20VC Fund Research
Investment Thesis
20VC operates at the unique intersection of venture capital and media, leveraging Harry Stebbings' influential podcast platform (The Twenty Minute VC with 20+ million annual listeners) to source deals, support portfolio companies, and drive founder visibility. The fund believes that the best companies go after large markets with outdated incumbents suffering from poor technology, weak talent brands, slow product cycles, and bad customer service. Rather than relying solely on traditional partnership networks, 20VC converts media audience into investor relationships and uses content brands (20Growth, 20Sales, 20Product, The Memo) to amplify portfolio companies and create actionable insights for founders.
Investment Strategy
20VC invests across a broad spectrum of early-stage companies, from pre-seed through Series A. The fund explicitly targets "big markets, low competition" with focus on:
- Incumbents with outdated technology
- Incumbents with poor talent brands
- Incumbents with slow product development
- Incumbents with bad customer service/NPS
This attack vector applies across sectors. Recent portfolio reflects deep diversity: Fintech (Alloy, Deblock, CryptoTax Calculator, Buena), Vertical SaaS (allO, Ellis, EQL, Handly), Artificial Intelligence (Context, CourtCorrect, FrankieOne, Altertable), Enterprise SaaS (Firmable), Consumer (Amo), and specialized categories.
Fund Details
Fund III Close: October 2024
Fund Size: $400 million
Fund Breakdown:
- $125M for Pre-Seed/Seed investments
- $275M for Series A/Growth investments
LP Base: 40+ unicorn founder LPs, MIT Investment Management, RIT Capital Partners, and global institutions. The fund scaled unusually fast by converting podcast listeners into LPs and securing prominent founder co-investors.
Check Sizes and Stage Focus
Pre-Seed/Seed Track:
- Check Size: $100K - $3M
- Led by: Kieran Hill and Julien Codorniou
- Target Ownership: Varies by company stage
Series A/Growth Track:
- Check Size: $5M - $15M
- Led by: Paul Bonnet and Alexandre Dewez
- Targeting companies with product-market fit
The fund explicitly targets companies with strong unit economics and clear paths to large markets, regardless of sector.
Lead Tendency
20VC demonstrates a mixed lead tendency. The fund leads seed rounds through Kieran Hill and Julien Codorniou, particularly early-stage companies sourced through podcast network. For Series A rounds, the fund typically co-leads or participates alongside established growth investors. Recent activity (latest known: January 27, 2026 with Brickanta investment) shows continued deployment across stages.
Geographic Focus
Primary: United States and Europe
Secondary: Israel (through fund LP relationships and operational partners)
The fund explicitly markets itself as "making Europe great again" with Fund III, emphasizing equal focus on European and US companies from seed through Series A.
Recent Activity
Fund Status: Actively deploying Fund III (as of Feb 2026)
Latest Known Investments:
- January 27, 2026: Brickanta (Business/Productivity Software)
- Ongoing deployment across Pre-Seed/Seed and Series A
- Active sourcing through podcast content and founder network
The fund maintains momentum post-close, with dedicated teams for Pre-Seed/Seed (Hill, Codorniou) and Series A/Growth (Bonnet, Dewez) driving deal flow from multiple sources.
Portfolio Characteristics
Portfolio Size: 50+ companies (based on visible portfolio with growth continuing)
Key Portfolio Companies:
- allO - Full-stack restaurant software (Vertical SaaS)
- Alloy - Investment management for digital assets (Fintech)
- Context - Analytics for LLMs (AI)
- CourtCorrect - AI for complaints management (AI)
- Ellis - Digital immigration law firm (Vertical SaaS)
- Firmable - B2B database platform (Enterprise SaaS)
- FrankieOne - Unified onboarding & fraud prevention (AI)
- General Index - Pricing for physical world (Fintech)
- Handly - Business in a box for service companies (Vertical SaaS)
Notable Exit: Bonnet (EV charger aggregator) exited in recent years
Founder Network & Operating Partners
20VC differentiates through its deep roster of founder and operator partners:
20Growth Partners: Elena Verna (Dropbox), Sri Batchu (The RealReal), Rob Schutz (Ro), Casey Winters (Eventbrite), Brian Hale (DoorDash), Hila Qu (Datasite), Darius Contractor (Otter.ai), Adam Fishman (Mozilla), Luc Levesque (Shopify)
20Sales Partners: Jessica Arnold (Amplitude), Stevie Case (Vanta), Kelly Bray (Vanta), Liat Bycel (Airtable), Kim Graves (Notion), Renu Gupta (Pachama), Maggie Hott (OpenAI), Lauren Schwartz (Fivetran)
20Product Partners: Hugo Barra (Detect), Jack Brody (Snap), Geoff Charles (Ramp), Glen Coates (Shopify), Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn), Jag Duggal (Nubank), Gustav Söderström (Spotify), Will Wu (Match Group)
These operating partners actively advise portfolio companies on go-to-market, product, and scaling strategies.
Decision Process
Structure: Distributed partnership model
Pre-Seed/Seed Decisions: Kieran Hill and Julien Codorniou make decisions with input from founder network
Series A/Growth Decisions: Paul Bonnet and Alexandre Dewez lead with institutional LP oversight
Decision Timeline: Estimated 2-4 weeks for seed, 3-8 weeks for Series A based on deal maturity
Warm Introduction: Strongly preferred (podcast network, founder LPs, operating partners)
Typical Board Involvement: Board observer for seed, board seat or observer for Series A
Media & Sourcing Advantage
Unlike traditional VCs, 20VC owns significant media distribution:
- The Twenty Minute VC: Flagship podcast, 20+ million annual listeners, 10+ years of production
- 20Growth: Weekly podcast on scaling GTM
- 20Sales: Weekly podcast on sales leadership
- 20Product: Weekly podcast on product strategy
- The Memo: Premium newsletter on fundraising and market trends
- Social Presence: YouTube, TikTok (20vc_tok), Instagram (20vchq), LinkedIn, X (@20vcfund, @HarryStebbings)
This content machine drives continuous deal sourcing, portfolio company visibility, and founder engagement. Many 20VC portfolio announcements get featured on The Twenty Minute VC, providing free marketing to companies.
Team & Partnership Culture
Founder-Centric: Team includes Harry Stebbings (dropout-turned-podcaster-turned-VC) at helm, signaling non-traditional path for founders
Operating Partner Model: Deep relationships with operators from unicorn companies (Shopify, Spotify, Notion, Stripe, AWS heritage partners)
Content-Driven: Team creates weekly content across multiple shows, requiring strong communication and thought leadership from partners
Investment Philosophy
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Market > Team: 20VC invests in large markets with clear disruption opportunities. Strong markets forgive weak teams; weak markets kill great teams.
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Founder Plurality: The fund backs founders from diverse backgrounds, not requiring traditional pedigree.
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Speed + Conviction: Small committed partnership (5 core GPs) moves faster than large institutional VCs.
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Media as Moat: Content drives founder awareness, LP engagement, and deal flow simultaneously.
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Vertical SaaS Focus (Emerging): Alexandre Dewez's recent commentary on vertical solutions targeting industry-specific problems suggests increasing focus here.
Competitive Positioning
20VC competes with:
- Traditional early-stage VCs (Sequoia, a16z, Greylock)
- Media-first investors (Lowercase, First Round with their media output)
- European early-stage funds (Northzone, Accel)
Unique advantages:
- Built-in distribution for portfolio companies
- Founder co-investors (unicorn founders as LPs)
- Multiple revenue streams (podcast, LP relationships, future fund management)
- Non-traditional sourcing (media creates inbound flow)
Market Observations (from Recent Content)
Based on Harry Stebbings' recent podcast commentary:
- 2026 SaaS Market: Significant correction ongoing, exits raising to $200M+ ARR thresholds
- AI Infrastructure: Model performance plateauing, infrastructure becoming commodity, deployment the differentiator
- Fundraising: 50% of VC funds predicted to fail in next 2-3 years, survival favoring asset managers with differentiation
- IPO Outlook: 4 major IPOs backloaded in 2026 (SpaceX, Canva, Databricks predicted)
These market views directly influence 20VC's investment thesis and portfolio construction.
Performance & Future
Fund Status: Actively deploying Fund III toward 2028 target
LP Satisfaction: Strong based on unicorn founder LPs and continued growth (from Seed 1 to Seed 2 to $400M Fund III)
Succession Plan: Robust partnership model (5 GPs) suggests institutional sustainability beyond founder
Distinctive Characteristics
- Podcast-Sourced Network: Most differentiated sourcing mechanism in VC
- Founder-LP Ecosystem: Converting audience into both investors and portfolio
- Content Obligation: Unlike traditional VCs, team produces 20+ hours of original content monthly
- European Thesis: Deliberate geographic positioning (Fund III: "make Europe great again")
- Operating Partner Depth: World-class practitioners from Shopify, Notion, Spotify embedded as advisors
- Fast Growth: Raised $400M Fund III just 4+ years after launch, unusual trajectory
Investment Attractiveness
For Founders:
- Media-driven visibility (valuable for GTM)
- Non-traditional VC approach (appeals to founder-operators)
- Strong operating partner network (tactical expertise)
- Reasonable ticket sizes ($100K-$3M seed, $5M-$15M Series A)
- European and US presence
For LPs:
- Differentiated sourcing mechanism
- Founder-aligned partnerships
- Multiple revenue streams (media reduces fund dependency)
- Rapid scale (Fund I, Fund II, Fund III all deployed)
- Founder co-investor alignment (skin in the game from successful founders)