00:00:01 moving the needle on founder failure one conversation at a time I'm your host Justin Gordon and welcome to startup 2.0 by spark XYZ during each week as we give you access to some of the top investors and entrepreneurs in the country to help you think through and overcome the top challenges that startups face I think there's no better place in the country to be investing than Los Angeles is hard sometimes when a company is not listening to its customers and just thinks of those better than in customers has a really

00:00:34 really hard time finding product market fit I want to see somebody that that isn't gonna stop you know this person you just feel like they're gonna they're gonna they're gonna make it work today's guest is Chris Hill who's an investor in Comcast ventures and Chris has a diverse range of experiences both in consulting and investing and he brings that variety of experiences in different industries to this interview here Chris welcome to the show thanks for having me yeah happy have you out here and talk about a

00:01:07 variety of things in VC and where I want to start with is with Comcast ventures what areas are you focused on it's a great question and the thing that's really interesting about us is most people think that we are exclusively media because comcast is our parent company we do everything okay so we are we are a general as venture fund so our investments are split about 50/50 between enterprise and consumer and then within those categories broadly everything from direct to consumer brands digital media enterprise soft

00:01:36 software cyber security we even spend a fair amount of time at frontier technology this year we invested in a quantum computing company so we will touch just about everything outside of I would say medical awesome and what stages are you investing in what's the average like cheque size great about that too our primary cheque size is really Ceres day we write cheques as less than a million dollars and select opportunities and we will write cheques bigger than Ted but our sweet spot is right now between about three to seven million

00:02:03 awesome and then one of the last more like logistical questions just curious about actually the thesis the investment thesis of the fund so it are it was originally predicated on the idea that a lot of things were going on and that Comcast needed exposure you know this internet thing one of the things that's unusual about us is we're actually 20 years old one of the oldest corporate venture arms out there so we started in 1998 when the idea of the internet or or the idea of venture investing corporate Vicent was entirely

00:02:30 now yeah with the idea that investing in opportunities that may be relevant to the company at least having a pulse on the ground and understanding what's changing the landscape so now we don't really we don't serve as opposed to other corporate venture funds as a feeder for acquisition but there is a whole corporate division that really focuses on those types of investments as well as larger acquisitions like the recent sky acquisition we focus on are really what is changing out in the world it may or may not be relevant to Comcast

00:03:01 but certainly opportunities that we think are going to have transformative experiences or impact on the world yeah and with that see I mean what does that do business process look like for you guys though so we're very similar to just about any other venture fund you know we want to go in and look at the number we want to look at the financial numbers when we are looking at traditional e-series a we want to have at least some level of product fit product market fit you know do evaluate some of the technology what are things

00:03:26 we'll often do is if we do think that there is a strategic value for Comcast you know we'll try to talk to some of our colleagues you within the respective divisions get their feedback as to whether or not they want to partner so the thing about us is we are a generalist fan generalist investment fund yeah looking for returns not strategic value but we do look to leverage the parent company to create competitive advantages for our portfolio companies so we're really looking so there's things that we can bring to the

00:03:56 market as opposed to just you know cash we'd love to do so and I think what a lot of people don't realize is because we're so big there's a lot of things that we can be valuable for so just going on like the whole thing yeah like you know with media people assume you do just media and we'll do a lot of things in health care you know particularly enterprise software to play why yeah we have 195 thousand employees you know we're a fortune 50 company right if we can become a customer of your company we can be a material difference

00:04:26 in sort of performing after success the company over sure and you find that then companies are specifically coming you because of that name that that partnership potentially more and more mana I think it's you know it's been a lot of time getting out there and making sure that people understand that we are looking at things outside of just traditional media yeah and just going back to that due diligence process a little bit more I mean what are some of those things to that also are like maybe red flags or things that kind of that's

00:04:49 not not for us that process so for us one of the things we are looking for is how big is the market and ultimately what's the exit because we are a Series A investor is looking to follow-on if there are plenty of deals where I like the company I like the founders but I don't think that it's gonna be a large exit it's just and so if I can't paper or pencil into they get into say north of 500 million or something or have a need to believe that there's a really large market I'm just I can't do that

00:05:16 those deals yeah so we're not we are not moving the needle for comcast in terms of revenue but you know we are still trying to make an impact on therefore you know with our financial performance yeah so definitely a bit larger than others yeah and what are some of those questions are asking are things you trying to find out about the the founders when you're having those conversations with them through that process as well so part of it is how clearly can they articulate articulate their vision what are they trying to do

00:05:41 why do they want to do it being a founder is really hard they're gonna be as many good days as there are bad days yeah sometimes they'll tell you was a lot of bad days and and the wanting to stick with it and you know push through all those challenges going forward on a regular basis so really understanding why someone wants to do something yeah depending on the certain area do they actually have the right background and expertise a lot of times you will see where someone is interested in an area

00:06:10 because of a particular passion but their skill set doesn't necessarily mean that they are a good fit for that and so well that's not a red flag we have a hard time believing that they're gonna be successful relevant as somebody who has more experience in that particular sector yeah and are there any particular portfolio companies that stand out and reasons why they've been successful number they've been pretty successful but many to choose from many many to choose from you know I think one of the ones that

00:06:40 was I think the really excited about what particles were sort of recent accident was cheddar cheddar TV and one of the reasons it was successful was because of the founder of John Steinberg is phenomenal and really has a vision and his ability to make things happen that was definitely what those cases were you knew you were betting on on him as part of the deal and working with him and his belief and and what he could build was really important there yeah with him too is looking at him directly then what other things about

00:07:08 him make him stand out compared to others and what aspects of him like yeah this is clearly a guy who's gonna make something happen part of it is their ability to use his ability to command a room yeah and in that space you know one of the roles of being a CEO and in many cases is going out and raising money of course and there are people where that can get taken too far but you know being able to connect and go out and speak with investors provide confidence that you're gonna be able to deliver on the promises

00:07:38 that you are providing it's really important yeah and Imus there's many companies have been successful in portfolio but then also the other end of it there are some reasons that companies ultimately fail I think in many cases it's about not finding the right product market fit or having a belief that really timing and that timing really can blow down to having the right product but the markets not ready trying to write trying to do a product where the timing of trying to raise capital is not appropriate they just not able to do so

00:08:09 and that is a pretty big difference if you look at one of the things that made Facebook successful going back was they weren't the first social network they certainly weren't the last but they were also one of the ones was really able to start taking advantage of cheaper infrastructure cost I mean when you look way back at Friendster and how much they were spending every day on servers yeah you couldn't build that business you couldn't you know that business wasn't viable or sustainable technology allowed

00:08:36 it to be and so that was just a timing issue yeah and and with Comcast ventures itself then how our decisions made so I was just remind people there too with the men a lot of investments to be made how are those decisions may wait in like the partners and everyone there yeah so we we really have it's so one of things is even though our corporate venture fund we our decisions are made by us we don't need a division sign off we don't need someone to support you know our decisions we we know that we need to be able to move

00:08:59 fast in order to compete for opportunities among the other sort of top venture funds and so it really boils down to our investment team which is really a committee vote yeah and you know there's different thresholds based off of size and sort of area but we really do tend to look at we have teams an enterprise team and teams of the consumer so based off the respective area that a company might be we we'd sort of look to those partners team members to have a you know opinion supporting that or not yeah and you

00:09:29 mentioned the size and it was looking for a big enough market size for these companies actually a potential market size I mean what are things are you looking for from the companies from those teams that really make them stand out or really make them be a thing when I create yes we're gonna definitely invest in them and what are maybe some those characteristics or things you see a part of it is for example in case of a Series A how well do you actually know your numbers yeah you know if you are a

00:09:50 director can see if you're an enterprise company and your CEO and your series a you should know every single customer in your sales list I think I was one point I had someone who told me well my head of sales you know I know you couldn't recite the numbers couldn't tell me what they're weighted you know sales pipeline there was only maybe a hundred company you know 100 companies that cuz that is your job as a CEO please know your customers do still trying to figure it out and and the fact that he didn't know

00:10:18 was a challenge so and then knowing the respective KPIs you know what are the numbers if you are a company if I ask you what your gross margin is yeah I expect you to have an answer yeah a lot of times that those aren't the answers on that aren't as sharp and as you think about sort of being a Series A or Series B investor it is about growing a company in taking something that was maybe a concept and build an entire framework around it and so that really does it ultimately some point meaning having some ability to

00:10:48 measure the performance of the company yeah it's funny you mentioned that I'm thinking in my head right away to his podcast what startup and it's a gimmick media's founder and I think as Chris Sacca asking him about the numbers he's like I I don't really know is like you're the founder of this company and you don't know the numbers for your company is like you have this person knows it's like you have to know that that level and you have to know that and and look into the team which is obviously so

00:11:13 important for any startup where are some of those issues maybe you see that these teams face even within each other that you obviously can help them solve potentially but where are some of the issues that you see the team selves face I think usually the one of first things is hiring too early for a particular position that they don't necessarily need sure maybe that's hiring you know a marketing person when they don't actually know what the product is and so you have someone who's out there trying

00:11:38 to make things happen and you know introducing more noise into the equation than actual answers so a lot of it is actually just choosing the right people similarly you know what mistake I made with like an enterprise is you'll bring in I've seen a lot happened where so I'm gonna bring in a very seasoned executives gonna be our Head of Sales and they're from a Oracle or SRP you know a company that has this incredible infrastructure we're like hey I you know my CRM systems I can I can manage teams

00:12:08 they're really really good at that yeah but being scrappy and be like no you don't have a massive expense account you actually have to build the CRM channel from scratch they're like well I had someone else do that but that's your job at the startup is yeah sometimes matching someone's experience with the expectations of what it means to to work at a start-up yeah I mean what else should these startup founders they know in regards to recruiting or growing their team is that is such an important part of that

00:12:35 anything else you can think of I mean part of it is is always be doing it I mean they I think the language always when talks about is like a third of your time as a CEO is fundraising a throw times P is people etc um you never know when you're going to need someone and so always having that pipeline of people ready is really important because you know for example one of the things like when we raise as we always ask him what you can use this money for well I'm gonna use just to hire this product

00:13:03 person and these couple oven airs do you have those people lined up we want them to say yes because they're what they're telling us is we're gonna give you money on month one and a month to the hockey stick growth is good to start well I know basically you know it and they kind of know it but hopefully they hopefully they don't always know but it's like look to get that person you have to have that person that person to drive that hockey stick right it has to be started and they have to be on board

00:13:28 so they're not gonna be delivering numbers on day one of their start it's gonna be three to six months down the road and so if you're looking at so so one of the things is if you're like saying I don't have that lined up but we're going to plant it on tripling our growth well you've got to realize how many more additional people does that actually require how many more sales people or how many more engineers to launch those additional products yeah and and so that ends up driving and pushing back your timeline and and that

00:13:54 of course is one of the things that's really important yeah and obviously that's an important question how are you gonna use this money what other questions do you have or some of the typical questions you're asking startups as well so a lot of you don't sometimes will be around the bigger picture you know we'll ask about the competition I think you know there's there's always gonna be some form of competition you can tell me it's legacy competition you can tell me it's you know an existencial car it could be it could be an

00:14:20 existential issue it could be a recession it could be something else there's always gonna be something that is gonna be some form of competition yeah so understanding that you've looked at those things and sort of say like here's what I'm competing against we always want to understand that so that's also another area where founders like I have no competition say yeah you have some competition in some capacity maybe it's not a you know a apple to apples comparison but it's it's you have something else and and understanding

00:14:48 what that is is important yeah and I have to have to pry a little bit deeper is there anything else cuz the size is great there yeah obviously the competition as well and look at that anything else did kind of questions you're asking to try prepare those startups as they're raising money potentially see what they're gonna face yeah so I think the you know we will you know we will spend a little bit time getting to know their personality I think one of the things that we look at that's roundabout answer your question

00:15:15 and this is really understanding like how are they gonna handle pressure yeah how are they gonna handle disappointment how are they gonna handle you can we work with this person right you because we want to be involved you know we want to be supportive and we want you know want to know that like when things are good we ran those conversations are easy it's when the conversation it's when things are going wrong that are going to be difficult as I can we work with this individual you know and it's

00:15:42 really not just about us but you know us as a reflection of their customers their employees you know the other investors etc like what do we see is this person and how they're gonna be able to drive you know just assess yeah is that just a matter of like looking at their history and seeing uh maybe how they already have before or like how do you a stress test then but will they actually be able to build this and what about it is how do you evaluate that it's I would say it's a little bit of art and science

00:16:08 like there's place it's you know there's plenty of numbers and venture and then we just throw them out and say okay sounds about right you do have to go with your guy yeah totally you know a lot of it is how they handle know you know I mean there have been people that you know we said look you're too early for us and and we'll have become like one of conversations I'll say is like you're too early and they're like okay what are some specific milestones that I could hit you know where potentially you'd be re interested

00:16:43 in the future route I can maybe I can give you those answers maybe I can depends on what the businesses yeah but then are some people be like well you just don't understand the business then okay probably means we weren't a good fit anyway sure yeah I meant exactly and then what the Sun was coming to mention that exact point these companies you're looking at and some of you're gonna obviously pass in a lot of them how do you keep that in a pipeline for maybe you look at later or is how does that

00:17:07 work within Comcast so we have us our own internal CRM systems Emily that most other venture funds do you know when we're touching base with those companies you know probably every couple of months just to check in with progress particular companies that were excited about a lot of it's definitely one of those key things where there's a little bit of a cadence with certain companies I'm put reminders in my calendar and I'm like you want me to touch base with in November and I'm gonna have to you know

00:17:33 and I'll make phone call to sort of go through that yeah unless you I see some news that prompts me to think that maybe there there be more successful and I realized yeah and just to get a little bit of a gauge on how many companies I mean how many investments are you making roughly here we're making about 10 to 20 new investments a year okay and then how many companies are you looking at we look somewhere between 2,000 to 2,400 company so one yeah about 1% is what we're gonna end up funding so

00:18:02 it's it's a lot yeah and you mentioned the CRM to and I'm just curious like how many you actually are keeping is everyone in this year anyone even talk to you or come through or yes okay so there everyone involved in there yeah we use affinity which is you know a solution a lot of other companies use one of the reasons we like it is because it automatically syncs with your email so you know one valuable part says we're a big team yeah and so leveraging the resources didn't know like hey did I talk to somebody or like someone talked

00:18:29 to his company oh hey Andrews talk to that person I want to go ask him what he thought about that and so having that information having all that synced between all this is critical for being on to communicate effectively both internally but then also to the market yeah and now we'll take a quick break and hear from our sponsor Breck's a big heartfelt thank you to Breck's who is out there support this show would not be possible we've seen firsthand the difficulties accessing basic corporate credit without providing a security

00:18:55 deposit or personal guarantee early on as companies grow managing expenses has become more difficult and time-consuming which is why we've partnered with Breck's to offer a corporate credit card that is not personally guaranteed offers higher credit limits provides Auto reconciliation and integrates with ERPs using receipt capture Breck's is the credit card let's start ecosystem and we highly encourage you to check them out and back to the show so what areas of the kind of startup landscape are you most excited about

00:19:25 right now so they're a couple right now I think the the first is what sort of we broadly defined as no or low code and this is these are areas where the ability to build out software or software like solutions is getting easier and easier what that means is one more people can use it we think about it in the fact that it's used every single day we all use our iPhones but if you look at how how difficult what's actually make an iPhone app ten years ago versus now it really has evolved incredibly and that's going

00:19:59 to get pushed out to other areas of space productivity tools I think it Cowan buying with that one area we're really excited about is an interested in its voice you you can see I think Alexa and Google are really at the beginning of what potentially is gonna end up happening with voice voice is actually really difficult you think about things like search search on voice is really difficult to solve you don't have a lot of the context that you necessarily do with you know with writing particular

00:20:31 you to say like if I say I have to bear with this is that a bear bear or am I talking about grinning and burying it like that's that you know that you don't you know at least with a spell and you know what the answer is really drive searches it in more different way and you know think about your search response when you're at Google is it your first second third yeah maybe it's the fifth 1000x what I was looking for but it's on the first page right like and that's all you think about are you gonna listen to you know Alexa be like

00:20:58 hey what's the score on the game no not that game no actually not that game either goodness and so the tools are gonna get built around that and the ability to sort of have the advances in sort of NLP and what ultimate applications of that are think are really interesting yeah and how are you finding those new opportunities and what are you looking for how do you actually sourcing that looking at the potential of trends everything else too so it's a combination of referrals you know one of the things I support you know as a

00:21:28 series a investors we you know we often are referenced by angel investors about the early stage investors who would like us to take a look at deal so a lot of it is warm and chose from from those companies others is founders we'd like to think that a you know founders like working with us and if a portfolio or someone who knows us says you should go take a look at this that company um we take those pretty seriously and usually you know that's a lot earlier on in the process and it's an opportunity to you

00:21:55 know to see a company sooner and then also it is just cold outreach and market analysis what are some of these trends that were we're looking at and then finding all the all the players in that space and sort of select you sort of going through them systematically to really understand and so those parts is just like yeah it's one of them and one of my classes at USC too when a lot of investors come through the class I mean when they mention like yeah he's literally he'll he'll look and see somebody in an article whatever and just

00:22:26 reach out to CEO you're like are you raising or like what's the price I'm just no cold email you know if you find something interesting yeah and I've done that and I've done that as well I saw there was someone speaking in a conference I thought they were actually they once begin the conference but was someone who was referenced three or four times by different people I'm like okay she's clearly in the field like I know what she's looking at right now what is she doing yeah I want to talk to him and how

00:22:47 did how do you see the adventure world itself kind of evolving and the next four near future I think it's gonna be we're at a point where the I think are gonna be some changes within the industry one you're gonna see some some macro economic impacts we're very tail we're going eight nine years on a you know on on our growth cycle which is phenomenal there's been a tremendous amount of success that's a ton of money that's been poured into venture as a result of that yeah I think that there is going to be a correction

00:23:20 in terms of the amount of capital that is going to go in to be going out there and then ultimately I think the other thing is really starting to people are gonna start thinking like what is the exit path for these companies because it's clearly no longer IPO as much as it used to be yeah and the horizons have changed so significantly you know if you are a seed investor and you you know you have to be planning on investing for ten years now you know that's if you know for a really successful exit

00:23:48 you know wouldn't when was Airbnb started when was uber started when was you know these are all companies that are you know eight nine ten eleven years old yeah and with that soon knowing that and seeing that how do you as a funder how do you how does that change what you do or how does that change out what you look at in terms of companies then so one of the things that we don't leverage this a ton because we still are you know looking at our ability to we want to see our results and stuff like that but but

00:24:12 we most how I have a captive term right now I need go out and you raise and you have to invest you're in a certain period of time and you have a couple of years to look to for those deals to be recognized yeah we do have the luxury of because we are invested in on behalf of Comcast we don't necessarily look at it from the same time frame yeah if we need to if we need to sit on something for a little bit longer and we want to we have that flexibility so that gives it that's a nice thing that we have that that I

00:24:39 think gives us some unique ways to look at it but at the end of the day we are being driven you know that we are also looking like what are the expectations went in the market yeah well so we are what do our other investors looking to do and you know there is a need to be consistent with mark with the market in order to be able to get into the best deals yeah and you mentioned you a bit different with Comcast I mean what other there any other glaring differences or difference between Comcast ventures and

00:25:03 like a typical maybe VC fund then yeah well I mean the first thing is we actually have all these resources you know everyone in our team talks to somebody at Comcast or NBC or sky right a couple times a week we know we know what those do you know those divisions we're up to they share with us we can use those for vetting for due diligence you know we can use those as customers we we really rely on instead of having those conversations to help us understand what does a fortune 50 company really look for right now and so

00:25:36 I think that's one of the big differences we actually have this huge resource behind us that that we really can leverage and we'll find ways to take advantage of that from behalf of the portfolio companies yeah and looking at the the startups themselves then I mean what should they be asking of venture firms when they're when they're raising funds so I think what you won what is their investment thesis why are they investment what are they looking for you know what is their experience with founders been that has been both good

00:26:05 and bad you know I think one things is they just that's a direct question who are some PEO is it is who is a reference in your portfolio that I can speak to right you know we want people to speak to our CEOs you know we think that we're a good investor and that we're that people like having us and that that people should be comfortable for that and you know but another CEO need to tell you what their what their unvarnished opinion is yeah and is there anything else that they I mean that would help them decide if I

00:26:33 could venture firm is maybe not for them I guess if eclis yeah so part of it when taking money from from venture you have a existential boss yeah you know you you are responsible to someone and you are also responsible to a timeline that may not necessarily be yours right you also are going to be have some fiduciary responsibilities in a way that you may not may not be necessary for someone if you're 100 percent private if you own the entire company and you want that that that jet that just came on the

00:27:04 market from we work no one's gonna tell you know yeah you know somewhat you know there's usually is someone who's gonna say no you know when yours making major expenses like that you know so if you want that and if you really are independent you just know I'm never gonna listen to anybody yeah you know it's it's definitely one of those cases where that's projects and the other thing is is it a venture packable business traders you know everyone assumes right now or I think there's a perception in our world that like you

00:27:31 need venture to start a business most businesses are not started with any venture money maybe some seed capital but you know it's like you'll talk to companies like well we got to 20 million dollars revenue bootstrapping it's like well how did that work well that's that's how it usually works is like you know you hustle and you you save and you do all those things there are cases where ventures appropriate for incredibly big challenging problems the SpaceX the yeah or massive massive markets that like your head but pump a

00:28:00 ton of money in but right is it a probably everything no it's not all right and so that's always a real question is this venture you know business yeah and there's like there's there are other sources of funds besides venture there's other sources of funds and they can be much more appropriate for you know what someone's you know someone's looking to do it and then like I said then ultimately a VC is looking for an exit now we we need to get our money back you know it's it's you know where we are we have to sell in some

00:28:27 capacity at some point to get our money back to redeploy in return and provide a return to our LPS so again if you if you're passionate about what you're doing like I said you just want to be independent there's no reason not to do that I think there's there's this term that people will be like oh that's it's on venture back well it's a lifestyle business I'm like that's a business that's doing 10 million 50 million 50 million top-line 10 million EBIT sounds like a pretty good lifestyle brands to

00:28:55 me and for some reason people will think oh that's not good enough yeah take that all day long I mean you to that point so - I mean do you ever see that perception changing or at evolving yeah I do I think you know there are many many good things that venture can provide I think there are also things you look at begin the situations that can be really unfortunate with you know when when startups you know fail and you know a lot of the employees are left empty-handed that's true and the CEO you know in the

00:29:27 CEOs you know end up doing okay you know I think that those those situations will end you know will continue to happen and you know it's really important I think from a worker pretty different from the employee perspective to recognize like look you're putting in a lot of time you should be rewarded for that but it's very dim light the chances of get making that Facebook like I was a receptionist cook and I'm worth 200 million right he's not like that that's unlikely to happen so yeah yeah with those

00:29:59 differences - I mean within like a lifestyle business versus a venture back of all he's obviously not every small portion are gonna be ventured back well businesses I mean what are some things that people should be asking themselves are thinking about before they decide to even like raise money obviously the size of the market it's out what else could they be thinking about I think you know how committed they are to the do the other thing with with venture or any and sort of investment is again there's a

00:30:21 time frame yeah so if you are not a hundred and ten percent committed and and look any founder is sure if you're starting a business you know it doesn't matter you are there's there's no one who's opening a bakery who's not a hundred and ten percent because they're in there four o'clock in the morning and staying to midnight right cases so but if you're not you know you don't have as much luxury of time like yeah you know you are you are typically on a business it is losing cash every single month

00:30:50 and you are on a road to either finding providing creating enough value to get additional cash either through customers or three additional venture you know VCC you can't take a couple months off yeah and if you want that time I mean you know burnout and stress for founder's is real you know it is it's a it's a meaningful issue yeah in terms of the expectations if they have to carry knowing that what's being told of them yeah and kind of to that point too I mean looking at the different companies

00:31:15 in portfolio and that yes stress and burnout is a real thing for these companies I mean how are you how do you help them through that it becomes a portfolio how do you resources you send them to look how do you help them through that mental side of it as the founders that is so challenging yeah I think the most important thing is being someone being accessible yeah you know we sort of mentioned earlier being a phone having that phone call when you're beating your quarter-over-quarter numbers that's great I always loved

00:31:42 those easy those are those are the easy clocks amazed yeah you know the calls where you know you're being sued you know your biggest customer just dropped you yeah those are we again all issues that cannon will happen if you're not comfortable calling us one you are creating more stress sure but - I can't help you know I can't leverage my resources I can't leverage my network I can't do anything to you know to sort of help you you know go through that process so part of it is is literally just trying to be accessible and and and

00:32:16 there will be tough love there you know there are going to be occasions or it's like look this isn't this isn't working and maybe daddy's it includes having a tough conversation with a founder about like they're maybe not the right fit at that time for that company yeah you know I and so that comedians but but a lot of is also just checking in with them you know we do you know making sure putting making sure that they are talking with other people you know as much it is 110% I personally meant believe it or you've

00:32:44 got to have some outlet you have to have some balance perspective is important and you know having you know knowing that they're able to sort of have that that that outlet for me is it's critical yeah and with these founders as well you're thinking about how they they know going into it there's least know how difficult it is and you've heard you've heard from everyone like how difficult is that to start a company but knowing that like you as a resource for instance it's that you can help them solve those challenges that

00:33:09 are keeping up keeping them up at night that are struggling with and that's that's what police gives him less stressed in problem and being able to you know being able to talk about it yeah and having someone you know because you know kid if you're CEO particularly you know there's a lot of studies that will talk about like a you know single founder versus co-founders right one of the reasons that co-founders often are you know it's just said to do better is because you actually have someone to

00:33:30 talk to these issues about exactly you have someone to relate with that if you in the absence of that you know you maybe you have a spouse or partner but and hopefully that person it is incredibly supportive but again like how much of your work and stress do you want to you know bring home you know there's a certain point where you probably you don't want to always be able to do that right and you know and then also you know you've got to be putting up a good face and supportive with your company

00:33:57 and so having someone who objectively understands what you're going through as a founder and you know how to get through it and is is really valuable you know I think this is one of reasons like you know when you see founders who like why do founders like to hang out with judges because they've all been through the same things together so they know the experiences and about you know not able to figure out how to solve those problems yeah and for you Chris how is your time spent day a day week to week now it

00:34:23 varies considerably so I would say about half of my time is looking at new companies that may be actually meeting with companies that may be reviewing you reviewing some the due diligence materials that they've they've sent potentially doing research on the market about a quarter for me is spent on existing portfolio so my colleagues spend well more you know you know so my colleagues who have been there you know over ten years Wow you know they've got a huge group of portfolio companies and they're spending

00:34:53 probably more well more than half their time yeah and with all those companies and then time thinking and just sort of research you know trying to you know sort of look at what the trends are not getting caught up in that in the day there's always another deal to look at and so try not to get caught up in that exhaustively yeah I mean because there's always another deal look at do you literally just like block out that time for kind of thinking more big picture or how does that work for you I have to yeah I'm not very good at

00:35:25 blocking it out because there's always something else it has to do but yeah I end up having to block out that time yeah just to make sure it actually happens and then for you I mean why did you get into venture in the first place I've always been in an investment in some capacity over the last 20 years and I was one of those people that really loved technology as a kid you know it's one of the first people in terms of like first people but I was building my own computer and you know doing all those

00:35:52 kind of things and I just loved the variety of what my job entails you know one of the for better or for worse I get to look at a lot of things yeah and so seeing what other people who are way smarter than me are thinking up is really exciting and so just getting to spend time with people like that day-in day-out is really enjoyable yeah and one thing I heard from a different investor and it's interesting this talked about this but like because you can always in theory be reading more news and doing more

00:36:22 research on it how do you decide like when to stop each tear when's enough for like when you're getting like how do you actually make that that call I think part of it is distinguishing between what am I actually doing research for the sake of actually doing them for an active investment thesis yeah and something where I'm like I'm reading for the purposes of just enjoying whether it's news or you know an or magazine or what-have-you some of those things may end up leading to an investment but I don't look at

00:36:47 that I like every time I pick up a magazine I'm not reading it and saying like where is the opportunity yeah the next thing so I think part of so for me part of it is actually sort of just not looking through that lens a hundred percent of the time it's it's actually you know saying like what else is going on because the reality is you know in order for a company to be successful you're building a product likely in many cases for tens of millions of people yeah those people are not doing what I'm

00:37:13 doing so it's like how are they it's like you kind of gotta you have to remembered like how everyone else is out there you know particularly when you're if you were if you're building in New York or San Francisco or LA you know these are not the same you know that that's not your entire market you can build companies offer those entire market share many people have but I think that you know there are a lot of businesses that you know we recognize there's a whole are portions of the populace and opportunities that

00:37:39 that exist that well outside those immediate yeah and how do you suggest and that those companies do that research and figure out like the other people besides besides LA sf New York how do you suggest they even might do that then um travel is always a good thing travel does broaden minds uh I think also being being intellectually honest with who your sounding board is yeah you know is every person that is every person that you were looking for for feedback is it a start-up founder you know is it a start-up founder in a

00:38:09 particular City you can talk to them about like those are great questions about industry or or you know how to deal with a particular business problem but are you talking to people you know but but if everyone looks the same you're not getting that diversity of thought or opinion right that is gonna be critical for understanding the broader picture yeah and with your experience to lessen the number of years in investing I mean is there anything else that you would mentioned two founders anything helpful for them as

00:38:34 they go through building their companies fundraising anything at all I think part of it is being I think a little sense of groundedness is is always is always important having you know being able to maintain perspective when things are totally crazy and they will get crazy and like I said look you have to have a singular point of view to actually make these things happen and like you have to have that absolute you know drive you're going to as an investor as a founder you're gonna talk to seventy five or a

00:39:06 hundred people they're gonna say no yeah you know for your you know just to get your money anything like great I got my money then you have to talk to a hundred people are gonna say no is your first customer so I think more than anything else is separating that it is just you know what what is deeply personal to you as a founder that you may have to be view is not necessarily to somebody else it is unfortunately sometimes it is just business or it's just not interesting and that is not a reflection on you you

00:39:35 know in any capacity and so keeping that in mind I think really important because you are always pushing a rock uphill yeah and one thing too is one of the last things I'm curious about it so with you or you founders I guess I mean how do you then manage burnout because we mentioned burn are as a thing clearly for startups because they're just manic trying to build their company but even with you investing all the time potentially like how do you manage that or how you suggest people really manage that like

00:40:00 that burnout as they're trying to build a company spending so much time on that I think being I think having some boundaries being said you know pretty clear and in respecting those boundaries you know whether that that's time with family or friends or doing you know a hobby in again I mean I realize that people are gonna be working now but but but you know having some boundaries where you eat you have that decompression like having some time to sleep and actually enjoy you know and enjoying the sleep I think yeah

00:40:30 I will admit I am NOT a big believer in the the hack your set you know that the philosophy I'm going down you know that the body hack you know my phasic sleeping and yeah look we are designed and built to do things in certain ways and like you can work around up but like also take advantage of like natural advantages that we have and I think be very clear about that and is important because it is yeah it is a marathon it is not a race you know it is definitely so so you know things are going to

00:41:00 change who you are is gonna change who you're you know your company is gonna change and so having the ability to to grow and mature with that in part means actually haven't enough time for self-reflection yeah that makes us awesome and with with any company try reach out to you what's the best way then for them again touching also learn more about Comcast ventures so the cliche answer is warm intros are always better yes yes so and you know if you say you don't know you know don't know me or somebody else it's like no a you

00:41:31 know you can find my email unlike LinkedIn and and I will you know reach out to me that way but I do get a like it a a lot through you know those cold channels I try to answer as many as I can I do not get to all of them in a meaningful way unfortunately yeah and so you know having a warm intro someone who I trust and respect asking you know to listen to take my time like I'm gonna I'm gonna be responsible responsive to that yeah and I mean it just makes sense if an entrepreneur can't do that how resourceful are they

00:42:06 to get to find a way to get it I wanna intro it is people have said before my show it is a kind of a sign they're like yeah what do they do yeah my job is to meet with people I'm not you know like I said I I'm not trying to make it impossible if this is you know this isn't you know like I'm gonna put you in an escape room and like you know that like if you can't get out in 30 minutes it's not you know like don't get my email like it's not that hot you know like it's it's it's you know it's not that hard yeah you know but but also I

00:42:34 think the other important thing along that lines is when reaching out to me or to any investor making sure you've done some research about who we are what we've done and understanding what we're interested in and and why youth why you think we might be a good fit even if you're wrong the fact that you've spent that time is is important to me in terms of how you're thinking strategically and critically yeah and Chris thank you so much for taking time to come on the show thanks very much thanks for checking out

00:43:03 step 2.0 from spark XYZ if you want to learn more about startups and investing and check us out join the ecosystem at spark XYZ dot IO