The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Reid Hoffman is one of the most impactful people in technology and startups. As a Founder he founded Paypal and Linkedin before moving to the investing side where he has led deals in Facebook, Airbnb and more.  In Today’s Episode with Reid Hoffman We Discuss: 1. China and Tariffs: Should the US ban Tiktok and other Chinese companies, given China banning US companies presence in their country? How does Reid evaluate the rise of the Chinese car industry? What are his concerns? How does Reid hope Trump uses tariffs to advantage the US position? What is Reid concerned about what Trump could do with tariffs? What would be bad? 2. Elon Musk and DOGE: What impact will Elon Musk have on the future of AI in America? Why does Reid believe that it is impossible for DOGE to achieve it’s targets? What should Elon must be given credit for? What does he not deserve credit for? What are Elon’s greatest strengths? What are his greatest weaknesses? 3. The US Defence Budget and Ukraine: Why does Reid believe that the US should reduce their defence budget? Does Reid believe the US should continue to finance the war in Ukraine? Should the US continue to subsidise NATO’s lack of defence spending? 4. NVIDIA and The Future of Chips: Will NVIDIA be able to sustain their monopoly?  What is the biggest threat to their position? Should both the US and Europe have their own chip sovereignty? How does Reid evaluate potential conflict between China and Taiwan impacting chip supply? 5. Nuclear, Quantum and Climate: Why does Reid believe nuclear fusion can solve climate change? Does Reid believe that with the rise of global conflict and AI, the importance of climate change is reduced in the attention of the world? Why does Reid believe that AI does more to help than harm climate change?  Why is Reid so excited for a future with quantum computing?  What are the biggest dangers of quantum that we need to be mindful of?    

Guillaume Moubeche is the Founder of Lempire, a company he has bootstrapped in the most competitive market in technology and scaled to a staggering $30M in ARR. Guillaume has never raised primary funding for the business but sold $10M of secondary at a $150M valuation. Guillaume is also an angel investor and and best selling author.  In Today’s Episode with Guillaume Moubeche: 1. How to Build a Sales Machine: What is the biggest mistake founders make when crafting their ideal customer profile? What are Guillaume’s biggest lessons in scaling from $0-$1M in ARR?  Why are most founders afraid to sell? What can they do to overcome this? What is the ultimate equation to success in sales? 2. How to Build a Content Machine: How does Guillaume come up with ideas for new content? How does he structure his content creation time?  How does Guillaume advise founders on which platform and content type they should focus on? What are the biggest mistakes they make? How does Guillaume think about content repackaging and reposting? What have been some of the biggest lessons in how to get the max out of existing content? 3. How to Build a Hiring Machine: Why does Guillaume think you should pay people well above market rate? What does it allow you to do as their employer? Why does Guillaume think in 90% of times, more people equals more problems? What have been Guillaume’s biggest hiring mistakes? What did he learn? 4. Making $10M, Ironman and Family: How does Guillaume reflect on his own relationship to money? How has it changed post making $10M?  Why does Guillaume believe that endurance sports makes for better entrepreneurs? When asked if all the sacrifices were worth it, how does Guillaume respond? What does his life not have yet that he would most like?    

Torsten Reil is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Helsing, a new type of defence company providing artificial intelligence to protect our democracies. Torsten has raised over $825M from the likes of Prima Materia, Elad Gil, Accel and General Catalyst. Previously Torsten founded NaturalMotion, one of the UK's most successful games and technology start-ups. Torsten was named as one of MIT's Top 100 Innovators and is a member of the Munich Security Conference Innovation Board. In Today’s Episode with Torsten Reil We Discuss: 1. The World Around Us: China, Russia and Trump: What will happen between China and Taiwan? What will happen between Russia and Ukraine? How will a Trump administration impact the US’ commitment to fund European defence? What conflict do people not pay enough attention to in the world today? 2. Are We Ready and What Needs to Be Done: Are the west ready to fight against our adversaries as we stand today? What do we need to do to equip ourselves?  What needs to change in our defence budgets? Where do they need to go? How does the procurement process for defence need to change? 3. The Future of War:  Why does Torsten believe the future of war is contactless? In the next wave of defence, what are the most important elements for allies to own? What elements concern Torsten the most? What role does AI and autonomous play in the future of war? 4. Is Europe F********: Why does Torsten believe that Europe’s biggest problem is ambition not capital? Why does Torsten believ that we put too much weight on the location in which companies are founded? Why does it not matter? How does Torsten respond to the statement that we do not have the depth of experienced talent in Europe to recruit?  

Marc Benioff is one of the iconic founders and visionaries of our time. From the founding of Salesforce 25 years ago, Marc has in many ways created an entire industry. He has scaled the company to a market cap of $346BN, $38BN in revenue and over 72,000 employees.  Ask Me Anything with Marc Benioff:  The Future of Models: Why does Marc believe we are at the upper end of LLMs and they are commoditising? Why does Marc believe the future of models is many smaller, verticalised models specialised in different areas? OpenAI vs Anthropic vs Xai. Which would Marc buy and which would he short? What is the single biggest barrier to Salesforce winning the AI war in the next 10 years? The Future of Agents: What does Salesforce need to do to prevent becoming a database in the next generation of AI?  To what extent do agents hurt vs help Salesforce? What do very few people understand about agents that is very important? The Future of Labour:  Will Salesforce replace it’s human labour with digital labour? Will Salesforce be bigger or smaller in 10 years time, people wise? Why does Marc believe that layoffs are a crucial tool for CEOs to win? How will a future of digital labour change the pricing model of SaaS tools today? Management Lessons from Marc Benioff: How did one meeting with Steve Jobs change how Marc views leadership? How does Marc analyse the required mindset to win as a CEO today? What has Marc changed his mind on most in the last 12 months?