Ep172 – Ben Grabiner (Co-founder & General Partner – Side Stage Ventures) on VC as a product

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep172 – Ben Grabiner (Co-founder & General Partner – Side Stage Ventures) on VC as a product February 8, 2024 rohitbhargava Uncategorized My guest for Episode 172 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & General Partner of Side Stage Ventures, Ben Grabiner. There are few people in the Australian startup ecosystem with the background on both sides of the table as Ben! He was an investor at Local Globe, one of the leading VC funds in the UK and Europe before jumping into starting Platoon, A platform to discover and develop the very best emerging creative talent, including the likes of Billie Eilish who they helped to discover and release her first song. In 2018, Platoon was acquired by Apple. After spending some time integrating and growing Platoon inside Apple, Ben is now back in the investment chair, as the Co-founder & General Partner of Side Stage Ventures. In this interview we covered a range of topics including: Ben’s experience as a Co-founder of Platoon from discovering talent like Billie Eilish to ultimately selling to Apple Lifting the lid on what Ben looks for and their process when investing through Side Stage Why Ben thinks of VC as a product, and the specific inputs they measure to ensure they’re on track despite the long feedback loops How the Australian Venture Capital landscape has evolved over time, and why now is one of the best times to build a huge global business in Australia and much more! Time stamps: 4:00 – Early career, working at LocalGlobe, founding Platoon 5:45 – Leaving Polonize to join LocalGlobe 6:50 – Launching an early stage seed fund in the UK 9:20 – Evolution of the Australian Venture Capital landscape 11:30 – Idea and model behind Platoon 18:00 – The two things Side Stage focuses on 19:15 – What Side Stage looks for when investing 21:30 – Investment decision process for Side Stage 23:45 – The decision to sell Platoon to Apple 27:45 – The experience Ben had post acquisition 30:30 – How Side Stage thinks about investing and building a fund from a product perspective 32:40 – Metrics and signals that Side Stage look for internally to make sure they’re on the right track 34:50 – The vision behind Side Stage Our partners A big thank you to Emily Casey for her help with research for this interview as well as to our partners for this show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business.. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.Get started with a Sydney-based Vanta team member today, or watch a 3-minute demo to learn more, at vanta.com/playbook. Links mentioned Ben’s links Twitter/X LinkedIn Side Stage Ventures Side Stage Email People mentioned Saul Klein Billie Eilish Eazy-E Denzyl Feigelson Alex Zaccaria Anthony Zaccaria Emily Casey Companies mentioned LocalGlobe Platoon Apple LoveFilm Seedcamp Blackbird Soundcloud Spotify YouTube Linktree Feedback/connect/say hello: [email protected]@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep172_-_Ben_Grabiner.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. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]::-moz-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea::-moz-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]::-webkit-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=text]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=url]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form input[type=email]:-ms-input-placeholder, .dslc-tp-comment-form textarea:-ms-input-placeholder { color: #4d4d4d; } Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep172 – Ben Grabiner (Co-founder & General Partner – Side Stage Ventures) on VC as a product appeared first on Startup Playbook.