Intro
Somesh Dash has been investing in startups for over 20 years at IVP where he is a General Partner. IVP is one of the most prominent venture firms in growth stage investing founded in 1980. In the last almost five decades, they have invested in over 400 companies, with over 135 of them going public.
IVP is an investor in generational companies like Anthropic, Uber, Snap, Twitter, CrowdStrike, Snap, Robinhood, Figma, Discord, Coinbase.
I had a wide ranging conversation with Somesh about his thoughts on the craft of investing itself, immigration, IVP’s firm structure, his role as a leader in the firm now, thoughts on the unprecedented era of AI and how he thinks about investing in this era and more.
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Timestamps
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:00:55 - What 20 Years in VC Teaches You About the Job
00:02:00 - Risk-Taking, Contrarianism, and Dealing with Failure
00:02:45 - The Importance of LP Relationships
00:03:30 - Building and Sustaining a Strong VC Partnership
00:06:05 - Index / Spray-and-Pray vs. High-Conviction Investing
00:08:10 - What Does "Contrarian" Mean at the Growth Stage?
00:11:25 - Investing in Twitter in 2009
00:13:00 - Early Bet on Snapchat in 2013
00:14:45 - How Growth Stage Investing Has Evolved at IVP
00:16:15 - Investing in Anthropic
00:17:55 - How IVP Adds Value
00:20:00 - Founder Mental Health & The VC as Counselor
00:21:15 - Customer Introductions & The Day-to-Day VC Grind
00:26:37 - The IVP Partnership Model & Shared Decision-Making
00:28:05 - Depth vs. Breadth of Networks & Being In-Person
00:29:40 - Cross-Pollination Across Sports, Culture, and other Industries
00:33:33 - Favorite Podcasts, Comedy
00:35:50 - Expanding into New Sectors: Healthcare, Defense Tech & Space
00:37:45 - The Resurgence of Hardware & Semiconductors (Seagate, LSI Logic)
00:41:05 - Silicon Valley, Immigration, and Global Talent
00:45:15 - The Immigrant DNA of Unicorn Founders
00:47:23 - Geopolitics, Soft Power, and Media Narratives
00:52:16 - Immigrant Values, Capitalism, and Democracy as a Startup
00:57:35 - Labor Market Matching and Skilled Immigration
01:02:42 - How IVP Selects 8–10 High-Conviction Investments a Year
01:05:05 - Capital Allocation Lessons from the Clean Tech Boom
01:06:40 - Hot Take: Why Traditional Software/SaaS is Making a Comeback
01:08:45 - VC Firm Governance: CEO Model vs. Pure Partnership Model
01:11:50 - Generational Transition & Internal Mentorship at IVP
01:13:55 - Navigating Market Cycles & Taking $4B in Liquidity in 2021
01:15:15 - How the Investment Committee Works at IVP
01:19:25 - Apprenticeship in Venture Capital & Key Industry Mentors
01:22:42 - Cooperation in VC
01:24:48 - Somesh's Media Diet and High-Signal Information Sources
01:27:25 - The Resurgence of Print Media & Top Book Recommendations
