Southern California VCs are making waves. TenOneTen Partner Minnie Ingersoll gets to know them, their funds, and their advice for entrepreneurs
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200+ Guests
June 23, 2021
June 23, 2021
Will Schmitt is Head of Venture Strategy at Miroma Ventures. Miroma recently announced a $100M commitment to fund the next generation of consumer brands and media platforms. Miroma has worked with companies from McDonald's to Netflix to Masterclass and Spotify. They invest at the seed or Series A stage and aim to bring that expertise to earlier stage companies.
June 9, 2021
June 9, 2021
TX Zhuo joins today to talk about starting Fika with Eva Ho with the goal of giving back to the community. TX has an amazing story of dropping out of school to start his first business and how his approach to investing is evolving as the venture market evolves.
June 1, 2021
June 1, 2021
Jeremy Milken is a partner at Watertower, a serial entrepreneur, and just a lot of fun to talk to. We talk about his own journey, his views on deploying money into the venture asset class, his partner Derek and his wife, the flexible neurotic.
May 19, 2021
May 19, 2021
So much fun talking with Rob Dyrdek about everything from his $450M in exits to his multiple world records to his thoughts on building self-belief! Rob has built a system for it all at the Dyrdek Machine, his venture creation studio.
April 28, 2021
April 28, 2021
My partner Gil Elbaz joins to talk about his passion for data, building AdSense, selling to Google and then building Factual. He also explains why founders should mentally commit 10 years to their startup before beginning.
April 21, 2021
April 21, 2021
We talk with Scott Lenet of Touchdown Ventures about the pros and cons of corporate venture... and how Touchdown is trying to do it right. Touchdown already has 45 people on the team, and they're actively hiring!
April 14, 2021
April 14, 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.
April 7, 2021
April 7, 2021
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.
March 31, 2021
March 31, 2021
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!)
March 24, 2021
March 24, 2021
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.
March 9, 2021
March 9, 2021
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.
March 3, 2021
March 3, 2021
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.
February 24, 2021
February 24, 2021
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.
February 17, 2021
February 17, 2021
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.
February 10, 2021
February 10, 2021
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.
January 20, 2021
January 20, 2021
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 with Beth Seidenberg.
January 6, 2021
January 6, 2021
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.
December 31, 2020
December 31, 2020
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!
December 16, 2020
December 16, 2020
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!
December 9, 2020
December 9, 2020
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.
December 2, 2020
December 2, 2020
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.
November 25, 2020
November 25, 2020
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!
November 18, 2020
November 18, 2020
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.
November 11, 2020
November 11, 2020
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.
November 5, 2020
November 5, 2020
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.
October 28, 2020
October 28, 2020
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.
October 21, 2020
October 21, 2020
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.
October 14, 2020
October 14, 2020
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.
October 7, 2020
October 7, 2020
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.
September 23, 2020
September 23, 2020
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.
September 2, 2020
September 2, 2020
Javelin's Alex Gurevich talks with us about investing in Masterclass, Thumbtack, Mythical Games and more. Alex also tells us why VCs should be getting performance reviews from their founders.
August 19, 2020
August 19, 2020
Dan Abrams is a partner at Cobalt Capital. Prior to Cobalt, Dan (and the entire Cobalt team) was at CAA-affiliated Evolution Media. Cobalt leads Series B rounds, but likes to get to know founders earlier in their journey.
August 12, 2020
August 12, 2020
We had a chance to hear about Hamet's newly launched venture foundry, Share Ventures, focused on human performance. We talk about brain health, Hamet's role at Upfront, and insights on early stage innovation.
August 6, 2020
August 6, 2020
Virginia Schmitt is a partner and CFO at B Capital. B Capital is a leading growth-venture firm and one of the largest with an LA office, investing $10-60M in series B-D companies. Virginia shares insights from being a CFO investing out of over $1B AUM.
July 28, 2020
July 28, 2020
One of LA's most fascinating investors, DA Wallach, tells us about touring with Blink 182, making a song with with Diddy, becoming an investor with Ron Burkle, and his current life science focus at Time BioVentures.
July 7, 2020
July 7, 2020
Eric Manlunas joins us to explain all the different things that Wavemaker is doing--starting with $250-500k seed checks, anchoring other funds like Wavemaker 360 and Thin Line and even building companies at Wavemaker Labs with Buck Jordan.
July 1, 2020
July 1, 2020
Tom McInerney is a full-time angel investor with 120 angel investments. He shares how he gets into rounds like Clubhouse, Tala, Segment, his view of investing during Covid, and why he spends time hanging out in Clubhouse.
June 24, 2020
June 24, 2020
Adam Lilling probably has the coolest job. He's the founder and managing partner at Plus Capital, where he works with celebrities like Ellen and Portia who want to invest in growing companies (post-seed) that align with their values.
June 17, 2020
June 17, 2020
Today we chat with Deb Benton about her new fund, Willow, that she founded with Amanda Schutzbank. Deb is on the board of Carbon38, TomboyX, The Leaf Group and she has all sorts of insight on how to do consumer investing well and what sort of metrics to look for.
June 10, 2020
June 10, 2020
Don Stalter and David Resnekov are colleagues at GFC (Global Founders Capital), a $1.2B fund that will invest pre-product all the way through later growth rounds and will even lead multiple rounds for a company. Interesting, entrepreneurial approach to VC.
June 3, 2020
June 3, 2020
So interesting talking to Brendan Wallace about how he built Fifth Wall to $1.2B in 3.5 years. We talk about how the retail landscape is changing, how the work week will change and hopefully how the carbon impact of real estate will change.
May 27, 2020
May 27, 2020
Jason Schoettler started Calibrate Ventures where he invests in advanced automation (usually Series A). He and long-time partner Kevin Dunlap have made some really good investments (Ring, Dollar Shave Club) and some newer pretty cool looking ones (check out the Moxie video). We talk about why he feels comfortable investing in hardware (when there's a subscription), how to be a good board member, and much more.
May 20, 2020
May 20, 2020
Dovi Frances is the founder of Group11 VC, one of the nation’s top decile performing FinTech funds. Group11 has led fintech investments into category defining companies such as Tipalti, Sunbit, TripActions and next insurance to name a few. (Series A sweet spot). Dovi is a bold thinker who isn’t afraid to throw jabs at other venture capitalists for hosting too many lavish parties and yoga sessions. This one is a fun listen.
April 29, 2020
April 29, 2020
Ben Savage tells us about Clocktower Ventures. They are fintech specialists who invest stage-agnostically into financial services innovation ($250k - $2.5m). Clocktower never leads rounds and Ben suggests that VCs often dont make for the best board members anyhow. Clocktower Ventures: https://www.clocktowerventures.com/ [https://www.clocktowerventures.com/]
April 14, 2020
April 14, 2020
Halogen Ventures invests ($250k - $1M) in consumer tech companies led by women (The Skimm, Carbon38). Jesse Draper shares her perspective of growing up 4th gen VC, how she learned to be fearless, and much more. Must see TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiIWcoeWeN8 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiIWcoeWeN8] Jesse and Adam Draper podcast: https://apple.co/2JUclmX [https://apple.co/2JUclmX]
April 9, 2020
April 9, 2020
Our guest Matt Kozlov is the managing director of Techstars Space and ran Techstars Health for 3 years before that. We chat about launching toaster sized objects into space for a couple million bucks, getting non-dilutive grant money, and of course Techstars ($120k and a great program)!
April 3, 2020
April 3, 2020
Today's episode is with Dinesh Moorjani, managing director of LA-based Comcast Ventures. Comcast's sweet spot is a Series A check ($3-20M) but they are flexible. Dinesh explains how Comcast operates, tells us about the early days of Tinder, his experience of private equity, and much more.
March 27, 2020
March 27, 2020
It was really hard to do a podcast about myself on my own podcast, but my dear friend Steph Hannon was kind enough to interview me. I tried to give the basics of TenOneTen ($500-$1M into seed rounds), but mostly felt like we chatted about my background and this podcast :)
March 17, 2020
March 17, 2020
Elaine recently joined Greycroft to co-lead the Albertsons Fund, a $50M fund investing into the future of retail. The Albertsons Fund (ACI Fund) is investing with Greycroft's core fund $2-6M into Series A or seed companies that are redefining the future of retail.
March 10, 2020
March 10, 2020
We talk about how Brian has evolved Expert Dojo into a really interesting international accelerator ($100k checks), how lean startup can be misapplied, and how women are better than men :) Totally worth checking out--both the Dojo and this episode!
March 3, 2020
March 3, 2020
Michael is one of the most sought after and prolific angel investors in LA. One year he invested in 50 companies... and that was before joining a prominent scout program. We also talk about growing Yelp with his brother Jeremy Stoppelman.
February 18, 2020
February 18, 2020
Founder of MiLA Capital, Noramay Cadena, talks with me about the intersection of tech and manufacturing. Along with partners Carmen Palafox and Shaun Arora, Noramay is writing first checks ($100k-$1M) into "tech you can touch".
February 10, 2020
February 10, 2020
Great chat with Michael Tam about Craft Ventures ($1-$15M), vertical labor marketplaces, Uber, his partners David Sacks, Bill Lee, Jeff Fluhr, Sky Dayton, and Michael's path into venture. David Sacks posts: https://medium.com/@davidsacks [https://medium.com/@davidsacks]
February 5, 2020
February 5, 2020
We caught up with Derek Norton about Watertower ($100-500k checks with his partner Jeremy Milken), micro M&A, advantages(?) of a hard fundraise, media as IP, and how great we are here in LA :)
January 28, 2020
January 28, 2020
Great episode if you like entertaining guests. Peter invests up to $250k initial checks out of PLG Ventures and is not afraid to invest super-early (pre-product, pre-revenue). He helps his portfolio companies on all things organizational behavior, but was formerly CEO of AmTrust, the largest privately held bank.
January 14, 2020
January 14, 2020
MAC is a $100m fund writing $500k - $1.5m checks. David and I didn't talk much because Mike had so many great stories. He tells us about his partners Adrian Fenty, Marlon Nichols, Charles King and some of the cool stuff in interactive media today. Lil Miquela : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE1J9JxqhFo [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE1J9JxqhFo] ... makes our podcast guest [https://bit.ly/2ThxoFB] list look a little dry
January 7, 2020
January 7, 2020
Kelly is founding partner of Moonshots Capital where he invests $500k - $1.5M with conviction into extraordinary leadership with a heavy emphasis on leaders with a military background. We enjoyed talking with him about his experience running a syndicate and winning Season 2 of the Apprentice and working with Donald Trump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmhSnhNfskU [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmhSnhNfskU]
December 31, 2019
December 31, 2019
Robert Mai joins us to talk about Scopus Ventures, an early stage fund focused on B2B enterprise software (initial checks $250-$1M). Scopus is active in LA and Israel. Robert also educates us on family office investing.
December 16, 2019
December 16, 2019
Brian is the founder of BAM Ventures, ShoeDazzle, LegalZoom, the Honest Company and more. We talked to him about investing out of BAM Ventures where he's not afraid to invest early--$250-500k into a great entrepreneur and an idea. Also really interesting to learn his approach to launching a brand, shopping at CVS, and whats going on today at BAM labs.
December 10, 2019
December 10, 2019
Jay is a partner at Wavemaker 360 Health, a healthcare fund with a liberal definition of what a healthcare company is. They do seed investing ($100-$500k first check). Jay is very thoughtful about everything from how he leverages his LPs to the implications of value-based care. John Oliver on FDA clearance and 510k (start ~min 5): https://bit.ly/2DzJils [https://bit.ly/2DzJils]
December 3, 2019
December 3, 2019
Meredith is a partner at March Capital Partners where she leads investments into enterprise B2B companies raising Series A, B and C. Prior to March, Meredith was at Salesforce Ventures. I'd want Meredith on my board if I were running a later stage enterprise business!
November 25, 2019
November 25, 2019
Eric is the president of Tech Coast Angels, but we definitely got caught up talking about his prior experience as CEO of 99c only stores. This one is a great listen if you're at all interested in selling consumer goods or scaling operations.
November 18, 2019
November 18, 2019
Grid110 is a fantastic free accelerator program in DTLA (no cost, no equity). Miki started Grid110 in 2014 with a focus on fashion tech, but now Grid110 is open to early stage entrepreneurs in all sectors. Miki's awesome and what's not to love.
November 12, 2019
November 12, 2019
Laurent Grill is lead investor at Luma Launch, an LA pre-seed fund that does both B2B and B2C, with a particular interest in storytelling. In addition to funding (average check size $250k), Luma provides great mentors and services for it's teams. Laurent explains why Luma (and others) have moved away from the accelerator model.
November 4, 2019
November 4, 2019
Peter is a founder and managing partner at Embark Ventures, one of the very few deep tech/frontier tech focused investors in town. They write $500- $1M checks into pre-product companies with important science behind them. Peter is full of interesting thoughts on robotics, brain computer interaction and tech transfer out of universities.
October 24, 2019
October 24, 2019
Alex is an early-stage enterprise B2B investor, typically writing checks $300-$600k into rounds of ~$1-3M. He is full of interesting insights and convictions. I could have talked to him for a long time.
October 18, 2019
October 18, 2019
Dana is a Founding Partner at Greycroft and heads the west coast office. She invests in seed, series A and out of the Greycroft growth fund. We talk to her about tracker funds, acquirers, her relationship to email and other interesting things.
October 3, 2019
October 3, 2019
Brian is one of the founders of Crosscut. Crosscut has been doing seed investing in LA since 2007. Brian explains their portfolio construction ($1.5-3M is "typical" but they stretch in both directions), the personalities of the Crosscut team and how they think about their reputation and the ecosystem they have been a part of growing for the past decade. From the episode: Nick Kim's post on Platform as a Product [https://medium.com/@nickbkim/platform-as-a-product-ed745ae97e6a]. Evolution coaching: https://www.evolution.team/ [https://www.evolution.team/]
September 25, 2019
September 25, 2019
Peter Pham is the co-founder of Science. Science is a startup studio here in Santa Monica that partners with founders at the earliest stage of company-creation. Peter educates me and David on D2C margins and radiation-preventing underwear over tallboys of Liquid Death [https://liquiddeath.com/]. Join us at Innovate Pasadena [https://www.meetup.com/Innovation-friday-coffee-meetup/] with great upcoming guests and a podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-97-an-inside-look-at-how-venture-firms-work/id1185696011?i=1000447713818] if you can't join us in person.
September 19, 2019
September 19, 2019
Paul is founder and managing partner at Amplify. Amplify started as an accelerator, they still have the great office space, but now Paul describes Amplify as "pre-seed with benefits". They have a heavy LA focus to their investments ($250-500k) but not funding LA companies exclusively. Paul is also a venture partner at Greycroft and a nice person.
September 12, 2019
September 12, 2019
Adam Struck is an LA seed investor from Struck Capital (checks $1-1.5M) who challenges any other VC to put in more sweat equity per dollar than he does. He also thinks VCs should be weirder. I already feel like I'm busting my butt so I will accept the weird challenge.
September 5, 2019
September 5, 2019
Kara is a partner at Upfront, a founder, and one of the most prominent investors in LA. Kara shares about the Upfront partnership (8 different UIs with the same backend), advice for founders, and her own areas of interest.
September 2, 2019
September 2, 2019
With over 100 members, Pasadena Angels is one of the largest angel investor networks in LA. Stender Sweeney is chair of the Pasadena Angels and explains how their process works, what size check to expect ($250-750k) and what it means to be "more than the money".
August 22, 2019
August 22, 2019
Techstars is a 90-day mentorship-driven accelerator program with three programs in LA: Techstars Music, Techstars Space and Techstars LA. Today we talk to Anna Barber, Managing Director for Techstars LA, about the mentorship, investment ($120k) and network that Techstars LA provides.
August 16, 2019
August 16, 2019
Fika invests in enterprise, B2B SAAS and data-oriented solutions. Fika is usually writing checks in the $750k to $1.2M range and Eva tells us how check size and round size have changed over time. Eva is an extremely thoughtful investor about everything from data ethics to building stronger communities. We're glad Eva is part of the LA community! Leave us a review, let me know, and I'll send back my gratitude.
