Majority founders only start thinking seriously about their next round when they’re already running low on cash. By then, you’re not really raising; you’re begging.

On this week’s episode of Not Another CEO, we sit down with Nick Moran, Co-Founder and General Partner at New Stack Ventures. Founded in 2015, New Stack manages close to $100 million and leads pre-seed and seed rounds with a unique mission: backing "The Outsiders," who are ambitious founders building category-defining companies outside the Bay Area and outside the obvious networks. Nick also hosts Full Ratchet, one of the first venture capital podcasts ever made, now closing in on 1,000 episodes. I know how hard it is to stay consistent with a podcast. Doing it for over a decade is a different level.

Nick shares his brutal honesty on what it actually takes to build a venture-backed business, why he tells founders to build their next pitch deck the day they close their current round, and how he evaluates the intangibles that traditional VCs completely miss.

Key Takeaways:

The Next Round Plan (NRP): Why fundraising is a continuous narrative, not a sporadic event. Nick breaks down how to align on business models, track leading indicators over lagging revenue, and build a highly targeted investor list early.
Desire Beats Talent: Most VCs look for the "Peyton Mannings" of tech, meaning those who are obvious, expensive, and pedigreed. Nick hunts for the "Tom Bradys," founders with a chip on their shoulder, undeniable ambition, and the drive to beat long odds.
Bad News Travels Fast: The ultimate trust-builder between a founder and a VC. Going dark creates anxiety; transparency during a brutal quarter is exactly what inspires an investor to throw you a lifeline.
The Power of Being an "Outsider": Building in cities like Charlotte, Nashville, Dallas, or Chicago isn't a disadvantage. When the herd concentrates in the Bay Area, the best, most capital-efficient opportunities are often found where others aren't looking.
Where the Smart Money is in AI: The shift from infrastructure to proprietary data. Nick explains why the next massive wave of AI value belongs to domain experts who control the data locked behind enterprise firewalls.

Quote of the Show:

“Do you want to be great or do you want to be happy?… You better be ready for the big game here because this is not an easy path. We're not going to be happy for the next ten years.” — Nick Moran

Connect with Nick:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-moran-a738503/
New Stack Ventures: https://www.newstack.com/
The Full Ratchet: https://www.youtube.com/@nicholasmoran3095/featured

Chapters :
00:00 Trailer

01:30 Welcome Nick Moran, New Stack Ventures

03:54 Why desire is the ultimate founder trait

10:02 First impressions and the dating phase of investing

15:34 Founder-VC fit is like marriage

20:56 The Outsiders thesis and building a national network

27:48 Inside the Next Round Plan (NRP)

32:20 Communication, bad news should travel fast

39:00 What founders misunderstand about the VC side of the table

42:10 Where the smart money is moving in AI & Closing thoughts