Meet Magnus Grimeland - the founder and CEO of Antler - a one BILLION dollar venture capital firm dedicated to investing in startups at the earliest stages.

As of today, Antler has invested in over 14 hundred companies, making it the largest day-zero investor in the world. And they have an audacious goal to invest in 6 thousand companies before 2030.

In this episode, you'll learn:

(0:00) Intro

(02:36) Why are people more important than ideas?

(06:04) Examples of iterating on ideas

(19:17) Hipster, Hacker, Hustler vs. Spike, Drive, Grit

(29:22) Can marketers be good founders

(34:39) Soft skills vs hard skills

(39:03) The role of marketing in zero-day investments

(46:07) What do experts get out of advising zero-day startups?

(53:45) Borrowing other people’s platforms

(1:00:54) The first marketing steps for any startup

(1:05:42) Building a brand

(1:15:27) Founder brand vs. building local networks

(1:22:03) How Antler gets referrals

(1:29:52) Why VC firms don’t use SEO

(1:37:33) How Antler decides who to invest in

(1:40:06) Outro

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast! As always, be sure to like and subscribe (and tell a friend).

Where to find Magnus:

LinkedIn

Website

Where to find Tim:

LinkedIn

X

Website

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Referenced:

• Zalora

• Lion

• Basket of goods

• G&A

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Ahrefs Podcast

Host: Tim Soulo

Podcast Producer: Michelle Lindner

Intro Storyboard: Michelle Lindner & Tim Soulo

Intro Video Lead: George Dolgikh

Intro Video Animations: Ilya Yakymchuck

Filmed at: @PoddsterSingapore