Ben Stokes Appears on “Around the World in VC” Podcast
This week, Ben sat down with Rick Nassar, Future GP and Growth Accelerator, for a conversation about Chasing Rainbows, on Nassar’s podcast, Around The World in VC. Listen to the full episode here!
In this episode, titled “Why Investment Opportunities Are Missed in LGBTQ+ led startups by Venture Capitalists with Ben Stokes at Chasing Rainbows",” Ben discussed how and why Chasing Rainbows was founded, and how the fund is working to bridge the gap that many LGBTQ+ founders face when trying to raise capital and grow their businesses. In addition, Rick asked Ben to touch on relevant topics of what Ben looks for in GP’s and LP’s, how Ben works with LGBTQ+ founders to grow their businesses beyond capital, and the current market opportunities within the VC ecosystem in Australia, where Ben currently resides!
Toward the end of the episode, Ben offered some general advice to startup founders, and identified several factors that he believes make a founder successful:
Timing
Product
Team
Execution
Luck.
“Most importantly, what I really look for when assessing whether I think a founder will have long-term success, especially when investing so early, is scrappiness and grit, I don’t mind if the product is made of pure scaffolding and there’s two hamsters in the corner, running to keep the lights on. If you’ve got customers using your product, you are worlds ahead of those founders who’ve got no customers, even if they’ve built up a beautiful product. Obtaining great product-market fit early is a big indicator of future success.”