Oct 3, 2020 · 22m · how-i-built-this
How I Built Resilience: Jennifer Neundorfer of January Ventures
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Guy Raz interviews Jennifer Neundorfer, co-founder of January Ventures, on redesigning early-stage venture capital to empower underrepresented founders, mitigate systemic bias, and build resilient startups during economic downturns.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 22.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 2.4 Guest teaching 2.4 Guest disagreement 0.4 Guy pushing back 0.6
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 10:58 Reframing the 'Surge in Diverse Ideas' Premise
Neundorfer directly counters Raz's premise that there is a sudden surge in ideas from minority founders, explaining that talent was always present while access was withheld.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 12:35 Confronting the VC Growth-at-All-Costs ModelRaz directly challenges venture capital norms, citing recurring complaints from founders on his show about the pressures of mandatory 10x returns.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 2:40 Highlighting Pre-Seed Capital DisparitiesNeundorfer delivers stark empirical data showing women raise 38 cents and Black women just 2 cents per dollar compared to male founders at pre-seed.
Guy holds their own ▶ 18:00 Connecting Geographic Bias to Shopify's OriginsRaz demonstrates domain knowledge by connecting Neundorfer's observations on non-coastal bias to Tobi Lütke's defiance in keeping Shopify in Ottawa.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guy Raz Promotes His New Book 'How I Built This' | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Guy Raz opens with a promotional pitch for his new book and introduces the episode's focus on January Ventures. He asks baseline introductory questions about Jennifer Neundorfer's target startups and investment stage. | |
| Tackling Early-Stage Funding Disparities and Diversifying LPs | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Neundorfer educates the host on granular data regarding early-stage gender and racial funding disparities. Raz sticks to simple conversational follow-ups inquiring about fund size and limited partners. | |
| Reimagining Deal Sourcing Through Open Pitching and Technology | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Raz briefly interrupts Neundorfer to request plain-language clarification of 'regenerative supply chain' and provides an illustrative palm oil example. Neundorfer readily confirms his interpretation and elaborates on consumer trends. | |
| Portfolio Spotlight: Shadia Segala and Kinside's Childcare Solutions | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Raz asks whether there is a recent surge in ideas from founders of color amid new VC initiatives. Neundorfer politely reframes the premise, clarifying that the supply of underrepresented founders has always existed but previously lacked institutional access. | |
| Assessing the Risks, Return Demands, and Alignment of Venture Capital | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | Drawing from his podcast archive, Raz challenges the traditional venture capital model regarding rigid 10x return demands and forced scale. Neundorfer validates the criticism and advises founders to thoroughly diligence prospective investors. | |
| Navigating Crisis-Era Fundraising and the Pitch Collective Initiative | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Raz cites the historical stat that half of Fortune 500 companies were founded during downturns to ask if now is a good time to launch. Neundorfer nuances the conventional VC optimism by citing her firm's survey data showing 70% of early-stage founders facing drying capital. | |
| Mitigating Systemic Bias Through Standardized Diligence Practices | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | After Neundorfer discusses standardizing diligence questions to mitigate systemic and geographic bias, Raz reinforces her point by citing Shopify founder Tobi Lütke's resistance to moving from Ottawa. Neundorfer then outlines tactical advice for virtual pitches. | |
| Three Pillars of Startup Evaluation and Episode Conclusion | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Raz asks whether investment decisions are driven by intuition or quantitative spreadsheet analysis. Neundorfer articulates her three core evaluation criteria—market size, customer passion, and founder fit—before concluding warmly. |
Statements from this episode (11)
Neundorfer: Traditional venture capital's lack of access has underserved diverse founders
“What we're doing differently is really building a venture firm that is designed around access and transparency. That's not what venture has traditionally been known for. And it's what has really underserved women and underrepresented founders.”
Neundorfer: All-female founding teams received just 3% of 2019 venture capital
“In 2019, female only teams received just three percent of venture dollars, and if a woman happened to have a male co-founder, she received 11% of venture dollars”
Neundorfer: Black female founders raise two cents per male-founder dollar at seed
“So for every dollar that a male founder raises at the pre-seed or seed stage, a woman raises 38 cents, and a Black woman raises just two cents.”
Neundorfer: January Ventures has accepted cold pitches since the firm launched
“From the day that we launched, we had been open to cold pitches.”
Neundorfer: January Ventures received 400 cold pitches in its first week
“We saw 400 pitches within the first week.”
Neundorfer: Diverse founder pipeline has always existed, not a new surge
“I would say that that supply of black Latinx, LGBTQ, that supply has always been there. And so for us, it's not that we're suddenly seeing a new surge now.”
Neundorfer: Founders must diligence specific VC funds and individual lead partners
“The second question, if founders are interested in venture capital, is to really do the diligence on the fund and the partner who is leading that deal, because there's just a wide variety of outcomes that funds are shooting towards, and stylistic differences b…”
Neundorfer: 70% of surveyed early-stage founders saw funding drying up post-COVID
“Right after COVID hit in April, we did a survey of our early stage founders. We talked to 250 early stage founders in our community, and it was interesting. 50% felt that COVID would negatively impact their business, but 50% had already pivoted, which just spe…”
Neundorfer: January Ventures organizes joint pitches with 10 to 15 other GPs
“One of the things we did and continue to do is an event called Pitch Collective. We have all these inbound cold pitches, right, where we're meeting founders who aren't in our network, but we realize that, you know, they're just pitching us, and at the end of t…”
Neundorfer: January Ventures scripts diligence questions to eliminate founder bias
“One of the ways that bias can show up is in the things that venture capitalists ask founders when they're in a diligence meeting, and so we've taken a really hard look at that, and I've actually begun to script out our, you know, the key questions that we want…”
Neundorfer: Recorded video pitches stand out far more than static decks
“One thing that we really love is when founders do, you know, whether it's using Loom or some other screen recording, Send us a pitch that is not just a slide deck. It's them delivering the pitch, and there's nothing better than that.”