Chris Paik: How I Raised $400M; Substack's Broken Business Model; Music on TikTok vs IG | E1011

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

May 9, 2023

Duration

1h 47m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Chris Paik is a General Partner @ Pace Capital, an early-stage venture firm in NYC. Pace’s first fund was $150M and their second was $250M. Before co-founding Pace, Chris was a General Partner at Thrive Capital where he spent an incredible 8 years having joined the firm when they were on their first $10M Fund. ------------------------------------------------- Timestamps: (0:00) Intro (1:12) Who is Chris Paik? (7:49) How to Hire the Best (9:38) Deep Dive on Pace Capital (23:23) DEBATE: “Invest in companies that cannot be described in a single sentence.” (27:54) Atomic Value Swaps (34:47) Social Graphs vs Interest Graphs (36:43) The 7 Deadly Core Motivators (45:05) Why Music is So Important to TikTok (48:32) The Importance of Market Timing (57:02) DEBATE: Was there a market risk for Tesla? (1:04:28) What kinds of companies are “venture backable”? (1:11:19) Is “Defensibility” BS? (1:14:01) Venture Capital’s Biggest Problems Today (1:39:13) Quick-Fire Round ------------------------------------------------ In Today’s Episode with Chris Paik We Discuss:

1. From Hipster to One of NYC’s Best VCs: How Chris made his way from not knowing about venture capital to being one of the most prominent in NYC? What are 1-2 of his biggest takeaways from his 8 years at Thrive? How did they impact how he thinks about building Pace today? What are Chris’ biggest lessons from working with Josh Kushner? What did Josh do to spot young talent in a way like no one else did?

1. The Core Pillars of Successful Venture Investing: “Invest in companies that can be described in a single sentence”. What does Chris mean by this? How does that impact the type of companies he looks to invest in? “Business Model Fit is as important as PMF”. What does Chris mean by this? How does he determine where a company has business model fit? How does Chris analyze his relationship to market sizing? How does Chris think about how willing he is to take a bet on market timing? Why does Chris believe that the more “virtuous” a company is, the less enterprise value it will have?

1. What is Wrong with Venture Capital: The Misalignments: What does Chris believe are the single biggest misalignments between VCs and Founders? What does Chris see as the biggest misalignments between VCs and LPs? Why does Chris believe we should scrap capital gains tax and all be taxed as an income tax? Why do acquisitions allow investors to be screwed over by the acquiring company?

1. The Future of Social and User Generated Content Platforms: How does Chris analyze consumer businesses according to “The Seven Deadly Sins”? Why does he call them, “The Seven Deadly Motivators”? What does Chris believe is the future for Substack? Why does it not have Business Model Fit? What are 1-2 of his biggest lessons from being on the Twitch board? How did that experience impact his mindset and approach to what good is in UGC and social? What does Chris believe is the number one thing to look for in a potential consumer social investment? What do so many miss? -------------------------------------------------- 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 Chris Paik on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cpaik 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 --------------------------------------- #ChrisPaik #PaceCapital #HarryStebbings #thrivecapital #joshkushner #venturecapital

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Chris Paik

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Chris Paik and Harry Stebbings, Chris Paik: How I Raised $400M; Substack's Broken Business Model; Music on TikTok vs IG | E1011 explores chris Paik Dissects Venture Capital Incentives, Markets, and Moats Chris Paik, co‑founder of Pace Capital and former Thrive Capital investor, explains how his accidental entry into venture led to building a concentrated, early‑stage firm with an equal‑partnership model and no platform/portfolio‑services team. He emphasizes timing, markets, and structural business mechanics over founder mythology, arguing that many popular venture narratives around defensibility, market risk, and ‘doing good’ are misunderstood. Paik introduces core frameworks such as atomic value swaps, the seven deadly sins as motivators, and the distinction between product–market fit and business‑model–product fit, applying them to companies like Twitch, TikTok, Tesla, and Substack. The conversation closes with a critical look at LP–GP misalignment, the fee-and-carry model, and how regulation and incentive redesign might reshape the venture ecosystem.

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