The Sure Shot Entrepreneur

David Gritz, co-founder and managing director at InsurTech New York, and Bryan Falchuk, founder and managing partner at Insurance Evolution Partners, discuss the dynamic roles of different players in the insurance ecosystem. David and Bryan also give useful tips for founders to effectively manage the landscape and be successful. In this episode, you’ll learn: 4:32 Are insurtech startups effectivel...

Tanvi Narain, an investor at Counterpart Ventures, shares her venture capital journey and the insights gained from her first investment. She offers advice on how to prepare for entry into the VC realm and provides a new perspective on the industry. Additionally, she discusses the role of women in corporate venture capital. In this episode, you’ll learn: 2:35 Significant stepping stones that helped...

Fernando Pontaza, co-founder and managing general partner at Invariantes Fund, recounts the inception of Invariantes, Guatemala's first early-stage venture capital fund. He offers insights into the growth of the Latin American VC market and shares his experiences as a multi-asset class portfolio manager. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 2:11 ] Insights from pioneering Guatemala’s first venture cap...

Adrian Fenty, managing general partner at MaC Venture Capital, discusses his journey from being D.C. mayor to becoming a venture capitalist. He highlights the similarities between politics and venture capital and shares insights on MaC's unique approach to investment opportunities. In this episode, you’ll learn: 2:01 Lessons about business from a former politician 10:39 Why ‘hire great people’ is...

Alex Edelson, founder and general partner at Slipstream Investors, shares his journey as a limited partner and recounts the genesis of Slipstream. He talks about the importance of evaluating VCs based on their portfolio construction, unique strengths, and feedback from founders, and highlights lessons from common mistakes emerging managers do. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 6:32 ] 3 key characte...

Jamie Rhode, Principal at Verdis Investment Management, sheds light on the opaque world of LPs. Jamie shares insights into how data is utilized at Verdis to make informed decisions about fund allocation strategy. She offers valuable advice for building successful GP/LP relationships, and ofers her views on prevailing trends in the venture capital industry. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 9:34 ] H...

Manu Kumar, Founder and Chief Firestarter of K9 Ventures, talks about how he balances being an investor and a founder. He shares unique insights from his experience founding Carta, HiHello and his other startups, and lessons from his high-conviction type of investing. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 3:32 ] Why solo GPs prioritize deal quality over quantity, and best ways to catch their attention...

David Thacker, General Partner at Greylock, shares insights from his career journey. He previously led product development at high-growth tech companies such as Google and LinkedIn and now invests in consumer and B2B2C tech startups. He discusses changes in the venture capital industry and their impact on fundraising for founders. In this episode, you'll learn: 3:45 Make calculated bets during slo...

Eric Woo, co-founder and CEO at Revere VC, talks about how Revere is pioneering ‘the Morningstar for venture capital’. Eric shares examples of how VC can become more transparent and more data driven, and gives advice on how to navigate a more complicated future VC world. In this episode, you’ll learn: [** 3:23 **] The value of venture capital in the eyes of a limited partner [** 8:31 **] How do yo...

Richard Kerby, co-founder and general partner at Equal Ventures, shares the journey of Equal Ventures and thought behind Emerging Managers Circle. He provides insights into the investment decision-making process at multi-partner venture capital firms and offers advice on how to position your business for success. Finally, he discusses the issue of diversity in the VC industry. In this episode, you...

Karthee Madasamy, founder and managing partner at MFV Partners, talks about how deep tech is affecting and transforming traditional industries. Karthee shares important lessons for deep tech founders to help them move from proving the underlying technology to building scalable businesses. He also explains the MFV Partners investment philosophy and what founders can expect when they work with MFV....

Ryan Falvey, co-founder and managing partner at Restive Ventures, talks about how he founded his firm on the premise of helping to unblock the path for fintech founders as they grow and scale their businesses. Ryan highlights the huge untapped opportunities in the U.S. for fintech startups, and explains why there should be more venture capital money flowing in emerging markets. In this episode, yo...

Semil Shah, General Partner at Haystack Ventures, talks about fundraising in a changing VC environment. Semil highlights ways for founders to raise investors’ interest in their companies, and explains why founders should occasionally imagine a future where they won’t have to raise more capital. In this episode, you'll learn: [** 4:56 **] Ask investors questions to make the conversation more intere...

Tom Ferguson, managing partner at Burnt Island Ventures, talks about water investing: trends, opportunities and challenges. Tom shares lessons from his experience working with entrepreneurs in the water sector. He also explains the methodology Burnt Island Ventures uses to assess potential investments while avoiding the biases that often hinder great founders from meeting investors. In this episod...

Samara Hernandez, founding partner at Chingona Ventures, talks about investing in underrepresented and overlooked badass founders from different backgrounds. Samara explains her 5Ps framework of evaluating startups and gives her thoughts on how access to capital for underrepresented founders has changed. She also gives her advice to founders as they maneuver the current market downturn. In this ep...

Chris Kim, the co-founder and managing partner at Union Labs, talks about supporting deeptech entrepreneurs with empathy. Chris shares his journey as a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and venture capitalist. He explains, with real-life examples, why the founder’s character ultimately matters and shares his thoughts on high-speed fundraising deals. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 4:56 ] VCs wh...

Edward Suh, founding partner at Alpine VC, talks about focusing on metrics and data to remove biases when looking for investment opportunities. Edward elaborates how his quant-based investment philosophy helps him to objectively find hidden gems (underprivileged and overlooked entrepreneurs) that are building scalable early-stage startups. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 1:27 ] Getting into ventu...

Guy Kawasaki, chief evangelist at Canva and previously at Apple, talks about defying the odds to become a remarkable person. Guy shares his interesting career story and lots of lessons along that journey. He also talks about the mission behind his podcast ‘Remarkable People’. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 3:34 ] Defy the statistics if you want to stand out. [ 6:22 ] Fall in love with stuff and...

Mike Smerklo, co-founder and managing director at Next Coast Ventures, shares his journey and lessons learned through his experiences as an entrepreneur and now an investor. Mike gives practical examples of how founders can prudently build a relationship with investors right from the first meeting. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 7:08 ] Learning to silence “Mr. Monkey” in order to succeed as an e...

Jasleen Kaur, an investor at Nyca Partners, talks about how she evaluates potential investments across wealth tech, SMB technology, and ESG areas. Jasleen advises founders on how to treat regulation during the very early stages of building their startups. She also gives her views on how overvaluation is affecting the VC/startups ecosystem. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 5:48 ] Is early-stage inv...

Taylor Clauson, the Founder and Managing Partner at Abstraction Capital, talks about how he builds conviction from the founder’s ‘why story’. Taylor highlights the challenges faced by technical founders outside Silicon Valley and New York, and discusses what really affects alpha in a founder. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 3:38 ] Why the ‘why story’ is more important than the pitch deck [ 8:44 ]...

Ariana Thacker, founding partner at Conscience VC, dispels some myths about venture capital. Ariana talks about how entrepreneurial experience influences the investment playbook. She also shares her thoughts on qualities of a founder that she thinks are more important post-COVID. In this episode, you’ll learn: [ 6:37 ] Is a bit more entrepreneurial experience a drawback? [ 9:45 ] Why founders with...

Andrew Scott, a founding partner at 7percent Ventures, talks about distilling the essence of your vision and your business into the deck. Andrew shares wisdom that he’s gained from his experience working with entrepreneurs across different geographies. He also gives his perspective of how the startup ecosystem in Europe needs to change. In this episode, you’ll learn: [2:11] How the venture ecosyst...

Kfir Kachlon, the Co-founder and General Partner at 91 Ventures, shares his journey from being a lawyer to investing in deep tech startups. Kfir explains why he likes debating hard questions with founding teams. In addition, he points out key things founders need to do when pitching for the investor to see their startup as a great investment. In this episode, you’ll learn: 5:24 The product may cha...

Jake Gibson, the Founding Partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures, gives a refreshing view of how FinTech is going to touch every part of the world. Jake discusses how the market downturn has impacted startups and gives a FinTech VC’s point of view on key Web3 trends. In this episode, you’ll learn: 1:32 It's way too early to say anything like ‘FinTech is overdone’ or ‘FinTech is dead’.  13:50 Does a p...