exploring @adjacent / supporting @projecteurope_
- Tweets 8,635
- Following 500
- Followers 7,783
- Likes 25,483
Pinned Tweet
I felt honored to speak with Patrick on @InvestLikeBest, following giants in the investing world to talk about the @adjacent, consumer subs and early-stage VC!
Today’s conversation is with @ncsh
While consumer investing has been less popular in the last few years, Nico has found a way to do it with great success
His method is to explore “the adjacent possible” and he’s become a deep expert on consumer subscriptions
I learned a ton
18
6
130
64,000
What a legend:
1- Invests in Apple early and starts one of the first VC firms in 1969 ($2.5m)
2- Founds the PE firm Apax Partners in 1977, now one of the largest globally
3- Starts Greycroft in 2006 at age 72 and now at 85(!) a new firm focused on the aging sector
Inspiring!
11
154
981
The most beautiful thing can happen at the strangest of times:
We welcomed our 1st daughter Alma to this world a few days ago. She’s now at home with us, all healthy and just the sweetest thing!
Hope she can lighten your 2020 a tiny bit too :)
37
357
Pretty unreal to make the Midas Seed List of the top 25 early stage investors globally <5 years after founding @Adjacent…
forbes.com/lists/midas-seed/
Thankful for all the founders who took me on and special to share it with @pawell who gave me the start in VC!
37
4
212
33,295
look @pointninecap has been on 🔥 the past year:
1 @deliveryherocom grew to €25bn market cap
2 @zendesk at $15bn market cap
3 @RevolutApp raised at $5.5bn
4 @Mambu_com raised at $2bn
5 @chainalysis raised at $1bn
all of these Seed investments, glad I still have some carry :)
6
8
137
Last week I went back on @twentyminutevc after 8 years to talk about @adjacent publicly for the 1st time
Check out the teaser below and have a listen on Spotify if you’re so inclined:
open.spotify.com/episode/5Gq…
Thanks for having me back and the kind intro @HarryStebbings x
6
12
124
60,814
👏 Not a bad week for @PointNineCap:
⛓ @Chainalysis (NY) raises 30m from @Accel
🏦 @Mambu_com (Berlin) raises 30m from @BessemerVP
🎥 @useloom (SF) raises 11m from @kleinerperkins
#RemoteVC
1
7
127
we’re in the age of consensus capital:
a -31.43% decrease in VC deals and
42.8% increase in deal $ in '25 vs '24
(via @danprimack / @pitchbook)
I want @adjacent to be the opposite
6
3
126
15,107
never did a fund announcement for @adjacent as i believe the focus should be on the companies and not me/the$
so to celebrate the upcoming 1st anniversary of the 1st close on Nov 1st, an overview of the portfolio so far
super proud to be working with such amazing teams!!
1/11
5
4
122
VCs often having more impressive anti-portfolios (passes) than actual track record speaks to the fact that this craft is more about decision making than seeing all deals
yet most firms obsess about the latter and neglect optimizing the former
perhaps smaller N improves outcome
19
10
114
In 2015 @pawell & @chrija sent me to NYC to put down the @PointNineCap flag and find a deal
That deal was the Seed for @chainalysis, which @gronager @jony_levin & I agreed on while walking the High Line
5 years later they raise $100M at $1B... LET'S GO!
forbes.com/sites/michaeldelc…
3
4
114
every EU LP:
'Seed is local, VCs *have to be* based in a single office!'
the best performing EU Seed fund:
6
9
109
PhotoRoom is now a Top 10 US Photo App!
Youngest company, lowest $ funding, 3rd highest rating and only EU HQ of the 10:
4
9
106
18,108
Many lessons working w Jeff at Insight
‘Don’t be cheap’ was his key one for me
(He talks about it here as ‘buy the dream’)
Plus: Software defensibility does not come from technology but insight/knowledge
Define success by yourself not by comparison
Jeff Horing has never done an interview like this because he’s too busy investing at Insight Partners.
Despite having built a $100B investment firm, he feels like he’s as in the weeds as he was during the firm's early days. As he said, “My schedule is dictated by 24-year-olds.”
Insight does things differently, from sourcing to fund construction, and we cover it all.
Enjoy!
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
15:40 Five Ingredients of Perfect Investment
20:14 One Fund Strategy
28:02 Sourcing Evolution & Strategy
44:00 What Makes a Great Sourcer
55:14 AI Applications & Late Stage Deals
1:00:12 Pattern Recognition & Training
1:08:05 Scaling Judgment Without Breaking
1:29:01 AI Impact on Software
1:36:28 Drive to Win
1:38:53 Next Decade of Insight
1:41:40 The Kindest Thing
1
2
105
37,050
2019 LPs passing on @adjacent:
‘consumer subs don’t scale’
2020 VCs passing on our Series As:
‘There’s no $10b+ consumer sub biz’
2021 @Grammarly raises at a $13B
‘…’
techcrunch.com/2021/11/17/gr…
3
9
104
the common denominator for most of my successful investments across the 3 VC funds I worked for was that they violated the fund model at the time
(eg high price, low %, wrong stage or off focus)
for some, the fund model might just be a litmus test for the conviction to break it
6
7
104
10 years into VC I’m counting 10 unicorns [2x P9, 6x Insight, 2x personally] and a first decacorn…
Can’t wait for the next 10 @adjacent !
9
2
102
I just published
The Mobile-First Prosumer Playbook
with learnings from @Speechify_audio, @photoroom_app and @Polycam3D!
Check it out and follow @adjacent for more:
medium.com/@ncsh/the-mobile-…
12
13
100
17,220
Very happy @acton changed his mind in 2016 :)
Calm Meditation App Hits $2 Billion Value With Goldman, TPG Backing:
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
3
1
90
investors dismissing 'niche' categories on mobile don't yet seem to grasp the scale of 1 billion+ active iPhones combined with the power of annual consumer subs
**a 1% niche at $100/year is a $1B TAM**
this is without Android, web, other adjacent rev streams
come play w me :)
6
7
86
seems like fundraising is moving from email + deck to texts + @loom 😋
6
3
87
Turning 36 today! I am grateful for my life, my wife, our family/‘s health and wealth, the friends I got to make, the work I get to do and the universe we are part of 🎈
14
89
5,277
Today I had my 1st ever IPO as an investor after 10 years in VC…
with a life science company!
Lucky to have met @C_Angermayer the year @atai_life was started & even more excited about the potential today
Atai Life Sciences Shares Soar After Upsized IPO marketwatch.com/story/atai-l…
6
84
Some pretty fun milestones to celebrate this week:
1. Announced @Adjacent’s 3rd deal 🎨
2. Closed an awesomeee 5th one 🐱
3. LP commit to a new female GP 🧝♀️
And above all that:
Our daughter now smiles at us 😍
Have a good weekend all!!
2
1
85
🦄<<<🍎, and yet VCs still don't believe that there will be multi-billion $ outcomes build on top of the AppStore
2
14
77
loom investor updates are becoming my favorite
really help to reduce information asymmetry across all shareholders and convey priorities better vs text only
quick email + KPI overview + video walk through = <3
considering it for my quarterly LP updates...
4
76
Order of priorities for (most) mobile-first sub cos:
1. Retention ♻️
2. Unit economics ⚖️
3. Scaling paid spend 🚀
The upside down approach usually leads to false positives + tears 😭
1
12
74
1/2
When I started in VC as an intern 9 years ago, I always preferred to build relationships with the young, smart and scrappy hustlers vs the partner who is too senior to write emails. Many in the former group have now become Partners or even GPs of their own funds.
3
6
73
Interesting tidbit from @Spotify Q3 results:
We continue to see exponential growth in podcast hours streamed (39% Q/Q) [...] For listeners who do engage in podcasts, we are seeing increased conversion to Premium. Some of the increases are extraordinary
investors.spotify.com/financ…
3
17
72
Not an investor, but the fact that @Calendly *which is based in Atlanta* is approaching $50m ARR with only Seed funding makes me happy 😃
Would take that over unnecessary markups / dilution in many cases @adjacent 🔭
kieranflanagan.io/podcast/ho…
5
10
70
This is a watershed moment for mobile-first consumer subs, @Duolingo IPOs at $5-6bn with:
– a freemium subs business model
– no clear network effects
– primarily app-based
And there are a handful of still private cos that could push this to $10b+ ...
finance.yahoo.com/news/duoli…
1
7
70
if youre a mobile founder you'll want to check out this collection of mobile paywalls by @SuperwallHQ:
paywallscreens.com
9
71
Excited that Ajay Arora, Director of Innovation | Growth at Netflix has joined @adjacent as an advisor.
Previously VP Product at Imgur & Audible, he also teaches a Consumer Subscription course at Stanford. Can't think of a better fit and the gang seems to agree!
#PathTo100mSubs
4
2
70
Today we launch @ProjectEurope_: 125+ of Europe's best founders coming together to support the next generation of technical talent...
Started by @20vcFund @PointNineCap @adjacent, led by @lil_tuna_again to drive European innovation and make entrepreneurship more accessible:
6
9
71
7,054
**TLDR: Growing fast**
@BeReal_App is on an absolute tear and will replace FB/Insta for millions (as it has for me)...
They currently have 26 open positions you should seriously consider if you want to be on board the next mobile consumer rocketship 🚀
notion.so/Join-us-d2c00d488e…
6
9
70
Today is the 3rd anniversary of the 1st close @adjacent!
A good time to share some more about the gang that is now 34 companies across 11 countries: adjacent.com
[continued]
5
4
70
Hot off the p̵r̵e̵s̵s̵ GoogleDocs 📲 app:
🚀𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙪𝙗𝙨 𝘽𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙝𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙨 🚀
[h/t @ericstromberg for the format]
3
6
67
+1 the @adjacent consumer thesis:
i. willingness to pay for subscriptions has increased drastically
ii. AI improves product (retention), decreases cost (content + code)
iii. 5B+ active smartphones now accessible through app stores
I think consumer is coming back
Active thesis: lots of things with marginal long term cohort retention (<20% d90) could possibly become viable 40%+ long term retention (asymptotic) with LLMs doing heavy lifting making consumer scenarios much more compelling
5
63
15,564
‘You are no longer emerging when you’ve returned more capital than you raised.
It took @firstround 11 years’ — @joshk
4
6
62
8,013
there are many moments of self-doubt as a solo GP...
BUT THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME =)
1 past investment became a unicorn @OwnBackup 🦄
2 Seed announcements @opalapp & @CutbackCoach 😻
3 new @adjacent cos that I worked on for many months 🚀
Def worth it for moments like this! 🎢
4
1
63
reminder to invest in tomorrows market, not today's:
3 years ago we led the Series A for a SaaS co with a very small TAM: $120m based on our bottoms-up calculation
the CEO just told me they are now north of $40m ARR – and far from 33% penetration...
plus, almost no competition
2
4
61
the #1 reason for VCs passing on the Seed @opalapp was fear of Apple…
so it’s fun to see v3, built on top of the recently opened up Screen Time API, featured in the US AppStore
8
2
64
I am blogging again! Inspired by @chrija's classic SaaS KPI dashboard, here is a simple mobile subs metrics dashboard for early stage consumer software subscription companies:
Mobile Subs Dashboard v1 link.medium.com/E19L9ctCR5
Pls check it out, share and leave comments for v2 :)
2
5
61
I remember negotiating the Seed deal for @PointNineCap with @gronager and @jony_levin while walking along the High Line some 3 years ago... Amazing to see their growth and a great EU-to-US success story! 😊
@Chainalysis raises $30 million from @Accel
fortune.com/2019/02/12/chain…
2
7
60
it’s rare, but the shared joy of a seed company breaking out after years of iteration/pain makes the founder/investor relationship special at the early stage vs post product/market fit
4
58
6,548
My younger brother (almost 14) didn't want to go see Skywalker Rising with me today as he thinks Star Wars is boring and I came home to him watching a YouTuber play a Flixbus bus driver simulation driving from from Saarbrücken to Paris in real time
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
4
58
Slides from my presentation 'SaaS 101: Metrics & Best Practices' at #SCB15 last week slideshare.net/PointNineCap/… #SaaS @ec_berlin @PointNineCap
1
13
53
I deleted Facebook this year and Instagram is next:
1 A friends post
2 Sponsored
3 Cartoon I follow
4 - ♾ Suggested 🤮
We need a subscription based social network that is not incentivized to drive engagement !
If you are building this, would love to support @adjacent 🤗
12
7
53
2/2
It always stroke me as odd that the very people who's job it is to spot the long term potential in companies pay so little attention to the long term paths of the best junior people in their industry.
Naturally, exceptions apply to this rule and I am trying to be one too.
2
2
54
Congrats on the Series B raise & your own foundational model @matthieurouif @EliotAndres @photoroom_app!
PhotoRoom, An App That Generates AI Images In One Second, Is Now Worth $500 Million via @Forbes
forbes.com/sites/rashishriva…
2
2
55
4,398
Five Years of Exploring the Adjacent !
medium.com/@ncsh/five-years-…
3
1
55
3,405
beards got whiter but you did survive!
excited to deepen the relationship 😻
we officially survived the post-zirp apocalypse
techcrunch.com/2024/04/25/re…
4
3
53
10,209
many VCs pride themselves on investing in only 1-2 companies / year but I actually think volume helps (up to a certain point):
1- more repetitions/faster learning
2- broader network for sourcing/expertise
3- higher willingness to take risk (r reward)
Optionality required ofc
11
1
52
2,749
that’s a first for me: @adjacent co @rapchatapp copied by @Facebook’s NPE Team... we’re ready though! 😎
6
3
51