Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

This week we have Rebecca Kaden, General Partner at Union Square Ventures, who are with a doubt one of the very best venture firms in the world having backed companies such as Stripe, Twitter, Etsy, LendingClub, and Coinbase.

The firm is also very thesis and mission-driven, including investing in the future by addressing issues like the climate crisis. It was founded in 2003 by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham and currently has $1.9B in AUM.

About Rebecca Kaden:Rebecca Kaden is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures. She began her career as a journalist and prior to USV was a General Partner at Maveron, a consumer-focused early-stage fund. She studied English and American Literature at Harvard and received her MBA from Stanford.

A word from our sponsor:

Invest in innovation. Allocate is a digital platform that enables investors of all types to invest and manage private alternatives within the technology sector.

Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.

With Allocate, wealth advisors, banks, family offices, and other qualified investors can have a streamlined way to responsibly invest in the highest quality technology centered private alternatives.

Go to allocate.co to find out more and please sign up to the waitlist to learn more and get early access to the platform.

In this episode we discuss:

01:13 Rebecca’s journey to becoming a full-time investor from journalism

04:15 The skillsets that most translated from journalism to VC

06:08 The things she was most looking for when joining a VC firm.

08:45 Construction a true venture investment thesis

12:45 What thesis-driven investing means in practice, and the application for it when evaluating companies.

15:12 The primary benefits of having a defined thesis (but also why it must evolve)

18:55 How USV thinks about fund size in today’s market

22:09 Why adjusting fund size significantly upward was something they decided against

25:47 Why USV has decided to avoid the run faster, chase more mentality in today’s market

27:49 Why risk management is a critical, but underrated part of VC.

30:03 The adjustments that USV has made in response to the market climate in the last few years

33:19 What she thinks has made USV such a great firm over the last two decades

36:07 How Rebecca thinks about generational succession, and how to get it right

39:02 How USV avoids a deferential culture and how new partners find their voices

42:17 the most transformational career advice Rebecca has received

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Rebecca. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

This week I’m thrilled to bring you my conversation with Brianne Kimmel, founder and managing partner of Worklife Ventures, a San Francisco-based firm that invests in seed-stage companies focused on the future of work. Worklife started in 2019 with a $5M fund (which included 7 unicorns), and is now investing out of Fund II.

One interesting point about the fund is that she intentionally was very strategic about building an LP base and has LPs that include Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Matt Mazzeo, Alexis Ohanian, Garry Tan, and others.

About Brianne Kimmel:Business Insider recently named Brianne a top angel investor that every startup should know alongside Ellen Pao and Cyan Bannister.

She previously worked on the go-to-market team at Zendesk focused on self-serve growth, technology integrations and built Zendesk for Startups.

Started with SaaS when she was Head of Social Media at Expedia leading paid acquisition, customer support, and community.

Brianne runs an invite-only program called SaaS School for startup founders to learn from the fastest-growing companies like Airtable, Drift, Dropbox, Slack, and more. 

A word from our sponsor:

Invest in innovation. Allocate is a digital platform that enables investors of all types to invest and manage private alternatives within the technology sector.

Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.

With Allocate, wealth advisors, banks, family offices, and other qualified investors can have a streamlined way to responsibly invest in the highest quality technology centered private alternatives.

Go to allocate.co to find out more and please sign up to the waitlist to learn more and get early access to the platform.

In this episode we discuss:

01:09 Brianne’s life prior to investing and what led her to become a full-time investor

03:39 Her motivation for becoming an investor rather than staying an operator

08:51 Experiences that led to Brianne’s investing thesis

12:39 How she spends her time as a solo GP

17:40 What she’s found to be the most valuable use of her time as a solo GP

21:14 The difference between investing in Fund I and Fund II

28:16 The importance of building community within her LP base and learning by investing alongside other investors

32:55 Non-negotiables she looks for in founders and founding teams

37:40 The importance of founder/investor fit and personality traits she thinks attracts top-talent

41:41 How culture is conveyed through remote work

44:14 The best piece of career advice Brianne has received

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Brianne. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

This week I’m absolutely thrilled to bring you my conversation with Frank Rotman, Founding Partner of QED Partners, one of the top Fintech firms in the world. Founded in 2007 alongside Nigel Morris, QED has invested early in companies such as Credit Karma, Klarna, SoFi, and Nubank. They currently have $3B in AUM.

As many of you that follow Frank on twitter, and if you don’t you should right away, you’ll know he’s one of the most insightful thinkers in the industry. As such, I wanted to take this opportunity to have a more global dialogue about the state of the venture market today, including a close evaluation from both a risk and return perspective.

About Frank Rotman:Frank was one of the earliest analysts hired into Capital One and spent almost 13 years there helping build many of the company’s business units and operational areas. With two decades in consumer & small business finance, Frank is widely known in the industry as a Credit Risk and Portfolio Management Expert.

His responsibilities have included turning around underperforming business units, building new businesses from concept to market leadership positions, overseeing the credit performance of Capital One as a whole, and creating a Student Lending company after leaving Capital One in December 2005. Frank graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees that included Applied Mathematics (BS) and Systems Engineering (MS).

A word from our sponsor:

Invest in innovation. Allocate is a digital platform that enables investors of all types to invest and manage private alternatives within the technology sector.

Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.

With Allocate, wealth advisors, banks, family offices, and other qualified investors can have a streamlined way to responsibly invest in the highest quality technology centered private alternatives.

Go to allocate.co to find out more and please sign up to the waitlist to learn more and get early access to the platform.

In this episode we discuss:

01:45 Frank’s journey from banker to investor

05:23 What the current investing market looks like from QED’s perspective

09:10 How should investors be underwriting to future exits?

13:50 Assessing how liquidity has fueled the market, and what it means for startups.

18:28 Predicting narrative violations and who the winners will be in the next 10 years

22:58 The maturation of financial markets for technology

32:32 How the QED model has adapted to respond to higher pricing and faster decisions

39:20 Signals Frank looks for when evaluating a new investment

44:56 The problems entrepreneurs face when raising at a higher valuation

48:41 Risks that VCs can help entrepreneurs mitigate against

54:38What would Frank do if he was the CIO of an endowment? How would he build his VC portfolio?

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Frank. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided byAgent Bee Agency

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

This week I’m thrilled to bring you my conversation with Matt Cohen, Founder of Ripple Ventures, a seed stage firm based out of Toronto.

As someone who's Canadian myself, I’ve been closely following the Canadian VC ecosystem and have been thrilled to see how it’s grown over the years. 

Matt is someone whose story I’ve followed since he started Ripple. He’s an ultimate student of the game, and to help drive thought leadership and to enhance his own learning, he also runs a podcast called Tank Talks which is a great listen for anyone in VC or tech. Like he is on his podcast, Matt was thoughtful and candid about how he views investing and running a firm.

About Matt Cohen:

Matt is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist focused on early-stage technology. He started his career in Banking at RBC and National Bank of Canada and did his undergrad at Dalhousie University.

A word from our sponsor:

Invest in innovation. Allocate is a digital platform than enables investors of all types to invest and manage private alternatives within the technology sector.

Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.

With Allocate, wealth advisors, banks, family offices, and other qualified investors can have a streamlined way to responsibly invest in the highest quality technology centered private alternatives.

Go to allocate.co to find out more and please sign up to the waitlist to learn more and get early access to the platform.

In this episode we discuss:

01:04 Matt’s journey into venture capital

03:57 The impact of hedge funds on the venture market now and moving forward

06:48 Will anything reverse the trend of the continued growth of crossover investors?

09:08 How rising valuations have impacted Ripple

12:41 His thoughts on portfolio construction

17:01 Thinking through the pros and cons between a higher portion of the front for initial checks vs. a higher reserve ratio.

22:06 Making portfolio investment exceptions as it relates to ownership and check size. Why make them, and what do you look for?

25:52 Why Matt went with smaller funds and higher GP commits with his early funds

28:04 When Matt started engaging with institutional funds

30:22 How personal branding has become so important in the VC world.

33:15 How being a solo GP has impacted his life and what new managers should think about as they embark on the venture journey

35:29 The advice he gives to people just starting their career

37:38 The character qualities that help drive resiliency in venture

39:53 The advice that helped change his career

Mentioned in this episode:Ripple VenturesMegaCycles in Tech & Crypto

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Matt. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided byAgent Bee Agency

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

Our guest today is Carter Reum, Co-Founder of M13, a unique venture capital firm that combines a traditional fund, a services platform, and a studio model to support high potential early-stage companies. M13 has AUM of over $650MM and the team has invested in companies Ring, Daily Harvest, Tonal, Thrive Market, Pinterest and many others.

Prior to M13, Carter and his brother Courtney founded VEEV Spirits which became one of the fastest-growing independent brands in the country before being acquired in 2016.

Carter holds a B.A. from Columbia University and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School. Carter and his brother are the authors of the national bestseller Shortcut Your Startup (Simon & Schuster) that shares business insights to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs.

A word from our sponsor:

Invest in innovation. Allocate is a digital platform that enables investors of all types to invest and manage private alternatives within the technology sector.

Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.

With Allocate, wealth advisors, banks, family offices, and other qualified investors can have a streamlined way to responsibly invest in the highest quality technology-centered private alternatives.

Go to allocate.co to find out more and please sign up to the waitlist to learn more and get early access to the platform.

In this episode we discuss:

01:27 Why he and his brother decided to start M13 as a full time endeavor after being entrepreneurs their entire lives.

06:38 The era of value add has changed, and how they’ve thought about systematizing this.

11:34 How capital is commoditized so much today, and what VC firms need to think about to compete.

14:39 How M13 mitigates risks through their propulsion platform

18:19 The data behind M13’s high Net Promoter Score and what they found their founders cared about most

21:20 What are the non-negotiable traits they look for when recruiting

26:06 Developing a pattern and ethos around diversity of though.

31:06 What are the things they had to unlearn when moving from angel investors to a firm

32:37 Early mistakes as a VC and what they learned from them

37:13 How they set up rules for follow-on investments and when they break those rules

43:43 The most non-consensus view he holds as an investor

44:19 The person who has been most impactful on his career as an investor

45:01 The entrepreneur that has helped form him the most

Mentioned in this episode:M13

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Carter. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

Today, we’re excited to host Megan Bent, founder and managing partner of Harbinger Ventures, a Boulder, CO-based firm that invests in earlier stage CPG companies that feature female or diverse founding teams.

Prior to founding Harbinger in 2016, Megan served as Managing Director of Revelry Brands. She began her career in private equity and consumer brands at the Parthenon Group, and she holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University.

We spoke about CPG investing, consumer behavior post-pandemic, and also we dove into the benefits and challenges they face with having a portfolio size of 5-8 companies per fund.

Tune in!

A word from our sponsor:

Invest in innovation. Allocate is a digital platform than enables investors of all types to invest and manage private alternatives within the technology sector.

Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector remains inaccessible and opaque.

With Allocate, wealth advisors, banks, family offices, and other qualified investors can have a streamlined way to responsibly invest in the highest quality technology centered private alternatives.

Go to allocate.co to find out more and please sign up to the waitlist to learn more and get early access to the platform.

In this episode we discuss:

00:59 Megan’s journey to becoming a full-time investor

02:44 The insights that led her to form Harbinger

05:46 Why Megan thinks early stage growth-equity is at the series A and not the series B

08:09 How Harbinger thinks about risk and return with their concentrated portfolio construction

13:41 Most common traits of successful founders within CPG companies

17:17 The process of reaching conviction within the firm and how they manage their decision-making processes

20:52 How they have adjusted to today’s market where speed is paramount for many deals

24:15 Deciding on the best number of companies in a portfolio and where they can absorb risk

27:55 How has consumer behavior changed permann because of the pandemic and what will happen when things go back to “normal”

32:47 How will changes in consumer behavior impact on Harbinger’s investments

36:00 Some of the investment aspects Megan considers negotiable

38:42 How Megan thinks of ownership and amount money invested

41:16 The most counterintuitive lesson she’s learned as an investor

42:49 The most challenging aspect of running a firm

44:22 The investor that she aspires toward

Mentioned in this episode:Harbinger Ventures

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Megan. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

Our guest today is Ed Sim, founder and general partner of boldstart ventures, an NYC-based firm started in 2010 with the focus on being a day-one partner for founders. Boldstart had a modest beginning, with only a $1M fund in 2010. It has since grown to just under $500M in AUM. Some of his first check investments include Snyk, Kustomer, BigID, and Superhuman.

Ed previously co-founded and was a managing partner at Dawntreader Ventures in 1998. Dawntreader grew to $290 AUM and invested in seed and early-stage software, Internet, and digital media companies.

He began his career at JP Morgan, and early on in his career learned how to code. Ed did his undergrad at Harvard College and was a four-year letterman on the men’s lacrosse team.

Ever insightful and candid, Ed provided so many great nuggets around building a firm, navigating markets, and tell us why exactly he’s decided to stay true to the original thesis of backing entrepreneurs at early formation.

A word from our sponsor:

Invest in innovation. Allocate allows investors to access top-tier private funds and co-investment opportunities within the technology sector.

Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector still remains limited to institutions and ultra-connected high net worth individuals.

With Allocate, wealth advisors, banks, family offices, and other qualified investors can have a streamlined way to responsibly invest with confidence.

Go to allocate.co to find out more and please sign up to the waitlist to learn more and get early access to the platform.

In this episode we discuss:

01:22 Ed’s decision to become a fulltime investor

03:06 Why Ed turned down a Harvard MBA to start his first fund

04:54 The investment thesis behind boldstart and how it was informed by his time at Dawntreader.

08:21 How early days of running a new firm will test resiliency

09:57 What was their major inflection point?

13:18 How Ed gets comfortable with being the first check in, often pre-product, and ways to mitigate risk.

16:14 Patterns Ed has seen when looking at his successful investments

20:03 How he spots “non-obvious” founders and deals

27:27 How they underwrite to what can be a “fund returner”

31:35 How boldstart thinks about generating alpha in such a competitive seed market

36:08 Where he believes we are in the market cycle today, and what the years ahead may look like

43:52 The non-obvious things a venture investor needs to think about to maintain durability over the long term

47:28 What emerging managers need to think about when evaluating when to join a firm versus starting their own.

50:38 The most counterintuitive lesson Ed has learned about being a venture capitalist

53:28 The founder that helped define Ed as an investor

57:28 The investor that has been most influential to his career

Mentioned in this episode:boldstart ventures

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Ed. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

This week we have the treat of hosting Peter Hébert, co-founder and managing partner of Lux Capital, a 21-year-old firm that is a pioneer of deep-tech investing. The firm has nearly $4B in AUM and has led investments in Desktop Metal, Latch, Matterport, and Auris Health which was acquired by J&J in a $6 billion transaction.

Prior to Lux, Peter began his career at Lehman Brothers, where he worked in the firm’s Equity Research group. He did his undergrad at Syracuse University and was the Founding President of its first venture organization, Future Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs.

I’ve known Peter for nearly a decade and have found the Lux story to be so enjoyable to follow. This episode was a real treat as Peter spoke about the 20+ year “overnight success” story of Lux, which included many difficult times in the early days. Over the years, they had many inflection points and in our episode we talk through those inflection points, how they’ve managed a bi-coastal firm, and Peter’s general thoughts on the market.

A word from our sponsor:

Invest in innovation. Allocate allows investors to access top-tier private funds and co-investment opportunities within the technology sector.

Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector still remains limited to institutions and ultra-connected high net worth individuals.

With Allocate, wealth advisors, banks, family offices, and other qualified investors can have a streamlined way to responsibly invest with confidence.

Go to allocate.co to find out more and please sign up to the waitlist to learn more and get early access to the platform.

In this episode we discuss:

01:33 Why Peter and his co-founders started Lux towards the end of the Dot Com bubble and what they saw as the opportunity

03:14 The challenge of raising under what was an esoteric thesis

06:17 The early signals that acted as signals that pointed toward success

09:03 The biggest inflection points of Lux Capital’s first ten years

16:00 Peter’s relationship with his co-founder and co-managing partner Josh Wolfe and how it’s evolved over time

18:46 How the partnership works on a day-to-day basis to ensure firm cohesiveness

23:33 Characteristics of new partners they look for and how they integrate new members on the team

29:21 How Lux enables an ownership mentality within the firm

33:37 How they became a bi-coastal firm nearly a decade ago, and managing the firm with remote partners

39:05 How follow-on for deep tech was more difficult and how they managed their own portfolio construction to account for this.

44:55 Where SPACs fit in as tools for founders and investors

53:18 The most transformative piece of career advice he’s ever received

55:24 The photo Peter has on his office wall, and it’s meaning

58:59 The piece of advice he would give to emerging managers

Mentioned in this episode:Lux Capital

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Peter. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

This week we have Alda Leu Dennis, General Partner at Initialized Capital. Founded in 2011, the firm has been an early backer of companies such as Coinbase and Instacart and describes itself as the “Honey Badger” of venture capital. Founded in 2012 with a sub $10MM fund I, they currently ~$1B in AUM.

Prior to joining Initialized, Alda was a managing partner at 137 Ventures (a firm co-founded by past VU guest Justin Fishner-Wolfson). At 137, she led investments in Planet Labs, Wish, Coupang, CourseHero, and Work Market.  Alda also has held various operational roles including COO at Airtime, and General Counsel at Founders Fund, and at Clarium Capital. She did her undergrad at Stanford and received her Law Degree at UCLA.

A word from our sponsor:

Invest in innovation. Allocate allows investors to access top-tier private funds and co-investment opportunities within the technology sector.

Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector still remains limited to institutions and ultra-connected high net worth individuals.

With Allocate, wealth advisors, banks, family offices, and other qualified investors can have a streamlined way to responsibly invest with confidence.

Go to allocate.co to find out more and please sign up to the waitlist to learn more and get early access to the platform.

In this episode we discuss:

01:35 Alda’s journey from being a lawyer into becoming a full-time investor

03:17 Why she decided that investing was a better fit for her

04:44 Why the Initialized ethos was so compelling to her

06:45 Winning today as a generalist early stage investor

09:00 How they have adjusted to the current market framework

13:13 Most common traits she sees of successful founders

14:58 How Initialized gets to ‘Yes’ on complicated and non-obvious companies

16:31 Portfolio construction and follow-on decision making

17:54 Why Initialized decided to move reduce portfolio size for their more recent funds

19:33 Despite the growth of dollars going into VC, the disturbing trend of decreasing funding of female-led companies in 2020

21:00 How Alda wants to increase investments companies lead by women and underrepresented founders

24:42 Navigating embedded biases in the investing community

27:43 How the diversity movement is specifically changing the investing community today

29:22 Alda’s experience of joining Intialized many years after it was founded and how other firms can learn from her experience of integrating new partners

31:29 How a deal meeting at Initialized typically works

34:09 The way Initialized promotes independent thought and decision making within the firm

34:53 The most counterintuitive things she’s learned as an investor

36:31 The most challenging thing about building a durable firm

37:23 The investor that has made the biggest impact on her

Mentioned in this episode:

Initialized Capital

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Alda. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

This week’s guest is Kanyi Maqubela, managing partner of seed-stage firm Kindred Ventures. Kindred has $156 AUM, and the team has previously invested in companies such as Coinbase, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Postmates. 

Prior to Kindred, Kanyi served as a Partner at Collaborative Fund, where he was an early advisor to Tala and Walker & Co., and a board member at Buffer, Camino Financial, Spruce, and True Link. Kanyi was also a co-founder at Heartbeat Health, and previously ran growth at One Block Off the Grid (acquired by $NRG). Kanyi has also served as a Lecturer and Adjunct at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, a curriculum adapted from his time as a student at Stanford University.

A word from our sponsor:

Invest in innovation. Allocate allows investors to access top-tier private funds and co-investment opportunities within the technology sector.

Despite the enormous growth of the private markets and the rapid increase of retail demand for private alternatives, investing in the highest quality private assets within the innovation sector still remains limited to institutions and ultra-connected high net worth individuals.

With Allocate, wealth advisors, banks, family offices, and other qualified investors can have a streamlined way to responsibly invest with confidence.

Go to allocate.co to find out more and please sign up to the waitlist to learn more and get early access to the platform.

In this episode we discuss:

01:54 Kanyi’s view to later stage mega-firms like Sequoia, Andreesen, and Greylock getting into seed financing

05:20 Vulnerabilities and issues new players should think about when entering the seed marketplace

09:13 Who needs to adapt most to today’s seed environment

15:55 How they underwriting ownership and target exit outcomes

19:15 How Kindred mitigates risk pre-investment

23:56 The mental model for picking successful founders at seed

29:09 How Kindred is able to maintain diligence integrity with the speed of market.

33:58 What exactly is value-add?

36:06 How Kanyi looks at winning in competitive situations

44:52 The model of Kindred’s future growth and how they will remain competitive

48:48 Non-obvious investing as key differentiator in early stage investing

50:27 The most impactful advice he’s received as an investor

Mentioned in this episode:

Kindred Ventures

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Kanyi. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency