Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley Podcast

California's "billionaire tax" failed to pass. A brief overview of what happened, and what the related "Prop 42" (which passed) means as well.  

My explainer on California's "Billionaire Tax". In this episode I break down California's proposed billionaire tax, which is now officially on the ballot as Proposition 40. It's a one-time 5% tax on the assets of billionaires, put forward by a healthcare union. It's opposed by Governor Gavin Newsom and several other major unions. I walk through the core arguments against it: the risk that billiona...

I sat down with David Tisch from BoxGroup. If you've looked at a seed firm's website and seen one famous logo, that's usually the whole list. David's list is Ramp, Plaid, ID.me, Stripe, Airtable, Warby Parker, Clay, Zipline — and Cursor, which just got acquired for $66 billion. Then he shrugs and says it probably just means he's been doing it awhile. We talk about the part of this job that doesn't...

As Burning Man rolls around once again, is it still relevant to Silicon Valley? Reports of lower attendance this year, as the newer arrivals to Silicon Valley say "pass". A deep dive into this crazy event in the desert. Kent and Michael discuss the evolution, culture, and commercialization of the Burning Man festival. Event History Kent and Michael trace the origins of Burning Man from its 1986 be...

Sheel Mohnot is co-founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures, a venture firm that leads rounds in pre-seed and seed-stage fintech companies. It is one of the most active fintech investors in the world. Sheel has spent the last decade in fintech — first as an operator and angel, then as a founder of his own firm. In this conversation, he walks me through the unconventional path that led him into venture,...

In this episode of Something Ventured , Kent Lindstrom sits down with Mark Suster, Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures and one of Los Angeles' most prominent venture capitalists. Mark shares his unconventional journey from early computer programming in the 1980s, building and selling software companies, to becoming a VC — including the surprising challenges of the transition and why he created La...

Andy McLoughlin is Managing Partner at Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC). We discuss Andy's journey from co-founding Huddle -- racking servers in the Docklands and building their own payment system before Stripe -- to Silicon Valley. He was an early angel investor in companies like Postmates, eventually joining Jeff Clavier's venture firm SoftTech, now Uncork Capital. We dive into the golden e...

In this episode of Something Ventured I dive into the explosive controversy shaking Silicon Valley: California's proposed one-time 5% "Billionaires Tax" ballot initiative. Filed by the powerful healthcare workers union SEIU-UHW, the measure would impose a retroactive 5% levy on the net worth of individuals worth $1 billion or more (as of January 1, 2026), aiming to raise around $100 billion to sho...

In this episode of the Something Ventured podcast, I talk with Sam Shank, the founder of HotelTonight—the groundbreaking last-minute hotel booking app that was acquired by Airbnb in a deal reportedly valued at nearly half a billion dollars. Sam takes us on an incredible journey: from his early days in Hollywood as a production assistant on Wes Craven's iconic horror film Scream (yes, he has an IMD...

Lee Edwards is a General Partner at Root VC, a San Francisco-based deep tech seed fund. They recently raised their 4 th fund of $190 million.   But before he became a venture capitalist, Lee was an engineer.   He was most recently CTO at Teespring. Previously, Lee was a mechanical engineer at iRobot, a software engineer at Pivotal Labs, Lead Engineer at SideTour (acquired by Groupon in 2013), and...

In this episode of the Something Ventured podcast, I spend time with Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson, the people behind 1517 Fund.   1517 is a venture capital firm that defies Silicon Valley's fixation on elite credentials from Stanford, Harvard and the like. Their paths to venture capital are anything but typical. Danielle shares how her 20 years in alternative education, from founding a tu...

In this episode I talk with Frank Rotman, Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer of QED Investors, a leading fintech-focused venture capital firm managing $4.3 billion that has backed over 200 companies. A seven-time Forbes Midas List honoree, Frank shares his remarkable journey—from shaping Capital One's groundbreaking, data-driven strategy during his 13 years there, to co-founding QED Inv...

Eric Ries, entrepreneur and author of the bestselling book "The Lean Startup," ignited a movement that reshaped how founders and corporations build and scale businesses worldwide.  Drawing from his experiences in Silicon Valley startups, Ries introduced a methodology centered on rapid experimentation and iterative development that encouraged entrepreneurs to create minimum viable products (MVPs),...

Kobie Fuller is a partner at Upfront Ventures.     He came to the firm after investing at Accel and leading marketing efforts at EVOLVE, the large global fashion ecommerce platform. Highlights from our conversation. -- we covered a lot of ground, so this is just a small part:          Kobie's Athletic Background and Vision for Track and Field: Kobie, a former track and field athlete who competed i...

David Anderman is co-founder and General Partner of Stellar Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage space technology startups. He spent 16 years at Lucasfilm Ltd., creator of the Star Wars franchise. As Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, he notably negotiated Lucasfilm's $4 billion sale to Disney in 2012. Moving from imagined space to real space:   David became General Co...

Cyan Banister of Long Journey Ventures is truly one of the most successful and interesting early stage venture investors. And by 'successful investor', I mean "invested early in Uber and SpaceX" kind of successful. She overcame a challenging childhood that included periods of homelessness (a surprisingly uplifting story, covered deeply in Tim Ferriss' interview with Cyan). Here we discuss Cyan's j...

Roger Ehrenberg's career spans three remarkable acts, each of which would be impressive on its own.   He founded IA Ventures , a seed-stage venture capital firm, in 2010.   IA Ventures invested in numerous successful startups, including Datadog, Digital Ocean, The Trade Desk, and Wise. His work with IA Ventures has earned him recognition as a three-time winner of the "Midas Award" – the coveted ra...

Mark Scianna, the founder of venture firm "Forward Deployed," which targets sectors like Defense, Energy, and A.I., was spotlighted as a 'top emerging manager' in 2022. Starting his journey as an engineer and an early investor at Palantir, Scianna offers an insider's perspective in this episode, unraveling the enigma of Palantir's inception and meteoric rise. Scianna delves into what makes Palanti...

Winter Mead is the author of How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund: The Essential Guide on Fundraising and Understanding Limited Partners.   He is also founder of Coolwater Capital, a new model that helps launch, build, and scale emerging fund managers While there are a lot of investors (known in the parlance as "LPs"), and certainly a lot of funds – the set of people who sit at the intersection of...

Max Altman and Ben Braverman were both pretty close to Silicon Valley royalty before they started Saga Ventures.   Max had built Alt Capital with his brothers Sam and Jack.   Ben had helped Ryan Peterson build Flexport as its Chief Revenue Officer.   Recently, they came together with a third partner ( Thomson Nguyen , who does not appear in this episode) to form Saga Ventures. In this episode, Max...

If you don't already know about Alexis Gay, you're about to. Alexis is the creator and star of her solo comedy show, "Unprofessional". Recently, her show was a hit at the world-renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and she's now touring the show for audiences across the United States.   Alexis previously worked in the tech industry running Business Operations and Creator Partnerships at Patreon.   ...

In this episode of Something Ventured , I talk to Adeyemi "Ade" Ajao, co-founder of Base10 Partners, one of the largest Black-led venture capital firms in the world. Ade shares his journey from growing up in Nigeria and Spain to building multiple successful companies, including Tuenti, which was sold to Telefonica. He also discusses his transition into venture capital, his mission to empower under...

Nick Sturiale reflects on a career working in venture capital, in which he invested early in companies such as Splunk, Bill.com, and Reputation.com. Nick shares insights from his extensive career, which spans roles at Ignition Partners, Icon Ventures, Seven Rosen Funds, and the Carlyle Group, among others. He reflects on the evolution of the venture capital landscape, the challenges of finding pro...

Eric Paley is a General Partner at Founder Collective, one of the great seed-stage venture capital brands - and one of the relatively few venture firms led by startup founders. As the name suggests, Founder Collective is a "founder stage" venture capital fund that focuses on providing the first professional round of capital to "entrepreneurs with compelling business concepts". Eric himself also fo...

Homebrew is one of the great venture firm names.   It hearkens back to the 1970s era computer hobbyist group that included people like Steve Jobs.   Hunter Walk and Satya Patel are the partners who founded and built Homebrew (the venture capital firm). Nevertheless, if you say "Hunter and Satya" in Silicon Valley, people will know exactly who you are talking about.   Hunter Walk came to homebrew w...