Hall is joined by Michael Smerklo, co-founder and managing director of Next Coast Ventures. Hall and Michael kickoff this episode learning about Michael's background before investing in early-stage companies. Michaels background includes being a CPA and investment...

This week, The Atlantic ran an article by an MBA student who was noticing how startups aren’t ‘cool’ anymore. Between the threat of an economic downturn and looming student-loan payments, the author discusses how coffee-break conversations about business ideas with...

I never thought I would start a blog post with such an audacious claim about the journalistic acumen of The Economist. However, having just finished reading The Economist’s September 1st cover story on Silicon Valley titled: “a victim of its own success,” I felt...

As a venture capitalist, I often get asked what an ideal investment looks like for my firm. What metrics do we look at to assess a business model? What’s our sweet spot? What makes us write the check? I joke that we have a highly proprietary secret formula, unique to...

'"People are busy. There are six billion people on the planet yet none of them wake up in the morning and think: ‘Geez, I wonder if there is a new product out there I should know about.'" -Marc Andreessen interview on Brian Koppelman’s podcast As a venture capitalist,...

When you’re a CEO, you have countless things to do every day. You are always pressed for time, you’re being pulled in a million different directions and you’re hyper-focused on growth. So you have to prioritize these never-ending tasks, and it’s only natural that...