Sean Percival
Partner, 500 Startups focused on the Nordics and accelerator programs
Discussion
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Sean Percival
@percival
Hey there! I’m Sean Percival, Partner at 500 Startups the most active seed investor in Silicon Valley. Prior to that I was founder of several startups and the Vice President of Online Marketing at Myspace. I have about a dozen years of online marketing experience so I’m very passionate about helping early stage startups grow their businesses. Right now I’m mostly focused on the Nordic region so always happy to talk about the opportunities (and challenges) there.
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Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Percival! Welcome. If you were the CEO of Myspace today, what would you do?
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Sean Percival
@percival
@rrhoover What we should have done during the turn around. Go in 100% on music and drop everything else. That's what Myspace was really known for and we had a really unique deal for music licensing. We had already lost the social graph and weren't known for content although we keep trying to invest in those areas. Ultimately they did try to go this route in a later turn around effort but at that point it was too late.
Lesson learned: Do one thing great, not many things so-so.
Mark Jeffrey
@markjeffrey · Author
Why did you go the VC route rather than start another company?
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Sean Percival
@percival
@markjeffrey Good question! I didn't want to become a VC! I don't really like VCs to be honest. However the opportunity with 500 was unique and as you probably know we are not your typical VC fund.
In my mind I was saying "Yeaaaa, let's do this for a year then join another startup or launch a new one". Now it's coming on 2 years and I'm going to ride this out. I miss building my own company but I get to work with so many early stage founders it's almost like I'm still building. I also don't miss the stress of being a founder as that was something I really struggled with on my last company.
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg · Former Product Hunt
@percival @markjeffrey expand on what's different!
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Sean Percival
@percival
@eriktorenberg @markjeffrey Sooooo much less stress. It's was actually less stressful to help 30 companies in our accelerator program vs doing 1 startup as a founder. Being a VC is about a million times easier so I have mad respect for you crazy dreamers and makers out there.
Juan Pablo Rojas
@unmalnick · Data Analysis
@percival @markjeffrey I mean, being a founder is like have a baby.
Juan Pablo Rojas
@unmalnick · Data Analysis
What was the most difficult challenge when you was the Vice President of Online Marketing at MySpace?
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Sean Percival
@percival
@unmalnick The general corporate BS and legal policies that really impact innovation speed. So pretty much everything was a friction point. I did however learn all about how to manage budgets, the value of executive buy-in and how to hide things from your legal department for as long as possible.
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg · Former Product Hunt
Sean! Welcome.
What's the biggest thing you've changed your mind about in the past 6 months?
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Sean Percival
@percival
@eriktorenberg I'm starting to think about things on a much longer time table. I think in tech it's too easy to get tunnel vision and only see the near future ahead of you. Now I want to think years out and further. Probably has to do with getting older as well.
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg · Former Product Hunt
What do you think 500 does tactically and strategically that makes companies love for it so strong?
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Sean Percival
@percival
@eriktorenberg I think it has a lot to do with most of the staff being former founders and operators. And not just at one point in their careers, many of us were building our own startups in the last year or so. So the wounds are fresh and we know what it takes to build a company in today's market. That may give us a bit more empathy than other VCs.
Strategically we're not as a calculated or organized as it probably appears on the outside. It's a bit of chaos theory going on but we make our mistakes or success quickly and then move on the next logical step after. In the case of success we double down on the company, the person or approach.
Scotty Percival
@scottypercival · CrowdFlower
What companies are you most excited about to be coming out of the Nordic region right now?
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Sean Percival
@percival
@scottypercival Oh snaps my own bro is on here asking me questions!!??!?! :)
I like Kahoot who is edtech, Brisk.io as a B2B sales tool, Pacemaker for music, Klarna for Fintech
Juan Pablo Rojas
@unmalnick · Data Analysis
@percival @scottypercival Do you know Platzi :D ?
Juan Pablo Rojas
@unmalnick · Data Analysis
@percival We are a edtech company from LatAm, teaching programming, marketing and design online!
Russ Frushtick
@russfrushtick
@percival Any surprises about the Nordic region and its companies?
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Sean Percival
@percival
@russfrushtick Yes, there's a huge amount of amazing talent and companies that are unknown on a global level. Most folks know about Spotify of course but there's many other companies who are at a comparable scale and size (or getting there). One thing to know about the Nordics is the people there are very shy and humble. So they're not blaring the horn about their success as much as they do in Silicon Valley. Although you could probably argue we do it a little too much in the valley :)
Zlatko Bijelic
@zbijelic · @SoxInABoxClub
@percival @russfrushtick hahaha true statement "you could probably argue we do it a little too much in the valley :)"
Juan Pablo Rojas
@unmalnick · Data Analysis
@percival @russfrushtick Do you think that a startup needs to be in Silicon Valley to be a unicorn ?
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Sean Percival
@percival
@unmalnick @russfrushtick Nope and I wouldn't put too much focus on optimizing for billion dollar valuation. It's much cooler to be profitable or be doing $100M plus in revenue.
Vinay Mimani
@wiredmau5 · Founder : trbble
@percival Hi Sean, what are you views about the Music streaming industry? Now that catalogue is just a commodity, what do you see as the biggest differentiator amongst streaming sites to get more users?
Thanks
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Sean Percival
@percival
@wiredmau5 After leaving Myspace I was ready to never look back towards that industry. Although I'm warming up again after spending more time in the Nordics. There digital streaming penetration is at like 80% so it's easier to fund and grow a music startup there. In Silicon Valley it's basically unfundable at this point.
In terms of differentiator I think you're in trouble if your product is too similar to a small feature of a larger music service. Playlisting for example. What's actually more important is finding some unit economics that make sense long term. One interesting play I saw was a music service with a consumer app they use to prove the tech/value prop and then sell that same service as white label option to big telcos. They have the pretty consumer front end to show off and nice revenue coming in on the back end b2b product.
Jacqueline von Tesmar
@jacqvon · Community, Product Hunt ✌️😻
What are some of your favorite hobbies lately?
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Sean Percival
@percival
@jacqvon This last year I have taken piano lessons, learned a new language and recently I'm getting into astrophotography (taking photos through a telescope). I tend to hop around from one to another though. I think I'm sometimes a jack of all trades and master of none in that regard.