Peter Singlehurst: Lessons from Turning Down Stripe, Coinbase and Losing Money on Northvalt

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

March 19, 2025

Duration

1h 12m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Peter Singlehurst is the Head of Private Companies at Baillie Gifford. He has led research on a wide range of private investments including Epic Games, Bending Spoons, Anduril, Solugen, Scopely, and Grammarly, as well as a number of private holdings that have since transitioned to the public markets such as Airbnb, Affirm, Warby Parker, Wise and Tempus AI. ---------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode We Discuss: (00:00) Intro (00:51) Accidentally Running a Global Investment Giant (04:08) What I Learned Losing 100s of $Ms (07:04) The 10 Questions Baillie Gifford Needs to Answer to Make an Investment (13:23) Why We Did Not Double Down in Stripe and Turned Down Coinbase (31:59) The ByteDance Investment Case (35:50) Why Would Any Good Company Go Public Today (39:05) Growth Stage Investing Trends (40:34) How Anduril Becomes a $200BN Company (46:07) Is 2024 Different to the Madness of 2021 and 2022 (48:05) The Decision-Making Process Inside a $217BN Firm (49:42) How Does Re-Investment Decision-Making Differ from Original Investments (57:35) Future of Growth Equity Investing (01:00:44) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- 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 X: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Baillie Gifford on X: https://twitter.com/BaillieGifford 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 #petersinglehurst #bailliegifford #epicgames #ai #airbnb #anduril #bytedance #moneyloss #coinbase

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Peter Singlehurst

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Peter Singlehurst and Harry Stebbings, Peter Singlehurst: Lessons from Turning Down Stripe, Coinbase and Losing Money on Northvalt explores inside Baillie Gifford’s Growth Bets: Discipline, Misses, Anduril, ByteDance Peter Singlehurst, who leads private company investing at Baillie Gifford, explains how the firm approaches late-stage growth investing using public-market style rigor, focusing on businesses with proven products, scalable models, and high return-on-equity potential.

🔗 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