The Puck: Venture Capital and Beyond

On this week’s episode, Jim talks with Sean Harper of Westlake Village BIOPartners about Sean’s experience working on the front lines of the medical technology industry. They discuss Sean’s background as a more traditional medical practitioner, his move into drug discovery, and how he and his partners run their current fund. Sean shares his views on biology as an engineering based discipline, acce...

Today, in a very special episode of THE PUCK, our guest is… host Jim Baer! That’s right -- after three seasons of asking the questions, Jim will now occupy the hot seat himself. In a wide-ranging conversation guided by PUCK producer Caitlin Lalezari, Jim takes us on a deep-dive, starting with his childhood, and covering his legal background, culminating in his own personal opinion on… where the pu...

William Quigley is back in the second of our two-part series on the present state and future of cryptocurrency. After their first episode touched on blockchain in the global marketplace and our current financial structures, William and Jim spend time talking about blockchain as a secure record, the ease of auditing an un-editable database, the advantages of the lack of gatekeeping in the crypto ma...

William Quigley, Tether co-founder and Crypto pioneer, returns to the podcast in the first of a two-part series about the present state and future of cryptocurrency. He and Jim discuss the advantages of blockchain and a global commodity, how crypto might integrate with our current financial structures, and Bitcoin as a finite resource. William also clears up some misconceptions about crypto and wh...

Brian Garrett, co-founder of Crosscut Ventures, talks with Jim about the strategies he employed while building one of Southern California’s preeminent venture capital firms and what he learned as co-founder of one of the earliest funds to base itself in LA. They touch on the talent migration, the kind of founders he likes to back, and the ways COVID has impacted every aspect of life, from meeting...

Aubrie Pagano and Ryan Freedman, partners at Alpaca VC, join Jim for a thoughtful discussion about the benefits of bringing diversity into the venture ecosystem and the actions they are taking to support this. They also discuss the challenges and opportunities inherent to working remotely, and the long-term effects this year may have on an the ever-changing financial landscape.

In today’s episode, Jim sits down with Richard Duncan, economist and author of such books as The Dollar Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Cures; The Corruption of Capitalism: A strategy to rebalance the global economy and restore sustainable growth; and The New Depression: The Breakdown Of The Paper Money Economy. Richard currently produces a video newsletter called Macro Watch that analyzes trends in...

In Jim’s first *remote* episode, he sits down with Andre Gharakhanian and Gaurav Mathur, founders of Silicon Legal Strategy, a boutique law firm providing targeted, bottom-line-oriented advice to technology startups, innovative entrepreneurs and seasoned investors. Over the course of their conversation, they touch on the current state of the financial world, the rewards of mentorship, and the chal...

Donald S. Lee is a partner in the corporate transactional group at LKP Global Law. Don takes us through his experience moving from litigation to corporate law, as well as working with entrepreneurs and representing investors. He shares his thoughts on reaching across the aisle in a divided political climate, the many ways to access capital, and how he built out his practice with a focus on the ear...

Polina and Filipp Chebotarev, the brother-sister founding team of Cambridge SPG, share their journey starting in real estate and then transitioning into multiple investment sectors. They talk about the newest innovations in the food and beverage industry and the cutting-edge technology that is changing the future of the ‘better for you’ investment space, all with an emphasis on social impact and v...

E15: Dave Young, partner and co-founder of the Santa Monica office of the Cooley Law Firm, is one of the top VC lawyers in Los Angeles. Dave gives us a unique and valuable perspective on the Southern California VC community. He discusses early stage seed funding and what he has learned working with young companies as well as weathering the dot-com bubble of the early 2000s, digital media, and what...

Minnie Ingersoll, VC and partner at TenOneTen Ventures, takes us on a journey through her long career in Tech, both as a VC and as a product manager. Starting out in the early days at Google, Minnie discusses how her experience with the global giant informed her current work at TenOneTen and SHIFT. She shares her views on the online car industry, the importance of resilience as an entrepreneur, an...

David Waxman, managing partner of TenOneTen, engages in a thought-provoking dialogue about the various applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in our day to day lives. Machine learning, one form of the broader term AI, touches our lives in ways that we have come to take for granted in the last decade. From understanding voice recognition with Alexa and self-driving cars, to exploring differen...

Eva Ho, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, shares her incredible story starting with growing up in Mozambique and coming to the US as a refugee at an early age. Co-founder and general partner at Fika Ventures, Eva walks us through her early years after college and how she eventually forged her path into the world of venture capital. In addition to her professional accomplishments, Eva is...

Gil Elbaz is an investor and entrepreneur best known for co-founding Applied Semantics (acquired by Google in 2003) and founding Factual. A pioneer of natural language technology and vocal believer in the vast potential of data accessibility, Gil starts at the beginning describing his early fascination with data. He takes us through his different entrepreneurial pursuits and then gives us some pra...

Rahul Sonnad, founder of Tesloop and serial entrepreneur, briefly discusses his early days as a software developer at Microsoft and Adobe, and his transition into his first companies. Rahul offers practical tips for aspiring entrepreneurs, sharing details about the future of autonomous driving and Tesloop’s galvanizing role in that arena. Our conversation leads to the blockchain and tokenization o...

Matt Kozlov, managing director at Techstars, shares with us his journey from his early career at Yahoo and Sony Entertainment, later starting a mobile gaming company, and eventually making a shift into venture capital. Matt found his way to Techstars, a leading nationwide startup accelerator, and discusses the bold and transformative programs that the accelerator works on.

Michael Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Science, quickly walks us through his entrepreneurial beginnings starting and selling his own companies, later becoming the CEO of MySpace, and his experience founding the venture firm Science, Inc. Mike discusses in detail Science Blockchain, a Reg D private offering fund that provides a model for investment funds seeking to invest in and leverage the benefits...

Steven Dietz, veteran VC and current CEO of Level 4 Fleet Services, has been one of the leading investors in the automotive industry for well over a decade. Listen as Steven gives us a snapshot into the world of self-driving cars, sharing insights into the types of changes that could await our streets, communities, industries, and more.

Part II of William Quigley’s interview jumps into his explanation of decentralization through blockchain and the age of smart contracts, along with clarifying some of the metrics of valuation that have been used to measure these currencies.

William Quigley, a leader in the blockchain and cryptocurrency uprising, breaks down in clear terms the value, strengths and weaknesses of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies more broadly. William traces lessons learned and the path that led him into the world of crypto, sharing how the emergence of such currencies have seamlessly fit into his company, OPSkins, a marketplace for digital goods. William al...

Listen as Howard Ko, principal at Morpheus Ventures, enlightens us with his perspective of the LA ecosystem and discusses disruptive technologies such as the Hyperloop, autonomous vehicles, and more. Howard, a VC with a strong foundation in operations, shares his opinions of what he looks for when evaluating investments, and the kinds of teams he keeps an eye out for.

Learn from LA VC veteran, Rick Smith, as he reminisces about the trials and tribulations of starting a fund in the midst of the great recession, and the passion that kept him and his team going to build one of the leading funds in Los Angeles today

Mark Mullen from Double M Partners and Bonfire Ventures imparts stories and lessons he learned while working for the father of cable, Bill Daniels, prior to his successful career as a venture capitalist. Mark discusses his focus as a B2B investor, what he looks for in the people he invests in, specific areas where he is investing, and the unique qualities of the Los Angeles ecosystem.

Jim Armstrong from March Capital shares insightful stories about his path to becoming a venture capitalist. Armstrong takes us through his experience starting out with Idealab, reflects on lessons from Overture and its sale to Yahoo, describes being at the ground level of Paypal, and talks about the evolution of Southern California as a tech hub.