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

Alfred Chuang of Race Capital joins Nick to discuss The Next Generation of Tech & Venture Capital from the Perspective of a Unicorn Founder Turned GP. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at Race Capital? Why did you name your fund Race Capital? I want to talk a bit about open source... there seem to be wildly differing takes on this but what is your opinion of for profit tech companies building products on open source architecture and, in some cases, just reskinning open source tech w/ a UI and selling for profit? As we evolve to an increasingly cloud-first technology environment, what does it mean as we transition from a hybrid (onprem, cloud) approach to cloud only? How does edge computing reconcile with this future cloud-only environment? On the data side... Do you think we move to a Unified Data Infrastructure Architecture in the future? Transition a bit to talk more about your journey... I want to talk a bit about BEA Systems... sounds like an amazing journey and a great outcome. What is your biggest regret looking back (if any)? Ultimately, why do you think entrepreneurs choose you over other firms? What's your opinion on valuation and, as things have gotten more competitive, firms bidding price up and founders really optimizing for valuation at the early stages? Is Silicon Valley’s exodus real? Will these SPAC deals blow up?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Erik Torenberg Maren Bannon Shawn Carolan Lanham Napier Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

Monique Woodard of Cake Ventures joins Nick to discuss The "Three Layer Cake" Fund, How Personal Experience Drives Your Investment Lens, The Future of Tech for the Aging Population, & How a Solo GP Can Do it All. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at Cake Ventures? You have a strong focus on looking for startups that are addressing the needs of a world undergoing massive demographic changes. Talk to us a bit about how you approach investing in demographic change? What sort of demographic changes do you believe will have opportunities? Were you surprised to see Baby Boomers dominating online shopping? What is it like being a solo GP? What are the pros and cons? How do you replicate and try to scale yourself? Context switching is often cited as the hardest thing about what we do.  Talk us through your schedule and how you manage context switching? This question is called three data points.  I'm going to give you a hypothetical situation w/ a startup and you can ask three questions for three specific data points. Let's say you are approached to invest in a consumer social business with 100k MAUs, and 20% MoM growth for the last 3 months. The catch is you can only ask for 3 data points to make your decision. What 3 questions do you ask?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Lo Toney Stephen McIntyre Eric Collins Trae Vassallo

David Goldberg of Alpaca VC joins Nick to discuss Staying Competitive in the Seed Fund Boom, Success Metrics at the Fund Level, and the Shifting Equilibrium of Investors and Founders. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC Tell us about your shift from law to finance and to becoming a founder of FreshNeck? What’s the thesis at  Alpaca VC? Talk to us about your Field Studies and why you do them. How do you develop a thesis on consumer behavior, trends, and how they will evolve in the coming years? Similar to us you do a lot of OKR and KPI measurement and tracking as a firm... what are some of the most important metrics you track that should ultimately lead to the right progress? What about w/ the portfolio companies? Do you have systems and processes on the front-end, pre-investment You are a remote team of fund managers in NY, CO, and FL... what are the advantages and drawbacks for startups with w/ remote teams? Do you think the center of gravity is shifting away from the Valley? You recently invested $2.5M of your personal capital into 6 Black and Latin fund managers - what drove this decision? What are your thoughts on Carta X and new liquidity for late-stage equity?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Janet Bannister Simeon Iheagwham Somesh Dash Jonathan Hsu Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.

Marcelino Pantoja of Tribe Capital joins Nick to discuss LP Turned VC, Mistakes When Pitching to Allocators, and Managing Limited Partner Relationships. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC Refresh on the thesis at Tribe? Talk to us about the mindset of the allocator — what are their key objectives and what do they care about? What are the biggest mistakes you see emerging managers making when pitching LPs? Let's say an aspiring VC has a few years until they will raise from institutions... what should they be focusing on in order to create a really compelling offering in the medium term? Let's say an emerging GP is raising from institutions imminently... what advice would you have for them? Do you think it's significantly easier for an institution to make an investment in some coming from a large successful Tier 1 fund, spinoff, vs. a successful operator or angel? What are the key challenge areas that the LP is really going to scrutinize on the spin-off and what are the areas under scrutiny for the operator? Sometimes it's hard to get information on LPs from a distance... do you have any advice for fund managers that are trying to pre-qualify? What is the difference between a good LP and one that may be a problem... how does a GP determine that early enough to avoid bringing on the wrong types of LPs? In what ways is your job similar and different moving from LP to VC? How do you compete against other firms for deals?  I understand the value-add but the value has become competitive with a larger number of firms... how can you continue to win and do so at a price that makes sense for the return potential?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Grace Isford Erik Torenberg Eric Collins Villi Iltchev Each investor discusses sectors, drivers and/or trends that may have significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.

Vincent Diallo of Interlace Ventures joins Nick to discuss Retail Apocalypse or Renaissance, the Commerce Evolution, and Fundraising from Corporates. In this episode, we cover: Article Mentioned in Episode: http://bit.ly/TFR-Vincent Walk us through your background and path to VC What’s the thesis at Interlace? COVID has affected commerce severely -- for better and for worse. Has this changed your investment approach? Many investors are avoiding all physical retail as COVID has created a “retail apocalypse”, but you've stated that you see it more as a retail renaissance.  Why? What are some trends from COVID that you think investors are overreacting to that you expect will return to pre-pandemic levels? What new consumer experiences or behaviors are emerging that you are excited about? You mentioned supply chain as another area of interest, where are the biggest opportunities in the supply chain? Biggest mistake fundraising? Biggest win fundraising? Oper8tor program? Is now a good time or a difficult time to be a diverse fund manager?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Tom Tunguz Patrick Gallagher Trae Vassallo Brian Hirsch Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.