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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.

info_outline 515. 3 Multi-Billion-Dollar Exits in 1 Year, Lessons from Airbnb, HashiCorp, Slack, and Square, The VC Case for Staying Small, and the Battle Between Open-Weight vs. Closed Models (Glenn Solomon) 08/17/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 488: Losing Conviction, Overpaying for Discounts, and Selling Too Early — Lessons from Volition, Acadian, and Interplay (Cheng, Black, Peter Davis) 08/13/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 487: Legal Battles, Founder Fraud, and High-Stakes Conflict — Lessons from Investors at Acadian Ventures, Interplay Ventures, and OneBrief (Demaree, Black, Peter Davis) 08/06/2026
info_outline 514. AI's Effect on the Demand Curve, Investing in Durable Barriers, Large Cap vs. Small Cap Seed Deals, and Building an Internal AI Machine (Mark Peter Davis) 08/03/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 486: The Traits of Visionary Founders: Ecosystem-Scale Thinking, Data-Driven Truth-Seeking, and Relentless Customer Experience Design (Blank, Demaree, Cheng) 07/30/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 485: Inside VC Anti-Portfolios: Missing Whatnot, Facebook & MongoDB (Dillon, Cheng, Black) 07/23/2026
info_outline 513. Opening Late-Stage Venture to Everyone, Beating 10-Year Lockups, Why Logos Don’t Equal Alpha, and Building Power Law as a Public VC Fund (Ben Black) 07/20/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 484: Why Selling Too Early Hurts Returns, The Leadership Power of Sleep, and The Costliest Investment Mistakes (Tananbaum, Ries, Demaree) 07/16/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 483: Best LP Questions from David Ulevich, Eric Ries, and Larry Cheng: Mission, Partnership Culture, and Enduring Institutions (Ulevitch, Ries, Cheng) 07/09/2026
info_outline 512. Is SpaceX Over or Undervalued, Why Consensus Kills, How Chewy Beat Amazon, and the GameStop Saga from a Board Member (Larry Cheng) 07/06/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 482: Key Advice from a Top Investor and Two Unicorn Founders: Why Companies Pick Investors, Authentic Leadership, and Loving the Game (Austin, Schlacks, Demaree) 07/02/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 481: Lessons Learned from Centana Growth, a16z, and Emergence: Trusting Management, Spotting Original Thinkers, and Investing Before Revenue (Byunn, Ulevitch, Saper) 06/25/2026
info_outline 511. The Future of Military Planning: Defense Tech Beyond the Bubble, AI Software as Combat Power, and the Rise of AI Wargaming (Grant Demaree) 06/22/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 480: The Traits of Visionary Founders: Customer Obsession, Self Disruption, and Why Love Can Be a Competitive Advantage (Dillon, Patnam, Ries) 06/18/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 479: Startup Lessons from Steve Blank, Seth Levine, and Ben Orthlieb: Hubris, Influence, and Founder Selection (Orthlieb, Levine, Blank) 06/11/2026
info_outline 510. The Hyper-Scaler CEO Whisperer and Founder of the Lean Startup Movement on Incorruptible Startups, Building to Thrive and Survive, and Creating a Governance Fortress (Eric Ries) 06/08/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 478: Visionary Founder Lessons from Poshmark, Centana, and EquipmentShare: Love, Listening, and Leadership (Chaddha, Byunn, Schlacks) 06/04/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 477: Why VCs Passed on Figma, ClickUp, Uber, Pinterest, Okta, DoorDash, and Anthropic: Lessons from Investor Anti Portfolios (Ulevitch, Saper, Patnam) 05/28/2026
info_outline 509. The Downstream Effects of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic Soaking Up $3T in the Public Market, Who Is Netscape and Who Is Google in the AI Era, and the Impact of Private Credit Redemption Requests on PE and VC (Sandesh Patnam) 05/25/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 476: Staying in Your Zone of Genius, Why People Change for Themselves, and The Hard Lessons of Founder Accountability (Callaghan, Schlacks, Dillon) 05/21/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 475: What Makes Founders Exceptional, Navigating Complex Ethical Issues, and Building with Intensity (Ortlieb, Ulevitch, Saper) 05/14/2026
info_outline 508. Maintaining U.S. Dominance, Navigating Defense Tech, Prime Obsolence, and Why Your Startup is Likely DOA (Steve Blank) 05/11/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 474: Trusting Your Own Point of View, Why Conventional Wisdom Leads to Mediocrity, and Building a Personal Conviction Engine (Byunn, Levine, Dillon) 05/07/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 473: Speed at Legora, Intensity at Mysten, Mastery at Heights Labs — Why These Founders Stand Out (Effron, Austin, Simpson) 04/30/2026
info_outline 507. Consumer Retrenchment or Reallocation, AI Impact on GTM and Purchase Decisions, How to Balance Consumer Sentiment vs. Behavior, and Where Smaller Funds Win (Natalie Dillon) 04/27/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 472: Think Big, Stay Patient, Earn Access — Venture Advice from Foresite, Mayfield, and Blue Moon (Tananbaum, Chaddha, Orthlieb) 04/23/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 471: Missing Great AI Bets, Losing Conviction, and Overweighting Founders — Lessons from Redpoint, a16z, and Outside VC (Effron, Austin, Simpson) 04/16/2026
info_outline 506. Mirage PMF, What LLMs Will Take On and What They Will Avoid, Why Outcomes Will Shift Models from Software to Services, and How Pricing Playbooks Are Being Rewritten (Jake Saper) 04/13/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 470: Passing on Uber, Perplexity, and Fintech’s Breakout Winners — The Stories Behind the Misses (Orthlieb, Callaghan, Byunn) 04/09/2026
info_outline Investor Stories 469: What Visionary Leaders at Pixxel, eToro, and Founders Fund Do Differently (Mohapatra, Banks, Orlovski) 04/02/2026
 
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