20VC: Why Spray & Pray Investing Is Wrong, Why Data-Informed VC Beats Data Driven VC & What To Look For When Investing In A Marketplace with Josh Breinlinger, Managing Director @ Jackson Square Ventures

Josh Breinlinger is a Managing Director @ Jackson Square Ventures where he has made investments in the likes of Contently, OfferUp and rented.com, just to name a few incredible companies. He is also the ultimate master of all things marketplaces, especially when early stage startups must deal with the inevitable chicken and egg problem. Prior to life as a VC with JSV, Josh was part of the founding team @ ODesk, a co-founder @ Rev and the Head of Product and Marketing @ Adroll.

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In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Josh made the transition from the world of startups to investing with Jackson Square?

2.) Josh previously said, ‘data informed VCs will always beat data-driven VCs’. What makes Josh say this? What does being data-driven lead to weak investment decision making?

3.) Josh also said, ‘we will see the rise of the master marketplace’. What does he mean by this? How is this different from current marketplace startups today? With such specialization does this not make it an unattractive sector for VCs with a smaller TAM?

4.) Following from Josh’s statement that ‘not all GMV is equal’, how does that affect how Josh views; transaction size and frequency, share of wallet, value post-match being made and disintermediation?

5.) Why does Josh think rewarding VC activity is fundamentally wrong? What does it show that is, in reality, a falsehood?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Josh’s Fave Book: The Wright Brothers

Josh’s Fave Blog: Bill Gurley: Above The Crowd

Josh’s Most Recent Investment: ScriptDash

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

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

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