A Talk with Brett Berson — First Round Capital

One of our internal operating values is to be 1% better everyday — by living and breathing this value, and by inculcating a learning mindset, our goal is to make Airlift an exceptional learning organization. In honor of this value, and to create exposure and learning opportunities for our team, we recently held a session with Brett Berson at First Round Capital in our weekly All Hands. Based in San Francisco, First Round is a top-tier venture capital firm that is best known for early-stage investments in Uber, Square and other billion dollar enterprises.

With this session, we aimed to broaden our view of the global environment and gain insight into how companies may be responding to the situation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read below for our top three learnings from this session:

1. The future is happening faster — The pandemic has brought about an apparent shift in how people operate and has required them to embrace technology that they may not have adopted in pre-COVID times. This includes using digital platforms to work from home, shopping online for daily necessities and making online payments to minimize cash handling. This opens up a breadth of new opportunities for companies operating in the digital space.
2. Speed of adaptation will be one of the biggest determinants of success — The depth of the impact the pandemic has had on businesses was unanticipated. However, to survive in the fast changing economy, the top 1% of companies globally are being quick to adapt, by displaying swift planning and execution on all fronts. How well companies adapt to the new environment will be the single biggest determinant of their success when the pandemic subsides.
3. Companies must display keen foresight and remain focused — The impact of the pandemic is expected to last for several years. Successful companies are rallying their teams by acknowledging the reality of the situation and identifying associated opportunities. These companies display keen foresight on what’s to come in the future, and react by steering their brand towards one direction.

Interestingly, despite the mass turbulence in capital markets, our learning has been that capital is still getting deployed with rounds closing over Zoom (as opposed to in-person). This proves that being relentless in your pursuit towards great things goes a long way, no matter what the situation.

The nature of investments has changed as well with capital markets betting on organizations that have a proven business model and a demonstrated plan of action (as opposed to ones that have yet to prove things or are slow to adapt).

This post is a first part of what we learned from our All Hands with Brett. I look forward to sharing a second part in the weeks ahead.

Onwards and upwards,
Maha

Maha is the Community Management Specialist at Airlift. She has a severe sweet tooth & keeps talking to us in social media lingo we don’t understand. She is also a ferocious writer and giving up is not in her stride. You can reach out to her at maha@rideairlift.com.