Shows
Tank Talks By Ripple VenturesThe $30 Trillion Shift: Why Private Markets Are Taking Over Finance with Samir Kaji of AllocateIn this episode of Tank Talks, Matt Cohen is joined by Samir Kaji, CEO and Co-Founder of Allocate, to break down the explosive growth of private market investing and why trillions in new capital are about to reshape the entire wealth ecosystem. Fresh off a $30.5M Series B, Samir unpacks how Allocate is building the missing infrastructure connecting fund managers, RIAs, and the next generation of investors, solving the painful workflows, broken data pipes, and manual processes still holding the industry back. From intelligent deal discovery and auto-filled subscriptions to AI-powered diligence and portfolio personalization, Samir explains how technology...
2025-12-0153 min
The Peel with Turner NovakHow to Raise a VC Fund Today, Traits of Top Emerging Managers, Why Everyone is Selling Secondaries, Triple-Layered SPVs | Samir Kaji, Co-founder and CEO of AllocateSamir Kaji is the Co-founder and CEO of Allocate.This conversation is a deep dive into the private markets, the evolution of venture capital as an asset class, and how there are now 10x more private investment firms than public companies.We also unpack why 90% of venture funds simply can’t raise capital right now, advice for anyone raising a fund today, how to stand out as an emerging manager, why secondaries have become a primary driver of liquidity in venture, and how to navigate SPVs as a GP and LP.We also ta...
2025-06-191h 42
Arta Spotlight: Live Long & ProsperSamir Kaji: Capitalizing on The Generational Wealth TransferCaesar sits down with Samir Kaji, founder and CEO of Allocate, to discuss how the greatest generational wealth transfer of all time is revolutionizing the world of venture capital investing. Samir explains how hyper personalization and data-driven intelligence are factoring into that revolutionary shift. He breaks down how Allocate offers family offices and individual investors access to highly curated private capital funds and direct investment opportunities in a clearly laid-out portfolio that they can pull up at any given time. Samir also explains why he embraced the entrepreneurial path and launched Allocate after decades in banking in S...
2024-12-1836 min
Billion Dollar Moves™ with Sarah Chen-Spellings | Global Venture CapitalUnlocking Venture Capital through Private Wealth w/ Samir Kaji, AllocateThis week's guest is Samir Kaji, a prolific writer and host of Venture Unlocked, a podcast and blog that dives into the inner workings of venture capital, and the CEO and co-founder of Allocate. With over 20 years of experience in VC and private equity ecosystem, Samir's work has guided many investors, entrepreneurs, and fund managers on how to navigate and succeed in the private markets. Our conversation covers everything from the scale of private wealth funding, venture capital to the explosion of emerging managers and why the track record trap is one we need to be mindful...
2024-03-0750 min
The Private Market PlaybookSamir Kaji, Allocate's Co-Founder and CEO, on the founding of AllocateWelcome to the Allocate Podcast, an interview and educational content series to help investors learn and navigate investing in alternatives. Join us to hear from leading founders, fund managers, and allocators on the latest trends and the keys to successfully participating in the private markets.To kick off 2024, we’re delighted to have Nic Millikan, Allocate’s Managing Director and Head of Client Solutions, host Allocate’s Co-Founder and CEO, Samir Kaji.Together, they deliver an inciteful conversation covering:- the founding of Allocate and why its value proposition is meaningful for the industr...
2024-02-2845 min
This Week in StartupsMark Suster and Samir Kaji on the 2024 Venture Market, IPOS, and Secondaries | E1899This Week in Startups is brought to you by…
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2024-02-171h 22
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersKhosla Venture's Samir Kaul on building an iconic, durable firm, and the role of non-consensus decision makingFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We have a conversation with Samir Kaul from Khosla Ventures. Founded in 2004, Khosla is one of the largest and most well-known venture capital firms in the world and led by legendary investor and entrepreneur Vinod Khosla. The firm is known for investing in companies that are solving very large and complex problems. The firm currently has over $15B in AUM investing in companies such as Square, Doordash, Stripe, OpenAI, and Impossible Foods.D...
2024-02-1642 min
Venture with GraceRevolutionizing Venture Capital: A Conversation with Allocate's Visionary Founder ft Samir Kaji
Samir Kaji is the CEO and co-founder of Allocate, a platform that democratizes access to the best technology and life sciences private alternatives. Allocate removes the barriers of discovery, diligence, and access that prevent qualified investors from participating in this lucrative asset class. He also host Venture Unlocked, a podcast and blog that dives into the inner workings of venture capital. Samir share his insights and perspectives from working with over 700 private funds and venture-backed startups at First Republic Bank and SVB, where he completed over $12 billion in debt transactions and made early stage investments in companies like Carta...
2024-02-1359 min
How I Raised It - The podcast where we interview startup founders who raised capital.Ep. 271 How I Raised It with Samir Kaji of AllocateProduced by Foundersuite (for startups: www.foundersuite.com) and Fundingstack (for VCs: www.fundingstack.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital.
This episode is with Samir Kaji of Allocate (https://www.allocate.co/) a startup that enables wealth advisers and family offices to invest in venture funds.
In this episode, we go deep into what it takes for an emerging VC manager to raise funds from LPs. Samir shares an awesome 8-step playbook for emerging managers – definitely worth a listen.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of...
2024-01-2442 min
Superclusters - The Emerging LP PodcastAn Individual LP's Guide to Investing Like an Institution | Samir Kaji | Superclusters | S1E8Samir Kaji is the CEO and Co-Founder of Allocate, a private markets technology company that pairs origination with portfolio management tools to allow investors to efficiently construct and manage their alternatives portfolios.
Prior to Allocate, Samir spent 22 years in venture banking between SVB and First Republic Bank and closely worked with and advised over 700 venture capital and private equity firms. During this time, he completed over $12B in structured debt transactions and has invested personally in over 75 funds and companies, including early-stage investments into Carta (seed), Side (seed), PolicyGenius (Series A), and FanDuel (Series B) as well as Growth i...
2024-01-081h 11
Something Ventured -- Silicon Valley PodcastSamir Kaji: Building Allocate; The State of the Venture Market; Banking Meltdown (SVB/FRB) Post-mortemSamir Kaji is the founder behind Allocate, a pioneering platform in the venture capital space. Samir has established himself as a key connector between venture capital firms and the "LPs" (Limited Partners) who invest in them. He is building Allocate to leverage his experience into a platform. After observing inefficiencies in the venture capital market – between venture firms and the LPs that fund them – he was inspired to create Allocate. Allocate is described as "a game-changing solution that empowers venture capital firms to streamline allocation processes, optimize portfolios, and make data-driven decisions." Samir's position in the indus...
2023-09-0648 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersThe art of raising from LPs in an economic downturn with Mark Suster, Upfront VenturesFollow 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 bring Mark Suster back on the pod. Mark is the managing partner of Upfront and also a frequent contributor of great content for the venture ecosystem through his blog, Both Sides of the Table, which I’d highly recommend you subscribe to. Mark and Samir were recently talking about venture funds raising in this market, and we thought it would be timely to record a session on what we are s...
2023-08-3052 min
10X Capital PodcastE7: Samir Kaji | Founder and CEO of Allocate on How the Top 5% of LP’s Invest in VCDavid Weisburd and Erik Torenberg sit down with Samir Kaji, the co-founder and CEO of Allocate. In this episode, they talk about what differentiates truly elite emerging managers, what VCs get wrong in portfolio construction, what fees VCs are charging today, and his predictions about where the venture ecosystem is going by 2025.
If you’re ready to level-up your startup or fund with AngelList, visit https://www.angellist.com/tlp to get started.
(0:00) Introduction and creating positive bias with LPs
(0:33) Introduction of Samir Kaji and his career journey
(1:26) Venture market changes and advice for emerging managers
(3:43) What separates to...
2023-08-2835 min
How I Invest with David WeisburdE7: Samir Kaji | Founder and CEO of Allocate on How the Top 5% of LP’s Invest in VCDavid Weisburd and Erik Torenberg sit down with Samir Kaji, the co-founder and CEO of Allocate. In this episode, they talk about what differentiates truly elite emerging managers, what VCs get wrong in portfolio construction, what fees VCs are charging today, and his predictions about where the venture ecosystem is going by 2025. If you’re ready to level-up your startup or fund with AngelList, visit https://www.angellist.com/tlp to get started.
(1:00) Episode preview
(1:33) The evolution of Samir’s perspective on the venture market from his early days at SVB and First Republic, to founding Allocate with a mission to m...
2023-08-2835 min
Alt Goes Mainstream🎙 Special Episode: Alt Goes Mainstream x Venture Unlocked - The future of venture capital and private markets with Allocate Co-Founder & CEO Samir KajiWelcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.We have a special episode today – it’s a collaboration between Alt Goes Mainstream and Venture Unlocked: Samir Kaji, the Co-Founder & CEO of Allocate and the Venture Unlocked Podcast, and I have a back and forth discussion about the future of private markets and venture. If you are an allocator to private markets or a VC fund manager, you won’t want to miss this.Samir co-founded Allocate to enable the wealth management community to be able to access high quality venture funds in the same w...
2023-03-231h 01
Alt Goes Mainstream: The Latest on Alternative Investments, WealthTech, & Private MarketsAlt Goes Mainstream x Venture Unlocked Special Episode: The future of venture capital and private markets with Allocate Co-Founder & CEO Samir KajiWelcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.We have a special episode today – it’s a collaboration between Alt Goes Mainstream and Venture Unlocked: Samir Kaji, the Co-Founder & CEO of Allocate and the Venture Unlocked Podcast, and I have a back and forth discussion about the future of private markets and venture. If you are an allocator to private markets or a VC fund manager, you won’t want to miss this.Samir co-founded Allocate to enable the wealth management community to be able to access high quality venture funds in the same wa...
2023-03-231h 01
Studio SoundTRackNepali hami Rahaula kaha Nepal Narahe | Nati KajiNati Kaji commenced his musical venture at age 7 when he started playing the Harmonium at the Gujeshwori Bhajan Mandali. His professional music career initiated when he joined Radio Nepal in 1950. During the 40 years of his service in Radio Nepal, he composed over 2000 songs of varied genres. He is credited for over 15 operas, such as Pijada ko Suga, Kunjani, Prithvi Narayan Shah ka Char Pakchhya. Marna Baru Garho Hunna, an evergreen song penned by Tirtha Raj Tuladhar, sung by Phatteman Rajbhandari remains one of his best compositions.
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2023-03-0413 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersForerunner Ventures Eurie Kim on scaling the Forerunner franchise, thesis based investing, and advice for emerging managersFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week I’m excited to bring you my conversation with Eurie Kim of Forerunner Ventures, which without a doubt is one of the world's top VC firms formed over the last decade. Forerunner invests in entrepreneurs who are redefining culture and consumer experiences in today’s digital world and has invested in companies such as Jet, Birchbox, Warby Parker, and Curology. It currently has over $2B in AUM, and they recently closed a $1B fun...
2022-03-0955 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersNot Boring's Packy McCormick on VC's building brand through content creation, tech trends he's most excited about, and how writing has helped him with investing.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 delighted to bring you my conversation with Packy McCormick, founder of Not Boring, a biweekly newsletter that now has over 100K subscribers and covers tech, strategy, finance, economics, and everything in between. In July 2021, Packy launched the Not Boring Capital which closed at just under $10MM and has invested in over 50 companies. Packy also started the Not Boring Club, a social and “extracurricular” community for like-minded individuals, and he also...
2022-03-0152 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersLimited Partner and direct invest Guy Perelmuter (Grids Capital) on deep tech, bull and bear views on the market, and adding value as an LPFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week, we have friend-of-the-pod Guy Perelmuter, founder of GRIDS Capital, a firm based in Sao Paulo, Brazil that invests in deep tech focused venture funds and startups. GRIDS, whose tagline is “Science is our Business. Business is our Science” has invested in funds such as Lux Capital and Root Ventures as well as directs into Desktop Metal, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Instrumental, Matterport, Esper, and Momentus Space.About Guy Perelmuter:Guy began his caree...
2022-02-2255 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersScribble Ventures Elizabeth Weil on the many roles of an emerging venture fund manager, building partnerships, and why network strength is a key differentiatorFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week I’m excited to bring you my conversation with Elizabeth Weil of seed-focused Scribble Ventures.Elizabeth and her Scribble VC partners, Annie and Kevin, raised an oversubscribed $50M Fund I, all during the COVID Pandemic. Before starting the firm, she previously invested as an angel into companies such as Postmates, SpaceX, Mainstreet, Clubhouse, and Figma.About Elizabeth WeilElizabeth is a relationship-driven fund manager and technology investor, startup ad...
2022-02-1544 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersQED Investors' Frank Rotman in breaking down the venture market today, determining how to compete today, and how QED makes decisions.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 o...
2022-01-1859 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersRipple Ventures Matt Cohen on individual VC personal brands, Hedge funds in tech, portfolio math and front weighting in seed, and investing in CanadaFollow 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...
2022-01-1142 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersM13's Carter Reum on building an operational services team (Propulsion platform), navigating from operator to angel investor to building a firm for the long haul.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...
2022-01-0447 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersHarbinger Ventures Megan Bent on their concentrated portfolio approach, specific traits they look for in founding teams, and consumer behavior post-pandemicFollow 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 abou...
2021-12-2247 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersBoldstart ventures Ed Sim on starting his career during the dot-com bubble, the opportunity as being a true day one investor, and views on today's VC market compared to past erasFollow 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...
2021-12-141h 00
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersLux Capital's co-founder Peter Hebert on the firm's 20 year journey, creating multi-generational success, and the changing dynamics in VC (including their use of SPAC's)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 Equ...
2021-12-071h 03
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersInitialized Capital's Alda Leu Dennis on building the proper culture for decision making, finding ways to win in today's market, and her concerns with the drop in diverse founder funding.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 inve...
2021-11-3039 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersKindred Ventures Kanyi Maqubela on large firms entering seed, the challenges of rising valuations, and the nuances of portfolio constructionFollow 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 Hea...
2021-11-1653 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersBase10's TJ Nahigian on using automation and research within the firm as a competitive advantage, ways to optimize outcomes in the current investing climate, and thoughts on crossover investing.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 TJ Nahigian, co-founder and managing partner of Base10 Partners, a SF based early stage firm focusing on investing in companies that help automate the real economy. They currently manage over $600MM in AUM and have invested in companies such as Figma, Notion, Brex, and Plaid.Prior to Base10, TJ was the founder and CEO of Jobr, which he led to a successful acquisition by Monster in 2016. Before that, he worked...
2021-11-0949 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersGlasswing Ventures Rudina Seseri on frontier tech, the KPI's Glasswing uses to measure their value-add to founders, and why diversity is central to their investing ethosFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today, we have the great pleasure of chatting with Rudina Seseri, Founder of Glasswing Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in AI-powered software companies. With over 17 years of investing and related experience, Rudina has led investments in companies such as Celtra, Crowdtwist, ChaosSearch, Plannuh, Reprise, Inrupt, and Zylotech (recently acquired by Terminus).Prior to moving into venture capital, Rudina was a Senior Manager in the Corporate Development Group at Microsoft Corporation and started h...
2021-11-0245 min
rational vc#033 - Samir Kaji: Allocate.co, The Future of VC & Angel Investing, Emerging Managers, Market Valuations & MoreSamir Kaji is a seasoned Venture Capital banker and now the founder of Allocate - a company disrupting the VC market. Allocate make it easy for investors to access top-tier private alternatives within the technology sector. Samir explains how his idea to build the Allocate platform emerged from his 20+ years of experience working alongside the biggest and best VCs in Silicon Valley. The guys also discuss how tech and tech investing has changed, and what the future for venture capital and angel investing looks like. www.allocate.co -- Rational VC provides regular...
2021-11-0146 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersEniac Ventures Hadley Harris on portfolio construction fundamentals, partnership durability, and views on the shifting seed marketFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.I’m thrilled to bring you my conversation with Hadley Harris, one of the founding partners of seed stage investor Eniac Ventures. Over their history, Eniac has invested many amazing companies including AirBnB, Cameo, Hinge, and Soundcloud. After starting with an initial $1.6M Fund I 11 years ago, they currently grown and expanded to now managing over $300MM in AUM. It was fun chatting with him on the origin story of the original partnership and how they’ve e...
2021-10-2644 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersLP Roundtable with Chris Douvos (Ahoy Capital), Beezer Clarkson (Sapphire Partners), Guy Perelmuter (GRIDS Capital) on opportunity funds, red flags they watch for, and the state of the market.Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.As we move towards the end of 2021, we wanted to record an episode that focused on the LP perspective on current capital and ventures. To that end, this week we are joined by joined by Chris Douvos, founder of Ahoy Capital, Elizabeth “Beezer” Clarkson, Managing Director of Sapphire Partners, and Guy Perelmuter, founder of GRIDS Capital.The three of them have spent decades investing in venture funds and companies across multiple cycles. While we didn...
2021-10-191h 07
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersHuman Ventures' Heather Hartnett on studio models, developing their business creation platform to add value to founders, and their fundraising learnings from raising their first significant fundFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.My guest today is Heather Hartnett, CEO and founder of Human Ventures, an NYC-based venture firm founded in 2015 that leverages a very unique model that combines traditional fund investing with business creation and startup studio model in order to back and assist exceptional founders. Human Ventures has over $50M AUM, and has four exits including Reserve, Girlboss, and Clark.Prior to founding Human Ventures, Heather’s career spanned across roles at firms including CityLight Ca...
2021-10-1243 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersGlobal Founders Capital’s Don Stalter on their belief in larger portfolios, managing a global investment firm, and building systems and processes to deliver value at scaleFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this week’s Venture Unlocked episode, we had the pleasure of hosting Donald Stalter, Partner at Global Founders Capital, a global multi-stage venture firm that has raised $1.6B across two funds and has backed companies such as Kalshi (led by Don), Deel, Headway, Slack, Away, Hellofresh, and Brex. The firm has a very unique model that employs capital across geographies, stages, and industry sectors, and Don provided insight on how the firm executes on this st...
2021-10-0537 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersFounders Fund Delian Asparouhov on Miami as a major tech hub, what he thinks as the drivers for innovation now, and the pros of incubating companies like Varda within firmsFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today we’re thrilled to bring you my conversation with Delian Asparouhov of Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley and now Miami based firm that has long been known for backing some of the most category defining companies in the world including SpaceX, Palantir, Facebook, AirBnB, and Stripe. While at Founders Fund, Delian also co-founded Varda Space Industries, and previously worked at Khosla Ventures.A message from our sponsor:Pacific Western Ban...
2021-09-2847 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersBanana Capital's Turner Novak on his unconventional path in breaking into VC, being a successful stage agnostic investor, and leveraging social platforms to build advantagesFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We’re thrilled to bring you my conversation with Turner Novak, founder of Banana Capital. While fairly new to venture, Turner continually brings some of the most interesting perspectives about technology, and is one of best venture follows on social media. Turner has an incredible backstory on how he broke into VC, and ultimately within a few years was able to found Banana Capital in January 2021, with $9.99M in commitments, including several institutional investors. Prio...
2021-09-2150 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersPrimary Venture Partners Jason Shuman on integrating partners into an established partnership, KPI's on measuring value to founders, and views on portfolio construction.Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today, I’m excited to bring you my conversation with Jason Shuman, a partner at NY based Primary Venture Partners. The firm leads seed rounds for companies in NY and has previously invested in companies such as Jet, Mirror, and Latch. The firm recently raised two funds totaling $200MM. Prior to joining Primary, he spent time as Chief Of Staff for GLG founder Mark Gerson, was an associate at Corigin Venture, and founded and ra...
2021-09-1442 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersBroadhaven Ventures' Michael Sidgmore on democratization of venture capital, why Alts are the future of private portfolios, and the role of wealth management firms.Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today we’re thrilled to bring you a very unique conversation with Michael Sidgmore, Co-Founder of Broadhaven Ventures and host of the Alt Goes mainstream podcast. Broadhaven Ventures is fintech focused and has invested in several platforms that make alternatives more accessible including, Republic, Party Round, iCapital, Alt, and of course our startup Allocate. Additionally, Michael was an early employee at iCapital (currently valued at $4B), which enabled private wealth managers to offer top al...
2021-09-0745 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersAct One Ventures Silton and Guerrero on the Diversity Rider initiative, building meaningful partnerships, and operating experience has been key to their modelFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today’s episode is with Michael Silton and Alejandro Guerrero of Act One Ventures, a Los-Angeles based firm that invests in pre-seed and seed-stage .Before becoming Managing Director of Act One, Michael was Executive Director of the UCLA VC Fund for three and half years. He was also CEO & Founder of RainMaker Systems(to which he took public) and co-founder of UniDirect Corp. Prior to being General Partner at Act One, Alejandro wa...
2021-08-3150 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersFrom Norwest to starting Roble Ventures, Sergio Monsalve on equity and diversity in tech, adapting from large VC to a small, solo-GP, and investing in heated markets.Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today’s episode is with Sergio Monsalve, founding partner of Roble Ventures, a seed firm based in Silicon Valley that invests in solutions that help human progress. Their portfolio includes Kahoot, Mosaic, and Dragonboat, among others. Prior to Roble, Sergio spent 14 years at one of the longest standing VC firms in the world, Norwest Venture Partners, where he led investments in companies such as Udemy and Adaptive Insights. Before he started his investing career, he...
2021-08-2446 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersHaystack's Semil Shah on building the firm from the ground up, portfolio models, and the state of VC todayFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today’s episode is with Semil Shah, founder and general partner at Haystack, a pre-seed and seed-stage supporting outlier founders. Haystack’s portfolio includes DoorDash, Instacart, HashiCorp, Figma, Applied Intuition and many more.Semil is also Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and in 2017, was selected to the Midas Brink List. He previously was a venture partner at both GGV Capital and Bullpen Capital.We covered topics like the challenges Semil faced when...
2021-08-1751 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers137 Ventures Justin Fishner-Wolfson on why ownership is an overvalued heuristic, building lasting teams, and the current state of secondary markets.Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today we’re thrilled to bring you my conversation with Justin Fishner-Wolfson, co-founder and managing partner of 137 Ventures, a growth-stage venture firm that provides customized liquidity solutions to founders, investors, and early employees of high-growth private technology companies. With a total AUM of $1.5B, 137 Ventures has backed some of the most impactful companies of the past decade, including Wish, Flexport, SpaceX, Uber, and Airbnb. Prior to launching 137 ventures in 2010, Justin worked on the...
2021-08-1046 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersJeff Morris, Jr. on finding your own fund/market fit, having like Lightspeed and Sequoia as LPs, and the ever-changing dynamic between entrepreneurs and VCsFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today’s episode is with Jeff Morris, Jr., founder of Chapter One Ventures, an early stage product fund that has invested in Cameo, Pipe, Alt, and Roam. After a significant track record as an angel investor (including investing in Lyft) he started Chapter One in 2019 that featured tier one investors such as Lightspeed and Sequoia as LPs. Jeff was previously the VP of Product at Tinder, spearheading popular features like Boost and Tin...
2021-08-0345 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersMiriam Rivera on going from angel to running a firm, driving real change in diversity in tech, and how traditional heuristics should be challenged in VC.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 Miriam Rivera, managing director and CEO of Ulu Ventures, an early seed stage venture fund in Silicon Valley focused on IT startups. Currently Ulu Ventures has an AUM of >$200MM and the team has invested in companies such as Palantir, BetterUp, SoFi, Guild, and Span [For full disclosure, Ulu Ventures is also an investor in my startup, Allocate).Prior to Ulu, Miriam was deputy general counsel at Google, which she jo...
2021-07-2746 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersBen Casnocha on his learnings from working with Reid Hoffman, building network incentives, and the art of portfolio construction.Follow me @samirkaji for my (usually) daily thoughts on the world of venture capital. We’re pleased to provide this week’s episode with Ben Casnocha, founding partner of Village Global.Prior to Village, Ben was an entrepreneur and also acted as Chief of Staff at LinkedIn and Greylock working directly with Reid Hoffman. Ben has also co-authored two New York Times bestselling management books, The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age (with LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman and entrepreneur Chris Yeh). and The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transfor...
2021-07-2049 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersLan Xuezhao of Basis Set Ventures on using data science along with human psychology to assess deals, finding LP/GP fit, founder super powers measurement, and conviction based investing.Today’s episode is with Lan Xuezhao, founding partner of Basis Set Ventures which has raised $301M across two funds. Lan has extensively studied AI, data science, and human psychology, and with Basis Set, she has combined those elements to bring a very unique approach to investing. Lan’s background in corporate development at Dropbox and management at McKinsey has contributed to her data driven approach to sourcing and investing. She has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Michigan. We chat about Lan’s unique investment philosophy, how she found GP/LP fit for Fun...
2021-07-1339 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersMeet the Expert: Braughm Ricke of Aduro Advisors on working with over 300 Emerging Firms, his time as the first CFO at True Ventures, traits of successful managersFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. In today’s show, we have the pleasure of speaking to Braughm Ricke, who has worked closely with emerging managers throughout his career, first serving as CFO of True Ventures, and then starting Aduro Advisors, which started in 2012 originally to focus on the new era of VC. He was also a early Advisor and Investor in Carta and has been an active investor. Thanks to working with over 350 venture fund clients, Braughm has unique insi...
2021-07-0834 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersMonique Woodard of Cake Ventures on the 3 layers of the Cake that comprise her thesis, what she learned at Lightspeed and 500 startups, fundraising during a pandemic, and diversity in the seed.Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We’re so pleased to bring you my discussion with Monique Woodard of Cake Ventures, a seed-stage firm investing in demographic change. To date, Monique has invested in startups such as Blavity, Court Buddy, Mented Cosmetics, and Silvernest. Cake Ventures invests in a thesis that is based on a “three-layer” philosophy that the future of technology is being driven by certain major shifts:* The aging Baby Boomer population* The shift of minori...
2021-07-0641 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersShauntel Garvey of Reach Capital on EdTech, raising a sector focused fund, and the importance of being an active seed investor beyond the A roundFollow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. Our guest today is Shauntel Garvey, co-founder and general partner of education tech focused Reach Capital. She has a long history investing in ed-tech companies stemming back from her time at NewSchools Venture Fund. What I love about the Reach team is how thoughtfully they’ve constructed their firm and partnership which by far is one of the most diverse in all of venture. Currently Reach has $300 AUM and has invested in companies such as M...
2021-06-2938 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersMark Suster of Upfront Ventures on Generational Firm Evolution, Why Fundraising is Like Enterprise Sales, & The State of Venture todayFollow 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 bring you my recent conversation with Mark Suster, managing partner at Upfront Ventures, a firm that was founded 25 years ago, originally as GRP partners. Mark joined the firm in 2007 and became managing partner in 2011 and helped architect the new era of the firm while also actively evangelizing the now robust LA tech ecosystem. Upfront currently has $1.9B AUM and has invested in companies such as Overture, Maker Studios, and Ring...
2021-06-2248 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersSatya Patel of Homebrew on how they were able to raise their first fund in 100 days, creating enduring partnerships, and the art of fund sizing.On this week’s show, we’re excited to bring you Satya Patel, co-founder of Homebrew, who he started with his partner Hunter Walk in 2013. Today, the firm is widely considered one of the top seed firms in the industry, counting companies such as Chime, Cruise, Eero, and Gusto as portfolio companies. Satya brings a unique product background to the table as he worked on AdSense in the early days at Google, and later in various product roles at Twitter. He also spent time as an investor at Battery Ventures. Satya and Hunter are incredibly thou...
2021-06-1537 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersJeff Clavier of Uncork Capital on being one of the earliest seed stage VC's, lessons in fundraising during a downturn, and building a multi-generational firmWe’re thrilled to bring you my recent talk with Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital, one of the early trailblazers of the emerging manager community. Jeff started investing in seed full time all the way back in 2004 well before the Micro-VC moniker was even conceived (back then we called them Super Angels). Today the firm is one of the most active seed funds in the market with over $500MM in AUM and having invested in companies such as Poshmark, Fitbit, Eventbrite, and Molekule.In this episode is a broad conversation covering the history of VC, ra...
2021-06-0849 min
Alt Goes Mainstream[AGM Podcast] Allocate Founder & CEO Samir Kaji on why emerging managers are the future of venture capitalToday on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast we have a domain expert in the world of VC – and someone who has been a visionary when it has come to one of the biggest movements in VC over the past 8 years: emerging managers.Samir Kaji, the Founder & CEO of Allocate, is a well-respected industry leader in the VC world. He has spent over 20 years partnering with VCs at First Republic Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, where he led the Venture Capital and Private Equity banking efforts. At First Republic, he built out the infrastructure and client base that se...
2021-06-0150 min
Alt Goes Mainstream: The Latest on Alternative Investments, WealthTech, & Private MarketsEmerging Managers & The Future of Venture Capital: An Expert's Perspective with Samir Kaji, Founder & CEO of AllocateToday on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast we have a domain expert in the world of VC – and someone who has been a visionary when it has come to one of the biggest movements in VC over the past 8 years: emerging managers.Samir Kaji, the Founder & CEO of Allocate, is a well-respected industry leader in the VC world. He has spent over 20 years partnering with VCs at First Republic Bank and Silicon Valley Bank, where he led the Venture Capital and Private Equity banking efforts. At First Republic, he built out the infrastructure and client base that se...
2021-06-0150 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersNnamdi Okike of 645 Ventures on thoughtfully growing funds, data driven sourcing in venture to reduce bias, and building one of the largest BIPOC led venture firms.Using data to make better investment decisions is a common theme these days, but Nnamdi Okike, co-founder and managing partner of 645 Ventures, a firm that uses unique, data driven methodologies to improve sourcing while helping to eliminate the biases that often present themselves when assessing new opportunities. Using public data that to accompany their own automated systems, they’ve found an interesting way to consistently find undiscovered founders. After leaving Insight Ventures, Nnamdi co-founded 645 Ventures in 2013 with Aaron Holiday, starting with a $8MM proof of concept fund. Since then, they raised a $40MM Fund 2, and most recently cl...
2021-05-2545 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersStephen DeBerry of Bronze VC on social impact investing, GP commits, & the next-gen of underrepresented managersI’m extremely excited to bring you this week’s episode of Stephen DeBerry from Bronze investments. In addition to being an experienced investor at previous stops at Kapor Capital, Omidyar, The California Endowment, Stephen also developed the “Eastside” thesis which spoke to the inequities that are often present in eastern communities. He presented this thesis in a now viral TED Talk and was a factor in why Stephen decided to invest in change through Venture Capital at Bronze VC.Stephen did his undergrad at UCLA and his masters work at Oxford. He is a British Marshall Scholar...
2021-05-1945 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersSunil Dhaliwal from Amplify Partners on finding overlooked investment opportunities, deal competition, and the future of venture capitalAmplify Partners has quickly become one of the true breakouts from the early emerging manager movement. Led by Sunil Dhaliwal, who started Amplify nearly a decade ago after a 14 year tenure at Battery Ventures, the firm has over $750MM in AUM and has invested in companies such as Datadog and Fastly. This was a fun wide ranging discussion about the current state of VC and where we think the industry is headed now that there are so many new emerging managers and potential LPS.Prior to Amplify, Sunil invested in early-stage IT infrastructure companies at...
2021-05-1146 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersPete Flint from NFX on network effects, VC as a platform, and how they think about fund sizes.Follow me @samirkaji for my ongoing thoughts on the private fund markets. Over the last decade, we’ve seen a surge of VC firms formed by those that spent their entire lives as entrepreneurs. NFX is one of those firms, and in 2016, ex-Trulia founder Pete Flint joined the firm as fourth partner bringing the experience of starting a company, taking it public, before ultimately being acquired by Zillow for $2.5B. This was a fun conversation, not only because of Pete’s insights and interesting background, but because of unique NFX is as a firm in the wa...
2021-05-0438 min
Fund FanaticsOn the Clock with Samir Kaji: Funds, NFTs & Draft PicksIn this fast-paced episode of Fund Fanatics, Jeff Maier and Scott Aleali catch up with Samir Kaji—Founder and CEO of Allocate, former colleague and longtime friend—for a timely conversation at the intersection of private markets, alt-assets and Draft Day drama.Samir offers a candid look at the fundraising journey for emerging managers, the importance of momentum in venture capital, and what’s really happening with NFTs and other alternative assets. The conversation also takes a fun turn with some bold NFL Draft predictions, including a shoutout to fans of the 49ers, Dolphins and a certain high-u...
2021-04-2708 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersJamie Rhode of Family Office Verdis Investment Management on using decision science to drive fund allocation strategy, their view on large portfolio sizes, and biggest trends they see in VC.Limited partners come in a few different varieties, one of the largest, but also most opaque groups is that of the Family Offices, and today’s guest Jamie Rhode, CFA, Vice President at Verdis Investment Management, gives us a glimpse into the large family office world. Verdis uses a unique data-driven approach to fund allocating that allows them to optimize on their portfolio and ensure they find the outliers. Prior to Verdis, Jamie was at Bloomberg serving in roles roles in both equity research and credit analysis where she created, managed and leveraged an extensive li...
2021-04-2742 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersPaul Martino from Bullpen Capital on being an early pioneer in post-seed, conviction to back non-consensus startups + another way to think about the SPAC movementContrarian based investing requires extreme conviction, and the ability to consistently invest in founders and businesses that don’t always have mainstream acceptance. Bullpen Capital has long been known as a firm that will not shy away from the overlooked companies, but instead seeks out the undiscovered gems to drive alpha for their investors and founders. This week’s guest Paul Martino, one of the confounders of 2010 founded Bullpen Capital is one of favorite people to talk to given his unique insights and radical transparency. Bullpen was founded in 2010 with Duncan Davidson and Richard Melmon, and...
2021-04-2034 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersAshmeet Sidana on moving from a partnership with Foundation Capital to being a Solo GP, investing in technical teams, and the upside and downside of data.On this week’s show, we are joined by Ashmeet Sidana, founder and chief engineer at Engineering Capital, a seed stage firm with $139.5M AUM. Prior to founding Engineering Capital in 2015, Ashmeet spend nearly 10 years at Foundation Capital which he joined after various technical roles at companies such as VMware and Silicon Graphics. His investments include Azure (NYSE: AZRE), Netsil (acquired by Nutanix), Palerra (acquired by Oracle), Freewheel (acquired by Comcast), InQuira (acquired by Oracle), Altor (acquired by Juniper), Appurify (acquired by Google), PrivateCore (acquired by Facebook) and StackStorm (acquired by Brocade).Ashmeet re...
2021-04-1341 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersKatie Jacobs Stanton on moving from angel investing to starting Moxxie, experiences with LP's "ghosting", and why she went the solo GP routeNon-traditional paths into venture have been a common theme among many emerging managers, and our guest this week, Katie Jacobs Stanton, founder of Moxxie Ventures, is no exception. Katie started her career as a Banker at JP Morgan, but subsequently worked within the Obama White house as special advisor to the office of innovation, and she had operator roles at Twitter, Google, Yahoo, and Color Genomics. She was also named by Forbes as the #56 on the most powerful women in the world. Prior to Moxxie, Katie also co-founded the #Angels investment collective along with other former Twitter...
2021-04-0635 min
Tank Talks By Ripple VenturesSamir Kaji on Emerging Managers in VCIt’s been a busy week in the Rippleverse with adding a new partner, two Clubhouse events, and starting Q2.With all that going on we thought we would revisit Samir Kaji’s episode from last October. Samir is a friend of the pod and he has recently announced a new venture, Allocate, which is dedicated to helping emerging managers connect with LPs.We will be back with fresh episodes for the rest of April and beyond! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or g...
2021-04-0152 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersDaniel Leff of Waverley Capital on media tech, how he's crafted a successful VC career by being contrarian, and the role of strategic LPs as differentiatorsIn venture, many people speak about being contrarian, but very few investors truly are comfortable with consistently thinking outside of mainstream consensus. One exception is Daniel Leff, co-founder of Waverley Capital. Waverley was founded in 2019 with Edgar Bronfmann, Jr. and is focused on investing in media start-ups.Prior to Waverley, Daniel founded Luminari Capital, a top-performing media fund. During his career Daniel invested in companies such as Roku, FuboTV The Athletic, Headspace, and Matterport. As he’s built his firms, he’s taken a very unique approach in portfolio construction and LP composition, both of which have been...
2021-03-3043 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersBrian Garrett of Crosscut Ventures on building a regionally based seed firm outside of SV, the rise of LA, raising during a recession, and how Crosscut has evolved over the last 13 years.Today, we’re seeing major startup hubs emerge across the US (and globally). Up until fairly recently, LA was not considered a major US technology and venture hub. My guest on this week’s episode, Brian Garrett, has been in the LA venture ecosystem for two decades now. He also co-founded Crosscut Ventures, one of the very first seed funds in LA (if not the first). Today LA has claims companies such as Snap, TrueCar, Maker, Honey, Dollar Shave Club, Honest Company as examples of companies that reached scale in the now rapidly growing ecosystem. Crosscut began as a...
2021-03-2341 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersKelsey Chase of Aumni on using data to become institutional quicker, and what LPs now expect from emerging managers - Venture Unlocked 027The use of data is playing a bigger and bigger role in our everyday lives. Venture is no exception, but most of data use in VC is related to sourcing, picking, and helping founders. My guest today, Kelsey Chase, co-founded a company called Aumni that uses granular level data contained in deal docs to help managers have a much better understanding of their portfolio positions and offer accurate, robust reporting for LPs. It was interesting to hear his perspectives on the problems that lie in reporting, and the rising bar LPs are expecting of emerging managers.
2021-03-1821 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersClara Brenner of Urban Innovation Fund - Venture Unlocked 026On this week’s show, we’re lucky to have on Clara Brenner, co-founder of the Urban Innovation Fund which provides seed capital and regulatory support to entrepreneurs shaping the future of our cities. Along with her co-founder Julie Lein, their story is very compelling, from how they raised their first fund (from primarily strategic investors and special interest investors) to how they help founders unlock large businesses by helping them navigate regulatory hurdles. Prior to starting Urban Innovation Fund, Clara was the co-founder and CEO of TUMML, an accelerator and startup hub focused on urba...
2021-03-1636 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersLindsay Lee of Authentic Ventures on operationalizing networks & creating an edge through diversity rich networks- Venture Unlocked 025Our guest today is Lindsay Lee, managing member of Authentic Ventures. Lindsay has over 20 years of investing experience in technology. Prior to starting Authentic, he served as CIO for an investment management firm to which he helped grow to almost $1B in assets and also managed a family office where he focused on seed and early-stage investments. He brings a unique combination of operating experience, public market investing experience, and early stage investing experience. Authentic Ventures was founded in 2015 and focuses on Seed and Early-stage companies. One of their core differentiators is the “Au...
2021-03-0939 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersRyan Hoover of Weekend Fund on collaborative based investing, building founder NPS, and considerations around scaling funds - Venture Unlocked Ep. 24One of the key benefits of the shift in the venture landscape has been the ushering in of more diverse funding sources to entrepreneurs. In this week’s Venture Unlocked episode (available both on Spotify and Itunes) I’m excited to bring you Ryan Hoover, founding partner of Weekend Fund. Ryan grew up in Oregon and worked in the gaming industry prior to launching technology product discovery platform Product Hunt in 2013. Backed by some incredible angel and institutional investors, the company built the largest platform for new products, and ultimately was acquired by AngelList a few years ago...
2021-03-0242 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersRenata Quintini & Roseanne Wincek of Renegade Partners on the Supercritical Stage and running a fund like a startup; Venture Unlocked #023If you enjoy the show, please subscribe at Itunes or Spotify or if you already have, leave a rating or review, as it really helps us out!!I’m excited to bring you another duo interview, this time with Renata Quintini and Roseanne Wincek, co-founders and managing partners of Renegade Partners. They are without a doubt two of my favorite people in the industry as despite their incredible backgrounds, they remain humble and committed to staying scrappy to help founders through what they consider the “super critical” stage of development. Just prior founding to co-founding Renega...
2021-02-2345 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersWelly Sculley & Winter Mead of Oper8r on building the “YC for fund managers” and tips for launching a firm - Venture Unlocked 022As the Emerging Manager world continues to grow, so does the importance of providing these managers with key education, resources, and community. Enter Oper8r, founded by Welly Sculley and Winter Mead, which is looking to become the “Y-Combinator for venture fund managers”.Prior to launching Oper8r in 2020, Winter worked as a fund-of-funds manager at both Sapphire Capital and Hall Capital Partners, While Welly most recently worked at venture backed fintech Ripple. Oper8r selects seasoned mentors to advise the cohorts and provides them with the knowledge, networks, and tools necessary for launching (or grow...
2021-02-1649 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersBeezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners on the #OpenLP effort, How to Pitch LP’s, & what she sees in the venture ecosystem - Venture Unlocked 021On today’s show we have Beezer Clarkson, Managing Director of Sapphire Partners, the LP arm of Sapphire Ventures. Not only does Beezer have tremendous depth and insight into the world of VC, but she catalyzed the #OpenLP movement, which looks to bring transparency within the LP world. She’s someone I’ve known for nearly a decade and one of the smartest minds in the LP world. Beezer began her career in financial services over 20 years ago at Morgan Stanley in its global infrastructure group. Since, she has held various direct and indirect venture investment roles, as wel...
2021-02-0945 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersMac Conwell of RareBreed Ventures & Roy Bahat of Bloomberg Beta on the state of Emerging VC - Venture Unlocked 020This episode was particularly a fun one to record in that we moved a bit away from our traditional interview format to more of a water-cooler format with Mac Conwell of RareBreed Ventures and Roy Bahat of Bloomberg Beta for a wide-ranging chat about the state of emerging venture capital. As many may now, Mac is using the seldom used 506C provision of Reg D to publicly solicit capital for his new fund (RareBreed VC). While many rolling fund managers use the 506C provision, Mac is not conducting his raise on the AngelList platform. Previously t...
2021-02-0248 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersMike Maples of Floodgate on investing models, how he thinks about exceptional companies, and building a lasting firm - Venture Unlocked Episode 019We have a special treat of an episode this week with one of the top first generation seed investors in Mike Maples, Jr. of Floodgate. After leading two successful startups, Mike started Floodgate (formerly Maples Investment) in 2006, and has since invested on companies such as Twitter, Lyft, Twitch, and Okta. As is always the case when I speak to Mike, he provided many nuggets of investing, firm building, and went deep into his early days of Floodgate. In this episode we discuss the following topics:04:54 How Mike raised his first fund from Austin Vent...
2021-01-2654 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersApurva Mehta of Summit Peak Investments on discovering the next-gen of top venture investors, Venture Unlocked Episode 018Remember to subscribe here on substack, Spotify, or Itunes to get notified as soon as new pods are released. Also follow me @samirkaji on Twitter to get my ongoing thoughts on venture. Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked. This week we have Apurva Mehta, Managing Partner at Summit Peak Investments. Apurva and his partner Patrick O’Connor founded Summit Peak in 2018 to invest both in emerging venture funds, and alongside them through direct co-investing. As you’ll hear on the interview, they are very comfortable and excited about backing solo-GP funds. Summ...
2021-01-1946 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersJaclyn Freeman Hester of Foundry Group on investing in emerging manager funds, venture trends, and mistakes fund managers can avoid when raising - Venture Unlocked Episode 017We’re excited to release our newest episode with another great guest, Jaclyn Freeman Hester, Partner at the Foundry Group. Founded in 2007 by Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, Ryan McIntyre, and Seth Levine The Foundry Group has $2.4B under management and has invested in startups such as FitBit, SendGrid, Beeswax, and Notion. Several years ago the firm, led by Jaclyn and Lindel Eakman, started investing in interesting emerging manager firms, and have acted as LP’s in firms such as Forerunner, K9 Ventures, Founder Collective, IA Ventures, Homebrew, and Ludlow. Jaclyn got her MBA/JD from the...
2021-01-1246 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersAvidan Ross of Root VC on investing in deep tech, taking an heavy approach on reserves, and building LP relationships - Venture Unlocked 016Happy New Year! I’m thrilled to announce that Avidan Ross is our first guest of 2021 Avidan is the Founder and managing partner of Root Ventures and one of the most thoughtful newer seed stage managers in the market. Like many that have appeared on the show, Avidan took a non-traditional path into venture. After graduating from Columbia, Avidan spent time in various engineering roles before becoming CTO at CIM Group, L.P., a private equity firm currently with $30B under management. After nearly 7 years at CIM, Avidan moved on to become a host a Food Network pi...
2021-01-0545 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersMarlon Nichols of MaC Ventures on VC firm mergers, funding diversity, and his relationship with LP's - Venture Unlocked 015As we wrap up what’s been perhaps the most interesting and difficult year in modern history, the holidays still remain a time to to spend with family and reflect on the things we all still do have. I’m incredibly grateful for what I do have, and am looking forward to brighter days ahead for all of us as we move to 2021. On our final episode of the year, I’m thrilled to share my conversation with Marlon Nichols, Managing General Partner at MaC Ventures. After graduating from Northeastern University, Marlon spend several years in various consul...
2020-12-2941 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersDeena Shakir of Lux Capital on firm culture, solving the diversity issue, and how portfolio management is a team sport - Venture Unlocked 014Deena Shakir is a General Partner at Lux Capital, a firm founded in 2000 and has since raised $2.5 billion. Lux invests in emerging science and deep technology startups such as Auris Health, Cerulean, Zoox, and Bright Machines. Deena graduated from Harvard undergrad and began her career as a presidential management fellow at the US Department of State, where she built partnerships with tech companies and helped launch President Obama’s global entrepreneurship summit in 2010. She then joined Google, where she led business development and strategic partnerships for their global civic innovation portfolio before shifting to the in...
2020-12-2242 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersChris Douvos of Ahoy Capital on the art of investing in Emerging VC funds, Venture Unlocked 013For daily thoughts on the venture landscape, follow me @samirkaji on Twitter. Chris Douvos is the Founder of Ahoy Capital, a boutique Fund of Funds that focuses primarily on allocating into early-stage venture capital funds, while selectively co-investing directly into companies. Chris started his career at Morgan Stanley while still at Yale earning his MBA. From there he worked at Princeton University’s endowment fund where he got his start in venture before moving onto The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF). At TIFF he decided that the right strategy was to make “heroic investments” and invest...
2020-12-1547 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersNate Williams of UNION Labs on the studio model & investing in deep tech, Venture Unlocked 012In this episode, we speak with Nate Williams, Co-founder and Managing Partner at UNION Labs. Nate Co-founded UNION Labs in 2018 with his partner, Chris Kim while an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Kleiner Perkins.Nate is a seasoned Operator and angel investor including August Home, where he served as Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Business. Following their acquisition in 2017, he went on to join KPCB as EIR where he spent time helping entrepreneurs and sourcing investments including Proxy. While EIR, Nate formed a thesis on the opportunity in verticalized IoT which he published in TechCrunch and...
2020-12-1043 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersSoraya Darabi of TMV on building and scaling a seed stage firm, Venture Unlocked 011In this episode, we speak with Soraya Darabi, Co-Founder and General Partner of TMV. The firm primarily focuses on investing at the seed stage through Series A and is active in areas such as the future of work, education tech, logistics and mobility, and sustainable solutions. While not specifically diversity-focused, the firm’s portfolio is nearly 2/3rd comprised of female or minority-led companies.Earlier in her career, Soraya served as the Manager of Digital Partnerships & Social Media at The New York Times, where she spearheaded social media and digital partnerships. In 2009, she co-founded Foodspotting, named “App of the Y...
2020-12-0838 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersGreg Sands of Costanoa Ventures on building a boutique Venture Firm, firm culture, and portfolio theory - Venture Unlocked 010In this episode, we speak to industry veteran Greg Sands, who founded Costanoa Ventures after spending 13 years at Sutter Hill Ventures. Prior to Sutter Hill, Greg serves as the first product manager of Netscape (where he wrote the initial product plan and coined the name “Netscape”). He founded Costanoa Ventures as a boutique early stage firm to solve for a gap he saw between seed stage funds and larger lifecycle firms. The firm primarily invests in B2B seed stage companies in categories such as the Future of work, Fintech, Data/Machine learning, and security. Alth...
2020-12-0143 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersBrendan Wallace of Fifth Wall on building a different type of venture firm - Venture Unlocked 009In just a few short years, Fifth Wall Ventures, which focuses on investing in companies in the “built world” economy, has quickly become one of LA’s largest venture firms with over $1.2B in committed LP capital. I met Co-Founder Brendan Wallace when he and Brad Greiwe started Fifth Wall nearly five years ago and the trajectory of the firm has been nothing short of astounding. Brendan started his career at Goldman Sachs in real estate investment banking after graduating from Princeton. What’s always struck me over the years is Brendan’s unique vision on how he t...
2020-11-2448 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersLeo Polovets of Susa Ventures - Venture Unlocked 008Leo Polovets is one of the Founding Partners of Susa Ventures, which launched in 2012. Over the last 8 years, Susa has established itself as one of the premier seed funds in the world, and have made more than 80 investments in companies like Robinhood, Flexport, Andela, and Expanse (recently purchased by Palo Alto Networks for $800MM). Leo began his career as a software engineer, first at LinkedIn when it was a start-up, and later at Google and Factual. I always enjoy speaking with Leo as he’s always introspective, insightful and stays highly curious about all aspects of...
2020-11-1738 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersSahil Lavingia's learnings as a VC backed founder and running a Rolling Fund - Venture Unlocked 007This episode is a fun one as I had the pleasure to interview Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gumroad, an online platform that allows creators to sell directly to their consumers. The company has facilitated the sale of $356 million in products since its launch in 2011 and now helps over 70,000 creators.Gumroad raised capital from legendary angels like Ron Conway, Chris Sacca, Naval Ravikant, and from distinguished venture firms such as First Round Capital, Accel Partners, and Kleiner Perkins. After a failed series B in 2015, Sahil was forced to lay off the majority of his staff and pivot his...
2020-11-1240 min
Tank Talks By Ripple VenturesTank Talk: Samir Kaji (Senior Managing Director @ First Republic Bank) - Breaking Through the Crowd as an Emerging ManagerOn today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Samir Kaji, Senior Managing Director @ First Republic Bank, to discuss “Breaking Through the Crowd as an Emerging Manager”Samir is a well known voice in the venture capital ecosystem having started his career at Silicon Valley Bank at the beginning of the tech boom in 1999. Samir started out as an Analyst and eventually made his way up to Managing Director of the Menlo office where he completed over $5 billion in debt transactions with over 500 companies.Samir later joined First Republic Bank in 2012 to lead their VC and tech...
2020-11-1152 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersTed Maidenberg of Tribe Capital - Venture Unlocked 006On this episode, we speak with Ted Maidenberg, co-founding partner of Tribe Capital, which he launched with his partners Arjun Sethi and Jonathan Hsu. I’m especially excited to bring this episode to you as Ted draws from experiences working within a Corporate VC (Time Warner), a traditional VC (USVP), and now has co-founded two firms known for their innovative approaches to investing —- Social Capital in 2011 with Chamath Palihapitiya and Mamoon Hamid, and most recently Tribe. Ted has also been part of investing teams that count investments such as Slack, Carta, and Survey Monkey. In t...
2020-11-1039 min
Tank TalksTank Talk: Samir Kaji (Senior Managing Director @ First Republic Bank) - Breaking Through the Crowd as an Emerging ManagerOn today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Samir Kaji, Senior Managing Director @ First Republic Bank, to discuss “Breaking Through the Crowd as an Emerging Manager”Samir is a well known voice in the venture capital ecosystem having started his career at Silicon Valley Bank at the beginning of the tech boom in 1999. Samir started out as an Analyst and eventually made his way up to Managing Director of the Menlo office where he completed over $5 billion in debt transactions with over 500 companies.Samir later joined First Republic Bank in 2012 to lea...
2020-11-1000 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersJon Sakoda of Decibel on building your fund with founders by your side - Venture Unlocked 005Jon Sakoda is the Founding Partner at Decibel, a venture firm that was created in partnership with Cisco (but independent in nature) in 2018 to invest in early-stage companies. Hear how Jon, who describes himself as a “recovering entrepreneur,” started his first company, Imlogic, Inc. which was eventually acquired by Symantec, and then joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 2006 where he served as a partner for 12 years. During his time at NEA, NEA clearly established itself as the largest venture firm in the world and had raised a $2.5B fund well before the current mega-fund boom. In t...
2020-10-2739 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersJodi Sherman Jahic of Aligned Partners on why alignment with partners, LPs, and companies is powerful - Venture Unlocked 004Jodi Sherman Jahic is a managing partner of Aligned Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture fund investing in early-stage, enterprise technology companies that are have a lean toward capital efficiency. Jodi has nearly 20 years of venture experience and started Aligned Partners in 2011 with her co-founder Susan Mason. A meticulous designer of market strategies and a fierce ally of entrepreneurial founders, Jodi is recognized for her thought leadership in go-to-market strategies. Aligned has raised a total of $125 million across three funds.Prior to co-founding Aligned Partners, Jodi led the wireless sector for Voyager Capital and was co-founder...
2020-10-2034 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersRoger Ehrenberg of IA Ventures on the craft of building a top-decile firm - Venture Unlocked 003Follow me on Twitter @Samirkaji to get my ongoing and frequent updates on the early stage venture landscapeRoger Ehrenberg is the founder and Managing Partner of IA Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City. In this episode, Roger gives a master class on all aspects of starting and building a venture firm. IA is managing $475M across four funds, and is currently investing out of its $160M fourth fund. Fund 1 was a $50MM fund raised during the global financial crisis, with a first close of $17MM. Earlier in...
2020-10-1336 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersCharles Hudson of Precursor Ventures - Venture Unlocked 002Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder at Precursor Ventures, one of the first and most active pre-seed focused venture firms in the world. Precursor seeks to invest in a company’s first round of institutional investment and focuses on investments in B2B software applications, B2C software and services, and connected hardware. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, he spent 5 years as a Partner at Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC). Charles was also the CoFounder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, a mobile games startup. Prior to this he held Business Development rol...
2020-10-0636 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersElizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund - Venture Unlocked 001Elizabeth Yin is Co-Founder & General Partner at Hustle Fund, a pre-seed focused firm based in the Bay Area. Appropriately named, Elizabeth and her team truly epitomize the word hustle. She and her co-founder Eric raised $11.5MM Hustle Fund I in the fall of 2018 and more recently started investing out of a larger Fund II. The firm has a unique investment model that starts by investing $25K in each startups, and then by working closely with their entrepreneurs looks to upsize their commitments into select portfolio companies. Previously, Elizabeth was a partner at 500 Startups where she invested in...
2020-09-2932 min
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managersReleasing The Venture Unlocked PodcastI’m excited to announce the imminent release of Venture Unlocked, the first podcast dedicated solely to helping emerging venture investors launch, operate, and scale successful venture capital firms. The trailer embedded here provides a bit of background on the podcast —- if you like what you hear please forward this email to your friends and colleagues and encourage them to sign-up for the Venture Unlocked podcast on substack.On Tuesday September 29th, we are thrilled to release the first episode of Venture Unlocked featuring Elizabeth Yin of the Hustle Fund, who transparently spoke about her j...
2020-09-2400 min
Village Global PodcastHow COVID Impacts LPs, Venture Funds, and the Macro Environment with Samir KajiSamir Kaji (@SamirKaji), managing director at First Republic Bank, joins Erik on this episode.They discuss:- The state of the financial world before COVID and the cracks that Samir saw in the system last year. - Why this shock is like a “train going 150 miles per hour hitting a brick wall.” - What venture funds should do in this environment.- Whether there’s hope for a recovery in the near future, or not — and why this is different than any other previous recession.- How the behavior...
2020-04-2650 min
The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified212. Crisis Coverage w/ Samir Kaji - Relief $ for Startups via CARES Act, EIDL, PPP; & How an Extended Downturn Affects Emerging VC FundsSamir Kaji of First Republic joins Nick on a special Crisis Coverage installment to discuss Relief $ for Startups via CARES Act, EIDL, PPP; & How an Extended Downturn Affects Emerging VC Funds. In this episode, we cover: Startups... The CARES Act became law on 3/27, but many are having trouble making sense of it and how it applies... Let's start out w/ the two types of loans that are available to small businesses... First off, can you explain the difference between the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)? EIDL - No forgiveness potential...
2020-04-0338 min