My guest for Ep167 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Justin Lipman, Partner at EVP.

Justin started his career in Finance working inside organisations like Credit Suisse, EY and Investec before taking the plunge to join EVP in the very early days of the Venture Fund.

The team spent the first year advising startups before raising $25M for their first fund. Fast forward 7 years later and EVP now has over $250M in funds under management.

Unlike other funds that open their investment mandate as they grow, EVP has doubled down on it’s focused investing approach by only investing in B2B software and marketplace businesses.

This focused approach has allowed them to build a fantastic portfolio which includes the likes of Siteminder, Deputy, Ignition and Shippit.

In this episode we covered a range of topics including:

• EVP’s unique investment approach to investing focus and portfolio construction
• The metrics and benchmarks that EVP tracks when making investment decisions
• Justin’s views on whether the power law is as powerful as it was a few years ago
• Managing imposter syndrome
• Startup valuations
• & much more!

Timestamps 

• 03:31 – Justin’s early career and starting EVP
• 06.53 – Transitioning from a large corporation to small VC fund
• 09:18 – Scrappy early days of EVP
• 11:42 – The ways EVP has changed, or stayed the same, as it has grown
• 15:20 – The decision to specialise in early stage B2B software investing, rather than diversifying 
• 19:10 – How EVP think about portfolio construction 
• 26:26 – The importance of data in EVP’s investment approach
• 32:48 – Specific metrics that founders in B2B SaaS startups should keep a close eye on
• 38:48 – Benchmarks for expected win rates for sales in early stage companies
• 40:06 – Advice for founders building companies in the current economic climate
• 44:38 – How founders should approach valuation discussions with investors
• 47:43 – Imposter syndrome, and strategies to handle or mitigate it
• 50:54 – Navigating the founder-investor relationship

Our partners

A big thank you to Matt de Boer, Dan Szekely and William On for their help with this interview. Also a big thank you to our partners for this episode.

Lawpath

Lawpath’s Legal Advice Plan gives you access to lawyers on demand for one low monthly fee. Create legal documents, sign online and have a lawyer on-call to help you through any legal need for a fraction of the cost.  Lawpath has helped Australian businesses save over $100 million in legal fees, and are offering Startup Playbook listeners up to 20% off their most popular legal plans. Visit lawpath.com/playbook for your exclusive discount and discover an easier way to get your legals sorted.

Scendar 

We’re Scendar, an accounting and advisory practice better described as Finance as a Service (FaaS). We’re focused on founders, funders and startups. Clients that are ever-changing and adapting. We like fast movers. And as you might have guessed, we’re not your basic accountancy. We can take care of tax and the books whilst building a syndicate fund and a multimillion dollar exit strategy.  At Scendar, we’re empowered by our client’s potential. Find out more at Scendar.com

Dovetail Studios 

Dovetail Studios operates a venture studio and VC to transform ambitious ideas into unstoppable businesses. On top of being a renowned product development partner for startups like Afterpay, they also operate a VC fund to invest in early-stage companies that go through their venture studio program. So if you’re a non-technical, early-stage founder looking for a talented team to help supercharge your success, check out dovetailstudios.com

Links Mentioned 

Chris’s Links 

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Justin’s profile on Letter of Intent
• Justin’s email

People mentioned

• Howard Leibman – EVP
• Les Szekely – EVP
• Daniel Brand – SnapRevise
• William On – Shippit
• Rob Hango-Zada – Shippit
• Matt de Boer – Athletic Ventures
• James Leathem – VendorPanel
• Kal Jamshidi – LOI

Companies mentioned:

• EVP
• Credit Suisse
• SnapRevise
• SiteMinder
• Hotel Club
• Shippit
• Deputy
• Rezdy
• Athletic Ventures
• Hnry
• A16z
• VendorPanel
• Letter of Intent

Feedback/connect/say hello:

[email protected]
@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)
/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)
@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)
My Youtube Channel

Credits:

Music: Paycheck

Other channels:

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Find all links to the podcast here.

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