avatar

20VC: Postmates Founder Basti Lehmann on How the Uber Deal Went Down and How a $2.65BN Deal Turned into $5BN, Why Great VCs Add No Value and VC Value Add is BS Marketing & Why The Biggest Companies in History Will be Born Today and Replace Incumbents

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Episode • Apr 8, 2024 • 59m

Basti Lehmann is the co-founder and former CEO of Postmates, the on-demand delivery service that raised over $900M from the likes of Tiger Global, Founders Fund, Spark Capital and Andreesen Horowitz. Following Uber’s $2.65BN acquisition in 2020, Basti founded TipTop, a platform for fast tech sales which Marc Andreesen led the $20M seed round for.

In Today’s Episode with Basti Lehmann We Discuss:

  1. From US Immigrant to Billion Dollar Founder
  • How did Basti start his career hacking AT&T?
  • How did early hardships shape Basti’s work ethic?
  • What were Basti’s biggest challenges building Postmates?
  1. Lessons from Raising $900M
  • How did Basti raise $20M from Marc Andreesen?
  • How does Basti select which VCs to work with?
  • Why does Basti think 99% of VCs are sheep?
  • Why does Basti think great VCs add no value?
  • Why does Basti think having to educate investors is a massive red flag?
  1. Selling Postmates for $2.65BN
  • Why did Basti sell Postmates to Uber? How did the acquisition happen?
  • Was there anything Basti would have done differently?
  • What does Basti think makes Dara Khosrowshahi a great CEO?
  • What is Basti’s biggest advice to founders on acquisitions?
  1. Future of AI: Startups or Incumbents?
  • What does Basti think is the biggest challenge of LLMs today?
  • Why does Basti think inference computing will be the future of AI?
  • Why does Basti think incumbents can be replaced?
  • Why does Basti think the biggest companies are being born today?

 

Switch to the Fountain App