Invest Like The Best
Episode 309 Finding Your Customers
Invest Like The Best

Episode 309: Finding Your Customers

Invest Like The Best

Episode 309

Finding Your Customers

Rebecca Lynn is the co-founder of Canvas Ventures. We cover the biggest lessons from her time at P&G, why you should say no to customers, and the differences between an interesting topic and one that has investing potential.

This episode is brought to you by:

Tegus. Tegus streamlines the investment research process so you can get up to speed and find answers to critical questions on companies faster and more efficiently. The Tegus platform surfaces the hard-to-get qualitative insights, gives instant access to critical public financial data through BamSEC, and helps you set up customized expert calls. It’s all done on a single, modern Saas platform that offers 360-degree insight into any public or private company. I’ve been so impressed by the platform that my firm, Positive Sum, recently made an investment in Tegus. We did so because we feel that Tegus will be the gold standard platform for investing research for decades to come. As a listener, you can take Tegus for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

Brex. Brex is the integrated financial platform trusted by the world's most innovative entrepreneurs and fastest-growing companies. With Brex, you can move money fast for instant impact with high-limit corporate cards, payments, venture debt, and spend management software all in one place. Ready to accelerate your business? Learn more at brex.com/best.

[00:02:37] - [First question] - What she’d do a great job teaching if she could teach a singular 401 level course

[00:05:20] - Defining what the umbrella concept is 

[00:06:10] - What about her career at P&G applies most to the kinds of companies she spends her time with now 

[00:12:06] - What types of questions she asks to help someone building a product understand their marketing angle 

[00:15:34] - The top three things people do wrong when running a survey in tactics or strategy

[00:19:33] - Categories of questions where surveys are always helpful and effective   

[00:21:06] - What the Go To Market Council is and what it does 

[00:28:21] - The ways that most funnels are commonly broken  

[00:31:17] - Defining great positioning and what it accomplishes

[00:33:36] - How her knowledge and ideas most impacted the way she built Canvas

[00:35:04] - Lessons learned about the world of digital health and the quantified self  

[00:39:15] - The base level attributes that most indicate investment potential when she’s investing in a company

[00:42:32] - The shifts in the world that most have her attention today

[00:46:10] - What has her worried systemically about venture investing 

[00:49:37] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her 

Finding Your Customers

Introduction

Patrick
My guest this week is Rebecca Lynn. Rebecca co-founded early-stage investor Canvas Ventures in 2013 and is regularly featured as one of the best VCs in the market. She has deep positioning and go-to-market experience, which she honed during her time at Procter & Gamble, and that's the focus of our discussion. We'll cover the details of great marketing, why you should say no to customers and how she has built Canvas. Please enjoy my discussion with Rebecca Lynn.

Applying Lessons from P&G to Teaching

Patrick
So I always try to begin these conversations with some kind of fun. In this case, I thought it'd be interesting to ask you, if you were to go back to your alma mater, which was Mizzou undergrad, we were just talking about a place that I've spent a lot of time in Columbia, Missouri, and you had -- you were forced to teach, I'll call it like a 401 level course, a single course to a group of students who have opted into it, that's not a beginner's course, that's an advanced course of some type. What do you think you'd do a great job teaching?

Access the full transcript
Sign in or register to view episode transcripts.

Contact

Get in touch at help@joincollossus.com