Kara Nortman, Partner at Upfront Ventures, weighs in on whether VC value comes primarily from stock selection or operational help.
0:00 / 0:05exact quote · 5.4s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I definitely think the picking is 50% or more, but I very much believe in the doing”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Kara Nortman
AssertionPartly supported
Nortman recruited Sean Rad to IAC before he created Tinder
“I went in and recruited Sean Radd into IAC and gave him his first business plan, which turned into something completely different. It wasn't Tinder. He took it and very much made it his own, but it was something I got involved with the day-to-day of in the fir…”
Kara NortmanDec 7, 2016▶ 8:3620VC: How To Assess Founder Psychology, Why Talking About Financial Returns In The First Meeting Is Always Wrong & How To Allocate Time Amongst A VC Portfolio with Kara Nortman, Partner @ Upfront Ventures
Insight
Nortman: Selecting board members for brand over chemistry is a founder mistake
“I think this is a mistake a lot of people make as founders, which is to try to get the biggest names or something that they think is sort of like a brand of a particular board member without really doing a lot of work to make sure that you have the right chemi…”
Kara NortmanDec 7, 2016▶ 9:4420VC: How To Assess Founder Psychology, Why Talking About Financial Returns In The First Meeting Is Always Wrong & How To Allocate Time Amongst A VC Portfolio with Kara Nortman, Partner @ Upfront Ventures
“I think that's the fastest place to make change, getting more women into venture roles, into, you know, kind of real decision-making GP roles in firms that can write real check is another one. It seems like that takes longer than changing the board, but both o…”
Kara NortmanDec 7, 2016▶ 24:3220VC: How To Assess Founder Psychology, Why Talking About Financial Returns In The First Meeting Is Always Wrong & How To Allocate Time Amongst A VC Portfolio with Kara Nortman, Partner @ Upfront Ventures
Opinion
Kara Nortman: Founders focusing on exits in first pitch are a red flag
“Somebody who's talking about exit in the first meeting. And I should say not, and not exit in terms of, you know, because we may ask that sometimes, hey, where does this go? What happens? Who do you think might this might be a part of someday more like they're…”
Kara NortmanDec 7, 2016▶ 28:2020VC: How To Assess Founder Psychology, Why Talking About Financial Returns In The First Meeting Is Always Wrong & How To Allocate Time Amongst A VC Portfolio with Kara Nortman, Partner @ Upfront Ventures
Disclosure
Nortman: Upfront partners only invest in about two new companies per year
“We only invest in about two companies a year.”
Kara NortmanDec 7, 2016▶ 16:5020VC: How To Assess Founder Psychology, Why Talking About Financial Returns In The First Meeting Is Always Wrong & How To Allocate Time Amongst A VC Portfolio with Kara Nortman, Partner @ Upfront Ventures
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 1,200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.