Brian Murray, partner and COO of Craft Ventures and the co-founder of Cabal, joins Scott Barker to discuss his experience in the startup world and the metrics that define a successful startup. Brian discusses the burn multiple and why it's a better indicator than ARR for gauging a startup's performance. He elaborates on the idea of intellectual honesty, the distinction between genuine and false signals, and the importance of recognizing the difference between the two when gathering information.
You won't want to miss out on Brian's insights into what he's learned from his time in the startup world, both the successes and failures.
Highlights:
(04:19) How the venture capital landscape is changing.
(04:45) The concept of burn multiple: How much burn does it cost to generate one new dollar of ARR?
(07:31) The relationship between companies and investors and how to get the most out of them.
(08:09) The misconception that more employees mean more success.
(08:45) The story that shaped Brian's career.
(11:46) The concept of intellectual honesty.
(13:10) How to discern true signals from misleading signals.
(17:22) Brian's achievements at Cotap.
(21:39) Brian's experience at Cabal and key learnings from there.
(26:27) Bitcoin as an inspiration.
(27:25) Why "contributor" is a more suitable word for an advisor.
(31:15) How much you should leave for strategic investors in an early round.
(36:10) Brian's learnings in his career.
Guest Speaker Link:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-m-b6952b15/
Host Speaker Links:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/
The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with well-known tech executive, VC, and founders - the expert operators in the trenches who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Scott Barker to dissect their stories, revealing expert insights around what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.
This podcast is produced by GTMnow, the media brand of VC firm GTMfund - sharing insight on go-to-market from working with hundreds of portfolio companies backed by over 350 of the best go-to-market executives.
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