20VC: Why The Current Crop Of VC Does Not Understand Design, Why Product Market Fit Is A Liquid Not A Solid & How Graduates Can Optimise Their Career for Personal Development with Steve Vassallo, General Partner @ Foundation Capital

**Harry Stebbings** (0:00)
We are back for another week on The Twenty Minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and you can find me and see all things behind the scenes on The Twenty Minute VC on Instagram at hstebbings1996. As you all know, with two Bs, it would be great to see you there. However, to the show today, and there are some guests where very quickly you can just tell there's this really special rapport and engagement that will not only make for a special show, but a great relationship going forward. And that was definitely the case with our guest today. So joining us in the hot seat, I'm thrilled to welcome Steve Vassallo, general partner at Foundation Capital, where he sits or has sat on the boards of the likes of Pocket, acquired by Mozilla, PrivateCore, acquired by Facebook, Sunrun, Sentient Energy, and many more. Prior to Foundation, Steve was a senior vice president of product and engineering at Ning, the social platform he helped launch in 2004 Before that, Steve was a project leader at IDEO, where he developed more than a dozen successful products for companies including Cisco, Nike, BMW, and Mcdonalds. In addition, this year Steve published The Way to Design, a guidebook for becoming a designer founder and building a design-centric company. It really is a fantastic read. And if you haven't read that out, do check it out in the show notes. I do also have to say a big thank you to Steve's partner, Ashu Garg, for the intro to Steve today, without which this episode would not have been possible. However, before we move into the show today, Cooley are the global law firm around startups and venture capital. Since forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley, Cooley's formed more venture capital funds than any other law firm in the world, with over 50 years of experience working with VCs. They help VCs form and manage funds, make investments and handle a myriad of issues that arise through a fund's lifetime. So to learn more about the number one most active law firm representing VC-backed companies going public, simply head over to cooley.com or you can check them out at cooleygo.com. And do not forget to check out Zoom, the fastest growing video and web conferencing service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an array of activities, including video meetings and webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms and persistent chat all in one easy platform. Plus, it's the easiest solution to manage, scale and use and has the most straightforward affordable pricing. Don't take our word for it. Zoom is the top rated conferencing app across various user review sites, including G2, Crowd and Trust Radius. And you can sign up for a free account, not a trial. Just visit zoom.us. But it's now time to start the show and I'm thrilled to welcome Steve Vassallo, General Partner at Foundation Capital.

**Steve Vassallo** (2:23)
You have now arrived at your destination.

**Harry Stebbings** (2:26)
Steve, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show today, having had so many great things from Neil at DeFi. So thank you so much for joining me today.

**Steve Vassallo** (2:32)
Great to be here. Thanks, Harry.

**Harry Stebbings** (2:34)
I'd love to start this day with a little on you and how you made your foray into what I always call the wonderful world of venture capital. So what was your start?

**Steve Vassallo** (2:41)
Well, I guess I'm a bit of an accidental venture capitalist. So I found my way here actually to Foundation Capital as an entrepreneur in residence. So I had started my career back in the early 90s as a product designer and roboticist at a company called IDEO based here in Palo Alto. And then worked in a couple of startups running engineering and product and found my way to foundation after meeting a friend of mine at a TED conference back in, I think it was early 2007 And I came in and was on the path of starting a company. And the team here said, well, you keep bringing these cool projects in. Why don't you think about investing? And I was pretty insistent that I wanted to start my own company. And then a couple more months went by and I realized I was having as much fun as I'd ever had in my career. And so decided to give it a go. And that was the end of 2007 So it's been a little over 10 years.

**Harry Stebbings** (3:24)
Can I ask kind of two subsequent questions from that? First, was VC everything that you maybe thought it might be in a preconceived notion? Let's start with that.