20 VC FF 021: From TechCrunch to Founder to TechCrunch with the legend, Steve O'Hear

Steve O’Hear is best known as a technology journalist, currently at TechCrunch where he focuses on European startups, companies and products. He first joined TechCrunch in November 2009 as Contributing Editor for TechCrunch Europe, where he worked alongside Editor Mike Butcher to help build TechCrunch’s European coverage. However, in June 2011 having caught the startup bug, Steve took a break from journalism to co-found the London and Prague-based startup Beepl. In November 2012, Beepl was acquired by Brand Embassy. Steve is also the writer and director of the critically acclaimed Silicon Valley documentary ‘In Search of the Valley’. Before we delve into the show today, our dear friend and kind donator, Brad Feld has agreed to do a competition giveaway featuring signed copies of his amazing book, Venture Deals, all you have to do to be in with a chance is headover to the website at www.thetwentyminutevc.com and sign up for our newsletter. It’s that simple. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) Where did it all start for Steve, how did you make he make his entrance into the tech industry, journalism and then founding Beepl? 2.) How did Steve find the transition from journalist to entrepreneur? What were the hardest aspects of the journey? What surprised Steve about the fundraising process for Beepl? 3.) In such a crowded space such as news generation, what is it about TechCrunch that makes it The Bible to the tech community? 4.) Obviously articles and news brings comments from the community. How do TechCrunch try and engage and unite the community? Have there been any difficulties with the commenting process etc? 5.) How does a platform like TechCrunch plan to monetize content with the ever disappearing ad dollar? Is it something that concerns TechCrunch? 6.) Where does Steve think we are going in both wider media and journalism? Is journalism heading to the short form with the increasing prominence of platforms such as Buzzfeed? How does the industry Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Steve's Fave Book: The Big Sleep Steve's Fave Blog: Tech.eu As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Steve on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session you can follow him on Instagram here!

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Harry Stebbings?

  This is the 20 Minute VC, I am Harry Stebbings and you are listening to a very special episode of Founder's Friday, as our guest today is Steve O'Hare, best known as a technology journalist currently at TechCrunch, where he focuses on European startups, companies and products. He first joined TechCrunch in November of 2009 as a contributing editor for TechCrunch Europe, where he worked alongside editor Mike Butcher to help build TechCrunch Europe's coverage. However, what a lot of people do not know is that in June 2011, having caught the startup bug, Steve took a break from his role in journalism to co-found the London and Prague based startup Beeple. In his role as CEO, he helped the company raise its first VC round, and in November

• 0:45Harry Stebbings?

  2012 Beeple was acquired by Brand Embassy. If all of that was not enough, he was also the writer and director of the critically acclaimed Silicon Valley documentary In Search of the Valley. But before we delve into the show today, our dear friend and kind donator Brad Feld has agreed to a competition giveaway, featuring signed copies of his amazing book Venture Deals. All you have to do to be in with a chance is head over to the website at www.thetwenty minute vc dot com, all in letters, and sign up for our newsletter, it's that simple. However, it is now time for me to shut up and to hand over to the man himself, it is the fantastic Steve O'Hare from TechCrunch.

• 1:34Harry Stebbings?

  Steve, it's great to have you on the 20 Minute VC, I can't emphasise enough how much I love your writing, so it's a pleasure to have you on the show.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  Well, thanks for having me.

• 1:42Harry Stebbings?

  Now, you've had a phenomenally successful career with TechCrunch, but where did it all start and how did you make your entrance into the tech industry and journalism?

• 1:51Speaker 01

  Journalism was about 2004, I'd done some various web design projects and stuff after graduating from uni, and one project I built was like a YouTube for students, it got picked up by the Guardian newspaper. Always wanted to be a journalist when I was like a kid, so I said to this journalist I was working with, like... Like, can you put me in touch with your editor? I wanna, I basically wanna do your job. And he did. And then. I got a top of the bar lines in the Guardian, uh, did some work for Maxwell Magazine. And then I guess my break in when the editor of Maxwell left and he offered to sort of give me.

• 2:33Speaker 01

  Like a bit of mentoring of how to become a journalist. And he was basically like, Steve, there's way worse writers than you. And he was like, if you wanna be a journalist, just start calling yourself a journalist. So that's what I did. Um, and then that led to working with Rewrite Web a little bit. And then. I got a blog in deep with Z D Net covering the social web. So like fa- early Facebook and. All those social apps that dropped up, round about when Facebook was sort of blowing up. That's, that's how I got into it.

• 3:06Harry Stebbings?

  And I think many people are probably less aware of your journey uh as an entrepreneur with Beeple. So I'd love to also hear about that side of your career and find out how you found the transition from journalist to entrepreneur.

• 3:19Speaker 01

  So, yeah, so, um, I'd been at TechCrunch for almost two years, uh, when it was TechCrunch Europe. Where we had like a separate site for European coverage, uh, working with Mike Butcher. As you can imagine, like, you're covering startups every day. And you're talking to entrepreneurs and you kind of get a bit of envy. Like, especially with myself coming from originally a web design and development background. Like, you see people building cool products. And so I was approached, um, by a very talented. Uh, computer scientist who had an idea but didn't really have like a C E O type role. And he asked me to like do some consultation on the product, which was, which was called Beeple. And, um.

• 4:02Speaker 01

  It just spiraled from there. Eventually, I ended up getting so involved that I realised I, I would need to quit TechCrunch because. There's an obvious conflict of interest. And he offered me the C E, C E, C E O role. It would look like there was a chance of some VC funding. So after a lot of hesitation. Um, I made the jump and co-founded, yeah, this startup.

• 4:25Harry Stebbings?

  And was it difficult to leave the world of journalism that you'd so wanted to go into?

• 4:30Speaker 01

  It was because at the time it felt like completely like taking a match to my journalist career, do you know what I mean?

• 4:37Harry Stebbings?

  Mm hmm.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  I didn't quite see how I would go back because, you know, TechCrunch felt like I'd reached fairly high up in the league of publications. So it I I did really hesitate and it took a lot of persuasion, but at the same time, like. Um. It seemed like a really good opportunity to try and see what it was like on the other side of the table. And I think that's what attracted it to me. It's I really wanted to sort of, instead of writing other people's stories. I wanted to have a go at creating my own and and, you know, and it was it was. You know, someone invites you to co-found a startup and they're seriously talented, you know, you don't necessarily turn that down easily.

• 5:17Harry Stebbings?

  And having written about so many entrepreneurs, was actually living the entrepreneur life how you expected it to be?

• 5:24Speaker 01

  Um. Yes and no. So that's the thing. When you write about this stuff every day, you undergo illusions about how difficult it will be. About how arduous the fundraising process will be and how most consumer startups fail, right?

• 5:39Harry Stebbings?

  Mm hmm.

• 5:39Speaker 01

  Especially coming from Europe, it's much harder. I would argue, you're going to say it's funny for that. It was it was ba- it's basically a social media type startup. So, um, that didn't really surprise me, but what surprised me probably the most is. Like, as a journalist, everybody wants your help or wants coverage.

• 5:57Harry Stebbings?

  Mm hmm.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  So they're very nice to you.

• 5:58Harry Stebbings?

  Huh huh.

• 5:59Speaker 01

  And I I thought that when I went to the other side, that my address book. My contacts would almost evaporate overnight, right?

• 6:09Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah.

• 6:09Speaker 01

  But the opposite happened. Um. People were really, really helpful. They seemed to respond to like. This is the entrepreneur community and the P R initially of being very, very supportive of someone, you know, swapping sides really. So that that surprised me.

• 6:25Harry Stebbings?

  And I'd love to hear why you think consumer is harder in Europe than it is in the States.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  I think it's like network effects. I think because America is a single market with one language. And he's got a lot more high profile. VCs on Twitter, you know, other like other entrepreneurs, that they can, they can amplify your message. A lot quicker in in the consumer space. I'm not, like, I'm not entirely sure why, but. If you look at what Europe does best, or has historically done best, it's a lot of enterprise. Software and sort of less, you know, less consumer and less sexy, whereas, I mean, it's hard to imagine a Twitter. Or a Facebook coming out of Europe, certainly back then, this was sort of two thousand and uh ten, eleven.

• 7:14Speaker 01

  And I guess the only exception I can think of, off the top of my head, is some of the gaming companies and something like Spotify.

• 7:21Harry Stebbings?

  And then in terms of fundraising with people, was there anything surprising about the process of raising funds, having covered so much in the publication before?

• 7:30Speaker 01

  It is very, very different, covering like the announcement of a funding round and and raising one of your own.

• 7:38Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah, cause you write about so many funding rounds every day. Do you now appreciate the the complexities that go into each one? Is that it?

• 7:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. It's a slow process. Um but I loved it. I I have to tell you, I. I really enjoyed the fundraising process because I like negotiating.

• 7:57Harry Stebbings?

  Mm hmm.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  And um I remember the first time, the first meeting I took with the VC that ended up funding us. I remember sort of phoning my dad up and saying, I felt like I'd stared capitalism in the eyes. And that I'd blinked first, do you know what I mean? It's um, and then the other thing that it taught me, which I don't really hear a lot of people say, like, talking about this. It's it struck me as a journalist that there's like um an absolute conflict of interest. Um in that stage when you're fundraising, because essentially you're telling your VC. In a way, you're trying to tell them what they wanna hear, cause you wanna close the round.

• 8:33Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah.

• 8:33Speaker 01

  But the minute you close the round. They're your business partner. So it's a weird, you know, it's a very weird sort of.

• 8:40Harry Stebbings?

  And for a long time, I mean.

• 8:41Speaker 01

  And for a long time, yeah.

• 8:43Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah.

• 8:43Speaker 01

  So if you over egg where you're at in your fund in your fundraising process, you know, literally the next morning, you signed. You've signed a shareholder agreement, so everything, the money's going to the bank and then you're like, oh, by the way, let's get real now. I mean, it's not quite like that, but it seems an odd, I can't think of many relationships where you literally start off. Trying to convince them and tell them what, not what they wanna hear, but you wanna meet their, you know, their targets, their metrics, you wanna. Try to um mitigate their risk.

• 9:13Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  And then literally the next day, the money comes in and it's like, okay, let's all get real now. Um I found that odd.

• 9:20Harry Stebbings?

  And then following people and the experience with people, you return to TechCrunch. And and we've obviously seen the explosion of TechCrunch and the TechCrunch audience in the last few years. So in such a crowded space, such as the news generation space and the news space in general. What do you think it is about TechCrunch that makes it literally the bible to the tech community?

• 9:42Speaker 01

  I think hard work, like the TechCrunch staff work incredibly hard and we're quite obsessive. So I think, I mean, if you think about TechCrunch in the beginning, when Mike Aronson started the blog. He, also one of the strap lines was that TechCrunch obsessively profiles startups, right?

• 10:03Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah.

• 10:03Speaker 01

  And even though we've gone, you know, a much, much, much bigger team now. We we cover tech in the sense that tech is everywhere and is in everything.

• 10:12Harry Stebbings?

  Mm hmm.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  So in a sense, we don't see ourselves, you know, as as a startup tech site anymore. Um so we we but we do still cover really early stage companies all the way up to earning pools of apple. In a sense, as tech has become more mainstream, the tech under the site has has kept a pace with that. Do you know what I mean? So it's got bigger and bigger in terms of the amount of staff and the coverage. And now spans startups from pre-seed, you know, pre like. Idea stage startups all the way up to publicly listed companies.

• 10:46Harry Stebbings?

  And do you think it's that diverse range of of coverage then that makes you so special and so recognised as the leader?

• 10:53Speaker 01

  Because we still focus on. We still do the startup bit really well, I would argue. It means that in a way we win, we win on both end and ends because. What I noticed very early on when I first went uh TechCrunch is I think the biggest impact my coverage made on a startup. Was often that we would, we would, like, my coverage would either lead to the first interest the startup had. From investors or from mainstream media.

• 11:21Harry Stebbings?

  Mm hmm.

• 11:22Speaker 01

  So I think that when you're sort of so early um in in the coverage cycle, then other media look to TechCrunch. To, you know, as a pointer to where they should go. And that's kind of fun, you know. You do a story and then the next week. Um a national newspaper does something similar.

• 11:38Harry Stebbings?

  And does it feel great to have so much kind of power in the palm of your pen, quite literally. Do you know what I mean? I mean, you you do have the ability to change the trajectory of a startup. How does that feel?

• 11:50Speaker 01

  I'm gonna disagree with you slightly. I think it's just today that Yan Yan Ting, uh WhatsApp's founder, wrote something. About how P R and and coverage is a distraction, right, and you should focus on products. And I don't think TechCrunch or anyone like TechCrunch makes or breaks a startup. I think that's a slight myth. Um, so, but on the other hand, it is a responsibility, don't get me wrong. And I know that when I left to do my own startup. I did sort of miss, in a in a very vain way, I did miss the influence. But honestly, it's it's slightly overed because at the end of the day, right? If you make a really awesome product, you'll get found out by the press because we can't ignore it. And if you make a bad product.

• 12:34Speaker 01

  You'll get found out by your customers or users, regardless of how much publicity you've drawn. And I can say this from. Firsthand experience, people was covered everywhere. Like, because of my journalist background, we got in.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  Anywhere from CNN, Next Web, TechCrunch, obviously, uh Fast Company Magazine, like. We were, at one point, we were everywhere for about two days. And I can tell you, it made very little difference, cause in the end, the product didn't resonate with enough users. It didn't solve a problem that enough people had.

• 13:05Harry Stebbings?

  And then, obviously, having written articles uh for TechCrunch, obviously, every day, uh that brings comments from the community. So how do you at TechCrunch kind of try and engage and unite the community without having any difficulty with the commenting process?

• 13:21Speaker 01

  So I think over the last, I don't know, five years, when you think about it, a lot of the community around a publication. And a lot of the comments have moved off the publication itself, right?

• 13:33Harry Stebbings?

  Mm hmm.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  So I would say that most of my, um, most of the way that I engage with TechCrunch readers is. We are, we do a head of a lot of conferences and meetups, so we get out there face to face, right? But the conversation online has moved largely onto Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. I think that's an issue that all. Publications have, which is that there's, they don't own the commenting so much as they used to. It's much more aggregated across these big platforms.

• 14:02Harry Stebbings?

  Is that not an advantage for you, as you, I, you know, obviously, no one wants horrible comments, but you no longer hold responsibility if they're on Twitter or Facebook. Than you do if they're on your own TechCrunch website?

• 14:13Speaker 01

  I don't think moderating comments was ever a big problem. It's more keeping up the quality of the conversation.

• 14:19Harry Stebbings?

  Okay.

• 14:20Speaker 01

  Um, and that is really about, um, I think the tone of the publication. It's sort of known, isn't it, in the industry? That YouTube has the worst comments ever. I'm not quite sure why, but, uh, and actually, it's interesting because, again. Beeple was a social media startup and we had a big community aspect. And I can tell you that you think that the way to launch a community is just to like invite everyone in, everyone's welcome and. The more the merrier, right? Especially when you're trying to grow your user numbers. But it's really interesting how if you're not careful. You do lose control over the tone of the conversation. So I guess your point is, yeah. If comments have moved to Twitter, you can't moderate Twitter, but at the same time, you have the advantage that.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  Even though the conversation has moved off your publication, that's also where stories are shared.

• 15:07Harry Stebbings?

  Mm hmm.

• 15:08Speaker 01

  And, and go viral. So it's kind of, it's kind of a two-way street.

• 15:12Harry Stebbings?

  And then talking of platforms in particular, and monetising platforms then. How does a platform like TechCrunch plan to monetise its content with the ever disappearing ad dollar? Is it something that kind of concerns you guys at TechCrunch, or do you see other potential?

• 15:28Speaker 01

  This is probably not gonna help your question, but at TechCrunch, we have a very good rule between sort of business development and. Commercial side and editorial.

• 15:37Harry Stebbings?

  Mm hmm.

• 15:38Speaker 01

  So, you you know, in truth, as boring as it is, as as a writer, as a reporter for Tech TechCrunch. We don't really have to pay much attention to that. I mean, we have great biz dev people, they. TechCrunch obviously is commercially viable. We do huge conferences. That's another um revenue stream. It's not, I don't think that's a secret. As uh reporters, journalists, writers, whatever you wanna call us editors. We don't really have to worry about that stuff. And actually, what is great about TechCrunch, and. I say this having worked for a lot of publications, is we're given a lot of um. Editorial freedom as writers, the the hi- the editorial hierarchy is there to support us. And help us to produce the best content we can, but at times it's quite hands off and there's a lot of freedom.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  So, you know, we we can just write what we feel passionate about and what we think is important and tell the stories. That we think matter to the industry and really honestly, uh the editorial side, we don't have to worry too much about that kind of stuff.

• 16:38Harry Stebbings?

  Is that quite unique to TechCrunch?

• 16:40Speaker 01

  I think in a sense of like TechCrunch is, you know, was a new kind of journalism, but in in in other senses, quite traditional in terms of. Having that separation between the two sides, the commercial side and editorial. In terms of freedom, yeah, I think it is quite unique. Or or rather, it's unique for a publication the size of ours, if that makes sense.

• 16:58Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah.

• 16:59Speaker 01

  I think as publications grow, then then more structure or. More editorial control is put in place and we just seem to strike a really good balance. I mean, don't think we're wrong. We have people checking stuff. Um, you know, we have editors on hand twenty four seven. I just mean that it's a great place to write. It really is one, it one, if not the best. Tech gig in town, I argue.

• 17:23Harry Stebbings?

  And I'd love to discuss then the wider media and journalism space, kind of moving on from the differing platforms then. So where do you think we're going in in these categories? Is journalism heading to the short form with kind of the increasing prominence of of BuzzFeed's list style articles? I know BuzzFeed do do very long form too, but the list styles are becoming increasingly popular across different platforms. Do you think we're going short form or do you think there's still hope in long form?

• 17:50Speaker 01

  I think it's not one or the other. As Buzz BuzzFeed demonstrates, I mean, it's quite weird, I find. They can go from a listicle to a ten thousand word thing where they follow around a politician. I don't think it's one or the other. I think what I've noticed is it's the brands that do best, the publications are the ones that really like have a strong sense of what they're there for. Do you know what I mean?

• 18:15Harry Stebbings?

  Mm hmm.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  So it is about the brand. As long as the audience knows what that publication stands for, what what they care about and that comes through strongly in writing. I don't think it's one or the other. I think there's room for all sorts of different types of journalism. The only thing I would say is everybody is still figuring out how to get, you know, how to pay for it, right?

• 18:36Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 18:36Speaker 01

  So I don't know BuzzFeed's model entirely, but I would imagine that perhaps the listicles, in a sense, subsidise the long form content because the latter is much more expensive uh to produce.

• 18:49Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah, indeed. Well, I I'm I'm not sure with BuzzFeed either, because obviously they took I think about fifty million in venture funding, didn't they, from Anderson Horace? So I I hope they're monetising somehow. Um, but but if it's okay with you, we're gonna move to a quick fire round now.

• 19:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, sure.

• 19:05Harry Stebbings?

  So your favourite book and why?

• 19:07Speaker 01

  That's a really tough one. I did think, uh I did think about that. Uh, probably The Big Sleep. Raymond John, I I like crime fiction, a classic crime fiction novel. At my best, I like to think a a journalist is a bit like Philip Marlowe.

• 19:22Harry Stebbings?

  And then who's your tech or business inspiration?

• 19:25Speaker 01

  So I I made a film in Silicon Valley uh many years ago and I got to interview. Some of the pioneers of the P C industry.

• 19:32Harry Stebbings?

  Okay.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  So the obvious, the obvious one is Steve Jobs, uh because of the way he commercialised. The user interface and brought computing more to to every everyday people, but I mean. Uh any, to be honest, any of those early guys and girls at the Homebrew Computer Club.

• 19:47Harry Stebbings?

  Who did you manage to interview?

• 19:49Speaker 01

  So I I interviewed Steve Wozniak, um Lee Felstein, people should Google him, he was a. Massive pioneer of when he built the first laptop. So this, uh my heroes are the people that brought. The personal computer into the world, cause that's what's done the most in technology wise to change, to change my life, yeah.

• 20:09Harry Stebbings?

  And then what's the biggest red flag when you're being pitched a story?

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Uh when people get my name wrong.

• 20:15Harry Stebbings?

  They get your name wrong, when uh in the, in the top line, they kind of say, hi, Paul or something.

• 20:20Speaker 01

  Sometimes, yeah, or or the, or the publication I write for, that's a pretty no no, or. The other real red flag is when someone says, hey, you should like cover my, my product on my startup. Because we've just had pub uh coverage in, and then they list five other publications. That is probably the biggest red flag, you know, it's cause we like to be first, and I particularly like to be first because I focus on. Early stage European startups, right? So if I'm not first, then what am I doing?

• 20:48Harry Stebbings?

  Do you see any then really strong trends coming out of the really early stage European startups?

• 20:54Speaker 01

  Um, I mean, the biggest trend is just the availability of pre-seed and seed capital.

• 21:02Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah.

• 21:02Speaker 01

  I mean, that's what's, I mean, to be honest, I joined TechCon Europe in two thousand and nine, and that's the biggest change. Is now it feels like that really early money is sort of stashing around, whereas it used to be like. You have to get out of your European begging bowl. Um and that's one of the reasons why that's changed is to the tax. Incentives in the U K specifically.

• 21:23Harry Stebbings?

  Okay.

• 21:23Speaker 01

  Around seed investment. So, yeah, I think that's the biggest change is there's more, a lot, lot more early stage money.

• 21:30Harry Stebbings?

  And then what does your online reading look like? What are your favourite blogs or newsletters?

• 21:35Speaker 01

  I I follow a lot of, you know, Twitter accounts, so I often go all over the place for my coverage.

• 21:40Harry Stebbings?

  What, what Twi- what Twitter accounts should we be following, do you think?

• 21:45Speaker 01

  Oh, I'd have to, I'd have to look. I'm literally, I'm just following people everywhere in the centre. I follow you.

• 21:50Harry Stebbings?

  Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, no, actually, actually, you're right. It made my day when I saw you followed us. So, thank you. That's very kind of you.

• 21:57Speaker 01

  I mean, in, in Europe, the tech, the tech EU, uh, folk, they produce a good newsletter, email newsletter, which I always check.

• 22:03Harry Stebbings?

  Roxanne and Robin.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, they did this email newsletter. It's like, on the whole, it just aggregates all the funding and M and A activity in Europe for that week.

• 22:12Harry Stebbings?

  Have you listened to their podcast?

• 22:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, I have. Yeah, yeah.

• 22:16Harry Stebbings?

  It's good. No, it's really good. With Neil Murray. Yeah, brilliant. I really enjoy that.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  But to be honest, I read a lot of politics. I take my inspiration in journalism from the sort of political hacks. Cause I think they're sometimes better than the tech, uh, asking harder questions and holding people to account and. I, you know, I, I, I try to do all of that these days.

• 22:36Harry Stebbings?

  And then in terms of next five years for you, wha- what are the, what are the plans for the future?

• 22:41Speaker 01

  So the short term plan is just to keep, keep getting better at journalism. I mean, I really am a believer that you can improve all the time. So I know, you know this, I've recently been doing s- uh, more audio work, which sort of harks back to my university days.

• 22:56Harry Stebbings?

  You have with VCs. You're, you're stepping on my turf, Steve.

• 22:59Speaker 01

  I know, well, I think when I, when I first discovered your podcast, I emailed you and I was like, dude, I need to get back onto doing podcast stuff, you know?

• 23:07Harry Stebbings?

  How did you discover my podcast?

• 23:09Speaker 01

  Uh, someone tweeted about you.

• 23:10Harry Stebbings?

  Oh.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  That's how it always is.

• 23:12Harry Stebbings?

  Okay. Um, no, to be fa- to be fair, Steve, they are brilliant and I, I do love them. You just had Hussein on, didn't you, from Hoxton?

• 23:19Speaker 01

  That's right, yeah.

• 23:19Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah, that was a cracking interview.

• 23:21Speaker 01

  I've had Eileen Burbidge from Passion.

• 23:23Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  Um, and.

• 23:24Harry Stebbings?

  Who, who I'm gonna be honest, Steve, this is, don't worry, I'm gonna edit this bit out. Eileen remains the only person who's ever said no to me.

• 23:32Speaker 01

  She said no.

• 23:33Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah. I'm gonna be, I've had.

• 23:35Speaker 01

  You should leave this in. This is brilliant.

• 23:36Harry Stebbings?

  I've had Brad Feld, I've had Guy Kawasaki, Mark Suster, Gil Panchina. I've had a lot of people. She's the only one that's ever said no.

• 23:46Speaker 01

  Okay, well, you should definitely leave that in. Right, and then she'll say yes. I know, I know. Um. But no, it's.

• 23:54Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah, so it's in an absolutely amazing interview with Hussein. And why are you doing that? Just to to add another dimension to your writing?

• 24:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I feel, um, look, a thirty minute interview on audio is not gonna be everybody's cup of tea, is it, right? But I feel like I I do a lot of short news stories, start our profiles, funny rounds, just trying to the news beat. And what I like about doing doing audio is you can get a bit more of a conversation going. I I I love the, I love interview technique, right? I love the way, and I'm sure you can relate to this, where you can, you can hopefully get someone to lower their guard a little bit.

• 24:34Harry Stebbings?

  Hmm.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  And get away from the P R lines and, you know, all that stuff.

• 24:39Harry Stebbings?

  Well, that's when you get the best interviews, when you lose the kind of standard industry job and, you know, often it's a sign when they start swearing that you're like, okay, we're getting into some good stuff here.

• 24:48Speaker 01

  Right, exactly. I mean, the old journalist adage is give someone enough rope and they'll hang themselves, right?

• 24:53Harry Stebbings?

  Yeah.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  Even though I don't go for that, but like, it's, yeah, the conversation will start off thirty minutes. It can often produce some really good content. And I, the thing is, I do a lot of Stripe interviews, um, as the basis of my writing, and I take calls all the time with people, even with no agenda whatsoever, because I believe, as a journalist, you should be meeting and talking to people in the unity all the time. And that's what happens in Silicon Valley, just by popping to the local coffee shop, right? So I try and replicate that as much as I can, face to face and over Stripe. But, um, you often leave, when you write that up in in in text, you often leave some of the best bits

• 25:35Speaker 01

  on the dining room floor. And I think when you do audio, you can afford to leave more of that in. And, okay, it's not gonna get necessarily a massive audience, but those that do listen to those those audio pieces, the feedback I get is is really quite encouraging.

• 25:49Harry Stebbings?

  Well, well, Steve, thank you so much for coming on the show. It really, as I said, it's been such a pleasure, as such a fan of your writing. Uh, so real honour and and, yeah, thank you so much for giving up your time. No worries, you're welcome Harry. What a fantastic interview that was with Steve and it was such a pleasure to have him on the show, having been such a fan of his writing at TechCrunch. And if you would like to catch all the resources mentioned by Steve in today's show, head on over to our site at www.thetwenty minute vc.com, all in letters, where you can find links to all the resources mentioned today. And if you want to be in with a chance of winning Brad Feld's venture deals, signed by the man himself, then just sign up for our newsletter on the site and you'll be entered into the competition. As always, thank you so much for your continued support.

• 26:34Harry Stebbings?

  We really do appreciate it and we look so forward to seeing you in the next episode.