Best Upfront Ventures Podcasts (2025)

1
AI, LPs, and the New Era of Venture | Lu Zhang (Founder & Managing Partner, Fusion Fund) 46:35

7d ago46:35

46:35

Lu Zhang Managing Partner of Fusion Fund joins Peter this week to talk about what it takes to scale an early-stage venture firm—and back game-changing companies—at the speed of today’s AI boom. Fresh off her oversubscribed $190M Fund IV raise, Lu talks about what most managers get wrong when pitching institutional LPs, what it takes to stand out in…

1
Liquidity, LPs, and the Long Game | Beezer Clarkson (Partner, Sapphire Ventures) 56:44

21d ago56:44

56:44

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter is joined by Beezer Clarkson, Partner at Sapphire Ventures and co-host of the acclaimed Origins podcast, for a candid, rapid-fire look inside the minds of LPs, the realities of fundraising, and why venture isn't broken, but is being reshaped. They cover the biggest questions emerging managers are asking rig…

1
Backing Founders From Day Zero | Ed Sim (Founding Partner, Boldstart Ventures) 51:40

1M ago51:40

51:40

What does it mean to be a “day one partner” for founders—and how does that change in an era of AI-driven acceleration? On this episode of The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Ed Sim, founding partner of Boldstart Ventures and the voice behind “What’s Hot 🔥 in Enterprise IT VC.” Ed shares what it means to invest at the “inception stage”—before a co…

1
106. Troy Ryley, Echo Global Logistics - The Road Ahead for US/Mexico Cross-Border 38:39

1M ago38:39

38:39

Troy narrates through his three decades of US/Mexico cross-border experience that led him to now standing up yet another cross-border operation, Echo Mexico, shares his outlook where he believes US trade with Mexico is headed coming out of the tariff negotiations, details what the opportunities and challenges are for anyone considering expanding fr…

1
Innovation Meets the Real Estate Industry | Liza Benson (Partner, Moderne Ventures) 42:09

2M ago42:09

42:09

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) sits down with Liza Benson, Partner at Moderne Ventures, to discuss investing in real-world industries and Moderne’s unique LP-driven approach. They discuss the Moderne Passport, a multi-stage investment fund and industry immersion program, how to turn pilots into revenue,…

1
Kobie Fuller: Upfront Ventures Partner’s High-Speed Sprint from Track Star to Venture Capital Powerhouse 44:15

2M ago44:15

44:15

Kobie Fuller is a partner at Upfront Ventures. He came to the firm after investing at Accel and leading marketing efforts at EVOLVE, the large global fashion ecommerce platform. Highlights from our conversation. -- we covered a lot of ground, so this is just a small part: Kobie’s Athletic Background and Vision for Track and Field: Kobie, a former t…

1
105. Ian Kinne, Hillwood - Building a "Mobility Innovation Zone" 45:27

2M ago45:27

45:27

Ian shares the back story on how the 27,000-acre, master-planned development by Hillwood turned into Alliance, TX (a global logistics hub that has generated more than 66,000 jobs and an estimated $130B in regional economic impact!), why the Mobility Innovation Zone (MIZ) was stood up within Alliance to connect, “people, places, and ideas that push …

1
The Future of Venture in an AI World | Brianne Kimmel (Founder and Managing Partner, Worklife Ventures) 44:18

2M ago44:18

44:18

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) sits down with Brianne Kimmel, founder and managing partner at Worklife Ventures, to explore what it really takes to build enduring companies in today’s AI-first startup landscape. They discuss the new playbook for go-to-market, why “renewals are the new revenue,” and how …

1
104. Dave Anderson, Supply Chain Ventures - Where Supply Chain VC Began 43:37

3M ago43:37

43:37

Dave shares his 20+ year journey launching and scaling Supply Chain Ventures where supply chain VC all began, details a historical look back on major supply chain events and innovation inflection points that have shaped where we are at today (hint: supply chain is an incredibly enduring investment sector), outlines what he thinks is investable vs. …

1
David Anderman: Space (Investing) is Big. Really Big. From Lucasfilm’s Star Wars to SpaceX to…The Final Frontier 58:34

3M ago58:34

58:34

David Anderman is co-founder and General Partner of Stellar Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage space technology startups. He spent 16 years at Lucasfilm Ltd., creator of the Star Wars franchise. As Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, he notably negotiated Lucasfilm’s $4 billion sale to Disney in 2012. Moving from imagi…

1
103. All-In Supply Chain Innovation 4.0 47:52

3M ago47:52

47:52

The band is back together after the 2025 supply chain conference blitz and we cover how we tactically approach conference season, where the macro supply chain winds are blowing this year (tariffs, DOGE, regulatory changes, etc.), what role the latest AI into supply chain push is playing (tip: watch out for 'Annual Curiosity Revenue'), and how we th…

1
Cyan Banister: The Future is Cool Again / Falling in Love with Technology / A Brush with Star Wars 1:06:05

4M ago1:06:05

1:06:05

Cyan Banister of Long Journey Ventures is truly one of the most successful and interesting early stage venture investors. And by ‘successful investor’, I mean “invested early in Uber and SpaceX” kind of successful. She overcame a challenging childhood that included periods of homelessness (a surprisingly uplifting story, covered deeply in Tim Ferri…

1
102. Dave Katzman, PTC - Onshape to PTC, a Manuf. Innovation Journey 32:52

4M ago32:52

32:52

Dave shares his story of building up the Go-to-Market (GTM) engine at Onshape before it was acquired by PTC in 2019, what functional and leadership lessons he learned within that Onshape experience (venture-backed) that has translated to PTC (premier incumbent), how his team at the Velocity Group operates within the broader PTC organization, what l…

1
101. Kristina Nilsson, J.P. Morgan - Applied Technology in 2025 33:53

5M ago33:53

33:53

Kristina outlines what macro trends she sees ahead in 2025from both the public and private markets and zooms in how those trends will play into her Applied Technology focus areas, shares the evolution she has witnessed within the industrial innovation ecosystem over the past two decades (both investors and innovators), details why she believes rece…

1
Roger Ehrenberg: From IA Ventures to Eberg Capital – A Top Silicon Valley Investor Turns to Sports 57:51

5M ago57:51

57:51

Roger Ehrenberg's career spans three remarkable acts, each of which would be impressive on its own. He founded IA Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital firm, in 2010. IA Ventures invested in numerous successful startups, including Datadog, Digital Ocean, The Trade Desk, and Wise. His work with IA Ventures has earned him recognition as a three-time…

1
100. Peter J. Holt, HOLT Group - Ironspring Ventures 5 Year Lookback + Lookahead 51:11

5M ago51:11

51:11

On the turn of Ironspring Ventures 5 year anniversary (!), Peter shares the story of the Holt family background and his own journey to now leading HOLT Group, details the various industrial businesses and associated sectors that HOLT Group operates within (hint: “Dynamic” is a core value),outlines how those efforts are clearly complementary to the …

1
Mark Scianna: From Palantir Engineer to Venture Capitalist / Inside Palantir’s Early Days / VC Discovers Defense Tech 1:00:15

6M ago1:00:15

1:00:15

Mark Scianna, the founder of venture firm "Forward Deployed," which targets sectors like Defense, Energy, and A.I., was spotlighted as a 'top emerging manager' in 2022. Starting his journey as an engineer and an early investor at Palantir, Scianna offers an insider's perspective in this episode, unraveling the enigma of Palantir's inception and met…

1
99. Josh Kanner, Oracle - The Impact of AI in Construction 36:19

6M ago36:19

36:19

Josh shares a then and now look back on his 20-year journey building multiple Builtworld startups and what key evolution points he has seen in the ecosystem, details how Oracle Construction and Engineering is leveraging AI to help customers and their skilled workforce do their jobs better and more safely, outlines how responsibly applying AI in con…

1
98. Nick Kim, Upfront Ventures - SoCal's Industrial Innovation Resurgence 38:38

6M ago38:38

38:38

Nick walks us through how he and Upfront went about furthering development of their national infrastructure and hard tech focus areas, shares his outlook on the LA and SoCal industrial resurgence that is underway, discusses the rich SoCal industrial history underpinning this resurgence (“primes” and associated talent have been there for decades!), …

1
97. Sivan Zamir, Xylem - Building a More Water-Secure World 32:45

7M ago32:45

32:45

Sivan details both why Xylem set up a corporate innovation and venture capital team in 2021 and how those efforts move the needle for a $8B revenue F500 water-focused corporation that spans 150 countries and 23,000 employees, dives into how integral water and water technology are for the current Ai frenzy and data center boom to actually achieve th…

1
The Future of Fund Forecasting | Anubhav Srivastava (Founder, Tactyc) 33:07

7M ago33:07

33:07

Welcome to a very special episode of The Data Minute. For the first time, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) is joined by an actual Founder and CEO, Anubhav Srivastava whose company Tactyc.io is now a part of the Carta family! Join them for an in-depth conversation that goes in two directions. First, for VCs, they discuss reserve ratios, recy…

1
96. Craig Fuller, Freightwaves - RIP Great Freight Recession 55:04

7M ago55:04

55:04

Craig shares his story from growing up in the freight industry to what led him to found Freightwaves, takes us behind the scenes of his industry statements/predictions both entering (2022) and exiting (2024) the current freight recession and what the blow back was from being out ahead on market moving data like that, channels his inner Sec. of the …

1
Winter Mead: How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund (and more!), From Coolwater Capital’s Founder 57:13

8M ago57:13

57:13

Winter Mead is the author of How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund: The Essential Guide on Fundraising and Understanding Limited Partners. He is also founder of Coolwater Capital, a new model that helps launch, build, and scale emerging fund managers While there are a lot of investors (known in the parlance as “LPs”), and certainly a lot of funds – t…

1
95. Dave Yuan, Tidemark - Dominating Control Points in VaaS 38:30

8M ago38:30

38:30

Dave shares why he took on the challenge of building Tidemark after over 20 years in the venture asset class (and garnering Midas List recognition), how Tidemark takes on a product ethos in building its Vertical SaaS (VaaS) value-add capabilities such as content and community events among other efforts, VaaS learnings from recent research they’ve d…

1
Max Altman and Ben Braverman: Returning to Tradition with Saga Ventures 48:05

8M ago48:05

48:05

Max Altman and Ben Braverman were both pretty close to Silicon Valley royalty before they started Saga Ventures. Max had built Alt Capital with his brothers Sam and Jack. Ben had helped Ryan Peterson build Flexport as its Chief Revenue Officer. Recently, they came together with a third partner (Thomson Nguyen, who does not appear in this episode) t…

1
The Hidden Value of the VC CFO | Marie Drez (Venture Capital CFO) 40:23

8M ago40:23

40:23

In this week’s episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) and Marie Drez (Venture Capital CFO) sit down for an insightful conversation on the crucial role of fund CFOs and how emerging managers can find one. This discussion is full of expert insights. Marie shares important lessons from the SVB crisis, questions to ask ban…

1
94. Usman Shuja, Bluebeam - Ai in AEC 37:36

9M ago37:36

37:36

Usman shares how Ai is entering the AEC ecosystem faster than ever and how Bluebeam has developed a 4-part Ai framework to guide the company's approach, details why careful attention to the ethical considerations of Ai’s deployment within the AEC environment is key to long term success, describes some of his lessons learned on what is takes to scal…

1
Alexis Gay: Silicon Valley’s Favorite Comedian Makes her “Unprofessional” Debut 55:00

9M ago55:00

55:00

If you don’t already know about Alexis Gay, you’re about to. Alexis is the creator and star of her solo comedy show, “Unprofessional”. Recently, her show was a hit at the world-renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and she's now touring the show for audiences across the United States. Alexis previously worked in the tech industry running Business Ope…

1
How has the founders market changed? | Aditi Maliwal (Partner, Upfront Ventures) 48:15

9M ago48:15

48:15

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) and Aditi Maliwal (Partner, Upfront Ventures) have an in-depth conversation regarding the seed and Series A market. They discuss seed stage dynamics across the U.S. plus AI companies and how to determine which companies are worth investing in. There’s also a discussion on …

1
93. Zach Fredericks, Primary Venture Partners - Road Ahead for Supply Chain 37:36

9M ago37:36

37:36

Zach dives into the Primary thesis on supply chain innovation bringing better interoperability, decreasing operational complexity, and better financial infrastructure into this sector, shares his outlook on how Ai will impact logistics operations, explains his reasoning for business model evolution to “sell work not SaaS”, and where he sees the fut…

1
Adeyemi Ajao: A Founder Turned VC on Building Base10 Partners, and the Abundance Mindset 33:36

9M ago33:36

33:36

In this episode of Something Ventured, I talk to Adeyemi “Ade” Ajao, co-founder of Base10 Partners, one of the largest Black-led venture capital firms in the world. Ade shares his journey from growing up in Nigeria and Spain to building multiple successful companies, including Tuenti, which was sold to Telefonica. He also discusses his transition i…

1
The VC/Founder Cheat Sheet | Rex Salisbury (Founding GP, Cambrian Ventures) 42:05

9M ago42:05

42:05

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) is joined by Rex Salisbury (Founding GP, Cambrian Ventures) to discuss what’s developing in the fintech space, GPs calling more capital, and Rex’s idea on how to get into the tech industry. This conversation also covers Rex’s personal cheat sheet explaining why someone sho…

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