Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We are joined by Jonathan Abrams, Co-Founder and General Partner at 8-Bit Capital. Jonathan previously was an angel investor and entrepreneur founding both Nuzzel and Friendster, the latter of which he helped grow to over 100MM users and where he met his current partner at 8-Bit, Kent Lindstrom. Jonathan also co-founded Founders Den with Zack Bogue of DCVC in 2011, which quickly became one of San Francisco’s earliest and most popular startup work and event spaces.We think you’ll really enjoy Jonathan’s story, and how he thinks about all aspects of seed-stage investing.A word from our sponsor:Tactyc is the first software solution for venture capital portfolio forecasting and planning. The platform is rapidly increasing efficiency and data-driven decision-making for GP’s and works with over 150 funds globally.Tactyc makes it easy for managers to build (and maintain) their portfolio models without dealing with complicated spreadsheets. It enables portfolio construction in minutes and for managers to share their intended fund strategy with potential investors. Post-launch, Tactyc also offers advanced analytics for GPs to optimize reserves, analyze probabilistic outcomes for their investments and extract insights for future capital deployment.Check them out at tactyc.io.About Jonathan Abrams:Jonathan is a co-founder and General Partner of 8-Bit Capital, an early-stage investing firm. He is also a co-founder and Managing Partner of Founders Den, San Francisco’s favorite workspace and community for startups and investors.Previously Jonathan was the founder of the professional news discovery service Nuzzel and the pioneering social networking service Friendster, and a software engineer at Netscape and Nortel. Jonathan is an investor in over 50 startups, including AngelList, ClearTax, CoinList, Docker, Front, HelloSign, Instacart, Mixmax, Pachyderm, Republic, SafeGraph, Sense, Shortcut, Slideshare, Stream, and Zeplin. Jonathan received an Honors B.Sc. in Computer Science from McMaster University in Canada.In this episode we discuss:01:57 Jonathan’s journey to creating 8-Bit Capital with Kent04:08 The opportunity they saw when founding 8-Bit06:07 How his experiences at Nuzzel and Friendster shaped his view as an investor08:20 What being founder friendly truly means11:37 Shifting from an active angel investor to a fund manager14:41 The hardest lessons leveling up from an angel investor18:14 Dealing with the deal flow noise as a team of two21:20 How to deal with conscious and unconscious bias when advising founders23:28 Jonathan and Kent’s decision-making process25:02 Thoughts on scaling 8-Bit28:11 Competing against larger, later-stage funds getting into seed-stage investing31:23 Deciding on follow-on investing33:35 How they came to decide on 50-50 fund construction for follow-on35:41 Keeping and increasing their pro-rata in competitive later rounds38:19 Biggest lessons from Friendster39:49 The advice he would give himself at the start of 8-BitI’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Jonathan. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we are joined by Gautam Gupta, who is the co-lead of TCV’s new expansion stage strategy called TCV Velocity. TCV was founded over 25 years ago with over $15B invested in over 350 companies. Prior to launching TCV Velocity, Gautam spent time as an investor at General Catalyst and M13, and in between those shops he was Founder and CEO of Naturebox. Gautam brought such an interesting point of view to our conversation, and we covered a lot of ground spanning from early to late-stage investing. Hope you enjoy this episode!Aumni is an investment analytics company dedicated to improving private capital markets. Aumni’s technology digitizes hard to track unstructured data from private transaction agreements and organizes it in a structured database through an intuitive dashboard. For investors across the board, the insights provided by this data improve the managers ability to build strategy and make better decisions. Today, Aumni tracks data from over 250 thousand private market transactions to provide anonymous, aggregated market benchmarks.As someone that works deeply in the private fund space, I’m incredibly excited that Aumni’s solution helps fund managers provide more insightful accurate reporting to their investors.  Check them out at Aumni.fund.Subscribers of Venture Unlocked can sign up for 20% off when you mention Venture UnlockedAbout Gautam Gupta:Gautam is General Partner at TCV where he focuses on investments in the consumer technology space including commerce, consumer-facing healthcare, education, software, and financial services businesses. Before TCV, Gautam was a Partner at M13 Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on consumer technology, where he led investments in marketplace, consumer subscription, and B2B2C models.Gautam started his career at General Catalyst in 2004. He was initially an intern while in college and later became a member of the investment team. He left to launch NatureBox and, as CEO, helped build the company into a nationally recognized brand with millions of customers. He did his undergrad at Babson College.In this episode we discuss:02:13 Gautam’s career journey as an investor and founder04:52 How being a founder has shaped him as an investor07:50 Identifying whether a company truly is a venture backable company10:27 Why TCV setup the Velocity Fund to do earlier stage and smaller investments11:33 What is an expansion phase investment?14:35 Pros and Cons of traditionally later stage firms investing earlier17:19 Creating a unique brand in a larger firm19:24 How today’s market is compared to past down markets in 2008 and the dotcom bust23:07 Changes in deals and the market in the last year26:11 Competing in today’s market as an investor29:01 How Power Law is skewing the markets31:05 Looking back on deal memos of the past to see how short-sighted they were33:48 Why TCV Velocity is sticking with their investment thesis36:17 Why investors get pro-rata decisions wrong so often38:48 Advice he would give himself in 200741:08 Common traits of successful foundersI’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Gautam. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we are joined by Patrick Chun, Founder and Managing Partner of Juxtapose. Based out of New York, Juxtapose can best be described as a creation-oriented investment firm that leverages expertise to launch and invest in companies. The firm currently has over $500M in AUM across its funds. I had so much fun recording this episode as Patrick was able to offer great insights from his extensive experience in creation-oriented investment models, including leading builds at Accretive and Thrive, as well as, working at top venture and growth equity firms like Bain Capital Ventures and Francisco Partners.Aumni is an investment analytics company dedicated to improving private capital markets. Aumni’s technology digitizes hard to track unstructured data from private transaction agreements and organizes it in a structured database through an intuitive dashboard. For investors across the board, the insights provided by this data improve the managers ability to build strategy and make better decisions. Today, Aumni tracks data from over 250 thousand private market transactions to provide anonymous, aggregated market benchmarks.As someone that works deeply in the private fund space, I’m incredibly excited that Aumni’s solution helps fund managers provide more insightful accurate reporting to their investors.  Check them out at Aumni.fund.Subscribers of Venture Unlocked can sign up for 20% off when you mention Venture UnlockedAbout Patrick Chun:Patrick is a co-founder and managing partner at Juxtapose where he helps to manage the team across strategies and works closely with the firm’s leaders across the business, including concept development and talent identification. Patrick also participates meaningfully with the portfolio and its CEOs, including involvement at the board level.Prior to founding Juxtapose, Patrick spent a significant portion of his career building and investing businesses at the earliest stages, including senior and partner-level experience at early-stage and at firms oriented towards company creation, such as Thrive Capital, Accretive, and Bain Capital Ventures.He started his career at McKinsey & Company. Patrick has a BA from Harvard College, an MA from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.In This Episode We Discuss:02:04 Patrick’s journey and inspiration to co-found Juxtapose 11:21 The art and science of company creations models 16:10 Defining a firm that is part private equity, part venture capital in profile 19:42 The squint and wedge frameworks that Juxtapose uses to evaluate companies and ideas22:49 How they score ideas internally and decision making frameworks25:24 Fund construction methodologies29:09 How Patrick keeps interests aligned with founders in the co-creation model32:01 Finding the right CEO for their businesses37:50 How they raised capital from LPs, and what worked for them with institutions42:45 Communication cadence with their LPs46:16 Patrick’s overall view of the market and what innovations we’ll see in the coming yearsI’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Andrew. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we are joined by Andrew McCormack, one of the founding partners at Fintech-focused Valar, which was founded in 2010 and has raised north of $2B. Before starting Valar, Andrew worked closely with Peter Thiel at Clarium Capital, Thiel Capital, and Paypal.Aumni is an investment analytics company dedicated to improving private capital markets. Aumni’s technology digitizes hard to track unstructured data from private transaction agreements and organizes it in a structured database through an intuitive dashboard. For investors across the board, the insights provided by this data improve the managers ability to build strategy and make better decisions. Today, Aumni tracks data from over 250 thousand private market transactions to provide anonymous, aggregated market benchmarks.As someone that works deeply in the private fund space, I’m incredibly excited that Aumni’s solution helps fund managers provide more insightful accurate reporting to their investors.  Check them out at Aumni.fund.Subscribers of Venture Unlocked can sign up for 20% off when you mention Venture UnlockedAbout Andrew McCormack:Andrew is a founding Partner at Valar Ventures. Andrew’s career in technology has included business and corporate development roles at eCount (acquired by Citicorp) and Yahoo!. He joined PayPal in 2001, where he worked closely with Peter. After PayPal’s sale to eBay, Andrew helped launch Clarium Capital and later founded a restaurant group in San Francisco.In 2008, Andrew rejoined Peter at Thiel Capital, where he led various international initiatives for Thiel Capital and Peter personally. Andrew received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.In this episode we discuss:01:47 Andrew’s journey into the technology world and working a Clarium11:38 Valar’s early investment thesis18:49 Valar’s fundraising journey21:15 Benefits of smaller portfolios with more ownership 25:42 Career prolonging investing vs return maximation investing31:09 How Valar’s model has worked in the down market of 202234:30 What was wrong with the 2021 valuations37:26 The strategies that Andrew thinks will be successful in the Venture market moving forward41:39 Lessons from some of Andrew’s misses46:35 The career lesson he learned while he was operating a restaurant groupI’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Andrew. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we are joined by Joanna Drake, co-founder of Magnify Ventures, which just completed an oversubscribed $52MM Fund I. Prior to Magnify, Joanna invested through her firm Core Ventures Group, and as part of the Broadway Angels group. Joanna is also the co-founder of RAISE Global, the leading emerging manager summit whose mission is to accelerate the next generation of fund entrepreneurs by both connecting them to LPs and providing the necessary education around building a firm.I’ve been part of its summit since it began in 2015, and I’m thrilled to see the impact and growth it’s created.Given Joanna’s background as a two-time fund entrepreneur and RAISE co-founder, we went deep into raising a fund and building partnerships. For anyone starting a firm, this is a must-listen, and I Hope you enjoy this conversation with Joanna.Aumni is an investment analytics company dedicated to improving private capital markets. Aumni’s technology digitizes hard to track unstructured data from private transaction agreements and organizes it in a structured database through an intuitive dashboard. For investors across the board, the insights provided by this data improve the managers ability to build strategy and make better decisions. Today, Aumni tracks data from over 250 thousand private market transactions to provide anonymous, aggregated market benchmarks.As someone that works deeply in the private fund space, I’m incredibly excited that Aumni’s solution helps fund managers provide more insightful accurate reporting to their investors.  Check them out at Aumni.fund.Subscribers of Venture Unlocked can sign up for 20% off when you mention Venture UnlockedAbout Joanna Drake:Joanna Drake is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Magnify Ventures. For the last decade she has advised and invested in high-caliber founders solving important problems with technology, as General Partner of Core Ventures Group and a member of Broadway Angels, a world-class all-female investor collective. She is also the Co-Founder of RAISE Global.Prior to venture investing, Joanna was a serial entrepreneur and company builder, including serving as COO for the Western operations of DeNA, and founding executive of Current TV, the Emmy and Peabody-award-winning cable network known for its early innovations in interactive television and social media. Other executive roles were with market pioneers Moxi Digital (precursor to Apple TV) and ReacTV (personalized video newscasts). She began her career as a strategy consultant with Booz Allen, working with the world's leading media and technology conglomerates.In this episode we discuss:03:09 Joanna’s journey to become a venture capitalist04:34 Characteristics and traits that Joanna was looking for in a partner08:23 What healthy partnerships look like and commonalities of partnerships that haven't worked well12:02 Steps you can take to ensure a healthy partnership14:37 The origins of RAISE Global19:17 What she learned from organizing the conference and how it helped with her recent raise for Magnify26:14 Advice to emerging managers that may not hit their initial targets on how to adapt and adjust29:00 How afraid of negative signals should managers be?31:12 Other levers managers can use with LPs to get a quicker close35:23 How managers without deep networks of LPs can start a raise38:40 Joanna’s personal experience of fundraising43:10 The difference between generalist funds vs. sector-specific in their ability to win deals46:06 Ensuring portfolio companies can get downstream funding in a tougher marketI’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Joanna. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we are excited to have Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures, which since its founding in 2005 has become of the most successful early-stage funds in the world, having invested in companies such as Shopify, Canva, Opendoor, Guild, Flexport, Notion, and Plaid,  The Felicis portfolio has 45 Unicorns since it started in 2006 and Aydin is a 9-time Forbes Midas list investor. Outside of the outstanding track record, Aydin brings such an interesting point of view on venture investing. We went deep on the history of Felicis, his investment philosophy, and his overall perspectives on running a venture firm.A word from our sponsor:Aumni is an investment analytics company dedicated to improving private capital markets. Aumni’s technology digitizes hard to track unstructured data from private transaction agreements and organizes it in a structured database through an intuitive dashboard. For investors across the board, the insights provided by this data improve the managers ability to build strategy and make better decisions. Today, Aumni tracks data from over 250 thousand private market transactions to provide anonymous, aggregated market benchmarks.As someone that works deeply in the private fund space, I’m incredibly excited that Aumni’s solution helps fund managers provide more insightful accurate reporting to their investors.  Check them out at Aumni.fund.Subscribers of Venture Unlocked can sign up for 20% off when you mention Venture Unlocked.About Aydin Senkut:Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felicis. An original super angel turned multi-stage investor, he has been named on the Forbes Midas List for the past nine years (2014-2022) as well as the New York Times Top 20 Venture Capitalists list for four consecutive years (2016-2019). His recent focus areas include infrastructure, security, and future of health.He is well-known as an early backer of a number of iconic companies including Adyen, Credit Karma (Acquired by Intuit), Fitbit, Guardant Health, Guideline, Notion, Opendoor, Pluralsight, Rovio, Shopify, and Soundhound.Prior to starting Felicis, Aydin joined Google in 1999 as its first Product Manager to launch Google’s first 10 international sites, its first online search licensing products, and its first Safe Search. He then became the first International Sales Manager at Google, responsible for worldwide licensing deals. Before joining Google, Aydin was the Product Manager for Data Visualization and Data Mining software MineSet at SGI.He received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with Honors from Boston University. He also earned an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School and a master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.In this episode we discuss:02:12 What led to starting Felicis05:52 Why he decided to start something new instead of staying with Google08:40 Moving from angel to “super angel”12:19 The first fund raise16:10 Takeaways from early rejections and how he kept refining his pitch20:09 What was Aydin’s initial vision and how it has evolved over the years24:59 Teambuilding and early hires at Felicis29:02 How Felicis wins competitive deals through strategy35:11 When to bend a rule when it comes to unorthodox investments39:13 Commonalities of founders who create outlier opportunities42:24 How to be anti-fragile as an investor46:40 Trends in today’s market that gets Aydin excited50:16 The advice he would have given himself in 2005I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Aydin. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we are joined by Josh Berman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of private lending firm Quid, an active funding platform that provides liquidity to shareholders of top private companies. Quid has raised $420M across two funds.Josh has been in technology for over two decades, co-founding MySpace in 2003, after which he went on to start BeachMint before moving to the investing side and starting both Troy Capital Partners in 2016 and private sharing financing company Quid in 2018.During the show, we talked about the difference between secondary selling and borrowing, the issue of trapped liquidity at funds, and the learning he took away from his Myspace experience. First, a word from our sponsor:Allocate is the digital operating system for investors looking to build and manage world-class private portfolios within venture capital and other technology-focused private assets.Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.Go to allocate.co to apply to be an early-access member and join 500+ active Allocate users.About Josh Berman:Josh Berman is an operator and investor based in Los Angeles. Most recently he Co-Founded and is Managing Partner of Quid and is General Partner at Troy Capital Partners. Previously he was the Co-Founder and CEO of BeachMint, a next-generation eCommerce company based in Santa Monica, CA. He was the President of Slingshot Labs, a division of News Corporation, a web incubator dedicated to building new Internet companies.Josh is also a co-founder and was the chief operating officer of MySpace.com.He also co-founded and managed successful Internet companies, ResponseBase Marketing, and Xdrive Technologies. Prior to his startup life, Berman was a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He received his MBA from the University of Southern California, his BA from UC Santa Barbara, and is a CPA in the State of California.In this episode we discuss:01:16 Josh’s journey into startups06:01 The private stock problem that he saw in the market that Quid addresses10:58 Tax advantages of Quid’s approach to providing liquidity15:47 How stock financing actually works20:16 Affects of 2021 valuations on Quid’s lending model24:45 Employee retention strategies when strike prices may be lower than current valuation27:59 Other uses for Quid’s liquidity strategy30:00 Will traditional lenders get into this space?32:21 How the market today compares to the market in 1999/200035:26 Should investors slow down today or stay the course37:53 The biggest lesson  from his time at MyspaceI’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Josh. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we are joined by Eric Tarczynski, Founder and Managing Partner of Contrary, a firm backed by founders of Tesla, Reddit, Facebook, Airbnb, and many more iconic companies. The firm acts as a full stack platform to identify and support entrepreneurs often before they are starting a company. Contrary has raised nearly $100MM across funds. In our discussion Eric and I covered their thesis on talent, how he was able to raise a first fund without the normal background LPs often look for, and how they use culture to attract top talent. First, a word from our sponsor:Allocate is the digital operating system for investors looking to build and manage world-class private portfolios within venture capital and other technology-focused private assets.Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.Go to allocate.co to apply to be an early-access member and join 500+ active Allocate users.About Eric Tarczynski:Eric Tarcynski is the Founder and Managing Partner of Contrary, a venture fund that identifies and invests in the world’s top talent. He took on $50,000 in debt to get Contrary off the ground, sleeping in the back seat of a rental car or on friends' couches. Prior to Contrary, Eric was a co-founder and operator at numerous startups. He got his undergrad degree at Northeastern.In this episode we discuss:01:11 Eric’s journey to tech and startups04:42 How Eric’s non-traditional background affected his first fundraise08:27 What happened in the two years between Fund I and Fund II that got his from a sub-$10MM fund to a $75MM fund11:09 Concrete factors that LPs weighed when investing in Contrary14:01 Why Contrary avoided “logo hunting”16:11 Contrary’s unique thesis and why their model is the endgame for going earlier in the investing process19:00 Why Contrary has such a high NPS21:09 How Contrary invests in individuals “pre-company”24:10 The software platform that Contrary is building to help identify founders26:44 Building a platform without a lot of carry28:46 What Eric’s schedule looks like as an emerging manager30:57 Aspects of VC that Eric underestimated34:04 The advice he would give himself five years ago35:36 Would he have done anything differently?36:36 Why you do need some name brand consensus investments37:35 The best advice he gives to emerging managers39:48 The importance of persistence as a competitive advantageI’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Eric. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we are joined by Rabia Iqbal and Jehan Chu of Nural Capital, which is a crypto-focused hybrid firm that invests in both crypto funds and companies. Before starting Nural, Rabia spent time at Coatue and Mubadala, while Jehan is also a partner at blockchain-focused Kenetic Capital and has been one of the early pioneers within the crypto space.Given the dynamic and evolving world of crypto, we had a great conversation on unpacking all angles on crypto including the current winter we are in, the role of governance, and insights on where crypto may go from here.First, a word from our sponsor:Allocate is the digital operating system for investors looking to build and manage world-class private portfolios within venture capital and other technology-focused private assets.Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.Go to allocate.co to apply to be an early-access member and join 500+ active Allocate users.About Rabia Iqbal:Rabia Iqbal is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Nural Capital. She started her career at Morgan Stanley, she had a stop at Coatue Management before joining Mubadala, a sovereign wealth fund. She co-founded Nural in 2021. Rabia got her bachelor’s degree from Cornell.About Jehan Chu:Jehan Chu is the Co-Founder of Nural Capital. He also is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Kenetic, a Blockchain platform focused on technology, advisory, asset management, and community. Jehan has been active in the Blockchain community since 2014, when he founded the Hong Kong Blockchain Meetup and the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong. His experience prior to that was in the art world on the auction-side at Sotheby’s and the acquisition side at Vermillion Art Collections.In this episode we discuss:01:20 How and why Nural Capital was formed05:30 Jehan’s background in Crypto08:58 How this current Crypto Winter is similar and different to ones in the past13:00 Will Crypto be a correlated or non-correlated asset moving forward15:42 Lessons we can take from the high-profile problems in Crypto20:04 How governance and regulation is evolving in Crypto and what is needed25:12 Areas where web3 excels over web 2.028:20 Differences between the early web and where Crypto is today33:23 Who is currently investing in the Crypto space37:46 What does it truly mean to be differentiated in the Crypto market42:20 Areas in the Crypto space where Nural is most bullishI’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Rabia and Jehan. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week brings us Mark Mullen, Co-Founding partner of LA-based seed firm Bonfire Ventures.Bonfire is based in Santa Monica and manages three Venture Capital funds with over $400MM in AUM. Mark spent 20 years as an I-banker before focusing on startup investing in 2012 with Double M capital. Mark has also been an active LP, investing in over 20 managers over the years. On the show, we talked about how he and Jim Andelman (formerly Rincon) decided to join forces to start Bonfire after each running their own VC firms. We also spoke about things like what he looks for in a great manager, his view on the seed market today, and what helped him gain so much early success as a fund manager when he was just getting started.First, a word from our sponsor:Allocate is the digital operating system for investors looking to build and manage world-class private portfolios within venture capital and other technology-focused private assets.Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.Go to allocate.co to apply to be an early-access member and join 500+ active Allocate users.About Mark MullenMark is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Bonfire Ventures. He is also the Founder of the early-stage firm Double M Partners.Prior to his investing career, Mark spent the first 20 years of his career as a telco, cable, and tech M&A investment banker working for Bill Daniels, often referred to as the father of cable TV in the US. He also served as COO of the City of Los Angeles and Senior Advisor to then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.In this episode we discuss:01:12 Mark’s journey to starting Bonfire Ventures and partnering with Jim09:33 How Mark found early success getting into competitive deals12:12 The power of effective scouts17:28 His view on investing in emerging managers23:01 Balancing the Firm’s brand and the individual brands when it comes to building a reputation27:00 Why Mark and Jim decided to partner up and form Bonfire31:30 Why mergers of VC firms are challenging and why raising Fund II will be a huge challenge for emerging managers35:01 How were their conversations with LPs when raising Bonfire when he and Jim decided to join forces?38:40 The health of the seed market in 202242:43 The lesson Mark has taken as his true north in investingI’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Mark. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com