Paul Hsiao's guest appearances

Paul Hsiao

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing I Brands

Paul Martino

Ben Horowitz

Kanyi Maqubela

Lerer Hippeau

Elizabeth Yin

Kate Shillo

Charles Hudson

Rishi Garg

Lee Hower

Andrew Dudum

Nikhil Basu Trivedi

Michele Romanow

Nagraj Kashyap

David Wu

Ezra Galston

OwlTail

My guest today is Paul Hsiao, co-founder and General Partner at Canvas Ventures. Canvas is one of the leading Series A firms having invested in Zola, Thrive Global and Roofstock. You'll learn what are the ingredients that could make for a spectacular marketplace businesses, what the series a currently looks like, and much much more. Without further ado, here's Paul. And there you have it. It was a pleasure chatting with Paul. You can follow him @paul_hsiao on Twitter. Some of the questions I ask Paul:  What was your initial attraction to technology? After Mazu Networks, why did you decide to become a venture capitalist? How did Canvas come together? I know one of your main focuses is marketplace businesses. There’s alot of chatter in consumer how consumer SaaS type businesses are becoming the future of consumer software as a primary business model. What do you make of the current landscape? What makes a market place business exciting for you to invest in? What is your due diligence process? What are the metrics you typically see at the Series A? In today’s market where it seems like there’s more unicorns today than maybe the number of companies that were raising a Series A 10 years ago, what is your expectation when you invest in a company? What’s your biggest learning from this COVID period? After a first time founder raises a Series A, what do you find is the most common element that the founder might have a hard time with when it comes to the board meetings? What are some of the differences investing in enterprise vs. consumer facing businesses? I read that one of your passions is the data economy. How do you describe the data economy and what are some of the ways it could transform B2C businesses? What’s one thing that you would change about venture capital? What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally? What’s your biggest piece of advice for anyone building businesses that you find yourself saying the most?

My guest today is <a href="https://www.canvas.vc/team-member/paul-hsiao" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Hsiao</a>, co-founder and General Partner at <a href="https://www.canvas.vc/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Canvas Ventures</a>. Canvas is one of the leading Series A firms having invested in Zola, Thrive Global and Roofstock. You'll learn what are the ingredients that could make for a spectacular marketplace businesses, what the series a currently looks like, and much much more. Without further ado, here's Paul. And there you have it. It was a pleasure chatting with Paul. You can follow him <a href="https://twitter.com/paul_hsiao" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@paul_hsiao</a> on Twitter. Some of the questions I ask Paul: <ol> <li>What was your initial attraction to technology?</li> <li>After Mazu Networks, why did you decide to become a venture capitalist?</li> <li>How did Canvas come together?</li> <li>I know one of your main focuses is marketplace businesses. There’s alot of chatter in consumer how consumer SaaS type businesses are becoming the future of consumer software as a primary business model. What do you make of the current landscape?</li> <li>What makes a market place business exciting for you to invest in?</li> <li>What is your due diligence process? What are the metrics you typically see at the Series A?</li> <li>In today’s market where it seems like there’s more unicorns today than maybe the number of companies that were raising a Series A 10 years ago, what is your expectation when you invest in a company?</li> <li>What’s your biggest learning from this COVID period?</li> <li>After a first time founder raises a Series A, what do you find is the most common element that the founder might have a hard time with when it comes to the board meetings?</li> <li>What are some of the differences investing in enterprise vs. consumer facing businesses?</li> <li>I read that one of your passions is the data economy. How do you describe the data economy and what are some of the ways it could transform B2C businesses?</li> <li>What’s one thing that you would change about venture capital?</li> <li>What’s one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?</li> <li>What’s your biggest piece of advice for anyone building businesses that you find yourself saying the most?</li></ol>

Paul Hsiao (Canvas Ventures) - How the Data Economy Is Impacting Consumer and the State of the Series A

Paul Hsiao is a Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures, one of Silicon Valley's leading and newer entrants to the Series A scene. At Canvas, Paul has made investments in the likes of Everwise, Fluxx Labs, Roofstock, Thrive Global, Transfix, and Zola. Before founding Canvas, Paul was a partner at NEA, where he led an early-stage investment in Houzz, as well as, had the privilege of helping eight companies go public on the NYSE or NASDAQ and seventeen companies with successful M&amp;A exits during his 10-year tenure with the firm. Prior to VC, Paul was an entrepreneur with the founding of Mazu Networks, a pioneer in network security that was acquired by Riverbed Technologies. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Paul made his way into the world of VC with NEA and got Scott Sandell as his first mentor in VC? 2.) Question from Oren Zeev: Having been a partner at both, how does Paul compare the culture and strategy of two such differing firms of Canvas vs NEA? How does Paul's thinking on exit expectations and requirements change with the change of fund? How does a smaller fund fundamentally change the way you think about investing? 3.) What does Paul believe are the 5 fundamentals of building and scaling a successful marketplace? Why does Paul believe that it is the supply side that tells you if your marketplace is or is not working? Why does Paul believe stubbornness is good in marketplace founders? 4.) Why does Paul believe that raising $100m is critical for new companies if they want to go big? What does this mean for capital efficiency? What does this mean for ownership with multiple dilutive rounds impacting investor returns? How should founders then think about winning the "capital arms race"? What are the exceptions to these rules? 5.) Female founders receive 2.19% of VC funding, however, Paul has many more female founders in portfolio than the industry. Why does Paul think this is? What would Paul like to see change in the distribution of VC funds? What is the required steps to make this happen? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Paul’s Fave Book: The Innovator's Dilemma Paul’s Most Recent Investment: Thrive Global, Roofstock As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Paul on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Cooley is a global law firm built around supporting start-ups and the venture capital firms that fund them. Now we have spoken before about their forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley, and forming more VC funds than any other law firm in the world but Cooley also represents more than 6,000 high-growth startups across the globe – through the full company life cycle. They are the #1 law firm for VC-backed exits (M&amp;A and IPO) ranked by PitchBook, and since 2014 has represented more companies in their IPOs than any other law firm.  Simply head over to Cooley.com or you can check them out at Cooleygo.com.

<a href="https://twitter.com/paul_hsiao?lang=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Hsiao</a> is a Founding Partner @ <a href="http://www.canvas.vc/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Canvas Ventures</a>, one of Silicon Valley's leading and newer entrants to the Series A scene. At Canvas, Paul has made investments in the likes of Everwise, Fluxx Labs, Roofstock, Thrive Global, Transfix, and Zola. Before founding Canvas, Paul was a partner at NEA, where he led an early-stage investment in Houzz, as well as, had the privilege of helping eight companies go public on the NYSE or NASDAQ and seventeen companies with successful M&amp;A exits during his 10-year tenure with the firm. Prior to VC, Paul was an entrepreneur with the founding of Mazu Networks, a pioneer in network security that was acquired by Riverbed Technologies. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Paul made his way into the world of VC with NEA and got Scott Sandell as his first mentor in VC? 2.) Question from Oren Zeev: Having been a partner at both, how does Paul compare the culture and strategy of two such differing firms of Canvas vs NEA? How does Paul's thinking on exit expectations and requirements change with the change of fund? How does a smaller fund fundamentally change the way you think about investing? 3.) What does Paul believe are the 5 fundamentals of building and scaling a successful marketplace? Why does Paul believe that it is the supply side that tells you if your marketplace is or is not working? Why does Paul believe stubbornness is good in marketplace founders? 4.) Why does Paul believe that raising $100m is critical for new companies if they want to go big? What does this mean for capital efficiency? What does this mean for ownership with multiple dilutive rounds impacting investor returns? How should founders then think about winning the "capital arms race"? What are the exceptions to these rules? 5.) Female founders receive 2.19% of VC funding, however, Paul has many more female founders in portfolio than the industry. Why does Paul think this is? What would Paul like to see change in the distribution of VC funds? What is the required steps to make this happen? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Paul’s Fave Book: <a href="https://amzn.to/2EsZkv7" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Innovator's Dilemma</a> Paul’s Most Recent Investment: <a href="https://www.thriveglobal.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Thrive Global</a>, <a href="https://www.roofstock.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Roofstock</a> As always you can follow <a href="https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Harry</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/twentyminutevc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Twenty Minute VC</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/paul_hsiao?lang=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Paul</a> on Twitter here! <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hstebbings1996/?hl=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.</a> Cooley is a global law firm built around supporting start-ups and the venture capital firms that fund them. Now we have spoken before about their forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley, and forming more VC funds than any other law firm in the world but Cooley also represents more than 6,000 high-growth startups across the globe – through the full company life cycle. They are the #1 law firm for VC-backed exits (M&amp;A and IPO) ranked by PitchBook, and since 2014 has represented more companies in their IPOs than any other law firm.  Simply head over to <a href="http://cooley.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cooley.com</a> or you can check them out at <a href="http://cooleygo.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cooleygo.com</a>.

20VC: Why You Have To Raise $100m+ If You Want To Go Big Today, The 5 Fundamentals To Starting and Scaling A Successful Marketplace & Why Female Founders Under-Promise and Over-Deliver with Paul Hsiao, Founding Partner @ Canvas Ventures