20VC: 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
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2016
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kara Nortman is a Partner @ Upfront Ventures, one of LA's leading venture funds. Kara is also co-founder of Seedling where she currently serves as Chairman. Prior to starting Seedling, Kara spent close to seven years at IAC where she acted as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Urbanspoon and Citysearch. Prior to Urbanspoon/Citysearch, Kara co-headed the M&A group at IAC where she lead some of their most successful acquisitions, notably Urbanspoon, Dictionary.com and Aston Hotels. While at IAC, Kara also served as a board member to Hatch Labs, IAC’s mobile technology incubator, where she recruited and advised Tinder. Kara also spent time at Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and Battery Ventures.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Kara made her way into the wonderful world of VC?
2.) Question from Greg Betinelli and Jenny Lefcourt: What is the most surprising thing about moving from an operator to a VC? What does Kara prefer more about being a VC?
3.) Having been an entrepreneur with a board, what does a good board member look like to Kara? How does Kara allocate her time amongst her portfolio?
4.) How does Kara assess founder psychology? How does Kara look to get to know the founder both post and pre-investment? What are some signs and tells for Kara of the truly successful operators?
5.) How does Kara view diversity in the VC landscape? What are prime examples of where it is going wrong? What can be done to change this? What are Kara's hopes and concerns for the future?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Kara’s Fave Blog: Both Sides of The Table
Kara’s Fave Book: Grit by Angela Duckworth
Kara's Most Recent Investment: Stem
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kara on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the 20 minute VC with your host Harry Stebbings and you can add me on Snapchat |
| 0:03.9 | at H Stebbings or you can hear more from me in long form on the fantastically named MahitoVC.com |
| 0:09.7 | where you can read all about my decision to join Atomico and the thought process and reasoning |
| 0:13.8 | behind that move. I'd absolutely love to hear your thoughts and feedback on that article. But to the |
| 0:17.9 | guest today and I'm so thrilled to welcome a start of the LA venture community to the show today in the form of Cara Norton. Now, Cara is a partner at Upfront Ventures, |
| 0:25.8 | one of LA's leading venture funds, and Cara is also a co-founder of Seedling, where she currently |
| 0:30.4 | serves as chairman, and prior to seedling, Kara spent close to seven years at IAC, where she acted as a senior vice president and general manager of Urban |
| 0:38.0 | Spoon and of City Search. And prior to Urban Spoon and City Search, Cara co-headed the MNA group |
| 0:43.2 | at IAC, where she led some of their most successful acquisitions, notably Urban Spoon, Dictionary |
| 0:48.2 | dot com, and Aston Hotels. And while at IAC, Cara also served as a board member to Hatch Labs, |
| 0:53.8 | IAC's mobile technology incubator, |
| 0:56.0 | where she recruited and advised for Tinder. |
| 0:58.2 | Kara also spent time at incredible institutions such as Microsoft, Battery Ventures, and Morgan Stanley. |
| 1:03.7 | But before we welcome Kara to the hot seat today, accounting always seemed like such a massive headache to me. |
| 1:08.3 | But it doesn't have to be. |
| 1:09.4 | Zero is beautiful, easy to use |
| 1:11.1 | online accounting software for small businesses. With Zero, you can easily manage your accounting |
| 1:15.7 | anytime, anywhere from your computer or mobile device, and when you add zero to your small |
| 1:20.2 | business, you're able to send online invoices and get paid faster, you can get an instant |
| 1:24.8 | view of your cash flow, you can track your payroll and keep tabs on |
| 1:27.9 | your inventory. You can partner with your accountant and bookkeeper in real time whenever you like. |
| 1:32.8 | You can also customize your zero experience with over 500 business apps, including advanced |
... |
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