Pod Insights The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch Founders Friday 002: Balderton's James Wise interviews 20VC Founder, Harry Stebbings About this episode Today is a very special show as James Wise, Principal at Balderton Capital turns the tables on Host of The Twenty Minute VC, Harry Stebbings. In today's brilliant interview by James we delve into what has led to Harry's interest in the VC industry, why did Harry start The 20 Minute VC, how does Harry identify guests to interview, how does he approach those guests, how has Harry found his first experience in the venture industry, what has surpassed Harry about the VC industry, what traits has Harry spotted that are common among the great VCs interviewed, is Harry optimistic or not about the venture industry, what would Harry recommend for other people looking to go into venture. Items Mentioned in Todays Show: Harry's Favourite Books: Tim Ferris: 4 Hour Work Week, 4 Hour Body Shyp Crowdcube, 3DHubs, Tictail MMC Ventures, Founders Forum As always you can follow Harry, James and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Harry Stebbings? Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the 20 Minute VC and Founders Friday. Over the last two weeks, I've had the great pleasure of interning at Balderton Capital, one of the leading VC firms in Europe. And today, James Wise, Principal at Balderton Capital and previous guest on the show, will be turning the tables on me as I become the interviewee instead of the interviewer. And in today's interview, James examines me on the commonalities among all great VCs, the surprises that I have encountered since entering the venture industry, and the recommendations that I would give for anyone looking to enter into the industry. However, none of the podcasts would have been possible without the fantastic hiring screen
0:42 Harry Stebbings? who provided me with the godsend, that is Jackie, who simply does all the work behind the scenes and I really couldn't have done it without her. So, thank you so much to you, hiring screen, for providing me with Jackie. But without further ado, here is James Wise turning the tables on me.
1:04 Speaker 01 You have now arrived at your destination.
1:07 Harry Stebbings? And good afternoon. Hi, Harry, how are you doing?
1:10 Speaker 02 I'm very well, thank you, James. How are you?
1:11 Harry Stebbings? I'm well. I'm very excited today to be able to reverse interview you. I think slightly inspired by President Obama's recent interview of David Attenborough. A classic reverse interview, I thought, given how much your listeners and how much your audience has learnt from your questions, I thought it was about time to spin the tables a little bit and throw some back at you.
1:30 Speaker 02 Okay, sounds good.
1:31 Harry Stebbings? So, we've been very fortunate to have you here in Balderton Capital's offices for the last two weeks. I thought it'd be good to understand a little bit. So, how did you end up doing this?
1:40 Speaker 02 Well, I was actually very fortunate enough to have the pleasure of interviewing you. I think episode 23, 24, 25 range. And I actually reached out to you over Twitter, I remember, because I couldn't find your email on the internet, which is unbelievable now because I see it on the Balderton website.
1:58 Harry Stebbings? And everywhere. My personal website, everywhere else.
2:01 Speaker 02 So now you're going to get an influx. Sorry for that one. So, I had you on the show and I remember actually asking you about internships at Balderton. And then to be safe, you got back to me and said that there was the opportunity and obviously... Massive venture capital enthusiast I was, jumped at the chance of working at Boston, um. And so that's really how the internship came about for me.
2:24 Speaker 03 And now you have the fortunate opportunity of having to have one of the the few long summers you'll ever have left in your life.
2:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, I'm very much, thanks for reminding me.
2:32 Speaker 03 Why have you decided to spend a few weeks of that working in venture capital?
2:37 Speaker 02 Well, I mean, you know, I do live and breathe it. I mean, you know, every week I interview VCs from around the world, um. It probably sounds rather strange to say, it's been definitely one of the dominant strands of thought that I have. Um, and, and so why did I spend the summer, you know, Boston's probably, well, not probably, definitely. Uh, one of the leading VC firms in Europe and the opportunity is just so great for me, learning the industry. Um, you know, the the podcast is fantastic to learn from VCs, but to learn from you firsthand is another experience.
3:15 Speaker 03 So you say you live and breathe it, and obviously through the twenty minute VC and other things you've been doing and the other work you do is clearly true. So what do you think has driven you to adopt an interest into this specific area of finance and technology so early?
3:28 Speaker 02 Well, I'd love to give you a kind of academic, deeply theoretical, uh. Origin of my my love, but it was actually, I can pinpoint it exactly, I was sitting in the cinema watching, um. The Social Network with Jesse Eisenberg and I saw, um, Peter Thiel and Clarion Capital, uh, investing in Facebook. In that film, I thought that looks like a pretty, pretty sweet deal. Uh, and, you know, naturally I think I was about twelve at the time, looked into a bit more, started reading TechCrunch, started reading Reddit. And, and that's where it all really started and then it kind of spiraled on from there.
4:06 Speaker 03 Inspired by Hollywood.
4:10 Speaker 02 Deep analytical origins.
4:11 Speaker 03 Yeah, that was good. Look, I think you're doing a great job at it though. Um, and why then start the twenty minute VC? So a sort of different approach to getting an internship to most people.
4:22 Speaker 02 Yeah, well, you know, A, it's a very difficult industry to start off in. Um, I think everyone will agree with you on that. I mean, I've asked a lot of VCs, how did you get into it? And they say, don't at all.
4:31 Speaker 03 Yeah.
4:31 Speaker 02 So I can.
4:32 Speaker 03 I agree with that.
4:33 Speaker 02 Discouraging start, but why did I start it? I started it actually just because I listened to a lot of podcasts. And there weren't enough podcasts dedicated to VCs and the magic capital industry. So, you know, Tim Ferriss might interview Jamie, not. Tim Ferriss might interview Peter Thiel or, you know, specific funds. But it's not dominant and there's not enough for me to to satiate my appetite. Uh, and ninety two percent of commutes are under twenty eight minutes per unitary section. So, you know, the bus of twenty eight minutes and then eighty six percent of people don't go back to the podcasts they've listened to but not finished. And so I thought, well, let's get it under the twenty eight minutes. So we get their get their user attention.
5:17 Speaker 02 And twenty minutes works well. For me, it's a good attention span. Um, and so that's really why I started it and why it's twenty minutes.
5:26 Speaker 03 Okay.
5:27 Speaker 02 And then it's also been a fantastic connector for me in terms of meeting people. You know, I've made probably about seventy really good connections for VCs just through the show, which has been fantastic for me.
5:38 Speaker 03 And what have you learnt from those seventy or so people that you've been talking to? Is there are there a couple of sort of common trends or themes that come out from your discussions with not just venture capitalists, but angels and and people working in the technology space?
5:52 Speaker 02 I mean, it's always a really interesting mix when you actually talk about the investments and what drives them. Um, because you've got two clear strands of thinking within investing from what I've seen. You might correct me on this one, but it's people who believe in the team and the importance of the team. And people who believe in the idea and the importance of the product. And those are the two that've really come out, uh, in terms of kind of really diverse strands. Um. I know, you know, it it's an interesting one. And then also, obviously, the size of the market is always a massive player. You know, V C is all about finding that unicorn, the billion dollar company. So the market has to be really big enough, and that is always a uniting feature of all the V C's, definitely.
6:36 Speaker 03 So you spent two weeks at Bolton H Q in Kings Cross in London. Uh, it's only a brief amount of time, I know. Wish you could have me for longer.
6:44 Speaker 02 I wish I could be here longer.
6:45 Speaker 03 Um, are there a couple of highlights that you'd like to uh, share with the audience about what you've learnt in those, I know it's a very brief two weeks. Uh, maybe share a little bit about what you've been doing, a little bit of what you've learnt and uh, and discuss that a little bit more.
6:59 Speaker 02 Sure. So the highlights, um, I think a real highlight for me was a portfolio meeting that I went to. Um, and it really.
7:07 Speaker 03 A board meeting.
7:08 Speaker 02 A board meeting.
7:08 Speaker 03 Yeah.
7:09 Speaker 02 Uh, and it really solved a question that I've kind of been pondering, and the question is, uh, what do V C's actually add? You know, um, and Dustin Dogg and Alice says, kind of capital is a crappy differentiator. And he's right, um, you know, your money is the same as mine. And so I wonder, what do V C's bring? And in that board meeting, I saw the immense value that Balderton bring. I'm, you know, I'm not sure all V C's.
7:36 Speaker 03 I'm sure when they definitely run us, yeah.
7:38 Speaker 02 Um, but I saw the immense value and and that really inspired me. Um, just in the belief that this industry does have a very sustainable and long career, you know, I've asked a lot. Um, I've asked Luke Lang, Tom Britton, the Crowdkeep Syndicate Room, is crowdfunding replacing V C? Uh, which many think it might do, and and that V C value add is something that cannot be replaced by the crowd, in my opinion. Giving it a real sustainable longevity. Um, so so that definitely was a highlight. Um, I absolutely love the pictures. Pictures are fantastic. Seeing how you analyse and interpret ideas and teams. Uh, you know, I was lucky enough to sit on some pictures with you, with Sir Anga.
8:22 Speaker 02 Um, and how you really judge the the idea and analyse the team and their history, uh, was astonishing for me.
8:31 Speaker 03 Anything that surprised you? Anything you've been disappointed by?
8:34 Speaker 02 Oh, um, it's a really interesting.
8:40 Speaker 02 I didn't, I didn't, I didn't think I've ever been disappointed by it. I've been amazed by the fact that in two weeks I haven't had a bad day.
8:48 Speaker 03 Lucky you're not here for three.
8:49 Speaker 02 Yeah, I mean, never know. Um, but no, that sounds, no, there's, there's not been a disappointment. Uh. I was rather disappointed when I went to the espresso machine, there was no more chocolate espresso. Apart from that, no, it was, no, completely disappointment free.
9:05 Speaker 03 That's good. So you've spoken to a lot of venture capitalists and you sort of spend a bit of time in these, in these buildings. Um, and you sound pretty confident about its future. Do you think that's shared across the industry and, and where does that, where does that sort of confidence come from?
9:21 Speaker 02 I think, I think it is shared across the industry. Um, you know, I've spoken to people at the MVCA and we see that. Uh, VC asset allocation is going, well, it's steady and in some cases even going up, which I think is indicative of, um. If a real future for the VC industry. So I, I'm extremely confident. Um, and I think, I think. So is the ecosystem. I think startups, there's a reason startups still go to venture firms for funding and it's because they are aware of what they bring. To what other alternative methods of finance don't. Um, and so, yeah, I'm inherently positive about it and, you know, I wouldn't be pursuing a career so establishedly.
10:01 Speaker 02 Unless I thought it was a career of longevity and sustainable future.
10:07 Speaker 03 Um, so you're obviously interested in, in venture capital and technology companies, rather than anything else. So any specific reason why it's technology and is there anything that you've learned in the last few weeks or in your, in your conversations as to why? And what areas of technology you think are most exciting for you personally?
10:25 Speaker 02 I mean, technology, um, in general over other sectors, I think is just phenomenally exciting just due to scalability. You know, if you have a restaurant, it takes a long time before you can scale to ten, you know, considerable years. But, you know, Snapchat reached millions and millions of users within a month, you know, unbelievable scaling potential. Uh, and then what sectors in particular, uh, I'm particularly interested by the.
10:53 Speaker 02 Freelance sharing economy and and the resources that are required to drive it.
11:00 Speaker 02 You know, by twenty twenty, forty percent of employees will be freelance.
11:05 Speaker 02 And I think there's a huge amount of tools and opportunity there for increasing productivity, increasing incomes, income budgeting. All of these that will increase um freelancers' efficiency.
11:17 Speaker 03 Um, well, it's fascinating, isn't it? Because I I agree, it's a really interesting space, but uh in the last couple of weeks alone, we've seen huge change in this because. Uh you may have seen ship have just announced that changing the nature of their workforce to no longer be considered in the US as as totally freelance workers.
11:34 Speaker 02 Yeah.
11:35 Speaker 03 Uh Uber's under a lot of pressure in in certain states in the US and increasingly in Europe to consider something similar. Um, so it feels like there's a lot of turbulence in that space at the moment, but you're still confident in that hypothesis?
11:45 Speaker 02 Absolutely. I think I think um I'm really bullish on Uber in particular, I think. And the freelance economy is now too large a section of the economy for significant regulatory changes to occur. I think the. The um reaction would be too great for the economy and the workforce. Um it's reached that tipping point where I don't think it can go back now. Uh and yeah, you know, ship's a phenomenal company and I do trust his decision. Um but it will be interesting to see how it pans out.
12:18 Speaker 03 I agree, and I think that there's there's lots of uh outside of the technology sector and the on-demand services. Um workforce, I think there's lots of other industries which are turning to more freelance and sort of part-time working models.
12:30 Speaker 02 Absolutely.
12:30 Speaker 03 Which is fantastic in many ways. I think it uh allows people to be uh multi-skilled and allows people to. Uh you know, brings a lot of people into the workforce who can only work part-time, you know, new mothers and. And people with disabilities who who may only be able to work part-time. It's amazing that we're now accepting that as a working practice more. And that we're building systems around it, but it's definitely going to be an area of a lot of change. Uh so it's a good one to be interested in. So. Moving on a little bit, you've spoken to all of these venture capitalists, you've spent some time here. What do you think makes a successful VC? So what traits, if any, have you spotted that define the people that you've been interviewing?
13:07 Speaker 02 I think a definite way you approach companies in terms of thought process is not, you know, like, I, I, anyone can look at a team and go, you've worked at Google, you know, it's a good idea. It's a deeper analytical thought as to the potential and underlying knock-on effects. It's looking at Uber. And not seeing just a brilliant company, but seeing the resources that are required to drive the workers behind it. That insightful background thought that drives your decisions, I think, makes a brilliant VC. Um, yeah, definitely deeper analytical thought.
13:44 Speaker 03 Yeah. And in terms of personal traits, I mean, what are the, what are the things that you like about?
13:48 Speaker 02 I think.
13:48 Speaker 03 What do you dislike about, I think is the other thing, dislike about talking to VCs?
13:53 Speaker 02 What's important with everyone, not just VCs, but important with everyone is knowing that there will always be people who know more than you. You know, a lot of the time the entrepreneurs who come in and pitch know, well, all the time you hope, know substantially more than you in their field. Um, and so I think we're being willing to be taught in some aspects, which is another thing. That I love about ventures so much is that every day you learn completely new things from completely inspiring founders. But you've got to be willing to learn and adjust to their way of thinking, if only for the pitch, to get inside their heads and be able to view it from that perspective. Um, yeah, absolutely.
14:32 Speaker 03 Of the, uh, of the things that you've seen here, what, is there anything in particular that's really excited you? And I know whether it's. Uh, sort of the particular businesses or things that you've learned here where you think, wow, that, that company's going somewhere? Is there any in particular you pull out and, and sort of think, wow, they, they really surprised me?
14:49 Speaker 02 I, I, I love Crowdkeep. Um, I've had a fascination with Crowdkeep for probably two or three years now, which is. Yeah, a fifteen-year-old interested in crowdfunding, yeah. Strange fifteen-year-old, but, but no, I love Crowdkeep, but I think they've got phenomenal potential. Um, just in terms of an alternative finance method, I think they're kind of mass appeal to the consumer. You know, they're obviously crowdfunding platforms that are much more kind of institutional and high net worth style, but I think crowdfunding is. Approach to the mass market is very interesting, and I think it's probably going to be the most successful.
15:26 Speaker 02 Uh, and definitely the most easy to adapt to alternative regions. I think it's got huge potential with the expansion into the US, which is very exciting. Uh, and I think so you can touch the surface in terms of expansion into Europe. It's, you know, you've got Kraken, Spain.
15:42 Speaker 03 Mm hmm.
15:43 Speaker 02 Which done very well. Um, but I think there's a lot more room for expansion in that space. And then I'm also very excited about three D hubs, um, which, you know, before my internship here, I didn't actually know a huge amount about three D printing at all. Um, but seeing the potential for a marketplace of three D printers completely eliminates the need to for three D printing ownership.
16:04 Speaker 03 Mm hmm.
16:04 Speaker 02 Uh, which I think is a massive setback for the industry just in developing. So for three D hubs to solve that problem's brilliant. Uh, you know, I'm concerned about the difficulty and I'll take, I think, a lot more needs to be spent on three D printing education. How to design and upload files, but I think with time and with government funding and subsidies and education programs, that will be solved. And I think that would be a real, uh, opener for the three D printing industry in general, and then three D hubs as a business.
16:37 Speaker 03 So that's where you put your money. So if we gave you, gave you your own fund, you'd be investing in crowdfunding and, and three D printing?
16:43 Speaker 02 I would. I, I, I have to say, I'm also a big fan of Tictel. I love their kind of consumer facing approach and massively easy way to create your own store. I think it's, uh, fantastic and revolutionary. Um, I've used it myself before, um, and it was, it was absolutely brilliant. Uh, having, having said that, there's a lot of competitors in that space, um, which I see less in the crowdfunding industry or or the three D marketplaces, um.
17:13 Speaker 02 Yeah.
17:14 Speaker 03 So what's next for you then? You've finished these these few weeks, um you've got your podcasts. Uh what are you going to be doing for the rest of the summer and and sort of what's next step in the career?
17:23 Speaker 02 Well, the next step in the career, obviously, continue interviewing the world's greatest species. Um continue making great connections. Um I'm going to be working at Founders Forum. Uh for the summer and then ongoing after that uh on a part-time basis. Um I'm going to be working with MMC Vetches in London uh a little bit this summer, which is very exciting. And and see where it goes from that, but definitely focus on the VC industry, continue making hopefully great podcasts. Um and meeting some truly inspiring people.
17:59 Speaker 03 And to my boredom, there's lots of people who want to work in VC. Uh clearly, I haven't seen the long-term returns that the industry is making. Um is there any piece of advice that you would share to someone like yourself, maybe a couple of years ago, or even even a little bit older?
18:14 Speaker 02 Yeah.
18:15 Speaker 03 Uh on how they might make connections in the industry, what you found works, what doesn't?
18:19 Speaker 02 Yeah, I mean, I'd say I'd say definitely, again, sort of all VCs have said on my show, which is don't do it, do do it. Do it if you fuck, do it for one reason alone. If if you're doing it for money. Or for any other reason and you absolutely love it more than pretty much any other hobby or thing, then do it. You know, if you wake up and are extremely passionate, you know, Sunday night last week, I couldn't wait to come in. You know, I was upset on Friday that it was the weekend. If you have that feeling, then you know it's the right thing. And then you should do it and then do it with everything, you know, read all the news journals, all the articles.
18:59 Speaker 02 Absolutely consume yourself in it, immerse yourself in it. There's so many different ways to reach out now, you know, I reach out to you on Twitter. You can uh email, you know, hundreds of VCs have their emails on their sites, um read their books, email them insightful comments. They're fantastic in terms of communication. If you're a young person entering the industry, they're very encouraging. Uh there's a lot of room for you to to make your move in, but it's tough and you've got to fully immerse yourself and really do your homework. Uh which hopefully I've done, uh but continue to do um.
19:34 Speaker 02 With Riga.
19:35 Speaker 03 No, you've been fantastic. So, final question now, because I know you like it. Uh, if you could recommend a book to your, to your listeners, is there one in particular you, you, you think they should all read?
19:44 Speaker 02 Oh, that's a very good question. I mean, naturally, every single VC on the show practically has recommended Ben Horace's Hard Thing About Hard Things. Uh, so I'm not.
19:53 Speaker 03 I didn't.
19:53 Speaker 02 So, you didn't.
19:54 Speaker 03 No.
19:54 Speaker 02 You were the, uh, what did you recommend?
19:57 Speaker 03 An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin.
19:59 Speaker 02 There you go. That's all my reading list for this summer. Uh, so what would I recommend? I would definitely recommend, uh, The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. Um, that and the, I mean, the four hour body is slightly less work orientated and there are slightly interesting sessions, but definitely The Four Hour Work Week in terms of productivity and getting your thoughts and your work processes together to be as efficient and as productive as possible. It really helped me. Uh, its techniques in terms of batching were phenomenal and I think it's a hugely important thing to read when, when starting out or just thinking about changing the ways you work.
20:35 Speaker 03 Well, thank you for working more than four hours this week for us. Uh, you've been a huge addition to the team. You've been a huge addition to the team. Uh, having, uh, opened a can of Coke and had my phone go off in this podcast, I realised that what you do isn't as easy as it looks. Um, so keep up the good work and hopefully we'll see much more of you going forward.
20:53 Speaker 02 Well, thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
20:56 Harry Stebbings? Now, I would love to hear what you thought of today's show with the tables turned by the brilliant James Wise. Um, and as always, all the resources and items mentioned in today's show can be found on the blog at www dot the twenty minute VC dot com. But before we leave today's show, I would like to say a special thank you to HiringScreen whose blink algorithm means I spent less time looking at a huge number of CVs and more time meeting truly relevant candidates, deciding who is the right personality and cultural fit for my team and my business. And that turned out to be Jackie. Jackie has been phenomenal. Now, to see how you can balance smart recruitment technology with the human touch,
21:37 Harry Stebbings? visit www dot hiringscreen dot com or contact Richard Hanson on Twitter at HiringScreenR8. Thank you so much and we look forward to seeing you in the next episode.
Previous 20 VC 050: Starting, Building and Selling in SaaS with the King of SaaS, Jason Lemkin, Managing Director @ Storm Ventures Next 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures Page updated October 26, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
