LA Venture

Omar is a partner at Mucker and leads their $190M "early" fund. Previously a partner at Sequoia and founder of AdMob. So many great insights on building companies and why it's hard for startups to raise a Series A from Sand Hill.

Griffin Gaming Partners is a $250m Fund I focused exclusively on gaming.   Phil Sanderson says that gaming investing is the new enterprise software--a predictable business model with strong CAC to LTV ratios and increasingly large exit opportunities.   We also talk about ultramarathons, a 240 mile race, and how Phil has trained himself to go after even bigger, more audacious goals.

Many VCs shy away from tech that serves SMBs.  Austin explains how this has left an enormous opportunity and his tips for entrepreneurs in the space. We talk about his partnership with Ajay Relan at Slauson & Co and the work that PledgeLA and Grid110 have been doing to support underrepresented founders ($25k checks!)

Chang Xu is a partner at $140M fund Basis Set Ventures.  We discuss everything from why open source is a good business model, how next gen infrastructure might look, what she learned at Upfront, and even practical advice for forming a startup board.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover about product launches, building community and what he looks for when investing out of the Weekend Fund.  

What is the state of global warming today?  Renewables?  Should all VCs be investing in CleanTech?   Aaron Fyke from Thin Line Capital is one of the smartest CleanTech investors and joins us to talk about multiple years working with Idealab and building cleanTech companies.

Taj Eldridge tells us about his brand new $250M fund, Include Ventures, that he just launched with Bahiyah Robinson and Keith Spears.     Taj is passionate about reducing the wealth gap through black and brown ownership and continuing the work he's been doing with LACI.

The one, the only, David Waxman!!   David was the founder of three venture backed companies before he and Gil Elbaz started TenOneTen.  David shares lessons learned from an IPO, a litigious board member and a couple decades in startups.

Megan is one of the founders of King River Capital, an LA-based fund investing in Series A and later companies.     They are investing out of a $100M Fund II.  Megan shares how they are able to leverage their LPs for significant co-investment.

Fantastic chance to get to know Jamie Montgomery.  Jamie shares how he's built such strong relationships, delivered outsized returns for March Capital, his approach to philanthropy and his high school fire extinguisher business. For more, tune in March 3rd and 4th to the 18th annual Montgomery Summit.