20VC: Max Altman on The New Seed War: Can Anyone Compete with Sequoia and a16z | Leaving $2BN on the Table with Reddit | Lessons from Backing Rippling at $25M Post | Why Climate Tech is a Mirage and Disaster

**Harry Stebbings** (0:00)
This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, joining me in the hot seat today, we have Max Altman. Max is the co-founder and managing partner at Saga Ventures, a $125 million early stage fund. And before Saga, Max was an investor with Apollo Projects, Hydrazine Capital and Altman Capital, where he deployed over $500 million into breakout names like Rippling and Reddit, to name a few. But before we dive into the show today, Secureframe empowers businesses to build trust with customers by simplifying information security and compliance through AI and automation. Thousands of fast growing businesses, including Nasdaq, AngelList, Doodle and Coda, trust Secureframe to expedite their compliance journey for global security and privacy standards such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001, CMMC, MIS standards and more. Backed by top tier investors and corporations like Google and Kleiner Perkins, the company is among Forbes' list of the top 100 startup employers for 2024 G2's Best Software Awards for Higher Satisfaction Products and a recipient of the 2024 Cyber Security Excellence Awards, something I definitely never got in school myself. Learn more today at secureframe.com. Once compliance is handled with Secureframe, Tezi makes sure AI handles the rest. Hiring shouldn't take months. Tezi's AI agents work 24-7 to keep your recruiting pipeline full, instantly reviewing inbound applications, sourcing top talent, rediscovering those hidden gems in your ATS, detecting fakes and pre-qualifying candidates before your team even starts interviewing. What makes Tezi so different? Well, it's all in one. AI agents across the workflow, from open to offer, a built-in ATS plus a 750 million candidate database. That means added recruiting capacity when you don't have enough hours in the day. And that's why companies like Mutiny, Pokus and Aurum, and even public companies like Real already trust Tezi. With features in VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Fortune and Axios, you have to check them out.
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**Max Altman** (3:38)
Yeah, thanks for having me. I definitely think I'm the most fun of the three. Maybe the most media shy, but the most fun.

**Harry Stebbings** (3:44)
I heard the most intellectual and charming, so I will totally take that. I want to start, though, on like a little bit earlier. You grew up in the Midwest, which for me is like a Brit. We know New York, we know SF, and then there's the middle. So this is the middle, correct? Yeah.

**Max Altman** (3:58)
So grew up in St. Louis, now live in Austin, spent a few years in San Francisco, but then bounced back to near home.

**Harry Stebbings** (4:04)
How does that impact how you think about investing as an investor?

**Max Altman** (4:08)
The culture in the Midwest is very different. It's very humble, it's very communal. And then I remember I got out to San Francisco and I'm like, everyone is so aggressive and individualistic. So I think it helps a ton. One, in that you build a lot more real relationships, and a lot more like close friendships, because that's how we grew up. The flip side is we're a little less aggressive, and some of the earlier mistakes I made was just being a little bit less pushy than some of the people that might have grown up in Atherton.

**Harry Stebbings** (4:37)
Do you think there are many real relationships in Manchester?