The Dart Board with Daniel Dart

Meet John Arnold, founder & co-chair at Arnold Ventures, a leading foundation using an evidence-based approach to create systemic change, improve the lives of American families, strengthen communities, and promote economic opportunity in education, criminal justice, health, infrastructure, and public finance.In this conversation, we explore John’s early life, his time at Enron, the founding and historic run of Centaurus Advisors, and the philosophy and impact of Arnold Ventures. We also discuss energy market dynamics, the promise of AI, and finding the right balance between regulation and dynamism to tackle today’s most pressing issues.No matter your interest—finance, energy, tech, or policy—this episode has something for you.

Hadley Harris, co-founder and general Partner at Eniac Ventures shares how he scaled the firm from a $1.6M fund 1 to over $800M in AUM. We discuss portfolio construction, LP relationships, investment decision-making, and the importance of playing to your strengths as a VC. This is a must-listen for emerging managers and investors.

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.

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!

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!

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.