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 ener...

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 firm...

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 solv...

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 busi...

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 psyche...

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 inv...

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 ind...

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 Washingto...

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 * An...

  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...

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 author...