On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured:
- Mark Peter Davis of Interplay
- Glenn Solomon of Notable Capital
- Vivek Vaidya of super{set}
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. On today’s special segment, we have Mark Peter Davis of Interplay Ventures. Mark, tell us about an exceptional founder you’ve worked with and the specific thing they do that’s unique.
0:47
I’m going to give Pete Sullivan from Jackpocket a shout. Pete was one of, I think, the first entrepreneur to come through our accelerator program, and we had known each other. He was an entrepreneur who was a bit of a unicorn. He has a rare combination of design and sales skills, which put together is quite magical for front-end consumer plays. I believe most of Jackpot, for the folks who have played the lottery on Jackpot, that art Pete actually made, right? He he’s really really talented. Pete went through what I would kind of categorize as one of the most iconic journeys as a founder. He went into a highly regulated space. It took him, I want to say, six to eight years to break through to the point where it was starting a hockey stick, which is a long time because there was regulatory battles. You know, the lottery is a huge market. It’s something like three or four times as big as the movie market. It’s huge. It’s massive, massive, but it’s run by the states, and so the customer that you have to get approval from are state governments, and there’s a whole lot of screwy incentives in that. So lobbying’s involved, and applications and delays. He went through a really, really hard journey a couple times. I think almost went personally bankrupt. Fought the fight of all fights. I actually have a a podcast episode of my own where I talk to him about his story. For those interested, give me a link to it. But it’s a little bit old at this point, but still relevant for what he went through. But it was one of the most. It could be a movie. One of the most epic journeys. Ultimately, the end of the day of the story is he not just didn’t just have the right idea and all the right capabilities, but the level of tenacity and grit that Pete exudes. We’re going to be hard to find other founders at the same level.
2:29
On today’s special segment, we have Glenn Solomon of Notable. Glenn, tell us about an exceptional founder you’ve worked with and the specific thing they do that’s unique.
2:39
Working with Guillermo Rausch, the founder and CEO of Vercel, has been an incredible experience. is a tremendous company with a bright future in front of it. But back in early 2023, shortly after the launch of ChatGPT, Guillermo came to the Vercel board and announced that the company was going to burn substantially more capital in in 23 than previously planned, because he wanted to move from being the front end cloud to being the AI cloud over the coming 12 months. Guillermo conceived of and launched some of the most important and popular AI products on the market today during that 12 month period, and the company is literally now 10x the size it was at that moment because of that decision. You know, that took serious vision and guts and willingness to to to take risk and push the company and market forward. Really breathtaking and incredible incredible to work with Guillermo. As a result,
3:48
on today’s special segment, we have Vivek Vaidya of Superset. Vivek, 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?
4:00
I have to say, like the I don’t like the leadership styles of any of the erstwhile visionary founders, like whether it’s Jobs or Musk or people ostensibly considered visionary. Don’t like their leadership styles.
4:12
Interesting.
4:12
I think there is a way in which leaders can be very, very effective and be good human beings. Is
4:19
there someone that stands out that you think has done both.
4:21
He’s not a founder, but I like what Satya Nadella has done for Microsoft. I really do, and I’m saying that because I was there during the Steve Ballmer years, and I saw what kind of company Microsoft was at the time. And then I I see what kind of company Microsoft has become now after Satya Nadella took over. It’s like you know, calling it night and day would be doing it a disservice.
4:41
What’s the biggest difference?
4:42
I think he just trusts people more. There was this very backstabby, competitive to the nature of well, if everything being a zero sum game kind of culture at at Microsoft, Satya has just trusted people more and empowered them, given them autonomy to do the kinds of things that they think is right for the business and that. Elevated them, and they’ve delivered results. So his special skill, if you will, is one where he’s picked the right leaders to do do the work, and and trusted them to to do it well.
5:16
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.
