20VC: Bolt; The Most Insane Story in Startups | Turning a $5K Loan into an $8BN Company | Why Every VC Turned Down One of Europe's Biggest Winners | Competing with Uber & The Future of Micromobility and Self-Driving
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Markus Villig is the Founder and CEO of Bolt, a global mobility platform with more than 200 million lifetime customers in more than 50 countries and 600 cities. Bolt has raised over €1 billion in funding from investors like Sequoia, D1 and G Squared, making Markus the youngest founder of a billion-dollar company in Europe.
In Today’s Episode with Markus Villig:
1. Starting an $8BN Company:
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How did Markus come up with the idea for Bolt before Uber existed?
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How did Markus find his co-founder? Why did 30 people turn down the chance to co-found Bolt? What are Markus’ biggest tips on finding a co-founder?
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How did Markus use a $5K loan from his parents as the pre-seed round?
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How did Markus get the first riders for Bolt? What worked? What did not work?
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How did Markus get the first driver for Bolt? What worked? What did not work?
2. Expanding to be a Global Champion:
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How did Markus expand Bolt to $10M in ARR on just $1M of funding?
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What did the international expansion playbook look like? What worked? What did not work? How has it changed over time?
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What one simple change led to their becoming the leader in Africa?
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What was the best country to launch? What was the worst?
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What is the most profitable country today? What is the least?
3. The $8BN Company that no VC Wanted to Fund:
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Why did every large VC in Europe turn down Bolt early on?
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How did a real estate company in the Baltics save Bolt with lifeline funding?
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When did Sequoia come into the mix? Does Sequoia move the needle for your company when they invest?
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How do New York financially driven investors differ to the traditional VC ecosystem?
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What would Markus most like to change about the world of VC?
4. The Future: Micromobility, Self-Driving Cars, Uber:
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Will the rise of self-driving cars harm or help companies like Bolt and Uber?
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What is the future for micromobility? Does it cannibalise the core business for Bolt and Uber?
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What is Uber better at Bolt doing? What are Uber worse at than Bolt? How will that change moving forward?
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Waymo, buy or short? Why?
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