20VC: Learnings From Mary Meeker & Larry Summers, Missing Out On Uber & The Changing World of VC with Canvas Partner, Rebecca Lynn

**Harry Stebbings** (0:00)
Hello, and welcome back to The Twenty Minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings. You can find me on Snapchat at hstebbings with two Bs, or writing some hopefully rather thoughtful pieces on the new blog, mojitovc.com. Now, for the show today, and I really am so excited for our guest, I heard her first on Stanford's ETL podcast and realized that I simply had to have her on the show. Therefore, I'm delighted to welcome Rebecca Lynn to the hot seat today. Now, Rebecca is a partner at Canvas, where she focuses on fintech, digital health, SaaS and mobile. And Rebecca led an early stage investment in Lending Club, which was the largest US technology IPO of 2014 and the fourth largest internet IPO since 2001 She's also led investments in the likes of Check, acquired by Intuit, RelateIQ, acquired by Salesforce, Proximity, Practice Fusion and many more incredible companies. And prior to being in VC, Rebecca held operational roles at NextCard, where she rose to become VP of Marketing and Head of Customer Acquisition and saw the company going public with a $1.3 billion market cap. I do also want to say a special thanks to Matt Garrett at Salesforce for the intro to Rebecca, without which the interview would not have been possible today. However, before we welcome Rebecca to the hot seat, what if accounting could be easy, efficient, maybe even enjoyable? Well, that's where Xero come in. Xero is beautiful, easy to use online accounting software for small businesses. With Xero, you can easily manage your accounting anytime, anywhere from your computer or mobile device. When you add Xero to your small business, you're able to send online invoices and get paid faster, get an instant view of your cash flow, track your payroll and keep tabs on your inventory, partner with your accountant and bookkeeper in real time, whenever you like. You can even customize your Xero experience with over 500 business apps, including advanced solutions for point of sale, time tracking, e-commerce and more. It's no wonder over 860,000 customers in more than 180 countries use Xero. So sign up for a free 30-day trial at xero.com/20vc. That's xero.com/20vc. And now the books are in order. You might have some extra dollar to spend. And what better way to do that than with Pearl? Now Pearl believes the latest automotive technology should be available to every driver, whether it's time for you to buy a new car or not. Pearl Revision is their first step in driving this commitment forward. Revision is the only wireless backup camera and alert system that installs in minutes and updates throughout its lifetime. Pearl literally takes less than 10 minutes to install and is completely wireless because it's solar powered. Since Revision is software-based, it's also able to push updates and new features over the Pearl app in the exact same way you receive updates for other apps on your phone now. Pearl Revision is perfect for anyone who wants to upgrade their car in minutes and costs $499 and is available at pearlauto.com or amazon.com or through Crutchfield. However, it's now time for me to shut up and I'm delighted to hand over to Rebecca Lynn, partner at Canvas.
You have now arrived at your destination.
Rebecca, such a pleasure to have you on The Twenty Minute VC today. So many people have recommended you. It was tough to exactly remember which one to thank, but let's thank Matt Garrett at Salesforce for the intro. But thank you so much for joining me today, Rebecca.

**Rebecca Lynn** (3:05)
Thank you so much, and thank you, Matt.

**Harry Stebbings** (3:07)
But I'd love to get started today by discussing a little bit about you and how you made your way into what I most definitely call the wonderful world of venture.

**Rebecca Lynn** (3:15)
Absolutely. So I think like most venture capitalists, I never intended to be in venture capital.
I started out in the Midwest. I was a chemical engineer in my old life. I was a first-generation college kid. I knew what venture did as an engineer back in the Midwest, but I really hadn't thought that that would be my path. I moved out here, though, in 98 after working at Procter & Gamble and their global team, and was one of the first people at a company called NextCard. NextCard was funded by Sequoia. Mike Moritz was on the board, in fact. Kleiner Perkins, NEA and others. And it was phenomenal. I was employee 30, the first product person. Product is where a lot of VCs actually do come from.
And we were the first online credit card and credit product. And that company grew from 30 to 1,300 when I was there. We went public and I was there for about four years running one of the top online advertising efforts. That was amazing experience. From there, I went and I did my own company where I had more of a consulting organization that helped the large financial institution really figure out their product and their online presence. And then at some point in my life, I decided it was better. I wanted to go on a sabbatical. And my husband encouraged me to go back to get my higher level degree that I'd always wanted to get. So I went back and I went on a sabbatical as I determined, did a JD MBA at the University of California at Berkeley. And it was just phenomenal. It was more phenomenal probably because as an undergraduate, I worked three jobs, including a stint in a nuclear reactor as a chemical engineer.