On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- Barry Schuler of DFJ Growth Ventures
- Alexander Niehenke of Scale Venture Partners
- Medha Agarwal of Defy
We asked guests to share the best question they’ve ever been asked by an allocator.
The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area.
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Transcribed with AI:
0:18
Welcome back to TFR on today’s special segment, we ask guests to share the best question they’ve ever been asked by an allocator. Here’s the segment called Best LP question.
0:36
On today’s special segment, we have Barry Schuler of DFJ growth. Barry, I’ve raised about $100 million you’ve raised many, many billions. What is the best question an LP has asked you?
0:49
Look, I think, I think LPs are pretty binary and, and when I say that is, they’re they’re investing in us to send them money back, to make a multiple on their money and, and generally, the good LPs are not going to question, you know, what, what, what you’re doing and, but that only works as long as you’re, you’re distributing frequently, and you’re sending them multiples of cash. And you know, of course, we’ll get questions. They’re, they’re mostly interested in, what categories are we interested? What are the themes we’re chasing after, and, and, and so for us, and I think it’s, it’s also, you know, we’ve had great performance from our phones, and they’re happy, but it’s also, what have you done for me lately? And showing the DPI, yeah, and so I think the trick is is, you know, constructing your funds in a way and getting them the cash back. It has a dual effect, of they get the profit dollars and they want to come in your next fund, 100% so
2:03
on today’s special segment, we have Alex Nienke of scale, Alex, what’s the best question a founder or an investor has asked you?
2:10
I think that disagreements are healthy, and I think that they should be vocalized. And I probably err a little bit more on the side of like be comfortable within confrontation, if it’s healthy confrontation. And so I like when founders ask me, how do we deal with disagreements, how do we deal with ties? What happens when you and I are at odds with each other? And I wish that founders would ask me that a little bit more frequently, because usually within a year or two years, we stumble across some sort of topic that’s a little bit sensitive for both of us, and we disagree around that. And I I’m pretty I’m pretty predictable about how I behave in those moments, and I have certain rules. I think, as a board member, the tie goes to the runner, and the CEO is the runner. But I’m always kind of surprised how maybe like that that doesn’t come up early on. And so I hope that the founders that I work with are thankful later that I I act the way that I act but I don’t know that all investors act that way. And please ask me, and maybe ask the other investors as well and see which answer you like.
3:14
On today’s special segment, we have maitha Agarwal of defy what’s the best question a founder or an investor has asked you, I’ve
3:23
been lucky to work with a lot of smart people, so there’s a lot of those, but I think one that comes to mind is a founder that asked me about what my biggest blind spot was when I evaluate companies. And I thought that was super interesting, not a question that I had obviously thought about. And so it was really disarming, it was really smart, and it honestly forced me to audit in real time, what are the questions I am asking? Are they the right questions? Are there other questions that I’m not thinking about? And it led to a really honest conversation, what was your answer? I think back then, I don’t remember the exact conversation, but it had to do with that speed of iteration, because I think it was a blind spot for me for a while. Awesome.
4:08
That will conclude this installment of investor stories. If you’re enjoying the program and would like to see it continue, take a moment and leave a five star review in iTunes. Okay, that will wrap things up for today until next time over, prepare, Choose carefully and invest confidently. Thanks for joining me.
