Working listening
When you are doing diligence
The shows to reach for when you have a live opportunity and need to sound like someone who has assessed one before.
Diligence is largely a matter of knowing which question to ask next, and that knowledge is mostly borrowed. These shows are where to borrow it — they are the ones that discuss operating mechanics in enough detail that you can calibrate whether a founder's numbers are plausible.
The practical method is to listen to two or three episodes in the specific category you are assessing shortly before the founder meeting. Ideas absorbed the week before turn into questions; ideas absorbed a year ago turn into vague unease.
- 01Lenny's Podcast
The single best source for whether a growth channel, retention curve or pricing model is plausible, described by the people who ran them.
- 02SaaStr
If the company sells business software, this gives you the benchmarks — sales cycles, churn, win rates — against which to judge what you are being told.
- 03Business Breakdowns
Teaches the question set for taking any business apart. The questions work just as well on a company with twelve customers as on a listed one.
- 04The Pitch
For the questions themselves. Listen to how experienced investors phrase a challenge without antagonising the founder.
- 0520VC
For what the next round requires. If you know what a Series A partner needs to see, you know what your money has to buy.