Growing a Startup, Raising a Child: VC Renana Ashkenazi on Team, Ambiguity, and ROI - Product Builder Podcast episode with Eyal David
00:41:26

Growing a Startup, Raising a Child: VC Renana Ashkenazi on Team, Ambiguity, and ROI

Host: · Guest: Renana Ashkenazi · About the host

In this episode

  • A sense of capability is transferable: in any domain where you've built up confidence, you can import it into new, frightening areas — from work to parenthood and back.
  • In early-stage investing, the team is the single most important component and nothing beats it, because almost everything else is unknown and constantly changing.
  • Real market validation isn't done at the computer but in in-depth interviews — and what matters is not only what you ask, but whom you ask and how you ask.
  • The world is full of advisors who talk in exclamation marks; the elusive skill is filtering which advice to adopt and which to put a question mark on.
  • A good manager, a good parent, and a good product person treat people according to what they need — not by the 'golden rule' but by how they themselves want to be treated.
  • Flourishing in ambiguity is a muscle you can and should develop; the comfortable environments are the low-frequency ones, and real growth happens in the chaos.

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Episode Description

Renana Ashkenazi, a partner at the venture capital fund Grove Ventures, sits down with host Yael Shamir Zalmanov for a conversation about the surprising similarity between growing a startup and raising a child. Both became parents at a late, experienced stage of their careers, and from that vantage point they examine how a sense of capability, empathy, decision-making under ambiguity, and the ability to filter advice carry over between the two worlds. Along the way, Renana reveals how an early-stage investor thinks about team, market validation, chaos, and ROI.

Read the full transcript
Full transcript with speakers and timestamps

Selected quotes

“Anywhere we have a sense of capability, we can surely take it to areas where we have less.”
— Renana Ashkenazi
“The team component is the most significant component and nothing beats it. At every stage.”
— Renana Ashkenazi
“Most good startup ideas are contrarian. They contradict the accepted perceptions.”
— Renana Ashkenazi

Questions & answers

What's the most important thing Renana looks for when investing in an early-stage startup?

The team. In her view it's the most significant component and nothing beats it, at every stage of a company's life, because everything else — the market, the competition, the technology — is unknown and changing. She also prefers that there not yet be a working product, to make sure the team did real research work on the market.

How do you tell whether a team did good market validation?

Renana doesn't ask 'what did you learn from the market' but 'whom did you talk to, with what kinds of companies and personas, what did you ask and how did you ask'. She doesn't accept bottom lines at face value, because they're subject to interpretation — just as 'how was kindergarten? fine' doesn't give enough information.

What's the central parallel between growing a startup and raising a child?

Both begin in chaos, with a high frequency of emotional peaks that gradually decreases over time; in both you think you know what needs to be done and discover you don't; and in both you have to make decisions without all the data, acting from a sense of capability and empathy.

How did ChatGPT affect the portfolio companies?

The release of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022 didn't fatally harm the fund's companies, but some of their development efforts became irrelevant. The disruption wasn't only negative, but it forced almost everyone to adapt and figure out how to leverage the technology to work better, more efficiently, and faster.

What kind of entrepreneurs does the fund look for?

People whom chaos moves to action rather than paralyzes; who have curiosity and self-confidence but also a willingness to give it up and listen; who can make hard decisions amid uncertainty and don't lose their balance. The best entrepreneurs solve problems they experienced themselves.

venture capital startup parenthood product management market validation femtech decision-making Product Builder

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