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

In today's special segment the following investors are featured: Chris Olsen Jay Acunzo Mike Collett Each investor describes an outstanding entrepreneur that they've worked with and what key traits and behaviors make for the best startup leaders. 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.

Today we publish part two of the interview with Chris Farmer of Signal Fire Ventures. In this segment we address: Why he's using Beacon to make VC investments when their are numerous other applications that may have more economic value How he's created an engaged, active advisor network that are also LPs in the fund What characteristics the best advisors share Chris' thoughts on the surge in micros VCs and how that has impacted the asset class Chris' advice for founders raising initial capital Wrap-up of Key Takeaways & a Tip of the Week Guest Links: Signal Fire Ventures Chris on Twitter Signal Fire on Twitter Techcrunch Article: Watch Out, VCs: Chris Farmer Plans To Massively Disrupt The Industry Part 1 of the interview w/ Chris Key Takeaways: 1- Deconstructing Beacon Beacon is a connected platform that starts w/ sourcing but also does monitoring, context, diligence, syndication and most importanty, per Chris, portfolio support. It's a data platform that looks like a Bloomberg terminal for the startup industry. They started building it seven years ago and they employ a full-blown engineering team of data scientists and tech engineers. Beacon tracks a vast array of data on 6M different companies. And Chris started with first principles, asking "what are the KPIs that the management teams of these companies are measuring?"... those are the same elements we should measure with Beacon. It analyzes items including customer behavior, frequency, engagement, CLV, consumer transactions, financial flows, quality of those flows, news sentiment and also team construction and quality, just to name a few. And signal fire's platform isn't just for the investors. There is a UI for advisors and most importantly founders as well. Founders can utilize heir robust SaaS recruiting platform to address the key need of early stage companies... recruiting top talent. With Beacon, Signal Fire has set out to tech enable the entire value chain of a venture firm from end-to-end. Early indications from folks in my network are that it's an impressive platform indeed. 2- The Prepared Mind Signal Fire did not coin the concept of "the prepared mind" but Chris does follow it. The approach that came out of Accel has an emphasis on heavy research on existing domains. The creation of market maps that help visualize the landscape and reveal opportunities. In a previous episode, David Cowan discussed his approach to the Space vertical that leverages this methodology. And in Chris implementation, he is constantly refining the maps. He meets with LP experts and founders to go much deeper and broader than they could do w/ data alone. The result is that Signal Fire is often much less bullish on the en vogue sectors and vice-a-versa. Their investment in pizza making robot company, Zume, certainly illustrates their fresh perspective on an oft-ignored industry. 3- The Common Thread of Success I asked Chris for a common thread that he's noticed across successful startups. And I really enjoyed his response. The common thread in winners are those companies that are doing things full-stack. They are creating an end-to-end solution that is vertically integrated. Where a company can be it's own customer in order to provide a better solution for the end consumer. I discussed this concept w/ Charles Hudson in a previous episode. We talked about finding the place within the vertical supply stack that enforces discipline on the chain and drives the most value. Chris point was compelling in that he looks for startups that own the chain, not just a part of it. Tip of the Week: Tail Wags Dog -- The Affinity Investor 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.

Chris Farmer, Co-founder of Signal Fire Ventures, discusses their data engine, Beacon, and its unique approach to investing in startups. They address founder pain points, how Beacon drives value, and their research-driven approach to investing in emerging sectors using deep maps and machine learning.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: Nathan Benaich Ethan Kurzweil Jonathon Triest & Brett DeMarrais 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.

Welcome back to TFR for another Cram Session. In these special releases, we have aggregated the takeaways and tips from previous episodes. In this installment, we will be recapping the following episodes: 87. Fintech Investing, Part 1 (Sheel Mohnot) 88. Fintech Investing, Part 2 (Sheel Mohnot) 90. SpaceX & Elon Musk's Mission to Mars, Part 1 (Tim Urban) 91. SpaceX & Elon Musk's Mission to Mars, Part 2 (Tim Urban) 93. What's Wrong with Venture? Part 1 (Dave McClure) 94. What's Wrong with Venture? Part 2 (Dave McClure) 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 Pete Wilkins Anand Sanwal Each investor highlights a situation where they decided to invest in a startup and why they said yes. 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.

UILabs recently hosted a panel of IoT experts to discuss the future roadmap for IoT. I moderated the discussion and the panel included: Ben Forgan, CEO of Hologram Brenna Berman, Executive Director of City Digital, UI Labs Jenny Fielding, Managing Director, Techstars IoT Jim Gagnard, CEO of SmartSignal (acquired by... GE). 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: - William Mougayar - Sheel Mohnot - David Cowan 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.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: - Tom Tunguz - Mark Peter Davis - Adam Draper - Lindel Eakman 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.

Jason Calacanis is back for part 2 of the interview to discuss his book and secrets to successful angel investing. We address questions including: His thoughts on the original Sequoia scout program and the many similar programs today How he does such high volume of investments when he insists on spending... 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.