LA Venture

Alejandro Guerrero is a partner at Act One Ventures.  We discuss:     * Entering venture capital without a "traditional" background   * Why VCs need to start measuring success differently   * The Diversity Rider  

Brianne Kimmel is the founder of WorkLife Ventures and an early investor in Hopin, Pipe, Webflow, Tandem and many others. We had a great discussion on how she gets into rounds, how she established herself as a top angel investor and then transitioned into a fund manager and her thoughts on work and life.

Drew Taylor is a partner at Digitalis Ventures.  Digitalis has a $100M human health fund, a $100M pet health fund and $30M for venture creation. We also discuss being part of a family business and why founders in pet health are great people to work with.

Justin Fishner-Wolfson is the cofounder and managing partner at 137 Ventures. 137 has more than $1.5B assets under management and is known for investing in growth-stage companies by providing custom liquidity solutions to founders.  

Carey Ransom runs the Operate Studio and is one of the best known startup investors in Orange County. Carey challenges us all--from LPs to GPs--to think harder about how we are measuring success and supporting the communities we live in.

From sitting on the Roku board from 2011 - 2018, Daniel Leff saw disruption in the media industry first hand. He says that, unlike in tech, disruption in media comes from working with the incumbents rather than working against them.

Raina is a partner at The Fund LA along with Anna Barber, Josh Jones, and Austin Murray.   We talk about The Fund, ethics in tech, the benefits of daily turmeric and more.

I could have talked with Mike for many more hours.. about building Science, building consumer brands, NFTs, social networks, parenting and much more.    Worth a listen even if just for inspiration on building better social networks for our children.

Anna Barber is a partner at M13 where she is launching consumer startups.  She's also a partner at The Fund LA, an LA-focused pre-seed fund.     Anna tells us about the difference between launching companies (narrowing the focus) and accelerating companies (widening the aperture), doing Series A investments and much more.

Sam Wick joins to talk about UTA Ventures.  Sam clarifies how and when startups can best approach UTA's clients and the role of the Ventures team.

Will Schmitt is Head of Venture Strategy at Miroma Ventures.  Miroma recently announced a $100M commitment to fund the next generation of consumer brands and media platforms.     Miroma has worked with companies from McDonald's to Netflix to Masterclass and Spotify.  They invest at the seed or Series A stage and aim to bring that expertise to earlier stage companies.

Today Marlon talks about MAC Ventures and how he, Mike Palank, Adrian Fenty and Charles D. King tap into their deep networks to identify shifts in cultural trends and behaviors.

TX Zhuo joins today to talk about starting Fika with Eva Ho with the goal of giving back to the community. TX has an amazing story of dropping out of school to start his first business and how his approach to investing is evolving as the venture market evolves.

Jeremy Milken is a partner at Watertower, a serial entrepreneur, and just a lot of fun to talk to.   We talk about his own journey, his views on deploying money into the venture asset class, his partner Derek and his wife, the flexible neurotic.

Nick believes VC has become a very reactive business. He explains how he and Nate Redmond set out to build Alpha Edison as a proactive, knowledge-driven fund.  

So much fun talking with Rob Dyrdek about everything from his $450M in exits to his multiple world records to his thoughts on building self-belief!   Rob has built a system for it all at the Dyrdek Machine, his venture creation studio.

Sanjay tells us about Unlock Fund II, his Southern California focus, advice for startups on finding good bankers and much more.  

Vik is a partner at Dreamers VC, a $55m fund co-founded by Will Smith. Vik explains the world of influencers, talent fees, production fees, and how warrants are effective when working with influencers.   Unlike what every other VC says, Vik does not aim to be the founders first call at 2am when something goes wrong.

My partner Gil Elbaz joins to talk about his passion for data, building AdSense, selling to Google and then building Factual. He also explains why founders should mentally commit 10 years to their startup before beginning. 

We talk with Scott  Lenet of Touchdown Ventures about the pros and cons of corporate venture... and how Touchdown is trying to do it right.   Touchdown already has 45 people on the team, and they're actively hiring!  

Omar is a partner at Mucker and leads their $190M "early" fund. Previously a partner at Sequoia and founder of AdMob. So many great insights on building companies and why it's hard for startups to raise a Series A from Sand Hill.

Griffin Gaming Partners is a $250m Fund I focused exclusively on gaming.   Phil Sanderson says that gaming investing is the new enterprise software--a predictable business model with strong CAC to LTV ratios and increasingly large exit opportunities.   We also talk about ultramarathons, a 240 mile race, and how Phil has trained himself to go after even bigger, more audacious goals.

Many VCs shy away from tech that serves SMBs.  Austin explains how this has left an enormous opportunity and his tips for entrepreneurs in the space. We talk about his partnership with Ajay Relan at Slauson & Co and the work that PledgeLA and Grid110 have been doing to support underrepresented founders ($25k checks!)

Chang Xu is a partner at $140M fund Basis Set Ventures.  We discuss everything from why open source is a good business model, how next gen infrastructure might look, what she learned at  Upfront , and even practical advice for forming a startup board.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover about product launches, building community and what he looks for when investing out of the Weekend Fund.