Investor Connect Podcast

Law of the Instrument Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The Law of the instrument is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the over-reliance on a familiar tool or method, ignoring or under-valuing alternative approaches. "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Investors use the deal flow and...

Loss Aversion Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Loss aversion is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the disutility of giving up an object is greater than the utility associated with acquiring it. Investors will continue to hold a position in losing startups because of hating to lose and clinging hopefully to a...

IKEA effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency for people to place a disproportionately high value on objects that they partially assembled themselves, such as furniture from IKEA, regardless of the quality of the end product. Investors will hav...

Groupthink Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Groupthink is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Since many investors inve...

Mere Exposure Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Mere exposure effect is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency to express undue liking for things merely because of familiarity with them. Angel investors are much more likely to invest in deals in which they have more exposure to it. This can lea...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Christian Kameir, Managing Partner at Sustany Capital. Located in Newport Beach, CA/USA, Sustany Capital is a deeply thesis-driven investment firm, applying a first principles approach and scientific rigor to investments in technologies positioned to reshape global economic activity. Having invested in network technologies for more than twenty yea...

Gambler's fallacy Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The gambler's fallacy is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency to think that future probabilities are altered by past events when in reality they are unchanged. Investors bet on startups that follow what other recent successful startups have done ev...

Frequency Illusion Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Frequency illusion is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the illusion in which a word, a name, or other things that have recently come to one's attention suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency shortly afterward. This comes from the mind's selecti...

Dunning-Kruger Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency for unskilled individuals to overestimate their own ability and the tendency for experts to underestimate their own ability. Investors reviewing deals in an unfamiliar sector oft...

Disposition Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Disposition effect is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency to sell an asset that has accumulated in value and resist selling an asset that has declined in value. Investors find it difficult to sell startup investments since they are no longer grow...

Decoy Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Decoy effect is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as a situation in which preferences for either option A or B change in favor of option B when option C is presented, which is completely dominated by option B (inferior in all respects) and partially dominated by opt...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Alicia Cramer, host of The Mind of Business Success Podcast and Business Mindset Mentor at AC Intl LLC. Located in Tucson, Arizona, USA, AC Intl LLC helps business owners retrain their minds to create a life and business they love. Her clients have referred to her as their "secret weapon" for achieving massive gains in life and business. Alicia ca...

Continued Influence Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Some investors will hold onto their preconceived notions even when presented with corrected information. For example, a startup positions their company as providing a service but they don't mention they have recurring revenue. Recurring revenue shows scala...

Courtesy Bias Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Courtesy bias is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency to give an opinion that is more socially correct than one's true opinion, so as to avoid offending anyone. Courtesy bias arises when an investor tells the startup what they think the startup wants t...

Base Rate Fallacy Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The base rate fallacy is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency to ignore base rate information (generic, general information) and focus on specific information (information only pertaining to a certain case). One-off sales to specific companies whil...

Clustering Illusion Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Clustering illusion is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency to overestimate the importance of small runs, streaks, or clusters in large samples of random data (that is, seeing phantom patterns). Investors will see a few deals in a space exit and...

Bias Blind Spot Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The bias blind spot is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency to see oneself as less biased than other people or to be able to identify more cognitive biases in others than in oneself. All investors have blind spots and biases. Investing in experiences...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Derren Burrell, Founder & Managing Partner at Veteran Ventures Capital. Located in Knoxville, TN, USA, Veteran Ventures Capital (VVC) is a veteran-owned growth-equity investment fund & firm focused on veteran businesses. VVC interacts exclusively with companies that have military veteran leadership, recognizing the value of military experience, tr...

Confirmation Bias Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Confirmation bias is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency to search for, interpret, focus on and remember information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. Investors bring their recent investment experiences to fund new startups. If the inve...

Availability Heuristic Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The availability heuristic is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision. The availability heuristic operates on...

Availability Cascade Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The availability cascade is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as a self-reinforcing cycle that explains the development of certain kinds of collective beliefs. Investors who repeat a belief among themselves will reinforce that belief even if it's not true. O...

Bandwagon Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The bandwagon effect is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. Investors follow the lead of others. The more investors following a deal, the more investors are willing to jo...

Anchoring Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Anchoring is a cognitive bias defined by Wikipedia as the tendency to rely too heavily, or "anchor", on one trait or piece of information when making decisions (usually the first piece of information acquired on that subject) Investors tend to attach to the first thing sta...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Kurt Wilkin, CEO of HireBetter, Managing Partner of Bee Cave Capital, and Author of the book "Who's Your Mike?". For over 25 years, Kurt has advised high-growth, middle-market companies. Through his roles as CEO of HireBetter and a Managing Partner of Bee Cave Capital, he had the opportunity to work with hundreds of entrepreneurs and CEOs—challeng...

Build a Moat Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Warren Buffet once said, "I look for economic castles protected by unbreachable moats." In the startup world, investors look for a competitive advantage that can build a moat around the business. "Me too" businesses are difficult to fund because anyone can start one and...