20 VC 033: The Pros and Cons of Venture Capital, Atomico and What VCs Really Mean When They Say Interesting with Chris Dark, President @ C2FO

Quote of the Day: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” John F. Kennedy

Chris Dark is President International at C2FO, the Union Square Ventures backed company is the priceline for working capital where companies ‘name their own price’. Prior to C2FO, Chris was VP at Atomico, the London based venture fund founded by Nicklas Zennstorm. At Atomico, Chris was on the boards of Chemist Direct, Fab, Hailo, Quipper, Wrapp, Knewton, Bebestore, and Gengo. If that wasn’t enough Chris has also held roles at AOL, Bain & Co and started his own company GameReplays.org, an early esports community, which Chris built to 1 million uniques per month!

Items Mentioned in Today’s Show

• Niklass Zennstorm

• Kazaa

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Ben Horowitz

• Supercell

In Today’s Show You Will Learn:

• Where it all began for Chris and how he made his move into venture?

• What skills Chris learnt from founding his company and how he applied them to the venture industry?

• What were the hardest aspects of building Chris’ company and how did he overcome them?

• What are the best reasons to want to join the venture industry?

• What made Chris leave his VP role at Atomico to rejoin the entrepreneurial game with C2FO?

• Having both invested in startups and raised funds as a startup, what tips would Chris give to founders potentially entering a round of funding?

• How does Chris feel the tech eco system in London is developing and what Chris believes can be done to further improve it?

We finish today’s show with a lightning round where we hear Chris’ thoughts on whether university is necessary or not, the next 5 years for him and his most recent investment and why he said yes?