Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers

Updated: 16 Jul 2025 • 153 episodes
ventureunlocked.substack.com/podcast

Venture Unlocked is the playbook for starting, operating, & scaling a successful venture capital firm. Samir Kaji, Host of Venture Unlocked has +20-years of experience assisting & advising startups and venture firms. Listen for VC fund guidance. ventureunlocked.substack.com

Show episodes

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the business of venture capital. In today’s episode, we are joined by Nakul Mandan, who is the fou

52 min
00:00
52:25
No file found

I recently joined Turner Novak on The Peel for a conversation about the current state of private markets and the realities facing fund managers and investors today. We discussed why fundraising is particularly difficult right now for both emerging and established venture funds, and examined some of the structural force

102 min
00:00
01:42:01
No file found

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. In this episode, I sat down with Logan Bartlett, Managing Director of Redpoint Ventures. We explore the evolving landscape of venture capital and startup investing and dive deep into the challenges f

50 min
00:00
50:30
No file found

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. Welcome to another episode of Venture Unlocked. In this episode, I had the pleasure of welcoming Villi Iltchev, founder and managing partner of Category Ventures. Villi has had a long history in tech

43 min
00:00
43:53
No file found

Today, I sat down with Victor Lazarte, a Benchmark partner who transitioned from founding a billion-dollar mobile gaming company in Brazil to becoming a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley with Benchmark in 2023. Victor shared Benchmark's unique investment philosophy, which focuses on deep, meaningful partnerships wit

45 min
00:00
45:00
No file found

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. Had a great conversation recently with Tomasz Tunguz Founder and General Partner at Theory Ventures. We dug into how AI is reshaping venture capital and everyday life, from the rapid advancements in

35 min
00:00
35:35
No file found