The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: David Goldberg Sach Chitnis Kane Hsieh Reid Christian Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.

Brendan Wallace of Fifth Wall joins Nick to discuss How COVID Has Instigated a Massive Demographic Reshuffling, Accelerating the Transformation of Retail, and Why Real Estate Will Become the Largest Consumer of Climate Tech. In this episode, we cover: The world becomes more flat over time, and w/ mobility tech, like Uber and others, the distance between points shortens over time, which all fundamentally disrupts urban planning of the cities themselves but also the suburbs and beyond... now we're in a situation where a wild card factor comes into play... this pandemic... that has altered how people live and work more fundamentally than ever expected? First off... trends where you will deploy dollars? Do we go back to a primarily in-office environment post-covid? why or why not? Have you seen more value creation or more value destruction, in real estate, from the pandemic? What strategies will cities implement to stay competitive post-covid? We have a new administration in office... How do you think this affects real estate and your strategy at Fifth Wall? Climate issues and the net carbon effect of construction on the planet... is technology the primary solution to these issues, or is it even more basic than that? Financial side or real estate, construction and AEC side, there's the post-construction in-service opportunities/retrofits for buildings whether residential, commercial or industrial... what part are you spending the most time in and do you feel there's the biggest gap between current state and desired state? What are the most common mistakes founders make when building in this sector?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Ben Casnocha Elizabeth Yin Ed Sim Tim Guleri Each investor discusses sectors, drivers and/or trends that may have significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.

Paul Martino of Bullpen Capital joins Nick to discuss Doubling Down on Data to Discover Overlooked Founders, Teaching and Coaching CEOs, & Bullpen's Approach to Measuring Fund Success. In this episode, we cover: Can you first refresh us on the thesis at Bullpen and then maybe give us an update on the firm over the past three years? How do you define post-seed today... and is it moving as other stages have? Are you still one of the few specialized at post-seed or have you seen increasing competition? Is there still a strong emphasis on metrics and using the data as an early filter of deals? How are you using data to source? What do you look for in founders? Why are you committed to coaching/supporting companies? We all know the scorecard of success in VC... DPI, TVPI, IRR, PME, etc... what are the leading indicators of success that you measure and manage to make sure you're driving success in those metrics. You are a founder yourself, what advice would you give to founders right now that are building during the Coronavirus Recession Wrote article: "The 2008 Recession Saved Our Company. The Coronavirus Recession Might Save Yours, Too" Let's say you have a chance to speak w/ a younger Paul, circa 2010... what advice to give? What does the underdog founder look like? or What do you look for in founders? What's broken in the venture ecosystem? This question is called three data points. I'm going to give you a hypothetical situation w/ a startup and you can ask three questions for three specific data points. Let's say you're approached to invest in a post-seed stage SaaS startup... The founder does not come from big tech. Her HQ is in St. Louis The sector is retail. They launched 12 months ago. and they currently have $80k MRR. Again, the catch is, you can only ask 3 questions for 3 specific data points, in order to make your decision. What three questions do you ask?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Niko Bonatsos Niki Pezeshki Farooq Abbasi Jaclyn Hester Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.

Alfred Chuang of Race Capital joins Nick to discuss The Next Generation of Tech & Venture Capital from the Perspective of a Unicorn Founder Turned GP. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What's the thesis at Race Capital? Why did you name your fund Race Capital? I want to talk a bit about open source... there seem to be wildly differing takes on this but what is your opinion of for profit tech companies building products on open source architecture and, in some cases, just reskinning open source tech w/ a UI and selling for profit? As we evolve to an increasingly cloud-first technology environment, what does it mean as we transition from a hybrid (onprem, cloud) approach to cloud only? How does edge computing reconcile with this future cloud-only environment? On the data side... Do you think we move to a Unified Data Infrastructure Architecture in the future? Transition a bit to talk more about your journey... I want to talk a bit about BEA Systems... sounds like an amazing journey and a great outcome. What is your biggest regret looking back (if any)? Ultimately, why do you think entrepreneurs choose you over other firms? What's your opinion on valuation and, as things have gotten more competitive, firms bidding price up and founders really optimizing for valuation at the early stages? Is Silicon Valley's exodus real? Will these SPAC deals blow up?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Erik Torenberg Maren Bannon Shawn Carolan Lanham Napier Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

Monique Woodard of Cake Ventures joins Nick to discuss The "Three Layer Cake" Fund, How Personal Experience Drives Your Investment Lens, The Future of Tech for the Aging Population, & How a Solo GP Can Do it All. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What's the thesis at Cake Ventures? You have a strong focus on looking for startups that are addressing the needs of a world undergoing massive demographic changes. Talk to us a bit about how you approach investing in demographic change? What sort of demographic changes do you believe will have opportunities? Were you surprised to see Baby Boomers dominating online shopping? What is it like being a solo GP? What are the pros and cons? How do you replicate and try to scale yourself? Context switching is often cited as the hardest thing about what we do. Talk us through your schedule and how you manage context switching? This question is called three data points. I'm going to give you a hypothetical situation w/ a startup and you can ask three questions for three specific data points. Let's say you are approached to invest in a consumer social business with 100k MAUs, and 20% MoM growth for the last 3 months. The catch is you can only ask for 3 data points to make your decision. What 3 questions do you ask?

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Lo Toney Stephen McIntyre Eric Collins Trae Vassallo Each investor describes the most unusual situation or pitch that they've encountered as an investor.

David Goldberg of Alpaca VC joins Nick to discuss Staying Competitive in the Seed Fund Boom, Success Metrics at the Fund Level, and the Shifting Equilibrium of Investors and Founders. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC Tell us about your shift from law to finance and to becoming a founder of FreshNeck? What's the thesis at Alpaca VC? Talk to us about your Field Studies and why you do them. How do you develop a thesis on consumer behavior, trends, and how they will evolve in the coming years? Similar to us you do a lot of OKR and KPI measurement and tracking as a firm... what are some of the most important metrics you track that should ultimately lead to the right progress? What about w/ the portfolio companies? Do you have systems and processes on the front-end, pre-investment You are a remote team of fund managers in NY, CO, and FL... what are the advantages and drawbacks for startups with w/ remote teams? Do you think the center of gravity is shifting away from the Valley? You recently invested $2.5M of your personal capital into 6 Black and Latin fund managers - what drove this decision? What are your thoughts on Carta X and new liquidity for late-stage equity?