Fund 81
40 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsFund81 is a podcast for the next generation of venture capital. Elizabeth Kraus, general partner of the MergeLane venture fund for high-potential startups with at least one woman in leadership, tackles specific questions commonly asked by VCs.
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Episodes
Living Off the Brink of Disaster
July 22, 2021 11:36 - 12 minutes - 17.6 MBI tried for many years to maintain a jam-packed schedule with zero margin for error, but life never seems to fit into perfectly scheduled boxes. After a straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back moment, I’m learning to live off of the brink of disaster.
Avoiding Venture Capital Fund Administration Headaches
May 18, 2021 14:13 - 43 minutes - 59.1 MBI've spent more time than necessary on our fund administration and reporting, in part because of some of the easily avoidable administrative mistakes I’ve made over my 10-year journey as a startup investor. In this episode, I share some of the lessons I’ve learned to help you avoid the same headaches. The two templates I mention in the episode are here: The quarterly survey we send to our portfolio companies (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1U9TQrJSk-8vr1dJDl6l0ZDdfNJ3MKAwK2r8YWACb0is/edit)...
When Anxiety Is Worse Than the Outcome
February 16, 2021 13:36 - 13 minutes - 19 MBIt's hard to believe that it’s been more than two months since my last episode. I just haven't felt the inspiration to post. However, over these past two months and throughout all of 2020, I've learned something that I want to record to make sure that I remember - My anxiety about the potential outcomes is almost always worse than the actual outcome. For more color and a quick life update, check out this episode.
Alaffia Technology Solutions - Fund81 Startup Spotlight
November 20, 2020 12:46 - 16 minutes - 22.1 MBIn this second episode of a new series to feature startups sourced from our Fund81 VC forum members’ portfolios, I interviewed Alaffia Technology Solutions (https://www.alaffia.io/) nominated by the Hustle Fund (https://www.hustlefund.vc/). Alaffia Technology Solutions automates medical claim audits to reduce and recover the billions of dollars medical insurance companies improperly pay to medical providers each year. If you’d like to get a sneak peek at these companies before these episode...
How the Pandemic is Shifting LP Strategies with Beezer Clarkson
November 12, 2020 14:29 - 39 minutes - 54.9 MBBeezer Clarkson invests in early-stage venture funds in the US, Europe, and Israel as the managing director at Sapphire Partners (the division within Sapphire Ventures that invests in venture funds). In this episode, Beezer shares how the pandemic is affecting Sapphire Partners’ investment strategy. I also share what I’ve been seeing from investing in startups and venture capital funds through our MergeLane fund. The two podcast episodes Beezer mentions are: Samir Kaji’s Venture Unlocked w...
Pre-Election Advice for VCs + The Value of Talent Exporting Communities with Martin Babinec
October 28, 2020 12:35 - 1 hour - 84 MBMartin Babinec founded the HR services company Trinet in 1988, serving as its CEO for 20 years and as chairman for 10. Since he founded the company 32 years ago, Trinet has grown to annual sales of $4 billion and is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Martin founded and built Trinet in Silicon Valley while commuting from Upstate New York. After seeing the stark difference between these two startup ecosystems, he embarked on a ten-year journey to transform his talent-exporting communi...
Fund81 Startup Spotlight | Gini Health - Techstars Toronto
October 08, 2020 02:16 - 45 minutes - 62.8 MBI’m starting a new series to feature some startups sourced from our Fund81 VC forum members’ portfolios. In this episode, I interviewed Gurjot Narwal, CEO of Gini Health. Gini Health is disrupting the supplement industry by making a smart and fully-customized multivitamin based on health data that changes according to continuous lifestyle data. Its app allows people to easily track their food, sleep, and poop (warning - there is some talk about poop :). Gini Health uses this lifestyle data,...
Adding Value in Today’s Venture Capital Market with Peterson Ventures' Ben Capell
September 17, 2020 13:46 - 31 minutes - 42.5 MBThe proliferation of venture capital funds, accelerators, and other startup resources has left many VCs wondering how to deliver unique value to their portfolio companies and how to scale that value to fit their portfolio strategy. I invited Ben Capell, partner at Peterson Ventures, to join us for a candid conversation. Enjoy.
Recruiting Tech Talent With Evan Walden of Getro
August 07, 2020 11:25 - 31 minutes - 29 MBIt seems that nearly every startup I talk to is recruiting developers, technical co-founders, CTOs and other tech talent. I invited Evan Walden of Getro to share his thoughts on recruiting top talent in the current environment and the role VCs can play to help their portfolio companies address this ongoing issue. https://www.getro.com/ Enjoy.
Diversity in Venture Capital | Taking Action to Actually Change the Ratio
July 09, 2020 09:39 - 45 minutes - 41.7 MBKim Smith, executive director of the League of Innovative Schools, has worked for many years to address education equity and has a unique perspective on the barriers to entrepreneurship. In this interview, Kim shares her thought-provoking insights to help drive racial equality in our venture capital industry, and makes a powerful call for white co-conspirators who are ready, willing, and able to fight. For more, read Kim’s op-ed: A Call to Action — Black Educators Need White Co-Conspirator...
Fund81 Summer Spotlight: Five Startups Sourced from the Fund81 VC Forum
June 30, 2020 14:47 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBWe sourced five startups from our Fund81 VC forum members to present for our June forum. Check out this episode to hear pitches from these incredibly tenacious entrepreneurs. Presenting Startups: Airin (Park City, UT) Nominated by both Resolute Ventures and Peterson Ventures www.airin.ai CarServ (Austin, TX) Nominated by Springtime Ventures Mars Mundy www.carserv.com Fleeting (Brooklyn, NY) Nominated by the Hustle Fund Pierre Laguerre www.fleeting.us Hostfully (San Francisco, CA) No...
I've Regressed: Marriage and Gender Equality in the Face of COVID - 19
June 22, 2020 11:16 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MBI’ve always thought of myself as someone who has a modern marriage. Three months into this COVID-19 situation, however, I'm starting to feel like I'm stuck in a 1950s sitcom in which my husband is a fun, lovable guy who can't wait to hang out with his male friends to get away from his nagging wife, and that I am a responsible, well-intentioned, but unlikeable wife who can't stop treating her husband like her elementary school student. Through my conversations with other entrepreneurs and VC...
A Lesson in Leveraging My VC Network For Good | COVID - 19 in Vail, Colorado
June 15, 2020 11:00 - 59 minutes - 54.3 MBAs a VC, I have the opportunity to build relationships with people who have tremendous financial resources and connections. I often hesitate to ask my network to support philanthropic causes, because I want to respect our business relationship. After seeing the devastating impact of COVID-19 on our community in Vail, Colorado, however, I decided it was time to ask. I invited four Vail nonprofits to present to my network. I’m sharing the recording of the event in hopes that it will inspire ot...
Finding BIG-Thinking and Executing Entrepreneurs with Dick Rothkopf
June 04, 2020 11:37 - 34 minutes - 31.2 MBI’ve now invested in close to 100 entrepreneurs. When I think about the patterns I’ve seen, my most successful investments are backed by entrepreneurs who can really visualize a big idea and genuinely believe it’s possible. To get there, almost all of these entrepreneurs had to shed some deep-seated limiting beliefs. This has me wondering, how can we better spot big thinkers and big ideas with the propensity to scale, and how can we help our entrepreneurs think bigger? I invited Dick Rothkopf...
Feeling Stretched by COVID-19? Outsourcing and Delegating with Foundry Group's Seth Levine
May 03, 2020 12:05 - 55 minutes - 50.8 MBSeth has been a MergeLane investor and advisor since the very beginning. I invited Seth to join the show because we’ve had some nice conversations about the challenge we each have in managing our personal bandwidth. Since having these conversations, we’ve both managed to carve out more time through some creative outsourcing and delegation, and I thought it might be helpful to share some of our lessons learned. If you are listening to this sometime in the future, it is April 2020 and most of...
A Tale of Three Recessions: Lesson's from Dave Balter's Recession Startup Streak
April 28, 2020 23:57 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBDave Balter, CEO of MergeLane-backed Flipside Crypto, has built three previous startups in the midst of economic downturns. He believes that recessions are the greatest time to launch into successful models. In this Fund81 podcast episode, Dave shares his thoughts on why these eras drive opportunity. Dave is the first guest to make a second appearance on the podcast. You can hear more from Dave in Episode #9 - Cryptocurrency Venture Investing: The Questions Every VC Should Ask Before Making ...
Turning It Off | Managing Anxiety and Workaholism While Working From Home
April 20, 2020 00:20 - 11 minutes - 10.9 MBIn the last episode, I recorded an event I held to share what I've learned through my experience working from home for the past 15 years with some of our portfolio companies and some of the members of our fund 81 VC forum. I shared that if I'm honest with myself, I value productivity and efficiency above all else. So it's not surprising, that I focused the agenda on my tips for becoming more productive and efficient while working from home. During the call, two of our MergeLane portfolio com...
Working from Home | Guilt, Productivity and Other Lessons from My 15-Year Experience
April 18, 2020 13:31 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBI’ve been working from home for the past 15 years. I have learned a lot about maximizing productivity, finding work/life harmony, managing home life, staying fit and maintaining a healthy marriage while working from home. Related Resources: https://tests.enneagraminstitute.com/ https://www.leadership.camp/ https://www.mergelane.com/post/how-conscious-leadership-bought-me-5-hours-of-extra-time-each-day
Managing Anxiety | Lessons from an Anxious Entrepreneur
March 18, 2020 11:56 - 9 minutes - 9.04 MBI have battled anxiety for many years. In that journey, I've learned a lot about how to manage it and support others who battle anxiety as well. I thought it might be helpful to share my thoughts.
Choosing a Venture Capital Fund Administrator
February 20, 2020 12:24 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBWith MergeLane’s new fund and the growth of our portfolio, we’re improving our fund administration processes and considering a few different solutions. Through this process, I’ve realized that I have a lot of questions that other new venture capital fund managers may have as well. To that end, I’ve invited a few of the fund administration solutions I am interviewing to join me on my podcast to answer these questions live. Our first guest is Tiffany Cholez with CFO Fund Services. http://www.cf...
Fund81 In 2020 And Lessons From A Bout Of Holiday Depression
January 09, 2020 11:44 - 23 minutes - 21.5 MBIn this latest Fund81 podcast episode, I share my 2020 plans for the Fund81 forum and podcast (https://www.mergelane.com/fund81), and a few reflections from my short bout of holiday depression. Despite the fact that I have a wonderful life with many blessings to be thankful for, I have always struggled with depression over the holidays. Because of the work I’ve been doing in Conscious Leadership (https://www.mergelane.com/post/mergelane-runs-on-conscious-leadership), my holiday depression was...
Fund81 in 2020 and Lessons from a Bout of Holiday Depression
January 09, 2020 11:44 - 23 minutes - 21.5 MBIn this latest Fund81 podcast episode, I share my 2020 plans for the Fund81 forum and podcast (https://www.mergelane.com/fund81), and a few reflections from my short bout of holiday depression. Despite the fact that I have a wonderful life with many blessings to be thankful for, I have always struggled with depression over the holidays. Because of the work I’ve been doing in Conscious Leadership (https://www.mergelane.com/post/mergelane-runs-on-conscious-leadership), my holiday depression was...
Venture Capital Lessons From 2000 And 2008 | Preparing For A Downturn
November 18, 2019 11:40 - 20 minutes - 18.9 MBIn this episode, I interview Liza Benson. Liza is a partner with Moderne Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on technology companies innovating within real estate, mortgage, finance, insurance, hospitality, and home services. At MergeLane, we’ve been thinking about how changing market conditions may affect our fund in the future. I know many of our listeners are asking themselves that question as well. I invited Liza to share some of her thoughts. With 20 years of VC experience, Liza l...
The LP Perspective And The OpenLP Reboot With Beezer Clarkson
November 05, 2019 13:41 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBBeezer Clarkson invests in early-stage venture funds primarily in the US, Europe and Israel as the managing director at Sapphire Partners (the division within Sapphire Ventures that invests in venture funds). In this episode, Beezer shares her perspective on venture capital trends, VC firm differentiation, and nonobvious mistakes for VC fund managers to avoid. There are some great interviews that cover Beezer’s path to becoming an LP and a few of the key things she looks for when making inv...
Assessing Hustle with the Hustle Fund
October 21, 2019 11:56 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBEpisode #18: Assessing Hustle with the Hustle Fund Elizabeth Yin, co-founder and general partner at the Hustle Fund shared her thoughts on how to assess a startup’s ability to “hustle”. Her thoughts are applicable to venture capitalists, startups and anyone who wants to work with hustlers. Elizabeth started her career as an entrepreneur when she founded the adtech platform Launchbit which was acquired by BuySellAds in 2014. Elizabeth then jumped into venture capital as a partner in 500 Sta...
Fund81 Startup Showcase Fall 2019
October 03, 2019 12:35 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBWe asked our Fund81 forum for venture capitalists to nominate portfolio companies to participate in a startup showcase. We received over 50 nominations. Four of those startups are featured in this episode. Presenting Startups: Veho, nominated by Morris Wheeler from Drummond Road Capital https://shipveho.com/ Nori, nominated by Hannah Davis from the Techstars Sustainability Program in partnership with the Nature Conservancy https://nori.com/ Soona, nominated by me, Elizabeth Kraus, from th...
Investing in AI – The New Metrics, Milestones, and Playbooks for AI-driven Startups
September 03, 2019 11:11 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBJocelyn Goldfein, Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners, joined the Fund81 podcast to share her approach to investing in artificial intelligence (AI). With the cost of creating software continuing to decline, Zetta believes that the companies of the future will need to build more than just great software to thrive. Zetta invests in AI software that learns from data to analyze, predict, and prescribe outcomes. This is what Zetta defines as the fourth era of computing: the computation of ...
Fitting Fitness into a Startup Schedule with Nicole DeBoom
August 15, 2019 12:21 - 55 minutes - 50.6 MBI love being active and outdoors, but I also have extremely high professional aspirations. I’ve spent the last 16 years trying to find a way to fit fitness into my life in a way that feels spacious and supportive to my business, relationships and health. In this episode, Nicole DeBoom, pro triathlete turned founder and CEO of Skirt Sports, and I share our thoughts on how to fit fitness into a startup schedule. Before you listen, I recommend listening to our previous conversation in episode...
VC Fundraising with David Cohen | Moving LPs to a Yes
August 08, 2019 10:44 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBFundraising doesn’t come naturally to David Cohen, founder and co-CEO of Techstars. He’s an introverted, shut-up-and-deliver kind of guy, but he’s learned how to leverage his strengths and team to convince hundreds of LPs to invest in the venture capital funds that power the Techstars network. In this episode, he shares his honest and authentic reflections from his unique perspective as an non-natural fundraiser. We’ve invested in several Techstars graduates and are big believers in the pow...
Mental Health In Venture Capital With Brad Feld
June 18, 2019 14:41 - 42 minutes - 38.5 MBIn this Fund81 podcast episode, I invited Brad Feld, founding partner of Foundry Group, to share his thoughts on maintaining mental health in the fast-paced venture capital world and supporting portfolio companies, colleagues, friends and family wrestling with mental health issues. Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. He...
Episode #12: Unexpected Product Pitfalls in Venture Investing with SC Moatti
May 30, 2019 13:13 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBSC Moatti recently joined the Fund81 podcast to talk about how to discover and vet products in venture capital. In this episode, we talk about how VCs can spot early indications of future product success, creative ways to look under the hood before investing, and the product-related questions most venture capitalists fail to ask. SC Moatti is the founding partner of Mighty Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and Products That Count, one of the largest communities of product manag...
Episode #11: Using The Enneagram in Venture Capital Investing
March 26, 2019 01:43 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBIn this Fund81 podcast episode, we talk about something that has made our team at MergeLane better investors - the Enneagram. We use the Enneagram in the work we do in Conscious Leadership. Understanding the Enneagram has forever changed the way I assess and support startup founders. To talk about how the Enneagram can help other VCs, I invited Kaley Klemp to join the podcast. Kaley is a master Enneagram specialist, as well as a highly sought after speaker, certified YPO Forum Facilitator, a...
Episode #10: Lessons from 300+ Venture Capital Fund Pitches
November 13, 2018 16:17 - 29 minutes - 27 MBIn this last podcast episode of Season One, I interviewed Jaclyn Freeman Hester from Foundry Group. Since joining Foundry Group in 2016, Jaclyn has seen more VC fund pitches than she can count. As someone relatively new to the industry, she has a fresh perspective on how to craft a compelling pitch and the dos and don'ts of approaching institutional investors. She also has an incredible pulse on the landscape for emerging managers and trends in early-stage venture capital. Enjoy!
Cryptocurrency Venture Investing: The Questions Every VC Should Ask
October 08, 2018 11:06 - 30 minutes - 27.6 MBIn this Fund81 podcast interview, Dave Balter, the CEO of one of our MergeLane portfolio companies, Flipside Crypto, shared his perspective on investing in the cryptocurrency space. I invited Dave to join us for four reasons: He is one of the most engaging and entertaining speakers I know. He has the ability to explain complex things in an easy-to-understand way - something I have found rare in the cryptocurrency space. He is obsessed with and extremely knowledgeable about cryptocurrency. B...
FUND81 CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP AND VENTURE INVESTING
April 25, 2018 14:07 - 19 minutes - 17.5 MBConscious Leadership has been a game-changer for our partnership and our investing. For this Fund81 podcast interview, I invited my business partner at the MergeLane venture fund for high-potential startups with at least one woman in leadership, Sue Heilbronner, to talk about Conscious Leadership.
Venture Fund Terms 201
February 13, 2018 14:03 - 21 minutes - 29.4 MBGaining an understanding of venture fund legal terms can be a bit like learning a foreign language. In this episode, my guest Mark Weakley helps us navigate some of the more complicated terms commonly seen in venture fund legal documents.
The Introverted VC with Google Ventures and Section 32 Founder, Bill Maris
December 21, 2017 04:04 - 21 minutes - 29.6 MBIn this Fund81 podcast episode, I spoke with Bill Maris. Bill was the founder and first CEO of Google Ventures (GV) and now runs his own fund, Section 32. He also happens to be an introvert. I am also an introvert and have been doing a lot of thinking about how my introversion plays into my life as a venture capitalist. Bill and I explore this topic in this episode.
The Generalist vs. The Specialist VC with Nick Moran
December 16, 2017 07:39 - 22 minutes - 30.4 MBVenture Capitalists are increasingly looking for ways to differentiate themselves and produce better returns. One popular path to this is specialization according to geography, industry sector, etc. Nick Moran, GP at New Stack Ventures and host of the Full Ratchet podcast, shares his insights.
Venture Fund Terms 101
December 16, 2017 07:37 - 18 minutes - 25.2 MBVenture fund legal terms can sound a bit like a foreign language to new venture capitalists and venture fund investors. In this Fund81 podcast episode, Liz Meade, a new angel investor considering venture fund investments, interviews me, Elizabeth Kraus, your host at Fund81, to decode some of the lingo in venture fund offering agreements.
Welcome to Fund81!
December 16, 2017 06:42 - 2 minutes - 3.95 MBWelcome to Fund 81! Join Elizabeth Kraus, a managing partner of the Mergelane investment fund in Boulder, as she asks the questions and gets the answers surrounding many of the topics flying around the world of venture capital and angel investments.