Lot. I think they have been very happy about what they have done. The next 78rd to days and monday, february 1 to get our caucus going. Ar there any. Kapur specific issue that the democrats have catapulted t conversation . He how do you think the primary would be different if i were was not leading . Ms. Mcguire we are having a lot of talk about income inequality. With equal pay for equal work. Issues of fairness are in this election. Mcguiren dr. Andy joining us from iowa as the countdown to the iowa caucus continues. Thank you for your time. Ms. Mcguire thank you. John hinckley was the person president reagan. President reagan was not wearing a bulletproof vest that day. It was a short trip from the white house. Q a, Robert Feynman on the book, assassinations, threats, and. He american presidency there have been 16 president s who faced assassination threats,. Hough none eyeballed eyeball i talk about huey long who was assassinated. I talk about Robert Kennedy who was assassinated. And, George Wallace who was shot and paralyzed for life. I cover candidates, as well as president s. It is a long list. Tonight on cspans q a. Earlier this year, the h, held itsch crunc annual conference in San Francisco. This portion of the event included a fatherson Venture Capitalist team, and a drone expert. Two hours. Here i am. Dancing monkey. Thank you so much. Mainuys are two of the guys. Thank you for coming here to talk with me. Topher, thank you for coming here to talk with me and share what ever you are going to share with the audience. Pleasure. I know there are some things you like to talk about but i would like to start with Something Else. You usually do want to talk about Something Else. Andm a Venture Capitalist its not an easy job but its also not the hardest ive ever had in terms of stress but a lot of these i see out there really seem like they have martyred themselves. Knownare fairly well people talking about her need for support groups because of how stressful their jobs are. Sometimes i wish there was a support group for a Venture Capitalist to talk to one another. These werent ironic. These were sort of metavery seriously defined the same thing, that its hard to be a Venture Capitalist and you wish you had it easier . We really do nothing compared to entrepreneurs. We play a very small role in the success of a company and its really us up to entrepreneurs to drive their own success. I dont think its that stressful. Its one of the best jobs out there. Its a lot of fun actually. Im not sure what the intention of those tweets are. I find them embarrassing. You are in there is. Im and there is that a Venture Capitalist would think their job is stressful when starting a company is the most stressful thing ever and investors are bystanders who get to witness the creation of these companies and we should be thankful for that, not stressed out and just help them out. I know what a Venture Capitalist does all day. [applause] that was fairly weak. [laughter] its a relief. Its early. [applause] [laughter] now i think they havent forgotten what you have said. If i was an outsider looking at what Venture Capitalists do, it looks like they tweet all day. Humble bracts. I called them ego self these. Is that what you need to do, regurgitate on twitter all day . Not at all. We are here to accomplish something. As Technology Becomes more important, every company in the world these to be a Technology Company now. Silicon valley is under a microscope. , the world is watching us watching these idiots talk about how great they are on twitter all day. We need to be setting an example and showing the world of Silicon Valley is about. Better capitalist dont need to be philosophers in 140 characters, they need to be helping their companies. The amount of face time with just the general public has dropped significantly. Should be capitalists in the background. Its not our job to be in the limelight and taking all of the credit because we really deserve almost no credit. We need to understand that tech founders today are leading the next industrial revolution. Be honoredrs should they get to be a part of that help these down and companies be successful. How is sb note, doing . Great. We continue to invest in about one company a week. We have seen Great Success over the last six years. Currently, we are investors in 26 companies. Companies like snap chat, pinterest. What people call in accordance. People to call them that. How many total unicorns are there now . Just over 100. What happened to the other 70 you did not invest in . Cap them as mrs. I guess. Missescount them as mrs. I i guess. Least aboutknew at the other third. We understand the landscape. Recently, david lee has retired. He was one of the partners in your fund. What happened there . Two years ago, david decided to move to l. A. To spend time with his family. We started transitioning a lot of the day to day responsibilities from david to other members. Now just a function of david being in a lay more. Partners to have our be more involved in the daytoday decisions. We are 11 people strong. You didntid moved, tell the world this was a slow retirement for him, right . He sort of began to transition out. Exactly. To the outside world, it was very abrupt but internally, it was seamless. He rest of our team members have stepped up and taken on responsibilities. Any bad blood between you and david . None. I feel like theres more to talk about their. Lastlast up until the fund, they were in the 40 million range. Your last fund was 75 million. How has that experiment tell us why you almost doubled the size and how its worked out and what the next fund will look like. Fund raise a 75 million last summer as prices were increasing. Rounds were getting bigger. They went from 1 million to 3 million so we needed to have more capital to invest. That has gone incredibly well. We have some Amazing Companies in our portfolio. While we are not currently raising a fund, our next fund will probably be a little smaller. More in the 40 range. You are saying its an experiment that went well but you are going back to the old size fund. It must a reason. There must be a reason. As we observe the market getting a little more crazy in a good way, its all very positive for the ecosystem. We want to go back to a seed focused fund and you need to be nimble, quick and very decisive and trust your gut. Its all about investing a great people and that comes down to trusting your gut. And you start to think more like a Portfolio Manager then an Angel Investor and we want to get more of that Angel Investor dna back and focus on that. The other thing about a smaller fund its practical and obvious but with a smaller fund, you pay your investors back click and investors love that. We make Less Investments or smaller investments or both with the smaller fund . The investment size will probably be smaller. I think where fund gets larger, you areo misaligned with the entrepreneur. Being a true seed fund come you can be 100 aligned with entrepreneurs. That you are currently not aligned. We are, we are just investing in little more and we are accountable investing a little less. Raising the size of your fund to 75 million was the best decision you ever made and trumped only by the better decision to decrease the fund size back to 45 million. Are most every other fund has gotten bigger and we will be one of the only ones who decides its time our fund is better. We never raised our fund size and you were last ones. A new trend. Theres Something Else here. In the is the trend ecosystem you see right now . Too many companies, just the right amount . Prices have definitely gone up. Evaluations have definitely gone up. For us, thats not a negative. Were still searching for the company that will be the all you over 1 billion. With an ever, you see the number of companies over 1 billion has gone out of proportion with the number of companies being started. Have gone out,s we still see Companies Making it to the stage where they are generating revenue with real businesses. You are pretty comfortable with the market. We still attract some of the best entrepreneurs in the world and one of the best places to find companies and invest. Perfected the system. Its so well thought through. Then their screening process where they have the alumni evaluate the thousands of companies. With they you end up stanford of accelerators. Paul graham recently said that ron conway is the most important and best investor in Silicon Valley right now. You come up on stage and do you guys go to dinner, smoke cigars come and say listen, you say im the best and i will say your the best . You are called the godfather of Silicon Valley. Is this payback for him saying you are the most important investor . I think its about who adds value for founders and who helps those inflection points when a founder needs to accomplish something. So you do have cigar meetings. Cigars give me indigestion. [laughter] investing is all about reputation. I think paul has realized that. We had a greater rotation because we are all about helping entrepreneurs. We have one customer and thats entrepreneurs. Our entire firm is set up to help that one customer. Ok. Are we in a bubble right now . I dont want to take this into the same path that everyone does but lets talk about valuation. You are comfortable in the market right now. You see any problems on the horizon . I dont. The opportunity has never been larger. The amount of mobile phones in the ecosystem today. How old are you . 29. Have you ever been in a downturn . There are these young guys today who have never seen anything but the Perfect World we live in now. He realized stuff goes down sometimes right . I believe i was in a great or high school in eight grade or high school. Meetings attending Angel Investors when i was 13. It was real rough on you when the economy fell apart. Very rough. Makes a great conversation piece. It was really interesting seeing the downturn. Nothing concerns you right now on the horizon about the overall economy and the Technology Economy . Interest rates rising . Inflation . That are greats companies and great businesses will survive. The companies that probably arent the best dont have a thoughtout Business Model where having some products that can fit. Having the doubletalk or not, i would say that no matter what. I am very concerned about the Global Economy but honestly, the lps dont pay us to be. They pay us to invest in startups. To some extent, it doesnt matter. They want us investing in Venture Capital because thats how they hedge their risk. Your optimism is awesome. Eternal optimist. Speaking of paul graham, i did have a dinner with him recently without cigars, a little wine. Do you guys hold hands . No, no, our wives come with us. About all the up session over private Company Valuations today and paul said something that really struck me. He said there is multiple categories of investments in the United States. And then youaq, have private companies and private companies its just another category. Its companies that have investors and in this case, most of the investors and private companies are probably more knowledgeable in a lot of the investors in the public companies. Its actually probably a more qualified marketplace to have investments. Categoryte company happens to have founders who dont want the scrutiny of Quarterly Earnings announcements. They want to build out of business but its just another category. Lets not obsess over it. I think people are obsessing over one of the investment categories. Lets assess over nasdaq and nyse as well. Talk about the do good stuff you are up to no. Are you finally addressing the plague of bicyclists in the city . Is that one of the things you are working on . Were not going to get rid of them. To agree it would be for the best. We need to accommodate them because the city safer there are pedestrian bicyclist collisions every day and the mayor is trying to address that. Wasnt your wife that bought a bicycle recently hit by a bicycle recently . She was. Her other priorities in San Francisco. Bicyclists are one. You do agree its a problem that needs to be addressed. It is an opportunity. A great Motor Transportation because people know there are too many cars. Lets fastforward to the letter h housing. San francisco has a huge housing problem. And the Tech Industry has a lot to do with the housing issue. 2011, 101,000 tech jobs have been created in the city of San Francisco. Give your selves a round of applause. [applause] San Franciscos unemployment in 2011 was approaching 10 . Today, its less than 4 . On thegest problem agenda in 2011 was unemployment. That problem was is solved. A byproduct of that is housing ballotlee has put on the a Housing Initiative called proposition a. We have a list of the Ballot Initiatives that are coming on the ballot in november and i cannot stress enough that the Tech Industry has got to register to vote. Is this you telling people how to vote . Its recommending. Recommendations. Are you allowed is it on your screen . Is this legal . Can you tell people to register to vote at the same time to tell them how to vote . We ask and we recommend. Ifwe asked the Tech Industry we are going to solve these issues, we have to register to vote and vote. Grab your pencils and write down this url. Weupvote. Us. You register to vote in three minutes and on november 3, you vote. We can make change. 1000 techncisco, over companies are members we recommend how to vote to make San Francisco a better place. Cap many times it should people registered to vote . Usually just once. Unless you have a spouse and register them. Yes. Think so much for this update. I want to talk about philanthropy for one second. Over 400 companies have signed the 1 pledge. I talk about this every year. I give an update on philanthropy. The 1 pledge is where Companies Pledge 1 of their equity, 1 of their time, and 1 of product for philanthropy. When a yelp went public, they did the 1 pledge. 1 of their stock when they were a startup turned into 50 million. They are not donating to the community 50 million. Salesforce was the pioneer 400 have signed up. Where does the money go . Wherever the company who signs up for the pledge most of the companies have a group of employees and team members decide where that money should get donated. So San Francisco is giving back. Thank you very much. Its a pleasure. [applause] about 2. 5 years ago, we had our battlefield at the new york district. A Little Company called the benefits got on our stage and launched. Secretly or may be, battlefield companies always hope to come back as speakers. That is what is happening today. Please welcome to the stage, Parker Conrad and our moderator matthew lindley. [applause] hows it going . Pretty good. Its been, what, 2. 5 years . We were a startup. Its been kind of a crazy 2. 5 years. Its been a crazy ride for you guys. It has been. There has been a lot of growth. Started right here well it was a new york event but its been consistently growing since then. I imagine your growth is probably the and the other lot people in this room dish growth is probably the end of a lot of people in this room. Importantt thing people can do is set aggressive goals. And setcompany sat down goals we thought were ridiculously unachievable. Because lars we told him we would go from one million to 10 million in a year and we were pretty proud of that. He said why arent you going to do 20 . Why not something much larger . Weve reconvened and asked ourselves what would it take . It sounds impossible but what would it take for us to get there and we thought we would have to split our sales teams and hire more aggressively on the sales side and scale out this stuff faster than we thought we were going to. We kind of said lets try that and see what happens. It was working so we would just increase our targets. And how big are you guys now . About 1600 people. And you guys use zenefits internally, right . What is that like . Internally, we say zenefits runs on benefits, which means we only do things supported by the , and sort of suffer if it is not. Are our own largest customer at this point, so it is pushing the envelope in terms of what the product can do and how it works for larger companies. Do you have any crazy stories from the past 2. 5 years . Im trying to think. Im sure there are. The craziest stories have been about how quickly we had to grow , the number of people coming on preparing for all the growth in customers. It focuses you. At one point, i remember we were not growing quite as quickly, but were doubling in size for eight weeks. Are you right now as well . Not right now. That would be rough. But we work for a long period of time. It kind of means that every problem you encounter related to scale is going to be twice as bad in two months time, so you dont have a lot of time to fix it and address it. But it is exciting. It focuses everyone on what is really important. Of course, it also helps attract and retain a lot of talent. Thannly thing worse growing r