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: Check Warner Henrique Dubugras James Currier Lanham Napier Each investor discusses sectors, drivers and/or trends that may have a significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.

Avichal Garg of Electric Capital joins Nick to discuss The Intersection of Crypto and VC and the Future of Digital Currency. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at Electric Capital? How does the crypto focus change the fund structure of Electric Capital? When you invest capital and receive equity and/or coins in return...  What determines that breakdown? For pure coin investments, how do you think about and manage liquidity and transactions over time? What are some of the big differences between traditional tech investing and crypto investing? How are the founder's different? What’s are the biggest risk factors that are unique for early-stage cryptocurrencies?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Jason Whitney Leah Solivan Jim Douglass Elizabeth Yin Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.

Lolita Taub & Jesse Middleton of The Community Fund join Nick to discuss The Fund that Started on Twitter, Why Community-driven Startups Win, and Embracing the Underestimated. In this episode, we cover: Background of Lolita & Jesse How did the two of you meet and ultimately decide to launch a fund together? What's the thesis at the Community Fund? Conflicts or issues running multiple funds that invest at similar stages? Why did you create a distributed investment team of 13? How did you select them? Approach to investing in cold reach outs? How does decision-making work? What does a great founder look like to you? You invest in community-driven companies... what does that mean, and how do you define community-driven?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Niki Pezeshki Somesh Dash Byron Deeter Trae Vassallo Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

Reid Christian of CRV joins Nick to discuss Developer Tools, The Surge of European Tech, and Why Founder Needs Differ Across Regions. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at CRV? $600M closed in July... any change to approach or thesis? What are some of the focus areas that you're leaning into amidst the circumstances? How do you evaluate teams? What type of founders excites you to invest? Centralization — the shift from consumers to creators Why is your focus on SAAS/CLOUD/ENTERPRISE IT/BIG DATA? What does the future look like for Enterprise SaaS companies? How has your sourcing of startups changed? In another lifetime, would you like to be a professional basketball player or a venture capitalist? Three data points question  

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Erik Torenberg Ryan Gembala Jaclyn Hester Jonathan Hsu Each investor describes the most unusual situation or pitch that they've encountered as an investor.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following individuals are featured: Nick Moran Kwame Boler This will be a unique segment where, Founder of Neu, Kwame Boler, will discuss his startup story and how he chose New Stack to participate in the funding round. To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Minnie Ingersoll Oren Klaff Jason Whitney Nikhil Basu Trivedi Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.  

Niko Bonatsos of General Catalyst joins Nick to discuss Investing in First-time Founders, the Evolution of Social, the Future of Big Tech, and the Freedom of Remote Work. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What's the thesis at General Catalyst? Livongo... up nearly 300% since public debut last year — I hear you were in the room during the early formation stages. You have been at GC for almost 10 years — what has been the most significant change in VC, aside from the pandemic, since you began your career? What are your thoughts on the explosion of seed funds and now many angel funds as well? Since the pandemic broke, what's been the most significant adjustment at GC, and/or how do you see the approach to investing changing going forward? What surging trends during the pandemic will continue to grow faster, and which will revert once the pandemic is over? Do you think this fundamentally changes benefits that are offered to employees? I'm not sure if you caught the recent

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