The Sure Shot Entrepreneur

Gautam Godhwani, Managing Partner at Good Startup, talks about the shift in consumer demand from animal protein to alternative protein. Gautam gives examples of startups that are changing the way food is consumed and shares insightful tips for entrepreneurs seeking to disrupt this sector. In this episode, we discuss: [3:33] Articulating the WHY behind your startup helps investors support you effec...

David Forsberg, Founder and Managing Partner at Ascent Energy Ventures, talks about automation trends in the energy sector. David shares his perspective of how venture capital fits in the broader set of asset classes, what's holding back entrepreneurship and investments within the energy sector, and offers some advice for founders who are fundraising. In this episode, you’ll learn: [6:16] Why do m...

In this week's episode, Nick Moran, the Founder and General Partner at New Stack Ventures, shares his insights into his firm’s focus: investing in outsiders. Nick gives authentic examples, explains what he looks for in founders and why it’s different from other Silicon Valley venture capital firms. In this episode, you will learn: [2:23] Getting into venture capital as an outsider [6:05] Why havin...

Victor Gutwein, an investor and Managing Partner at M25, shares insightful stories and authentic examples of how startups evolve in the Midwest. He also reflects on opportunities for both founders and investors as the startup ecosystem there develops. In this episode, you'll learn: [6:56] Why is it challenging for founders in the Midwest to find real risk-seeking capital? [11:44] How does a conser...

Galym Imanbayev is a partner at Lightspeed - a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm focused on the consumer, enterprise, and health sectors. Galym has extensive investing and research experience across health sectors. He shares relatable stories about working with founders through the early to late stages of the unique, non-linear trajectory of health innovations. In this episode, we discuss:...

Allison Baum Gates is a General Partner at SemperVirens - a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm investing in workforce technology, health tech, and fintech. Allison is particularly obsessed with the Future of Work. She shares relatable insights on how companies can evolve with workforce changes post-pandemic. She also debunks one of the myths of raising VC funding: that you can raise funding...

Ben Metcalfe is the founder of Monochrome Capital - a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage software and AI-driven startups. Ben, a passionate technology geek, shares lessons from his unconventional but insightful career journey - from building websites in the mid-90s as a teenager, getting his first job as a software engineer at 18 without a college degree, and co-...

Mark Fernandes is a managing partner at Sierra ventures - a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm focused on early-stage emerging technology companies. Mark invests in cloud infrastructure, security software, digital health, and data & analytics. He shares relatable lessons from his professional journey from software engineering to investment banking to startup investing. He also offers insigh...

Matthew Jones is a managing director at Anthemis, a London-based venture capital firm focused on insurance and risk related technologies. Matthew shares Anthemis’ thesis-driven insurtech investment approach, and the things that excite him the most in the first call with founders. He also shares authentic stories showing why it’s difficult to uncover impactful opportunities if the team lacks someon...

Katie Shea is the co-founder and managing partner at Divergent Capital - a venture capital firm that invests in cutting-edge technologies and scientific innovations. Katie grew up in a family where everyone around her ran businesses. While in college, she co-founded a manufacturing company, which she bootstrapped to millions of dollars in annual revenue and profitability before selling it in 2013....

Tim McLoughlin is a partner at Cofounders Capital - an early stage venture capital firm investing in B2B software startups in and around North Carolina. Tim gathered extensive entrepreneurial experience from founding and running startups. He is passionate about helping disciplined and tenacious founders to build dream companies. He has actively contributed to the growth of the NC startup ecosystem...

Kush Shrivastava is an active angel investor who has been in Silicon Valley for more than a decade. He's worked at large companies, built several companies from the ground up, and invested in many startups. While candidly sharing how he makes investments, he gives authentic stories including some failure stories often not talked about. Highlights: [4:17] From building my first company at 13 years...

Ramneek Gupta is the founder of PruVen Capital, a Palo Alto-based multi-stage venture capital firm that supports leading entrepreneurs from garage to IPO. Ramneek is keen on achieving both strategic and financial returns for the startups in which he invests. He shares relatable insights for entrepreneurial success based on his experience investing in the fintech, insurtech, health tech, real estat...

Satya Patel is the founder and partner at Homebrew - a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in startups with big-impact. Satya has a strong operating background spanning product innovation and leadership at Google and Twitter. Now, he prides himself in being a hands-on early-stage investor. He works side by side with founders to build excellent teams, products, and the companies...

Sunil Nagaraj is the founder and managing partner at Ubiquity ventures, a Silicon Valley-based seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in smart hardware and machine intelligence startups. Sunil talks about how real-world physical problems are transformed into software solutions. He looks for founders with a combination of deep technical knowledge and precise contact with the first prospective...

Mika Salmi is a managing partner at the European venture capital firm Lakestar. He has been a serial entrepreneur, a successful angel investor, and now a venture capital investor. Mika invests in early-stage startups in  media, gaming, and consumer sectors. He’s known for building or bringing to market globally recognized brands, talent and products. Tailoring your pitch to each venture capital in...

Hans Morris is the founder and managing partner at NYCA Partners, a fintech focused venture capital firm in New York and Silicon Valley. As one of the early fintech leaders, Hans had a successful 27-year career leading at different financial services companies including at Visa as President, General Atlantic, CitiGroup, and Salomon Smith Barney. He shares deep insights about venture capital in fin...

Arjan Schutte is the founder and managing partner at Core Innovation Capital, a venture capital firm that helps entrepreneurs build disruptive, high-growth FinTech businesses. Arjan shares insights on solving public sector problems using marketplace solutions. He is keen on ideas that can create social impact alongside providing competitive financial returns. Good intentions don’t automatically tr...

Kate Beardsley is a founding partner at Hannah Grey, a Denver-based venture capital firm that focuses on the intersection of technology and human behavior. She narrates her in-depth experience on the operation side of venture capital funds before becoming an investor. Kate also exemplifies why founders should prepare to meet and engage the investor meaningfully at the start of the funding process....

Ashley Paston is a Principal at New York-based Bain Capital Ventures and focuses on FinTech. She looks for founders who can zoom in and out of a pain point, offer a unique solution, and explain how to build a successful company out of the idea. She gives insightful perspectives on FinTech trends and opportunities. Connecting with more members on the investment team means more support for the entre...

Jocelyn Goldfein is a managing director at Zetta Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in AI-first startups. Jocelyn led engineering teams while at Facebook and VMware during their high-growth years before becoming a venture capital investor. In founders, she looks for real empathy for customers. Jocelyn has backed over 20 startups focused on enterprise infrast...

Aashay Sanghvi is an investor at Haystack, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that focuses on pre-seed and seed software and technology investments. Aashay got into venture capital very early, which is against the general advice: “don’t get into investing too early”. He’s keen to find founders who are creating solutions that build the technological infrastructure for the future. Junior in...

Ali Tamaseb is a partner at Data Collective Venture Capital (DCVC), a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that backs entrepreneurs using deep tech. He shares insightful findings of his 4-year long research on billion-dollar startups and their founders (documented in his new book: Super Founders).  Ali gives data points that deconstruct myths about the startup ecosystem in the U.S., and show...

Jason Best is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Vectr Fintech Partners (VFP), a globally-focused early stage fintech venture capital firm. He shares profound real-life experiences showing how networking makes it easier for entrepreneurs to turn ideas into impact. He also gives an insightful story of how he contributed to the enactment of the 2012 Jobs Act that improved access to equity crowdf...

Julian Teicke is the founder and CEO of Berlin-based Wefox, the first 100% digital European insurance company. He shares insightful experiences about starting early as an e-commerce entrepreneur in Switzerland, starting the fastest-growing insurtech company in Germany, and an unexpected Salesforce-led seed funding round. As an angel investor, Julian frames his investment philosophy around big drea...