154. NEA's Investment Process & The Key Ingredients for Startup Success (Ben Narasin)

Ben Narasin of NEA joins Nick to discuss how NEA makes decisions, why he joined the firm and the key traits he looks for in founders. In this episode, we cover: -Why he made the move to NEA -His Investment focus -the role of Venture Partner at NEA -the investment process the firm... and if decisions are made by committee -Ben's Evaluation Process -the key factor that every successful founder possesses -The common red flags that pop up and cause him to say no to strong startups -Why he believes his job is to say no -How he assess opportunities with 100 reasons to say yes and one reason to say no -Ben's evolving approach toward weighing risk factors in startups -how the tech and investing industry has changed over the past decade -how AUM is driving a bifurcation in venture -finally we get Ben's response to the recent Techcrunch article highlighting the crash in early-stage VC funding   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.