On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- Jacob Effron of Redpoint
- Ethan Austin of Outside VC
- Arianna Simpson of Andreessen Horowitz
We asked guests to discuss the most visionary founder that they’ve worked with and what makes them so special.on they’ve learned in their career.
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 Jacob Efron of red point tell us about an exceptional founder you’ve worked with in the specific thing they do that’s unique.
0:44
I mean, I’m super lucky to work with a bunch but one that immediately comes to mind is Max unestron, the CEO of lagora. Max, I think everyone in AI talks about you need high velocity teams that just ship fast or relentlessly customer focused. Can deal with the fact that AI companies scale and move so quickly. I don’t know if there’s anyone that does this better than max. He is so high velocity, the amount of stuff he gets done in a day, how decisive he is, how quickly he moves the companies, as well as how he kind of creates that culture for lagora, I’m just constantly amazed at how fast that company moves, how quickly they’re shipping things, the number of experiments they’re trying, the fact that they scale as fast as they do and and do such an amazing job with their customers. I think the ability to both do that himself, but then also create a culture around that I’ve just been blown away by. And it’s it’s really cool to see, sets a high bar for for other AI apps we look at
1:52
on today’s special segment, we have Ethan Austin of outside VC. Can you tell us about an exceptional founder you’ve worked with in the specific thing they do that’s unique.
2:03
Sure, this guy, Daniel at heights labs, company we invested in a couple years ago, and and he just, you know, he was, he was a math professor, and so just did everything differently, built from math instead of, like, code first, you know, thought through things to do math first. And everyone kind of doubted this team because they were math professors and have just proven people wrong in every step. And I think the thing he did differently was he just dug in and learned everything from building the product, which was really hard, to learning how to fundraise, to learning how to hire, learning how to build a culture, learning, sales, every single thing, they just went and, like, learned it, which is, you know, quite impressive. They’re a team of eight taking on, you know, their biggest incumbent in the space has 800 people, and they’re starting to win contracts from them. And I think it was just, you know, they didn’t try and go as fast as possible, as everyone might suggest. You see all these things that are, you know, we get to 100 million in revenue in in in nine months now. Like, that’s the new bar. That’s right, yeah. I mean, I think, you know, at every step of the way, he’s just learned and, like, taken the time to learn the craft and be really good at that next step. And I think that’s a really hard thing for most founders to do, and not an approach most will take, and most will try to take shortcuts and get to the place faster. And he’s just been patient in learning every step of the way and becoming really good at
3:39
it. On today’s special segment, we have Ariana Simpson of Andreessen Horowitz tell us about an exceptional founder you’ve worked with and what specific thing they do that’s unique to any other founder.
3:50
Evan from Misty and labs, creators of the SWI blockchain, is very unusual and very impressive founder in that he is definitely the most efficient person I’ve ever met. My calls with him are the shortest of any of my founders, because he, you know, typically they’re like an hour or 45 minutes or whatever, depending on the circumstance, in some cases longer if something is going on. But the typical calls with him are, you know, eight minutes, 10 minutes, I think the longest one was maybe 25 because he just gets on, delivers the important information in two seconds, has a couple of asks for me and the firm, and then kind of gets off the call. And I think that is just kind of his way of executing. He’s relentlessly focused. And I think you know this, this thing is can be both a pro and a con in some ways, but Evan takes things very personally, meaning if something is not going right, I can tell that it is constantly eating at him and he will not. Not drop it until it is fixed. And I think that’s like a hugely, you know, it might be challenging for him. That’s the main downside, is it’s hard to be happy. I would say he is very much someone who is never satisfied, which, again, you know, is an attribute that you kind of want in a founder, because he’s always pushing the envelope. He’s always trying to make it better. He’s driving things forward. You know, he’s just like a man on a mission, but it’s really impressive to see, and I think he kind of brings an intensity that even among founders, really stands out.
5:42
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.
