Startup Ignition Podcast

Paul Allen co-founded Ancestry.com. In the late '90s he went to Sand Hill Road for money to digitize more records, and the venture capitalists passed: they couldn't see why anyone would dig through courthouse records for dead relatives. Then Paul had a dream about a private website for every family in the world, and every VC wanted in.That website was MyFamily.com. It grew to 20 million users, the company raised $75 million and filed to go public at a billion dollars, and then the dot-com bubble burst. A Series E at one twenty-fifth of the last price and a syndicate of Utah investors kept it alive. Ancestry went on to years of profits; MyFamily.com took the blame and was eventually shut down.Paul walks John and Tyler through all of it: a Russian major who wanted to be a Kremlinologist, a $9-an-hour scanning job at Folio, religious CD-ROMs in 150,000 homes at Infobases, and 55 sales on Ancestry's first day of subscriptions. Then FamilyLink's We're Related, a Facebook app built with Jason McGowan (now of Crumbl) that hit a million users in 29 days and passed 100 million, until Facebook cut off third-party apps and told Paul it didn't need to buy him.Now 60, Paul runs Soar AI Studio. Its new Daily News project wants to bring a local paper back to all 10,263 US cities, with AI doing most of the newsroom work and a local human editor-in-chief. Seventeen days after launch it had more annual recurring revenue than Citizen Portal made in four years. His advice for founders: stop saying you hate fundraising.(00:00:00) Cold open: "They invest in things they understand"(00:00:49) Welcome: Paul Allen, co-founder of Ancestry.com(00:04:50) Icebreaker: Paul Allen's search history(00:18:37) A searchable second brain he kept for 22 years(00:25:39) From Russian major and would-be Kremlinologist to Folio(00:35:01) $400,000 into Ancestry.com and 55 sales on day one(00:41:07) Sand Hill Road passes on genealogy(00:42:03) The dream that became MyFamily.com(00:43:06) $75M raised, 20M users and a billion-dollar IPO plan(00:44:16) The bubble bursts and MyFamily gets the blame(00:48:41) The Series E down round and the Utah rescue(00:53:44) We're Related: a million users in 29 days(00:55:11) The Barack Obama April Fools' email(00:56:44) Facebook shuts off the apps(00:59:04) Live by the platform, die by the platform(01:00:29) "We don't need to buy you"(01:05:38) Citizen Portal: transcribing every public meeting(01:06:27) Daily News: more ARR in 17 days than in four years(01:09:05) How to become a local editor-in-chief(01:16:19) Paul's advice: change your language about fundraisingLearn more about us:https://startupignition.com/linksApply to be a guest on the pod:https://startup-ignition-podcast.paperform.co/Follow John & Tyler:https://x.com/trich_https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrichards/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@StartupIgnitionFollow on X:https://x.com/startupignitionFollow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/startupignition/Follow on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@startupignitionFollow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/school/6458758/admin/dashboard/Follow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/startupignition/#StartupIgnition #PaulAllen #Ancestry #VentureCapital #Startups

Scott Frazier put $75,000 into a hearing aid company. His family got about $44 million back. His son David grew up determined not to follow in his footsteps, and now they run Frazier VC together.Scott co-founded Utah Angels in 1995, and in its first three months the group funded Ancestry, Omniture and TruHearing. For about a decade it was one of the only places an early-stage Utah founder could go for money. Before that he went from BYU and a mission in Brazil to a Harvard MBA, AT&T, and a rehab therapy company that grew to 2,000 therapists. David worked at Bridge Investment Group while it grew from $50 million to $2 billion under management, then started a secondaries fund with his dad and the Warnock brothers. Today Frazier VC invests about $25 million a year and is raising Fund 7.This is the first father-and-son guest pair on a show hosted by a father and son, so John and Tyler open with a "father, like son" icebreaker: who takes more risk, who does the diligence, who goes to more business lunches. Then Scott explains the strategy he's known for: put small checks into a lot of companies, write follow-on checks 10 to 20 times bigger into the ones that work, and buy secondaries only when you're close enough to the CEO to get the phone call. He went to work full time and unpaid inside five of his portfolio companies to find out which ones were real.They also cover why secondaries in companies they weren't already invested in underperformed, even with a friend on the board; why sellers kept asking 2021 prices two years later; how Kickstart replaced Utah Angels' monthly pitch meeting; and the Frazier VC test for every deal in the AI era: "If frontier models became three times smarter, would this company capture more value or less?" Plus: Scott quit angel investing at 58, and David brought him back. Both married a woman named Miriam, and both close with the same advice: choose your partners and mentors carefully.(00:00:00) Cold open: "Don't invest just because you like the taste of the cookies"(00:00:53) Welcome: Scott and David Frazier of Frazier VC(00:02:13) Father and son both married a Miriam(00:07:24) Icebreaker: father, like son(00:17:41) Best deal: Filevine's AI turnaround(00:20:29) Best deal: TruHearing, $75K in and $44M back(00:23:16) Scott's path: BYU, Brazil, Harvard MBA, AT&T(00:26:17) Ancestry, Omniture and TruHearing in the first three months(00:27:17) Small checks, then follow-ons 10 to 20 times bigger(00:28:24) Going to work inside portfolio companies for free(00:30:05) Why you have to be an insider to buy secondaries(00:33:14) Why secondaries without a board seat underperformed(00:34:50) Sellers still asking 2021 prices(00:36:10) Founding Utah Angels(00:40:22) Kickstart and the rise of Utah seed funds(00:43:02) David: growing up determined not to follow his dad(00:49:39) David at Bridge Investment Group: $50M to $2B(00:55:34) Frazier VC today: Fund 7 and $25M a year(00:58:10) The thesis: built on paranoia about frontier AI models(01:00:12) "If frontier models got three times smarter..."(01:01:29) Which side of the API are you on?(01:07:29) Scott quit at 58, and David brought him back(01:10:12) David's advice: choose your partner carefully(01:12:00) Scott's advice: find a mentor earlyLearn more about us:https://startupignition.com/linksApply to be a guest on the pod:https://startup-ignition-podcast.paperform.co/Follow John & Tyler:https://x.com/trich_https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrichards/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@StartupIgnitionFollow on X:https://x.com/startupignitionFollow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/startupignition/Follow on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@startupignitionFollow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/school/6458758/admin/dashboard/Follow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/startupignition/#StartupIgnition #FrazierVC #VentureCapital #AngelInvesting #FatherAndSon

For three years, Nate Quigley built a family-memories app called Just Family that almost nobody used. Then his wife Vanessa came down the stairs and told him she didn't want to use it, her sisters didn't want to use it, and if he could just print her Instagram, that would be great. That became Chatbooks.Nate and Vanessa are the husband-and-wife co-founders of Chatbooks, the Utah company that turns the photos on your phone into printed photo books. They've sold millions of books, raised more than $20 million in venture capital and grew past 100 employees. Nate tells John and Tyler how he got there: BYU, McKinsey in Los Angeles and Paris, Harvard Business School, turning down McKinsey's tuition payback ("the decision to stay poor"), a software startup that shrank from 60 people to 11 after the dot-com crash and 9/11, and running JetBlue's LiveTV. He admits he spent the Florida years building feature after feature for an audience of two (his mom and his cousin) until the family moved to Utah, Kickstart and Peterson Ventures backed him anyway, and Vanessa's intervention turned the company around in a few weeks.They cover the first books selling out their print capacity within three days, hand-delivering books and cookies to Allison Faulkner, the Harmon Brothers ad, an automated influencer program called Megatron, growth from $1M to $10M to $30M, losing Instagram as the main photo source, and the $15-a-month Month Books subscription that now brings in about 75% of revenue. Plus: what it's like to run a company as a married couple with seven kids, what Vanessa gave up to do it, and Nate's startup formula: "Don't quit, don't run out of money."(00:00:00) Cold open: "If you could just print my Instagram"(00:01:05) Welcome: Nate and Vanessa Quigley of Chatbooks(00:02:15) The bio: BYU, Harvard Business School, McKinsey, a mom of seven(00:17:42) "The decision to stay poor": skipping McKinsey after Harvard(00:23:01) The dot-com crash and 9/11: from 60 employees to 11(00:24:47) Running JetBlue's LiveTV(00:26:54) The spark: a grandpa's recording of "Home on the Range"(00:28:41) Build, build, build: three years of not listening(00:36:26) Kickstart and Peterson Ventures bet on founder-market fit(00:38:22) Almost broke: the founder's dark night of the soul(00:39:01) Vanessa's intervention: "Just print my Instagram"(00:44:00) Zero validation, and "can I give you my credit card?"(00:44:22) Why "should" is the kiss of death(00:48:30) First marketing: Allison Faulkner and a plate of cookies(00:55:08) Series A and the Harmon Brothers ad(00:57:24) Megatron: automated influencer marketing(01:00:13) Series A and B, cash flow positive since 2018, $30M before COVID(01:02:28) Month Books: the next hero product(01:05:20) Running a company as husband and wife with seven kids(01:09:22) Advice: "Don't quit, don't run out of money"(01:10:32) What's next: the Chatbooks family memory systemLearn more about us:https://startupignition.com/linksApply to be a guest on the pod:https://startup-ignition-podcast.paperform.co/Follow John & Tyler:https://x.com/trich_https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrichards/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@StartupIgnitionFollow on X:https://x.com/startupignitionFollow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/startupignition/Follow on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@startupignitionFollow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/school/6458758/admin/dashboard/Follow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/startupignition/#StartupIgnition #Chatbooks #NateQuigley #VanessaQuigley #ProductMarketFit

Peter Harris had the chance to invest in SpaceX at a $20 billion valuation, and passed. One of his students was the team lead on that deal, pounding the table ("it is Elon effing Musk"), and was the first person to text him the day SpaceX went public. Today SpaceX is worth about $2 trillion. Peter is the co-founder and partner of University Growth Fund, the largest student-run venture capital fund in the United States, where students scout deals, run due diligence and sit alongside the partners on investments in companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Lyft and Airbnb. He tells John and Tyler how he joined the fund as a BYU student when it was the $18 million University Venture Fund, helped rebuild it after its founders left, and split off in 2014 to keep doing venture instead of impact investing. He breaks down how a student-run fund gets into deals this good, why his students see a near-100% placement rate and ~$120K starting salaries, raising a $32M Fund I over a two-year grind and a $56M Fund II right as COVID hit, what Tiger Global got wrong in 2021, and why AI is pushing venture into a world where "you're either first or you're big." Plus: his advice for founders ("don't raise venture capital"; it's "like taking heroin to run faster"), how he's rebuilding his mom's bankruptcy practice with AI agents, and a board-game confession: 200+ Kickstarter backs and five-hour games of Twilight Imperium.(00:00:00) Cold open: the student fund the University of Utah absorbed(00:00:58) Welcome: Peter Harris, a friend of 20 years(00:03:35) Official intro: University Growth Fund, OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks(00:05:50) Icebreaker: why Elon Musk is his favorite entrepreneur(00:08:00) The one that got away: passing on SpaceX at $20 billion(00:09:41) The student who pounded the table: "It is Elon effing Musk"(00:15:28) Growing up in Syracuse, and his dad's Rich Dad Poor Dad leap(00:18:47) Joining the University Venture Fund as a BYU student(00:21:13) What makes a student-run venture fund different(00:24:54) 2014: impact fund vs. venture fund, and the split(00:30:15) How a student-run fund gets into Lyft, OpenAI and Anthropic(00:33:54) 100% placement and ~$120K starting salaries(00:36:22) Fund I: $32M, a two-year grind, doubled in the final month(00:38:27) Why "just trust me" is the hardest pitch in venture(00:39:31) Fund II: going to market in February 2020, right as COVID hit(00:41:12) What they look for: $2-4M in revenue and real demand(00:47:10) How he navigated 2021's insane valuations(00:51:03) What Tiger Global got wrong(00:53:04) Tiger's playbook: $100M a year to Bain, term sheets in a day(00:58:14) The future of VC: what AI does to venture(01:00:27) The demo day where nothing was fundable(01:02:31) The power law shifts: "You're either first or you're big"(01:07:26) Advice for founders: don't raise venture capital(01:08:04) "Like taking heroin to run faster"(01:08:38) Leverage AI: rebuilding his mom's bankruptcy practice with agents(01:11:35) Wrap-upLearn more about us:https://startupignition.com/linksApply to be a guest on the pod:https://startup-ignition-podcast.paperform.co/Follow John & Tyler:https://x.com/trich_https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrichards/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@StartupIgnitionFollow on X:https://x.com/startupignitionFollow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/startupignition/Follow on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@startupignitionFollow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/school/6458758/admin/dashboard/Follow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/startupignition/#StartupIgnition #PeterHarris #VentureCapital #SpaceX #StartupAdvice

Bubba Page borrowed $5,000 from his parents to join a six-founder BYU startup, sold his stake two years later for a 10x return, and got paid half of it in office chairs (everyone in his family got one for Christmas). From there he bootstrapped LaunchLeads, a tech-enabled sales company, to multiple millions and the Inc. 5000, won Utah's Google Startup Weekend, went through Techstars Boulder, and raised $1.25 million for Outro, a double-opt-in referral platform built on LinkedIn data. Then LinkedIn changed its platform and cut Outro off at the knees. Bubba tells John and Tyler what that failure did to him ("I lost myself in this process"), the investor who said "we'll invest in you again," and the lesson he wants every founder to hear: don't tie your business to someone else's platform. Plus: why trial and error is too expensive a teacher, the three questions that make anyone feel like you're their best friend, why every student should be on LinkedIn, how he runs Influence VC as an AngelList syndicate of 200 angels backing consumer brands with influencer expertise, why he dropped "Brant" and went back to "Bubba," and the legacy he wants to leave behind: faith, family, and building abundance without losing what matters most.(00:00:00) Cold open: a year with no paycheck, and the deal he made at home(00:01:05) Welcome, episode 62 with Bubba Page(00:01:48) Official intro: LaunchLeads, Techstars, Influence VC(00:05:04) Icebreaker: favorite brands (Cotopaxi, Josh's Pickles, Tesla)(00:13:03) Winning Google Startup Weekend in 2014(00:16:00) Growing up in the Bay Area, then a senior-year move to Mesa(00:20:38) Techstars' Next program with John(00:24:02) Why trial and error is too expensive: get a mentor(00:28:45) The 3 questions that make anyone feel like your best friend(00:30:59) Seatability: six founders, $5K from his parents, a 10x exit(00:32:10) Paid out in $25,000 of office chairs(00:34:38) Starting LaunchLeads: a "mini MarketStar" with Alan Hall(00:37:00) Techstars Boulder and Outro.com(00:39:06) Mistake #1: don't tie your business to someone else's platform(00:40:39) LinkedIn shut it down(00:42:49) Techstars, Kickstart, Peterson Ventures: $1.25M raised, and it failed(00:48:14) Depression, and the investor who said "we'll invest in you again"(00:49:45) The Page Company: building a social media business together(00:53:27) Influence VC: angel investing plus influencer expertise(00:56:42) Bubba's real name, and why "Brant" didn't stick(00:58:43) The one thing: build abundance without losing what matters most(00:59:52) The legacy he wants on his deathbed(01:03:31) Wrap-upLearn more about us:https://startupignition.com/linksApply to be a guest on the pod:https://startup-ignition-podcast.paperform.co/Follow John & Tyler:https://x.com/trich_https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrichards/Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@StartupIgnitionFollow on X:https://x.com/startupignitionFollow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/startupignition/Follow on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@startupignitionFollow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/school/6458758/admin/dashboard/Follow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/startupignition/#StartupIgnition #BubbaPage #Techstars #AngelInvesting #StartupFailure