Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers
Venture Unlocked is a podcast that provides a playbook for starting, operating, and scaling a successful venture capital firm. Host Samir Kaji brings over 20 years of experience assisting and advising startups and venture firms. The show offers guidance on VC fund management and operations.
Episodes
Deep Tech Gold Rush: Smart Boom or Future Bust?
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the business of venture capital.In this episode, I’m joined by three deep tech investors and friends of the show, Nate Williams, Sunil Nagaraj, and Guy Perelmuter, for a roundtabl
Betting on Founders Who Build the Real World
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the business of venture capital.In this episode, I sit down with Lior Susan from Eclipse to explore his journey from building companies in the physical world to founding and scali
Unpacking "A Crisis Moment In Seed"
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the business of venture capital.Today, I sat down with Rob Go, Co-Founder and Partner at NextView, to discuss the shift in seed-stage investing and what seed funds need to conside
Platform Shifts, AI, and the Future of Consumer Investing
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the business of venture capital.In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mercedes Bent about her fascinating journey from a tech-driven upbringing to becoming a leadin
The GP of 2030: AI, Automation, and the Future of Capital Formation
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the business of venture capital.In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Robinson, CEO and Co-Founder of Juniper Square. We talked about the evolution of private
Jack Altman on the transition going from building a Unicorn with Lattice to starting a venture firm
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the business of venture capital.In this episode, I sit down with Jack Altman, Managing Partner at Alt Capital. We unpack Jack’s journey from Lattice CEO to venture capitalist. We
How to win in seed stage investing today
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the business of venture capital.In today’s episode, we are joined by Nakul Mandan, who is the founding partner of seed-stage firm Audacious Ventures.Having known Nakul since the e
What is happening in VC today and the role of wealth management in growing the private markets?
I recently joined Turner Novak on The Peel for a conversation about the current state of private markets and the realities facing fund managers and investors today. We discussed why fundraising is particularly difficult right now for both emerging and established venture funds, and examined some of the structural forces driving change across the private investing landscape. I had a lot of fun doin
Navigating growth stage investing in today's AI driven market with Logan Bartlett of Redpoint
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.In this episode, I sat down with Logan Bartlett, Managing Director of Redpoint Ventures. We explore the evolving landscape of venture capital and startup investing and dive deep into the challenges facing unicorn companies post-2021, the transformative potential of AI, and the cr
The New World of VC and Building a Durable Firm with Category Ventures' Villi Iltchev
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome to another episode of Venture Unlocked. In this episode, I had the pleasure of welcoming Villi Iltchev, founder and managing partner of Category Ventures. Villi has had a long history in tech, both in operating roles at companies like Box and Lifelock, as well as investin
The Benchmark Way: Running of an Iconic firm with Victor Lazarte
Today, I sat down with Victor Lazarte, a Benchmark partner who transitioned from founding a billion-dollar mobile gaming company in Brazil to becoming a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley with Benchmark in 2023. Victor shared Benchmark's unique investment philosophy, which focuses on deep, meaningful partnerships with entrepreneurs, with each partner doing only 1-2 deals per year. We also spoke
Tomasz Tunguz on where we are in the AI S-Curve and the Evolving Investment Landscape
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Had a great conversation recently with Tomasz Tunguz Founder and General Partner at Theory Ventures. We dug into how AI is reshaping venture capital and everyday life, from the rapid advancements in the space to what it all means for startups and the broader market. We covered ev
The Solo GP Playbook: Zal Bilimoria on Fundraising, Portfolio Strategy, and Founder Relationships
Follow me @SamirKaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We recently had the pleasure of hosting Zal Bilimoria, Co-Founder of Refactor Capital. Zal has had a fascinating career from building products at Microsoft, Google, Netflix, and LinkedIn to making the leap into being a VC. His story is one of relentless curiosity and a deep passi
The Evolution of building a legacy firm at Venrock with Brian Ascher
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Brian Ascher, a veteran venture capitalist at Venrock, a firm with a storied history dating back to 1969 as part of the Rockefeller family office. Brian, with nearly 30 years in the industry, shared his journey from product management at
Evolving Venture Liquidity Solutions with Gaurav Mathur of Pinegrove Capital Partners
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.In this episode, I have the pleasure of conversing with Gaurav Mathur, Partner at Pinegrove Capital Partners. Together, we dive into the evolving venture capital landscape, focusing on liquidity solutions and the rise of secondary markets. Gaurav shares insights from his extensiv
The blueprint for starting a new firm with Chemistry Ventures, including the work needed before choosing your partners and non-consensus decision making.
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today I’m excited to speak with the founding team of Chemistry, a new venture firm led by Kristina Shen, Ethan Kurzweil, and Mark Goldberg, who recently spun-out of blue chip firms Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer, and Index Ventures, respectively. The firm just announced a signific
Meet the Expert: Venture Fund Banking with Sam Heshmati and Vincent Timoney of Citizens Private Bank
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.In this episode, Sam Heshmati and Vince Timoney from Citizens Private Bank stop by to talk about all things venture banking and how the industry is recovering from the 2023 regional banking crisis.Sam and Vince, both of whom have extensive experience in the banking sector, share
Saga Ventures on key lessons on raising a Fund I, building healthy partnerships, and winning in a competitive seed market
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we welcome the three co-founders of Saga Ventures: Ben Braverman, Thomson Nguyen, and Max Altman. Saga Ventures is a seed-stage investment firm that recently closed its first fund of $125M.The conversation dives into their experiences in raising their first fund, buildi
Building a firm to last, lessons from nearly three decades of investing, and the path to hiring great venture teams with Glenn Solomon of Notable Capital (FKA GGV Capital)
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today we're thrilled to be joined by Glenn Solomon, managing partner at Notable Capital. Along with Granite Asia, Notable Capital was one of two groups to emerge from GGV Capital, which recently split into two groups with Notable based in Silicon Valley, New York, and covering co
Doing a successful GP led secondary in Venture Capital, Why seed funds can scale, and what a good VC platform team looks like
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.In this episode, we are thrilled to be joined by Ben Sun, co-founder of Primary, a seed-stage fund based in New York. Ben shares his journey from investment banking to startup founder, and eventually to co-founding Primary, which has backed companies like Coupang and Jet.Ben prov
Investing in USV Fund I, lessons learned as a LP, and why Emerging Managers are so important
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week I'm excited to sit down with Lindel Eakman from Foundry. Lindel has been an investor in funds and companies since the early 2000s when he started at UTIMCO.In our conversation, Lindel talks about being one of the first investors in Union Square Ventures, his preference
The great startup reckoning event of 2023 and 2024, but why startups should now start going back on offense featuring Tom Loverro of IVP
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Tom Loverro, General Partner at IVP is our guest as part of our Venture Unlocked Shorts series intended to go deep on a single topic.We revisit Tom’s Twitter post from early 2023, which spoke to the market shift that was in motion and the difficulties start-ups would face in a ca
Finding greatness in non-consensus startups, the story of Twitch from Justin.TV, and why great companies need insights and inflection points with Mike Maples
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're re-joined by Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate, this time to discuss his just released new book "Pattern Breakers."Mike was first on the pod in 2021 and it was great to catch up again, this time to discuss the importance of identifying founders who are true pattern breakers. We
TX Zhuo’s of Fika Ventures on raising a Fund I, evolving decision making frameworks, and what founder first means to them
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're joined by TX Zhuo, Co-Founder and General Partner of Fika Ventures. His tech career began in college when he started an online textbook marketplace.After working at McKinsey and as a CFO at an operating company, TX joined Innovation Endeavors. He then co-founded Karlin Vent
Limited Partner Unlocked: Michael Kim Cendana Capital on the Emerging Manager landscape, fundraising, and the need for liquidity
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We are back with another LP-focused episode with Michael Kim, Founder of Cendana Capital. Michael shares how he started Cendana around his thesis (at the time very early) of backing small, emerging managers. This led to early investments in firms such as IA ventures, Forerunner,
Amy Saper of Uncork Capital on how startups should embrace constraints to foster creativity, and her learnings from being at Accel, X, Uber, and Stripe
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We are back with Amy Saper, partner at Uncork Capital. Amy shares her journey from Silicon Valley operator at Twitter and Stripe to venture capitalist. She talks about Uncork’s strategy, including its recent $200 million seed fund and $200 million opportunity fund, and how the fi
LP Unlocked shorts: What We're Hearing about Venture Liquidity with Meghan Reynolds of Altimeter
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today we have another version of Venture Unlocked shorts, and this time it will be focused on topics within the GP/LP world.Joining me again is Meghan Reynolds, who leads capital formation at Altimeter Capital. This time we discuss the significant liquidity challenges in the vent
What's happening at the seed stage? Featuring Jenny Fielding, Kirby Winfield, and Nate Williams
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we're doing another special roundtable discussion with a focus on the seed stage market. Joining us are Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures, Kirby Winfield of Ascend, and Nate Williams of UNION Labs.This whole conversation was focused on seed stage investing. We spent
The Craft of Venture Capital with David Sacks
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We are thrilled to bring you a conversation with David Sacks, Founder and Partner of Craft Ventures. Based in San Francisco, Craft was founded in 2017 and currently has over 3 billion in assets under management.Across the last three decades, David has been incredibly influential
Adam Bain of 01 Advisors on scaling Twitter from 0 to $1B+, being coached by Bill Campbell, and why they don't take board seats
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 pleased to be joined by Adam Bain of 01 Advisors, a San Francisco-based firm with nearly $1 billion under management.Adam and his partners, including Dick Costolo, have taken a very different approach to the venture model, drawing from their experiences as operat
Mitchell Green of Lead Edge Capital on the Moneyball approach to investing, the art of effective cold calling, and managing 700+ strategic LPs
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We have a conversation with Mitchell Green, Founder and Managing Partner at Lead Edge Capital. With offices in New York and Santa Barbara, the firm has over $5B in Assets under management and specializes in helping growth-stage companies scale.The firm has an interesting model th
Limited Partner Unlocked shorts: What we're Hearing from LPs with Meghan Reynolds of Altimeter
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today we have another version of Venture Unlocked shorts, and this time it will be focused on topics within the GP/LP world. Joining me for this around-the-water-cooler recurring series is Meghan Reynolds, who leads capital formation at Altimeter Capital. Meghan recently attended
Khosla Venture's Samir Kaul on building an iconic, durable firm, and the role of non-consensus decision making
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We have a conversation with Samir Kaul from Khosla Ventures. Founded in 2004, Khosla is one of the largest and most well-known venture capital firms in the world and led by legendary investor and entrepreneur Vinod Khosla. The firm is known for investing in companies that are sol
Venture Unlocked Shorts: Looking back the era of Unicorns and what's ahead?
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This is our second episode of Venture Unlocked Shorts where we highlight a specific point of view of our guest. These points of view may come through a tweet, an article, or an offline conversation, and our goal is to unpack these interesting views in a short conversation. In thi
Venture Unlocked Shorts: Why VC has gone mainstream and the parallels to private equity and hedge funds
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.As we continue to grow Venture Unlocked, we are now going to release short conversations highlighting a specific point of view of our guest. These points of views may come through a tweet, an article, or conversation, and our goal is to unpack these interesting views in short for
The opportunity outside of Silicon Valley and how to build a strategic LP base with Brendan Wales and Kellan Carter of FUSE
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We are excited to bring on Brendan Wales and Kellan Carter, Co-Founders and GPs of FUSE. Founded in 2020 with a thesis centered around the growth of the Pacific Northwest ecosystem, a geography both of our guests know well. With its just-announced close of a $250MM Fund 2, FUSE h
Meet The Expert Series: Matt Trotter of Stifel Bank on the state of the venture debt market, and how investors & startups should approach the credit markets today
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this special meet the expert episode, we are discussing the venture debt market with Matt Trotter, a Managing director within Stifel Bank’s Venture division.Stifel Bank was established in St. Louis, MO in 1890 and is an independent investment bank with the mission to help indi
Pejman Nozad of Pear on building a $800MM+ AUM firm as an immigrant who sold Persian rugs before going into VC
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 thrilled to be joined by Pejman Nozad, Co-Founder and GP of Pear VC. Founded in 2013, Pear has scaled to over $800MM in AUM with a powerful engine to help early-stage companies. As many regular listeners of the show know, we often like to highlight managers who h
Paul Kwan of General Catalyst on the importance of innovation in creating global resilience
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're excited to welcome Paul Kwan, Managing Director at General Catalyst (GC). Established in 2000, the firm currently has just under $25 billion in assets under management. GC has made a significant mark in the venture capital landscape, funding dynamic technology and life scie
The Chainsmokers' Alex Pall in crossing over from a grammy nominated group in the music industry to starting Mantis VC
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're thrilled to have Alex Pall, general partner at Mantis VC, a seed and an early stage fund based in LA. Alex is a great example of someone who has made a significant crossover from another industry—he is one half of the award-winning duo of the Chainsmokers, a group that has
Brad Gerstner talks AI, Tech Super cycles vs. Market cycles, and the start of Altimeter as a $3MM fund
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're thrilled to bring on Brad Gerstner, Founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital. Altimeter was first founded in 2008 during the GFC with an initial fund of only $3 Million which Brad raised from friends and family. Today the firm employs both private and public strategies.Altimete
Going back to the foundation of Kleiner Perkins with Mamoon Hamid through clear busines model focus and culture
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We are excited to bring you our latest episode with Mamoon Hamid, Partner at Kleiner Perkins. As many know, Kleiner Perkins, founded over 50 years ago is one of the most storied franchises in the history of venture capital, having backed companies companies such as Genentech, Sun
Special LP roundtable: What are LPs thinking about in Venture with Beezer Clarkson, Guy Perelmuter and Chris Douvos
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're thrilled to bring back three experienced institutional venture LPs with Chris Douvos of Ahoy Capital, Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners, and Guy Perelmuter of GRIDS Capital. When we last convened, it was almost exactly two years ago in October of 2021. We had an inkling
Building competitive moats in VC at Lerer Hippeau with Ben Lerer and Graham Brown
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this week’s show, we’re excited to have Ben Lerer and Graham Brown, Managing Partners at Lerer Hippeau. The firm was founded in New York in 2010 to back early-stage entrepreneurs. Today the firm manages $1.2B and has invested in over 400 companies including Oscar, Buzzfeed, Mi
Building a next-generation tech-enabled Venture Capital firm with Chris Farmer of SignalFire
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're excited to be joined by Chris Farmer, Founder and CEO of SignalFire, a firm that was founded nearly a decade ago with the goal of disrupting the way Venture Capital is done.Unlike traditional VC firms, SignalFire has been built more like a company than a traditional asset m
The art of raising from LPs in an economic downturn with Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today we’re excited to bring Mark Suster back on the pod. Mark is the managing partner of Upfront and also a frequent contributor of great content for the venture ecosystem through his blog, Both Sides of the Table, which I’d highly recommend you subscribe to. Mark and Samir were
Hernan Kazah of Kaszek Ventures on investing in Latin America, learnings from building a public company, and working with founders
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this week’s show, we’re excited to have Hernan Kazah, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Kaszek, one of the largest Latin American firms with nine funds under management. The firm launched in 2011 and over time they’ve made early-stage investments in companies such as Nubank,
Tomasz Tunguz of Theory Ventures on strategically raising a fund in a downturn, Why Firms Need a Business Model, and different views on portfolio construction
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this week’s show we’re excited to have Tomasz Tunguz, Founder of newly formed Theory Ventures. Tomasz spent nearly 15 years at Redpoint Ventures, before recently spinning out to start Theory Ventures. Earlier this year, Theory closed a $230MM fund to back early stage entrepren
Sunil Nagaraj of Ubiquity Ventures on the journey of a solo-GP, The Importance of Authenticity, and Navigating Hype Cycles
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this week’s show, I’m thrilled to be joined by Sunil Nagaraj, Founder of Ubiquity Ventures. Sunil started Ubiquity in 2017 to focus on backing technical founders at the pre-seed and seed stages around a thesis he calls “nerdy and early.” Before starting Ubiquity, Sunil spent j
Oren Zeev on scaling to $2B+ in AUM as a solo-GP, contrarian investing, and high founder NPS
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We’re pleased to welcome Oren Zeev, Founding Partner at Zeev Ventures. Without a doubt, Oren is one of the titans in venture investing with nearly 30 years of experience and one of the most unique. Unlike traditional firms that have achieved scale, Oren remains a solo-GP, and has
Stephanie Palmeri and Melody Koh of NextView Ventures on incentives within venture partnerships, the changes in seed financing, and operating remotely
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We’re joined by Stephanie Palmeri and Melody Koh, Partners at NextView Ventures. Nextview was founded in 2010 and recently raised $200MM for their new set of funds. Located in SF, NY, and Boston, the firm invests all across the US and has invested in over 170 companies at the see
Scott Kupor, Managing Partner of a16z on Building a lasting Venture Franchise
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we’re joined by Scott Kupor, Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Scott was the first employee of the firm alongside Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. He has been instrumental in the firm’s growth to now having north of $35B in AUM. Scott also authored a Wall Street
Fundraising best practices for managers, strategic LP management, and LPACs with Meghan Reynolds of Altimeter
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week on the show we’re joined by Meghan Reynolds, partner and head of capital formation at Altimeter. Founded by Brad Gerstner in 2008, Altimeter has backed companies such as Snowflake, Unity, Gusto, and Modern Treasury. Prior to joining Altimer, Meghan worked in a variety o
Satya Patel and Hunter Walk on learnings from building Homebrew, moving to an evergreen model, and launching Screendoor VC to back underrepresented fund managers
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this week’s show we’re fortunate to be joined by Hunter Walk and Satya Patel, founders of Homebrew, a seed-stage firm founded over a decade ago that’s backed companies such as Chime, AngelList, and Gusto. Just over a year ago, Homebrew announced that it was moving away from a
Portfolio construction trends and best practices with CEO Anubhav Srivastava of Tactyc
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. I started Venture Unlocked to bring more transparency to firm building by bringing on guests whose unique insights and experts could help venture fund managers, limited partners, and founders with their journeys. This week, we have a special guest in Anubhav Srivastava, Founder
Dana Settle on starting and building Greycroft, Maintaining culture and speed with scale, and thoughts on VC moving forward
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week on the show we’re joined by Dana Settle, Co-Founder of Greycroft. Founded in 2006, Greycroft began with a mission to invest in areas outside of Silicon Valley and specifically in NY and LA. The firm currently has over $2B in Assets Under Management, over 60 employees, a
Shuly Galili of UpWest on building lasting partnerships and how they bridged the gap between Israeli founders and the US Market
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 Shuly Galili, Founding Partner of UpWest, an early-stage firm founded in 2012 with her partner Gil Ben-Artzy to invest in seed-stage founders from Israel that are seeking to expand into the US market. UpWest has 4 funds under management and has invested
Ryan Hoover of Weekend Fund and Jordan Gonen of Compound on the rise of private and retail investors into venture capital and alternatives
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 re-joined by friend of the pod Ryan Hoover who is the Managing Partner of Weekend Fund and Jordan Gonen, Co-Founder and CEO of Compound, a fintech platform that provides wealth management and advisory services to founders and employees of startups. This was a spe
Eddy Chan of Intudo Ventures on building a hyper-local venture strategy for Indonesia
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 Eddy Chan, founding partner of Intudo Ventures, which employs a hyper-local strategy by backing entrepreneurs in Indonesia. With over $230M in AUM, the firm has become one of the largest Indonesia-only based firms.Eddy and I had a fun conversation on th
Better Tomorrow Ventures, Jake and Sheel on Investing in FinTech, fund construction, and fundraising lessons
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We are officially 100 episodes in! For our 100th episode, we are joined by the founders of Better Tomorrow Ventures, also known as BTV, Jake Gibson and Sheel Mohnot. BTV is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2019. BTV focuses on early investing in FinTech companies, and ha
Jonathan Abrams, 8-Bit Capital: Learnings from founding and running Friendster, Defining "Founder Friendly", going from Angel to full-time VC
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,
Gautam Gupta from TCV (Velocity) on the trend of large funds going early, the art of pro-rata investing, and what he is seeing in this market cycle
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 Cat
Patrick Chun at Juxtapose: How company creation models and studios work in VC, the squint and wedge framework of investing, and raising from blue-chip institutions
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 a
Valar Ventures Andrew McCormack on running concentrated portfolios with higher ownership vs. larger portfolios, learnings from working with Peter Thiel, and thoughts on valuations today
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 inves
Mapping out a new partnership, why the RAISE GP/LP summit was such an important effort, and the art of fundraising by Joanna Drake of Magnify Ventures
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 G
Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures on angel to 9 time Midas list investor, inception to scale at Felicis, and winning in today's crowded market
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 po
Quid's Josh Berman on providing financings against private stock, "trapped liquidity" at funds, and his learnings from co-founding Myspace.
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 decad
Discovering talent before it's obvious, the challenges of raising a fund I without a traditional pedigree, and startup fund culture with Eric Tarczynski of Contrary
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 s
Evaluating Crypto today, investing in crypto funds, the role of governance in the space featuring Rabia Iqbal and Jehan Chu of Nural Capital
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 Keneti
Mark Mullen of Bonfire Ventures on going from a solo capitalist to joining forces with Jim Andelman, the state of seed markets, and his view on what makes fund managers differentiated
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 Doubl
Ravi Viswanathan of New View Capital on the secondary and growth markets, and raising a unique $1B+ (modified) GP led secondary fund I
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 Ravi Viswanathan, Founder and Managing Partner of NewView Capital, a growth and secondaries focused fund founded in 2018 with over $2.2 billion under management. NVC invests in technology companies through both direct investments and curated portfolio a
The art of pre-seed investing, mitigating investment risk at this stage, and building processes to build a true venture platform with a lean team
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this week’s show, we are excited to be joined by Gaurav Jain, Co-Founder of Afore Capital, one of the largest pre-seed funds in the US with nearly $300MM in AUM across 3 funds. Afore says that no investment is "too early,” and very often investing in companies that are pre-pro
Parade Ventures Shawn Merani on building LP relationships, not focusing on "hot" deals, and his mindset with founders
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On today’s show, we have Shawn Merani, Founder and Managing Partner at seed-stage focused Parade Ventures which recently closed a $40MM+ oversubscribed Fund II. In this episode, we talk about the basics of LP relationship building, founder support during tough times, and his vie
Tusk Venture Partners Jordan Nof: Evolving to an early stage firm, navigating regulatory hurdles for startups, and what the future holds for crypto.
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this week’s episode, we were thrilled to b joined by Jordan Nof, co-founder and managing partner of Tusk Venture Partners.Jordan co-founded the firm in 2015 along with Bradley Tusk to help founders build companies in areas that require regulatory navigation and expertise. The
FPV's Wes Chan on the path to backing 20 unicorns and 5 decacorns, raising a $450MM Fund 1, working closely with Sergey and Larry and Google, and what Bill Campbell taught him about helping founders
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.I’m excited to bring my conversation with Wesley Chan, founder and managing partner of his new fund FPV Ventures, which recently closed an oversubscribed $450M Fund 1. Wes brings a very unique lens to investing as he closely worked with the founders of Google (where founded Googl
Jessica Peltz-Zatulove and Kate Beardsley on closing an oversubscribed $52MM Fund I, the difference between family offices and institutions, secondaries as a foundation of portfolio management
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today we’re thrilled to bring you our conversation with Jessica Peltz-Zatulove and Kate Beardsley, co-founders of Hannah Grey VC. Backed by firms such as Twitter, JP Morgan, Screendoor, Insight Partners, etc. the firm recently announced it’s oversubscribed $52MM seed fund and (13
GGV's Jeff Richards on making sense of the market today, growing a $9B+ firm, and whether geo-political tensions may affect international venture investing
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We have a great conversation on top this week with Jeff Richards, Managing Partner at GGV Capital. Founded in 2000, GGV manages nearly $10B in AUM and invests across stages in both the US and Asia, and has invested in companies such as AirBnB, Wish, Opendoor, and Grab. This was a
Viola Ventures' Danny Cohen on the Israel's exponential growth as a tech hub, building decision frameworks for picking, and managing a firm in a rapidly changing market
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we have Venture Unlocked’s first international manager with Danny Cohen from Israel-based Viola Ventures. Originally founded under the name Carmel Ventures in 2000, Viola currently has over $4B in total assets under management. It’s focused on early-stage companies in t
776's Alexis Ohanian on the new era of VC, using technology in a firm, and things he's most excited about today.
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today I’m thrilled to bring you my conversation with Alexis Ohanian, founder of stage-agnostic firm Seven Seven Six, which was founded in 2020 and has over $750MM in AUM today. Many know Alexis from his experience as co-founding both Reddit and later Initialized Capital. There ar
8VC's Drew Oetting on their decision-making culture, building talent at firms, and his most critical learnings as an investor
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week I’m happy to bring you my conversation with Drew Oetting, founding partner of 8VC, an Austin/SF/NY-based firm that he co-founded in 2015. Today the firm has >$3B in AUM, and has invested in companies such as Blend Labs, Addepar, Flexport, Oscar, and Hims. About Drew Oet
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