The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified

The 1st podcast dedicated to demystifying Venture Capital (est. May 2014). Nick Moran interviews the VC and Angel investor experts on how they find, evaluate and select the next great technology startups.

500. AI Native VC, Achieving 50%+ Graduation from Seed to Series A, Why Access Is the Key to Success, and Why Network Driven Firms Can No Longer Compete (Ben Orthlieb) 01/19/2026

Investor Stories 453: Founder Led Capital Flywheels, Thoughtful Reserve Strategies, and Long Term Fund Design (York, Hsieh, Ramanujam) 01/15/2026

Investor Stories 452: Raising the Bar on Founders, What 100x Looks Like in Practice, and Why People Matter More Than Ever (Bussgang, Okike, Hudson) 01/12/2026

Investor Stories 451: Why I Passed: Moving Too Slowly, Misreading Return Drivers, and Passing on Lyft (Banks, Tananbaum, Cohen) 01/08/2026

499. A 17 Time Midas Lister on Greatness, the $6T AI Teammate Market, Why AI Sovereignty Is Critical, and Who Wins the Battle Between Incumbents and Startups (Navin Chaddha) 01/05/2026

Investor Stories 450. How to Succeed Early in VC: Slow Down, Commit to Relationships, and Become an Active Listener (Niehenke, York, Hilaly) 01/01/2026

Replay - The Biggest Misconceptions About AI Agents, Why Defensibility Doesn’t Matter at Seed, and Whether the AI Center of Gravity Is Shifting to China (Aaref Hilaly) 12/29/2025

Investor Stories 449: Exceptional Founders Up Close: Listening Over Posturing, Integrity Over Ease, and Deliberate Execution from Day One (Hsieh, Delk, Maples Jr.) 12/25/2025

Investor Stories 448: Hard Lessons in Investing: Mistiming Trends, Relying on Partnership Debate, and Avoiding Good Money After Bad (Hilaly, Dash, Rizik) 12/22/2025

Investor Stories 447: Choosing the Right VC: Understanding Value Add, Assessing Alignment, and Identifying the Best Board Partner (Jiang, Walsh, Saxena) 12/18/2025

498. The Crypto x AI Convergence, the Truth About Stablecoins, Tokens vs Equity, and Whether NFTs Will Make a Comeback (Arianna Simpson) 12/15/2025

Investor Stories 446: What Experience Teaches Investors: When to Trust Conviction, How to Read Founders, and Why Coachability Matters (Rizik, Wang, Agarwal) 12/11/2025

Investor Stories 445: Navigating High Stakes Conflicts: Partnership Tension, Capital Inflection Points, and the Risks of Underfunding (Terbell and Clark, Banks, Tananbaum) 12/08/2025

Investor Stories 444. The Biggest Misses in VC: Passing on Airbnb, Overlooking Skype, and Arriving Hours After Postman Closed (Maples, Okike, Mohapatra) 12/04/2025

497. Investing in Outsiders, Why Extreme Personalities Win, Weighing Timing versus Trends, and Rethinking Liquidity and Option Exercise Windows (Ethan Austin) 12/01/2025

Investor Stories 443. Why Great Investors Move Slowly, Go Deep, and Surround Themselves with the Right People (Hsieh, Madera, Bussgang) 11/27/2025

Investor Stories 442. The Habits of Exceptional Founders, From Recruiting Great Teams to Understanding Customers (Walsh, Niehenke, Hilaly) 11/24/2025

Investor Stories 441. How Great Leaders Build Alignment, Set the Bar High, and Learn When to Let Go (Schroepfer, Saxena, Delk) 11/20/2025

496. How Model Progress Shifts the Goalposts, Why The Death of Software Is Overstated, and How to Diligence Hypergrowth Without Getting Burned (Jacob Effron) 11/17/2025

Investor Stories 440. The Questions That Expose True Alignment, How Founders Test Investors, and Why the Hard Ones Matter Most (Wang, Banks, Cohen) 11/13/2025

Investor Stories 439. From Angel Bets to Scalable Platforms, The Power of Listening, and Doing the Work Yourself (York, Dash, Madera) 11/10/2025

Investor Stories 438. The Deals That Got Away: LinkedIn, Snowflake, and Zeitview (Jiang, Schuler, Rizik) 11/06/2025

495. From CTO to $500M AUM: Entry Point Discipline, Why People Matter at Every Stage, and the AI-Driven Future of Banking (Victor Orlovski) 11/03/2025

Investor Stories 437. Why Founders Must Hold Their Ground, Why Investors Must Break Their Rules, and How Both Survive the Chaos (Binatti, Schroepfer, Ruscio) 10/30/2025

Investor Stories 436. Visionary Founders, From Steve Jobs to Brian Armstrong, and the Leaders Blending Life Sciences and Technology (Schuler, Saxena, Bussgang) 10/27/2025

Investor Stories 435. Why Complacency Kills Momentum, The Cost of Over-Diligence, and Accepting the Limits of Control (Walsh, Wang, Hudson) 10/23/2025

494. The Techstars Refresh, Why Bigger Isn’t Better, Investing in the Seed-Strapping Era, and Why Quantum May Dwarf Every Tech Shift (David Cohen) 10/20/2025

Investor Stories 434. How LPs Judge Performance, Managing Founder Conflict, and The Blind Spots Investors Must Confront (Schuler, Niehenke, Agarwal) 10/16/2025

Investor Stories 433. The Art of Sensing Greatness, From Analytical to Intuitive Investing, and the Case for Industry Outsiders (Hsieh, Hilaly, Maples) 10/13/2025

Investor Stories 432. The Pain of Passing: Missed Bets on Uber, DoorDash, and Great Founders Who Proved Them Wrong (Shapiro, York, Dash) 10/09/2025