Shadowing Practice: Quick Study: How Venture Capitalists Make Decisions - Learn English Speaking with Video
בחר מצב תרגול
כל מצב פותח חדר תרגול במסך מלא.
60 משפטים
אם המשפטים קצרים או ארוכים מדי, לחץ על ערוך כדי להתאים אותם.
1
My name is Elis Stravloff
2
and I'm a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business as well as the founder
3
and director of our venture capital initiative.
4
Unless you know where to look, you might not see it, but venture capitalists or VCs are probably having a major impact on your life every single day.
5
VCs are people who invest in small, risky, high -growth startups.
6
And they often invest in companies that are trying to change our world.
7
Think about Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Zoom, many other tech giants.
8
They were all funded by VCs back when they were very small companies.
9
My team and I tracked the successful COVID vaccines and found that about half are delivered by companies supported by venture capital.
10
And even though it's in the news a lot more during tech booms, this powerful sector of the economy predates the Internet.
11
My research shows that since the 1970s, the VC industry is behind about a third of all large publicly trade companies created in the United States.
12
So how do these influential people choose what ideas to fund?
13
Even many company founders seeking venture capital money don't really seem to understand the VC mindset, as I call it.
14
That's what my research set out to demystify.
15
My team and I found that the most important stage is what's referred to as deal selection.
16
Deal selection is after they've already identified a startup to consider, but before VCs decide whether to invest in it or not to invest.
17
During the deal selection process, VCs put every potential investment through something they call the deal funnel.
18
On average, a hundred startups go into the deal funnel and only one comes out.
19
Meaning that VCs invest in about one startup for each hundred that they consider.
20
The first part of the funnel is typically where VCs evaluate the business model and the setup idea.
21
Often VCs will say, well, the market is obviously too small, so therefore we don't have any interest.
22
If the startup passes that stage, then VCs will typically meet with the founding team to evaluate them.
23
Again, often enough VCs will say, well, the The business is interesting, but we are not impressed by the founding team.
24
That's another startup squeezed out of the narrowing funnel.
25
At the next stage, which relatively few deals reach, they'll bring this startup to their partners.
26
And then the partners will decide to proceed with very careful due diligence on only some of the deals.
27
On average, this entire process takes almost three months, and it's highly selective.
28
What we found was that the median venture capital firm considers about 400 deals a year and only invests in four.
29
That highly selective process benefits us all down the line.
30
For example, my research shows that without venture capitalists, companies like Zoom might not have been identified, created, funded or scaled up.
31
And of course, had Zoom not existed, our experience during the COVID pandemic would have been quite different.
32
VCs' rigorous decision -making process can increase the success rate of companies that change our lives.
33
So, how can a business idea make it through the deal funnel?
34
My team and I talked to almost 900 venture capitalists at over 700 firms, asking these questions, many of those for the first time.
35
We found that in order to try and minimize risk, VCs tend to concentrate on what I call the jockey rather than the horse.
36
The jockey is the founders and the early management team of a company.
37
In other words, the human element, the human capital.
38
The horse is everything else – the product, business model, market, technology.
39
Most VCs will not invest unless they have complete trust in that early management team that they can execute on the idea.
40
Even with the best horse, VCs figure that without a good jockey to ride it, it will not be winning the race.
41
Putting together those hundreds of surveys and conversations with venture capitalists, we've started to get a clearer picture of who they are and who they aren't.
42
It turns out that the VC mindset is very different from other financial investors.
43
They consider many more opportunities to start with.
44
Other investors will not have as wide deal funnel as venture capitalists.
45
VCs are also much more ready to take on risks, And they are much more likely to co -invest with other venture capitalists, so they're a part of a larger ecosystem.
46
Because of all these differences, VCs have to come up with their own financial strategies.
47
Because the standard financial models, like the ones we teach our MBA students here at Stanford, aren't really.. applicable that much to early -stage companies.
48
Concepts like net present value or discounted cash flow techniques just aren't that much in use,
49
since you can't predict future cash flows of an idea or forecast revenue without reliable data.
50
And the data for these startups just doesn't exist yet.
51
So, if you are not investing millions in startups, how does this all relate to you?
52
Well, we can all probably benefit from thinking a little bit more like VCs.
53
For example, people tend to be extremely risk -averse.
54
So are corporate decision -makers.
55
And when you invest, that actually might not be a bad idea, but when you are trying something new, either in your personal or professional life,
56
being willing to fail and staying flexible is beneficial.
57
That's what the VC mindset is all about.
58
VCs have a lot to teach us about doing plenty of research before making decisions, but also experimenting and keeping an open mind.
59
That's how you've been big in business.
60
And the same is true in life.
הורד אפליקציה
כל מה שאתה צריך כדי לדבר בשטף
הגיית AIציון לכל משפט
תרגול IPAשלוט בכל צליל
אוצר מיליםבנה את מאגר המילים שלך
משחק אוצר מיליםלמד תוך כדי משחק
אותו ערוץ
C11
View From The Top with Roelof Botha, Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C13
Leading in a Time of Change: Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JP Morgan Chase
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
Last Lecture Series: How to Live your Life at Full Power — Graham Weaver
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C12
Stanford Leadership Forum 2026: Rewiring the Workforce in the Age of AI
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
Alibaba's Ma Reflects On 12-Year Journey at China 2.0 Conference
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C15
How to Be Unforgettable
Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students
C12
Make Body Language Your Superpower
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C144
Think Fast, Talk Smart: Communication Techniques
Business EnglishInterview EnglishDaily Conversation
C14
Oprah Winfrey: The Secret of My Success
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1Class Takeaways — Turning Data Into a Superpower
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
FOR YOU
המלץ על סרטון
C12
74 משפטים
How AI is helping brands identify consumer trends faster
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
346 משפטים
Trust the Process: How to Design Teams That Actually Work
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1218 משפטים
How to Become a Successful Entrepreneur No-BS Guide
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C138 משפטים
"Dive Deep" Leadership Principle Explained by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
623 משפטים
The Only SaaS Moats Left in 2026
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
105 משפטים
What are Capital Markets? | Intro to Capital Markets (Part 1)
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C15
29 משפטים
This one trait differentiates people who succeed and people who fail | Robert Herjavec
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C128 משפטים
GATHERING IN THE DIGITAL ERA
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
C11
19 משפטים
Mark Zuckerberg: “Alex, are you sure this is going to work?”
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
10 משפטים
Cách thức kiếm tiền của quỹ đầu tư mạo hiểm - Sharran Srivatsaa #venturecapital #ielts #finance
IELTS PrepUniversity Students
B21
546 משפטים
Do Elite Degrees Still Matter In The AI Era? | Jamie Beaton from Crimson Education | EP 410
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 60 sentences and 949 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:55. The speaker talks at a natural 160 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| invest verb | /ɪnˈvɛst/ | To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in. |
| venture verb | /ˈvɛn.t͡ʃɚ/ | To undertake a risky or daring journey. |
| startup noun | /ˈstɑɹtˌʌp/ | The act or process of starting a process or machine. |
| capitalist noun | /ˈkæp.ɪ.tə.lɪst/ | The owner of a considerable amount of capital; a wealthy person. |
| founder noun | /ˈfaʊ̯n.dəː/ | One who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.). |
| mindset noun | /ˈmaɪn(d)ˌsɛt/ | A way of thinking; an attitude or opinion, especially a habitual one. |
| jockey noun | /ˈd͡ʒɑki/ | One who rides racehorses competitively. |
| evaluate verb | /ɪˈvaljʊeɪt/ | To draw conclusions from examining; to assess; to appraise. |
| investor noun | /ɪnˈvɛs.tə(ɹ)/ | A person who invests money in order to make a profit. |
| selective adjective | /səˈlɛktɪv/ | Of or relating to the process of selection. |
| technique noun | /tɛkˈniːk/ | The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements. |
| element noun | /ˈɛləmənt/ | One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. |
| refer verb | /ɹɪˈfɜː/ | To direct the attention of (someone toward something). |
| narrow adjective | /ˈnæɹəʊ/ | Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth. |
| experiment noun | /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/ | A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| put together verb | To assemble, construct, build, or formulate. | |
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
דקדוק בסרטון הזה
המבנים שהדובר משתמש בהם הכי הרבה, עם המילים המדויקות מהסרטון:
| מבנה | בסרטון |
|---|---|
| הווה מושלם (Present perfect) have/has + past participle — פעולה שקרתה בעבר ועדיין יש לה חשיבות או השפעה עכשיו | they've already identified · we've started · you've been |
| סביל (Passive voice) be + past participle — הדגש הוא על מה שקורה, לא על מי שעושה את הפעולה | are delivered · are not impressed · have been identified |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 13 contractions and reduced forms, such as aren't, don't, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, influential /ɪnflʊˈɛnʃəl/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/
- Long words — get the stress right: capitalist /ˈkæp.ɪ.tə.lɪst/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, applicable /əˈplɪk.ə.bəl/, influential /ɪnflʊˈɛnʃəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like invest, venture, startup.
מהי טכניקת השאדואינג?
שאדואינג היא טכניקת למידת שפה מבוססת מדע שפותחה במקור להכשרת מתורגמנים מקצועיים ופופולרית על ידי הפוליגלוט ד"ר אלכסנדר ארגואלס. השיטה פשוטה אך עוצמתית: אתה מקשיב לאודיו באנגלית ילידית וחוזר עליו בקול רם מיד — כמו צל העוקב אחרי הדובר עם עיכוב של 1–2 שניות בלבד. בניגוד להאזנה פסיבית או תרגילי דקדוק, שאדואינג מכריח את המוח והשרירים בפה לעבד ולשחזר דפוסי דיבור אמיתיים בו זמנית. מחקרים מראים שזה משפר משמעותית את דיוק ההגייה, האינטונציה, הקצב, הדיבור המחובר, הבנת השמיעה ושטף הדיבור — מה שהופך אותו לאחת השיטות היעילות ביותר להכנה לIELTS Speaking ולתקשורת באנגלית בעולם האמיתי.