5 lessons on startups and investing with Ben Grabiner (Co-founder & General Partner - Side Stage Ventures) - Ep172
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A little history on Ben Grabiner & Side Stage Ventures
There are few people in the Australian startup ecosystem with the background on both sides of the table as Ben!
Ben initially pitched an idea to a VC, Local Globe, one of the leading VC funds in UK/Europe and instead of leaving with funding, ended up joining them as an investor.
After spending 2.5 years at Local Globe, Ben left to launch Platoon, a platform to discover and develop the very best emerging creative talent, including the likes of Billie Eilish who they helped to discover and release her first song āOcean Eyesā.
Platoon was then acquired by Apple in 2018.
After spending some time integrating and growing Platoon inside Apple, Ben is now back in the investment chair, as the Co-founder & General Partner of Side Stage Ventures.
Given Benās experience on both sides of the table, we dived into his experience, lessons and insights both as a founder and investor.
Here are 5 key takeaways from that episode!
1. Key traits of high performing individuals
A key highlight of Platoon was discovering 9 time Grammy award winning artist, Billie Eilish, back when she had just a handful of listeners. Platoon helped release her first song, Ocean Eyes which at time of writing has over 467M views on Youtube!
Success, whether in an artist or with a founder, is so obvious in hindsight but much harder to do without data points!
On the podcast, Ben shares how to identify key traits in high performing individuals.
2. Keep building or sell to Apple?
Many founders dream of the day when they are acquired. But in reality those moments can involve a lot of debate internally about whether to keep building or exit.
Platoon was in the middle of raising their Series A when Apple reached out looking to acquire the company and it took some ādebateā to get everyone on the same page
3. 3 things that Side Stage Ventures look for when investing in startups
Ben is now the Co-founder & General Partner of Side Stage Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund that invests in the most ambitious founders going after ābig ideasā.
Here are 3 things that Side Stage looks for when they assess startups and founders as potential investment opportunities.
4. Side Stageās investment process
It can often be difficult for founders to understand what goes on inside a VC fund when they are looking at and assessing investment opportunities.
In this clip from the podcast, Ben lifts the lid on Side Stage Ventures investment process
5. VC as a product
What if VCs took a product based approach to their business? What āfeaturesā would they build and how would they approach building their company?
As Ben explains, this is exactly how Side Stage Ventures thinks about building their fund
In the rest of the interview, Ben shares more details on his journey building, growing and exiting Platoon and his views on investing and the Australian startup ecosystem.
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