Josh Felser
Co-founder of Freestyle, an early stage VC
Discussion
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Josh Felser
@joshmedia · Cofounder
I'm Josh Felser, co-founder of Freestyle, an early stage VC. Previously, I co-founded Spinner (sold to AOL) and Grouper/Crackle (sold to Sony). I also cofounded @hashtagclimate, a non-profit using social media to battle climate change.
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Sydney Liu
@sydney_liu_sl · Co-Founder of Commaful
@joshmedia
Hi Josh,
Thanks so much for sharing wisdom at the AMA today!
Freestyle is known for ‘telling it like it is’ and not sugar-coating things. What is ‘real mentoring’ and what is the most common non-sugar-coated feedback that you give to founders that you think most investors wouldn’t give?
Thanks!
Sydney
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Josh Felser
@joshmedia · Cofounder
Sydney, I tend to say no quickly when I am not interested. I hate the conversation because i am letting someone down. leading them on is so much worse
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Josh Felser
@joshmedia · Cofounder
@joshmedia For those founders that we invest in, I am known for giving unvarnished feedback about product early and often. key is doing it in a way that emphasizes we are all on the same team vs being some asshole VC that just wants to hear him or herself talk.
Sara Haider
@pandemona
Hi Josh! What do you look for in an investment, and what's your biggest investment regret?
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Josh Felser
@joshmedia · Cofounder
@pandemona thats such an unfair question when you already know the answer. Other than periscope.... two friends of ours started this little company focused transportation. We liked them but there were legal challenges and cap table challanges. rather then putting those issues in perspective, we allowed them to dominate our decision. Our 100k investment would have been worth $600mm today. #uber
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg · Former Product Hunt
@Joshmedia - what have been the challenges building or investing in companies that aim to battle climate change?
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Josh Felser
@joshmedia · Cofounder
Erik, the challenge with anything climate change-related is that you have to get people amped up about something that is intangible, in the future and driven by a model. hard to create an emotional connection especially amongst techies
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Josh Felser
@joshmedia · Cofounder
@eriktorenberg Erik, the challenge with anything climate change-related is that you have to get people amped up about something that is intangible, in the future and driven by a model. hard to create an emotional connection especially amongst techies
Corley
@corleyh · COO @ Product Hunt
Hi Josh, Thanks for taking the time today! I'm curious, what cultural attributes do you think are super important to engrain at an early stage?
Giacomo Migliori
@migliorigiacomo · CEO & Co-Founder at Skipodium
@joshmedia
Hi Josh, good to talk with such an experienced entrepreneur! Based on your experience, how relevant is a team compared to the initial business idea (considering that a great number of companies change their business models on the go)?
Thanks!
Giacomo
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Josh Felser
@joshmedia · Cofounder
@migliorigiacomo I would choose a great team with a mediocre idea over a mediocre team with a great idea every day.
Giacomo Migliori
@migliorigiacomo · CEO & Co-Founder at Skipodium
@joshmedia I totally agree with you! Thanks for that! I am a first time founder myself and I firmly believe in putting together a team of passionate people and doers that always keep their feet on the ground.
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Josh Felser
@joshmedia · Cofounder
@migliorigiacomo our first company was a rocket to the moon and everyone was pretty upbeat the whole way. our second company had to pivot and we had huge emotional challenges as we tried to create workable path for the company. Its because we were honest and direct with each other that we were able to survive the storm
Giacomo Migliori
@migliorigiacomo · CEO & Co-Founder at Skipodium
@joshmedia Very interesting takeaway lesson, Josh!
Judith Straetemans
@judithstr · Product Manager @ Addapp
@joshmedia Yo Josh! When you sell a company how do you evaluate whether the offer is good enough?
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Josh Felser
@joshmedia · Cofounder
@judithstr such a tough question and so personal. i founded two companies with the same dude, my current freestyle cofounder, Dave Samuel. Every time we would consider raising a round, dave and i would ask ourselves what our price was. our "price" was a mix of what we wanted to get out of it and what how much we felt the market valued us. when those forces aligned we sold
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Josh! Welcome! Back in March you tweeted about Meerkat, referencing one of my favorite hyped startups, turntable.fm: "turntable.fm was fun in the beginning and we know how that ended."
What do you think of Meerkat and the future of user-created, livestreaming video?
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Josh Felser
@joshmedia · Cofounder
@rrhoover Hey Ryan. I am a huge believer that the future will be broadcast live. What is less certain is the business model that makes it profitable. As even youtube has found, its tough to make money off UGV.
Brent Summers
@brentsum · Founder, Code-Free Startup
Hi @joshmedia - if you were just out of college and could move to any city in the US, what city would you choose and why?
Sathya Peri
@gosathya · on a leave of absence
What were some difficulties you faced when creating a company?