In this episode, I interview Gabriel Jarroson, a prolific investor and partner in his own Venture Capital fund, Lobster Capital.

Gabriel shares his journey from being an entrepreneur to becoming an investor. He started running social media and website development businesses at University, but decided to move on. He moved to China and started investing in tech startups while running an e-learning content producer business.

Upon returning to France, he started a syndicate to invest with friends and acquaintances. In 2017, he started a YouTube channel to share his expertise and investment experiences and has grown it to over 40,000 subscribers. This became a key acquisition channel for the syndicate.

He started to monetise his syndicate by charging 500 euros per year and initially faced resistance . However, he persisted and closed his first deal, which gave him confidence in the business. From 2017 to 2020, he invested in French startups, but then realized the best startups were in Silicon Valley and shifted his focus there.

He joined Y Combinator (YC), one of the biggest startup incubators in the world, and a number of made successful investments. He began to coach startups on how to achieve product-market fit by providing guidance on growth, customer acquisition, and value delivery.

In this conversation, we discuss Gabriel's approach to evaluating startups for investment. He emphasizes the importance of traction and repeatability in a startup's growth. He also highlights the need for a strong founding team and an unfair advantage that sets the startup apart from competitors.

Gabriel shares his experience of making mistakes in investment decisions and the importance of being open-minded. He also encourages the habit of reading non-fiction books to gain new perspectives and ideas.

Key Sections

00:00 Introduction and Background

11:14 Transition from Entrepreneurship to Investing

26:44 Becoming an Investor and Starting a Syndicate

35:54 Shifting Focus to Silicon Valley Startups

45:25 Investing in BK and Oxygen

01:01:14 Guiding Startups to Achieve Product-Market Fit

01:09:38 Factors in Investment Evaluation: Traction, Team, and Unfair Advantage

01:18:15 The Role of Unfair Advantage in Startup Success

01:27:22 The Value of Reading Non-Fiction Books