20VC: Spark's Bijan Sabet on Investing in Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare & Why First Time Founders Are So Exciting

Bijan Sabet is General Partner @ Spark Capital where he primarily invests in digital canvases and online communities for people at work and at play. Bijan led early investments for Spark in the likes of Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, OMGPOP and Runkeeper just to name a few. Before becoming an investor, Bijan led product management and business development at GameLogic (acquired by Scientific Games), Moxi Digital (acquired by Digeo) and WebTV Networks (acquired by Microsoft Corporation).

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In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How did Bijan make his way into the world of VC?

2.) How did the Twitter and Tumblr deals come about? What made you say yes?

3.) Looking at Bijan’s thesis, is it true that Bijan has a preference for first time founders? What are the commonalities of all great first time founders?

4.) Often first time founders nail product market fit but struggle to scale the operations to suit the growth of the product. How does Bijan as a VC lend to this situation?

5.) Does Bijan agree with Fred Wilson’s assessment of the consumer downturn? Why does Bijan think that David must beat Goliath in the end?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode: 

Bijan’s Fave Blog: Ready Player One 

Bijan’s Fave Blog: AVC

Bijan’s Most Recent Investment: Lily: Your Throw and Go Camera

As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Bijan on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

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