20VC: From Seed To Series A: The Due Diligence, The Valuations, The Investment Decision Making Process with Steve Schlafman @ RRE Ventures

Steve Schlafman is an early stage investor @ RRE Ventures, where he specialises on marketplaces, mobile services, and hardware. Steve is responsible for RRE’s investments in theSkimm, Hightower, TinyBop, Breather, and Managed by Q. Prior to joining RRE as a Principal, Steve was a Principal and rockstar seed investor at Lerer Ventures. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Steve worked at Stickybits Inc. and Turntable.fm, and served as Director of Venture Investments at The Kraft Group. Steve also worked at Massive Inc. and at Microsoft, where he focused on Biz Dev Strategy and Corporate Finance.   

In Today’s Episode with Steve You Will Learn:

• How Steve made his way into VC from Microsoft, to Kraft to startup to VC?
• Why does Steve think Seed to Series A is such a different ball game? What are the different characteristics encompassed within each?
• With such little data at seed, what does Steve’s DD process look like? How does that affect his investment decision making process @ RRE?
• What is the valuation comparison between Seed and Series A? How is this determined and how has this changed since Steve’s time at Lerer?
• Why do the best markets often appear small and become meaningful? How does Steve look to detect these small markets?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Steve’s Fave Book: Who (Hiring Process), Work (Hiring @ Google), Leading (Michael Moritz)

Steve’s Fave Blog or Newsletter: AVC, Stratechery, The Skimm

Steve’s Most Recent Investment: Brightwheel

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