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

Ben Wiener of Jumpspeed Ventures joins Nick to discuss Investing in Jerusalem, Applying Helmer's 7 Powers to VC, and Writing a Business Murder Mystery. In this episode we cover: How difficult was it raising a fund to invest only in Jerusalem-originated startups? What do you say to critics who claim that "focusing only one one geo is too limiting?" Are there specific sectors or types of tech that are uniquely positioned to thrive in Jerusalem? What are the similarities and differences in raising a fund vs. raising funds for a startup? You've spoken before about the mismatch between supply and demand for early stage capital in Jerusalem. Has it been tough finding  reliable and persistent follow-on capital for A or B rounds? Since inception ~35% of your investments have been in female-led (female founder/CEO) startups, which is an order of magnitude greater than the 2-3% industry average. Talk about sourcing and what you do on the sourcing side to increase the number of diverse and women led startups you meet w

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Stephen McIntyre Brian Luerssen Ty Findley Tsune Shirota Each investor discusses sectors, drivers and/or trends that may have significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns. Did you miss our guests full length episodes? Stephen McIntyre Episode #244 Brian Luerssen Episode #290 Ty Findley Episode #250 Tsune Shirota Episode #288 For other great episodes, go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in the exceptions. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and tell us about your business. We’ll send a list of possible investors right to your email’s InBox!

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Check Warner Dayna Grayson & Rachel Holt Erik Torenberg Avichal Garg Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out. Did you miss our guests full length episodes? Check Warner Episode #242 Dayna Grayson & Rachel Holt Episode #291 Erik Torenberg Episode #252 Avichal Garg Episode #261 For other great episodes, go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in the exceptions. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and tell us about your business. We’ll send a list of possible investors right to your email’s InBox!

Ash Fontana of Zetta Venture Partners joins Nick to discuss How to Value AI, Data Network Effects vs. Data Learning Effects, and Evolution of the VC Asset Class. In this episode we cover: What was the inspiration for the new book? What's the difference between a Data Network Effect and a DLE (data learning effect)? How do you advise those that are building tech where AI will be a valuable piece in the distant future but doesn't really play a role until the growth stage or beyond? Tell us about the Lean AI Method, described in the book, and how companies can use it to start implementing AI. How do you feel about companies using "off-the-shelf" AI, like TensorFlow? Why is now the right time for AI to pervade throughout tech and industry? How do you value AI and determine what's real? How does one put a valuation multiple on fairly nascent category where the value can be exponential and the moat can be unbreachable but there's not a whole lot of precedent? What are the key data categories or types that are mos

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Eric Collins Nicole Quinn Paul Martino Alfred Chuang Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed. Did you miss our guests' full-length episodes? Eric Collins Episode #253 Nicole Quinn Episode #279 Paul Martino Episode #275 Alfred Chuang Episode #274 For other great episodes, go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in the exceptions. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and tell us about your business. We’ll send a list of possible investors right to your email’s InBox!

Brian Requarth of Latitud joins Nick to discuss Viva Latam Startups, Losing Talent to the U.S., and Building the Zillow of Brazil. In this episode we cover: What’s the thesis at Latitud? Could you tell us a little about the company you started, Viva Real? What was your goal in writing the book... Viva the Entrepreneur? You get quite vulnerable w/ regard to your experience building Viva Real. What was the hardest part of your founder journey? You have a large focus on helping entrepreneurs navigate building and scaling venture backable businesses in LatAm. Both Latitud and the book are in service of that mission. What are some of the unique headwinds that LatAm startups face? You recently had Henrique Dubugras, co founder of Brex, on the podcast. Notably, he is a founder that left south america, after some modest starutp success, to launch his large and fast growing company here in the states.   How do you keep from losing the most ambitious and creative tech talent to the U.S.? Rappi coming up

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: David Goldberg Ben Sun Tsune Shirota Amy Nauiokas Each investor describes the most unusual situation or pitch that they've encountered as an investor. Did you miss our guest's full-length episodes? David Goldberg Episode #272 Ben Sun Episode #287 Tsune Shirota Episode #288 Amy Nauiokas Episode #286 For other great episodes, go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in the exceptions. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and tell us about your business. We’ll send a list of possible investors right to your email’s InBox!

Jonathan Hung of Unicorn Venture Partners joins Nick to discuss Why Sales Cycle Determines Success, the Challenges of International Deal Diligence, and Fractional Hiring in a Post COVID World. In this episode we cover: Jonathan's background and path to VC The launch of Unicorn Venture Partners The thesis at Unicorn Venture Partners Deal volume Unicorn Venture Partners is doing each year Jonathan's role as Senior Venture Partner and head of due diligence at Expert Dojo Thesis and workings of Expert Dojo What due diligence entails when targeting companies all across the world and at super early stages How to deal with teams that have different cultural backgrounds when trying to get the psychology of the team and figure out if it's a team that has the ambition and the capability to win and win big Jonathan's role as an LP in over 22 VC funds and the common success factors across those funds? Things that funds do that lend themselves well to success and or failure How Jonathan's decision process is different o

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Brendan Wallace Tim Guleri Dharmesh Thakker Brian Hirsch Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach. Did you miss our guest's full length episodes? Brendan Wallace Episode #276 Tim Guleri Episode #267 Dharmesh Thakker Episode #283 Brian Hirsch Episode #265 For other great episodes, go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in the exceptions. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and tell us about your business. We’ll send a list of possible investors right to your email’s InBox!

Dayna Grayson & Rachel Holt of Construct Capital joins Nick to discuss Competing with Amazon, Combatting 60% Talent Attrition, and Driving Transformation of Foundational Industries. In this episode we cover: Can you each give us the two-minute background and path to VC? What is the thesis at Construct? How do you define series A?  Is there a geographic scope in which you'll invest? Why have you chosen to focus on these sectors and categories? How have you seen the current environment issues affect sales cycles and velocity over the past year? How do you deal with inertia, slow sales cycles, and tech aversion amongst these buyer and user groups? Is there any concern that the skills gap will broaden over time? Will capital intensity, timing of financing rounds, timing to exit, size/scale of exits, valuation multiples, etc. look different for a legacy industry portfolio vs. a standard SV SaaS portfolio? Investment philosophy has shifted from being much more decision-maker focus and top-down startups versus

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Nikhil Basu Trivedi Janet Bannister Sach Chitnis Guy Perelmuter Each investor discusses sectors, drivers and/or trends that may have significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns. Did you miss our guests full length episodes? Nikhil Basu Trivedi Episode #246 Janet Bannister Episode #255 Sach Chitnis Episode #269 Guy Perelmuter Episode #280 For other great episodes, go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in the exceptions. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and tell us about your business. We’ll send a list of possible investors right to your email’s

Brian Luerssen of Long Jump joins Nick to discuss The Rise of Low-Code/No-Code, How Tech is Changing Developer Roles, and the Launch of Founder-Led Venture Funds. In this episode we cover: Walk us through your background and path to Draftbit. Tell us about the customer market and who you're targeting with Draftbit. Are there good comps or parallels in the non-mobile space? Will the user of Draftbit still be a developer, or do you have cases where it's the application product manager or others? Is it just web apps and native apps covering the spectrum? There's this principled group of developers, that don't want to use App builders. They want to build the ground up themselves. How do you deal with that objection? Have you guys achieved product-market fit? Yes or no?  What's the biggest challenge to getting product-market fit and hitting huge growth numbers? Where do you go now? How do you see the business evolve? What's the end-all large market opportunity for Draftbit? Does it stay a platform that you build

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Ed Sim Lanham Napier McKeever “Mac” Conwell II Mike Smerklo Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out. Did you miss our guests' full-length episodes? Ed Sim Episode #266 Lanham Napier Episode #248 McKeever “Mac” Conwell II Episode #277 Mike Smerklo Episode #278 For other great episodes, go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in the exceptions. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and tell us about your business. We’ll send a list of possible investors right to your email’s InBox!

Ali Tamaseb of DCVC joins Nick to discuss Data on the Key Traits of Billion-Dollar Startups with the Author of Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups. In this episode we cover: Founders' history of building Second-time founders and their larger chance of being unicorns Super Founders bouncing to different industries isn't detrimental to their success Having domain experience does not correlate to success How non/technical founders partner with the same How proxy metrics do not define a good founder Painkiller or Vitamin Pill? Which holds success? How geography may be a dying metric for success How Super Founders tend to secure investment even in the opening rounds Which type of competition defines the unicorn Timing remains the most difficult thing to crack Missed a recent episode? Go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to i

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Farooq Abbasi Ty Findley Lo Toney Monique Woodard Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed. Did you miss our guests' full-length episodes? Farooq Abbasi Episode #251 Ty Findley Episode #250 Lo Toney Episode #249 Monique Woodard Episode #273 For other great episodes, go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in the exceptions. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and tell us about your business. We’ll send a list of possible investors right to your email’s InBox!

Tsune Shirota of World Innovation Lab joins Nick to discuss Tech Competition between China, Japan, and Korea, Why IT is King in Japan, and When American Tech Should Expand to Asia. Other topics include the transition from manual services to software, B2B buying behavior in the US vs Japan, determining the shape of your S-Curve, and best markets - determined by need and distribution. Missed a recent episode? Go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in the exceptions. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and tell us about your business. We’ll send a list of possible investors right to your email’s InBox!  

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Reid Christian Glenn Rockman Spencer Maughan Billy Libby Each investor describes the most unusual situation or pitch that they've encountered as an investor.

Ben Sun of Primary Venture Partners joins Nick to discuss Distribution vs. Product, Founders vs. Markets, and Winning Deals in a Hyper-Competitive Seed Market. In this episode, we cover: Can you tell us a bit about your founder journey?  What are your thoughts on the major differences and challenges now versus when you started a Community Connect? Is there a bias at Primary toward consumer investments? What region focus does Primary have? Is Miami a viable tech center or is this hype? What is the thesis at Primary? What areas does the Primary team focus on (strategic, sweat equity, talent recruitment)? How collaborative is that formative ideas stage between Primary and the entrepreneurs? I imagine, some of them come and they're ready to raise, and if it's a great fit, you invest, but in other circumstances, ideas may not be fully fleshed out. How much of a role do you play? We've had many folks on the program that say, it's all about the market. The team is important, but there's sort of a base level of com

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Nicole Quinn Niko Bonatsos Niki Pezeshki Shawn Carolan Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.