Greg Bettinelli is a Partner at Upfront Ventures where he specialises in businesses at the juncture of retail and technology. Prior to Upfront, Greg was the CMO for HauteLook, a leading online flash-sale retailer that was acquired by Nordstrom for $270mm. Before HauteLook, Greg was Executive Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at Live Nation, responsible for strategic direction and key business partnerships for Live Nation’s ticketing and digital businesses. Before Live Nation, Greg held a number of leadership positions at eBay and StubHub and was the business leader who led eBay’s acquisition of StubHub in 2007.   In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Greg made his way into VC from the unconventional world of retail and consumer? 2.) How has Greg's unconventional background altered how he views investments and founders? How does Greg test for the 'grit' required to be a founder? 3.) With the rise of direct to consumer, will we see the end of the physical retail store? Why do big retailers still have such little e-commerce presence? 4.) To what extent does Greg view brand as a form of IP in a prospective investment? How have we seen changing brand loyalty in the last decade? 5.) What are the fundamentals for growing a consumer brand successfully? Who has exemplified this? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Greg’s Fave Blog and Newsletter: Dan Primack: Term Sheet Greg’s Fave Book: Michael Lewis Greg's Most Recent Investment: Happy Returns As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Greg on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. WeAreLATech is the number one resource uniting the LA startup community. Immediately integrate into the explosive LA tech scene by visiting WeAreLATech.com/VC. WeAreLATech offers a unique combination of curated offline experiences, the #1 LA Tech podcast called "WeAreLATech", and the only mobile app that keeps you in the know with a full calendar of events. Make sure go to WeAreLATech.com/VC to explore and learn all about everything LA tech and silicon beach. You'll also get access to a private LA tech immersion call exclusively for 20 Minute VC listeners. Eve make 1 perfect mattress – made with 3 layer technology and next generation memory foam. It comes packaged in a beautiful box and arrives the day after you order. You get 100 nights to try it with free return pick-up – it really is the perfect mattress for everyone. Just go online to evemattress.co.uk and enter the code 20VC for £50 off. Everybody deserves the perfect start with Eve.  

Ben Einstein is Founder and General Partner @ Bolt, Bolt is a fund designed to address the unique needs of early-stage startups at the intersection of hardware and software, investing up to $500K in pre-seed, pre-product companies. They have created and backed some world class businesses that have received later funding from Khosla, Kleiner Perkins, NEA, and Softtech just to name a few. In Today’s Episode with Ben You Will Learn: How Ben made his way into VC from such a product centric background? Why have we seen a rise in hardware investing over the last 5 years? How has this affected the hardware ecosystem? To what extent do hardware and software integrate today? Why have we seen the rise of software determining the hardware winners? Why is brand the most important thing in consumer hardware? Who has done it best? Who has not done it well? What is Ben’s biggest advice to hardware founders today? Why is raising too much money extremely dangerous for hardware founders? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Ben’s Fave Blog and Newsletter: Ben Evans Ben’s Fave Book: The Box Ben’s Most Recent Investment: Grow: Redesigning Gardening As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Ben on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Eve make 1 perfect mattress – made with 3 layer technology and next generation memory foam. It comes packaged in a beautiful box and arrives the day after you order. You get 100 nights to try it with free return pick-up – it really is the perfect mattress for everyone. Just go online to evemattress.co.uk and enter the code 20VC for £50 off. Everybody deserves the perfect start with Eve.