AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli: The Funding Market Today; Last-Mile Delivery; Competing w/ Carta | E1005

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

April 25, 2023

Duration

58m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Avlok Kohli is the CEO @ AngelList. Under his leadership, Avlok has taken AngelList from an SPV provider to a company that is becoming the software platform for the entire industry. Today, AngelList supports over $15BN in assets and 40% of US unicorns have had a GP invest in them through AngelList. Prior to becoming CEO @ AngelList, Avlok founded 3 companies, all of which were acquired including by the likes of Square and eBay. ---------------------------------------- Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (0:38) How Avlok Became CEO of AngelList (2:01) Last Mile Delivery (7:19) Today’s Funding Market (33:37) How AngelList is Using AI (36:45) AngelList’s Margins (41:52) Most Regretted Product at AngelList (43:06) Why AngelList Isn’t in Europe (46:03) Competing with Carta (48:10) The Secret to AngelList’s Incredible Speed of Execution (49:50) How AngelList Wins the US Market (52:37) Quick-Fire Round ---------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Avlok Kohli We Discuss:

1. From 3x Founder to Scaling AngelList to $15BN in AUM: How did Naval convince Avlok to join AngelList and be CEO? Does Avlok believe in startups having defensibility in the early days? How important does Avlok believe it is for companies to be “first to market”? Why does Avlok believe all the last-mile grocery delivery companies will go bust in the downturn?

1. What is Going On in Venture: New Funds, LPs, Secondaries: Are we seeing the amount of net new funds reduce in the downturn? Are we seeing the size of new funds being raised, being smaller? Is the time to first close increasing in time? Does AVlok agree that the fund segment hit hardest by the downturn is micro fund managers? Which LP class has pulled back from fund investing most significantly? Why does Avlok believe institutions have returned to fund investing more than ever right now? Are we seeing an increase in fund secondary positions?

1. What is Going on in Startups: Rounds, Valuations, Party Rounds Are we seeing the number of startups able to close their round reduce? Are we seeing the size of startup funding rounds reduce? How does this depend on the stage? What are we seeing for startup valuations? Why is seed as high as ever? What is the most hit? How is the composition of funding rounds changing? More or fewer party rounds? When does Avlok believe we will see down rounds and pay-to-play, really come into effect?

1. The Business of AngelList and its Future: What are the margins on AngelList products today? What is the best margin AngelList product? What is the worst? What product did AngelList do that in hindsight, Avlok wishes they had not done? Why did AngelList back out of Europe? Was it a mistake? How does Avlok think about AngelList’s fierce competition with Carta today? ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Avlok on Twitter: https://twitter.com/avlok Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ---------------------------------------------- #AvlokKohli #AngelList #HarryStebbings #20vc

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Avlok Kohli

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Avlok Kohli and Harry Stebbings, AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli: The Funding Market Today; Last-Mile Delivery; Competing w/ Carta | E1005 explores angelList CEO Dissects Venture Downturn, AI Leverage, And Beating Carta AngelList CEO Avlok Kohli discusses the current venture funding landscape using AngelList’s proprietary data, highlighting a sharp contraction in Series A–C activity while pre-seed and seed valuations remain buoyant. He explains how AngelList has built a high-margin, platform-style business across funds, SPVs, and cap tables, and why macro headwinds haven’t materially hurt the company. Kohli outlines AngelList’s product and pricing strategy, its decision to pull back from Europe, and its aggressive push into cap tables against incumbents like Carta. He also shares operating principles on speed, product focus, AI-driven automation, and why great teams still need great markets.

🔗 RELATED EPISODES

Inside Legora: Jude Law Generated $50M Pipeline | Are They Undervalued at $5.5BN? | Patrick Forquer

Cliff Weitzman: What I Learned from 100 of the World’s Top CEOs & Why Tokens Will Outspend Salaries

Shopify CEO on How AI is a Scapegoat for Mass Layoffs & Trump Derangement Syndrome in Canada

Inside Clay's Sales Playbook | Becca Lindquist

Jackie Reses: The Most Powerful Woman in Finance; Making $50BN for Yahoo on Alibaba | E996

Tom Hulme & Stan Boland: Lessons from Jensen Huang & How to Fix the UK Tech Ecosystem