The 20 best podcasts to listen to if you want to break into and excel in venture capital, according to 11 industry experts
- According to a 2015 article published by Stanford Graduate School of Business, venture capital has become "a dominant force in the financing of innovative American companies."
- If you're interested in learning more about this field, podcasts are a great way to dip your toes and explore.
- Business Insider tapped 11 experts — including investors, founders of venture capital funds, managing partners, CEOs, company founders, and MBA professors — for their recommendations of the best VC podcasts to listen to.
- Their suggestions include "a16z" by Andreessen Horowitz, "How I Built This with Guy Raz" by NPR, "The Twenty Minute VC" by Harry Stebbings, "Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman" by WaitWhat Inc., and "This Week in Startups" with Jason Calacanis, among others.
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Over the last few decades, venture capital has become "a dominant force in the financing of innovative American companies," according to a 2015 article published by Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). The GSB reported that public companies with VC backing comprise 43% of public companies in America founded since 1979, and account for nearly 60% of the total market capitalization.
To help you get smarter about all things VC, Business Insider tapped 11 experts — including investors, founders of venture capital funds, managing partners, CEOs, company founders, and MBA professors — for their recommendations on the best venture capital podcasts to start listening to today.
Here are their top 20 picks.
1. "a16z" by Andreessen Horowitz
"Sonal [Chokshi] and her team at 'a16z' dig deep into particular industries, with a focus on ventures in the high tech, high growth space," noted Jennifer McFadden, associate director of entrepreneurship and a lecturer in the practice of management at the Yale School of Management. "They also do a good job breaking down many of the issues that founders face as they try to launch and grow new ventures."
McFadden liked how the show is able to "explain deep tech in a way that is accessible and interesting to a broad audience."
Mike Johnson, who is an entrepreneur in residence and lecturer at the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan, also listed "a16z" as his top pick, noting that "much of the knowledge of entrepreneurship is in venture firms." Johnson has extensive VC expertise as faculty managing director of the Zell Commercialization Fund and as a mentor in residence at the Venture Center at the University of Michigan.
"More than ever before, VCs share their views on trends, on opportunity and risk, and how startups create value with the public," said Johnson. "Much of that discussion is taking place on podcasts, and the 'a16z' podcast is one of the best."
2. "How I Built This with Guy Raz" by NPR
McFadden also loves "How I Built This," where longtime NPR correspondent and podcast host Guy Raz interviews what NPR calls "change-makers and risk-takers."
"Raz does a great job of highlighting a diverse set of founders and digging into the stories behind the brands we love," said McFadden.
Oksana Malysheva also has "How I Built This" on her short list of favorite VC podcasts. Malysheva is the CEO, managing partner, and cofounder of Austin-based accelerator Sputnik ATX, which provides accepted startups with $100,000 in seed funding and three months of structured mentoring. She is also the managing partner and president of Linden Venture Fund and previously held top strategic roles at McKinsey and Motorola.
"When the going gets rough it is often useful to hear a story of how your everyday brands were built by people like you, ordinary people with extraordinary callings and out-of-this-world grit," said Malysheva. "I like the longer format here because it often gets to the founder's 'why,' the real challenges people faced, and how they fared in those challenges. It often feels honest, raw, and real. Also a great story every single time."
3. "Y Combinator" by Y Combinator
"Everything I listen to is from the perspective of helping the Sputnik startups get better," said Malysheva. "One of the oldest and in my opinion the absolute best, short in format (30-40 minutes), ['Y Combinator' provides] accurate and practical content for startups with guests who find the right words to have the message stick."
The venture capitalist said that "Y Combinator" is the podcast she shares most often with the startup founders she invests in.
"Whatever the problem you are solving, there is likely a founder who has walked that path, and miraculously Y Combinator would know of them," Malysheva said.
4. "The Twenty Minute VC" by Harry Stebbings
"Harry Stebbings does an incredible job at giving his listeners a look into the venture capital industry, which has historically been an opaque industry," said David Sica, a partner at the VC firm Nyca Partners. "I think he's assembled a fantastic group of investors to interview, in many cases the same investors that have supported some of the largest private companies in the world."
Sica added that the podcast provides a view into how investors think about the market, as well as how they arrive at their decision of what companies to invest in.
"The interviews are a valuable resource to entrepreneurs trying to navigate the fundraising world, as well as anyone that works with early-stage companies," said Sica.
Clara Bullrich, who has 20 years of experience in private banking and asset management as a current partner at independent global investment firm Alvarium Investments and cofounder of TheVentureCity, also listens to this podcast regularly.
"Stebbings' hyper-efficient, third-of-an-hour time limit consistently results in excellent guest insights about how to make the best decisions when it comes to investing," said Bullrich. "Stebbings' time-disciplined approach cuts the noise, getting to what's essential about VC."
Another VC expert who enjoys "The Twenty Minute VC" is Tim Schigel, managing partner of Refinery Ventures, which invests in early-scale companies. Schigel has been a VC, limited partner (LP), and founder and has been in venture capital since 1998.
"Harry has a lot of great guests," said Schigel. "I think it's his youthful disposition and curiosity that makes him interesting. He brings a fun energy." (You can find the top 10 episodes of "The Twenty Minute VC" here.)
5. "Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman" by WaitWhat Inc.
Bullrich calls "Masters of Scale" "one of the best venture capital podcasts in Silicon Valley."
Hosted by LinkedIn cofounder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman, this broadcast has featured interviews with the likes of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Airbnb's Brian Chesky.
"The fundamental concept of this podcast is to show how companies grow from zero to a gazillion, while testing theories as those companies grow," emphasized Bullrich. "And, the show makes it a point to include a balance of male and female voices."
Schigel added that it's not strictly about venture, "but as a founder and investor I prefer to spend more time hearing great founder stories. If you want to be a good investor, you need to understand founders."
6. "Origins" by Notation Capital
Schigel singled out "Origins," a podcast centering on LPs — the firms that invest in VC funds — as "great for understanding the world of venture and relationships with limited partners."
He added that he always finds "the different perspectives and lenses that people view the world as interesting, which is probably why I've been a founder, GP, and an LP."
7. "The Pitch" by Gimlet Media
"The Pitch," hosted by Josh Muccio, "puts entrepreneurs in the room with real investors (who have to make a decision on the spot)," explained Craig Markovitz, assistant teaching professor of entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business.
Markovitz said that the podcast offers "great insight into how investors think and the types of pitches that resonate."
8. "StartUp" by Gimlet Media
"StartUp," which is described on the podcast's website as "A show about what it's really like to start a business," is no longer active. But Markovitz said that the archives are "worth downloading" for this award-winning documentary series that has reportedly been downloaded tens of millions of times since it launched in 2014.
"Each season follows a different story," said Markovitz. "Season one is top notch. It's about how Gimlet Media was launched. You have to listen to the episode where the founder pitches a VC on the street (it's cringeworthy) and the VC turns around and gives the entrepreneur his own pitch right back (but in the way an investor wants to hear)."
9. "Spectacular Failures" by American Public Media and the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota
Hosted by Lauren Ober, who previously hosted WAMU and NPR's "The Big Listen," this podcast dubs itself as "Big business gone bad."
Markovitz described "Spectacular Failures" as "Real life stories of failure from very successful people." Recent episodes feature some big news headlines, including "Trump's big gamble on Atlantic City" and "Toys R Us goes bust."
10. "Going Deep" with Aaron Watson
Markovitz described "Going Deep" as "Western PA entrepreneurs and leaders share insight and provide advice." It includes everything from how to go from consulting to investing in startups to trusting your gut and firing clients. Customer reviews on Apple Podcasts give this show almost uniformly five stars.
Start with the four episodes listed as the podcast's top episodes on finance and investing.
11. "Without Fail" by Gimlet Media
Hosted by Alex Blumberg, Markovitz explained that the "Without Fail" podcast includes "more real life stories of success and failure."
The show is described on Gimlet's site as "Candid conversations with people who have done hard things: what worked, what didn't, and why." Blumberg's focus is on interviewing people who have taken a major gamble, risked everything, and won or lost — and then are willing to talk candidly about their lessons.
12. "Against the Rules with Michael Lewis" by Pushkin Industries
This podcast from the bestselling author of "Moneyball," "The Big Short," and "Liar's Poker" — which is Markovitz's pick because it "tackles bigger issues," — focuses on exploring fairness (or lack of it) in financial markets, as well as other venues such as newsrooms and courts of law.
13. "Exponent with Ben Thompson and James Allworth" by Stratechery.com
"Exponent" is cohosted by the author of the Stratechery blog, which Bullrich said "offers some of the most in-depth analysis of tech and its strategic drivers that I've come across."
"This show addresses the intersect between technology and society," Bullrich said. "Looking at its subjects through the prism of aggregation theory, 'Exponent' explains what is going on with big tech companies like Facebook, Uber, and Google."
14. "TheTop" by Nathan Latka
Phil Strazzulla, founder of SelectSoftware, started his career working in venture capital at Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the oldest VC firms in Silicon Valley. From there, Strazzulla got his MBA at Harvard Business School, where he taught himself how to program and started his first company. He has invested in around 100 private tech companies over the past decade.
Strazzulla told Business Insider that one "up and coming" podcast that may not yet be on people's radar is Nathan Latka's "TheTop."
"It's an incredibly prolific show that comes out a few times per week, and dives deep into the numbers behind a given company, many of which are great investment targets," said Strazzulla. "The show also gets into the nitty gritty of the VC business from investing to LP agreements."
15. "This Week in Startups" with Jason Calacanis
Justin Kerby, founder of Something Great Marketing, a digital agency specialized in startup marketing, selected "This Week in Startups" as "a fantastic podcast for anyone in the VC world ... that features weekly guests from every industry imaginable."
The podcast is hosted by Jason Calacanis, an angel investor in Uber, Wealthfront, Robin Hood, and Trello, to name a few.
"It's a great look into the basics of startups but also into the tech industry as a whole," explained Kerby. "I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in venture capital."
Bullrich added that "This Week in Startups" "offers you an excellent heads up about what is happening in Silicon Valley, and if you like a good startup story, you won't be disappointed."
16. "The Bootstrapped VC with Arlan Hamilton" by Backstage Capital
McFadden, who hosted Backstage Capital's founder and managing partner Arlan Hamilton a couple of years ago at Yale, described Hamilton's podcast as "raw and real."
Hamilton reportedly built her VC fund — which provides seed investment to underrepresented founders including women, people of color, and LGBT tech founders — from the ground up while homeless.
"['The Bootstrapped VC'] provides a different perspective on the industry," said McFadden.
17. "RISE Podcast with Rachel Hollis" by HOLLIS
The "RISE Podcast" is hosted by New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hollis.
"I love this as a special motivation for women founders and investors, including myself," shared Malysheva. "To me, Rachel Hollis has an extraordinary gift of motivating women to dig deep, shed excuses for why you 'can't,' silence the inner critic in you and the critic you see in the 'lady next door,' or your mother-in-law, or whoever else because they don't matter."
She added that Hollis "finds just the right words" to help female founders and investors "pursue their dream day in and day out," and the guests on her podcast do the same.
18. "Invest Like the Best" by Patrick O'Shaughnessy
Venture investor Luke Pappas is a principal on the technology investing team at New Enterprise Associates (NEA) focused on consumer and enterprise companies. He is a board observer of Aquabyte, goop, PlayVS, Sitetracker, Stockwell, and TravelBank, as well as involved in NEA's investments in many early-stage companies.
Pappas chose "Invest Like the Best" "for understanding different investment strategies and perspectives on markets."
Host Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management and refers to his podcast as "The Investor's Field Guide."
19. "Freakonomics Radio with Stephen J. Dubner" by Steven J. Dubner and Stephen Levitt
Pappas recommended "Freakonomics Radio" by the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen J. Dubner of "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" "for the interesting deep dives into more nuanced subjects."
The Freakonomics website describes this podcast as a way to "discover the hidden side of everything."
20. "Money for the Rest of Us" by J. David Stein
Sophie von Laer — who is the founder and CEO at NAFS Coach, which offers risk management analysis to Fortune 500 companies — recommended "Money for the Rest of Us" as "a great podcast that is for the naive investor who is intimidated by the technical terms and the decision fatigue caused by the variety and variability of the current marketplace."
Hosted by former chief investment strategist J. David Stein, the podcast reportedly has over 12 million downloads and reaches 40,000 listeners per episode.
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