EP 79: Liz Zalman and Jerry Neumann (Co-authors, Founder VS Investor) debate startup experiences

The Logan Bartlett Show

In this episode, Liz Zalman and Jerry Neumann (co-authors of Founder VS Investor) debate venture capital and startup dynamics. Liz is a 2x founder who’s raised over $100 million, and Jerry has over 25 years of experience as a venture capitalist with successful bets on companies like Datadog and The Trade Desk.

The authors banter on topics from fundraising, board meetings, the best role of VCs, and much more.

(0:00) Intro

(2:01) Founder vs Investor

(9:04) Two constituents that a VC is serving

(14:19) Structure of new book

(16:14) Balance between numbers and schmoozing

(21:11) Liz’s absolutes of fundraising

(28:31) Beyond the natural absorption of the market

(36:21) What is the purpose of a board?

(43:27) VCs as an asset class

(47:54) Feeling like a babysitter in board meetings

(59:34) Would you have bootstrapped it in retrospect?

(1:05:47) Should founders always remain CEOs?

(1:13:01) Absolutes of fundraising disagreements

(1:20:51) Talking to associates

(1:26:33) Capital as an effective means of scaling

(1:29:23) Sandy Lerner, founder of Cisco

(1:37:06) Did Logan learn anything from the founder's perspective?

Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky

Produced: Rashad Assir

Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

Music: Griff Lawson

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About the Show

Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.

Executive Producer: Rashad Assir

Producer: Leah Clapper

Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky

Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA

🎙 Listen to the show

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-logan-bartlett-show/id1606770839

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg

🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1

Follow on Socials

📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow

🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow

🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow

About the Show

Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.