“I want uncompromising psychopaths” – Nice founders have no chance with 20VC founder Harry Stebbings
There are people who are so present in the media and always so true to themselves that you think you know them well before you meet them for the first time.
Many people probably feel the same way about Harry Stebbings. Because: Who in the startup scene doesn’t know the 29-year-old London investor, founder of 20VC and host of “The Twenty Minute VC” podcasts?
He and many others have often told his story – picture book material for journalists – that he began to be interested in venture capital at the age of 13, at a time when venture capital was still far from being known in the mainstream. And how, at 18, he started interviewing VC investors for his podcast, which he produced in his childhood bedroom and with equipment worth a modest £50.
1400 podcast episodes and awesome deal flow
Despite his young age and appearing out of nowhere, he managed to win over the biggest in the VC scene: Silicon Valley legend Guy Kawasaki was his first guest in 2015. And other stars follow every week: Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Daniel Ek (Spotify), Marc Andreessen (a16z). Harry Stebbings has now published more than 1,400 episodes for The twenty Minute VC and, according to Apple Podcasts, has over 100 million downloads.
In 2020, when Stebbings was just 24 years old, the podcaster also became an investor and set up his first fund with 20VC. The next one followed in 2021 with 140 million. Euro and finally number three in 2024 with 400 million euros. He has invested in Sorare, Linktree, Taxdoo, Lovable, Peec AI and several other successful companies.
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And: Stebbings has turned himself into a brand – with everything that goes with it: He constantly shares a lot on social media and sometimes polarizes people in the process. When he celebrated the 996 principle last summer (working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week) and even went one step further (if you want to get to the top you actually have to work seven days a week, Stebbings wrote), it caused a (very) small and possibly calculated shitstorm.
Stebbings also sometimes talks about private matters on all of his channels, Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin and in his podcast. Those who follow him regularly see photos of his mom, know Stebbing’s workout routine (early morning gym) and know that the investor has struggled with eating disorders in the past. He shares all of this with his millions of followers.
And he also talks about this in an interview with Gründerszene. Naturally. Stebbings knows how attention works. To get it you have to offer something. “Are you ready for the best interview of your life?” he asks at the beginning of the interview, for which he sits down in a somewhat sparse, white and very large meeting room. So that the bar is already raised here.
Harry, for those who admire you and your career and think ‘being an investor would be awesome’: Who can become a super good investor?
Everyone. Thanks to the internet, there is nothing you can’t learn. It’s a badass tool that democratizes everything. Everyone has the power to become anything.
I would disagree with that.
But. But many people are just incredibly lazy and totally mediocre. Look how I started: With a podcast from my childhood bedroom and zero money.
I know. But that’s more of the Outlier story. A safer route into the venture capital business might have been to attend a business school.
Business schools are the biggest crime of modern education systems. No one has ever gotten a good education at a business school. The only way to learn business is to build a business. I would never send my children to college. That’s the saddest thing you can do. Ok, this can make sense for practical jobs like a veterinarian or lawyer.
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How come?
Because it is simply a sin to waste the best years of your life at a university. At this age we are most productive, our minds are at their best, as are our energy levels and our willingness to take risks. And what are people doing? They’re wasting this time getting drunk and unproductively hanging out in libraries and dealing with stuff they’ll never use again.
