Nick Chirls is the Founder of Asylum Ventures, a new venture firm dedicated to the creative act of building companies; treating founders like artists, not assets. Asylum raised $55 million to invest $1-2 million in early-stage founders practising the art of making startups. Prior to Asylum, Nick co-founded Notation Capital, one of NYC's most successful pre-seed firms.
In Today's Episode with Nick Chirls We Discuss:
1. Why Venture Capital is Broken Today:
- Why is VC a ponzi scheme today?
- Why are most VCs sheep and have lost all creativity?
- Why are most investors today incentivised to get dollars out of the door and not to make great investments?
- Why are services functions within VC firms total BS?
- Why do no VCs provide significant enough value to a company that it is needle-moving?
2. How to Make Money in VC in 2024:
- What are the two ways to make money at seed in 2024?
- Why do founders in unloved markets care more than those in hot markets?
- Why will large institutions lose a ton of money investing in the large firms of today?
- Why does Nick believe VCs should always sell when their founders sell shares?
3. Lessons from 3xing a Fund on One Check:
- Why does Nick think about not purchasing preferred shares and only buying common shares?
- Why does Nick believe that investing in competitive markets is stupid?
- What does Nick believe are the conditions you must accept if you are doing a $5M on $25M seed?
