Why Margins Don't Matter for Early-Stage Startups | Gili Raanan

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

March 28, 2026

Duration

58m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Gili Raanan is the Founder of Cyberstarts, one of the best performing venture funds of the last decade. He is famed for being the seed investor in Wiz, Islands and Cyera, leading to multiple 10x+ funds. He has the only remaining monopoly in venture; cyber security in Israel. If it is good, Gili sees it, it is that simple. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:27 Does the Venture Business Even Work Anymore? 08:27 Are We Just Being Boomers? The Counter-Argument on Outcome Sizes 10:38 Will Mega Funds Be Able to Return Venture Economics? 12:48 How to Tell If a Company's Growth Is Real or Engineered 16:11 Wiz vs Sierra: What Fast Growth Actually Looks Like 19:40 Does Market Size Determine Whether a Company Plateaus? 21:46 Island - Building a Market That Didn't Exist 21:36 Does Too Much Money Defocus Great Founders? 26:36 Do Gross Margins Still Matter in the AI Era? 32:05 Why Public Markets Are Crushing Software Multiples Right Now 34:11 Is the Extension of Private Markets Fundamentally Good? 35:34 Using Secondaries to Retain Talent & Return Capital to LPs 41:06 Did Gili Sell Wiz Too Early & What Did He Learn? 42:30 GP/LP Misalignment: The Hidden Problem Nobody Talks About 44:21 How Gili Has Changed as an Investor 51:09 How to Build a Great Venture Partnership 53:39 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 Gili Raanan on X: https://twitter.com/giliraanan 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 #giliraanan #cyberstarts #investing #venturecapital

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Gili Raanan

  guest

  Founder of Cyberstarts and former Sequoia Capital general partner focused on cybersecurity investing.

• Harry Stebbings

  host

  Founder and host of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC).

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Gili Raanan and Harry Stebbings, Why Margins Don't Matter for Early-Stage Startups | Gili Raanan explores gili Raanan on venture realities: pricing, growth, margins, and liquidity Raanan argues venture returns are structurally concentrated in a tiny set of firms, and today’s rising entry prices make the overall market increasingly imbalanced and prone to disappointing outcomes for many managers and LPs.

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