Ep166 – Dan Krasnostein (Partner – Square Peg Capital) on teaching, culture and conviction

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep166 – Dan Krasnostein (Partner – Square Peg Capital) on teaching, culture and conviction June 30, 2022 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep166 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Dan Krasnostein, Partner at Square Peg Capital. Dan began his career in management consulting before making the switch to joining Seek in strategy roles. After spending 4 formative years at Seek, Dan was ready for a change and despite in his own words not knowing too much about Venture Capital, ended up joining Paul Bassat and the team at Square Peg Capital as their first hire. Fast forward 10 years and Square Peg is one of the leading Venture Funds in Australia with over $3B in funds under management and a stellar portfolio of companies including the likes of Canva, Airwallex, Fiverr and Stripe to name a few! Square Peg is one of the few Australian VC funds with a global presence and focus, having investment teams based in Australia, Israel and SE Asia. In this episode we dug into Dan and Square Peg’s investment approach, covering topics such as: How Square Peg assess founding teams for cultural and team fit when making investment decisionsTheir conviction based strategy approach (i.e. larger cheques into smaller deals)Their approach to building companies over the long termDan’s common thread of teaching throughout his careerWhat founders can learn from global operatorsThe challenges and opportunities in the current global financial climate& much more! Timestamps  3:57 – Dan’s background, journey into venture and why teaching is at the heart of Dan’s career 11:08 – Dan’s lessons from Seek on the importance of people and culture within an organisation 14:15 – Strategies for developing great culture 17:30- How Square Peg assess the culture of a team before investing  21:25 – Good questions to ask potential employees or co-founders 23:12 – The two extremes of how venture funds can operate, and where Square Peg sits on the spectrum 30:58 – Different approaches for investing domestically vs internationally 37:12 – Commonalities in the global startup community which Australian founders can learn from 41:34 – Valuing long term growth over short term metrics  47:19 – The challenges and opportunities of the current economic climate Our partners A big thank you to James Tynan, Dan Adams and Tim Harley for their help with this interview. Also a big thank you to our partners for this episode. Lawpath Lawpath’s Legal Advice Plan gives you access to lawyers on demand for one low monthly fee. Create legal documents, sign online and have a lawyer on-call to help you through any legal need for a fraction of the cost.  Lawpath has helped Australian businesses save over $100 million in legal fees, and are offering Startup Playbook listeners up to 20% off their most popular legal plans. Visit lawpath.com/playbook for your exclusive discount and discover an easier way to get your legals sorted. Scendar  We’re Scendar, an accounting and advisory practice better described as Finance as a Service (FaaS). We’re focused on founders, funders and startups. Clients that are ever-changing and adapting. We like fast movers. And as you might have guessed, we’re not your basic accountancy. We can take care of tax and the books whilst building a syndicate fund and a multimillion dollar exit strategy.  At Scendar, we’re empowered by our client’s potential. Find out more at Scendar.com Dovetail Studios  Dovetail Studios operates a venture studio and VC to transform ambitious ideas into unstoppable businesses. On top of being a renowned product development partner for startups like Afterpay, they also operate a VC fund to invest in early-stage companies that go through their venture studio program. So if you’re a non-technical, early-stage founder looking for a talented team to help supercharge your success, check out dovetailstudios.com Links Mentioned: Dan’s Links: Dan on TwitterDan on LinkedInDan’s email People mentioned: Paul BassatGlenn RogersJames Tynan Tim HarleyDan Adams Companies mentioned: Square PegSEEKOwnHomeAmber Feedback/connect/say hello: [email protected]@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Don’t have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud & Stitcher Audio Player. Find all links to the podcast here. https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep166_-_Dan_Krasnostein_Partner_-_Square_Peg_Capital_on_teaching_culture_and_conviction.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 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