The Pros and Cons of Being Differentiated

This episode is part of our new Capital Series hosted by MCJ partner, Jason Jacobs. This series will explore a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we'll take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. 

Rick Zullo is co-founder and general partner at Equal Ventures, a firm that is purpose-built to deploy technology across society and industry. And as they say on their website, they back the non-obvious founders before it's obvious. There are a few categories where they spend most of their time in: retail, insurance, supply chain, care, and climate. 

Rick and Jason have a great discussion in this episode about the origin story of the firm, what makes them different, their strategy, their approach, what it was like to raise Fund I, where they're at today, what criteria they use when they make their investments, what their process is, and how their firm fits into the broader investment landscape in climate and beyond. 

In this episode, we cover: 

• [00:00]: Intro
• [02:46]: Overview of Equal Ventures
• [04:23]: What sectors and stages Equal invests in
• [06:09]: Origins of Equal Ventures
• [08:35]: Rick's thoughts on the "conviction gap"
• [11:02]: Three big questions he asks for every opportunity
• [17:40]: Overview of Equal's Fund I
• [18:13]: Rick's thoughts on reserves
• [24:16]: Equal Venture's differentiators
• [28:07]: Their views on disciplined pricing and founder alignment
• [32:33]: Domain expertise, portfolio balancing, and power law dynamics
• [39:52]: Bandwidth constraints and scaling
• [44:44]: How the climate playbook differs from other sectors
• [51:01]: What Rick's most excited about in climate
• [54:13]: Who Rick wants to hear from

Get connected: 
Jason Jacobs
Rick Zullo
MCJ Podcast / Collective

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Episode recorded on Apr 20, 2023

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant