Best Samir Kaji Podcasts (2024)

1
Limited Partner Unlocked: Michael Kim Cendana Capital on the Emerging Manager landscape, fundraising, and the need for liquidity 50:50

15d ago50:50

50:50

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We are back with another LP-focused episode with Michael Kim, Founder of Cendana Capital. Michael shares how he started Cendana around his thesis (at the time very early) of backing small, emerging managers. This led to early inv…

1
Amy Saper of Uncork Capital on how startups should embrace constraints to foster creativity, and her learnings from being at Accel, X, Uber, and Stripe 48:32

1M ago48:32

48:32

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We are back with Amy Saper, partner at Uncork Capital. Amy shares her journey from Silicon Valley operator at Twitter and Stripe to venture capitalist. She talks about Uncork’s strategy, including its recent $200 million seed fun…

1
LP Unlocked shorts: What We're Hearing about Venture Liquidity with Meghan Reynolds of Altimeter 25:00

2M ago25:00

25:00

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. Today we have another version of Venture Unlocked shorts, and this time it will be focused on topics within the GP/LP world. Joining me again is Meghan Reynolds, who leads capital formation at Altimeter Capital. This time we disc…

1
What's happening at the seed stage? Featuring Jenny Fielding, Kirby Winfield, and Nate Williams 45:14

2M ago45:14

45:14

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. This week we're doing another special roundtable discussion with a focus on the seed stage market. Joining us are Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures, Kirby Winfield of Ascend, and Nate Williams of UNION Labs. This whole conver…

1
The Craft of Venture Capital with David Sacks 55:44

3M ago55:44

55:44

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We are thrilled to bring you a conversation with David Sacks, Founder and Partner of Craft Ventures. Based in San Francisco, Craft was founded in 2017 and currently has over 3 billion in assets under management. Across the last t…

1
Homebrew’s Hunter Walk and Satya Patel: The Power of a Partnership 56:01

3M ago56:01

56:01

Homebrew is one of the great venture firm names. It hearkens back to the 1970s era computer hobbyist group that included people like Steve Jobs. Hunter Walk and Satya Patel are the partners who founded and built Homebrew (the venture capital firm). Nevertheless, if you say “Hunter and Satya” in Silicon Valley, people will know exactly who you are t…

1
Adam Bain of 01 Advisors on scaling Twitter from 0 to $1B+, being coached by Bill Campbell, and why they don't take board seats 48:28

3M ago48:28

48:28

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. This week we are pleased to be joined by Adam Bain of 01 Advisors, a San Francisco-based firm with nearly $1 billion under management. Adam and his partners, including Dick Costolo, have taken a very different approach to the ven…

1
Mitchell Green of Lead Edge Capital on the Moneyball approach to investing, the art of effective cold calling, and managing 700+ strategic LPs 42:04

4M ago42:04

42:04

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We have a conversation with Mitchell Green, Founder and Managing Partner at Lead Edge Capital. With offices in New York and Santa Barbara, the firm has over $5B in Assets under management and specializes in helping growth-stage c…

1
Limited Partner Unlocked shorts: What we're Hearing from LPs with Meghan Reynolds of Altimeter 25:11

4M ago25:11

25:11

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. Today we have another version of Venture Unlocked shorts, and this time it will be focused on topics within the GP/LP world. Joining me for this around-the-water-cooler recurring series is Meghan Reynolds, who leads capital forma…

1
Khosla Venture's Samir Kaul on building an iconic, durable firm, and the role of non-consensus decision making 42:08

4M ago42:08

42:08

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We have a conversation with Samir Kaul from Khosla Ventures. Founded in 2004, Khosla is one of the largest and most well-known venture capital firms in the world and led by legendary investor and entrepreneur Vinod Khosla. The fi…

1
Venture Unlocked Shorts: Looking back the era of Unicorns and what's ahead? 25:46

5M ago25:46

25:46

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. This is our second episode of Venture Unlocked Shorts where we highlight a specific point of view of our guest. These points of view may come through a tweet, an article, or an offline conversation, and our goal is to unpack thes…

1
Venture Unlocked Shorts: Why VC has gone mainstream and the parallels to private equity and hedge funds 19:05

5M ago19:05

19:05

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. As we continue to grow Venture Unlocked, we are now going to release short conversations highlighting a specific point of view of our guest. These points of views may come through a tweet, an article, or conversation, and our goa…

1
The opportunity outside of Silicon Valley and how to build a strategic LP base with Brendan Wales and Kellan Carter of FUSE 46:01

5M ago46:01

46:01

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We are excited to bring on Brendan Wales and Kellan Carter, Co-Founders and GPs of FUSE. Founded in 2020 with a thesis centered around the growth of the Pacific Northwest ecosystem, a geography both of our guests know well. With …

1
Meet The Expert Series: Matt Trotter of Stifel Bank on the state of the venture debt market, and how investors & startups should approach the credit markets today 38:56

5M ago38:56

38:56

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. On this special meet the expert episode, we are discussing the venture debt market with Matt Trotter, a Managing director within Stifel Bank’s Venture division. Stifel Bank was established in St. Louis, MO in 1890 and is an indep…

1
Atari’s founder Nolan Bushnell and Dr. Leah Hanes Have a (Better) Plan for Educating America 46:20

6M ago46:20

46:20

Nolan Bushnell’s career is extraordinary. Nolan has ignited two entertainment revolutions: first with Atari, birthing the video game industry through classics like Pong, and later with Chuck E. Cheese, merging pizza and arcade games for family fun. A serial entrepreneur, he's founded over 20 companies, venturing into robotics, personal computers, a…

1
Pejman Nozad of Pear on building a $800MM+ AUM firm as an immigrant who sold Persian rugs before going into VC 47:55

6M ago47:55

47:55

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. This week we are thrilled to be joined by Pejman Nozad, Co-Founder and GP of Pear VC. Founded in 2013, Pear has scaled to over $800MM in AUM with a powerful engine to help early-stage companies. As many regular listeners of the s…

1
Paul Kwan of General Catalyst on the importance of innovation in creating global resilience 41:54

7M ago41:54

41:54

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We're excited to welcome Paul Kwan, Managing Director at General Catalyst (GC). Established in 2000, the firm currently has just under $25 billion in assets under management. GC has made a significant mark in the venture capital …

1
The Chainsmokers' Alex Pall in crossing over from a grammy nominated group in the music industry to starting Mantis VC 48:33

7M ago48:33

48:33

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We're thrilled to have Alex Pall, general partner at Mantis VC, a seed and an early stage fund based in LA. Alex is a great example of someone who has made a significant crossover from another industry—he is one half of the award…

1
Brad Gerstner talks AI, Tech Super cycles vs. Market cycles, and the start of Altimeter as a $3MM fund 56:03

7M ago56:03

56:03

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We're thrilled to bring on Brad Gerstner, Founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital. Altimeter was first founded in 2008 during the GFC with an initial fund of only $3 Million which Brad raised from friends and family. Today the firm …

1
Going back to the foundation of Kleiner Perkins with Mamoon Hamid through clear busines model focus and culture 46:01

8M ago46:01

46:01

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We are excited to bring you our latest episode with Mamoon Hamid, Partner at Kleiner Perkins. As many know, Kleiner Perkins, founded over 50 years ago is one of the most storied franchises in the history of venture capital, havin…

1
Special LP roundtable: What are LPs thinking about in Venture with Beezer Clarkson, Guy Perelmuter and Chris Douvos 50:24

8M ago50:24

50:24

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We're thrilled to bring back three experienced institutional venture LPs with Chris Douvos of Ahoy Capital, Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners, and Guy Perelmuter of GRIDS Capital. When we last convened, it was almost exactly t…

1
Building competitive moats in VC at Lerer Hippeau with Ben Lerer and Graham Brown 51:11

8M ago51:11

51:11

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. On this week’s show, we’re excited to have Ben Lerer and Graham Brown, Managing Partners at Lerer Hippeau. The firm was founded in New York in 2010 to back early-stage entrepreneurs. Today the firm manages $1.2B and has invested …

1
Richard Socher: Exploring AI with the Visionary AI Scientist, Entrepreneur and Investor 47:09

8M ago47:09

47:09

Richard Socher is a visionary computer scientist, entrepreneur, and AI researcher who has dedicated his career to pushing the boundaries of what's possible in AI. With a Ph.D. from Stanford University, Richard's groundbreaking work in deep learning, neural networks, and NLP has paved the way for remarkable advances in AI applications. It may seem l…

1
Building a next-generation tech-enabled Venture Capital firm with Chris Farmer of SignalFire 49:02

9M ago49:02

49:02

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We're excited to be joined by Chris Farmer, Founder and CEO of SignalFire, a firm that was founded nearly a decade ago with the goal of disrupting the way Venture Capital is done. Unlike traditional VC firms, SignalFire has been …

1
Hadley Harris: Building Eniac Ventures with 3 Friends / Investing in AI 45:31

9M ago45:31

45:31

What are the odds that 4 friends can start a VC firm, and still be firing on all cylinders years later? Hadley Harris, one of Eniac Ventures’ 4 co-founders has the answer. Before co-founding Eniac, Hadley was as a developer and engineering team lead at Pegasystems, and later took on roles as a product manager at Microsoft and strategist at Samsung.…

1
Samir Kaji: Building Allocate; The State of the Venture Market; Banking Meltdown (SVB/FRB) Post-mortem 48:54

10M ago48:54

48:54

Samir Kaji is the founder behind Allocate, a pioneering platform in the venture capital space. Samir has established himself as a key connector between venture capital firms and the “LPs” (Limited Partners) who invest in them. He is building Allocate to leverage his experience into a platform. After observing inefficiencies in the venture capital m…

1
The art of raising from LPs in an economic downturn with Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures 52:10

10M ago52:10

52:10

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. Today we’re excited to bring Mark Suster back on the pod. Mark is the managing partner of Upfront and also a frequent contributor of great content for the venture ecosystem through his blog, Both Sides of the Table, which I’d hig…

1
Darian Shirazi, General Partner at Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI Fund): Unleashing AI's Investment Potential 45:47

10M ago45:47

45:47

Darian Shirazi is a general partner at Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI fund. Gradient Ventures invests in companies that are “developing AI technologies that have the potential to make a significant impact on the world”. Darian is a serial entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded and served as CEO of Radius, a leading customer data platform, for ove…

1
Hernan Kazah of Kaszek Ventures on investing in Latin America, learnings from building a public company, and working with founders 56:12

10M ago56:12

56:12

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. On this week’s show, we’re excited to have Hernan Kazah, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Kaszek, one of the largest Latin American firms with nine funds under management. The firm launched in 2011 and over time they’ve made ea…

1
Tomasz Tunguz of Theory Ventures on strategically raising a fund in a downturn, Why Firms Need a Business Model, and different views on portfolio construction 45:32

11M ago45:32

45:32

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. On this week’s show we’re excited to have Tomasz Tunguz, Founder of newly formed Theory Ventures. Tomasz spent nearly 15 years at Redpoint Ventures, before recently spinning out to start Theory Ventures. Earlier this year, Theory…

1
Anthony Soohoo: Bringing the Entrepreneurial Mindset to Walmart 51:11

11M ago51:11

51:11

Anthony Soohoo is a Venture Advisor at AI Fund. It is a role he took on after building a company (Dot & Bo) that was acquired. He went from buidling his own company to becoming a leader at -- Walmart. . In fact, Anthony became the head of Wal-Mart’s Home Division. It’s the largest US retailer for home goods, and one of six business units at Wal-Mar…

1
Sunil Nagaraj of Ubiquity Ventures on the journey of a solo-GP, The Importance of Authenticity, and Navigating Hype Cycles 47:21

11M ago47:21

47:21

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. On this week’s show, I’m thrilled to be joined by Sunil Nagaraj, Founder of Ubiquity Ventures. Sunil started Ubiquity in 2017 to focus on backing technical founders at the pre-seed and seed stages around a thesis he calls “nerdy …

1
Oren Zeev on scaling to $2B+ in AUM as a solo-GP, contrarian investing, and high founder NPS 46:48

1y ago46:48

46:48

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We’re pleased to welcome Oren Zeev, Founding Partner at Zeev Ventures. Without a doubt, Oren is one of the titans in venture investing with nearly 30 years of experience and one of the most unique. Unlike traditional firms that h…

1
Nnamdi Okike on Building 645 Ventures, Bias in Fundraising, and Being a Boston Sports Fan in New York 45:53

1y ago45:53

45:53

Nnamdi Okike is rapidly becoming a prominent figure in the venture capital industry. He is the co-founder of 645 Ventures, along with his partner Aaron Holiday. Recently, 645 Ventures successfully raised its fourth fund, of about $350 million. Nnamdi's background includes an education at Harvard, membership on the prestigious NVCA board (with forme…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Samir Kaji Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide