20VC: Bolt; The Most Insane Story in Startups | Turning a $5K Loan into an $8BN Company | Why Every VC Turned Down One of Europe's Biggest Winners | Competing with Uber & The Future of Micromobility and Self-Driving

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Markus Villig is the Founder and CEO of Bolt, a global mobility platform with more than 200 million lifetime customers in more than 50 countries and 600 cities. Bolt has raised over €1 billion in funding from investors like Sequoia, D1 and G Squared, making Markus the youngest founder of a billion-dollar company in Europe.

In Today’s Episode with Markus Villig:

1. Starting an $8BN Company:

• How did Markus come up with the idea for Bolt before Uber existed?

• How did Markus find his co-founder? Why did 30 people turn down the chance to co-found Bolt? What are Markus’ biggest tips on finding a co-founder?

• How did Markus use a $5K loan from his parents as the pre-seed round?

• How did Markus get the first riders for Bolt? What worked? What did not work?

• How did Markus get the first driver for Bolt? What worked? What did not work?

2. Expanding to be a Global Champion:

• How did Markus expand Bolt to $10M in ARR on just $1M of funding?

• What did the international expansion playbook look like? What worked? What did not work? How has it changed over time?

• What one simple change led to their becoming the leader in Africa?

• What was the best country to launch? What was the worst?

• What is the most profitable country today? What is the least?

3. The $8BN Company that no VC Wanted to Fund:

• Why did every large VC in Europe turn down Bolt early on?

• How did a real estate company in the Baltics save Bolt with lifeline funding?

• When did Sequoia come into the mix? Does Sequoia move the needle for your company when they invest?

• How do New York financially driven investors differ to the traditional VC ecosystem?

• What would Markus most like to change about the world of VC?

4. The Future: Micromobility, Self-Driving Cars, Uber:

• Will the rise of self-driving cars harm or help companies like Bolt and Uber?

• What is the future for micromobility? Does it cannibalise the core business for Bolt and Uber?

• What is Uber better at Bolt doing? What are Uber worse at than Bolt? How will that change moving forward?

• Waymo, buy or short? Why?