The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: How We Got Fred Wilson, Benchmark and Index to Invest $94M | Why Robinhood's Strategy is Wrong | Why 1-1s are BS and What Every Founder Gets Wrong About Equity | Why Taste Beats AI But How AI Kills Org Charts with Paul Erlanger, CEO @ fomo
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) interviews the world's greatest venture capitalists with prior guests including Sequoia's Doug Leone and Benchmark's Bill Gurley. Once per week, 20VC Host, Harry Stebbings is also joined by one of the great founders of our time with prior founder episodes from Spotify's Daniel Ek, Linkedin's Reid Hoffman, and Snowflake's Frank Slootman.
If you would like to see more of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC), head to www.20vc.com for more information on the podcast, show notes, resources and more.
Show Notes
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Paul Erlanger is the Co-Founder and CEO of FOMO, the social-first trading platform building the future of on-chain investing. Since founding the company in 2025, Paul has raised approximately $94 million, including a $17 million Series A led by Benchmark and a $75 million Series B led by Index Ventures with participation from USV, valuing the company at $550 million. Today, FOMO has grown to 600,000 users, processed over $4 billion in trading volume, and is adding thousands of new users every day—all with a team of just 17 people.
AGENDA:
– Building a $550M Company with No Salaries, No Managers & No 1:1s
– Why Traditional Brokerages Will Lose in the Next 10 Years
– Why Robinhood's Strategy Is Wrong; The End of the Financial Super App?
– "Markets Aren't a Casino" — The Case for Retail Investors Fighting Wall Street
– The Radical Hiring Bet: Giving Employees Founder-Level Equity
– AI Kills Org Charts: Why FOMO Will Stay Under 25 Employees
– Why Taste Beats AI & The Biggest Mistake Most Consumer Startups Make
– The Social Media Playbook That Every Startup Gets Wrong
– How Benchmark, Index & USV Won the Deal—and the VC Advice Founders Need to Hear
– The Future of Investing: Social Trading, Creator Economies & Financial Networks
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