Discover/Weekly

This Week in VC Podcasts

Jan 6 – Jan 12, 2025

6 top clips from 1 episode across 1 show

Clip of the week

Riding Unicorns· Ron Levinfounder story

How booking.com's business travel gap sparked a unicorn startup idea

4:46 / 5:07

And we kind of put our heads together, and we saw an opportunity around solving business travel. We knew how many people were using booking.com to make business bookings even though the platform was really built primarily for consumers. And we saw a lot of other opportunities within that business travel space. So we decided to come together and start a company called TravelPerk that was around 2014,

4:46 - 5:0721sRead the episode →

Top clips

Riding Unicorns · Ron Levin

personal lesson

How working at the world's biggest internet property shaped an investor's career

Ron Levin shares his formative experience working on the M&A team at Lycos during its peak as the world's largest internet property. He explains how this role gave him deep exposure to tech business models, what scales versus what doesn't, and the international perspective he gained when Lycos was acquired by Spanish telecom Telefonica.

2:08 - 2:3526s
career-developmentinternet-historybusiness-models

Riding Unicorns · Ron Levin

market insight

Why obvious startup ideas still fail while unicorns succeed

Ron Levin explains why successful unicorns often pursue 'obvious' opportunities that many others are also chasing. He argues that having an obvious idea isn't enough - execution speed and market dominance are what separate winners from the dozens of competitors tackling the same problem, using Airbnb as a prime example.

25:59 - 26:4747s
startup-executionmarket-competitionunicorn-success

Riding Unicorns · Ron Levin

founder story

Started first business at 11: How early entrepreneurship shapes venture investors

Ron Levin shares his entrepreneurial journey from starting his first business at age 11 to choosing Babson College for its pioneering entrepreneurship program. He discusses how growing up with a small business owner mother in Greater Boston shaped his early drive for entrepreneurship and business focus.

0:50 - 1:3747s
early-entrepreneurshipbusiness-educationentrepreneurial-background

Riding Unicorns · Ron Levin

framework

The travel obsession that reveals how VCs spot successful entrepreneurs

Ron Levin explains how his personal drive to visit 140+ countries reflects the same action-oriented mindset he looks for in entrepreneurs. He argues that successful founders share a pattern of turning unusual ideas into concrete actions, whether it's extreme travel or narrow expertise areas.

15:27 - 16:2356s
entrepreneur-psychologyinvestor-mindsetpattern-recognition

Riding Unicorns · Ron Levin

Consequences

I had a lot of ideas in the early Internet when people were just initiating the first eBay, the first Amazon. I had a lot of them that were great and ahead of their time, but you just don't know what you don't know. I wish I had maybe a little bit more technical skills.

The regret of missing early internet opportunities resonates with many who lived through that era. The admission about lacking technical skills while having good business ideas highlights a common founder challenge. The 'you don't know what you don't know' insight is broadly applicable wisdom.

23:50 - 24:4454s
Riding Unicorns(6)

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