The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

Business
**The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified**

The podcast dedicated to demystifying Venture Capital. Nick Moran and Nate Pierotti interview VC’s & Startup Founders and on how they build great technology startups.

Latest Episodes:

Investor Stories 189: Post Mortems (Dubugras, Basu Trivedi, Warner, Hirsch) Apr 22, 2021

Show notes

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.

278. The Sustainable & Temporary Trends of COVID, The Self-Aware Founder, and Writing the Survival Guide for the Mental Aspect of Entrepreneurship (Mike Smerklo) Apr 19, 2021

Show notes

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 self-awareness w/ entrepreneurs and your approach to it.
This question is called three data points. I'm going to give you a hypothetical situation w/ a startup, and you can ask three questions for three specific data points.
- Let's say you're approached to invest in a Series A Marketplace startup...
- The company is based in Houston
- The sector is oil/gas.
- They launched 24 months ago.
- and they currently have $500k/month GMV and a 25% take rate ($125k monthly revenue run rate)
- Again, the catch is, you can only ask 3 questions for 3 specific data points, in order to make your decision. What three questions do you ask?

Investor Stories 188: Strange & Unusual (Bannon, Iheagwham, Findley, Martino) Apr 15, 2021

Show notes

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.

277. Raising a Fund via General Solicitation & Twitter, The Challenges (and benefits) of Rolling Funds, and Facing the Reality of Diversity in VC (McKeever "Mac" Conwell II) Apr 12, 2021

Show notes

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?

Investor Stories 187: Lessons Learned (Goldberg, Chitnis, Hsieh, Christian) Apr 08, 2021

Show notes

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.

276. 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 (Brendan Wallace) Apr 05, 2021

Show notes

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 affects real estate and your strategy at Fifth Wall?
Climate issues and the net carbon effect of construction on the planet... is technology the primary solution to these issues, or is it even more basic than that?
Financial side or real estate, construction and AEC side, there's the post-construction in-service opportunities/retrofits for buildings whether residential, commercial or industrial... what part are you spending the most time in and do you feel there's the biggest gap between current state and desired state?
What are the most common mistakes founders make when building in this sector?

Investor Stories 186: What's Next (Casnocha, Yin, Sim, Guleri) Apr 01, 2021

Show notes

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.

275. Doubling Down on Data to Discover Overlooked Founders, Teaching and Coaching CEOs, & Bullpen's Approach to Measuring Fund Success (Paul Martino) Mar 29, 2021

Show notes

Paul Martino of Bullpen Capital joins Nick to discuss Doubling Down on Data to Discover Overlooked Founders, Teaching and Coaching CEOs, & Bullpen's Approach to Measuring Fund Success. In this episode, we cover:

Can you first refresh us on the thesis at Bullpen and then maybe give us an update on the firm over the past three years?
How do you define post-seed today... and is it moving as other stages have?
Are you still one of the few specialized at post-seed or have you seen increasing competition?
Is there still a strong emphasis on metrics and using the data as an early filter of deals?
How are you using data to source?
What do you look for in founders?
Why are you committed to coaching/supporting companies?
We all know the scorecard of success in VC... DPI, TVPI, IRR, PME, etc... what are the leading indicators of success that you measure and manage to make sure you're driving success in those metrics.
You are a founder yourself, what advice would you give to founders right now that are building during the Coronavirus Recession
- Wrote article: "The 2008 Recession Saved Our Company. The Coronavirus Recession Might Save Yours, Too"
Let's say you have a chance to speak w/ a younger Paul, circa 2010... what advice to give?
What does the underdog founder look like? or What do you look for in founders?
What's broken in the venture ecosystem?
This question is called three data points. I'm going to give you a hypothetical situation w/ a startup and you can ask three questions for three specific data points.
- Let's say you're approached to invest in a post-seed stage SaaS startup...
- The founder does not come from big tech.
- Her HQ is in St. Louis
- The sector is retail.
- They launched 12 months ago.
- and they currently have $80k MRR.
- Again, the catch is, you can only ask 3 questions for 3 specific data points, in order to make your decision. What three questions do you ask?

Investor Stories 185: Why I Passed (Bonatsos, Pezeshki, Abbasi, Hester) Mar 25, 2021

Show notes

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.

274. The Next Generation of Tech & Venture Capital from the Perspective of a Unicorn Founder Turned GP (Alfred Chuang) Mar 20, 2021

Show notes

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 amazing journey and a great outcome. What is your biggest regret looking back (if any)?
Ultimately, why do you think entrepreneurs choose you over other firms?
What's your opinion on valuation and, as things have gotten more competitive, firms bidding price up and founders really optimizing for valuation at the early stages?
Is Silicon Valley's exodus real?
Will these SPAC deals blow up?