Founder of MiLA Capital, Noramay Cadena, talks with me about the intersection of tech and manufacturing. Along with partners Carmen Palafox and Shaun Arora, Noramay is writing first checks ($100k-$1M) into "tech you can touch". Shout out to creator, collaborator Z holly and Make it in LA SoCal Alliance report on SoCal innovation Kauffman fellows...
Great chat with Michael Tam about Craft Ventures ($1-$15M), vertical labor marketplaces, Uber, his partners David Sacks, Bill Lee, Jeff Fluhr, Sky Dayton, and Michael's path into venture. David Sacks posts: https://medium.com/@davidsacks
We caught up with Derek Norton about Watertower ($100-500k checks with his partner Jeremy Milken), micro M&A, advantages(?) of a hard fundraise, media as IP, and how great we are here in LA :)
Great episode if you like entertaining guests. Peter invests up to $250k initial checks out of PLG Ventures and is not afraid to invest super-early (pre-product, pre-revenue). He helps his portfolio companies on all things organizational behavior, but was formerly CEO of AmTrust, the largest privately held bank.
We got a chance to catch up with Erik about Honey's $4B exit, his new partner Omar, his decision-making process and all things Mucker ($100k - $1.5M checks and a lot of elbow grease).
MAC is a $100m fund writing $500k - $1.5m checks. David and I didn't talk much because Mike had so many great stories. He tells us about his partners Adrian Fenty, Marlon Nichols, Charles King and some of the cool stuff in interactive media today. Lil Miquela : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE1J9JxqhFo ... makes our podcast guest list look a little dry
Kelly is founding partner of Moonshots Capital where he invests $500k - $1.5M with conviction into extraordinary leadership with a heavy emphasis on leaders with a military background. We enjoyed talking with him about his experience running a syndicate and winning Season 2 of the Apprentice and working with Donald Trump.
Robert Mai joins us to talk about Scopus Ventures, an early stage fund focused on B2B enterprise software (initial checks $250-$1M). Scopus is active in LA and Israel. Robert also educates us on family office investing.
Brian is the founder of BAM Ventures, ShoeDazzle, LegalZoom, the Honest Company and more. We talked to him about investing out of BAM Ventures where he's not afraid to invest early--$250-500k into a great entrepreneur and an idea. Also really interesting to learn his approach to launching a brand, shopping at CVS, and whats going on today at BAM labs.
Jay is a partner at Wavemaker 360 Health, a healthcare fund with a liberal definition of what a healthcare company is. They do seed investing ($100-$500k first check). Jay is very thoughtful about everything from how he leverages his LPs to the implications of value-based care.
Meredith is a partner at March Capital Partners where she leads investments into enterprise B2B companies raising Series A, B and C. Prior to March, Meredith was at Salesforce Ventures. I'd want Meredith on my board if I were running a later stage enterprise business!
Eric is the president of Tech Coast Angels, but we definitely got caught up talking about his prior experience as CEO of 99c only stores. This one is a great listen if you're at all interested in selling consumer goods or scaling operations.
Grid110 is a fantastic free accelerator program in DTLA (no cost, no equity). Miki started Grid110 in 2014 with a focus on fashion tech, but now Grid110 is open to early stage entrepreneurs in all sectors. Miki's awesome and what's not to love.
Laurent Grill is lead investor at Luma Launch, an LA pre-seed fund that does both B2B and B2C, with a particular interest in storytelling. In addition to funding (average check size $250k), Luma provides great mentors and services for it's teams. Laurent explains why Luma (and others) have moved away from the accelerator model.
Peter is a founder and managing partner at Embark Ventures, one of the very few deep tech/frontier tech focused investors in town. They write $500- $1M checks into pre-product companies with important science behind them. Peter is full of interesting thoughts on robotics, brain computer interaction and tech transfer out of universities.
Alex is an early-stage enterprise B2B investor, typically writing checks $300-$600k into rounds of ~$1-3M. He is full of interesting insights and convictions. I could have talked to him for a long time.
Dana is a Founding Partner at Greycroft and heads the west coast office. She invests in seed, series A and out of the Greycroft growth fund. We talk to her about tracker funds, acquirers, her relationship to email and other interesting things.
John is a gem. He is also a partner at Okapi Ventures. Before Okapi he was a founder (twice), he worked at Idealab and in corporate M&A. As he says, he has sat on all 10 sides of the table.
Brian is one of the founders of Crosscut. Crosscut has been doing seed investing in LA since 2007. Brian explains their portfolio construction ($1.5-3M is "typical" but they stretch in both directions), the personalities of the Crosscut team and how they think about their reputation and the ecosystem they have been a part of growing for the past decade. From the episode: Nick Kim's post on Platform as a Product . Evolution coaching: https://www.evolution.team/...
Peter Pham is the co-founder of Science. Science is a startup studio here in Santa Monica that partners with founders at the earliest stage of company-creation. Peter educates me and David on D2C margins and radiation-preventing underwear over tallboys of Liquid Death . Join us at Innovate Pasadena with great upcoming guests and a podcast if you can't join us in person....
Paul is founder and managing partner at Amplify. Amplify started as an accelerator, they still have the great office space, but now Paul describes Amplify as "pre-seed with benefits". They have a heavy LA focus to their investments ($250-500k) but not funding LA companies exclusively. Paul is also a venture partner at Greycroft and a nice person.
Adam Struck is an LA seed investor from Struck Capital (checks $1-1.5M) who challenges any other VC to put in more sweat equity per dollar than he does. He also thinks VCs should be weirder. I already feel like I'm busting my butt so I will accept the weird challenge.
Kara is a partner at Upfront, a founder, and one of the most prominent investors in LA. Kara shares about the Upfront partnership (8 different UIs with the same backend), advice for founders, and her own areas of interest.
With over 100 members, Pasadena Angels is one of the largest angel investor networks in LA. Stender Sweeney is chair of the Pasadena Angels and explains how their process works, what size check to expect ($250-750k) and what it means to be "more than the money".
Techstars is a 90-day mentorship-driven accelerator program with three programs in LA: Techstars Music, Techstars Space and Techstars LA. Today we talk to Anna Barber, Managing Director for Techstars LA, about the mentorship, investment ($120k) and network that Techstars LA provides.
Fika invests in enterprise, B2B SAAS and data-oriented solutions. Fika is usually writing checks in the $750k to $1.2M range and Eva tells us how check size and round size have changed over time. Eva is an extremely thoughtful investor about everything from data ethics to building stronger communities. We're glad Eva is part of the LA community! Leave us a review, let me know, and I'll send back my gratitude.
Mark talks with us about what sort of traction he looks for when doing B2B seed investing, what sort of questions he asks founders, and his direct personal style.
Will talks to us about Mucker Capital, the early stage venture fund that he and Erik co-founded as well as Mucker Labs, his very well-respected LA accelerator.
Dustin Rosen is the founder and managing partner at Wonder Ventures, a pre-seed fund here in LA.
Britt talks about venture debt, Alpha Edison's investment thesis and how trust is created.
