Scott Sandell on The Twenty Minute VC

NEA Managing General Partner Scott Sandell joined Harry Stebbings on The Twenty Minute VC for a far-ranging conversation on the venture capital ecosystem, how it has evolved, Scott’s career and the investment market and opportunities today. Specifically on this episode, Scott and Harry discuss:

1. How Scott made his way into the world of venture close to 3 decades ago back in 1996? How he came to be Managing General Partner of NEA today? What is entailed in the role of “Managing General Partner”?

2. What has been the single biggest change in the venture landscape that Scott has observed since his entering in 1996? How did the boom and bust of the dot com and 2008 impact his investing mindset? Consequently, how does Scott advise founders to think about capital efficiency and business model flexibility? What concerns Scott today?

3. Why does Scott believe “this is an incredible moment in history for the asset class of venture”? How does Scott think about the core physics of company building changing? How is it companies are able to scale and grow so much faster today? Does their speed of growth change their capital requirements?

4. Does Scott agree with Bill Gurley, “the biggest challenge is the oversupply of capital today”? How does Scott analyze his own relationship to price and price sensitivity? What is Scott’s framework for determining when to pay up vs when to remain disciplined? How does Scott feel about the rise of SPACs? How will this shake out over the coming years?

5. How does NEA approach investment decision-making with the size of partnership it has? What does Scott mean when he says, “we vote on the process”? How do you create a partnership of trust at scale?

Click here to listen!