On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- Navin Chaddha of Mayfield
- Eric Byunn of Centana Growth
- Willy Schlacks of EquipmentShare
We asked guests to discuss the most visionary founder that they’ve worked with and what makes them so special.
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:
Speaker 1 0:02
Nick, welcome to the podcast about venture capital, where investors and founders alike can learn how VCs make decisions and reach conviction. Your host is Nick Moran, and this is The Full Ratchet.
Nick Moran 0:19
Welcome back to TFR. On today’s special segment, we ask guests to discuss the most visionary founder that they’ve worked with and what makes them so special. Here’s the segment called Visionary Founders. On today’s special segment, we have Naveen Chadha of Mayfield. Tell us about an exceptional founder you’ve worked with, and the specific thing they do that’s unique,
Speaker 2 0:44
Manish Chandra is the Poshmark founder, and basically he had a vision at the beginning, and that’s the only company whose seed pitch deck was exactly the same at IPO and at Exit. Whoa, he is the best people-first entrepreneur who believes in building a company with love, and their whole tow was lead with love, and magic happens, and we went through lots of ups, lots of downs, but did pretty well. So that’s one story. I can give you 10 more, but you said one
Nick Moran 1:22
on today’s special segment, we have Eric Biyun of Centana Growth. Eric, can you tell us about an exceptional founder you’ve worked with in the specific thing they do that’s unique?
Speaker 3 1:32
I’ve been lucky across my career to work with so many great founders, you know, a bunch of them have become close personal friends after, after you know, we’re longer, no longer working together on a day-to-day basis. What I think is really in common across so many of them is, you know, often they have some root skill that they’re great at. You know, I have one founder that I’ve worked with that’s, you know, across, whatever, 30 something years in technology is probably the best technical engineering architecture mind I’ve ever encountered, and yet he had this – he has this amazing ability to sort of understand, to listen, and really engage on a number of fronts. He and I don’t always agree, he doesn’t always agree with those all these different perspectives, but what he, and frankly, so many of the great founders I’ve worked with, you know, have an amazing ability to do is listen and understand and engage on any topic, on a topic where they are undoubtedly the expert, and they’re still on a with someone who’s less skilled, and similarly in areas where they’re not at all the expert, where they’re really absorbing from the folks who have more experience in that material, that particular domain or functional area, or whatever, and just across all of it, bring that outside, those outside perspectives, knowledge, information in, incorporate them, engage with it, and really come out with a better approach or solution to what they’re doing on a day-to-day basis. That has been just consistent and amazing across the folks I’ve had the pleasure of working with,
Nick Moran 3:02
Eric, you’ve been doing this so long. Have you ever been in the opposite scenario, where you have, like, a really arrogant, bull-headed founder that won’t listen, and despite that, has had success?
Speaker 3 3:13
Yes, in many cases, you try to identify, we try to identify that up front, and hopefully avoid those situations, I can fairly say, in my own experience, that is the more thoughtful folks outperform the what was your word, bullheaded folks. But first of all, entrepreneurship requires some level of bullheadedness, stubbornness, you know, persistence. It’s, it’s, it’s always a blend that’s got to be in there, otherwise you would never start the company, you would never make it to 10, 2050, 100 million, ever. So it’s some of that’s got to be in there, and yeah, this is absolutely, you go back to stats, these are probabilistic outcomes, and so there’s always a place where you know you’ve got a really tough individual, where they pick the right market, surrounded themselves by the right team members, etc. etc. etc. and where it turns into a giant success.
Nick Moran 4:04
I mean, I love a lot of the generalizations, because it helps a lot, you know, to hone the craft, but there’s an exception to every rule in this game.
Speaker 3 4:12
Oh, for sure, that’s the, that’s the craft in, in what we all of us who are lucky enough to be investors have to do, have to figure out is if everything is perfect about a situation about a company, the thing that’s not going to be perfect is the valuation or the investment terms or something like that.
Speaker 2 4:29
Yeah,
Speaker 3 4:29
so add that back in every situation. There’s no situation that’s perfect. If it did, this job would be super easy, and so it’s always very much about figuring out the trade-offs and figuring out what each of us, with the skills and the networks and the expertise we all, we in our firms have, where we can put the whole thing together and get to a positive outcome for all.
Nick Moran 4:56
On today’s special segment, we have Willie Schlacks from Equipment Chair. Willie, if you had to choose one visionary founder or leader who has inspired you most, who is it, and what about their leadership approach resonates?
Speaker 4 5:07
No one living, I don’t think we earn that right till we’re dead. So I know that’s not really a question you asked, but I’m just speaking off the top reasoning over why I’m coming up with this person. Hi, having gone really deep on Lincoln, it’s hard to respect someone as deeply as or respect him. Like, when I think about the time he lived in, and the his story, and his feet, he had every reason to live a life of survival and constantly to push out of that, and to ultimately end up writing and saying and doing the things he did, is just to me shocking. Like, it’s so admirable. Again, it takes that context of time, like the whole environment of what he grew up and lived in, and everything, and yeah, he’d be.. he’s probably the one that I’m deeply inspired by him.
Nick Moran 5:55
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.
