd3c6b50f89 Q:
Which is more overvalued? — 100 Unicorn startups or Fortune 500? TREND: Non-tech public companies buying innovation (aka Unicorns) as a hedge against the value of their own stock. Examples: Dollar Shave Club -> Unilever, Cruise -> GM, Jet.com -> Walmart.

99 VC Problems But a
Batch Ain’t 1 13 http://bit.ly/99VCProblems

Q: Chances of spotting unicorn?/
a) 1% b) 2% c) 5% d) 10% e) ZERO

Chances of spotting unicorn =
~1%/

If portfolio size = 15
companies/

/ If portfolio size =
30 companies

/ If portfolio size =
100 companies

500 Strategy: Lots of Little
Bets* 1) make lots of little bets on early-stage startups when they’re just getting started 3) wait 5-10 years for returns: -10-20% small exits @1-5X ($5-25M+) -5-10% larger exits @5-20X ($25-250M+) -1-2% unicorns @20-50X+ ($250M-1B+) *See Peter Sims book: “Little Bets” 2) over the next five years, double-down on top 20-30% ~500 co’s @ $100K 1st checks 100+ co’s @ $200-500K 2nd/3rd checks (hope for a few big exits @ $100M-$1B+) (assume high failure rate ~50-80%)

Startup Risk Reduction Concept Early
Customer Usage Scalable Customer Acquisition [about to be] Profitable Unit Economics Scalable Profitable Business Functional Prototype PRODUCT MARKET REVENUE Exit? When 500 Likes to Invest

The Lean Investor Make lots
of little bets: • Start with many small “experiments” • Filter out failures + small wins • Double-down on stuff that looks like it’s working • Incubation: $0-100K (“Build & Validate Product”) • Seed: $100K-$1M (“Test & Grow Marketing Channels””) • Venture: $1M-$10M (“Maximize Growth & Revenue”)

Investment Stage #1: Product
Validation + Customer Usage • Structure – 1-3 founders – $0-$100K investment – Incubator environment: multiple peers, mentors/advisors • Test Functional Prototype / “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP): – Prototype->Alpha, ~3-6 months – Develop Minimal Critical Feature Set => Get to “It Works! Someone Uses It.” – Improve Design & Usability, Setup Conversion Metrics – Test Small-Scale Customer Adoption (10-1000 users) • Demonstrate Concept, Reduce Product Risk, Test Functional Use • Develop Metrics & Filter for Possible Future Investment

Investment Stage #2: Market
Validation + Revenue Testing • Structure – 2-10 person team – $100K-$1M investment – Syndicate of Angel Investors / Small VC Funds • Improve Product, Expand Customers, Test Revenue: – Alpha->Beta, ~6-12 months – Scale Customer Adoption => “Many People Use It, & They Pay.” – Test Marketing Campaigns, Customer Acquisition Channels + Cost – Test Revenue Generation, Find Profitable Customer Segments • Prove Solution/Benefit, Assess Market Size • Test Channel Cost, Revenue Opportunity • Determine Org Structure, Key Hires

Investment Stage #3: Revenue
Validation + Growth • Structure – 5-25 person team – $1M-$10M investment – Seed & Venture Investors • Make Money (or Go Big), Get to Sustainability: – Beta->Production, 12-24 months – Revenue / Growth => “We Can Make (a lot of) Money!” – Mktg Plan => Predictable Channels / Campaigns + Budget – Scalability & Infrastructure, Customer Service & Operations – Connect with Distribution Partners, Expand Growth • Prove/Expand Market, Operationalize Business • Future Milestones: Profitable/Sustainable, Exit Options

Building Startup Ecosystems

Critical Ecosystem Factors • Optimism
& Belief (“Silicon Valley”) • Mentorship + Education (Knowledge) • Universities + Companies (People) • Capital, Legal, Finance (Infrastructure) • Engineering + Design / UX (Product) • Platforms + Distribution (Customers) • Online Payments (Monetization) • IPO / M&A Market (Exits)

What’s Most Critical? • You
DON’T need to be in Silicon Valley, but… • Silicon Valley Needs to be in YOU.

Questions? Comments? • More Info?
– http://500.co (our company) – http://500hats.com (my blog) – https://angel.co/500startups (our fund) – Dave McClure, @DaveMcClure