Investor Stories 179: Post Mortems (Bonatsos, Koh, Adeeb, Suster)

02/11/21 • 12 min

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The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

Niko Bonatsos
Melody Koh
Ramy Adeeb
Mark Suster

Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:

Niko Bonatsos
Melody Koh
Ramy Adeeb
Mark Suster

Each investor discusses a portfolio company that did not survive and why it was that they failed.

Previous Episode

undefined - 268. Breaking the Founder Stereotype, Mastering Conviction Over Zoom, & the Contrast between European and American Entrepreneurs (Maren Bannon)

268. Breaking the Founder Stereotype, Mastering Conviction Over Zoom, & the Contrast between European and American Entrepreneurs (Maren Bannon)

Maren Bannon of January Ventures joins Nick to discuss Breaking the Founder Stereotype, Mastering Conviction Over Zoom, & the Contrast between European and American Entrepreneurs. In this episode, we cover:

Walk us through your background and path to VC
What’s the thesis at January Ventures?
How are you and your team at January Ventures making tech more of an equal opportunity?
What is your approach to portfolio construction in this fund and how will that evolve in the future?
What's one thing you know now that you wish you knew prior to raising the fund?
You take meetings with founders VERY early — no warm intro, no pitch deck, or no revenue required to pitch to January Ventures. How do you evaluate the potential this early?
How do you filter all of the opportunities -- what is your pre-filter process?
How have you changed your work/process at January post COVID?
What is your experience like moving from SF to Europe and what is your view of the European tech ecosystem?

Next Episode

269. Discovering the Next Sectors of Opportunity, The Impact Platform, & The Exit Discussion (Sach Chitnis)

Sach Chitnis of Jump Capital joins Nick to discuss Discovering the Next Sectors of Opportunity, The Impact Platform, & The Exit Discussion. In this episode, we cover:

Walk us through your background and path to VC
What’s the thesis at Jump Capital?
Talk about developing a thesis on a specific market opportunity — can you give us the broad strokes on your process of how you dissect emerging markets and identify where existing offerings are lacking?
How do you determine who will be the winner? Is it common that, of the existing set of players, none will emerge as the winner and you need to wait for a fresh approach?
Having a portfolio support platform is unusual for your size — how are you able to make it work at your fund size and what all does it entail?
In what areas do you find a Series A funded company needs the most help?
How do you advise a founder that's in a hot space, doesn't need capital but has inbound interest and large investment offers, maybe at inflated valuations, from tier 1 coastal investors?
Let's talk about exits a bit... you've been around for 8 years, I noticed the good news of both 4C and Personal Capital's recent large exit, where are you finding most of the exit discussions begin... do they start w/ the founder considering it, do you discuss it as an option, or do meetings/partnerships start coming from strategics that get the process rolling?
How do you advise founders on negotiation and getting the right offer, not just any offer?
What is "swing time" and how do you systematically build that into your schedule?