We’ve always found that even in public equities, you learn more once you have a live portfolio. One of the best ways to learn is to put some capital at risk. For this episode, I asked two VCs to sit down with me and Brett and treat the conversation as they would a normal pitch meeting, so that we, the audience, can get a peek into their world and the types of questions they ask. The venture capitalists in question are Thatcher Bell, of CoVenture, and Taylor Greene, of Collaborative Fund. The first voice that you’ll hear is Thatcher, and the next person asking questions is Taylor. I began by asking Thatcher to give us a bit of background on how he approaches young companies before diving in with questions of his own.

Show Notes

3:12 – (First Question) – getting a flywheel business going

4:49 – Brett’s background and how that led to the formation of Ladder

7:58 – Breakdown of the product

9:29 – The sign-up process

10:29 – Key problem for each party of the ladder transaction

12:34 – Diving deeper into the problem of being a health coach

14:29 – How does Ladder differentiate itself from other apps that help people locate a trainer

17:01 – A deeper dive into the consumer using this product

20:28 – The accountability factor being the moat for Ladder

24:12 - How successful is the product right now in terms of recruiting new customers and trainers

28:38 – Their pre-launch interview and research process

31:49 – Going from hypothesis to product development

35:25 – What should founders think about when doing customer discovery, even after they have a product in the market

39:22 – Optimizing in the early stage of a business

43:24 – The defensive moat of a startup

46:20 – Their take on their ability to corner the coaches in this market

49:57 – Is there a side of the producer/consumer side of the equation that is more important.

55:42 – Getting and giving value to your supply, in this case the coaches

58:22 – How to view different phases of a business

1:00:43 – Growing the supply and demand so that neither side gets aggravated

1:02:28 – Market opportunity for Ladder

1:10:55 – Top 2 or 3 goals that Ladder has over the next 12-18 months

1:13:00 – Looking at Ladder, what are the strengths and weaknesses as a potential investment

1:20:40 – Pros and cons of a startup seeking institutional VC money

1:25:11 – Reviewing the pitch