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How do you raise hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in startups and do it at 28 years old? Ask 30 Under 30 Europe Finance lister Harry Stebbings.
Each week, Stebbings meets with two new limited partners—investors that can potentially back a fund for his firm 20VC—and then he asks those people to introduce him to three other LPs.
The networking, which he says is tireless, led the London-based 20VC to raise a $400 million fund in a matter of four months, the firm announced Tuesday, backed by institutions like Rothschild’s RIT Capital Partners and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Investment Management. The raise took 20VC to the top of the ranks of venture capital firms in Europe to date.
The latest fund follows a $140 million round raised in 2021 and an $8 million fund before that. But all of it really started with a podcast: In 2019, Stebbings made the Forbes Under 30 list for founding “The Twenty Minute VC,” a media brand he launched at 18 years old, interviewing some of the largest venture capitalists in the world (like billionaire investor Marc Andreessen, whom he cold emailed 53 times before he agreed to get on the show).
“Why has the podcast been successful? Because we understand the science of what makes a great episode,” Stebbings told Forbes. “Successful podcasts understand time to value. If we don’t get to a nugget of wisdom, a lesson, in the first three minutes, we cut it.”
The podcast, he says, has also helped attract founders to 20VC. The firm currently manages over $600 million in assets, investing between $100,000 to $3 million for seed rounds and up to $15 million for Series A. One of Stebbings’ favorite investments has been LinkTree—the “link in bio” tool that’s currently valued at $1.3 billion.
The structure of 20VC is also unlike others: It has three sub-funds, 20Sales, 20Product and 20Growth. Each sub-fund has eight industry professionals who actively work at companies like OpenAI, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Spotify as investors. The value-add for founders? “Take 20Sales’ money and you get eight of the best sales leaders on speed dial,” he said.
And when it comes to what kinds of founders the $400 million is going toward, Stebbings has one main criteria he’s looking for: Obsession. “I’m not the smartest guy in this industry, but I work harder than anyone else is willing to,” he said. “Which is why I have such little social life, and I live in the office, but I don’t think many young people are willing to give up everything to achieve it.”
He says obsession with entrepreneurship—which he gauges by asking people how they made their first dollar—is necessary for all great founders. And for those looking to start investing or launch their own venture capital firm, he can’t emphasize enough how important it is to network. MIT and RIT Capital, for example, were relationships seven to eight years in the making.
“Build relationships early. Don’t ask for the job. Meet them for a coffee, ask them for advice, engage with them on social media. How were we able to raise this fund quite quickly? Because I built the relationships well before the fundraise,” Stebbings said.
See you next time,
Alex & Zoya
Inside The World’s Most Exclusive Club
This remote patch of Montana has fewer than 900 homeowners, worth more than a combined $290 billion. Here’s Forbes exclusive guide to the richest and most famous members.
On Our Radar
-Gen Z has been ridiculed time and time again for being “lazy” and “entitled.” But studies show that not only is the young cohort not universally lazy, but actually burning themselves out for the sake of productivity. Pressured by day-in-the-life vlogs featuring packed routines, “Teens exist within a culture obsessed with achievement and success, while the traditional markers of having ‘made it” (a home, a steady job, a savings account) feel more out of reach every day,” writes Vox. (Vox)
-With 18 flavors of seltzer in his repertoire, Bill Creelman’s Spindrift seltzer water is taking over grocery store aisles (despite Creelman not stepping foot into a grocery store until he was an adult). He grew up working on a farm and later went on to launch two different food startups before Spindrift took off. Today, it’s a profitable business bringing in more than $300 million this year, he says. Here’s how he’s breaking through the seltzer startup noise. (Bloomberg)
-Fast fashion brand Uniqlo has tapped a brand new face as the next creative director. Clare Waight Keller comes from a background in luxury design: She spent years at Givenchy and designed Meghan Markle’s wedding dress. Now, it’s her job to bring “trend-proof and democratically priced basics” to the Uniqlo crowd. “Every time I make a career move, I feel my choices take people by surprise,” she told The New York Times. Maybe that’s a lesson to all of us (young and not so young) to think outside the box for our next career moves. (The New York Times)
One Minute With Camila Victoriano
We’re bringing you the scoop on a new Under 30 community member. Up this week: 2024 Under 30 Media lister Camila Victoriano, the cofounder of Sonoro, a podcast company sharing podcasts and audio shows from Latino storytellers in English, Spanish, and Spanglish. The Miami native has $13 million in funding to build her network.
The following has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
When did you first decide you wanted to be a founder? For me, it was never a conscious decision—I never grew up saying, “I want to be a founder” or “I want to be an entrepreneur.” I came to the decision from having a deep desire to be able to tell stories that resonated with me and realizing that the place where I could do that didn’t really exist yet.
What was the first (or one of the first) podcasts you listened to? I was introduced to podcasts through S-Town (I actually listened to that before Serial). I was immediately blown away, as so many were, by the human elements of the story, even though the initial “hook” didn’t have a concrete resolution.
What was your favorite telenovela growing up? Funnily enough, we didn’t watch too many in my household, but I remember my entire family watching Yo Soy Betty, La Fea religiously (the Colombian version)—a classic! And it just recently got a reboot.
How has the podcast industry changed since you launched Sonoro? In many ways, more companies are taking the international market seriously. We were one of, if not the only, company establishing itself in Mexico and Latin America when we launched in 2020.
Plus, we’ve seen a correction in terms of the spending that was happening on original, limited series globally in audio.
What is a day in your life like? As you can imagine, it changes day by day, but I am mostly meeting with creators to hear new pitches, checking in with our teams on the progress of our shows both in development and in production, or working to pitch our shows to brands and buyers, both on the audio and TV and film side.
What’s been the biggest surprise about life as a founder? There have been a lot of lessons learned, but the one thing that is a surprising constant is you are always pitching. Whether it’s yourself, your company, or a specific idea, there are always new people who will need to resonate with your story, and that work is never over.
What’s something you can’t live without? Probably my books. I read constantly, and it is my favorite way to take in new stories (otherwise, I would say my dog and husband, but I can’t really count them as “things”!).
Is there a brand, company, or creator that you really look up to? I’ve always been impressed by MACRO Entertainment and what they’ve built—both the type of content they are producing (they’ve made some of my favorite movies) and the different aspects of business they’ve staked claims in. They are a fantastic example, in my opinion, of a media company that transcends format and industry.
What’s a hot take you have about your industry or life in general? We need more podcasts! In all seriousness, I still think there is so much more diversity to explore in terms of genre and format in podcasting, but I think a lot of listeners or producers get bogged down by the number of chat show podcasts that take over the charts.
If you weren’t the founder of Sonoro, what would you be doing? Every time I get a question like this I think of Sylvia Plath’s fig tree, but perhaps I would have gone into book publishing (that’s what high school me would have thought) or in another universe I might have, like many in my generation, started a YouTube channel and gone the digital content route.
What’s one podcast you think all people under 30 should listen to? I hesitate to recommend anything based on age, only because I have found that some of the best stories transcend age. But I would point towards one of Sonoro’s most recent launches: Nocturno (launching on October 22nd) for some amazing bone-chilling tales ahead of Halloween, and narrated by the legendary Danny Trejo. And a non-Sonoro favorite of mine recently is Worlds Beyond Number, an incredible actual play podcast that is some of the best storytelling and world-building out there.