Omar is a partner at Mucker and leads their $190M "early" fund. Previously a partner at Sequoia and founder of AdMob. So many great insights on building companies and why it's hard for startups to raise a Series A from Sand Hill.
Griffin Gaming Partners is a $250m Fund I focused exclusively on gaming. Phil Sanderson says that gaming investing is the new enterprise software--a predictable business model with strong CAC to LTV ratios and increasingly large exit opportunities. We also talk about ultramarathons, a 240 mile race, and how Phil has trained himself to go after even bigger, more audacious goals.
Many VCs shy away from tech that serves SMBs. Austin explains how this has left an enormous opportunity and his tips for entrepreneurs in the space. We talk about his partnership with Ajay Relan at Slauson & Co and the work that PledgeLA and Grid110 have been doing to support underrepresented founders ($25k checks!)
Chang Xu is a partner at $140M fund Basis Set Ventures. We discuss everything from why open source is a good business model, how next gen infrastructure might look, what she learned at Upfront, and even practical advice for forming a startup board.
I really enjoyed my conversation with Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover about product launches, building community and what he looks for when investing out of the Weekend Fund.
What is the state of global warming today? Renewables? Should all VCs be investing in CleanTech? Aaron Fyke from Thin Line Capital is one of the smartest CleanTech investors and joins us to talk about multiple years working with Idealab and building cleanTech companies.
Taj Eldridge tells us about his brand new $250M fund, Include Ventures, that he just launched with Bahiyah Robinson and Keith Spears. Taj is passionate about reducing the wealth gap through black and brown ownership and continuing the work he's been doing with LACI.
The one, the only, David Waxman!! David was the founder of three venture backed companies before he and Gil Elbaz started TenOneTen. David shares lessons learned from an IPO, a litigious board member and a couple decades in startups.
Megan is one of the founders of King River Capital, an LA-based fund investing in Series A and later companies. They are investing out of a $100M Fund II. Megan shares how they are able to leverage their LPs for significant co-investment.
Fantastic chance to get to know Jamie Montgomery. Jamie shares how he's built such strong relationships, delivered outsized returns for March Capital, his approach to philanthropy and his high school fire extinguisher business. For more, tune in March 3rd and 4th to the 18th annual Montgomery Summit.
Loved talking with Kerry about how startups should think about their marketing org and how that has changed. Also fun to hear about Upfront's brand and the brand of the partners at Upfront.
Great talk with Zach White about managing Sinai Venture's $600M Fund II. We talk about investing in Pinterest, buying secondary shares, and independent thinking in the venture business.
With their recently raised $500M, Westlake Village BioPartners is catalyzing the LA biotech ecosystem. Sean Harper, former Head of R&D at Amgen, tells us about his focus on therapeutics to improve human lives and starting Westlake Bio with Beth Seidenberg.
Great discussion about next gen robotics and next gen bioscience with Gil Demeter from Pontifax AgTech. With over $465M in AUM, Pontifax is one of the largest food and agtech funds in the world.
Lux invests in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible. Lux will write $10- 15M checks and they are not afraid to invest pre-product and sometimes pre-company. Shahin has fascinating insight on automation, autonomous cars, AI and more.
When we started this podcast people asked if we'd run out of guests after a year of weekly episodes with LA VCs. Not even close. Hope you enjoy a few highlights from LA venture and hope we get to see more of each other in 2021!
Tracy shares insights on manufacturing, why exports matter, industry 4.0, and the state of diversity in venture today.
Scott has invested in Uber, Facebook, Slack, Square, Robinhood and others... there was probably more than 30 mins worth of stuff I could have learned. Before starting ACME, Scott was the co-founder of Sherpa Capital and before that he was head of Internet investment banking at Goldman Sachs. And now proudly part of the LA venture community!
If you have any questions if debt can help your startup, feel free to give Dan Zinn a call. Dan's firm, Rivonia Road, provides a much more bespoke solution than traditional venture debt. We also talk about how Dan built a billion dollar hedge fund and XPRS, a small business lender.
Nicole Quinn says "you can't be called Lightspeed and move slowly" and explains how they can get a term sheet done in 2-3 days. Lots of insights on building an enduring brand that are applicable whether you are in the consumer space, or building an insurance company.
Marcos Gonzalez is the managing partner at Vamos Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund investing in Hispanic and diverse founders. Over half of LA county is Hispanic. Seems like a great time to be investing in this community!
Great discussion with Arjan Schutte about democratizing prosperity and running Core Innovation Capital, a finTech fund that measures its impact on society and has invested in Ripple, NerdWallet, Synapse, Fundera and more.
Mark Suster from Upfront explains why the best time to talk to founders about fundraising is 3-4 months after their last fundraise. He was kind enough to share that framework and others this week on LAV. #longla
One of my new favorite LA investors, Petra Griffith, joins to discuss Wedbush Ventures. Petra talks about starting a new fund, how she's seen venture debt work well as non-dilutive funding, and lessons on the content business from Netflix and Yahoo.
Bruce's new $100M fund, Miramar Digital Ventures II, invests early in software and data. He explains why many VCs have gone back to preferring notes over SAFEs, and other insights on deal preferences and construction.
Lots of insights on equity crowdfunding today from Buck Jordan. He's raising $50-100k/day (mostly on SeedInvest) for the cool robotics and food companies coming out of WaveMaker Labs. He also has great insights on corporate innovation and how seed stage companies can take advantage of corporate partners.
This is a pre-election must listen. Andrew Glazier is the CEO of Defy Ventures and runs an incredible entrepreneurship program for incarcerated entrepreneurs. We talk about developing an entrepreneurial mindset and the need for criminal justice reform.
We talk with Jim Andelman about Bonfire's new $100M Fund II, the great team additions (Jennifer Richard, Tyler Churchill, Brett Queener), what good traction looks like nowadays, and a couple great resources on tech.
Super interesting guest (and person), Z Holly talks about university innovation, LA manufacturing, gracious professionalism, the LA River, and a parachute malfunction while skydiving...!
Mark is a leading B2B investor and on the board of Scopely, Icertis and more. He shares his current investment theses and explains how Greycroft operates as a seed to growth stage venture fund.
