LA Venture

Everybody is going to have an AI assistant that does top of funnel triage on inbound requests. We talk about what this will look like with Spencer Rascoff, partner at 75 & Sunny and founder of Zillow, Hotwire, Pacaso and now HeyLibby.    You can listen to the podcast or chat with Spencer's AI assistant at heylibby.ai/spencerrascoff

Brian Garrett wants to get the message out that Crosscut VI is not the same firm that invested in ShoeDazzle and Ipsy in 2009, but they will continue to follow the talent of SoCal into FrontierTech and beyond.   Brian concedes that LA is never going to be the #1 AI hub, but engineers in LA have been building "hard shit" for a very long time. Crosscut VI will invest in space exploration, clean energy and advanced manufacturing. 

With AI enabling copycat products to be brought to market incredibly quickly, the ability to scale and find unique distribution is the new moat. Arteen explains distribution lessons learned and much more from his vantage as Fika's returning partner.

Nanxi Liu shares how she deliberately cultivated an extraordinary network. In interviewing, as in networking, Nanxi looks for excellence. This talent for spotting excellence helped lead her to a very successful sale of her first company, Enplug. She's now Co-CEO of Blaze.tech and a Partner at XFactor Ventures. 

LA native Katia Ameri turned her passion for community-building into a dream job at A16Z and then created #LATechWeek, a tech phenomenon. Katia tells the story of what made Tech Week successful and how she and Andrew Chen launched the first tech week in 6 weeks with 30 events and then built a platform that now supports thousands of events in 3 cities just two years later.

Matter Venture Partners recently launched their $311M Fund I. Mel Tang was previously CFO at Ring and Demand Media. In this episode he shares why he believes the future of tech lies in hardware and how to set up systems to enable good decision making and successful growth.

From side hustle to industry disruptor: John Tabis shares how his side hustle turned into Bouqs, a leading flower delivery company. Now at M13, he's helping others bring big ideas to life!

Shrina Kurani is an investor actively writing checks to help catalyze emerging managers as part of IBank's Venture Capital Access Program.  Shrina and the team at IBank are happy to be a part of a fund's first close and they participate with meaningful capital ($5M-$10M). It is easy to apply to the IBank program and Shrina says that she hopes to be "bombarded" with decks from amazing fund managers.

Venture capital is a team sport masquerading as an individual sport.  Rayfe Gaspar-Asaoka, partner at Canaan Partners, tells us why he thinks VC partnerships resemble a swim team.   We also talk about space and defense tech, the evolution of venture capital, how generational transition can work well and why a thoughtful reserve strategy has outsized leverage, especially in early stage venture firms.

More growth rounds in 2024!  Avery Rosin is writing $50-300M checks for Lead Edge Capital. He thinks PE firms are going to continue being acquisitive, companies are going to reorient around the Rule of 40 and more reasons for his optimism.

Have VCs overreacted against investing in consumer?  Shamin Walsh has a 10x fund and numerous case studies to show that consumer can provide huge returns when done right.  Shamin shares how to win when investing in consumer (eg: invest in a cat litter company that raises $1.5M and exits for $500M!!)

Michael Tubbs gained national prominence when he became the youngest mayor of any major American city at age 26. He was a hero of the universal basic income movement until he suddenly lost reelection. Listen to his lessons learned and think about what you're willing to stick your neck out and lose for. Tubbs is now investing out of Tubbs Ventures, where he focuses on government technology and solving fundamental societal problems.

Josh Resnick is the co-founder of candy brand Sugarfina, where he sold very expensive gummy bears that made people happy. Before Sugarfina, he sold his video game developer Pandemic Studios for $860M.  He is now a General Partner at OpenSky Ventures where he invests in the future of commerce and helps founders avoid pitfalls of growing too fast--adding SKUs too quickly, not having a handle on business data, overspending on legal and other lessons he's learned from his founder and angel investing journey.  

Kunal Tandon was running a family business importing paper and metal before cold calling his way into venture capital. Previously at Collaborative Fund, Kunal is now investing out of El Cap Fund II with his partner and former NFL player Stewart Bradley.

Scott Nolan tells us what he thinks about the Elon-haters and how Founders Fund is unique in their investing approach. Scott, a partner at Founders Fund, has been there 12 years and was one of the first hires at SpaceX.

From fleeing revolution at 14 to shaping the future of B2B SaaS investments, Ivan's journey is nothing short of inspirational. Uncover secrets to startup success and the art of building a vibrant venture community.

FirstLook Partners is a hybrid fund of funds actively investing in funds under $50M. Josh Porter, co-founder of FirstLook, explains why he thinks smaller funds make the best investment opportunities.  Josh has seen hundreds of decks and digs in on how to evaluate funds and his unique approach to co-investments.

Can you live to be 150!? Our podcast guest Will Weisman thinks so! Explore the realm where future tech intertwines with the quest for immortality. From his start as a couch-surfing entrepreneur to Executive Director of Singularity University to founder of KittyHawk Ventures. Predicting a world where immortality is possible, this episode dives into the cutting edge of longevity, the power of psychedelics, and reimagining our lifetimes. Tune in for an inspiring journey into tomorrow!

Scott Hartley shares what we get wrong about college degrees, how to identify and test founders and why seemingly disparate interests create innovation.   Scott is the co-founder of Everywhere Ventures and Two Culture Capital, two global VC funds, a best-selling author and a team member on the Council on Foreign Relations. He has invested in >300 portfolio companies and gives heaps of tactical investing advice, thoughts from his book and some of the best lessons from his mentors.

Unveil the truth about early stage funding and candid startup journeys with Sydney Thomas from Symphonic Capital. Tune in to learn more about: *Sydney's journey from Precursor to Symphonic Capital *Dive into the benefits of a long-term view in pre-seed funding *Discover the power of direct and candid feedback in entrepreneurship and more!

Brian Frank talks about how everything in the food system can be improved, and how VCs are investing with a technology lens instead of a problem solving perspective. Tune in to learn more about: *The biggest opportunities ahead in the food system *Evolution of replacing animal protein, including synthetic biology *How Brian is perfectly positioned to help the next generation of founders in the industry

Adrian Fenty has a fascinating perspective as founding managing partner at MaC Venture Capital and former mayor of Washington, DC. In this episode, Adrian dives into the intersections of government and technology, including:   * Why governments should be run more like tech companies * Why governments are critical for real change (including insights from his massive educational reform in Washington, DC) * How VC is both art and science  

Brett Queener from Bonfire spends 20-30 hours onboarding each of his companies and shares some of his playbook and rules of thumb.  I like a lot of his operational tips: * Founders should stay involved in sales (at the seed stage) * Seed companies should hire mechanics not scalers * 20% of employees should be quota carrying * Revenue growth is tied to the number of productive sales reps hired * And many more insights from his 13 years as an executive at Salesforce

  Katelyn Foley is the President of UP.Labs, a venture lab that builds SaaS companies in partnership with large corporations. Katelyn was previously a partner at BCG Digital Ventures.   Follow Katelyn Foley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katelynfoley/  Follow Minnie Ingersoll: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mingersoll/   In this episode, you will learn: (1:03) How Katelyn has created 15 businesses in 8 years. (2:57) What about the studio model Katelyn changed when coming to UP.Labs (4:00) How Katelyn selects a strategic problem to build a business around. (6:49) Why startups should not be doing digital transformation work. (8:20) Why public companies struggle to incubate new businesses. (10:00) Why opportunities exist where high value and high friction meet. (11:59) In SaaS, you want to augment decisions that already happen. (14:04) Intelligence augmentation is the buzzword. (17:04) Where opportunity exists for OEMs while the industry shifts to EV. (21:30) How Katelyn sources new opportunities.  (23:18) Katelyn's opinion of CVCs. (27:27): Why businesses developed by UP.Labs only need seed funding.    Available on: Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.  Past Conversations and Transcripts available at: tenoneten.net/podcasts   Follow the LA Venture podcast: https://twitter.com/TenOne10  Want episodes in your inbox? Share your email at tenoneten.net/podcast

March Capital was investing in generative AI long before ChatGPT went mainstream.  In today's episode, we talk with Partner Wes Nichols, who has brought his 30 years of analytics and AI experience as an investor and entrepreneur to help March Capital with this area of focus. Wes is an industry authority in predictive analytics, marketing, AI/machine learning, and digital transformation. He authored the Harvard Business Review cover story, Analytics 2.0, on next-generation analytics to drive more predictive decision-making, with a follow-up article underway currently. A two-time entrepreneur, Wes has created high profile analytics software companies.  Most recently, Wes was co-founder and CEO of MarketShare, which had a $450 million exit to Neustar. Prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of Direct Partners, one of the industry's first data-driven analytics and CRM companies, which was acquired by Omnicom Group. In summary, he's one of the founders who really put LA on the map and set the foundation of LA Tech.   Episode Details: (0:54): Wes' entrepreneurial background (4:01): Creating one of the first digital marketing companies (8:10): What makes a VC valuable to an entrepreneur (10:15): From angel to full-time investor at March Capital (13:10): Comparing vertical vs horizontal applications of AI (15:33): Positive applications of data and sentiment analysis (17:45): What the military optimizes for (19:38): Joining the LAPD Reserve Police Officer Program (25:45): Why being an entrepreneur helps Wes be a better board member    Follow Wes Nichols: https://twitter.com/wesnichols    Follow Minnie Ingersoll:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mingersoll/   Follow the LA Venture podcast:  https://twitter.com/TenOne10  https://www.instagram.com/ten.one.ten/   Explore other LA Venture episodes:  https://www.tenoneten.net/podcast

Will Coffield is a co-founder and General Partner at Riot Ventures, a hard tech fund that invests at seed and Series B. In this episode Will shares: The technological renaissance taking place at the US Dept. of Defense.  What caused the United States' lead in defense tech to narrow What is at stake in the ongoing defense technological race between the US and China

Galen Shaffer is a Senior Vice President at Eos Venture Partners, a Series A fund, investing in the future of insurance. In this episode Galen shares: - Why cyber insurance is a $30B opportunity for startups. - What the first wave of D2C insurance startups got wrong. - Why novel data is often not impactful data.

Carl Fritjofsson is a Partner at Creandum, one of Europe's leading VC firms.   In this episode Carl shares: Why nearly every software category can be reimagined with a generative AI-first approach Why Q4 2023 and Q1 2024 could be "pretty bloody" and a "moment of truth" for startups Creandum's approach to winning competitive Series A deals Why VC poses career risk for associates early in their careers

Aaron Samuels tells us about investing in intersectional founders, he explains what identity saliency is to Minnie and he shares how he and Brian Hollins were able to parlay their scout investing into $66M Collide Fund I.

Dan Wenhold co-leads Fifth Wall's real estate technology fund.  He tells us how Fifth Wall has massively grown their AUM by bringing in LPs from the real estate industry who want access to innovation in PropTech.  He also tells us how Fifth Wall has stayed innovative and leaned into creative deal structures that are outside the typical VC playbook.

Founder of Notation Capital Nick Chirls : * Likes to invest in companies that are too early * Prefers when it's hard to explain what the company is doing * Does not think now is a good time to invest in AI * And generally sounds nothing like a VC  

In this episode with Ann Lai from Bullpen we talk about: * The metrics that matter for fundraising * How Bullpen invests in overlooked businesses  * And how Ann bounced back from her experience with Justin Caldbeck at Binary Capital

Howard Morgan is the Chairman and General Partner at B Capital and previously the co-founder of First Round Capital. Howard shares his perspective on building successful seed funds (he's an LP in 80), what is exciting him today in tech and how he has chosen such great partners throughout his life.  

Another great Southern California Series A fund and another great investor moving from the Bay Area to LA.   Toba partner Patrick Mathieson tells us why he moved from the Bay Area to LA to pursue his thesis around companies building platforms for SMB.   Patrick has invested in Boulevard, PatientPop, FloQast, Luxury Presence and now Candid (a TenOneTen co-invest).  

David Zhang is a partner at TCV, a ~21B AUM growth fund that has invested in companies like Brex, Airbnb, Klarna, and Nubank. David leans in on FinTech investing and tells us about some of his theses on the unbundling (and bundling) of financial services. David comes from a hedge fund background and also shares why he prefers the alignment of private market investing over the more Darwinian nature of the public markets.

Don't let the joy get sucked out of investing. Investor Emilio Diez Barroso reminds us to remain focused on the joys of creativity and creating value.     Emilio invests from his own family office and as a partner at Bold Capital, a Series A fund with a focus on frontier tech, biotech and innovations that have the potential to transform humanity.

When Taylor Adams advises family offices on setting up venture programs he recommends investing into fund of funds for coverage, emerging managers for access and direct investments for alpha.     In addition to his family office work, Taylor is the co-founder of Rise Together Ventures, a fund enabling for-profit entrepreneurs to realize their full for-profit and philanthropic vision.  

"It would be delightful if all the brightest brains in the world focused their energies on solving climate problems."   Gaby Darbyshire gained deep operational expertise as a founder of Gawker Media before starting climate tech focused Dangerous Ventures.  There is a lot to learn from Gaby in many dimensions.

The next version of the internet will feel a lot more like a game. Jason Yeh and partner Brian Cho helped Riot Games scale League of Legends to a massive global scale.  They take a lot of lessons from gaming as they invest from $90M Patron Fund I into what they call the "spectrum of play".

Andrew Kahn from Crush Ventures invests in music, interactive media, the creator economy, and more. Crush Ventures is the venture arm of Crush Music, a global talent management firm whose roster includes Miley Cyrus, Sia, Green Day, Panic! at the Disco, Weezer, among many others.

"Good paperwork makes good friendships".  Deron Quon, co-founder of Menus.com, Datassential, and Collective Solution shares thoughts on scaling and navigating a sale to private equity.   Now an active angel investor and founder of Hoopla.com, Deron also talks about the importance of investing back into the LA ecosystem.

Roy Rubin dropped out of UCLA to start Magento, a massive eCommerce platform that scaled to over $100B in transactions annually.   Roy is now writing $500k to $1M checks out of his fund, R-Squared Ventures.   The story of his success and lessons learned is inspiring and worth a listen!

There are so many great founders and VCs moving to LA! Vinay Singh is a Managing Director at Anthemis where he leads seed and Series A investments out of their early stage fund.  Vinay tells us that Anthemis is a global investment platform focused on the digital transformation of financial services, investing across all stages of growth.

What are the best ways for a startup to partner with a big corporation?   Beth Kearns from Touchdown Ventures tells about different partnership models, best practices and pitfalls to avoid.   This interview includes information from third party sources believed to be reliable; however, we make no representations as to its accuracy or completeness. References to strategies are for illustrative purposes only and should not be relied upon as a recommendation to engage in any particular strategy or to invest in any particular security. Opinions expressed herein are based on current market conditions and may change without notice and we reserve the right to change any part of these materials without notice and assume no obligation to provide an update. Recipients are advised not to infer or assume that any securities, strategies, companies, sectors or markets described will be profitable or that losses will not occur. Any description or information regarding investment process or strategies is provided for illustrative purposes only, may not be fully indicative of any present or future investments and may be changed at the discretion of the manager. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.  

Word on the street is that more deals have structure.  Kareem tells us about structured equity--when it makes sense and who it's right for. Arrowroot is an 8+ year old growth equity firm in LA and Miami on Fund V ($500MM+ invested globally across 28 port cos.) that specializes in structured equity for venture-backed enterprise software companies.

Talking with Jeffrey made me wonder if I need to get a celebrity for our venture fund.  Jeffrey had the opportunity to work with Alex and Drew of the Chainsmokers to set up Mantis VC and it sounds like an amazing team. Jeffrey explains the value that the Chainsmokers are able to bring and how entrepreneurs and funds can best work with celebrity.

Fred is the Chief Innovation and Partnerships officer at Caltech where he oversees the Tech Transfer office and recently set up two new funds : The Caltech Fund and the Wilson and Hill fund. Fred gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how Caltech labs are run and how his team thinks about the translational potential of scientific work.

Why is a Series B pitch so much different than pitching a Series A company?  How do growth stage investors think about multiples today?   Mike Fernandez talks about what he is seeing in growth rounds today and the sort of support that is needed for later stage companies.

This is a great explanation of PLG from the guy who coined the term.  Blake Bartlett tells us about the different eras of business software and the problems it was built to solve--from solving a CIO's problems, to solving a business problem, to solving an end user problem. Blake explains how to get started with PLG, how the funnel changes going from a sales-led motion to a product-led motion, how to think about PLG metrics, and much more.

I learned so much about working with celebrities from Jackie Fast at Sandbox Studios : * Celebrities are not doing this for impact.  It is for the money * George Clooney's $1B payday from Casamigos caught everyone's attention * It's not only about choosing the right celebrity, it's also about having the right team around them * Celebrities are so eager to work with startups, they are resorting to DMs * Celebrities and startup collaboration is going to explode

The hippies were right. From music festivals, to veganism, to eastern philosophy, and now psychedelics.   In this fascinating episode, Greg Kubin tells us about the growing psychedelic movement that is gaining momentum as we start to understand more about how the brain works. Greg's fund, PsyMed is a $25M fund investing in psychedelic medicine and mental health technologies.