On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- Adam Felesky
- Mike Droesch
- Sami Inkinen
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:
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.
0:36
On today’s special segment, we have Adam faleski of Portage, Adam who is one of the most visionary or inspiring founders you’ve worked with, and what makes them unique? I’d say
0:45
we’ve got a lot. You’re gonna make me choose my favorite child. I gonna get in trouble for this one look. We’ve got a lot. Everyone’s so different, like entrepreneurs are snowflakes. I think you know, Michael catch that’s that leads, well, simple, what? What’s amazing about him, from day one, he was building a company to IPO, and that he’s on a sole mission to be the RBC for the next generation of Canadians. And he’s never wavered from it. He’s clearing his communication and and that just creates deep alignment in in his company. You know, there’s younger founders that I love and in different ways. I think, you know, one of the key attributes that we always go back to is when we see a founding team, has the founder identified his strengths, and who has he brought to the table that compliment him, and then, and then, importantly, if we’re looking at a later stage, who have they recruited that validate that this guy’s awesome and he can sell a vision, and I don’t think we did as Much of that at at in our early days. Today, we really focus on, you know, how is he sold? A plus people and and I think that’s just such a signal of a great leader. Awesome.
2:20
On today’s special segment, we have Mike drosh of Bessemer Venture Partners, Mike, who is one of the most visionary or inspiring founders you’ve worked with, and what makes them unique?
2:31
Yeah, I think certainly, one of the most inspiring and visionary founder CEOs I ever worked with was was George Shimon at ACV Auctions. He’s the CEO of ACB auctions, which is for folks that may not know, this was a the leading digital wholesale used car auction platform in the country, and this was one of the first companies that I ever got to work closely with that since gone public. And they George is both a phenomenal leader of people, I mean, truly inspiring in that way, and it’s built a phenomenal team around him. But I think the other thing that I was always really impressed by was for context, they were trying to take the entire used car market, today is the wholesale portion of the used car market, dealers buying cars from each other, and bring that online and so trying to enable the purchase of a large asset that is notoriously, you know, risky, like people notoriously are skeptical of you scars for a reason, trying to now make that purchase available sight unseen is pretty, you know, daunting proposition. And I was just always really impressed in George’s commitment that it was possible if you could put the right incentives in place, the financial guarantees, and give the buyers and the sellers enough data around the assets that they were transacting. He was, he was super focused on that from the very earliest days and and it’s played out really well in that, you know, they’ve built the most trusted platform in in wholesale used car sales. And I continue to just be super impressed by what he’s done.
4:09
There on today’s special segment, we have Sami inkonen of Trulia and Virta health Sami, if you had to choose one visionary founder or leader that has inspired you most, who is it and what about their leadership approach resonates most. This
4:24
is a very famous person who actually inspired me enormously. And this was maybe around september 2003 I had been in America just a couple of months. I had come in and I I was very lucky. I got to have a very small group lunch with Jeff Bezos from Amazon 2003 and he was so relatable. His laugh was so disarming, like I left that lunch thinking, if this guy can build some like Amazon already, 2003 was kind of like. Are globally known. If this guy can do that, I can do anything. If this guy can do that, I can do anything. It was disarming. He was so relatable, and it built my self confidence and inspired me. And I can’t explain how and why, but that lunch left me thinking, nothing’s gonna stop me. I’m not gonna listen to others if Jeff, and, you know, I don’t know him personally, if he can do that like he’s just a human, he’s just another human. Yeah, I’m sure hit remarkable in many ways, but at the end of the day, he’s just a goofy guy, and he made it happen, and I was incredibly inspiring. And yeah, I’ll send him virtual thank yous like, honestly, the last 20 years of my entrepreneurial career, like he was a critical catalyst. Otherwise, I could be a McKinsey consultant, potentially
5:49
amazing when we have him on the show, I’ll let him know you said it. Yeah.
5:59
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.
