His robotics startup raised $400M, his VC fund over $4B—& he ran both at the same time. Here's how he did it.| Lior Susan, Bright Machines & Eclipse Ventures
Description
Lior is the Elon Musk of VC. In just 8 years, his venture fund went from 0 to $4B under management. And while doing that, he founded Bright Machines, which to date has raised over $400M. He's both the CEO of Bright Machines and the Managing Director of Eclipse Ventures.
And he's not building "easy" software startups either. Bright Machines is looking to automate the entire manufacturing process with robots. He launched it with a $179M round and a 100-person team.
Lior is not normal. His story isn't either. You won't want to miss this one.
Keywords
venture capital, startup journey, Bright Machines, manufacturing innovation, fundraising challenges, robotics, automation, customer relationships, product market fit, entrepreneurship, Eclipse Ventures
Timestamps:
(00:00:00 ) Intro
(00:08:31 ) Starting Eclipse & Becoming a VC
(00:13:58 ) How he started Bright Machines
(00:18:43 ) The First enterprise deal with Flextonics
(00:24:49 ) The Process of Automation and Assembly
(00:30:25 ) Making a Machine as Reliable as a Human
(00:34:44 ) Bright Machine's Struggles
(00:36:56 ) The Business Model of Robotics
(00:39:49 ) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:40:37 ) One Piece of Advice