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The Full Ratchet: VC | Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startup Investing | Fundraising | Crowdfunding | Pitch | Private Equity | Business Loans

Nick Moran

A podcast dedicated to demystifying Venture Capital. Nick Moran interviews the VC and Angel investor experts on how they find, evaluate and select the next generation of great technology sta...

Episodes

20 of 1,030 episodes

Investor Stories 493: Founder CEO Removal, Acquisition Pressure, and Co-Founder Conflict — Lessons from Investors at Volition, Notable, and Fika (Cheng, Solomon, Chen)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Larry Cheng of Volition Capital Glenn Solomon of Notable...

06:23Sep 17, 2026

517. Fear and Greed in AI, The Rise of Kingmakers, and Is Seed the Sucker Round? (John Chen)

John Chen of Fika Ventures joins Nick to discuss Fear and Greed in AI, The Rise of Kingmakers, and Is Seed the Sucker Round?. In this episod...

48:19Sep 14, 2026

Investor Stories 492: Best Questions from Grant Emery, Ben Black, and Glenn Solomon: Market Truths, Enduring Value, and Founder Conviction (Demaree, Black, Solomon)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Grant Demaree of Onebrief Ben Black of Akkadian Ventures...

05:42Sep 10, 2026

Investor Stories 491: What Visionary Leaders at Jackpocket, Vercel, and Microsoft Do Differently(Peter Davis, Solomon, Vaidya)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Mark Peter Davis of Interplay Glenn Solomon of Notable Ca...

05:57Sep 3, 2026

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)

Vivek Vaidya of super{set} joins Nick to discuss AI Cost Structures and Pricing, Proprietary Data Sets That Create Moats, and a Clear Method...

44:01Aug 31, 2026

Investor Stories 490: Investors from Volition, Acadian Ventures, and Interplay Ventures on Building Competence, Operating Experience, and Investing with Purpose (Cheng, Black, Peter Davis)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Larry Cheng of Volition Capital Ben Black of Akkadian Ven...

06:30Aug 27, 2026

Investor Stories 489: Missing Airbnb, Zocdoc, and Prediction Markets — Lessons from the Deals Investors Passed On (Demaree, Peter Davis, Solomon)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Grant Demaree of Onebrief Mark Peter Davis of Interplay G...

05:08Aug 20, 2026

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 of Notable Capital joins Nick to discuss 3 Multi-Billion-Dollar Exits in 1 Year, Lessons from Airbnb, HashiCorp, Slack, and Sq...

01:01:50Aug 17, 2026

Investor Stories 488: Losing Conviction, Overpaying for Discounts, and Selling Too Early — Lessons from Volition, Acadian, and Interplay (Cheng, Black, Peter Davis)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Larry Cheng of Volition Capital Ben Black of Akkadian Ven...

06:57Aug 13, 2026

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)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Grant Demaree of Onebrief Ben Black of Akkadian Ventures...

08:36Aug 6, 2026

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 of Interplay joins Nick to discuss AI's Effect on the Demand Curve, Investing in Durable Barriers, Large Cap vs. Small Cap...

48:23Aug 3, 2026

Investor Stories 486: The Traits of Visionary Founders: Ecosystem-Scale Thinking, Data-Driven Truth-Seeking, and Relentless Customer Experience Design (Blank, Demaree, Cheng)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Steve Blank of the Gordian Knot Center for National Secur...

08:44Jul 30, 2026

Investor Stories 485: Inside VC Anti-Portfolios: Missing Whatnot, Facebook & MongoDB (Dillon, Cheng, Black)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Natalie Dillon of Maveron Larry Cheng of Volition Capital...

06:57Jul 23, 2026

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 of Co-founder & MD of Akkadian Ventures and CIO of Powerlaw Corp joins Nick to discuss Opening Late-Stage Venture to Everyone, Bea...

44:26Jul 20, 2026

Investor Stories 484: Why Selling Too Early Hurts Returns, The Leadership Power of Sleep, and The Costliest Investment Mistakes (Tananbaum, Ries, Demaree)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Jim Tananbaum of Foresite Capital Eric Ries Author of The...

06:35Jul 16, 2026

Investor Stories 483: Best LP Questions from David Ulevich, Eric Ries, and Larry Cheng: Mission, Partnership Culture, and Enduring Institutions (Ulevitch, Ries, Cheng)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: David Ulevitch of Andreessen Horowitz Eric Ries author of...

06:58Jul 9, 2026

512. Is SpaceX Over or Undervalued, Why Consensus Kills, How Chewy Beat Amazon, and the GameStop Saga from a Board Member (Larry Cheng)

Larry Cheng of Volition Capital joins Nick to discuss Is SpaceX Over or Undervalued, Why Consensus Kills, How Chewy Beat Amazon, and the Gam...

42:10Jul 6, 2026

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)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Ethan Austin of Outside VC Willy Schlacks of EquipmentSha...

06:43Jul 2, 2026

Investor Stories 481: Lessons Learned from Centana Growth, a16z, and Emergence: Trusting Management, Spotting Original Thinkers, and Investing Before Revenue (Byunn, Ulevitch, Saper)

On this special segment of The Full Ratchet, the following Investors are featured: Eric Byunn of Centana Growth David Ulevitch of Andreessen...

05:23Jun 25, 2026

511. The Future of Military Planning: Defense Tech Beyond the Bubble, AI Software as Combat Power, and the Rise of AI Wargaming (Grant Demaree)

Grant Demaree of Onebrief joins Nick to discuss The Future of Military Planning: Defense Tech Beyond the Bubble, AI Software as Combat Power...

48:13Jun 22, 2026