The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: -Ben Einstein -Ezra Galston & Stuart Larkins -David Cowan Each investor discusses sectors, drivers and/or trends that may have significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes....

Guy Turner of Hyde Park Venture Partners joins Nick to cover founder profiles and the characteristics that lead to the strongest startups. We address questions including: You've observed over 50 startups, across your portfolio, and have written extensively about founder profiles. What are the two high-level categories of characteristics that you've observed? Within the inspection characteristics c...

In today's special segment the following investors are featured: Chris Olsen Jay Acunzo Mike Collett

Today we publish part two of the interview with Chris Farmer of Signal Fire Ventures. In this segment we address: Why he's using Beacon to make VC investments when their are numerous other applications that may have more economic value How he's created an engaged, active advisor network that are also LPs in the fund What characteristics the best advisors share Chris' thoughts on the surge in micro...

Chris Farmer of Signal Fire Ventures joins Nick to discuss his firm and their platform, Beacon, a robust data engine that reveals the best sector, market and startup investment areas. We address questions including: Can you start off with the firm's thesis and your main focus at SignalFire? You talk about the four big founder pain points that you've observed... what are they?. Number one pain poin...

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: Nathan Benaich Ethan Kurzweil Jonathon Triest & Brett DeMarrais Each investor describes their investment thesis and how they evaluate startups for investment.   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter  @ TheFullRatchet  for upda...

Welcome back to TFR for another Cram Session. In these special releases, we have aggregated the takeaways and tips from previous episodes. In this installment, we will be recapping the following episodes: 87. Fintech Investing, Part 1 (Sheel Mohnot) 88. Fintech Investing, Part 2 (Sheel Mohnot) 90. SpaceX & Elon Musk's Mission to Mars, Part 1 (Tim Urban) 91. SpaceX & Elon Musk's Mission to Mars, Pa...

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: Jordan Nof Pete Wilkins Anand Sanwal Each investor highlights a situation where they decided to invest in a startup and why they said yes.           To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter  @ TheFullRatchet  for updates and more...

UILabs recently hosted a panel of IoT experts to discuss the future roadmap for IoT.  I moderated the discussion and the panel included: Ben Forgan, CEO of Hologram Brenna Berman, Executive Director of City Digital, UI Labs Jenny Fielding, Managing Director, Techstars IoT Jim Gagnard, CEO of SmartSignal (acquired by... GE).    To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/...

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: - William Mougayar - Sheel Mohnot - David Cowan Each investor highlights a situation where they decided not to invest, why they passed, and how it played out.           To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter  @ TheFullRatchet  ...

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: - Tom Tunguz - Mark Peter Davis - Adam Draper - Lindel Eakman Each investor illustrates a critical lesson learned about startup investing and how it's changed their approach.             To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter ...

Jason Calacanis is back for part 2 of the interview to discuss his book and secrets to successful angel investing. We address questions including: His thoughts on the original Sequoia scout program and the many similar programs today How he does such high volume of investments when he insists on spending...   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our oth...

Jason Calacanis joins Nick to discuss his new book and his secrets to successful angel investing. We address questions including: - Why Jason wrote the book - What drives him to continue angel investing after all his success - His thoughts on angels that make large investments during their first year of angel...   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of ou...

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: - Jay Acunzo - David S. Rose - Niki Scevak Each investor discusses sectors, drivers or trends that may have significant impact in the future and are potentially positioned for outsized-returns.             To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, fol...

Welcome back to TFR for another Cram Session. In these special releases, we have aggregated the takeaways and tips from previous episodes. In this installment, we will be recapping the following episodes: 79. Hardware Investing, Part 1 (Avidan Ross) 80. Hardware Investing, Part 2 (Avidan Ross) 81. Getting Smart on...   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all...

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: - Peter Boyce - Mahendra Ramsinghani - John Greathouse Each investor describes an outstanding entrepreneur that they've worked with and what key traits and behaviors make for the best startup leaders.     To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, foll...

Today we cover Part 2 of Dispelling Conventional Wisdom in VC with Eric Paley of Founder Collective. In this segment we address: I wanted to get your quick take on follow-on investing. There was a recent twitter convo w/ you, Parker Tompson, Semil Shah & Nick Ducoff on follow-on funding…...   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also...

Eric Paley of Founder Collective joins Nick to dispell some conventional wisdom in VC. We address questions including: - What's the focus at Founder Collective? - What are the downsides of heavily funded companies? - Overview and Methodology for your study of 71 IPOs: 'Overdosing on VC: Lessons from 71 IPOs' Conventional VC...   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes...

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: Parker Suster Shah Each investor describes their investment thesis and how they evaluate startups for investment.   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter  @ TheFullRatchet  for updates and more information.

Trey Hart of Northern Trust is back to cover Part 2 of the GP-LP relationship. In this segment we address: - Key mistakes that GPs make - The key characteristics that successful GP's share - The importance of an ownership focus - What winning really looks like for GPs, in terms of metrics (ie....   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes...

Trey Hart, SVP of 50 South Capital at Northern Trust, joins Nick for a deep dive on the relationship between LPs and GPs. In Part 1, we will address questions including: Trey's path to becoming an LP His thoughts on being a GP The types of GPs and categories they...   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter  @...

TastyTrade was kind enough to invite Nick on their program, Bootstrapping in America.  In this episode the interview audio will be available on the podcast and the video is here on the blog.  Hosts Kristi, Ross, and Tony Batista interview Nick about the Podcast, the investment group and what types...   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other epis...

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following investors are featured: Roberts Struhl Verrill Each investor highlights a situation where they decided to invest in a startup and why they said yes.           To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter  @ TheFullRatchet  for updates and more information.

Today we cover Part 2 of hardware products that have succeeded where others failed with Ben Einstein of Bolt. In this segment we address: You've discussed Pebble's inability to 'cross the chasm' and access the early & late majority, while Fitbit was able to. What were the key reasons why...   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also...

Ben Einstein of Bolt joins Nick to cover Hardware products that have succeeded where others failed, Part 1. We will address questions including: To start off, can you talk about your thesis and approach toward investing in hardware? What are your thoughts on hardware startups designing for one use case...   To listen more, please visit  http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other...