On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- Shamin Walsh of BAM Ventures
- Alexander Niehenke of Scale Venture Partners
- Aaref Hilaly of Bain Capital Ventures
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
Today’s special segment, we have shameen Walsh BAM ventures. Shameen, can you tell us about an exceptional founder you worked with and what specific thing they do that’s unique to any other founder?
0:48
Yeah, we have some. I feel like this is like asking me to choose my favorite child. What founder have I worked with that that I I don’t know that any of our founders have done anything particularly unique that no one else has done. Because if it’s something that’s really great, then I hope that they’re all doing it. The founders that I really love working with, for example, are really good at communicating, and I have founders that will call or text or want to meet in person and on a regular cadence. But I can’t pinpoint just one founder who does that. That would probably be a bad thing, but I have I really like Ryan at Arrow finance. He’s a good example of a really good communicator in that way, and also kind of layering back the onion where he wants to meet your family, you meet his family, you go out to dinner together. And I feel like that personal touch translates not only to a dynamic I enjoy with him, but his employees. It’s it’s helpful with retention, etc, folks that really care about company culture in a way that doesn’t feel transactional or corporate, but really you just want to get to know people, because you like human beings, and you want to get to know them and get to know who they are and bring out the best in them. And I think he does a good job of that. That’s great.
2:28
On today’s special segment, we have Alex knee hinkey of scale tell us about an exceptional founder you work with with and the specific thing they do that’s unique to any other founder.
2:38
Look, I think it’s always so easy to talk about your best investments. And so I, I’ve just had the incredible fortune of luck to work with Joe Abe McCarney, who’s, you know, the co founder, CEO of motive, the company kind of got touched on a couple times in this podcast. I invested something like eight, nine years ago. I’ve been sitting on the board. It’s got 4000 employees today. When we invested, there was 20 or 30. And the business vision hasn’t changed from the pitch deck that he showed me at the A or the B, whatever it was back then. I mean, you talk about like multi project execution. Look, we had a couple side steps. We built one business and burned 50,000,070 $5 million to shut like there’s been all sorts of mistakes along the way. I don’t want to dissuade that, but he’s always really deeply understood and appreciated the customer, which in the end of the day, is a trucking fleet, the individual drivers as well as the managers, and he’s always built with those customers in mind. He’s always had a unique and distinct point of view on how to sell and how to go to market against those people. And then I’d say one of his superpowers that I’m just mesmerized by, because I kind of wanted myself. I mean, he just recruits like incredible people. And for me, one of the telltale signs this happens in so many boards is eventually on a Friday night. On a Friday night, you get a phone call from one of the members of the management team, and they’re like, I shouldn’t be calling you, and I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I need to tell you a few things about the CEO, at which point in time I always say, please stop right now. Like, like, like, because you’re either, you’re either going to cause a mutiny, and I need to go fire the CEO, or or you’re the person that causes a mutiny. I don’t want to fire the CEO, so I need to go tell the CEO to fire you. Right? Like it’s only two sides of this conversation, and like, I told surely the other other month or year or whatever I was like, but I was bored for 10 years, and I’ve never had that happen, right? Like, people are truly loyal to him, because I think he operates his business an incredibly transparent, direct way. I’m sure he’s not always easy, but, like, he recruits really, really great people, expects great things of them, and is very direct with them, and manages the organization. Are really, really, I think, effective way. And so it ends up delivering fantastic outcomes. And it just makes my life as a board member quite, quite enjoyable. Love it
4:38
on today’s special segment, we have Arif khilali of Bain Capital ventures tell us about an exceptional founder you’ve worked with and what specific thing they do that’s unique, each
4:48
great founder really sticks in your mind for a different reason. The ones that I’ve seen up close, I think of Patrick at Stryer, Port Tony at DoorDash, or Keller at zipline, they all stand out. The one I’m working with right now that I’ll point to is Ashwin. At decagon, and the thing that is distinct about him is he’s just an incredibly deep and rigorous thinker. He has the ability to focus on a single task or single topic and just go deeper than anybody else He will. He can sit on a screen and just focus on it for 16 hours without moving, I think, in this world of notifications and multitasking and constant distraction, that ability to just block everything out and solve problems, I think, is somewhat lost, but he very much is able to do that.
5:36
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.
