Gokul Rajaram is one of the greatest operators turned investors of the last 2 decades. He is trusted as the go to advisor for the greatest founders in the world. Today he serves as a Board Director at three public companies: Coinbase, Pinterest and The Trade Desk. Prior to Marathon (his firm), Gokul served on the executive team at DoorDash and Block. Before Block, he served as Product Director of Ads at Facebook. Earlier in his career, Gokul served as a Product Management Director for Google AdSense. Gokul is also a prolific angel investor, having invested in 700+ companies, including Airtable, Figma, Groq, Runway, Supabase, and Vercel.
———————————————-
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:03 Lessons from Google, Facebook, Square & DoorDash
07:41 Is the “SaaS Apocalypse” Real? Why Markets Are Overreacting to AI
08:47 The 8 Moats Framework: How to Identify Durable Software Companies
12:25 Atlassian vs Monday: Which SaaS Companies Actually Have a Moat?
19:19 Bolt-On AI vs Real AI Products: Why Most Companies Are Doing It Wrong
25:26 Can Vertical AI SaaS Still Build $10B Companies?
28:11 What Happens to Slowing SaaS Companies Valued Too High?
31:44 Seed Pricing vs Outcome-Based Pricing
33:32 Is “King Making” Complete BS?
36:04 Why VCs Consistently Get Market Size Wrong (Shopify Example)
44:17 How Series A Investors Survive $300M+ Startup Valuations
01:03:05 When VCs Should Actually Sell
01:11:47 Quick-Fire Round
———————————————–
Subscribe on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465
Follow Harry Stebbings on X:
https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings
Follow Gokul Rajaram on X:
https://twitter.com/gokulr
Follow 20VC on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/20vchq
Follow 20VC on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok
Visit our Website:
https://www.20vc.com
Subscribe to our Newsletter:
https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact
———————————————–
#20vc #harrystebbings #gokulrajaram #facebook #saas #investing #agenticai #ai #dropouts #google #doordash
source
