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: Alex Osterwalder Mark Suster Melody Koh Farooq Abbasi Each investor discusses sectors, drivers, and/or trends that may have a significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.

Villi Iltchev of Two Sigma Ventures joins Nick to discuss Using "George" a Proprietary Tool to Source Startups, The Commoditization of Capital, and the New Exit Environment. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at Two Sigma? Tell us about George. What's George's biggest blind spot? What is your decision framework on investments? What characteristics do you look for in markets when identifying new sectors/spaces of interest? How long after investing in/working with a company do you tend to know whether it's going to work or not? Do you attempt to handicap execution risk vs. technical risk vs. commercial risk? Capital is a commodity and, largely speaking, there doesn't appear to be a lot of differentiation in venture.  How do you combat the commoditization of venture? Aside from bankers... who do you think stands to lose the most from the increase in SPACs and direct listings? Any other downsides, unintended consequences, or problemat

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Ty Findley Stephen McIntyre Beezer Clarkson Sarah Tavel Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Tom Tunguz Grace Isford Ben Casnocha Courtney Reum Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

George Arison of Shift joins Nick to discuss Going Public via SPACs and PIPEs, The First Mover in Ridesharing That Lost to Uber, and Building the Online Marketplace for Used Cars, Shift. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to tech. What was the outcome of taxi magic? Shut down? When you spoke with Bill Gurley - rumor has it he pushed back on the model.  Did you consider switching? What is Shift? How are you different than Carvana? How accurately can you price a car sight unseen? It feels like you are effectively CarMax online...  If CarMax is such a good value prop for seekers and buyers, why do you think they only have a 1% market share? There were lots of ways you could have expanded early on... your offerings... geography... and even product/business lines (like financing)... talk us through the early decisions that were made and how they were made The name is great but does Gen Z get it?  No one shifts anymore Online marketplace solving an extremely fru

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Check Warner Ramy Adeeb Patrick Gallagher Shawn Carolan Each investor describes the most unusual situation or pitch that they've encountered as an investor.

Eric Collins of Impact X Capital joins Nick to discuss The Changing "Search Image" of Founders, Lack of Diversity = Missed Opportunity, and COVID Effects on the BLM Movement in Europe. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What's the thesis at Impact X? As a black CEO and fund manager, in what ways do you think your experience fundraising was different than your white, male peers at other firms? How do you approach sourcing? What's unique about the way you've built your network vs. other firms? Less than 1% of venture funding goes to black-led and we've heard the tired line that "not enough companies are founded by underrepresented founders and black founders"...  Are you concerned that you'll have fewer deals or less pipeline? What's the right number of deals per year where you feel like you're seeing a sufficient amount? I've heard about the "deep analysis" you do and how that creates the edge.  Can you describe what this entails? Do the issues run deep

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Richard Kerby Jaclyn Hester Lanham Napier Steve Blank Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.

Erik Torenberg of Village Global joins Nick to discuss Decentralization of VC, Why Your Fund Size is Your Strategy, and Why Startup Formation is the Most Important Contributor to Economic Growth. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What were the biggest lessons learned from Product Hunt that you took to investing? Recently had Ben Casnocha on... anything specific you'd like to add about the thesis behind Village Global? How do you think about working with experienced vs non-experienced angels? How do you think about portfolio construction for VG? Fast forward... some angels have strong early signals of success, others don't -- do you cull the herd or amplify those that are good pickers? Considering this, why do you think so many VCs have concentrated portfolios? How do you think about follow on investing? What is the role of a pre-seed firm? If there's a weakness in the Village model... what is it? Part of your model is to increase the amount of foun

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Jonathan Hsu John Vrionis Trae Vassallo Kane Hsieh Each investor discusses sectors, drivers, and/or trends that may have a significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.

Farooq Abbasi of Preface Ventures joins Nick to discuss Funding the Misunderstood Technical Founder, Self Evaluation as a Solo Capitalist, and Capital to Underwrite R&D risk vs. S&M risk. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC Why did you launch Preface? What's the thesis at Preface? How do you define enterprise/infrastructure frontier enterprise? What's most different about your approach? Are the businesses you fund created and ideated by the founders or is it a collaboration between you and the founders or do you take concepts and bring them to future founders? What's your approach to sourcing? Because your model is different and the founder profile is a bit different than most...  in what unique ways do you provide value post-investment? You're a solo-capitalist...  How do you evaluate yourself and keep some checks/balances on your decisions? Did you put together an LPAC -- if so how big is the group, how often do you meet and when/where do the

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Darren Bechtel Melody Koh Somesh Dash Jeff Fluhr Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Minnie Ingersoll Jim Douglass M.G. Siegler James Currier Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

Lo Toney of Plexo Capital joins Nick to discuss Common Traits Shared by Top GPs, Why Underrepresented Fund Managers Will Produce Superior Returns, and SPACs vs. Direct Listings vs. IPOs. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC? Why are Product Management skills similar to the skills required for VC? What's the thesis at Plexo Capital? Do you think a thesis on investing in underrepresented founders will produce superior returns? What do you say to pundits that claim you've restricted your options and will have far fewer managers to choose from... which will adversely impact returns? On a percentage basis... will there be more outsided outcomes from diverse founders (or managers) vs. those that are not diverse? How are you innovating on the LP side? We talked about some of the challenges of raising funds... are there ways that you work with and help emerging managers raising a first-time fund? Not just about performance... especially early on.  What are the common success tra

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Elizabeth Yin Michael Cardamone Gigi Levy-Weiss Niki Pezeshki Each investor describes the most unusual situation or pitch that they've encountered as an investor.

Lanham Napier of BuildGroup joins Nick to discuss Scaling Rackspace, The Evolving Responsibilities of a Venture-Backed CEO, and Confronting Big Tech Monopolies. In this episode, we cover: You took on capital from Seqouia, Norwest and others while at Rackspace.  What was the biggest challenge to taking on venture capital? How were you able to move from the early product-market-fit days to true scale... what were the defining decisions/actions that helped you expand exponentially? As a company leaves the product-market-fit stage and reaches scale, what is the job of the CEO or how does the job of the CEO change as the company scales? You've talked about investing "long-term capital"... what do you mean by that? How have you created a fee-light model, where management fees are eliminated? How do you guide CEOs that have been conditioned to think in 12-18 months cycles, when the long-game is much more critical? You've hired and developed a lot of folks over the years.  What advice do you have for y

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Henrique Dubugras Ryan Gembala Grace Isford Scott Kupor Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.

Trae Vassallo of Defy Partners joins Nick to discuss Leaving Kleiner Perkins to Start Defy Partners, The State of Venture in the Bay Area, and Maintaining a Beginner's Mind. In this episode, we cover: Can you talk about your transition from Kleiner Perkins? How tough was that decision to make? What was it like to work with John Doerr? What’s the thesis at Defy Partners? When you began Defy you chose not to look at San Francisco. Can you talk about why that is? How do you think this plays out? What will tech and venture in the Bay Area look like a few years from now, when COVID is behind us? Any stats on flight of talent form Bay area to other cities/regions? What changes have you observed in venture/tech that this crisis has either caused or accelerated? You’ve been a founder and can relate w/ the folks you’re working with. How do you try and keep that beginner’s mindset as you gain more experience and get further away from your founder journey? What are some the biggest mistakes you see founde