EP 58: Annie Lamont (Co-founder, Oak HC/FT) - The State of the Market and Being a VC in the 90s

**Logan Bartlett** (0:00)
Annie started to say how my partners wanted to fire me in 99

**Annie Lamont** (0:03)
We did an offsite, we're in Cabo by the fire, one of my partners was like, so you're not gonna be part of the next fun. But by the time the next fun came, the world had blown up, all their deals that they thought were so incredible, deflated. And so they came back and said, yeah, great. I mean, they acted like they'd never said it.

**Logan Bartlett** (0:25)
Welcome to the 58th episode of The Logan Bartlett Show. I am your host, Logan Bartlett, a partner at Redpoint Ventures. And what you're gonna hear on this episode is a conversation that I had with Annie Lamont. Annie is the founder and general partner at Oak HC FT. And before that, she was a general partner at Oak Investment Partners. Annie is one of the icons in the industry. She entered back in the early 80s and has seen a bunch of different market machinations as well as the industry change over the years. And so, interesting to get her perspective on what was going on, what is going on in the industry today, how it compares versus different corrections that have happened, as well as how she found her way into the industry, her interactions with Steve Jobs, among a bunch of other things. So really appreciate Annie coming on, someone I've always looked up to in the industry. Before we get into that, just a brief plug.
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**Annie Lamont** (1:49)
Great to be with you, Logan.

**Logan Bartlett** (1:50)
I have heard your name in the industry as one of the icons that has been defining, I guess, venture capital for a long time, but it's a pleasure. This is the benefit of having a podcast is I get people that otherwise it might be a little weird to say, hey, can I meet with you? But if I say, hey, I have a podcast, then it sounds very credible and like a reason to get to meet people like yourself. So thank you for coming on.

**Annie Lamont** (2:13)
You are credible.

**Logan Bartlett** (2:16)
So in terms of maybe we'll just start with the market right now. I think it's an interesting time in the ecosystem and you've seen different bubbles and bursts and euphoria and people in a desolate mindset and all of that. I guess, any perspective on, does this remind you of anything like the cycle we're in right now?
Have you been able to draw analogies or comparisons to either prior experiences you've had?

**Annie Lamont** (2:43)
Sure. Yeah, it's interesting because some people say 2008, 2001 Yeah, I think the interesting thing is like about 2008 was that really did not impact on prior trial. It was really about a macro environment, not about the micro environment that we all live in in terms of the trends and tailwinds, headwinds and tailwinds. So that really had very little impact, I thought, on the venture industry. I mean, maybe it made valuations somewhat lower, which was good, maybe not great for entrepreneurs and good for VCs.
It's definitely most analogous to 2001 and I think most people who lived through it were like, last year, two years ago, it was like, is this 99 or 2000? We know it's coming, but, and where are we exactly? And obviously it was more like 2000
So I think the difference is that there were so many, there were obviously great companies created then, Google, Amazon. I mean, they wouldn't exist without these manias or bubbles, right? Where massive amounts of money go to fund innovation. And so I generally think manias from that perspective are a good thing, because sometimes you wouldn't have those, some of those great companies.
But there were so many companies that did not have real business models then, the internet wasn't mature. And I do feel like now there were lots of great companies created. It was a really amazing time. Some of those companies are really products and those companies will be bought and merged into other companies that are really more platforms.
But there are a lot of good companies now, or companies, they're two parts. Good companies, they just need to manage themselves with discipline. They're gonna keep growing. They've got, there's need in the market. They got good management teams.