EP27 · Economy · first published 2020-07-05
Finns in Silicon Valley | Jyri Engeström | Negotiator 27
Jyri Engeström — who sold Jaiku to Google and now runs Yes VC — explains how venture capital actually works in Silicon Valley: why fund maths forces investors to hunt for a handful of enormous winners, why the best founders are in fact risk-averse, and why demand should be tested before a product exists. He also covers what the Finnish ecosystem still lacks: financing infrastructure, a normalised relationship with failure, and the special insight that comes from working the structural holes in a network.
Finns in Silicon Valley | Jyri Engeström | Negotiator 27
Summary: Jyri Engeström — who sold Jaiku to Google and now runs Yes VC — explains how venture capital actually works in Silicon Valley: why fund maths forces investors to hunt for a handful of enormous winners, why the best founders are in fact risk-averse, and why demand should be tested before a product exists. He also covers what the Finnish ecosystem still lacks: financing infrastructure, a normalised relationship with failure, and the special insight that comes from working the structural holes in a network.
Key Themes
- Jyri Engeström, from Jaiku to Google and the move to the Valley: Discussed from 00:00 onward.
- The Finnish community in Silicon Valley and helping with hiring: Discussed from 02:30 onward.
- Is success learnable or is it a lottery: Discussed from 05:00 onward.
- What growth rate a venture investor actually requires: Discussed from 07:30 onward.
- The power law: a few winners pay for the whole fund: Discussed from 10:00 onward.
- Why the best founders are risk-averse: Discussed from 12:30 onward.
- Don’t fall in love with one idea — the surfer analogy: Discussed from 15:00 onward.
- SaaS and recurring revenue as a requirement: Discussed from 17:30 onward.
- Angel investing versus investing out of a fund: Discussed from 20:00 onward.
- The warm reject and why the answer is usually no: Discussed from 22:30 onward.
- Structural holes in a network and special insight: Discussed from 25:00 onward.
- From an ad model to a paying customer: Discussed from 27:30 onward.
- Aligning incentives along the whole financing chain: Discussed from 30:00 onward.
- A narrow but deep idea beats a broad one: Discussed from 32:30 onward.
- Testing demand before building the product: Discussed from 35:00 onward.
- Growth tooling and what to measure early: Discussed from 37:30 onward.
- You can raise from the Valley earlier than you think: Discussed from 40:00 onward.
- Learning from failure — the surgeon analogy: Discussed from 42:30 onward.
- Ecosystem services and the missing Silicon Valley Bank: Discussed from 45:00 onward.
- Wrap-up and advice for a Finnish founder: Discussed from 47:30 onward.