One of my favorite podcasts is the Frank Peters Show in which Frank Peters describes the startup scene in southern California. A long-time member of the Tech Coast angels, Frank interviews entrepreneurs, venture capitalist and angels about their experiences. I met Frank last year at the Angel Capital Association summit meeting in Chicago in which he gave a round table talk on generating PR. As a podcast it’s one of the best in both content and production values. It is unique in content since there are very few podcasts that focus on startup investing. This shows up in Frank’s download numbers which reach 25,000 monthly. Frank is also a prolific podcaster as he’s been doing this for about two years and has over 100 podcasts already published on his web site.
One of my favorite shows is the one with Dave Berkus, who Frank called the Uber Angel. In this interview Dave talks about sitting on the board of startups and helping the entrepreneur get the business off the ground. Dave summed it up well when he said that all companies go through three crises. The first is the “funding crisis” which is why the company comes to the angels and VCs in the first place – to get funding for their startup. The second is the “operating crisis” in which the company now has the funding but must hire and put the core processes in place to grow the company. Third is the “quality crisis” in which the company produces a product and places it in the market place and undoubtedly encounters problems that must be resolved. In working with startups in Austin, I found that view rather insightful. If you’ve invested in a startup you can look forward to these three phases with expectation rather than surprise when the company comes back struggling with one of these issues.
I recommend you download a Frank Peter podcast when you have the chance. The interviews with angels and entrepreneurs are quite insightful.
Best regards,
Hall T.
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