The future of seed stage VC with Tige Savage - Product Hunt Radio Recap

Podcast: Product Hunt Radio

Published: 2019-11-27

Duration: 47 min

Guests: Tige Savage

Summary

Tige Savage from Revolution Ventures discusses the importance of investing outside Silicon Valley and the unique challenges and opportunities of early-stage venture capital. He emphasizes the need for founders to adapt their leadership as they scale their companies.

What Happened

Tige Savage, Managing Partner at Revolution Ventures, shares his insights on venture capital, emphasizing the firm's strategy of investing outside Silicon Valley. Revolution Ventures aims to back companies that find white spaces in industries where incumbents aren't competing, particularly in geographies lacking established financial ecosystems. Savage highlights Framebridge, a custom framing company, as an example of transforming a traditionally cumbersome consumer experience into a seamless one through technology and centralized production.

He explains that many successful direct-to-consumer companies, like Bloomscape and Bright Cellars, address current consumer needs with innovative approaches. Bloomscape leverages a unique supply chain to deliver plants directly to consumers, reflecting a broader trend of millennials seeking non-traditional relationships and living arrangements. Bright Cellars uses data to personalize wine selections, exemplifying how modern consumer companies can tailor products to individual tastes.

Savage underscores the importance of adapting leadership styles as companies grow. He advises founders to bring in world-class talent and to be open to evolving their roles from hustlers to recruiters and managers. This adaptability is crucial for scaling businesses effectively.

He shares the story of Policy Genius, a company revolutionizing the insurance industry by simplifying the consumer experience. Founded by Jennifer Fitzgerald, it demonstrates how addressing a poor consumer value proposition can drive significant business success.

Savage encourages entrepreneurs to tackle large but uninteresting categories with innovative solutions, leveraging their domain expertise and modern tools to disrupt industries. He stresses the importance of resilience and finding product-market fit before scaling.

The conversation also touches on Savage's personal journey into venture capital, the evolution of his career from banking to overseeing investments at AOL Time Warner, and eventually co-founding Revolution Ventures with Steve Case.

Key Insights

• Revolution Ventures focuses on investing in companies outside Silicon Valley, targeting regions lacking established financial ecosystems to find untapped opportunities.
• Direct-to-consumer companies like Bloomscape and Bright Cellars succeed by using unique supply chains and data-driven personalization to meet evolving consumer preferences.
• Policy Genius simplifies the insurance purchasing process, addressing a poor consumer value proposition and driving business success through improved user experience.
• Founders must adapt their leadership styles as companies grow, transitioning from operational roles to recruiting and managing world-class talent for effective scaling.