In this episode of 20 VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews Mark Lore, a successful serial entrepreneur and investor, who shares his journey from childhood entrepreneurial ventures to founding Diapers.com and selling it to Amazon for $550 million, then creating Jet.com, which Walmart acquired for $3.3 billion. Lore discusses his approach to business, emphasizing the importance of culture, mission, and hiring top talent, encapsulated in his "VCP" (Vision, Capital, People) philosophy. He also highlights the significance of having a crystal-clear vision and unwavering conviction in its realization, while being adaptable in strategy. Lore, alongside Alex Rodriguez, has ventured into investing through their firm, Vision Capital People, seeding companies with substantial capital to attract the best talent and build valuable technology. Throughout the conversation, Lore candidly reflects on his motivations, insecurities tied to success, and the value of trust and transparency in both business and personal relationships.
"Most recently, Marc was the president and CEO of Walmart ecommerce us following the sale of his company Jet.com to Walmart for $3.3 billion in 2016."
This quote highlights Marc Lore's significant achievement in the e-commerce industry and his role at Walmart after the acquisition of his company, Jet.com.
"I was always an entrepreneur growing up."
This quote exemplifies Marc Lore's innate entrepreneurial drive from an early age, which led him to pursue various business ventures throughout his life.
"I just wanted to become an entrepreneur and do a startup."
This quote captures Marc Lore's decisive moment of leaving his banking career to fulfill his entrepreneurial aspirations, demonstrating his commitment to creating and growing his own business.
"I wouldn't recommend putting your life savings in, but I would recommend putting enough money in so that you feel like it's life or death because that's the only way to get into what I call the 6th gear."
This quote reflects Marc Lore's philosophy on the level of financial and emotional investment needed to drive the highest level of commitment and performance in entrepreneurship.
"You basically, at a young age, associate being loved with accomplishing big things."
Marc Lore shares his personal experience of how seeking love through achievements shaped his drive, which has implications for his approach to parenting and motivation.
"I grew up again with my parents weren't that involved. They had me when they were 20 years old, and I kind of fent for myself, and I learned a lot of lessons myself and failed at a lot of things."
This quote reveals Marc Lore's early experiences with independence and failure, which contributed to his resilient attitude toward risk and fear in his professional life.
"Failure is okay because that's the starting point of fear. It's like, failure is okay. There's nothing wrong with failing, I think, opens up the possibility to take more risk."
This quote emphasizes the importance of accepting failure as a natural part of the process and as a precursor to taking risks and pursuing success.
"I would separate, first of all, reputation and things. Now you start talking about values, and I don't think you take risk on values. [...] I wouldn't put my life savings in again, probably. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't put 390, maybe I'd put 300."
The speaker differentiates between risking one's values, which should never be done, and risking financial assets, where there might be more room for calculated risks, albeit with more caution as one's financial situation evolves.
"Trust and transparency, the two big ones, if you want somebody to open up and connect, show them that you're being transparent and you're sharing information, maybe sharing things that are very personal [...] It's okay to be open and be transparent in that way."
This quote outlines the speaker's belief that transparency and trust are key to forming deep and meaningful connections, suggesting that sharing personal information can be a powerful tool for building trust.
"I found, and I'm very trusting, when you openly trust someone, really trust them where they can burn you. Like put yourself in a place where they could burn you. They rarely do."
The quote reflects the speaker's personal philosophy that starting with a foundation of trust is more beneficial than being cautious, as it leads to more positive outcomes and genuine relationships.
"When I say transparent, too, by the way, some people do interpret that as this radical transparency. Like, tell somebody that they suck. That's not what I'm talking about."
The speaker clarifies that transparency is about openness and sharing, not about harsh or radical honesty, which can be counterproductive.
"You need a chief people officer if you think that, or the CEO or the founder of a company thinks that they can found the company, do the capital, do the vision, do all the parts of the business and on the side with their pinky, do like the chief people stuff. That's not going to work."
This quote stresses the necessity of having a dedicated CPO to handle the complex and vital task of building a strong organizational culture and managing the workforce effectively.
"I just think people that understand the importance of culture in the organizations."
This quote highlights the speaker's belief that the best CPOs are those who deeply understand and prioritize the development of a strong, value-driven company culture.
"I need to know without a shadow of a doubt, without having to talk to any other person, I'm that confident that this is the right person for the job and that they exhibit the values."
This quote conveys the speaker's conviction that hiring decisions should be made with absolute confidence in the candidate's alignment with the job and the company's values, without relying on references for confirmation.
"I don't get honeypotted anymore because I won't interview somebody, or I don't even want to meet them until they pass the resume test."
The quote indicates the speaker's commitment to a methodical hiring approach that avoids being swayed by personal rapport and focuses on objective criteria to assess a candidate's suitability.
"Superstars make demonstrable jumps. In either title level type of company. And it's very clear."
This quote emphasizes the importance of significant career advancements as a hallmark of a top performer and is used as a criterion for the hiring process.
"It's all about spottic. Do they have the traits that I look for?"
This quote clarifies the focus on specific personal attributes during the interview, which are critical for determining the candidate's fit within the company culture.
"I guarantee you, that person that had a bad reference, I guarantee they didn't have a superstar resume."
This quote suggests that a negative reference is often aligned with a less impressive resume, reinforcing the importance of the resume in the initial evaluation.
"You do 15 of those and have 30 million in 15 companies. It's a half a billion dollar fund, something like that, on that order of magnitude."
This quote explains the fund's approach to investment size and portfolio construction, aiming for impactful and substantial stakes in a select number of companies.
"If you've got the very best people in the world in a certain segment of the market, it's always going to be really valuable and interesting to a strategic."
This quote highlights the philosophy that investing in top-tier talent can create significant value for potential acquirers, justifying large initial investments.
"Walmart made the acquisition, that was probably the single biggest reason why they were interested in spending $3 billion for jet. It certainly wasn't the market penetration. The customers that they were buying, they were buying the team and the know how and the technology."
This quote reflects on the Jet.com acquisition and underscores the significance of the team and technology over other metrics, influencing investment strategies.
"I don't really worry about much, like at all. I don't worry about stuff that's going to happen in the future. And I don't dwell on the past."
Marc Lore explains that his lack of worry stems from his focus on the present and his confidence in his vision and team.
"The strategy can change. So how you get there, the vision shouldn't change if you do the right amount of work up front."
Marc Lore discusses the importance of a well-thought-out vision to guide a company, suggesting that while strategies may pivot, the core vision should remain stable.
"I still feel like it's life or death. I still feel like love is tied to whether I succeed or not."
Marc Lore shares his personal insecurities, revealing that despite past achievements, he still feels an intense pressure to succeed in his current endeavors.
"I spend a lot of time thinking. I actually set aside time in the day to do nothing but think."
Marc Lore explains his approach to downtime, which involves intentional thinking about his vision and the future rather than focusing on past events or immediate concerns.
"It's funny in the moment, you don't appreciate how meaningful it is until they get older and you look back and you laugh about it and talk about it, and you realize how meaningful it really was."
Marc Lore reflects on the significance of family traditions, emphasizing the lasting impact they have as children grow up and the shared memories they create.
"It's very frustrating as an entrepreneur where you have different funds, specialized in different rounds of financing, and they don't come in seed, and they come in seed, but they can only write a little check."
Marc Lore discusses the difficulties entrepreneurs face with traditional VC structures and suggests a more streamlined approach where a single fund can provide support through multiple stages of growth.
"I think the two big areas still left untapped in retail are social commerce and conversational commerce."
Marc Lore shares his enthusiasm for his most recent investment, highlighting social commerce as a significant and untapped opportunity within the retail sector.