On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- Jim Tananbaum of Foresite Capital
- Ben Orthlieb of Blue Moon
- Eric Byunn of Centana Growth
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 Jim Tannenbaum of foresight capital. Jim, what is the best question a founder or an LP has asked you? Oh, the ones that,
0:45
ones that I love. And this is going to sound a little self I’m not trying to be self aggrandizing, but you name the firm foresight, because, you know, like I thought we were very good at looking around corners over five to 10 years. So the questions that you know, like, I’ve liked the most over the last few decades have been, you know, kind of, where is the world going, and what’s the, you know, what’s, what’s the thing that you see happening over the next five to 10 years that’s, you know, going to be, you know, a big driver and, and if you’d asked me that question, like in the 90s regarding Health care, I would have said that state level reform was going to be a huge driver of companies. So, you know, we got involved in the Medicaid business, you know, back then and and, you know, that was a macro insight that a lot of people wouldn’t have, you know, necessarily focused on. And today, you know, now what I’m saying sounds obvious, but we’ve been saying this for many, many many years, which is AI is going to, you know, have a profound impact on the whole healthcare economy. And I believe, deeply believe, that it’s still incredibly early days for this, so that we haven’t even started to really see what, what will happen. But, but I like the questions that that have to do with long range, you know, sort of thinking and planning and where the world is going that is the
2:04
business, right? Yep.
2:12
On today’s special segment, we have Ben orthlebe from Blue Moon. And what is the best question a founder or an LP has
2:18
asked to you a founder, is, can I invest? Which has happened a few times after the first meeting, whether or not we continue the process, because founders love the approach, and so founders who have been successful and have a little bit of money effectively want to support us as a product company doing venture LPs, one of the questions I like the most is, how do what drives your performance? Where does it come from? And our ability to basically unpack this into three different dimensions that lead to very interesting conversations about sustainability and repeatability of the model in a way that is hard to replicate if you’re a Legacy Fund, using network and picking as your sort of main criteria.
3:07
On today’s special segment, we have Eric biu of sentonic growth. Eric, what is the best question either a founder or an LP has asked you
3:17
quick answer. My answer is, I like from both of those chairs, some variation of, what would you do if you were in my shoes, from the LP perspective, what would you be worried about, about your fund, if you were deciding whether or not to invest, like you know, and I know you’ve invested, obviously, in your own fund, but what do you worry about? What would you be worried about? And then, from the from, that’s usually a single question from LPs. I have had founders and CEOs ask me in a lengthy discussion, like, if you were in my, you know, having understood, you know, the basics of my business, how would you go about picking an investor? Everything from what kind of process would you run to what criteria would you use to what are the pros and cons? What do you think are the important points? And I think it’s a really, it’s a really great question on their front from two sides. One, if I give any kind of reasonable answer, then hopefully they actually get some insight from the substance of the answer. And then secondly, the way any investor who obviously has their own interests to represent in that answer, the way they choose to answer, I think, says something about the personality, the approach, perhaps even the ethics, hopefully not very often, about that particular investor. And so I think it’s a very insightful question
4:46
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.
