Ask in Claude
Ask in ChatGPT
28 episodes
The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified
by Nick Moran · English
The podcast dedicated to demystifying Venture Capital. Nick Moran and Nate Pierotti interview VC's & Startup Founders and on how they build great technology startups.
Latest episodes
All episodes
Investor Stories 499: When Conviction Comes Too Late: Higgsfield, Coinbase, and an Anonymous Founder Story (Chen, Sagalov, Aarons)
“Why I Pass” anti-portfolio stories—VCs explain startups they declined and what they learned about conviction, category judgment, and founder risk.
12 Nov 2026 · 5m · 3 chapters521. How AI Is Reshaping Real Estate, When Large Operators Should Build vs. Buy, The Biggest Bottleneck in AI Growth, and Advice You Should Never Take (Zach Aarons)
How AI is reshaping real estate and construction; when large operators should build vs.
9 Nov 2026 · 45m · 23 chaptersInvestor Stories 498: When Investors Get It Wrong: Lessons in Humility, Focus, and TAM (Fubini and Patel, Rosenbloom, Sagalov)
“Lessons Learned” from venture investors about humility, focus, and avoiding wrong assumptions—especially around execution and TAM.
29 Oct 2026 · 6m · 3 chapters520. The Inner Workings of Seed Investing at GC, Why Sector Focus Can Be Limiting, Why Seed Milestones Are Obsolete, and Who to Hire Among Your First 10 Employees (Yuri Sagalov)
Yuri Sagalov (General Catalyst Seed Strategy) explains how GC runs seed investing inside a multi-stage platform, why sector focus can mislead, why seed milestones have shifted due to AI, how to judge…
26 Oct 2026 · 43m · 16 chapters
Investor Stories 497: Passing on Snapchat, Canva, and Hugging Face: The Rules of Thumb That Cost VCs Billions (Vaidya, Fubini and Patel, Rosenbloom)
VC “anti-portfolio” stories—startup investments the guests passed on—and the “rules of thumb” that led to costly misses.
15 Oct 2026 · 4m · 4 chapters
519. Don't Play the Game on the Field, What the 500 Largest Exits Tell Us, How and When to Sell Secondary, and VC's Identity Crisis (Micah Rosenbloom)
Micah Rosenbloom (Founder Collective) discusses how VC deal flow, investing, and exits work in practice—arguing that outcomes are highly random, that “play the game on the field” is often an excuse…
12 Oct 2026 · 48m · 18 chapters
Investor Stories 496: Three Lessons for the Next Generation of VCs: Find Your Edge, Build Your Network, Stay in the Game (Solomon, Vaidya, Chen)
“Investor Stories 496” asks three experienced investors for one key piece of advice for early-career VCs, framed as three lessons: find your differentiated edge, build a dense network, and stay in…
8 Oct 2026 · 5m · 3 chapters
Investor Stories 495: Perseverance at Roofstock, Speed at Zero, Discovery at Anduril — Why These Founders Stand Out (Black, Chen, Fubini and Patel)
“Visionary Founders” segment on The Full Ratchet, featuring investor stories about perseverance, fast decision-making, and iterative discovery in hard markets.
1 Oct 2026 · 6m · 4 chapters
518. The Power of Founder Mafias, Why Venture is Bifurcating, and Lessons from Good Strategy, Bad Strategy (Ross Fubini and Manish Patel)
Founder “mafias” and how founder-driven cultures replicate across spinouts; why venture is bifurcating into founder-centric vs platform/brand-led firms; underwriting in a frothy AI/valuation cycle;…
28 Sep 2026 · 55m · 22 chapters
Investor Stories 494: Passing on Outliers, Misjudging Founder Quality, and Holding Too Tightly — Lessons from Notable, Superset, and Fika (Solomon, Vaidya, Chen)
“Lessons Learned” from three venture investors on decision-making and leadership: founder quality, delegation, and avoiding deal-spec bias.
24 Sep 2026 · 4m · 3 chapters
Investor Stories 493: Founder CEO Removal, Acquisition Pressure, and Co-Founder Conflict — Lessons from Investors at Volition, Notable, and Fika (Cheng, Solomon, Chen)
High-stakes founder/VC conflicts and how they get resolved, including founder CEO replacement, acquisition pressure, and co-founder disputes.
17 Sep 2026 · 6m · 3 chapters
517. Fear and Greed in AI, The Rise of Kingmakers, and Is Seed the Sucker Round? (John Chen)
John Chen (Fika Ventures) discusses fear/greed dynamics in AI investing, “kingmakers” controlling capital, how to spot misunderstood founders and categories, why seed round pricing can be the “sucker…
14 Sep 2026 · 48m · 24 chapters
Investor Stories 492: Best Questions from Grant Emery, Ben Black, and Glenn Solomon: Market Truths, Enduring Value, and Founder Conviction (Demaree, Black, Solomon)
“Best LP Question” segment on The Full Ratchet, where investors/founders share the most useful questions they’ve received from allocators (LPs), plus lessons about conviction and market truth.
10 Sep 2026 · 6m · 2 chapters
Investor Stories 491: What Visionary Leaders at Jackpocket, Vercel, and Microsoft Do Differently(Peter Davis, Solomon, Vaidya)
“Visionary Founders” segment of Investor Stories 491, asking guests what visionary leaders do differently.
3 Sep 2026 · 6m · 3 chapters
516. AI Cost Structures and Pricing, Proprietary Data Sets That Create Moats, and a Clear Method for Determining Which Problem to Solve First (Vivek Vaidya)
How to build and price AI-native companies—especially cost structures for inference, how proprietary data creates moats, and a method for choosing which customer problem to solve first.
31 Aug 2026 · 44m · 19 chapters
Investor Stories 490: Investors from Volition, Acadian Ventures, and Interplay Ventures on Building Competence, Operating Experience, and Investing with Purpose (Cheng, Black, Peter Davis)
“Key advice” for early venture investors, plus how three VC leaders think about competence, operating experience, and investing with purpose.
27 Aug 2026 · 7m · 4 chapters
Investor Stories 489: Missing Airbnb, Zocdoc, and Prediction Markets — Lessons from the Deals Investors Passed On (Demaree, Peter Davis, Solomon)
“Why I Pass” anti-portfolio stories—VCs discuss startups they declined and what they learned from missing major deals.
20 Aug 2026 · 5m · 3 chapters
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)
Glenn Solomon (Notable Capital) discusses venture “supercycles” driven by computing paradigm shifts (cloud, mobile, now AI), why staying small/early beats mega-funds, and how open-weight models…
17 Aug 2026 · 1h 2m · 22 chapters
Investor Stories 488: Losing Conviction, Overpaying for Discounts, and Selling Too Early — Lessons from Volition, Acadian, and Interplay (Cheng, Black, Peter Davis)
“Lessons Learned” from three VC/investor stories—avoiding conviction loss, not overpaying for “discounts,” and the cost of selling too early.
13 Aug 2026 · 7m · 3 chapters
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)
“High Stakes Conflicts” in venture investing—how founders and investors handle extreme disputes, including classified-access regulatory friction, investor losses in private-equity exits, and internal…
6 Aug 2026 · 9m · 4 chapters
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)
Mark Peter Davis (Interplay) discusses how AI changes venture economics and software demand curves, why durable VC returns depend on “barriers” (not just ideas/teams), and how Interplay structures…
3 Aug 2026 · 48m · 20 chapters
Investor Stories 486: The Traits of Visionary Founders: Ecosystem-Scale Thinking, Data-Driven Truth-Seeking, and Relentless Customer Experience Design (Blank, Demaree, Cheng)
“Visionary founders” in venture investing—how founders scale impact via ecosystem thinking, truth-seeking with data, and relentless customer experience design.
30 Jul 2026 · 9m · 3 chapters
Investor Stories 485: Inside VC Anti-Portfolios: Missing Whatnot, Facebook & MongoDB (Dillon, Cheng, Black)
“Why I Pass” anti-portfolio stories—VCs explain startups they passed on and the lessons.
23 Jul 2026 · 7m · 3 chapters
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)
Ben Black explains PowerLaw, a publicly listed closed-end fund (NASDAQ) that holds 15–20 late-stage private companies and trades with daily liquidity via a brokerage account (no K-1s, no minimums).
20 Jul 2026 · 44m · 21 chaptersWe use cookies.They keep VO running smoothly and help us improve it. Privacy policy