#174 – Nick Moran | Why Outsider Founders Win and How New Stack Picks the Best Early-Stage Teams

Nick Moran is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and the Founder & General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a Chicago-based fund backing early-stage, often first-time founders building in emerging markets and overlooked categories.He’s also the creator and host of The Full Ratchet, one of the industry’s longest-running and most respected venture capital podcasts, where he’s interviewed hundreds of top investors and operators.Before launching New Stack, Nick led product management for a Fortune 500 company and created The Firehose, a patented IoT product that was later acquired. His operator background heavily shapes his hands-on approach to supporting founders.Today, Nick is known for championing underrepresented geographies and unconventional entrepreneurs, blending sharp investment judgment with deep empathy for builders navigating the earliest stages.