1. @DaveMcClure
@500Startups http://500.co
Stockholm TechFest - Sept 2016
Farming Unicorns
Building Startup &
Investor Ecosystems

2. Dave McClure
Founding Partner, 500 Startups
00’s & 10’s:
• VC: Founders Fund, Facebook fbFund, 500 Startups
• Angel: Mashery, Mint.com, SlideShare, Twilio, Wildfire, SendGrid
• Marketing: PayPal, Simply Hired, Mint.com, O’Reilly
80’s & 90’s:
• Entrepreneur: Aslan Computing (acq’d by Servinet/Panurgy)
• Developer: Windows / SQL DB consultant (Intel, MSFT)
• Engineer: Johns Hopkins‘88, BS Eng / Applied Math

3. • What is 500?
– $250M global seed fund + startup accelerator
– 125 people / 25 languages / 20 countries
– 1600+ Companies / 3000+ Founders / 200+ Mentors
– Investment, Accelerator, Distro, Marketing, Events, Education
– Community + Content + Conferences
• 1600+ Co’s / 60+ Countries
– Twilio (NYSE: TWLO)
– Credit Karma
– Grab (aka GrabTaxi)
– Wildfire (acq GOOG, $350M)
– MakerBot (acq SSYS, $400M)
– Viki (acq Rakuten, $200M)
– Behance (acq Adobe, $150M)
– Simple (acq BBVA, $117M)
– Sunrise (acq MSFT, $100M)
– Udemy
– Ipsy
– TalkDesk
– Intercom
500 Startups
Global Seed Fund & Startup Accelerator

4. Investor Ecosystem
Angels &
Accelerators
($0-10M)
“Seed” Funds
($10-100M)
“Traditional” VC Funds
($100-500M)
“Unicorn” VC Funds
(>$500M)
Incubation
0-$100K
Seed
$100K-$1M
Series A/B
$1-10M
Series B/C
$10-100M
Bootstrap, KickStarter,
AngelList, Crowdfunding

5. Football
West Coast
Offense
Baseball
MoneyBall
Basketball
3 point
revolution
Venture Capital
500 Startups
“Lots of little bets”
500 Strategy: MoneyBall for Startups
Re-inventing a 50-year old sport

6. 500 Startups Mission
1.Find Smart People.
2.Give Them Money.
3.Wait for Good Shit to Happen.

7. 500 Startups Mission
• Provide capital, community, education to
smart people (founders, investors)
• Build functional startup ecosystems
(founders, team, angels, accelerators, VC
funds, capital, exits, liquidity, etc)
• #HFGSD: Have Fun, Get Shit Done.

8. Dinosaurs vs. Cockroaches
LEAN Startup: Simpler, Faster, Cheaper, Smarter
1996
”Big, Fat, Dinosaur Startup”
• Sun Servers
• Oracle DB
• Exodus Hosting
• 12-24mo dev cycle
• 6-18mo sales cycle
• <100M people online
• $1-2M seed round
• $3-5M Series A
• Sand Hill Road crawl
2016
”Lean, Little, Cockroach Startup”
• AWS, Google, PayPal, FB, TW
• Cloud + Open Source SW
• Lean Startup / Startup Wknd
• 3-90d dev cycle
• SaaS / online sales
• >3B people online
• <$100K incub + <$1M seed
• $1-3M Series A
• Angel List global visibility

9. Platforms:
Search, Social, Mobile,
Video, Messaging

10. How Many Startups
to Get to 1 Unicorn?

11. Perils of Becoming a Unicorn
(Before/After IPO)
2009 2016
Jeff Lawson, Founder/CEO Twilio (NYSE:TWLO)

12. The Unicorn “Hedge”
https://500hats.com/welcome-to-the-unicorn-hedge-2fd3c6b50f89
Q: Which is more overvalued? — 100 Unicorn startups or Fortune 500?
TREND: Non-tech public companies buying innovation (aka Unicorns) as a
hedge against the value of their own stock.
Examples: Dollar Shave Club -> Unilever, Cruise -> GM, Jet.com -> Walmart.

13. 99 VC Problems
But a Batch Ain’t 1
13
http://bit.ly/99VCProblems

14. Q: Chances of spotting
unicorn?/
a) 1%
b) 2%
c) 5%
d) 10%
e) ZERO

15. Chances of spotting
unicorn = ~1%/

16. If portfolio size = 15
companies/

17. /
If portfolio size = 30
companies

18. /
If portfolio size = 100
companies

19. 500 Strategy: Lots of Little Bets*
1) make lots of little
bets on early-stage
startups when they’re
just getting started
3) wait 5-10 years for returns:
-10-20% small exits @1-5X ($5-25M+)
-5-10% larger exits @5-20X ($25-250M+)
-1-2% unicorns @20-50X+ ($250M-1B+)
*See Peter Sims book: “Little Bets”
2) over the next five years,
double-down on top 20-30%
~500 co’s @ $100K 1st checks
100+ co’s @ $200-500K
2nd/3rd checks
(hope for a few big exits @
$100M-$1B+)
(assume high failure rate ~50-80%)

20. Startup Risk Reduction
Concept
Early
Customer
Usage
Scalable
Customer
Acquisition
[about to be]
Profitable
Unit
Economics
Scalable
Profitable
Business
Functional
Prototype
PRODUCT
MARKET
REVENUE
Exit?
When 500
Likes to
Invest

21. The Lean Investor
Make lots of little bets:
• Start with many small “experiments”
• Filter out failures + small wins
• Double-down on stuff that looks like it’s working
• Incubation: $0-100K (“Build & Validate Product”)
• Seed: $100K-$1M (“Test & Grow Marketing Channels””)
• Venture: $1M-$10M (“Maximize Growth & Revenue”)

22. Investment Stage #1:
Product Validation + Customer Usage
• Structure
– 1-3 founders
– $0-$100K investment
– Incubator environment: multiple peers, mentors/advisors
• Test Functional Prototype / “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP):
– Prototype->Alpha, ~3-6 months
– Develop Minimal Critical Feature Set => Get to “It Works! Someone Uses It.”
– Improve Design & Usability, Setup Conversion Metrics
– Test Small-Scale Customer Adoption (10-1000 users)
• Demonstrate Concept, Reduce Product Risk, Test Functional Use
• Develop Metrics & Filter for Possible Future Investment

23. Investment Stage #2:
Market Validation + Revenue Testing
• Structure
– 2-10 person team
– $100K-$1M investment
– Syndicate of Angel Investors / Small VC Funds
• Improve Product, Expand Customers, Test Revenue:
– Alpha->Beta, ~6-12 months
– Scale Customer Adoption => “Many People Use It, & They Pay.”
– Test Marketing Campaigns, Customer Acquisition Channels + Cost
– Test Revenue Generation, Find Profitable Customer Segments
• Prove Solution/Benefit, Assess Market Size
• Test Channel Cost, Revenue Opportunity
• Determine Org Structure, Key Hires

24. Investment Stage #3:
Revenue Validation + Growth
• Structure
– 5-25 person team
– $1M-$10M investment
– Seed & Venture Investors
• Make Money (or Go Big), Get to Sustainability:
– Beta->Production, 12-24 months
– Revenue / Growth => “We Can Make (a lot of) Money!”
– Mktg Plan => Predictable Channels / Campaigns + Budget
– Scalability & Infrastructure, Customer Service & Operations
– Connect with Distribution Partners, Expand Growth
• Prove/Expand Market, Operationalize Business
• Future Milestones: Profitable/Sustainable, Exit Options

25. Building Startup Ecosystems

26. Critical Ecosystem Factors
• Optimism & Belief (“Silicon Valley”)
• Mentorship + Education (Knowledge)
• Universities + Companies (People)
• Capital, Legal, Finance (Infrastructure)
• Engineering + Design / UX (Product)
• Platforms + Distribution (Customers)
• Online Payments (Monetization)
• IPO / M&A Market (Exits)

27. What’s Most Critical?
• You DON’T need to be in Silicon Valley, but…
• Silicon Valley Needs to be in YOU.

28. Questions? Comments?
• More Info?
– http://500.co (our company)
– http://500hats.com (my blog)
– https://angel.co/500startups (our fund)
– Dave McClure, @DaveMcClure