Off Balance #56

👋🏾 Hi friends!

A very happy Diwali to those that were celebrating, a happy Halloween for others and a smokey Guy Fawkes night for anyone in the UK this evening!

The last week has been spent just marvelling at the traction that Nothing Ventured has continued to show with almost 8k subs under our belt on YouTube and some interesting growth happening on other channels as well. Just shows that if you keep showing up, good things can happen 😀 

It’s also been spent marvelling at the fact that we are already in November people! And whilst 2024 has been a tough year for many, I’m optimistic about what 2025 holds in store and I’m prepping to get going with a bang!

I’m writing this late on Tuesday 5th November as the US heads into a pretty consequential election and am, as I am sure others are, keen to see which direction the bastion of the democratic world decides to take.

Whatever your politics, this has been arguably one of the most consequential years in recent history here in the UK and over the pond in America. Last week we saw the first female Chancellor release a budget over here, the first black female leader of the Conservative party get voted in and potentially the first black and Asian, female President get elected to lead the free world - maybe. I guess we’ll see within the next few days…

I’m well underway writing about all the things I’ve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance - The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it 😄.

Now let’s get down to business…

In this weeks Off Balance:

🎙️ Fred Destin, Managing Partner of Stride.VC on Nothing Ventured
👨🏻‍💼 Things to think about when building out your board

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲?

Fred Destin joins me on the pod this week to explore exactly that 🔥

As we blast through 7k subscribers in just a few weeks (🤯), I could not think of a better guest to have joined me on Nothing Ventured this week to take a step back and truly explore venture and the relationship between investors, founders and how to better think about the interactions between them.

Fred should need no introduction, but for those that don't know, he is the founder of Stride.VC, a seed fund operating out of London and currently investing out of its second fund.

Their tagline is Dissenters welcome!

Prior to Stride, Fred was a General Partner at Accel and Accomplice VC. He was the lead investor on seven companies that have exited over $1BN in value including Deliveroo, Zoopla (part of Houseful), PillPack (now Amazon health) and others.

In this whopping two part episode, we spoke about:

😤 The level of discontent founders have with VCs right now and why that's surprising.🪄 Whether operator as a VC is a magic label.
🤝 He asks how many VCs have empathy for the founder journey.
📈 The value of minimalist boards and how VCs can move the needle for the founders they work with.
👀 How VCs can navigate the need to be seen.
👨🏻‍🎨 Venture as an artisanal occupation.
🔮 Making decisions in a state of uncertainty.
🍀 Living in a world of both skill as well as luck as a VC.
🏷️ How returns come from the pick but also the entry price.
💥 The Cambrian explosion in venture and where we are now.
✨ How you can be a generalist in venture, but you can’t be generic - why emerging managers may want to find their edge.
🫀 VCs as human beings.
👶🏼 How to embrace the beginners mindset.
ℹ️ How to look beyond the information that’s being presented to you.
🧐 How to avoid the trap of lazy thinking.

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts!

If you have any feedback on the podcast or the newsletter, just reply to this mail or ping me online!

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(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with “Off Balance” and, importantly, tell me why you’d like to connect 💪🏾)

Now let’s get into it.