On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- Mike Schroepfer
- Joseph Ruscio
- Kyle York
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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You can learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our LinkedIn and Twitter.
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.
0:35
On today’s special segment, we have Mike schrepfer of gigascale schrepp Tell us about an exceptional founder you’ve worked with in the specific thing they do that’s unique.
0:45
Yeah, I’ll tell you about one of our founders that breaks a common misconception. I think people have her name is Sarah. She’s the founder and CEO of dioxycle. They’re a company that basically is harnessing the advances in a technology called electrochemistry, which is a way to, like, make stuff with electricity, and they’re doing it to clean up chemicals. They’re making clean chemicals using electricity and and carbon instead of a dirty process. But the real kicker about this is, because of the technological advances, they can do it cheaper, so their fundamental end product is cheaper than the other ways of getting it, and turns out to be a lot cleaner. But the thing that’s interesting about her postdoc, PhD, deep technical background. And people always ask, look, you know, can nerds become good CEOs? And she, I think, is provident, and she has, you know, I’ve talked to you before about capacity for learning and this sort of combination of humbleness and desire to learn. And I’ve seen her pick it up in multiple domains, from how to run a company to how to, you know, sell chemicals to chemical companies and run a commercial business. And so, you know, I think people like that, you know, has been having watched 10s of 1000s of people at meta grow and scales like they kind of are in an unlimited slope up. And that gets me really excited. Awesome. You
2:03
on today’s special segment, we have Joe Russo of heavybit, Joe tell us about an exceptional and unique founder that you’ve worked with, and what specific thing Do they do that’s unique to others?
2:15
I’m going to single out one. Obviously, we work with a ton. It was tough, but I think one that’s super interesting, and particularly because the unique thing that they do, I think, is so important. So I want to kind of highlight that. So Avery paneran is the founder, CEO of tailscale, which is a company we did that we wrote the first check into our first check in the company’s first check in 2019 and has since gone on to, like, just great things and the just network, you know, mesh, VP, distributed VPN, and so Avery is just, he’s technically brilliant. Like a lot of our founders, he has a deep, deep curiosity about how things work, which I think many of our founders do, but I think, I think he do an extreme amount and good. It’s part of that, the unique thing he does, which, you know, I was amazed at. So I believe their their sales team uses Gong there’s a number of products, right, that record sales calls. So Avery listens to Gong calls obsessively, if he’s like, doing laundry or dishes, if he’s patting his baby to sleep, like he’s how most people listen to like podcasts. Avery listens to Gong calls. And I have it on fairly good account that there’s an internal leaderboard over there at the company Gong in terms of like CEOs listening to to customer calls, and at least for some period of time, he was number two on the leaderboard, behind only the CEO of Gong themselves, and he’s very nonchalant about it. But I think what’s important and what’s unique and important is, you know, the market’s already showing he had this. He and his co founders and the team they built had these great insights about a product that needed to exist. They have overwhelming kind of product market fit, just, just crazy, grassroots end user love. But he just always wants to know, like, what aren’t customers happy with? Like, what? How aren’t we helping customers? Like, what are we missing? And that curiosity never assuming that, like, Oh, I’ve got it figured out. I think it’s just incredibly important as a founder.
4:12
Love it. Love it.
4:19
On today’s special segment we have Cal York of York, ie, can you tell us about an exceptional founder that you’ve worked with and what specific thing they do that’s unique,
4:28
a great one. I was just, I was just chatting with and have a really steady flow. There’s a couple called distinct technologies. They have a platform that captures first party data at live sporting events for brands, its founders names, Jimmy McCloud. How do they capture the data, everything from QR codes to like, they have a whole system that so like, like, I went to a game at Liverpool Football Club with him, one of their clients, and and at the game there, they have a VIP lounge, but Jimmy bought the tickets, right? So a few of us are at the game. They have no idea who I am. So they’re walking around with a retired football star, taking pictures, capturing my information, doing follow up, getting me into their database. Now all my kids actually, there’s a right over there, this Liverpool flag, and now I’m a fanboy, right? That’s my new my new team, owned by Fenway Sports Group. You know what I’m saying. So, so they’re doing a lot of these creative things. But Jimmy’s unique capability and skill set is he actually came from Major League Baseball, advanced media, and you know, the founder market fit of this company and this team, as well as the sales DNA, BD, DNA acumen evangelist, DNA, second to none. And again, it’s why, and especially where I live, pre seed, seed, you’re betting on people, and you want them to have that tenacity and that ambition
5:47
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.
