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

Guy Perelmuter of GRIDS Capital joins Nick to discuss The Deep Tech Revolution, Predictions for the Job Market, Crypto, and NFTs, and The Inevitabilities of the Next Decade. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC. What's the thesis at GRIDS Capital? A common critique of deep tech — it takes longer, it's more unpredictable, timing is of greater risk, and it's more capital intensive — why commit your firm to exclusively targeting a segment that most venture investors refuse to consider? Present Future: Business, Science, and the Deep Tech Revolution —Why did you decide to write a book about the deep tech revolution? Protocols of standardization What factors lead to standardization and choosing of a protocol? What are the "inevitabilities" of the next decade? What does the job market of the future look like? Do crypto coins become a primary Treasury Reserve asset or a major currency in the next three to five years? A quick take on NFTs?  What does the future for Brazil and So

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Ryan Gembala James Currier Jesse Middleton Ramy Adeeb Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.

Nicole Quinn of Lightspeed Venture Partners joins Nick to discuss The Effect of Technology on Relationships, The 5 Indicators of a True Brand, The Appeal of Love/Hate Businesses, & the Rise of Super Apps. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What if anything changed the most from your early days, angel investing on your own to the days you joined the team at Lightspeed? I think a good place to start is with an article you wrote a little over a year ago about your investment philosophy, and how it was shaped by the book, Shoe Dog, by Phil Knight. What was the seminal learning from that book, and how has it shaped your approach? What's the thesis at Lightspeed? What are the consumer behaviors in different regions? You emphasized the importance of hiring and the framework Lightspeed uses for its portfolio companies. Could you give us the broad strokes on that? How did you develop your thesis on Lunch Club, and what makes you so excited about it and kind of the way they'

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Henrique Dubugras Nikhil Basu Trivedi Check Warner Brian Hirsch Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

Mike Smerklo of Next Coast Ventures joins Nick to discuss The Sustainable & Temporary Trends of COVID, The Self-Aware Founder, and Writing the Survival Guide for the Mental Aspect of Entrepreneurship. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC. What's the thesis at Next Coast Ventures? What are 'Next Coast' markets? How do you come up with the themes that drive investment focus at NCV? What are some of the trends emerging now that you are following that may have the most impact on new business creation over the next five years? Which are sustainable and which are temporary? Especially in the post covid world.  The biggest difference in the founder journey from the LoudCloud and ServiceSource days vs. today? What qualities do you look for in founders when investing in the early-stage vs. growth stage? How do you help founders? What led you to write the book Mr. Monkey and Me? Why are you giving all the proceeds for the book to charity? I would love to hear your thoughts

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Maren Bannon Simeon Iheagwham Ty Findley Paul Martino Each investor describes the most unusual situation or pitch that they've encountered as an investor.

McKeever "Mac" Conwell II of RareBreed Ventures joins Nick to discuss Raising a Fund via General Solicitation & Twitter, How Rolling Funds Can Disadvantage LPs, and Facing the Reality of Diversity in VC. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at RareBreed Ventures? Why did you start RareBreed Ventures? Tell me about the fundraise... when did you first kickoff and then start getting momentum? Have you gotten better at raising over time? What have you improved most? What resonates w/ LPs, what do you get pushback on? What's been the biggest surprise in the process so far? Optimistic, pessimistic or neutral on diversity in VC over the next decade? Twitter -- blowing up, what's working so well? Rolling fund vs. not... why? Thoughts on thesis and portfolio construction... What's the ideal fund size for your stage and strategy? Founders... biggest mistake you see early stage founders make Gives us a snapshot of Rarebreed in 3 years... how about 7 years?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: David Goldberg Sach Chitnis Kane Hsieh Reid Christian Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.

Brendan Wallace of Fifth Wall joins Nick to discuss How COVID Has Instigated a Massive Demographic Reshuffling, Accelerating the Transformation of Retail, and Why Real Estate Will Become the Largest Consumer of Climate Tech. In this episode, we cover: The world becomes more flat over time, and w/ mobility tech, like Uber and others, the distance between points shortens over time, which all fundamentally disrupts urban planning of the cities themselves but also the suburbs and beyond... now we're in a situation where a wild card factor comes into play... this pandemic... that has altered how people live and work more fundamentally than ever expected? First off... trends where you will deploy dollars? Do we go back to a primarily in-office environment post-covid? why or why not? Have you seen more value creation or more value destruction, in real estate, from the pandemic? What strategies will cities implement to stay competitive post-covid?  We have a new administration in office... How do you think this aff

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Ben Casnocha Elizabeth Yin Ed Sim Tim Guleri Each investor discusses sectors, drivers and/or trends that may have significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.

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.