Aydin Senkut
@asenkut
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Founder @Felicis | 10x Midas List | Investor @Adyen @Shopify @notionhq | lucky husband & proud father
Menlo Park, CA
Joined August 2007
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I’m so proud to see
@kennethlin
&
@creditkarma
vision reach this incredible scale from when we first invested in their seed round to result in the $7.1B acquisition by
@Intuit
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Key learnings for us:
1. Markets matter, pick big incumbents (MS Office) or follow big demand (devs require better access to FinTech)
2. Generalist approach broadens access to more winners (not a single unicorn or decacorn investment we made was led by an expert)
3. Some of our
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Anybody who is in VC business or interested in it, this is a must read piece by
@CamAssociates
(Cambridge Associates) with plethora of great stats (LP allocations up 2-3x / loss ratio down from 50% to 20% / new managers consistently in top 10):
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Even amidst these turbulent times, we are doubling down on our quest to find the most iconic companies & partnering with amazing founders:
via
@ychernova
@WSJ
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Big day
@felicis
as we announce our Founder Development Pledge: committing 1% in non-dilutive capital on top of every 1st check we write to be used towards personalized founder development - great work by
@dashamaggio
coverage by
@alexrkonrad
@forbes
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Go out of your way to say “thank you, I’m grateful” in as many different situations as you can - you might be surprised with an unexpected jolt of happiness.
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To amplify, we
@felicis
found that revenue, capital efficiency is one of the most reliable predictors of future success. I wish we paid more attention to what startups did with $ raised vs size of rounds...
Level of funding correlated to success, correct? Incorrect.
Of 50 biggest exits since 2012, 32% raised sub $100m.
6 of 9 most valuable IPOs raised sub $100m.
6 of 11 companies which raised most pre-IPO now negative change in value since IPO.
Funding is not always king. 🤷♂️
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Big day today: our first LP board meeting in our new SF office, 4 Series A term sheets signed in last 6 weeks (2 already closed), so much more to come and it’s not even summer yet !
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Super excited about our latest fund & welcoming our newest partner
@victoriatr
to our team; we are so privileged to join journeys of so many amazing companies, look forward to adding many more ! Captured nicely by
@Cookie
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Immigrant Founders started 52% of all new Silicon Valley companies between 1995-2005 on
@Inc
http://t.co/9ylBYWOPon
via
@davemcclure
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"Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again." Nelson Mandela
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Working with Larry Page has been one of the greatest experiences in my life and allowed me learn so much that helped set up my future as an entrepreneur myself
@felicis
; can’t wait to see what’s next for both Larry and Sergey
LATEST: Alphabet CEO Larry Page is stepping down and will be replaced by Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Here is the full letter from Page and co-founder Sergey Brin:
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Wow going from "What is Shopify ?" in 2010 to now in 2020 startups pitching at
@ycombinator
as "Shopify for X" - true testament to the power of
@Shopify
& its mission to empower all entrepreneurs around the world - so cool to see
@tobi
@harleyf
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One of the best pieces I've read on deep learning: interview of Facebook AI Director
@ylecun
http://t.co/3bDXoXNpFV
via
@speechu
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Founders certainly are much more selective & diligent in selecting VCs; lots are either delaying or punting on VC rounds. Our surveys consistently tell us that foundation of trust b/w VCs & founders is critical; hence our focus on founder trust, development & sharing SAME dream
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It’s amazing how much more time, money and attention is on AI versus our actual intelligence & how our brains work. Not appreciating how primitive we are still about mental health and cognition.
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I’m the proud father of the Fall 2019 SSV Junior Tennis Champion (10 and under) 🏆😁
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So incredibly proud of our
@felicis
partner
@speechu
& our early backing of
@zachperret
@williamhockey
@plaid
- they have become one of the most formative FinTech platforms - this is super well deserved for the founders & whole team at the company... couldn’t be happier for them
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Something I learned over couple decades of my professional life: reputation and brand is painstakingly earned over time with actions and morals / virtue.
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Majority of people I see are focused on doing too many things all at same time, and most successful people are focused on doing fewest things that matter but do it 105-110%
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So proud of our founders &
@felicisventures
team; we're in top 8 ranks among 100 VC backed exits during '12-'16
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Time to pause for a moment & be super grateful for our awesome founders’ continued success which allows us to continue scaling our own venture to significantly expand our ability to partner with the worlds best founders even in a tough market: via
@Cookie
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Here's to think BIG(ger) - $GOOG now worth $400B; went public 10 yrs ago at $20B - people thought that was high - via
@friedberg
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Another big week for
@felicis
, yesterday monster raise for
@Plaid
, today it’s the announcement of big rounds for
@Guideline401k
&
@juniper_square
- so proud of them; we are extremely bullish on
#fintech
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Couldn’t be more proud of our founders who give us a chance to share their journeys, our amazing team
@felicis
, our LPs - 6th year in a row 🙏🏻
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It’s 2023 - a recent topic is scaling (a good friend just emailed me to ask how I scale) - virtually all questions I get is “how do you do more (of x)?” But never “what do you NOT do to scale ?”. Key here: give up (all) non critical items to focus on what’s truly strategic
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This was an incredibly pleasant surprise: 2 of my favorite authors on 1 podcast (
@tferriss
&
@SPressfield
) 10 Short Life Lessons From Steven Pressfield
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Really excited to see the next generation of
#superangels
taking off; we
@felicis
are super proud to back
@briannekimmel
@mallun
&
@KatieS
, 3 amazing operator / women investors with various super powers that we think great founders will gravitate to... cc
@KatieRiester
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At
@Felicis
, we’ve been funding AI-native companies since 2006. My first ever check was with
@SoundHound
(18! yrs ago) and now we are investing across the AI application and infra stack. Here’s a sampling of our AI companies (image below) incl
@canva
@NotionHQ
@runwayml
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Such a big believer in
@tschellenbach
@tommasobarbugli
&
@getstream_io
team as a key infra / API company to power communications - and as such super proud to lead their newest round
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Rise of Mobile (now at $85B) in 50 Years of Gaming History, by Revenue Stream (1970-2020)
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So cool:
@AstroKatie
: Milky Way over South Africa - Photo by Stephen Potter.
http://t.co/YJ8thZRN2V
http://t.co/uG41tDAozr
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It’s a day of stats / numbers inspired by
@Post_Market
| As of Aug 2020, Walmart last 12 month revenue was $534 billion against Amazon's revenue of $322 billion over same period. Amazon revenue growth rate is 40% annually, 10x of Walmart's 4%.
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One of the greatest gifts is critical, honest feedback. So difficult to draw it from people - that’s why it has to be embraced at all costs; even if it requires hours of coaching, and hard introspection
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Most of most valuable exits &companies
@felicis
are outside of Silicon Valley
@shopify
CA,
@adyen
NL,
@pluralsight
Utah,
@canva
AU,
@Rovio
FI,
@DollarShaveClub
LA,
@GuildEducation
CO; reflecting on
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Personal plea to entertainment world: in an age we are all at home and need movies / entertainment more than ever, we need movies to watch as whole family; everything is recently rated R or PG 15; gore, violence, language, nudity maxed out - so hard to find a film to watch w kids
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A million reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving: for starters, the world's best family, best coworkers & the chance to work with the best founders in the world; not to mention this amazing country which gave me incredible opportunities I could hardly dream of.
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It is extremely hard to build a great team in venture / let alone find a number of amazing people; feel super fortunate about our team & welcoming
@victoriatr
/ love the perspective from
@alexrkonrad
@Forbes
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"The ultimate definition of an entrepreneur is someone who is always thinking he can do things a different, better way," Sam Zell
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So excited to lead $50M Ser C for
@runwayml
, partnering w
@c_valenzuelab
@agermanidis
@matamalaortiz
to see their cutting edge AI research bringing collaborative multimedia creation / editing to the masses, or as Cris says “make impossible, possible”… 🚀 cc
@vivfaga
Big news for Runway today!
We just raised $50M to continue building impossible things.
What’s coming next 🧵
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For early-stage investing in infra, security and dev tools - follow which companies are most loved, used, adopted as that’s a leading indicator of revenue / traction to come.
Increasingly for us
@felicis
- key signal is developer / customer love and adoption + consistent usage.
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I’m very grateful for
@tferriss
help originally when we were trying to invest in
@Shopify
& getting connected to
@tobi
&
@harleyf
| the episode is so chock full of gems + 🙏🏻 for the shout-out; showing up in Ottawa was no brainer & appreciate your camaraderie & support !
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This is really one of the best 20 Minute VC podcast episodes by
@harrystebbings
w
@akothari
@NotionHQ
- only 40 people to get to where the company is today & incredible growth ahead; super lucky to be an early investor / kudos to
@SarahRCannon
for leading this round
💥 Special New 20VC Episode 💥
I��ve been one of
@NotionHQ
biggest fanboys for long time.
A joy to have
@SarahRCannon
@IndexVentures
on the show w/
@akothari
@NotionHQ
discussing:
The $50M round every VC wanted.
The future of remote work and more.
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Really proud of
@ivanhzhao
@akothari
&
@NotionHQ
team, their amazing grit & resilience paying off: New Round @ $800M valuation via
@amir
@theinformation
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"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it." - Maya Angelou
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Wisdom from my 8 yr old:"I don't want to watch it, I want to do it !"
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“If you run into failure, persistence continues...Persistence is antifragile and benefits from setbacks” + persistence is core to learning & adapting
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Super excited about
#UpfrontSummit
tomorrow -
@msuster
knows how to throw an event...also really looking forward to my fireside chat with
@danprimack
in the morning
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Proud to see
@felicisventures
among top VCs w most unicorns & high unicorn spotting rate as % of portfolio:
http://t.co/on4sQ1GFKg
via
@qz
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So excited to announce that
@AstasiaMyers
is joining our team
@Felicis
as General Partner. Not only does she stand out with her incredible hustle & strong track record but she’s built up a great reputation with technical founders who are pickier than ever when choosing their
Thrilled to share I've joined
@Felicis
as a GP ✨ I've long admired their commitment to founders, new categories & high-conviction bets.
I'll continue to invest in my favorite categories of databases, dev tools, infra & AI from inception to Series A.
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Being a huge tennis fan, this quote from Andre Agassi really resonated with me: “It’s no accident that tennis uses the language of life: advantage, service, fault, break, love. The basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence.”
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One of the most impactful investments we ever led
@felicis
is
@prenuvo
- every time I see a post like this, I’m reminded, nothing is more critical than saving lives & fighting
#cancer
(+ 500 other severe conditions). Thanks to
@friedberg
@DavidSacks
@jason
for spreading the word
Thanks to
@theallinpod
@chamath
@Jason
@DavidSacks
@friedberg
for talking about
@prenuvo
As a result I went and got a scan. Found a very large renal cell carcinoma that was lurking inside of me. Had my kidney removed and I’m now cancer free. Thanks besties! ❤️ You saved my life.
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Big news today: we
@felicis
wrote our largest check ever to
@GuildEducation
@RachelRCarlson
so so excited about their mission; proud of our lead & my partner
@weschan
Our team at
@GuildEducation
is excited to announce our Series C today - $40m in investments from
@felicis
@SalesforceVC
and
@Workday
and more.
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So proud of this Turkish German couple who were instrumental in the latest Covid vaccine and grateful to see amazing people like them who dedicate their lives to improve those of others
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Finishing '16 with much gratitude for our founders; privileged to do what I do, thankful for an amazing family & team; bullish about '17
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Why wheat is so addictive (raises blood sugar higher than candy) and should be avoided -
http://t.co/iQuyYrBN
via
@soniaarrison
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My 5 year old asked to chase the gold under the rainbow this morning - just on cue we got the
@NYtimes
top 20 VC listing couple minutes later. Feeling very grateful to our founders & team
@felicis
to be included there based on
@CBinsights
data
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Gorgeous SF skyline en route back to PA from Napa via the bay...
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Thanks again to
@upfrontvc
for an amazing event &
@danprimack
for such a great fireside chat; we
@felicis
really care about empathy & putting our founders first
#upfrontsummit
@asenkut
of
@felicis
on the personal side of VC: Everyone thinks venture is about finance and data, but it's all about people. You need to read and understand people. Empathy is extremely important.
Interviewed by
@danprimack
#UpfrontSummit
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"When you hit a wrong note, it's the next note that makes it good or bad." Miles Davis
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“
@WSJD
:
@FelicisVentures
closed a $96 million fund and
@asenkut
pledged to vote investor shares with founders.
http://t.co/S3z6uyaUu7”
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Our biggest bet
@felicis
in infra / backend platform: led $80M round in
@supabase
, was top 3 fastest
@github
growth globally (+ 2021
@ycombinator
co of year) - so exciting for
@vivfaga
& I, to partner w
@kiwicopple
&
@AntWilson
+ amazing team.
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Reading a lot about stoicism lately; one of the principal tenets is: “That we don’t control and cannot rely on external events, only ourselves and our responses.” Crazy how much time is wasted worrying about things we don’t control rather than what we can do, or do better
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Really excited for
@JamieSiminoff
and
@ring
team on their acquisition by
@amazon
- hugely proud of my partner
@weschan
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I feel like every day should be teacher appreciation day - they have one of the most important jobs for humanity and yet don’t nearly get enough recognition for their efforts
1
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Don’t underestimate David against Goliath - rooting for
@c_valenzuelab
@agermanidis
@matamalaortiz
and
@runwayml
team… unleashing and enabling creativity for the 99% of the world… cc
@vivfaga
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The best part of my job is to partner with amazing founders like
@kennethlin
@creditkarma
& Pieter Van Der Does
@Adyen
on a mission to have incredible impact & before success is inevitable or obvious... very grateful for that + being on
@Forbes
#Midas
list
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Immigrants founded 40% of Fortune500 & behind 7 of 10 firms w most valuable brands in the world:
http://t.co/seJC2JOm3H
via
@TheEconomist
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Blast from the past: in 2008
@felicis
was one of 4 most active micro VCs during the downturn, now with our new fund, we are actively investing in infrastructure, developer tools, security, remote work, platforms, and vertical SaaS
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We are super grateful to our amazing founders for allowing us to join their journeys; will always remember that our success is predicated on our founders’ success; special thanks to founders & teams
@adyen
@shopify
@fitbit
@creditkarma
@Cruise
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So excited for our partner
@speechu
to lead a $25M round for
@PicnicHealth
& join the journey w
@nogaleviner
@troyastorino
& team to build the most amazing, patient centric, data network business in healthcare !
1
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So excited for
@felicis
to lead
@VerkadaHQ
round to support & supercharge their awesome mission to create the OS for every building in the world - grateful to work w such a stellar team & founders ! Plus joining amazing syndicate w
@next47
@firstround
@sequoia
@MeritechCapital
We are thrilled to share that Verkada has raised $80M in
#SeriesC
financing at $1.6B valuation to expand on the vision of building a software layer for every commercial building to run on.
#technology
#funding
#security
#accesscontrol
#videosecurity
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Really proud of our partner
@dashamaggio
for her leadership and original thinking to launch our 1% Founder Pledge to support leadership development for our founders, and a great quote on
@TechCrunch
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Really proud to see
@SoundHound
- my very first investment
@felicis
- all the way back in Jan 2006 go public this month | huge kudos to
@keyvanm
& team for their resilience and grit, building such an important, foundational company, combining Voice and AI !
#voiceai
#ipo2022
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Dawn of the Chrome Age by
@mhelft
/ great story on superb strategy & execution by
@sundarpichai
http://t.co/q9Gcx2iJvC
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An incredible 2014 thanks to our amazing founders & awesome team
@felicisventures
- 3 exits of $500M+, 3 exits of $100M+, 2 new $B unicorns
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On this special April day, I’m proud to announce my next venture:”Aydin’s Nails & Spa”; we plan to disrupt nail care with high tech & high end service;
@soniaarrison
will be my partner in this amazing endeavor.
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Simple insight: narratives usually are A happened because of B. More important is concept of “over time” or “repeatedly”; ie: to succeed: do something hard (repeatedly); stick to your core values (over time); it is this consistency that makes the difference, not just the one time
0
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It’s so inspiring to see
@MelanieCanva
and
@canva
featured on the cover of
@FastCompany
on
#InternationalWomensDay
- our most valuable portfolio company led by an amazing woman leader / we
@felicis
are proud to be part of the incredible journey
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Thanks Mark ! We owe it all to our founders; journey is getting is more interesting for sure :)
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Really proud of
@dashamaggio
, Katie Riester &
@nikipez
; recognizing their contributions with promotions and embracing our next chapter:
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Such a pleasure to join my good friend, UK VC and podcaster extraordinaire
@HarryStebbings
on his 20VC podcast a second time & share the growth story of
@felicis
… really appreciate the opportunity !
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