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

Latest Episodes:

The 'Softbank Effect', Financial Discipline and the Interworkings of a Top Seed Investment Firm May 31, 2018

Show notes

Joe Medved of Lerer Hippeau joins Nick to discuss The 'Softbank Effect', Financial Discipline and the Interworkings of a Top Seed Investment Firm. In this episode, we cover:

The focus at Lerer Hippeau
The adoption and integration of the Binary Capital Portfolio
Why they dropped ventures from the name
Joe's take on the "Softbank Effect" and the challenges and opportunities created by it.
how founders should think about raise amount and valuations
The effect of late-stage capital on early stage investors
The capital strategy mistakes that lead to startup death
Joe's take on early-stage investors taking early exits when they are offered liquidity.
The strategy for their sixth, $150 million fund
How Joe's team approaches sourcing, vetting, diligence
LH's focus on outbound vs. inbound
Joe mentions a key analysis item that is often overlooked by many investors
Lerer Hippeau's portfolio management process: How often they interact and what activities they engage in.
The impact of raise amount on outcomes

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.

Investor Stories 86: My Investing Strategy (Roberts, Collett, Scevak) May 29, 2018

Show notes

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

-Bryce Roberts -Mike Collett -Niki Scevak Each investor describes their investment thesis and how they evaluate startups for investment.

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.

Investor Stories 85: Why I Passed (Pascucci, Einstein, Kurzweil, Verrill) May 12, 2018

Show notes

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet,

the following investors are featured:

Vic Pascucci
Ben Einstein
Ethan Kurzweil
David Verrill

Each investor highlights a situation where

they decided not to invest, why they passed,

and how it played out.

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.

162. LP Value Creation, Why DPI is King, and Secondaries as a Means of Exit (Sarah Anderson) May 02, 2018

Show notes

Sarah Anderson of Cintrifuse joins Nick to discuss LP Value Creation, Why DPI is King, and Secondaries as a Means of Exit. In this episode, we cover:

What is the investment focus/philosophy at Cintrifuse? Can you tell us a bit more about the Cintrifuse model?
What impact has the Cintrifuse Syndicate Fund had?
Can you explain how this benefits large corporates?
What about startups-- what's in it for them?
Are the corporate LPs hesitant to invest directly in funds-- Is that why they come to you?
Does your diversified portfolio preclude certain vertically-focused corporates from investing in a fund of funds model?
Does Cintrifuse work w/ other types of financial institutions, aside from insurance? If so, how have you seen them react to the explosion in crypto and disruptive fintech?
Tell us about your role as matchmaker-- how do you get involved and facilitate between VCs, startups and corporations?
What's the strategic value-add to a VC fund manager?
What industry disruptions have you observed and what are the impacts on large corporate companies?
Advice for entrepreneurs-- whether underserved spaces or where they should be focused that they're not? What message do you want to send to founders?
In Rob Go's recent study on fund metrics, he said "In the early days of a fund, VCs tend to optimize for TVPI. But in the long run, DPI is king. You can't feed your family with TVPI, and you can't spend IRR." Is he right and what do you suggest to Fund I and Fund II managers that have attractive paper gains but no distributions to paid-in (ie. a DPI of zero)?
Let's discuss reinvesting in startups, I want to talk about doubling down on firms and investing more in their new funds. When Chris Duovos was on we discussed the concerning stats related to persistence. And Antoinette Schoar, of MIT did a notable study on fund returns, which showed persistence of returns from private-equity funds has gone down in the last decade. She said: "If LPs are not vigilant, we'll start seeing persistence at the bottom. So many LPs want so much to get into PE that they are not sensitive enough to poor perf and keep reinvesting in partnerships that are not deserving" Sarah, what's your take on the study and her position here?"

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.

Investor Stories 84: Post Mortems (Zuberi, Ramanujem, O'Reilly) Apr 24, 2018

Show notes

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet,

the following investors are featured:

Bilal Zuberi
Madhavan Ramanujem
Tim O'Reilly

Each investor discusses a portfolio

company that did not survive and

why it failed.

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.

161. Why SaaS is not a fit for VC and How AI Compounds Competitive Advantage (Ash Fontana) Apr 19, 2018

Show notes

Ash Fontana of Zetta Venture Partners joins Nick to discuss Why SaaS is not a fit for VC and How AI Compounds Competitive Advantage. In this episode, we cover:

Categories of AI that Ash is most interested in
The difference between real AI and AI-enabled companies
Why SaaS will cease to be investable by VCs
The current AI stage of adoption
How he times the market
The four phases of AI
What phase of AI they invest in
How AI is and will be affected by limited data
How startups can compete for talent w/ GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple)
The moats being created by their AI-first portcos
How they think about metrics and milestones for AI-backed companies
If AI should be feared
and finally we wrap up w/ Ash's thoughts on Chris Dixon's position that we will see a movement from centralization back to decentralization in tech-- and the role that AI will play

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.

Investor Stories 83: The Strange & Unusual (Eakman, Duovos, Shah) Apr 16, 2018

Show notes

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet,

the following investors are featured:

Lindel Eakman
Chris Duovos
Semil Shah

Each investor describes the most

unusual situation or pitch that

they've encountered as an investor.

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.

153. Cram Session, Episodes 105-111 (Nick Moran) Apr 11, 2018

Show notes

Welcome back to TFR for another Cram Session. In these special releases, we have aggregated the takeaways and tips from previous episodes. In this installment, we will be recapping the following episodes:

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.

Investor Stories 82: Lessons Learned (Mohnot, Turner, Narasin) Apr 02, 2018

Show notes

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

Sheel Mohnot
Guy Turner
Ben Narasin

Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.

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.

160. Better Diversity, Better Outcomes (Elizabeth Galbut) Mar 28, 2018

Show notes

Elizabeth Galbut of SoGal Ventures joins Nick to discuss Better Diversity, Better Outcomes. In this episode, we cover:

Her involvement in creating the first VC investment group at Johns Hopkins
What the focus is at SoGal and why that creates their edge
How she and her partner divide responsibilities
How the establishment has reacted to her and her firm
We talk about her experience as a design professor and how that impacts her approach
she gives an example of a design-centric investment
she discusses her thinking when evaluating an early stage business
we review their dealflow and sourcing strategy
and we wrap up w/ Elizabeth's advice for a younger version of herself if she had the opportunity to give it

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.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

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

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected