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Successful entrepreneurs begin with the support of a few #earlybelievers. Gopi Rangan, founding partner at Sure Ventures, interviews venture capital investors in the Silicon Valley and beyond. Guests share insider stories on how they invest in early stage startups. Do you want to learn from real-life challenges, inspiring missions and important decisions by CEOs, founders, VCs, angels, and advisors? Listen to https://podcast.sure.ventures.
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Diversified VC Portfolios Find Big Winners
35:44
35:44
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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 i…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Don’t Lose Contact with Investors, Stay in Touch
26:13
26:13
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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 q…
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, …
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Venture Capital Will Open To All Investors
26:43
26:43
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26:43
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 …
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 …
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 …
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Fintech Startups Are Underdogs Who Innovate
26:21
26:21
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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 mone…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Can You Plan for No Fundraising in the Future?
26:59
26:59
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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 investor…
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 gre…
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 the…
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 dea…
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 …
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 …
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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The Difference Between Success and Failure is Right Between Your Ears
25:18
25:18
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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 …
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 …
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…
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 e…
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 epi…
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 th…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Financial Technology Will Create a Better Tomorrow
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29:50
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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 …
Maryanna Saenko, Co-founder and Partner at Future Ventures, talks about what attracts caring investors to venture capital. Maryanna shares examples of her successful investments in deep tech and gives useful tips to help technical founders convince the investor in the first meeting. In this episode, you’ll learn: 4:13 How can caring venture capital…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Stick It Out and Execute, Don’t Fail Easily
23:14
23:14
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Ayush Jain, a Senior Associate at Revolution’s Rise of The Rest seed fund, shares his career journey from engineering to product management to investing in entrepreneurs that are outside the traditional tech hubs. Ayush highlights some important trends that are disrupting the healthcare industry. He also explains why the “failing fast” mantra that …
Gale Wilkinson, founder and managing partner at Vitalize Venture Capital, shares her wisdom on building startups with entrepreneurs. Gale talks about investing in the future of work and future of learning technologies, and highlights the questions she asks founders to understand their north star. In this episode, you’ll learn: 4:44 What investors a…
Joan Schmit, professor of risk and insurance at the Wisconsin School of Business, talks about risk management in business. As the program lead of Creative Destruction Lab-Wisconsin Risk Stream (CDL Risk), Professor Schmit discusses the objectives of the program, and gives examples of how connecting mentors and entrepreneurs through it is helping to…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Successful Founders Are Naive Fast Learners
28:02
28:02
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28:02
Schwark Satyavolu, a General Partner at Trinity Ventures, shares lessons from his many years of experience as a founder, operator, technology executive, and now an investor. Schwark talks about unwillingly getting into FinTech when he was building Yodlee, and how he got into investing in crypto startups. He also gives an interesting explanation as …
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Learn to Look for VCs With Founder Mentality
28:20
28:20
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Winter Mead, the founder and CEO of Coolwater Capital, tells us about Coolwater, a new organization that’s changing the way venture capital investors build new firms. Winter takes us behind the scenes to show us how venture capital works and how LPs think about the industry. In this episode, you’ll learn: 3:25 Why supporting emerging managers is cr…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Is Decentralized Finance Really Getting Decentralized?
23:13
23:13
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Andy Kangpan, a Principal at Two Sigma Ventures, shares his experience supporting founders building enterprise software, cybersecurity, and crypto startups. Andy talks about the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) and gives real-life risk management tips for entrepreneurs and investors wishing to venture into DeFi. In this episode, you’ll learn:…
Paige Doherty, a founding partner at Behind Genius Ventures, shares her lessons from setting up her VC firm and writing her book ‘Seed to Venture’ about the venture process. Paige elaborates on her investment discipline and why she likes investing early in the future of work and future of play startups. In this episode, you’ll learn: 3:15 Entrepren…
Jonathan Heiliger, General Partner at Vertex Ventures, talks about how the startup ecosystem has changed, and explains why founders DO/DON’T need to be in Silicon Valley. Jonathan also sheds light on the problem of matchmaking. He proposes solutions for ensuring that founders meet and partner with investors who are fit for them. In this episode, yo…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Form Relationships with Investors Before Raising Capital
30:09
30:09
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Mark Suster, General Partner at Upfront Ventures, talks about how he transitioned from being an entrepreneur to investing in startups. Mark elaborates his Lines and Dots technique for evaluating founders. He also points out some fundraising mistakes to avoid, especially when the capital market is undergoing correction. In this episode, you’ll learn…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Founders With Long-term Vision Are Not Distracted by Public Market Volatility
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28:37
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Michael Cardamone, CEO and managing partner at Forum Ventures (formerly Acceleprise), demystifies the effects of public market volatility on startups. Michael gives his perspectives on the recent market downturn, and his advice for founders building B2B SaaS companies on how to manage market volatility. He also gives more details about how he looks…
Matt Harris, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, talks of how he wanted to become a big fish in a small pond when he started investing in fintech. How has that turned out for him two decades later? Matt elaborates his practical approach when evaluating new investments, and gives tips for managing a startup’s expenses to ensure sustainability. In this…
Vikrant Shaurya, the CEO and founder of bestsellingbook.com, shares his unusual entrepreneurial journey. Vikrant narrates how he got early believers to support him in building his first company after dropping out of college. He talks of how he has used the lessons he learned from his initial entrepreneurial failure to build a world-renowned publish…
Nuno Gonçalves Pedro, founder and managing partner at Chamaeleon, talks about founding his new VC firm and how they’re using technology to manage investment processes. Nuno reiterates the importance of entrepreneurs spending more time to know investors before meeting them. He also shares useful dialogue tips for founders to continually improve how …
Sam Toole, Principal at Primary Venture Partners, talks about opportunities for building healthcare solutions, and how building a healthcare business is different from other businesses. Sam also highlights common mistakes that founders make when engaging with pre-partner level investors. In this episode, you’ll learn: [6:02] Regulatory and infrastr…
Chris Wake, Founder of Atypical Ventures, talks about investing in engineers with empathy. Chris shares his unconventional ways of finding technical founders, and gives examples of startups reimagining and transforming the world through scientific innovations. In this episode, you’ll learn: [6:55] Empathy unlocks technical entrepreneurs’ potential …
Zain Jaffer, Partner at Blue Field Capital, shares his journey through entrepreneurship and how he switched to investments. Zain talks about how being a former founder helps him to support the founders he backs as they scale their companies. He also highlights the need for founders and investors to focus beyond first-world problems and solve for re…
Dan Rosen, Founder and General Partner at Commerce Ventures, talks about the evolution of fintech over the last two decades. Dan shares real-life examples of innovative fintech entrepreneurs building solutions that touch customers and businesses in a meaningful way, and his thoughts on whether or not now is still a good time to start a company in t…
Heather Hartnett, General Partner and CEO of Human Ventures, shares how she identifies ‘futurists’ to back them until the market sees their value. Heather talks about supporting early-stage entrepreneurs through ‘Humans in the Wild’ (the firm’s business incubator) and explains how valuation affects a startup’s future. In this episode, you’ll learn:…
Charles Hudson, Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, talks about how he founded Precursor Ventures and why he is unafraid to back unproven first-time entrepreneurs. Charles gives useful tips for founders embarking on finding product-market fit, and shares his thoughts on bridge funding. In this episode, you’ll learn: [3:57] Starting …
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Construction Technology Will Solve the Global Housing Crisis
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32:13
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Julieta Moradei, Partner at Hometeam Ventures, talks about their vision "to close the housing gap" through investing in ambitious founders developing revolutionary technology for the construction industry. Julieta shares an inspiring story of how they created Hometeam Ventures from a non-profit, about being a first-time fund manager, and authentic …
Lucas Timberlake, a Partner at Fintech Ventures Fund, talks about investing in game-changing fintech and insurtech startups. Lucas explains why he looks for founders who are coachable and knowledgeable about the regulatory requirements for their business and shares an unconventional pitch story about one of his recent investments. In this episode, …
Patrick Eggen, Founding General Partner at Counterpart Ventures, talks about the different facets of corporate venture capital (CVC), where it has a real edge in the startup world, and why entrepreneurs should work with CVC investors. Patrick debunks some myths around CVC and shares his observations on how CVC and venture capital has evolved over t…
Jacob Haar, Founder and Managing Partner at Community Investment Management, talks about debt capital and its social impact on financial inclusion. Jacob shares CIM’s inspiring mission of improving inequality through innovation lending, clarifies how equity and debt investors view startup investment opportunities differently, and gives founders use…
Alexa von Tobel, founder and managing partner at Inspired Capital, shares how she built her first startup LearnVest at 23 and later co-founded Inspired Capital to improve access to startup capital. Alexa looks for tenacious and highly committed founders with an ‘always be learning’ attitude. In this episode, you’ll learn: [3:55] Did dropping out of…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Appetite for Disruption: Alternative Proteins
28:39
28:39
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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 beh…
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 fundraisi…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Balance Commitment to the Vision with Attention to Customers' Needs
28:27
28:27
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28:27
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 in…
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The Sure Shot Entrepreneur
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Ambitious Midwest U.S. Founders are Underrated
30:57
30:57
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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 re…
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 o…
