20VC: When Should CEOs Ask Their VC For Help, When Do Companies Really Need A Board & What The Series A Expansion Means For Startups with Max Gazor, General Partner @ CRV

**Harry Stebbings** (0:00)
Harry Stebbings here for another episode of The Twenty Minute VC, where you can see all things behind the scenes on Snapchat, at hstebbingswith2bz. It'd be fantastic to see you there. But to the show today and following Monday's episode with Will Porteous at RRE on the East Coast, we return today to the Valley and joining me in the hot seat, I'm thrilled to welcome Max Gazor. Max is a general partner at CRV, one of the nation's oldest and most successful VC firms, now on their 16th fund and with a portfolio including the likes of Twitter, Yammer, Zendesk and ClassPass, just to name a few. As for Max, he's led deals in the likes of Airtable, Simplivity, Xamarin and many more incredible companies. And prior to CRV, Max led acquisitions and investments across enterprise and emerging technologies for Cisco's corporate development team. I do also have to say a huge thanks to Max's colleague and previous guest, Sargur, for the fantastic intro today. And if you haven't seen Sargur's episode, then that really is a must listen. But before we dive into the show today, I want to tell you about WePay. WePay helps online platforms increase revenue through integrated payments processing, constant contact, Equid and GoFundMe use WePay. Why? Because WePay uniquely helps platforms offer ROI positive, integrated payments to their users within their UX and without taking on fraud and regulatory exposure. Others make you trade off between UX friction or fraud, not WePay. WePay also offers award winning support and can even work with your team through Slack or Zendesk. Get the payments revenue you want without getting bogged down every time a user has a payments question. But don't trust me. Visit wepay.com forward slash Harry. Oh yes, I have my own URL for a video case study on how Equid grew its revenue while better serving customers with WePay. That's wepay.com forward slash Harry. You'll also be made eligible for a year of free premium support on wepay.com forward slash Harry. And how could we forget Pipedrive? Something we use here every day at The Twenty Minute VC to manage the pipeline for guests. Pipedrive is the sales CRM and pipeline management software to use with the primary view being the pipeline, a clear visual interface that prompts you to take action, remain organized and stay in control of a complex sales process. This is why sales pros and deal makers love it. My words, not Pipedrive's. But it easily lets you find the stats you need. And even better, it's fully customizable. And if you're like me and don't like paying for products upfront without knowing how good they are, this is for you as you can sign up for free on pipedrive.com. It really is a must. But enough from me. And now I'm thrilled to hand over to Max Gazor, General Partner at CRV.
You have now arrived at your destination.
Max, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show today. A huge thanks to your wonderful partner, Sar, for the intro. But thank you so much for joining me today, Max.

**Max Gazor** (2:38)
It's awesome to be here. Thanks, Harry.

**Harry Stebbings** (2:39)
I'd love, though, to get started today with a little about you. How you made your foray into the world of VC and your entry point.

**Max Gazor** (2:46)
You know, I'd always admired VC from the outside. Pretty technical background and had always been around the valley professionally. And so admired VCs and sort of wanted to know more about kind of how the business works. So when I graduated business school, I had an opportunity to spend some time with the folks at CRV out in Cambridge and kind of got to know them culturally and what the firm was about. And about a year later, had an opportunity after having left Cisco to kind of figure out what was next for me and got to reacquaint myself with the team at CRV.
And quickly, within about a week, I had an opportunity to join the firm.

**Harry Stebbings** (3:19)
I'm really intrigued, though, because it's not as kind of simple and straightforward as that. I'm sure you painted a very nice picture, but it's not as simple and straightforward for many people. And often it's described as very difficult to break into. I'm intrigued. Why do you think VC is so difficult to break into?

**Max Gazor** (3:33)
Yeah, I think it comes down to the fact that VC's really cherish their cultures and the cultures of the firms. These are organizations that have kind of honed specific cultures over decades.
And bringing on someone new is sometimes scary for folks in terms of understanding how they fit internally. I think the advantage that I had in particularly breaking in was that I had spent some time with the team and I'd shown myself and had also become familiar with the people at the team. And so it was a much easier decision. But in general, I think because they are small teams and it's an apprentice model, and you spend and invest a lot of time with people, you really want to make sure that the people that you bring on are strong fits internally. And I think that that's the key barrier is just that time investment that a lot of partners don't have.