Aydin Senkut: How I Scaled from a $4M Angel Fund to $900M AUM | 20VC #890

(reversing beeps) Three, two, one, zero. You have now arrived at your destination. Aydin, this is such a joy to do. I cannot believe it's been so long since our last episode. So thank you so much for joining me, first.

Thanks, Harry, I really appreciate it. It's a privilege to be here for a second time and I'm really, really proud of, uh, how far the show came and your incredible audience and your grit. Uh, so v- very excited to be here on the show with you.

I mean, uh, when we last spoke, I was actually young Aydin, so, uh, sadly some things have changed. But, uh, I do wanna start, and for those that missed our first episode, how did you make your way into the world of venture? And talk to me about the founding of Felicis and how that came together, in a brief two to three minutes. (laughs)

Yeah. I, I mean, I'll just touch on the highlights. I mean, I, I think, look, uh, uh, w- we were, we were, um... Just to mention it, this is something I always dreamt of doing. My, both my parents were entrepreneurs. Um, I just think that it's one of the coolest things one can do to start a company. It is, it is an arduous journey, but it is a very fun one. Um, I feel like everything that I've done in my life, um, until the point that I started Felicis, was really designed, uh, for me to be a great venture investor. So, the, the, the turning point really, for me, was when I left Google, where I was for roughly six years, um, a little bit as a product manager and then, uh, a strategic sales manager. And I realized when I went with the company from 30 to 3,000 people, that was getting too big for me, let alone the 100,000 plus that it is today. Um, and I wanted to do something again that is a little bit more entrepreneurial, something from scratch, also. Um, Google was Larry and Sergey's company. And after much, um, deliberation, I realized, hey, listen, this is kind of the way of Silicon Valley, right? Like, after being an operator, um, it's kind of nice to consider, you know, getting into angel investing and then, uh, I leveraged that to become a full-fledged VC. Um, most importantly, I thought, hey, I always wanted to be an investor when I was a little kid, but, you know, we didn't have the concept of venture capital when I was growing up in Istanbul. You know, it was more like being in 100% plus inflation country where, like, every night, my parents and I are like, "Okay, where are we gonna invest now? German marks? French francs?" You know? Like, "Are we gonna do something else?" Um, and then I used to read my parents' magazines. We didn't have iPads, maybe for the better. Um, you know, I would read Fortune, Time, and BusinessWeek, and I would read these articles with CEOs. I'm like, "I wanna be like that one day, and I wanna be, like, an investor one day." Um, and little did I realize that I could actually, like, combine all the things that I aspire, uh, in this little fledgling thing that started as an angel investment activity and turned into a venture firm, and, um, just really exciting. Also, um, just a really good excuse, uh, to practice something different. As a complete outsider to venture, uh, I thought, hey, uh, there is an opportunity to do something new in it. And then the last interesting thing in terms of the most important part of the founder story is, I actually was thinking maybe I should work at a firm first and learn the ropes before I started, but, um, I didn't really have a typical background and nobody really wanted to give me a job. So, it ended up being the best thing that happened to me, 'cause I literally burned the bridges, turned my, you know, back to the wall, and the only thing I could do was start and make it great.