The Full Ratchet: Vc | Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startup Investing | Fundraising | Crowdfunding | Pitch | Private E

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Niko Bonatsos Niki Pezeshki Farooq Abbasi Jaclyn Hester Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.

Alfred Chuang of Race Capital joins Nick to discuss The Next Generation of Tech & Venture Capital from the Perspective of a Unicorn Founder Turned GP. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at Race Capital? Why did you name your fund Race Capital? I want to talk a bit about open source... there seem to be wildly differing takes on this but what is your opinion of for profit tech companies building products on open source architecture and, in some cases, just reskinning open source tech w/ a UI and selling for profit? As we evolve to an increasingly cloud-first technology environment, what does it mean as we transition from a hybrid (onprem, cloud) approach to cloud only? How does edge computing reconcile with this future cloud-only environment? On the data side... Do you think we move to a Unified Data Infrastructure Architecture in the future? Transition a bit to talk more about your journey... I want to talk a bit about BEA Systems... sounds like an

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Erik Torenberg Maren Bannon Shawn Carolan Lanham Napier Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

Monique Woodard of Cake Ventures joins Nick to discuss The "Three Layer Cake" Fund, How Personal Experience Drives Your Investment Lens, The Future of Tech for the Aging Population, & How a Solo GP Can Do it All. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at Cake Ventures? You have a strong focus on looking for startups that are addressing the needs of a world undergoing massive demographic changes. Talk to us a bit about how you approach investing in demographic change? What sort of demographic changes do you believe will have opportunities? Were you surprised to see Baby Boomers dominating online shopping? What is it like being a solo GP? What are the pros and cons? How do you replicate and try to scale yourself? Context switching is often cited as the hardest thing about what we do.  Talk us through your schedule and how you manage context switching? This question is called three data points.  I'm going to give you a hypothetical situa

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Lo Toney Stephen McIntyre Eric Collins Trae Vassallo

David Goldberg of Alpaca VC joins Nick to discuss Staying Competitive in the Seed Fund Boom, Success Metrics at the Fund Level, and the Shifting Equilibrium of Investors and Founders. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC Tell us about your shift from law to finance and to becoming a founder of FreshNeck? What’s the thesis at  Alpaca VC? Talk to us about your Field Studies and why you do them. How do you develop a thesis on consumer behavior, trends, and how they will evolve in the coming years? Similar to us you do a lot of OKR and KPI measurement and tracking as a firm... what are some of the most important metrics you track that should ultimately lead to the right progress? What about w/ the portfolio companies? Do you have systems and processes on the front-end, pre-investment You are a remote team of fund managers in NY, CO, and FL... what are the advantages and drawbacks for startups with w/ remote teams? Do you think the center of gravity is shif

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Janet Bannister Simeon Iheagwham Somesh Dash Jonathan Hsu Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.

Marcelino Pantoja of Tribe Capital joins Nick to discuss LP Turned VC, Mistakes When Pitching to Allocators, and Managing Limited Partner Relationships. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC Refresh on the thesis at Tribe? Talk to us about the mindset of the allocator — what are their key objectives and what do they care about? What are the biggest mistakes you see emerging managers making when pitching LPs? Let's say an aspiring VC has a few years until they will raise from institutions... what should they be focusing on in order to create a really compelling offering in the medium term? Let's say an emerging GP is raising from institutions imminently... what advice would you have for them? Do you think it's significantly easier for an institution to make an investment in some coming from a large successful Tier 1 fund, spinoff, vs. a successful operator or angel? What are the key challenge areas that the LP is really going to scrutinize on the spin-off an

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Grace Isford Erik Torenberg Eric Collins Villi Iltchev Each investor discusses sectors, drivers and/or trends that may have significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.

Vincent Diallo of Interlace Ventures joins Nick to discuss Retail Apocalypse or Renaissance, the Commerce Evolution, and Fundraising from Corporates. In this episode, we cover: Article Mentioned in Episode: http://bit.ly/TFR-Vincent Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at Interlace? COVID has affected commerce severely -- for better and for worse. Has this changed your investment approach? Many investors are avoiding all physical retail as COVID has created a “retail apocalypse”, but you've stated that you see it more as a retail renaissance.  Why? What are some trends from COVID that you think investors are overreacting to that you expect will return to pre-pandemic levels? What new consumer experiences or behaviors are emerging that you are excited about? You mentioned supply chain as another area of interest, where are the biggest opportunities in the supply chain? Biggest mistake fundraising? Biggest win fundraising? Oper8tor program? Is now a good time or

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Tom Tunguz Patrick Gallagher Trae Vassallo Brian Hirsch Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.

Sach Chitnis of Jump Capital joins Nick to discuss Discovering the Next Sectors of Opportunity, The Impact Platform, & The Exit Discussion. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at Jump Capital? Talk about developing a thesis on a specific market opportunity — can you give us the broad strokes on your process of how you dissect emerging markets and identify where existing offerings are lacking? How do you determine who will be the winner?  Is it common that, of the existing set of players, none will emerge as the winner and you need to wait for a fresh approach? Having a portfolio support platform is unusual for your size — how are you able to make it work at your fund size and what all does it entail? In what areas do you find a Series A funded company needs the most help? How do you advise a founder that's in a hot space, doesn't need capital but has inbound interest and large investment offers, maybe at inflated valuations, from tier

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Niko Bonatsos Melody Koh Ramy Adeeb Mark Suster Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

Maren Bannon of January Ventures joins Nick to discuss Breaking the Founder Stereotype, Mastering Conviction Over Zoom, & the Contrast between European and American Entrepreneurs. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at  January Ventures? How are you and your team at January Ventures making tech more of an equal opportunity? What is your approach to portfolio construction in this fund and how will that evolve in the future? What's one thing you know now that you wish you knew prior to raising the fund? You take meetings with founders VERY early — no warm intro, no pitch deck, or no revenue required to pitch to January Ventures. How do you evaluate the potential this early? How do you filter all of the opportunities -- what is your pre-filter process? How have you changed your work/process at January post COVID? What is your experience like moving from SF to Europe and what is your view of the European tech ecosystem?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Henrique Dubugras Jim Douglass Beezer Clarkson Avichal Garg Each investor describes the most unusual situation or pitch that they've encountered as an investor.

Tim Guleri of Sierra Ventures joins Nick to discuss Advice from a Unicorn Founder Turned VC, the Future of the VC Landscape for Founders & VCs, and the Founder Love Metric. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at Sierra Ventures? What's been your biggest influence on the firm's ethos? You've had two incredible outcomes as a founder... first question is do you think the process of building a company today is materially different than it was when you did it... if so how? We've talked a lot on the show, over the past 8 months about the effects of COVID on venture... what have been you main observations on how VCs are adjusting to investing during COVID? What do you think the new normal for startups looks like post-covid? How do you advise a founder that's in a hot space, doesn't need capital, but has inbound interest and large investment offers, maybe at inflated valuations, from tier 1 coastal investors? How do you handle situations whe

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Check Warner Ty Findley Lo Toney Byron Deeter Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.

Ed Sim of boldstart ventures joins Nick to discuss: Velocity as a Superpower, Why Contrarians Win, The Role of a Board Member, and Why Some Challenge When they Should Chill Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at boldstart ventures? What was it like starting Boldstart in NYC in 2010? Tell us a bit about the thesis at investment and how things evolved over the years until the ultimate exit? What's your preference...  Niche and narrow problems or big and expansive opportunities? What is your mental model for investing in enterprise founders with ideas? category creation Why only technical founders? Will this enterprise bull market sustain? You've talked about being involved and sitting on boards from "whiteboard to scale" ?...  how do you manage ever-increasing board responsibilities with other demands of the job? Where are VCs most lacking when it comes to the value that early-stage founders require? Do you think there's too much money in venture? How do y

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Steve Blank Niki Pezeshki Lolita Taub Jesse Middleton Each investor discusses sectors, drivers and/or trends that may have significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.