Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.
On this weeks show, we’re thrilled to welcome Oren Zeev, Founding Partner at Zeev Ventures.
Oren is one of the titans in venture investing with nearly 30 years of experience and one of the most unique. Despite his scale ($2B+ in AUM) Oren remains a solo GP and has such a authentic and differentiated stance on venture investing. We discussed many of his views (including cross-fund investing, follow-ons, fund vintage years, concentration) on the pod.
He has served as an early backer to companies such as Houzz, Audible, Chegg, TripActions, and Tipalti, among many others.
About Oren Zeev:
Oren calls himself a “One Man Venture Capitalist,” and TechCrunch says he is a hybrid between an Angel Investor and a traditional VC. Prior to founding Zeev Ventures, Oren was a part of the founding team of Apax Israel in 1995. In 2002 he moved to the US and co-headed, and later headed, the Technology Practice of Apax and the Silicon Valley office.
He began his career at IBM and got his Bachelors from the Israel Institute of Technology and his MBA from INSEAD.
In this episode we discuss:
(02:21) The original thesis behind Zeev Ventures
(09:44) Why Oren has avoided growing beyond a solo-GP
(15:05) How Oren pushes himself to prevent biases and evolve his thinking over time
(18:50) Why fund vintage doesn’t matter
(21:24) The reason why Oren can be aggressive with follow-ons
(23:59) What type of support can founders expect
(27:50) Being relevant to founders as a VC
(30:26) Working with other VCs as board members
(32:47) Advice to companies that had 2021 valuations that may need to raise soon
(37:03) Thoughts on this downturn
(41:47) Why Venture is still a good long-term investment
I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Oren. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.
Oren Zeev on scaling to $2B+ in AUM as a solo-GP, contrarian investing, and high founder NPS