Fireside with a VC

In this episode of Fireside with a VC, I sit down with John Frankel, founder and partner at ff Venture Capital, to discuss:· The rise of AI Point Solutions (AIPS)· ff VC’s new fund driving innovation in energy and manufacturing· How VC fund size and strategy influence performance across different economic cyclesJohn shares insights on how targeted AI solutions and sector-focused innovation can rejuvenate America’s competitiveness — and what it takes for a venture fund to thrive or fail under shifting market conditions.Upcoming Live EventHear John present his fund strategy at 7BC’s Global VC Demo Day in New York City on September 17th, 2025, alongside 100+ VCs, family offices, institutional investors, HNWIs, startups, and more. Join us for a 2-hour networkingreception following 7 hand-selected VCs presenting their funds.👉 Register here: https://lu.ma/f3qxubi5📌NYC is the 4th stop of our global tour.Apply to attend our upcoming events: https://lu.ma/user/usr-8Y0b18KjVLZhAPmGlobal Tour Dates🍎 New York City – September 17, 2025 – Host: Brown Rudnick🇺🇸 Washington DC – September 25, 2025 – Host: Foley (all-star VC panel + networking, not VC Demo Day)🇨🇱 Austin – October 14, 2025 – Host: CBRE🇺🇸 San Francisco – October 29, 2025 (Day after TechCrunch Disrupt) – Host: Greenberg Traurig☀️ Los Angeles / Santa Monica – November 5, 2025 – Host: ExpertDOJO🌴 Miami – December 4, 2025 (During Art Basel, Dec 3-7)🇦🇪 Dubai – February 2026🇨🇱 Austin – March 18, 2026 (SXSW VC-LP mixer – no VC Demo Day) – Host: CBRE🍎 New York City – April 2026 – Host: Brown Rudnick🇺🇸 San Francisco – April 2026 – Host: Greenberg Traurig🇸🇬 Singapore – May 2026 – Host: Greenberg Traurig🇩🇪 Berlin – June 11, 2026 (Day after SuperVenture)🇬🇧 London – June 16, 2026 – Host: Brown Rudnick

E122 Fireside Chat at Global VC Demo Day London June 2025 with Neil Foster & Scott Smedresman on Fireside with a VC. Discussing the changes and market dynamics of the VC startup ecosystems in London, New York, and Silicon Valley. What has changed and how should strategies adjust?🚀 VCs: Pitch your fund to LPs forfree at the Global VC Demo Day: https://www.7bc.vc/events📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube:https://youtu.be/J1wcOGGqZOc🎙 Find all episodes of Fireside with a VC: https://www.7bc.vc/podcast💡 Learn more about Neil Foster & Scott Smedresman and BrownRudnickhere: · https://brownrudnick.com/· https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-foster-6b87405/· https://linkedin.com/in/scottsmedresman💰 Learn more about 7BC Venture Capital: https://7bc.vc📩 Contact Andrew Romans: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/📚 Find Andrew's 4 books on VC & tech here: http://rb.gy/x1jrr2 Join us at our in-person events where we host a VIP dinner for 20 individuals and Global VC Demo Day events for roughly 100 approved VCs, LPs, and select participants:Apply to attend our upcoming events: https://lu.ma/user/usr-8Y0b18KjVLZhAPm🍎 New York City – September 17, 2025 –Host: Brown Rudnick🇺🇸 Washington DC – September 25, 2025 – Host: Foley🇨🇱 Austin – October 14, 2025 – Host: CBRE🇺🇸 San Francisco – October 29, 2025 (Dayafter TechCrunch Disrupt) - Host: Greenberg Traurig ☀️ Los Angeles / Santa Monica – November 5,2025 – Host: ExpertDOJO 🌴 Miami – December 4, 2025 (During ArtBasel, Dec 3-7) 🇦🇪 Dubai – February 2026 🍎 New York City – April, 2026 – Host: BrownRudnick🇺🇸 San Francisco – April, 2026- Host: Greenberg Traurig 🇸🇬 Singapore – May,2026 – Host: Greenberg Traurig 🇩🇪 Berlin – June 11, 2026 – Day after SuperVenture🇬🇧 London – June 16, 2026 – Host: BrownRudnick

Greg Kidd on Fireside with a VC. Greg recently acquired VastBank | Fintech Pioneer | Early Investor: Twitter, Square, Coinbase, Solana | Ex-Ripple (#10) | Built & Scaled First Company to IPO | Co-Founder, GlobaliD | CEO, USBC | Ex Federal Reserve | Former roommate with Jack Dorsey. Greg and I get into a few topics, including all things related to the future of finance, banking, payments, USDC vs USBC, identity being added to crypto payments and transactions, open banking and fair access, democratizing money, 10,000% markups banks take on ACH and wire transfers over the Fed charges, banking without borders, who needs Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Google or Apple to take rent on payments and how to stop this, importance of securitization and tokenization of real assets, risk management in a world of crypto and digitized centralized and decentralized banking and finance. 📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Hpf1mdePa0g🎙 Find all episodes of Fireside with a VC: https://www.7bc.vc/podcast💡 Learn more about Greg and his private investment firm Hard Yaka Ventures: https://www.hardyaka.com/. 💰 Learn more about 7BC Venture Capital: https://7bc.vc📩 Contact Andrew Romans: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romans/ 🚀 VCs: Pitch your fund to LPs for free at the Global VC Demo Day: https://www.7bc.vc/events🔹 Singapore – May 6, 2025: https://lu.ma/hgij4ynk🔹 San Francisco – May 21, 2025: https://lu.ma/00xkzshf🔹 London – June 17, 2025: https://lu.ma/br2zb72h🔹 New York City – September 17, 2025📩 Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive VC & startup insights: https://subscribe.7bcventurecapital.com📚 Get Andrew's latest books:Masters of Raising Venture Capital: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHH5M4TM/Masters of Corporate Venture Capital: http://rb.gy/u46e9r💬 Join the conversation! Leave your comments and let us know your thoughts on this episode.

E118 Voice AI with Phonely.ai CEO Will Bodewes on Fireside with a VC discussing how the Voice AI space is evolving so quickly to integrate into existing systems and workflows of the HIPAA compliant front desk at a medical clinic or large call center delivering huge cost savings, rapidly increasing revenues, and providing a much better level of service with automated switching into most spoken languages and constantly improving and A/B testing what works best. Links and Resources: Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mp6zt5pqvzg. Find all episodes of Fireside with a VC on your favorite podcast platform: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/FiresideVC. Learn more about Phonely: https://www.phonely.ai/. Contact Phonely CEO Will Bodewes: will@phonely.ai. Learn more about 7BC Venture Capital here: https://7bc.vc/. Inviting VCs to pitch their VC fund to LPs for free at the Global VC Demo Day here: https://www.7bc.vc/events. Register for our VC-LP-founder events: Austin SXSW, March 11, 20225 - https://lu.ma/mgsso7p2. Singapore, May 7, 2025 - https://lu.ma/hgij4ynk. San Francisco, May 21, 2025 - https://lu.ma/00xkzshf. London, June 17, 2025 - https://lu.ma/br2zb72h. Join our Newsletter to get our insights and curated content from the VC-startup ecosystem - Fireside with a VC: https://subscribe.7bcventurecapital.com. Get Andrew's new book here: Masters of Raising Venture Capital: https://www.amazon.com//dp/B0DHH5M4TM/. Get Andrew's book on Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) here: Masters of Corporate Venture Capital: http://rb.gy/u46e9r. Join the conversation, leave comments, and tell us what you think about these topics and this episode.

E116 Nada CityFunds, a new way to own real estate, w/ CEO Tore Steen on Fireside with a VC. Tore is the CEO of Nada which operates CityFunds. Nada helps homeowners and individual investors solve the challenge of accessing and investing in home equity by providing a platform for home equity investment without additional debt or monthly payments. Homeowners sell a home share in exchange for cash and investors may invest in a CityFund that owns home shares in many homes in a specific high growth city or invest in the entire basket of home shares across multiple cities. Tore previously cofounded CrowdStreet, the largest online real estate investment platform in the U.S. having raised and invested over $4.4bn primarily from accredited and retail investors, where he raised over $50m of VC funding and additional venture debt funding. Tore joined Nada first as a board member and now as CEO. Links and Resources: Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uvDWJvJMuzI. Find all episodes of Fireside with a VC on your favorite podcast platform: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/FiresideVC. Learn more about Nada and their CityFunds: https://www.nada.co/ https://www.cityfunds.com/ Follow on Tore on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toresteen/ Contact Tore: tore@nada.co Follow Andrew Romans on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/romans/. Join our Newsletter to get our insights and curated content from the VC-startup ecosystem - Fireside with a VC: https://subscribe.7bc.vc. Learn more about 7BC Venture Capital here: https://7bc.vc/. Get Andrew's new book here: Masters of Raising Venture Capital: https://www.amazon.com//dp/B0DHH5M4TM/. Get Andrew's book on Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) here: Masters of Corporate Venture Capital: http://rb.gy/u46e9r. Join the conversation, leave comments, and tell us what you think about these topics and this episode.

E114 How Antler became the most active VC globally so quickly – Anthony Millet, Partner & Co-Head Antler Capital, on Fireside with a VC Anthony Millet discusses how Antler quickly became the most active VC globally since founding in 2018 with a team of 300 investing in 500 startups per year out of offices in 30 cities on 6 continents. Pre-Seed to Series A and beyond. Meet Anthony Millet in person next week in Palo Alto at the 7BC Venture Capital event October 29, 2024 from 5 to 9 pm. Links and Resources: Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Y92-7ZscN2Y. Meet Anthony Millet in person and hear him on the VC panel: https://lu.ma/1o2zs7x8. Find all episodes of Fireside with a VC on your favorite podcast platform: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/FiresideVC. Learn more about Antler: https://www.antler.co/. Follow Anthony Millet on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-millet-9327713/ Follow Andrew Romans on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/romans/. Join our Newsletter to get our insights and curated content from the VC-startup ecosystem - Fireside with a VC: https://subscribe.7bc.vc. Learn more about 7BC Venture Capital here: https://7bc.vc/. Join the conversation, leave comments, and tell us what you think about these topics and this episode.

E112 A walk through an NVCA VC Term Sheet for a Series A funding round with Jason Putnam Gordon, legendary Silicon Valley VC lawyer and Partner at K&L Gates, one of the premier VC-focused law firms. This episode literally walks through every term in a term sheet with a lawyer and VC discussing each term, explaining what they mean, and which ones are worth fighting for. Lawyers like Jason can be very expensive but worth every penny. Strap in for a free masterclass! Links and Resources: Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/F2MnHqWFBHA. Find all episodes of Fireside with a VC on your favorite podcast platform: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/FiresideVC. Learn more about the K&L Gates: https://www.klgates.com/firm-overview. Follow Jason Putnam Gordon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonputnamgordon/ Follow Andrew Romans on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/romans/. Join our Newsletter to get our insights and curated content from the VC-startup ecosystem - Fireside with a VC: https://subscribe.7bc.vc. Learn more about 7BC Venture Capital here: https://7bc.vc/. Join the conversation, leave comments, and tell us what you think about these topics and this episode.

E110 Austin, Texas Venture Capital on Fireside with a VC speaking with Chris Shonk, cofounder and Managing Director of ATX Venture Partners. Discussing the evolution of Austin as a tech corridor from early semiconductors to IBM, Tivoli, and a string of startup hits early days of VC here and how Austin founders had term sheets from Silicon Valley requiring relocation to California in the old days and now the reverse is happening. How Austin has become the fastest growing VC town with the highest density of VCs per capita in the United States. Links and Resources: Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HLO6VVARRM8. Find all episodes of Fireside with a VC on your favorite podcast platform: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/FiresideVC. Learn more about the ATX Ventures: https://www.atxventurepartners.com/. Follow Chris Shonk on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisshonk/. Follow Andrew Romans on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/romans/. Join our Newsletter to get our insights and curated content from the VC-startup ecosystem - Fireside with a VC: https://subscribe.7bc.vc. Learn more about 7BC Venture Capital here: https://7bc.vc/. Join the conversation, leave comments, and tell us what you think about these topics and this episode.