Rick Heitzmann is a founder and partner of FirstMark Capital and focuses on consumer and enterprise investments. Rick has led investments in market leaders such as Pinterest, StubHub (acquired by eBay), Riot Games (acquired by Tencent), Airbnb, Shopify and much more. Prior to founding FirstMark, Rick was an entrepreneur including being a founding member of the senior management team at First Advantage which he helped grow and sell to First American. Rick has been recognized by CB Insights and the New York Times as a Top 100 Venture Capitalist globally. He serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Venture Capital Association. If you want to follow Rick on Twitter, you can do so here @rickheitzmann. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow him Here on Twitter. New episodes released every Monday and Thursday. If you would like to follow along, you can click “Subscribe” on the Apple podcast app or whichever platform you are listening on. If you enjoyed the episode, feel free to also leave a review. What attracted Rick to venture capital and high tech? What types of qualities in a founder he looks for? What makes investing in consumer difficult and different than investing in enterprise? FirstMark Capital’s competitive advantages. How founders should conduct due diligence on VC funds? What is the cadence of communication amongst founders in his portfolio? How he thinks about product market fit? What are the kinds of new marketplaces that Rick is paying attention to? How Rick thinks about online customer acquisition costs today? What are some consumer trends that Rick is excited about? What is something Rick would change when it came to venture capital? What Rick thinks about entrepreneurs building companies in secondary and tertiary markets? What is something that founders could believe is a competitive advantage, but Rick feels actually isn’t? When should a founder focus on profitability and sustainability rather than growth? One company that Rick had the opportunity to invest in, didn’t and in retrospect wish he did? One piece of advice for founders of consumer companies.

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