
The Dart Board with Daniel Dart
Daniel Dart is the founder and General Partner of Rock Yard Ventures, a seed-stage venture firm focused on tech across core industries. Join Daniel as he sits down with some of the world's greatest investors, operators, and entrepreneurs. Daniel pulls back on the curtain on their secrets to success, insights on the future, and how to best invest your time, reputation, and money.
Latest episodes

Feb 21, 2025 • 33min
Daniel Yanisse | Checkr - From idea to $700 million in ARR, the lessons of hyperscaling, and why Ai is now table stakes
In this episode, we are joined by Daniel Yanisse, co-founder and CEO of Checkr, the world’s largest background check company. We dive into Checkr’s early days, scaling challenges, hiring lessons, and what founders should look for in investors. Daniel also shares his journey as an immigrant entrepreneur, the most challenging moments of his career, and his take on AI’s future in tech.

Feb 16, 2025 • 36min
Joe Kaiser | Mercato Partners - On investing $1B in America’s heartland, building team culture and 'love language,' and being sculpted by hard times
Meet Joe Kaiser, the CEO of Mercato Partners, a growth stage firm investing more than $1B in America's heartland. In this conversation we discuss his career, Mercato's differentiated thesis, leadership and team building.In this episode, Daniel and Joe discuss Joe's Journey from small town to the leading role at Mercato Partners, the investment case for the American Heartland, how people can glean advice from unconventional sources, and more!

Feb 10, 2025 • 40min
Jim Bethea | University of Iowa - How a $1.6b endowment CIO (and former tire factory worker) thinks about risk and assesses emerging managers
Meet Jim Bethea, the CIO of the University of Iowa. An Ohio native who went from a tire factory floor to heading one of the highest-performing endowments in the game.In this conversation, we discuss his background, views on portfolio and liquidity risk, practical advice for emerging managers when approaching allocators, and more!

Feb 4, 2025 • 41min
Kevin Novak | Rackhouse VC - On where the magic is in Ai, getting fired as Head of Data at Uber, and the hard (but important) lessons he learned building teams
Meet Kevin Novak, founder and general partner of Rackhouse Venture Capital, an AI-native early-stage venture firm. From Michigan and a path to becoming a professor to leaving everything to join a 'cab company' in Silicon Valley, we talk about what it was like to be the first data scientist at Uber - and how he got fired from leading the team while on vacation, and how it was a blessing in disguise that he still uses as a lesson on how to be a better leader. We discuss his take on AI, where the best place is to invest in AI, and how nuclear power can play a role. We also learned how the most challenging things he's faced have made him better today and how they can do the same for you.

Jan 21, 2025 • 2min