December 5, 2024

Everybody is going to have an AI assistant that does top of funnel triage on inbound requests. We talk about what this will look like with Spencer Rascoff, partner at 75 & Sunny and founder of Zillow, Hotwire, Pacaso and now HeyLibby.  You can listen to the podcast here or chat with Spencer's AI assistant at heylibby.ai/spencerrascoff

November 20, 2024

Brian Garrett wants to get the message out that Crosscut VI is not the same firm that invested in ShoeDazzle and Ipsy in 2009, but they will continue to follow the talent of SoCal into FrontierTech and beyond. Brian concedes that LA is never going to be the #1 AI hub, but engineers in LA have been building "hard shit" for a very long time. Crosscut VI will invest in space exploration, clean energy and advanced manufacturing. 

November 6, 2024

With AI enabling copycat products to be brought to market incredibly quickly, the ability to scale and find unique distribution is the new moat. Arteen explains distribution lessons learned and much more from his vantage as Fika's returning partner.

October 23, 2024

Nanxi Liu shares how she deliberately cultivated an extraordinary network. In interviewing, as in networking, Nanxi looks for excellence. This talent for spotting excellence helped lead her to a very successful sale of her first company, Enplug. She's now Co-CEO of Blaze.tech and a Partner at XFactor Ventures. 

October 13, 2024

LA native Katia Ameri turned her passion for community-building into a dream job at A16Z and then created #LATechWeek, a tech phenomenon. Katia tells the story of what made Tech Week successful and how she and Andrew Chen launched the first tech week in 6 weeks with 30 events and then built a platform that now supports thousands of events in 3 cities just two years later.

September 25, 2024

Matter Venture Partners recently launched their $311M Fund I. Mel Tang was previously CFO at Ring and Demand Media. In this episode he shares why he believes the future of tech lies in hardware and how to set up systems to enable good decision making and successful growth.

August 22, 2024

From side hustle to industry disruptor: John Tabis shares how his side hustle turned into Bouqs, a leading flower delivery company. Now at M13, he’s helping others bring big ideas to life!

May 29, 2024

Shrina Kurani is an investor actively writing checks to help catalyze emerging managers as part of IBank’s Venture Capital Access Program.  Shrina and the team at IBank are happy to be a part of a fund's first close and they participate with meaningful capital ($5M-$10M). It is easy to apply to the IBank program and Shrina says that she hopes to be "bombarded" with decks from amazing fund managers.

May 15, 2024

Venture capital is a team sport masquerading as an individual sport.  Rayfe Gaspar-Asaoka, partner at Canaan Partners, tells us why he thinks VC partnerships resemble a swim team.   We also talk about space and defense tech, the evolution of venture capital, how generational transition can work well and why a thoughtful reserve strategy has outsized leverage, especially in early stage venture firms.

May 1, 2024

More growth rounds in 2024! Avery Rosin is writing $50-300M checks for Lead Edge Capital. He thinks PE firms are going to continue being acquisitive and companies are going to reorient around the Rule of 40. Listen for more insights and reasons for Avery's optimism.

April 3, 2024

Have VCs overreacted against investing in consumer?  Shamin Walsh has a 10x fund and numerous case studies to show that consumer can provide huge returns when done right.  Shamin shares how to win when investing in consumer (eg: invest in a cat litter company that raises $1.5M and exits for $500M!!)

March 20, 2024

Michael Tubbs gained national prominence when he became the youngest mayor of any major American city at age 26. He was a hero of the universal basic income movement until he suddenly lost reelection. Listen to his lessons learned and think about what you're willing to stick your neck out and lose for. Tubbs is now investing out of Tubbs Ventures, where he focuses on government technology and solving fundamental societal problems.

March 6, 2024

Josh Resnick is the co-founder of candy brand Sugarfina, where he sold very expensive gummy bears that made people happy. Before Sugarfina, he sold his video game developer Pandemic Studios for $860M. He is now a General Partner at OpenSky Ventures where he invests in the future of commerce and helps founders avoid pitfalls of growing too fast--adding SKUs too quickly, not having a handle on business data, overspending on legal and other lessons he's learned from his founder and angel investing journey.

February 21, 2024

Kunal Tandon was running a family business importing paper and metal before cold calling his way into venture capital. Previously at Collaborative Fund, Kunal is now investing out of El Cap Fund II with his partner and former NFL player Stewart Bradley.

February 7, 2024

Scott Nolan tells us what he thinks about the Elon-haters and how Founders Fund is unique in their investing approach. Scott, a partner at Founders Fund, has been there 12 years and was one of the first hires at SpaceX.

January 17, 2024

From fleeing revolution at 14 to shaping the future of B2B SaaS investments, Ivan's journey is nothing short of inspirational. Uncover secrets to startup success and the art of building a vibrant venture community.

January 3, 2024

FirstLook Partners is a hybrid fund of funds actively investing in funds under $50M. Josh Porter, co-founder of FirstLook, explains why he thinks smaller funds make the best investment opportunities.  Josh has seen hundreds of decks and digs in on how to evaluate funds and his unique approach to co-investments.

November 29, 2023

Explore the realm where future tech intertwines with the quest for immortality with Will Weisman. From his start as a couch-surfing entrepreneur to Executive Director of Singularity University to founder of KittyHawk Ventures. Predicting a world where immortality is possible, this episode dives into the cutting edge of longevity, the power of psychedelics, and reimagining our lifetimes. Tune in for an inspiring journey into tomorrow!

November 15, 2023

Liberal arts degrees are never going away, and fast-movers make the best startup CEOs! Scott is the co-founder of Everywhere Ventures and Two Culture Capital, a former partner at Mohr Davidow, a best-selling author and a team member on the Council on Foreign Relations. He has invested in >300 portfolio companies and gives heaps of tactical investing advice, thoughts from his book and some of the best lessons from his mentors. Check out Scott's book, blog and Everywhere Ventures.

October 31, 2023

Unveil the truth about early stage funding and candid startup journeys with Sydney Thomas from Symphonic Capital. Tune in to learn more about: *Sydney's journey from Precursor to Symphonic Capital *Dive into the benefits of a long-term view in pre-seed funding *Discover the power of direct and candid feedback in entrepreneurship and more!

October 4, 2023

Brian Frank talks about how everything in the food system can be improved, and how VCs are investing with a technology lens instead of a problem solving perspective. Tune in to learn more about: *Biggest opportunities ahead in the food system *Evolution of replacing animal protein, including synthetic biology *How Brian is perfectly positioned to help the next generation of founders in the industry

September 13, 2023

Adrian Fenty has a fascinating perspective as founding managing partner at MaC Venture Capital and former mayor of Washington, DC. In this episode, Adrian dives into the intersections of government and technology, including: * Why governments should be run more like tech companies * Why governments are critical for real change (including insights from his massive educational reform in Washington, DC) * How VC is both art and science

August 16, 2023

Brett Queener from Bonfire spends 20-30 hours onboarding each of his companies and shares some of his playbook and rules of thumb.  I like a lot of his operational tips: * Founders should stay involved in sales (at the seed stage) * Seed companies should hire mechanics not scalers * 20% of employees should be quota carrying * Revenue growth is tied to the number of productive sales reps hired * And many more insights from his 13 years as an executive at Salesforce

August 1, 2023

She created 15 businesses in 8 years. Katelyn Foley's next act? Building a first-of-its-kind venture lab as President of UP.Labs. In this episode of LA Venture, you'll learn the secrets to her strategy.

July 12, 2023

March Capital was investing in generative AI long before ChatGPT went mainstream. Wes Nichols has brought his 30 years of analytics and AI experience as an investor and entrepreneur to help March Capital with this area of focus.

June 28, 2023

Will Coffield is co-Founder and General Partner at Riot Ventures, a hard tech fund that invests at seed and Series B. In this episode Will shares: - Why the DoD has newfound interest in working with startups. - How AI will enable the next wave of defense tech products. - How Will used SPVs to build Riot’s credibility within the LP community.

June 14, 2023

Galen Shaffer is a Senior Vice President at Eos Venture Partners, a Series A fund, investing in the future of insurance. In this episode Galen shares: - Why cyber insurance is a $30B opportunity for startups. - What the first wave of D2C insurance startups got wrong. - Why novel data is often not impactful data.

May 31, 2023

Carl Fritjofsson is a Partner at Creandum, one of Europe's leading VC firms. In this episode Carl shares: - Why nearly every software category can be reimagined with a Generative AI-first approach - Why Q4 2023 and Q1 2024 could be "pretty bloody" and a "moment of truth" for startups - Creandum's approach to winning competitive Series A deals - Why VC poses career risk for associates early in their careers

May 17, 2023

Aaron Samuels tells us about investing in intersectional founders, he explains what identity saliency is to Minnie and he shares how he and Brian Hollins were able to parlay their scout investing into $66M Collide Fund I.

May 3, 2023

Dan Wenhold co-leads Fifth Wall's real estate technology fund.  He tells us how Fifth Wall has massively grown their AUM by bringing in LPs from the real estate industry who want access to innovation in PropTech.  He also tells us how Fifth Wall has stayed innovative and leaned into creative deal structures that are outside the typical VC playbook.

April 19, 2023

Founder of Notation Capital Nick Chirls : * Likes to invest in companies that are too early * Prefers when it's hard to explain what the company is doing * Does not think now is a good time to invest in AI * And is basically full of strong opinions and sounds nothing like a VC

April 5, 2023

In this episode with Ann Lai from Bullpen we talk about: * The metrics that matter for fundraising * How Bullpen invests in overlooked businesses * And how Ann bounced back from her experience with Justin Caldbeck at Binary Capital

March 22, 2023

Howard Morgan is the Chairman and General Partner at B Capital and previously the co-founder of First Round Capital. Howard shares his perspective on building successful seed funds (he's an LP in 80), what is exciting him today in tech and how he has chosen such great partners throughout his life.

March 8, 2023

Another great Southern California Series A fund and another great investor moving from the Bay Area to LA. Toba partner Patrick Mathieson tells us why he moved from the Bay Area to LA to pursue his thesis around companies building platforms for SMB. Patrick has invested in Boulevard, PatientPop, FloQast, Luxury Presence and now Candid (a TenOneTen co-invest).

February 22, 2023

David Zhang is a partner at TCV where he is investing out of their current $4B flagship fund in companies like Brex, AirBnb, Klarna, and Nubank. David leans in on FinTech investing and tells us about some of his theses on the unbundling (and bundling) of financial services. David comes from a hedge fund background and also shares why he prefers the alignment of private market investing over the more Darwinian nature of the public markets.

February 9, 2023

Don't let the joy get sucked out of investing. Investor Emilio Diez Barroso reminds us to remain focused on the joys of creativity and creating value.   Emilio invests from his own family office and as a partner at Bold Capital, a Series A fund with a focus on frontier tech, biotech and innovations that have the potential to transform humanity.

January 25, 2023

When Taylor Adams advises family offices on setting up venture programs he recommends investing into fund of funds for coverage, emerging managers for access and direct investments for alpha. In addition to his family office work, Taylor is the co-founder of Rise Together Ventures, a fund enabling for-profit entrepreneurs to realize their full for-profit and philanthropic vision.

January 11, 2023

"It would be delightful if all the brightest brains in the world focused their energies on solving climate problems." Gaby Darbyshire gained deep operational expertise as a founder of Gawker Media before starting climate tech focused Dangerous Ventures.  There is a lot to learn from Gaby in many dimensions.

January 4, 2023

The next version of the internet will feel a lot more like a game. Jason Yeh and partner Brian Cho helped Riot Games scale League of Legends to a massive global scale. They take a lot of lessons from gaming as they invest from $90M Patron Fund I into what they call the "spectrum of play".

December 14, 2022

Andrew Kahn from Crush Ventures invests in music, interactive media, the creator economy, and more. Crush Ventures is the venture arm of Crush Music, a global talent management firm whose roster includes Miley Cyrus, Sia, Green Day, Panic! at the Disco, Weezer, among many others.

November 30, 2022

"Good paperwork makes good friendships".  Deron Quon, co-founder of Menus.com, Datassential, and Collective Solution shares thoughts on scaling and navigating a sale to private equity. Now an active angel investor and founder of Hoopla.com, Deron also talks about the importance of investing back into the LA ecosystem. ‍

November 16, 2022

Roy Rubin dropped out of UCLA to start Magento, a massive eCommerce platform that scaled to over $100B in transactions annually. Roy is now writing $500k to $1M checks out of his fund, R-Squared Ventures. The story of his success and lessons learned is inspiring and worth a listen!

November 2, 2022

There are so many great founders and VCs moving to LA! Vinay Singh is a Managing Director at Anthemis where he leads seed and Series A investments out of their early stage fund.  Vinay tells us that Anthemis is a global investment platform focused on the digital transformation of financial services, investing across all stages of growth. ‍

October 19, 2022

What are the best ways for a startup to partner with a big corporation?   Beth Kearns from Touchdown Ventures tells about different partnership models, best practices and pitfalls to avoid. ‍

October 12, 2022

Word on the street is that more deals have structure.  Kareem tells us about structured equity--when it makes sense and who it's right for. Arrowroot is an 8+ year old growth equity firm in LA and Miami on Fund V ($500MM+ invested globally across 28 port cos.) that specializes in structured equity for venture-backed enterprise software companies. ‍

September 28, 2022

Talking with Jeffrey made me wonder if I need to get a celebrity for our venture fund.  Jeffrey had the opportunity to work with Alex and Drew of the Chainsmokers to set up Mantis VC and it sounds like an amazing team. Jeffrey explains the value that the Chainsmokers are able to bring and how entrepreneurs and funds can best work with celebrity. ‍

September 14, 2022

Why is a Series B pitch so much different than pitching a Series A company?  How do growth stage investors think about multiples today?   Mike Fernandez talks about what he is seeing in growth rounds today and the sort of support that is needed for later stage companies. ‍

September 7, 2022

This is a great explanation of PLG from the guy who coined the term.  Blake Bartlett tells us about the different eras of business software and the problems it was built to solve--from solving a CIO's problems, to solving a business problem, to solving an end user problem. Blake explains how to get started with PLG, how the funnel changes going from a sales-led motion to a product-led motion, how to think about PLG metrics, and much more. ‍

September 5, 2022

Fred is the Chief Innovation and Partnerships officer at Caltech where he oversees the Tech Transfer office and recently set up two new funds : The Caltech Fund and the Wilson and Hill fund. Fred gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how Caltech labs are run and how his team thinks about the translational potential of scientific work. ‍

August 31, 2022

I learned so much about working with celebrities from Jackie Fast at Sandbox Studios : * Celebrities are not doing this for impact.  It is for the money * George Clooney's $1B payday from Casamigos caught everyone's attention * It's not only about choosing the right celebrity, it's also about having the right team around them * Celebrities are so eager to work with startups, they are resorting to DMs * Celebrity and startup collaboration is going to explode ‍

August 24, 2022

The hippies were right. From music festivals, to veganism, to eastern philosophy, and now psychedelics.   In this fascinating episode, Greg Kubin tells us about the growing psychedelic movement that is gaining momentum as we start to understand more about how the brain works. Greg's fund, PsyMed is a $25M fund investing in psychedelic medicine and mental health technologies. ‍

August 17, 2022

Should we be pouring massive amounts of time and money into web3 or is it just technology looking for a use case? Pitbull Ventures founder Brad Zions is also the producer of Kissing Jessica Stein and the co-founder of Lemonade restaurants.  He tells us why movies and restaurants are bad investments and why, in his opinion, web3 is even worse. Pitbull is a generalist seed/pre-seed fund that targets 50+ portfolio companies per fund. ‍

August 10, 2022

Will Bumpus from Concrete Rose joins us today.  Concrete Rose has grown quickly and is now leading rounds with $1-2M checks to support a virtuous cycle of wealth and opportunity for underrepresented communities of color. Will tells us about his own focus on sustainability and where that came from in his life. He also shares why he and his partners may (hopefully) be part of a growing trend of VCs pledging a percent of their carry (50%!) to give back to nonprofits. ‍

August 3, 2022

Marcy Venture Partners has grown from $30M to $900M AUM, now leading Series A and Series B rounds.   Charlie Hanna tells us how he, Jay-Z, Jay Brown and Larry Marcus work together at Marcy to evaluate and champion the brands of the future.  He points out that celebrities like Jay-Z and Rihanna didn't make their billions from their music, but from their ability to build brands. ‍

July 27, 2022

Megan Holston-Alexander leads A16Z's Cultural Leadership Fund (CLF). CLF connects the world’s greatest cultural leaders with the best new technology companies. Megan tells us about getting black people onto cap tables, into tech and building generational wealth. She tells us how A16Z has grown this network and her own journey into this role. ‍

July 20, 2022

B Capital has rapidly grown to over $6B AUM and has just announced its first early-stage fund, the $250M Ascent Fund run by a superstar team that includes Eduardo Saverin, Gabe Greenbaum, Karen Page, Karan Mohla, and Howard Morgan. Raj says B Capital was not an overnight success but was built steadily on the conviction that there needed to be a firm that could be best in class on value-add and also global from the outset. ‍

July 13, 2022

What does it mean to be more authentic online and will it lead to a nicer Internet? How will future social networks make it easier to establish an online identity, find community and enable community ownership? Faraz Fatemi, partner at Lightspeed, brings his perspective on consumer psychology to today's episode of LA Venture. ‍

July 6, 2022

Climate is eating the world. Shomik Dutta says that climate, and specifically the need to decarbonize every major industry will "eat the world" in the same way that Marc Andreessen famously said that software would eat the world in 2011. Shomik argues that the TAM in climate is multiples of the TAM in software today.  The immensity of the need is one of the motivations of the work that he is doing now at Overture. ‍

June 29, 2022

Another great example of top Silicon Valley talent moving to LA! Kyle Lui was a partner at multi-billion dollar DCM until he left to join Ben Ling at Bling Capital.  He shares thoughts on how a small fund can still build best in class playbooks and processes to support founders. ‍

June 22, 2022

Paige Craig shares his amazing story of sneaking into Iraq dressed as a CNN reporter, how he built a private military from scratch inside Baghdad and then how he parlayed that exit into an incredible investing career that includes Wish, Scale, Gusto, AngelList and many others.

June 15, 2022

Corporate venture capital is becoming a first choice option for founders seeking the value-add that corporates can bring in an industry. This is the thesis of Laurent Grill as he seeks to build the #1 choice PropTech fund at JLL Spark. ‍

June 8, 2022

Cannabis is still a schedule 1 narcotic (cocaine is a less serious schedule 2).   Cannabis plants have RFIDs on them and are tracked from seed to sale. Casa Verde's Karan Wadhera tells us why he sees this and other regulations as an opportunity and why he and Snoop set up Casa Verde to invest from $1M to $15M in cannabis startups. ‍

June 1, 2022

Do you feel good about the purchases you make and the trash you generate as a consumer? Dan Fishman believes in empowering consumers and he shares perspective for startups and brands that are being built to serve our new regenerative future. ‍

May 25, 2022

Maureen Klewicki heads investing at Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures, the venture arm of Cedars-Sinai. Cedars-Sinai is a top 10 hospital that serves more than 1 million people each year with over 4,500 physicians and nurses. Maureen discusses opportunities she sees for startups to be created to address issues in care delivery, the labor shortage crisis, and the move to value-based care. She shares go to market strategies in healthcare and much more. ‍

May 18, 2022

Amanda Groves shares how startups can best navigate working with elite athletes and celebrities. How should a startup structure an equity arrangement?  Has cancel culture gone too far?  And how does a firm like PLUS Capital help to measure and quantify an engagement's impact. ‍

May 11, 2022

Kathryne Cooper tells us about Jumpstart Nova, a new $55M fund investing in incredible black healthcare founders at the seed and series A stage. Jumpstart has LPs such as Meharry Medical, Eli Lilly, Cardinal Health and is part of the trend of VCs that offer strategic help from their LPs as an important value-add. ‍

May 4, 2022

The best day to sell your company is the worst day to re-invest that money.  The best day to plan for that sale is not a month before it happens. Evoke's Michael Carney shares wealth management tips for startup execs and tells us about Evoke's fund of funds strategy. ‍

April 27, 2022

Ludis Capital founder Matilda Sung is investing $500k - 1M at the intersection of sports media and technology.   She explains how the NFL compares its social media efforts to those of other leagues, how sports betting is different in the US than in other countries and she clarifies who really owns the rights to digital assets like TopShop NFTs. ‍

April 20, 2022

Jonathan Hung tells us about his two new funds: * Trousdale Ventures has deployed over $300M the last two years and is a partnership with Phillip Sarofim. * Playhouse Ventures is a web3/NFT fund with Steve Aoki. He also shares his perspective on doing business with China and how to choose a manufacturing partner in today's market. ‍

April 13, 2022

This episode is so good.  If you care about how culture is born in a city or what makes LA tech special, then get some inspiration as Crosscut's Brett Brewer talks about the early days of building Intermix and MySpace and how he sees the ecosystem evolving.

April 6, 2022

Venture investment in consumer brands goes in and out of vogue.  Amanda Schutzbank explains how Willow Growth takes a unique approach to consumer investing that combines the best of venture and private equity investing.

March 30, 2022

One of everyone's favorites, Ed Wilson, joins to talk to about Impulsum Ventures, how they've built a venture firm alongside a 30-person dev shop and his sunny approach to life.

March 23, 2022

Another great Series A fund in LA!   Yelena Shkolnik is a partner at Jump Capital.  Jump may be most recognized for their crypto work, but we have a broad conversation on content, commerce, fintech and how those are converging in today's ownership economy. ‍

March 16, 2022

Every pitch today involves community.  Upfront partner and former CMO Kobie Fuller tells us how the best brands are giving users the tools to be brand advocates and how those same brands are tapping into the community to get insights. We also talk about being black in venture and what inspired Kobie to build Valence, a network for black professionals. ‍

March 9, 2022

The Gotham Gal herself, Joanne Wilson, tells us that department stores are dead, but gives us a glimpse into the future and her own upcoming cannabis store that will pair your cannabis with your needs, mood and even the food you're serving that night. We also cover the state of VC today and much more. ‍

March 4, 2022

We couldn't be more excited for Carter Reum and M13's newly announced $400M Fund III.  There are still only a few funds in LA that are true lead Series A investors. Carter tells us how they have doubled in size from Fund I to Fund II and again from Fund II to Fund III (it helps to have 11(!) unicorns in Fund I) and how their thesis has continued to evolve as they've built the fund. ‍

February 23, 2022

Earth's population has doubled in Cody's lifetime.  96% of mammals on earth by biomass are now humans and livestock.  China emits more greenhouse gases than all other developed countries combined.   This and much more from Cody at MCJ Collective. ‍

February 16, 2022

How are sports evolving to match the changing tastes of fans? What can traditional sports learn from esports? How is sports betting rolling out across the country? We discuss all this and more with Steve Ahern, partner at KB Partners. ‍

February 9, 2022

Zach Noorani is a partner at Foundation Capital where he leads FinTech investing. ‍ Zach shares why he is excited for composability in finance, why he's still excited for neobanks and why traditional finance is not going to be disrupted by web3 overnight.

February 2, 2022

Great discussion with Richard Wolpert on the convergence of tech and media. Some punchlines: - Movie theaters will only be for tent-pole movies - Live concerts are not going away - The metaverse will happen - Social media is toxic and needs to be fixed ‍

January 26, 2022

Dom Perri is with Vertex US, an early-stage venture fund that's part of the broader Vertex global network. With its $200M Fund III, Vertex will continue investing in early-stage B2B companies. Dom tells us about Vertex US, his partners In Sik and Jonathan, his career in corp and business dev, and also some of his favorite maxims, including: "you don't ask, you don't get". ‍

January 12, 2022

After investing in Chime, Step, Brace, and many others, leading FinTech investor, Joe Guzel, tells us why he and fellow Crosslink partner McLain Southworth are starting their own fund, Haven, and betting their careers on web3 FinTech.

January 5, 2022

Ben Marcus is the co-founder of UP Partners, a new $230M fund investing in the moving world. Ben tells us about electric vertical takeoff airplanes, drones delivering packages from the roofs of Walmarts, and how flight is going to connect humanity. ‍

December 29, 2021

Two-time NBA all-star, Baron Davis talks about his investing and how he encourages people to put their money where their mouth is.

December 22, 2021

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. ‍

December 15, 2021

Kyle Adkins is a partner at FullCycle Climate Partners. FullCycle invests to accelerate the deployment of technologies that address our greenhouse gas crisis. Kyle shares great perspective on the state of climate tech and climate tech investing today. ‍

December 8, 2021

Saeed Amidi is the CEO and founder of Plug and Play.  Plug and Play connects startups with corporate partners and is one of the most active investors in the world with about 250 investments per year and over 2000 startups going through one of their programs every year.

December 1, 2021

Alex Andrianopoulos tells us how scientific breakthroughs are going to reshape medicine, climate and the world we live in. Kairos Ventures is a ~$300M fund investing in these breakthroughs... even when other VCs aren't yet interested. ‍

November 23, 2021

Shawn Colo is a founder and managing partner at 3L Capital, a growth equity firm based in LA and NY writing $10-30M checks. We discuss 3L portfolio companies goPuff, Relativity Space, AvantStay and Shawn's founding of Demand Media. ‍

November 17, 2021

Martha Notaras is the smartest and most fun Insurtech investor that I know.  She tells us about Brewer Lane's $175M Fund I and investing into Series A and B Insurtech and Fintech companies.

November 10, 2021

Spencer shares all about 75 & Sunny--how he is trying to avoid putting dot.LA behind a paywall, how Pacaso is not at all like a timeshare, and how he's reinvesting back into startups in LA and beyond. ‍

November 3, 2021

Gary Benitt is a managing partner at Social Leverage, a $99M seed fund with investments that include Robinhood, Rally Road, Kustomer and more. Gary is a serial entrepreneur who likes to invest early and lean in. ‍

October 27, 2021

Pejman Nozad tells us about investing in Dropbox, DoorDash and how he picks winners. He also talks about Pear's current initiatives: Pear Accelerator, Pear Fellows, Pear competition and Founder Circles. A lot to learn in this episode! ‍

October 20, 2021

‍Jessica Jackley is currently an investor at UntappedVC and the founder of Alltruists,  a startup disrupting the $300B volunteer economy. Jessica shares how her experience starting Kiva shaped her view of what is possible. ‍

October 13, 2021

Matt McCall catches us up on venture investing for the Pritzker group where he's doing a lot of seed deals and using those to fuel his Series A investing. We also discuss wearing life like a loose sweater and other ways to thrive on the entrepreneurial journey. ‍

October 6, 2021

Josh Jones is the richest, goofiest, most confident yet normal-seeming person who was a Bitcoin pioneer, recently bought an airline, and is a partner at The Fund LA.

September 29, 2021

Media tech expert Shane Kelly joins to discuss the business of financing feature films and tech startups.   Shane also shares his passion for Pharrell's Black Ambition Price and his thoughts on the state of capitalism. ‍

September 22, 2021

Rick Smith is a founding manager partner of @CrosscutVC and one of the pillars of the LA tech community.   Crosscut is now investing out of Crosscut Fund V, but started as a $5M Fund I in 2008.  We talk about growing a fund, a scout program, a tech community and growing personally. ‍

September 15, 2021

Chirag tells us about his journey from Pritzker Group to DFJ and the evolution from DFJ to Threshold.  He's one of only a few LA-based Series A investors. Great to hear his perspective on today's venture market! ‍

September 8, 2021

Julie's new fund, Magnify, is writing $1.5M - $2.5M checks into companies that will transform life, work and care for modern families. Julie talks about very relatable themes like the relentlessness of modern parenting and household optimization. ‍