Fireside with a VC
Andrew Romans, General Partner of 7BC Venture Capital, hosts conversations with venture capitalists, founders, and others in the startup ecosystem. The show covers venture capital, startups, entrepreneurship, technology, corporate venture capital, and large technology companies. Romans is also a three-time author and university professor. Episodes explore the people and ideas shaping the VC and startup world.
Episodes
E135: Category Creators—The Secret to Venture Success | Eric Ver Ploeg of Tunitas Ventures
E135: Category Creators—The Secret to Venture Success | Eric Ver Ploeg of Tunitas VenturesWhat separates an innovative startup from a true category creator?In this episode of Fireside with a VC, Andrew Romans speaks with Eric Ver Ploeg, founder and managing partner of Tunitas Ventures, about identifying startups capable of creating entirely new markets—and generating exceptional venture returns.Dr
E134 Partnering with VCs on Pro Rata Equity Rights - Sharing Economics with VCs on their best deals
🚀 Are you a VC or angel investor? Let’s partner.7BC Venture Capital is actively partnering with venture capital funds and angel investors across four key areas:🤝 PRO RATA CO-INVESTMENTSHave a breakout portfolio company raising its next round? We can provide capital to help you exercise your pro rata rights, while sharing economics with you.💰 VC SECONDARIES Looking to generate liquidity or return c
E133: Exploring Sports Tech & Founders' Relationships with Chris Wilkerson of 51 Ventures
E133: In this episode of Fireside with the VC, Andrew Romans is joined by Chris Wilkerson, founder and GP of 51 Ventures. They discuss the booming sports tech industry, the importance of relationships in the sports ecosystem, and how understanding industry language is critical for venture success. Whether you're interested in sports technology, venture capital, or relationship-building, this e
E132 INFORMATION RIGHTS: The Clause That Saves Founders | Arthur Bavelas + Andrew Romans
The one clause most founders forget to negotiate — and the family-office investor who's quietly used it for decades to protect capital and engineer better exits.Andrew Romans (7BC Venture Capital) sits down with Arthur Bavelas, founder of Family Office Insights, to unpack information rights — the deceptively simple legal provision that decides who gets paid, who gets stuck, and who actually ge
Building the Future of Manufacturing with AI – Insights from Tyson Tuttle (former CEO of $8B acquisition of Austin’s Silicon Labs)
Fireside with a VC E131: Discover how Tyson Tuttle, CEO of Circuit AI, is leveraging AI to revolutionize manufacturing, supply chain, and enterprise workflows. This conversation covers strategic company growth, technological innovation, and the future trajectory of AI-enabled industrial solutions.· Tyson Tuttle's journey from semiconductor leadership to AI entrepreneurship· The application of
E130: VC Secondaries — ROFRs, SPVs, Fees, and How Not to Get Blocked
In this episode of Fireside with a VC, Andrew Romans explains how VC secondaries really work in large private companies — and how buyers and sellers can avoid common mistakes.We cover:· Secondaries vs. primaries· Stock transfer permissions and why deals get blocked· ROFRs and the ROFR price· Direct to cap table vs. layered SPV structures· How to calculate the all-in cost (with or without carry)· F
E129 — Silicon Valley Real Estate – Selling Google their first building - Barry DiRaimondo, CEO, SteelWave
E129 — Silicon Valley Real Estate – Selling Google their first building - Barry DiRaimondo, CEO, SteelWave In this episode of Fireside with a VC, I sit down with Barry DiRaimondo to understand the history, present and future of Silicon Valley real-estate market from a lifetime veteran who sold Google their first building. The story of selling Google their HQ buildingIs Commercial RE a hard asset,
E128 — Biju Ashokan (CEO, Radius): AI-native operating system for real estate brokers
In this episode of Fireside with a VC, I sit down with Biju Ashokan, CEO of Radius, to unpack how AI and automation are reshaping the real estate agent workflow—from lead to close. We discuss: · How AI and automation can help agents buy or sell five times more properties per year (in the right operating model).· What an “always-on” assistant looks like: proactively sourcing inventory, matching buy
E127 AI-native all-in-one CRM | Simo Lemhandez, CEO, Folk on Fireside with a VC
In this episode of Fireside with a VC, I sit down with Simo Lemhandez, CEO, Folk We discuss:CRM built today with native-AI technology.How one CRM draws data from email, CRM, WhatsApp, meeting notes and more.Integrating data enrichment, mining your data, sending email sequences and follow up reminders all in one dynamic application.How CRM can become a virtual assistant.Allowing CRM to do much of y
E126| Fabrice Grinda, General Partner, FJ Labs | AI valuations angel at scale
In this episode of Fireside with a VC, I sit down with FabriceGrinda, founder of FJ Labs investing in seed at scale : 3 investments per weekWe discuss:Valuations of AI Seed to Series A startupsAll things market places, take rates, valuations, exitsSecondaries, how to sell, when and how muchTake rates and how to layer revenue on a marketplaceWhy the seed VC market outperforms the growth market Glob
E125 | Arvin Grover, General Partner, Digital Health Venture Partners – AI in Healthcare
In this episode of Fireside with a VC, I sit down with Arvin Grover, General Partner at Digital Health Venture Partners (DHVP), to dive into how AI is reshaping healthcare and where the biggest opportunities are for founders and investors.We discuss:· Why roughly 22% of the healthcare sector has adopted AI compared to 9% in the broader economy· The most compelling use cases for AI across the healt
How VC Fund of Funds (FoF) Work
This video explains how a VC Fund of Funds (FoF) works. It explains how we raise LP capital from investors, how cash is paid into the fund and how cash is paid back to LPs. I explain how the management fees and carry work, how this compares to a classic VC fund that invests directly in startups, how the risk is lower, how the payments back to LPs are expected to be much steadiers, multiples, and o
How Venture Capital Funds Work
This video / episode is NOT for my usual audience, but explains how venture capital works to someone who is new to VC. We recently had new LPs invest in our VC funds, and they were not clear about how VC differs from a hedge fund. They were not clear on how they pay their cash into the fund, how the management fees and carry / performance fee work, and how we make cash distributions back to them,
E124 | John Frankel of ff Venture Capital on AI Point Solutions (AIPS), Energy, Manufacturing & Fund Size Strategy
In this episode of Fireside with a VC, I sit down with John Frankel, founder and partner at ff Venture Capital, to discuss:· The rise of AI Point Solutions (AIPS)· ff VC’s new fund driving innovation in energy and manufacturing· How VC fund size and strategy influence performance across different economic cyclesJohn shares insights on how targeted AI solutions and sector-focused innovation can rej
E123 7BC’s Fund of Funds + Cherry-Pick Direct VC Strategy + Invitation to 7BC VC-LP-Startup Events
7BC’s Fund of Funds + Cherry-Pick Direct VC Strategy (and why now) + Invitation to 7BC VC-LP-Startup EventsLearn how 7BC combines a Fund of Funds (FoF) with a Cherry Pick Direct VC strategy to back top-decile managers and invest directly in their best companies—unlocking liquidity with secondaries so VCs can return cash to LPs faster.What you’ll learn• Why FoF + Direct VC now• The best VCs from th
E122 Fireside Chat at Global VC Demo Day London June 2025 with Neil Foster & Scott Smedresman
E122 Fireside Chat at Global VC Demo Day London June 2025 with Neil Foster & Scott Smedresman on Fireside with a VC. Discussing the changes and market dynamics of the VC startup ecosystems in London, New York, and Silicon Valley. What has changed and how should strategies adjust?🚀 VCs: Pitch your fund to LPs forfree at the Global VC Demo Day: https://www.7bc.vc/events📺 Watch the full episode o
E121 Mark Terbeek, Partner at Greycroft, Founder-Investor-Fit on Fireside with a VC
E121 Mark Terbeek, Partner at Greycroft, talking about founder-investor-fit on Fireside with a VC. One of the keys to success is carefully selecting your investors, building a well-functioning board of directors and managing these long-term relationships. How to evaluate VCs and create founder-investor fit and maintain this over time even if the board member from the venture firm changes and you b
E120 Future of finance, banking, payments w/ Greg Kidd, legendary Silicon Valley investor & founder
Greg Kidd on Fireside with a VC. Greg recently acquired VastBank | Fintech Pioneer | Early Investor: Twitter, Square, Coinbase, Solana | Ex-Ripple (#10) | Built & Scaled First Company to IPO | Co-Founder, GlobaliD | CEO, USBC | Ex Federal Reserve | Former roommate with Jack Dorsey. Greg and I get into a few topics, including all things related to the future of finance, banking, payments, USDC
E119 – Terzo: AI Startup Selling into the Fortune 500 with Brandon Card
How can AI help enterprises unlock valuable insights hidden in tens of thousands of contracts, invoices, and financial documents? Terzo is using AI to revolutionize enterprise data mining, tackling the complex world of Fortune 500 sales. With 90% of global IT spend concentrated in the Fortune 100, is it possible to build a multi-billion-dollar company without selling into the Fortune 500? We break
E118 Voice AI with Phonely.ai CEO Will Bodewes on Fireside with a VC
E118 Voice AI with Phonely.ai CEO Will Bodewes on Fireside with a VC discussing how the Voice AI space is evolving so quickly to integrate into existing systems and workflows of the HIPAA compliant front desk at a medical clinic or large call center delivering huge cost savings, rapidly increasing revenues, and providing a much better level of service with automated switching into most spoken lang
E117 How to Develop Business Relationships w/ CEO of 4Degrees
E117 How to develop business relationships on Fireside with a VC with Ablorde Ashigbi, CEO of 4Degrees and the host of the podcast The Relationship Edge.
Links and Resources:
Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5WN6hGo17XI.
Find all episodes of Fireside with a VC on your favorite podcast platform: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/FiresideVC.
Learn more about 4Degrees: h
E116 Nada CityFunds a new way to own real estate w/ Tore Steen
E116 Nada CityFunds, a new way to own real estate, w/ CEO Tore Steen on Fireside with a VC. Tore is the CEO of Nada which operates CityFunds. Nada helps homeowners and individual investors solve the challenge of accessing and investing in home equity by providing a platform for home equity investment without additional debt or monthly payments. Homeowners sell a home share in exchange for cash and
E115 Intel Capital, Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) putting the silicon back in Silicon Valley
E115 Intel Capital, Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) putting the silicon back in Silicon Valley, Jennifer Ard, Managing Director, Head of Investment Operations at Intel Capital
Links and Resources:
Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kzB5m6ViVzE.
Find all episodes of Fireside with a VC on your favorite podcast platform: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/FiresideVC.
Learn more
E114 How Antler became the most active VC globally so quickly
E114 How Antler became the most active VC globally so quickly – Anthony Millet, Partner & Co-Head Antler Capital, on Fireside with a VC
Anthony Millet discusses how Antler quickly became the most active VC globally since founding in 2018 with a team of 300 investing in 500 startups per year out of offices in 30 cities on 6 continents. Pre-Seed to Series A and beyond. Meet Anthony Millet in pe
E113 AI for VC Fund Admin, Compliance, Tax & Portfolio Construction: pay less perform better
E113 Zive AI CEO Rajesh Gopi on Fireside with a VC explaining how his firm has applied AI to revolutionize venture capital admin, compliance, LP reporting, interacting with portfolio companies, LPs, portfolio construction, and, how to hit your IRR, DPI, and TVPI targets and so much more. The days of running a VC without AI are over.
Links and Resources:
Watch the full episode on YouTube: https:
E112 K&L Gates Navigating Term Sheets
E112 A walk through an NVCA VC Term Sheet for a Series A funding round with Jason Putnam Gordon, legendary Silicon Valley VC lawyer and Partner at K&L Gates, one of the premier VC-focused law firms. This episode literally walks through every term in a term sheet with a lawyer and VC discussing each term, explaining what they mean, and which ones are worth fighting for. Lawyers like Jason can b
E111 Breakup big tech monopolies? Nava VC & Stanford Prof Manish Patel
E111 Breaking up big tech monopolies on Fireside with a VC speaking with Manish Patel, founder of Nava Ventures, a $175m VC fund in San Francisco, Teaching Faculty at Stanford University, early Googler, and former General Partner at Highland Capital Partners. Talking about his history at Google pre-IPO and the current state of monopolies with Google, Apple and Microsoft and what should regulators
E110 Austin, TX Venture Capital, ATX Ventures Chris Shonk
E110 Austin, Texas Venture Capital on Fireside with a VC speaking with Chris Shonk, cofounder and Managing Director of ATX Venture Partners. Discussing the evolution of Austin as a tech corridor from early semiconductors to IBM, Tivoli, and a string of startup hits early days of VC here and how Austin founders had term sheets from Silicon Valley requiring relocation to California in the old days a
E109 Pre-Seed VC RSCM, 2k+ investments since 2012
E109 Pre-Seed venture capital on Fireside with a VC speaking with David Lambert, Cofounder, Right Side Capital Management (RSCM) one of the most active pre-seed or pre-VC investors in Silicon Valley and across the US and Canada.
Links and Resources:
Watch the full episode on
YouTube: https://youtu.be/cspNXaMmorI.
Find all episodes of Fireside
with a VC on your favorite podcast platform: https
E108 Morgan Stanley Funding African American, Latino & Woman Startups
E108 Fireside with a VC speaking with Alice Vilma, Managing Director and Co-Head of The Next Level Fund at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Alice explains how the Next Level Fund looks to promote financial inclusion and provide founders of tech and tech-enabled startups with much-needed access to investors—along with the tools, resources and connections they need to grow and thrive. We discus
E107 Scenario Planning for China & Asia, Silicon Valley & China
E107 In this episode of Fireside with a VC, we discuss scenario planning for China & Asia and the relationship with Silicon Valley. We explore future opportunities with Francis Bassolino, Managing Director of Alaris Consulting, who has been helping companies of all sizes enter, succeed, and exit China over a span of 30+ years. Francis is also an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago B
E106 Ex-Head of Eric Schmidt’s Family Office, CFO of Sybase, Excite@Home, Siebel, Fortinet, Yahoo!
E106 Fireside with a VC speaking with Ken Goldman, former President of Eric & Wendy Schmidt’s family office, former CFO of Yahoo!, Fortinet, Siebel Systems (acquired by Oracle), Excite@Home, Sybase, and Cypress Semiconductor. Discussed the changes in VC, going public and the reasons companies should go public again, the problems secondaries for founders create, how to leave a company ethically
#105 Ex-President of TiE Silicon Valley, Chair of TiE Global, founder of Monta Vista Capital, Seed VC
E105 Fireside with a VC speaking with Venktesh (Venk) Shukla founder of Monta Vista Capital and former President of TiE Silicon Valley, Chair of TiE Global. Venk explains the core values and magic of TiE. We discuss what Venk learned from making his first 20 investments and how he developed his framework for his Monta Vista Capital seed stage VC fund and how he invests in pre-revenue and very earl
#104 Tax secretes for founders & tech execs RSUs, AMT, ISO, 83(b) elections
E104 Fireside with a VC speaking with Bruce Barton, founder of Parkworth, Wealth Management for Tech Professionals in Silicon Valley and the author of Author of Personal Finance for Tech Professionals In Silicon Valley and Beyond. Discussing tax and personal finance issues specific to employees and founders of publicly traded and privately held tech startups and how equity compensation can get rat
#103, Cut costs, grow revs, raise or not raise more VC – Canadian episode!
#103 Every CANADIAN startup or investor should listen to this episode! Fireside with a VC speaking with Kevin Kliman CEO of Humi discussing getting healthy lowering costs, maintaining growth, the tradeoffs to consider raising a growth VC funding round or not, and when to raise. Discussing Humi’s business which is processing $4.5bn CAD of payroll every 4.5 months. Humi is the payroll, benefits, &am
#102, Revolution Ventures, Tige Savage cofounded w/ Steve Case
Episode #102 Fireside with a VC speaking with Tige Savage who cofounded Revolution with Steve Case, founder of AOL – America Online, one of the biggest internet companies in history reaching a peak market cap of $200bn dominating email, internet connectivity, online news, and chat. Tige discusses all things venture capital with a wealth of multi-decade experience covering a wide area of topics on
#101, Andrew Romans on American Dreams Show with Alen Olsen
Fireside with a VC episode #101, Andrew Romans on The American Dreams Show with Alan Olsen discussing the future of venture capital covering Seed to Late Seed & Series A and Late Stage Growth VC and what has changed over the past few decades.
Alan Olsen is a fixture in Silicon Valley and cofounder of GROCO Family Office Advisors, Advisors to the Ultra Affluent and organizer of Legacy Builder
#100, Calculating valuations & how much capital to raise, Vibhor Rastogi, Global Head of AI investments at Citi Ventures
Fireside with a VC episode #100 speaking with Vibhor Rastogi, Global Head of AI investments at Citi Ventures, discussing how to determine startup valuations and how much capital a startup should raise. How much to raise should be driven by enough time runway to achieve the next key milestone to unlock the next funding round - be that product, revenue, users or other measurable business milestone K
#99, Using retirement IRA accounts to invest in VC funds w/ Matthew Calhoun at Equity Trust
Fireside with a VC episode #99 speaking with Matthew Calhoun, director at Equity Trust, formerly Midland Trust Company, discussing the benefits of investing into alternative assets such as venture capital funds using your self-directed IRA dollars. What is a Self-Directed IRA and what is different from other retirement accounts? What are the requirements, terms, and cost for this, and how long doe
#98, How much funding to raise at what valuation with Eric Ver Ploeg, Founding Partner, Tunitas Ventures
Fireside with a VC episode #98 speaking with Eric Ver Ploeg, Founding Partner of Tunitas Ventures about key data and trends in the US tech Series A fundraising environment as well as specifics about how much cash funding a startup should raise at pre-Seed, Late-Stage Seed and Series A as well as the many other considerations with regards to terms and legal structures do’s and don’ts.
Eric Ver P
#97, The future of AI with Igor Jablokov, CEO of Pryon $159m VC funding
Fireside with a VC episode #97 speaking with Igor Jablokov, CEO of Pryon $159m VC funding and founder and CEO of Yap, which Igor sold to Amazon which became the nucleus of Amazon’s Alexa & Fire TV. Pryon was the code name for Alexa. Discussing the evolution of humanity with AI, risks of AI, what we need or should expect with regulations, where innovation is happening, what are the OSI layers o
#96, Legal terms, governance & valuations for up, flat & down rounds with Fenwick’s Kristine Di Bacco
Fireside with a VC episode #96 speaking with Kristine Di Bacco, Partner at law firm Fenwick, discussing tough terms for startups in the context of flat and down rounds as well as more punishing terms for startups. What is common and expected in today’s market for up, flat, down rounds as well as convertible notes and SAFEs? Planning today’s current round in a way to set a precedent for the next fu
Episode #95, M12 Microsoft’s Venture Fund, Peter Berg, Managing Director
Episode #95, Peter Berg, one of two Managing Directors leading M12 Microsoft’s Venture Fund, discusses with Andrew Romans on Fireside with a VC how Microsoft is investing in early-stage startups in B2B SaaS, AI, web3/crypto, and gaming. How the $2.776 trillion dollar conglomerate can add value to startups in a way no other VC can match.
Find this and all full episodes for Fireside with a VC on
Episode #94, Business with China now and in 2024
Episode #94, Why is China the way it is, what’s happened, and how is China interacting with the rest of the world from a startup & VC perspective? Jonathan Bench, a China expert, practicing lawyer in the region, and active for over 20 years in the market, discusses with Andrew Romans on Fireside with a VC:
• What led up to the decoupling with China and how North American, European and Japanese
Episode #93, VC Panel Part Questions from Audience @7BC San Francisco Event Nov. 14, 2023
Episode #93, VC Panel Part Questions from Audience @7BC San Francisco Event Nov. 14, 2023
VC Panel
*Benjamin D. Black, Co-founder and Managing Director, Akkadian Ventures
*Victoria Cheng, Partner, PruVen Capital
*Carolin Funk, Partner, Blue Bear Capital
*Vibhor Rastogi, Global Head of AI/ML/Data Investments, Citi Ventures
*Ben Levy, Cofounder, BootstrapLabs
*Andrew Romans, General Partner, 7BC Ven
Episode #92, VC Panel Part I @7BC San Francisco event Nov 14, 2023
Episode #92, Part I of the VC Panel at the 7BC Venture Capital San Francisco event Nov 14, 2023
*Benjamin D. Black, Co-founder and Managing Director, Akkadian Ventures
*Victoria Cheng, Partner, PruVen Capital
*Carolin Funk, Partner, Blue Bear Capital
*Vibhor Rastogi, Global Head of AI/ML/Data Investments, Citi Ventures
*Ben Levy, Cofounder, BootstrapLabs
*Andrew Romans, General Partner, 7BC Ventu
Episode #91, VC Panel Part II @7BC San Francisco event Nov 14, 2023
Episode #91, Part II of the VC Panel at the 7BC Venture Capital San Francisco event Nov 14, 2023
*Benjamin D. Black, Co-founder and Managing Director, Akkadian Ventures
*Victoria Cheng, Partner, PruVen Capital
*Carolin Funk, Partner, Blue Bear Capital
*Vibhor Rastogi, Global Head of AI/ML/Data Investments, Citi Ventures
*Ben Levy, Cofounder, BootstrapLabs
*Andrew Romans, General Partner, 7BC Vent
Episode #90, Down rounds & pay-to-pay provisions, raising at a lower valuation
Episode #90, Down rounds & pay-to-pay provisions, raising at a lower valuation on Fireside with a VC
Ben Kern, Partner at Winston & Strawn LLP, corporate securities veteran, discusses the details of how startups raise funding in down rounds at lower valuations than the last funding round as well as more punitive financings that cram down or wipe out existing investors that do not Pay-to-
Episode #89, Jarred Kessler, CEO, EasyKnock fintech, real-estate tech
Episode #89, Jarred Kessler, CEO, EasyKnock fintech, real-estate tech, 15th largest home owner in the US
Discussing the dynamics of inflation, interest rates and the volatile US residential real-estate market;
Running a New York fintech / real-estate startup before, during, and after Covid;
Raising over $120m of equity funding and $600m of debt financing;
How they became the 15th larges
#88, QSBS not paying tax on capital gains
Episode #88, Everything you need to know about Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS), the exemption that allows investors in startups or investors in VC funds that invest in startups to NOT pay capital gains tax on the greater of the first $10m of capital gains or 10x the cost basis (what you paid for the stock). A discussion of what qualifies and what does not, how this plays with the amount of f
Episode #87, Lessons from new book “Smart Startups” interviews w/ Blue Apron & 17 other VC backed startups
Episode #87 Discussion with Catalina Daniels and James Sherman, authors of Smart Startups: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know-Advice from 18 Harvard Business School Founders published today by Harper Business. This book has 18 interviews with a compelling list of founders that all raised VC funding and managed to get to an exit via M&A or IPO. The authors and interviewees can be forgiven fo
Episode #86 Flint Capital investing in Israeli startups coming to the USA
Episode #86 Flint Capital investing in Israeli startups
coming to the USA
Fireside with a VC speaking with Andrew Gershfeld at Flint Capital based in Boston and Tel Aviv talking about funding and supporting Israeli startups and helping them grow into large US companies.
Find this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3sEIYeIri_E.
Find this and all episodes for Fireside with a VC here: https://p
Episode #85 Building startups on SalesForce – Place RevOps automation and connectivity
Episode #85 Building startups on SalesForce – Place RevOps automation and connectivity
Fireside with a VC talking to Brandon Metcal, CEO of Place, about
RevOps (revenue operations) to solve financial forecasting and cash management with sales starting in 2020. Also discussing automating and synchronizing sales to finance, to human resources and other components to streamline SaaS companies that
#84 Flipping Your Business into the United States w/ Roger Royse
Fireside with a VC discussing flipping your business into a US Delaware C corporation from outside of the US. Many startups and teams are born in Europe, South East Asia, Middle East, Africa, LatAm, Canada and everywhere and need to consider if they should flip to the US and if yes, technically how to do it. Considerations on attracting new investors from the US vs the country in which the busines
#83, Aiden software automation & cybersecurity SaaS company for enterprises
Fireside with a VC discussing how technology has evolved from mainframe-dumb terminal architecture to client-server architecture and making sure that all the right software is on each endpoint, making sure each endpoint is configured correctly, quickly, and efficiently, making sure cybersecurity attacks do not happen, and if they do rapidly rebuild from ransomware for new clients, eliminate vulner
#82, Understanding pre & post SAFEs, convertible notes vs priced rounds with Daniel Zimmermann, Partner, WilmerHale
#82, Understanding pre & post SAFEs, convertible notes
vs priced rounds with Daniel Zimmermann, Partner, WilmerHale
Fireside with a VC is hosting a series of discussions on specific legal topics with the best lawyers from Silicon Valley and around the world. This episode is designed to help founders, VCs, advisors and supporters of startups understand everything they need to know and all th
#81, Sway Ventures, Brian Nugent, Founding General Partner
Fireside with a VC hosting Brian Nugent, Founding General Partner
of Sway Ventures at Professor Romans’ class on VC at Chapman University. Discussing a wide range of topics including:
· Brian’s path to VC from Cisco to startups to venture
capital.
· Career advice for junior and senior folks to
break into a career in venture capital.
· ESG, women and minorities in venture.
· How venture capital
#80, neonVest – how to instantly get Zooms with VCs & Superchargers
Fireside
with a VC speaking with Aakash Shah and Surya Viswanathan, the founders of
neonVest, how their platform is democratizing access to VCs for early-stage
startups. NeonVest allows founders to instantly get Zooms with VCs, successful
founder operators and other superchargers to help with funding, refining and
improving their pitch, company strategy, financial model, SaaS metrics, exit pre
#79, Band of Angels - Round table discussion with one of Silicon Valley’s most active angel groups
Fireside with a VC diving into a round table discussion with The Band of Angels, one of the oldest and most active angel groups in Silicon Valley covering the current seed and early stage investing and fundraising market environment and conditions. How are valuations and terms changing, the importance of QSBS tax and when to use priced rounds, convertible notes and the dangers of SAFE notes.
Di
#78, Jack Guedj, Band of Angels, one of Silicon Valley’s oldest & most active angel groups
#78, Jack Guedj, Band of Angels, one of Silicon Valley’s oldest
& most active angel groups
Fireside with a VC diving into current seed and early stage
investing and fundraising market environment and conditions. How are valuations and terms changing, the importance of QSBS tax and when to use convertible notes and the dangers of SAFE notes.
Next episode #79 includes the roundtable discuss
#77, Andrew Romans talking startup valuations and the current environment for VC financings w/ generative AI w/ US Angels Group
Episode #77 of Fireside with a VC, talking startup valuations and the current environment for VC financings as well as the impact of generative AI on startups, angels, VCs and LPs with U.S. Angels, one of the most active investor groups in the U.S. and an LP in 7BC Venture Capital.
· How to price the pre-money valuation for a startup?
· How much cash should a startup raise in its next round?
·
#74, Charles Hudson, Managing Partner, Precursor Ventures on Generative AI
Episode
#74, Charles Hudson, Managing Partner, Precursor Ventures on Generative AI
*Discussing how investors and founders can think about new generative
AI startups that appear to have build products in days or weeks compared to
years.
*What this new technology means for developing moats or barriers to
entry for startups that can create working products so quickly.
*Early days of emerging m
#76, Claus Skaaning, CEO of DigiShares tokenizing real estate assets
Episode #76, Claus Skaaning, CEO of DigiShares tokenizing real estate assets
· Discussing tokenization of real estate and other assets via white label solutions as well as launching their own real estate crypto exchange in the US and Europe enabling users to not touch crypto on or off ramps with everything working legally, licensed and compliantly.
· Why tokenization is important?
· How it lower
#75, Hadley Harris, cofounder, ENIAC Ventures, NYC Seed Fund
Episode #75, Hadley Harris, cofounder, ENIAC Ventures, NYC Seed Fund
· Discussing strategies for Seed investment as well as Opportunity Funds for doubling down in winners.
· How much diversification is required for optimal risk mitigation and impact of winners to fund results
· Evolution of the New York startup ecosystem over the past 13 years since ENIAC’s first fund
· Acquisition market in New Y
Episode #73, VC Insight Panel, 7BC Event NYC March 7 2023
Recording of the VC Insight Panel at the sold out 7BC Venture Capital event in New York City at Pillsbury March 7, 2023.
VC Insight Panel
Andrea Lamari, General Partner, Manhattan Venture Partners (MVP)
Steve Brotman, Managing Partner, Alpha Partners, Senior Advisor, Pritzker Group
Wiz, Chief Astronaut, Spacecadet Ventures, The Marketing VC
Jonathan Shriftman, Partner, Expanding Capital
And
Episode #72, Krishna Srinivas, cofounder, LiveOak Venture Partners
Episode #72, Krishna Srinivas, cofounder, LiveOak Venture Partners on Fireside with a VC
Ahead of SXSW very happy to share our podcast with one of Austin’s VC OGs discussing:
Ten lessons on entrepreneurship from summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro with his wife and kids
100% all-in on Texas, early stage, tech and tech-enabled services, Seed to Series A entry point
Close to $500m AUM at LiveOak
The ev
Episode #71, Andrea Lamari, General Partner, Manhattan Venture Partners (MVP)
Episode #71, Andrea Lamari, General Partner, Manhattan Venture Partners (MVP) on Fireside with a VC
Meet Andrea at 7BC's in-person event in New York City on March 7, 2023 - https://7BC-neonVest-NYC.eventbrite.com.
101 lesson on secondaries and the secondary market
Complexities of how secondaries work from the perspective of founders and investors selling shares for liquidity, the buyer of the s
Episode #70, John Frankel, cofounder, ff Venture Capital in New York, Poland & Ukraine
Episode #70, John Frankel, cofounder, ff Venture Capital on Fireside with a VC discussing:
· Learnings from Goldman Sachs applied to VC
· Launching the largest VC fund in Ukraine
· Launching a VC fund in Poland
· Managing the 6 VC funds based in New York, but investing across the US
· What percentage of companies get to $100m of ARR and how this drives portfolio construction
· What is the true wor
Episode #69, Martin Tobias, founder, Incisive Ventures in Seattle on Fireside with a VC
Episode #69, Martin Tobias, founder, Incisive Ventures in Seattle on Fireside with a VC discussing:
· How is Seattle different from Silicon Valley, Austin, or New York startup VC ecosystems?
· Getting away the very last IPO as CEO before the dot-com crash and lessons learned and how these apply to today’s climate.
· Old days of Microsoft and becoming a super angel and launching a Seed VC fund.
· I
Episode #68, Steve Brotman, Managing Partner, Alpha Partners & Advisor to the Pritzker Family Office
Episode #68, Steve Brotman, Managing Partner, Alpha Partners & Advisor to the Pritzker Family Office discussing:
· The Alpha model to partner with Seed to Series A VC funds to invest in their pro-rata growth rounds of top winners and share carry with the Seed to Series A VC funds.
· Dynamics of early-stage VC funds deciding to double down or create an SPV to put more capital into winners versu
Episode #67, Mike Smerklo, cofounder, Next Coast Ventures, $600m+ Austin-based VC
Episode #67, Mike Smerklo, cofounder, Next Coast Ventures, $600m+ Austin-based VC and author on Fireside with a VC discussing:
· Moving from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas
· Cofounding a VC in Austin, Texas with over $600m in AUM focused on Series A and B rounds within 6 years currently investing out of a $310m Fund IV closed in early 2022
· Timing of a perfect vintage within the macro-economy
Episode #66, Mark diTargiani, explaining Venture Debt & Relationships, Pacific Western Bank
Episode #66, Mark diTargiani, Venture Debt and Startup Banking, Pacific Western Bank on Fireside with a VC. Mark presented to Andrew Romans’ venture capital class at Chapman University as a guest speaker discussing:
· Explaining how Venture Debt works, when it makes sense and when it does not make sense.
· Startup banking and general advice on startups and raising capital.
· The importance of rel
Episode #65, Alex Moore, Partner at 8VC, 1st employee at Palantir, Defense focused VC
Episode #65, Fireside with a VC speaking with Alex Moore, 1st employee of Palantir ($14.5bn market cap), cofounder of Backplane (one of my investments), cofounder of Nodeprime (one of my investments), Partner at 8VC with $6bn+ of AUM discussing:
• Early days of Palantir up to today where he is a board member
• Focusing on defense related tech startups when most of Silicon Valley did not or does no
Episode #64, Greg Coquillo, latest trends in Generative AI, AI/ML & 160k LinkedIn followers
Episode #64, Fireside with a VC speaking with Greg Coquillo, 2x Top Voice on Linkedin for AI, Data Science, Technology and Innovation with 160k followers on LinkedIn, senior exec reducing cognitive overload for users by delivering AI/ML solutions at large FAANG in Seattle. Discussing:
· How he got 160k followers on LinkedIn.
· Having the confidence to be right but also to be wrong and learn via en
Episode #63, Dan Harvey, Vice Chairman of CBRE, WaaS - Workplace as a Service
Episode #63, Fireside with a VC speaking with Dan Harvey, Vice Chairman of CBRE discussing WaaS Workplace as a Service and all the changes in a post-Covid world on how to maximize PIC (Productivity, Innovation & Collaboration). Discussing how startups and large companies can get the correct mix of in-office, work from home (#WFH) & offsite events mixing office space, technology and techniq
Episode #62, Brandon Metcalf, CEO of Place, challenges for SaaS companies today
Episode #62, Fireside with a VC speaking with Brandon Metcalf, CEO of Place discussing challenges for creating and scaling SaaS companies. Brandon is an Austin-based 4x founder, podcast host, board director, advisor, software creator, Salesforce expert and investor. Discussing:
· Fundraising from angels and VCs
· How to track key SaaS metrics for success and tying that to growth, staffing and fund
Episode #61, Kyle Kling, Head of MDI Ventures, the CVC of Telekom Indonesia, 4th largest country in the world by population @Chapman University
Episode #61 Fireside with a VC speaking with Kyle Kling, Head of MDI Ventures, the CVC of Telekom Indonesia at Chapman University in Southern California. Discussing:
· The evolution of Corporate Venture Capital (CVC)
· Specifics around “on the balance sheet” vs “off the balance sheet” issues around CVC
· Unique issues for Telekom Indonesia with a board of commissioners including government voting,
Episode #60, Chuck Newhall, cofounder of NEA, author of Dare to Disturb the Universe, A Memoir of Venture Capital
Episode #60 Fireside with a VC speaking with Charles (Chuck) Newhall, III, a 3rd generation venture capitalist. Newhall cofounded New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 1977 with Dick Kramlich and Frank Bonsal. NEA is the largest VC fund in the world. Newhall is a U.S. warrior who served in Vietnam commanding an independent platoon. His decorations include the Silver Star and Bronze Star. Newhall is a
Episode #59, Arthur Bavelas, Family Office Insights, recession, secondaries, LPs in the VC process
Episode #59 Fireside with a VC talking to Arthur Andrew Bavelas, Managing Partner, Family Office Insights, discussing why the recession is making the current vintage of VC perform better, talking about secondaries, VC strategies to return LP capital back faster via SPVs and secondaries and how to involve LPs in the VC process.
Video on YouTube and Spotify - https://youtu.be/AHv4F7t2uWE. Audio on a
Andrew Romans talking VC and presenting Fund III with old friends in DC
Play this video back at 2x speed if you are proficient in English. Fund performance is now up since recording this video. Our first fund has a MOIC of 4.11x and expects to return a minimum 7x cash on cash return. Fund II MOIC of 4.41x and expects a 12x to 15x cash on cash return. Fund III is already up 1.27x and newest investors still get in at cost. Talking to some old friends in the
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