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

Evangelos Simoudis of Synapse Partners joins Nick to discuss AV, Mobility, and the Disruption of Big Auto. In this episode, we cover:   Backstory / Path to becoming an investor What is the investment focus/philosophy of your firm? What are the key drivers of automotive disruption? Can you talk about the role of big data and machine intelligence in AV? Can you give us an overview of the framework you use for investing in mobility and talk about the new investment areas in the category What business models have and will emerge as we adopt autonomous vehicles for on-demand mobility services? What needs to happen for these business models to be implemented and what sort of timeline are we looking at? Talk about some of the notable companies funded in the space and potential exits in the short-, medium-, and long-term? What do you think will happen to the large, incumbent automakers? Where do you find interesting big data and AI startups working on mobility-related problems outside Silicon Valley, Israel, and China? How do you identify areas to invest, create value for your portcos, and help drive exits? Advice for founders working on AV and mobility tech?   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.  

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: James Hardiman Nathan Benaich Paul Martino Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Yoav Leitersdorf of YL Ventures joins Nick to discuss The Cat and Mouse Game of Cyber Security -- Israel, CISOs, and GDPR. In this episode, we cover: How the emergence of new technologies have changed cybersecurity The framework to think about cybersecurity from a VC perspective Where innovation in cybersecurity stems from and how VCs impact this innovation. Industries that have the most volume of devices and the most threatened by breaches The purchase drivers for CSOs/CISOs today and how they determine ROI The impact of GDPR on the cyber industry Asset-centric vs threat-centric approaches toward information security The cybersecurity Cat and Mouse analogy The biggest misconception of cybersecurity   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Jordan Nof Chris Olsen Elizabeth Galbut   Each investor discusses sectors, drivers and/or trends that may have significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Joe Medved of Lerer Hippeau joins Nick to discuss The 'Softbank Effect', Financial Discipline and the Interworkings of a Top Seed Investment Firm. In this episode, we cover:   The focus at Lerer Hippeau The adoption and integration of the Binary Capital Portfolio Why they dropped ventures from the name Joe's take on the "Softbank Effect" and the challenges and opportunities created by it. how founders should think about raise amount and valuations The effect of late-stage capital on early stage investors The capital strategy mistakes that lead to startup death Joe's take on early-stage investors taking early exits when they are offered liquidity. The strategy for their sixth, $150 million fund How Joe's team approaches sourcing, vetting, diligence LH's focus on outbound vs. inbound Joe mentions a key analysis item that is often overlooked by many investors Lerer Hippeau's portfolio management process: How often they interact and what activities they engage in. The impact of raise amount on outcomes   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: -Bryce Roberts -Mike Collett -Niki Scevak   Each investor describes their investment thesis and how they evaluate startups for investment.   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: Vic Pascucci Ben Einstein Ethan Kurzweil David Verrill Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Sarah Anderson of Cintrifuse joins Nick to discuss LP Value Creation, Why DPI is King, and Secondaries as a Means of Exit. In this episode, we cover: What is the investment focus/philosophy at Cintrifuse? Can you tell us a bit more about the Cintrifuse model? What impact has the Cintrifuse Syndicate Fund had? Can you explain how this benefits large corporates? What about startups-- what's in it for them? Are the corporate LPs hesitant to invest directly in funds-- Is that why they come to you? Does your diversified portfolio preclude certain vertically-focused corporates from investing in a fund of funds model? Does Cintrifuse work w/ other types of financial institutions, aside from insurance? If so, how have you seen them react to the explosion in crypto and disruptive fintech? Tell us about your role as matchmaker-- how do you get involved and facilitate between VCs, startups and corporations? What's the strategic value-add to a VC fund manager? What industry disruptions have you observed and what are the impacts on large corporate companies? Advice for entrepreneurs-- whether underserved spaces or where they should be focused that they're not? What message do you want to send to founders? In Rob Go's recent study on fund metrics, he said "In the early days of a fund, VCs tend to optimize for TVPI. But in the long run, DPI is king. You can’t feed your family with TVPI, and you can’t spend IRR." Is he right and what do you suggest to Fund I and Fund II managers that have attractive paper gains but no distributions to paid-in (ie. a DPI of zero)? Let's discuss reinvesting in startups, I want to talk about doubling down on firms and investing more in their new funds. When Chris Duovos was on we discussed the concerning stats related to persistence. And Antoinette Schoar, of MIT did a notable study on fund returns, which showed persistence of returns from private-equity funds has gone down in the last decade. She said: “If LPs are not vigilant, we'll start seeing persistence at the bottom. So many LPs want so much to get into PE that they are not sensitive enough to poor perf and keep reinvesting in partnerships that are not deserving” Sarah, what's your take on the study and her position here?"   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: Bilal Zuberi Madhavan Ramanujem Tim O'Reilly Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it failed.   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Ash Fontana of Zetta Venture Partners joins Nick to discuss Why SaaS is not a fit for VC and How AI Compounds Competitive Advantage. In this episode, we cover: Categories of AI that Ash is most interested in The difference between real AI and AI-enabled companies Why SaaS will cease to be investable by VCs The current AI stage of adoption How he times the market The four phases of AI What phase of AI they invest in How AI is and will be affected by limited data How startups can compete for talent w/ GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) The moats being created by their AI-first portcos How they think about metrics and milestones for AI-backed companies If AI should be feared and finally we wrap up w/ Ash's thoughts on Chris Dixon's position that we will see a movement from centralization back to decentralization in tech-- and the role that AI will play   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.