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The Twenty Minute VC · December 17, 2024 · 28m

10 Lessons from 4,000 Interviews

Stebbings distills 10 lessons from interviewing 4,000+ founders, VCs, and operators over 9 years. Themes: speed beats perfection, relationships matter more than deals, and the best investors are perpetual students.

Canon

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Stebbings argues that the best VCs he's interviewed don't start with deal flow — they start with relationships. The deals follow the relationships, not the other way around. The quality of your professional relationships predicts your career trajectory more than your analytical skill.

Highlights

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The best founders share one trait: they make decisions faster than everyone else
Stebbings identifies decision speed as the single most common trait among successful founders across 4,000 interviews. Not decision quality — decision speed. The best founders make imperfect decisions quickly and correct course, rather than waiting for perfect information.