20VC: Sequoia Partner, Pat Grady on Why Data Is The New Oil, Why We Will See The Return of The Apprenticeship Model in VC & The Defining Characteristics of The Next Generation of Great Software

Pat Grady is a Partner @ Sequoia Capital, one of the world’s leading funds with prior investments in the likes of Apple, Google, Whatsapp, Paypal, Stripe and many more. At Sequoia, Pat has made investments in many past guests of this show and the SaaStr podcast including Zoom, Namely and Qualtrics, just to name a few. Prior to Sequoia, Pat spent 3 years with the team at Summit Partners.

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In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Pat made his way into the world of VC and one of the most famous funds in the world, Sequoia?

2.) How does Pat view the apprenticeship model in VC? How can VCs attempt to develop and convey the founder empathy when they have not been a founder? Do ‘career VCs’ get the same respect from founders?

3.) What does Pat believe to be the defining characteristics of the next generation of great software? What are the commonalities?

4.) Pat has said before that ‘data is the new oil’, what makes Pat think this? How does this affect his investment thesis going forward? Are there elements of being ‘data long’ that make Pat nervous?

5.) How does Pat think the data incumbency advantage can be mitigated? What can startups do to build a moat?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Pat’s Fave Book: The Boys In The Boat

Pat’s Fave Blog: CB Insights

Pat’s Most Recent Investment: Namely 

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

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

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