LA Venture

Paul is founder and managing partner at Amplify.  Amplify started as an accelerator, they still have the great office space, but now Paul describes Amplify as "pre-seed with benefits".  They have a heavy LA focus to their investments ($250-500k) but not funding LA companies exclusively.  Paul is also a venture partner at Greycroft and a nice person.

Adam Struck is an LA seed investor from Struck Capital (checks $1-1.5M) who challenges any other VC to put in more sweat equity per dollar than he does.  He also thinks VCs should be weirder.  I already feel like I'm busting my butt so I will accept the weird challenge.

Kara is a partner at Upfront, a founder, and one of the most prominent investors in LA.  Kara shares about the Upfront partnership (8 different UIs with the same backend), advice for founders, and her own areas of interest.

With over 100 members, Pasadena Angels is one of the largest angel investor networks in LA.  Stender Sweeney is chair of the Pasadena Angels and explains how their process works, what size check to expect ($250-750k) and what it means to be "more than the money". 

Techstars is a 90-day mentorship-driven accelerator program with three programs in LA: Techstars Music, Techstars Space and Techstars LA.  Today we talk to Anna Barber, Managing Director for Techstars LA, about the mentorship, investment ($120k) and network that Techstars LA provides.

Fika invests in enterprise, B2B SAAS and data-oriented solutions.  Fika is usually writing checks in the $750k to $1.2M range and Eva tells us how check size and round size have changed over time.  Eva is an extremely thoughtful investor about everything from data ethics to building stronger communities.  We're glad Eva is part of the LA community!   Leave us a review, let me know, and I'll send back my gratitude.

Mark talks with us about what sort of traction he looks for when doing B2B seed investing, what sort of questions he asks founders, and his direct personal style. 

Will talks to us about Mucker Capital, the early stage venture fund that he and Erik co-founded as well as Mucker Labs, his very well-respected LA accelerator.

Dustin Rosen is the founder and managing partner at Wonder Ventures, a pre-seed fund here in LA.

Britt talks about venture debt, Alpha Edison's investment thesis and how trust is created.