Markus Villig, Founder @Bolt: The Most Insane Story in Startups & The Future of Self-Driving| E1225

Markus Villig is the Founder and CEO of Bolt, a global mobility platform with more than 200 million lifetime customers in more than 50 countries and 600 cities. Bolt has raised over €1 billion in funding from investors like Sequoia, D1 and G Squared, making Markus the youngest founder of a billion-dollar company in Europe. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:55) The Story About Founding Bolt (08:17) Finding a Co-Founder (12:36) The First Steps After Launching (15:56) How Did Bolt Run Thousands of Trips on $5,000 While Others Need Millions? (18:38) Meeting the First Investor (19:13) Should Startups Go Global vs. Focus Locally First? (23:29) Key Lessons on Effective Driver Supply (26:43) A Market That Surprised Most & Market Expansion (36:22) Entering Markets as a Second or Third Player? Is That a Viable Strategy? (37:56) What Broke First in Bolt’s Expansion (39:41) Is Speed the Most Important Thing? (40:28) Fundraising After Expansion (44:16) Why VCs Didn’t Support Back Then (46:56) Raising From $1M to $100M (48:48) Execution After Raising (49:57) Bolt’s Growth Profile (50:49) Moment When Other Investors Couldn’t Ignore Bolt (52:53) What Bolt Did in Covid Time with 85% Revenue Loss (58:23) Hiring Mistakes (01:02:04) Opinion on UK/European Funding Environment (01:04:24) Do VCs Add Value? (01:04:57) Expanding to Other Categories of Service (01:06:43) Why Paris Was the Worst City to Launch Micro-mobility (01:09:35) How Bolt Was Making Their Own Scooters (01:12:22) About Self-Driving (01:15:31) Where Is Uber Better, and Where Does Bolt Lead? (01:17:16) What Product Line Does the Smallest in Revenue (01:19:27) Unmade Decisions (01:20:40) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Markus Villig: 1. Starting an $8BN Company: - How did Markus come up with the idea for Bolt before Uber existed? - How did Markus find his co-founder? Why did 30 people turn down the chance to co-found Bolt? - -- What are Markus’ biggest tips on finding a co-founder? - How did Markus use a $5K loan from his parents as the pre-seed round? - How did Markus get the first riders for Bolt? What worked? What did not work? - How did Markus get the first driver for Bolt? What worked? What did not work? 2. Expanding to be a Global Champion: - How did Markus expand Bolt to $10M in ARR on just $1M of funding? - What did the international expansion playbook look like? What worked? What did not work? How has it changed over time? - What one simple change led to their becoming the leader in Africa? - What was the best country to launch? What was the worst? - What is the most profitable country today? What is the least? 3. The $8BN Company that no VC Wanted to Fund: - Why did every large VC in Europe turn down Bolt early on? - How did a real estate company in the Baltics save Bolt with lifeline funding? - When did Sequoia come into the mix? Does Sequoia move the needle for your company when they invest? - How do New York financially driven investors differ to the traditional VC ecosystem? - What would Markus most like to change about the world of VC? 4. The Future: Micromobility, Self-Driving Cars, Uber: - Will the rise of self-driving cars harm or help companies like Bolt and Uber? - What is the future for micromobility? Does it cannibalise the core business for Bolt and Uber? - What is Uber better at Bolt doing? What are Uber worse at than Bolt? How will that change moving forward? - Waymo, buy or short? Why? ----------------------------------------------- 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 Markus Villig on Twitter: https://twitter.com/villigm 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 #MarkusVillig #Bolt #CEO #founder #UBER #hiring #futureofwork #Sequoia