Mark Goldberg: Why Politics is Rife & Decision-Making is Broken in Large VCs | E1219

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

October 25, 2024

Duration

56m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Mark Goldberg is a Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Chemistry, a $350M fund announced just yesterday with the mission to lead the best seed and Series A rounds. Before Chemistry, Mark was a Partner at Index Ventures, where he led early stage investments in Plaid, Bridge, Pilot, Anrok and Persona. Prior to Index Ventures, Mark was one of the first business hires at Dropbox. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:14) Why Did Mark Start Chemistry in a Crowded VC Market? (02:21) Fund Size & Its Impact on Founder Alignment (03:03) Multi-Stage Firms (10:37) Is Venture Now a Low-Margin, Commoditized Industry? (15:58) Concerns Over Growing Seed Round Sizes (17:50) Competitive vs. Non-Competitive Markets (19:37) Why Does Execution Often Fail Post-Product Market Fit? (23:45) What Was Mark’s Strategy for Organizing the Fundraise (29:37) What Was the Most Common Reason Investors Said No? (31:12) Best & Worst LP Meetings (33:46) Most Recent Disagreement as a Parnership (38:18) What Happens to Companies with Overinflated Valuations by Multi-Stage Funds? (40:27) Investing in AI Today (44:22) Meeting an Amazing Founder in a Bad Market (48:47) What Mark Compromises First: Check Size or Ownership (50:57) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Mark Goldberg We Discuss:

1. The Truth About Multi-Stage Firms: Why are portfolio services there to help the investing partners and not the founders? What are the most broken elements within a multi-stage firm? How does decision-making break down in large partnerships? When is the right time to work with multi-stage firms? When is not?

1. From Boutique High Margins to Commoditised Low Margins: With the immense amount of cash that has entered VC, will returns simply get worse? Who will be the winners in the next 10 years of venture? Who will be the losers? What can they do today to change this? What element of the future of venture are not enough people spending time on?

1. Lessons from Leading Unicorn Company Rounds: What happens to all the unicorns with insanely high prices they cannot grow into? What has been Mark’s biggest hit? What did he learn? What has been his biggest miss? How did that change his go-forward approach? Does Mark agree that 90% of VC do not add value? ----------------------------------------------- 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 Mark Goldberg on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mark_Goldberg_ Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq 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 ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #markgoldberg #chemistry #venturecapital #fundraising #multistagefirms

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Mark Goldberg

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Mark Goldberg and Harry Stebbings, Mark Goldberg: Why Politics is Rife & Decision-Making is Broken in Large VCs | E1219 explores inside Chemistry: Fixing Broken VC Decisions And Founder Misalignment Mark Goldberg, co-founder of new firm Chemistry and former Index Ventures partner, explains why he believes large multi-stage VC platforms have become bureaucratic, politicized, and misaligned with founders. He argues for a return to small, focused, boutique-style partnerships where experienced partners spend most of their time on early-stage founders rather than managing internal organizations. Chemistry’s model centers on a concentrated seed/Series A strategy, light reserves, single-partner decision authority, and deep founder relationships, explicitly rejecting consensus ICs and heavy platform-service structures. The conversation also covers fundraising from LPs, portfolio construction, AI and fintech investing, and why brutal feedback, independent thinking, and founder quality matter more than brand names or market fashion.

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