# Audacious Ventures

> Audacious Ventures is a venture capital firm that backs founders capable of improbable outcomes.

Founded by Nakul Mandan. Audacious also publishes "Knuckle Up with Nakul," a podcast on the how of building iconic companies (see https://www.audacious.co/conversations).

## Key pages

- [Why Audacious](https://www.audacious.co/whyAudacious): the firm's thesis and approach.
- [Team](https://www.audacious.co/team): the people behind Audacious Ventures.
- [Portfolio](https://www.audacious.co/portfolio): companies Audacious has backed.
- [Thoughts](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts): essays and perspectives.
- [Conversations](https://www.audacious.co/conversations): the Knuckle Up podcast.

## Team

- Nakul Mandan — Founder & Partner
- Muzzammil Zaveri — Partner
- Samantha Price — Talent Partner
- Caitlin Byrnes — Talent
- Will Genesen — Investor
- Catherine McClure — Talent
- Max Zang — Investor
- Francesca Gnuva — Investor
- Jatin Garg — AI Lead
- Jaime Felix — CFO
- Julia de Petra  — Talent
- Yousuf Shehadi — Talent

## Portfolio

- Reflection AI
- WorkOS
- Decagon
- Maxima
- Terac
- Avoca
- Saris AI
- Lightfield
- Nominal
- Black Ore
- Absurd
- Alpine
- Bestever
- Cardinal
- Convoke
- Curious Cardinals
- District
- DonorAtlas
- DoubleO
- Flint
- General Legal
- Ghost
- Implied
- Logic
- Mithra
- Multiverse
- NenAI
- Osmosis
- Outspeed
- Pierre
- Planette
- Propel
- Quadrant Health
- Quadrillion
- Schoolytics
- SourceReady
- Suppli
- Synquery
- Tela
- Tezi
- Vartana
- Woven
- Zoza

## Thoughts

- [Podcast Interview: The Peel with Turner Novak](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/peel): Nakul's immigrant journey, thoughts on starting a new firm, recruiting for startups and more!
- [What comes in the way of great recruiting?](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/what-comes-in-the-way-of-great-recruiting): Recruiting exceptional talent follows a power law in that a few key hires will bend the arc of a company's future. But recruiting amazing talent is way, way harder than meets the eye. What gets in the way of following all the great wisdom that's already out there on recruiting?
- [Traits I look for in founders](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/traits-i-look-for-in-founders): The scarcest resource in the game of startups is that force of nature founder who can will a company of substance and magnitude into existence. What do we look for when trying to find that outlier founder?
- [Fighting For and Closing Elite Talent](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/fighting-for-and-closing-elite-talent): Sam's playbook for how to sell and close 10x candidates at the earliest stages of building, including how to: entice with the anti-sell, use reference calls to close instead, win over the candidate’s spouse to win the deal, and so much more.
- [Thoughts On Non-Linear Growth In B2B Startups](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/non-linearity-in-b2b): Why most B2B companies take 5-10 years to scale when they could theoretically do it faster, and the two distribution models that actually enable explosive growth.
- [Come inflect Audacious' trajectory with AI!](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/ai-engineer-role): Audacious Ventures is hiring an AI Engineer. Come level us up with intelligent automations across the board!
- [Podcast Interview: Venture Unlocked with Samir Kaji](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/venture-unlocked-with-samir-kaji): Nakul and Samir discuss the gaps in the early stage venture market, Audacious' approach to partnering with founders, Nakul's approach to company culture and hiring for the Audacious team and how we attack the four pillars that drive VC returns: sourcing, picking, winning, helping.
- [Excitement convergence: Timing your offer right](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/timing-your-offer-right): The art of closing top talent lies in recognizing "excitement convergence"—that perfect moment when candidate enthusiasm and founder conviction peak simultaneously, avoiding the twin pitfalls of moving too slowly or rushing prematurely.
- [An Immigrant Living the American Dream](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/an-immigrant-living-the-american-dream): Personal reflection on 15 years in America, from Battery Ventures associate to a GP at Lightspeed to founding Audacious to new US citizen. Sharing my perspectives as an immigrant.
- [Got to $500K ARR. What Next?](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/500k-arr-what-next): Framework for scaling B2B SaaS from $500K-$750K ARR to $5M+ by transitioning from founder-led sales to a repeatable sales engine with detailed hiring timelines and quota planning.
- [Our investment in Tezi: The world's first autonomous recruiter](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/investing-in-tezi): AI-powered Tezi is revolutionizing recruiting by autonomously sourcing and screening candidates, solving the industry's biggest pain point.
- [Thoughts that inform my investment thinking these days… (2024 version)](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/thoughts-that-inform-my-investment-thinking-2024)
- [Tweetstorm: Some Thoughts On Early Stage Fund Raising](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/tweetstorm-some-thoughts-on-early-stage-fund-raising): Seven key lessons from a fundraising workshop: create emotional excitement, sell big vision, focus on "Why Me/Now," treat it like enterprise sales, manage psychology, vet partners, and embrace the challenge.
- [Announcing Audacious 2.0: Our $150M second fund](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/announcing-audacious-2-150m-second-fund): Announcing Audacious Ventures' $150M second fund, combining seed-stage investing with hands-on recruiting to help force-of-nature founders build A+ teams.
- [Tweetstorm: $0-$3M ARR Go-To-Market Hiring Sequence For SaaS Startups](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/3m-arr-gtm-hiring): Step-by-step GTM hiring guide for SaaS startups scaling from $0-3M ARR, covering CEO selling, BDR/AE sequencing, and first marketing hires with timing considerations.
- [Thoughts that inform my investment thinking these days…](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/thoughts-that-inform-my-investment-thinking-these-days): Five core investment principles focusing on defensible growth mechanisms, moats, founder ambition, pattern-breaking opportunities, and domain expertise advantages.
- [Tweetstorm: Underestimating the importance of sales capacity is dangerous](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/underestimating-sales-capacity-is-dangerous): A tweetstorm highlighting how growth-stage SaaS companies underestimate sales capacity planning, emphasizing the time needed to hire and ramp sales teams for future growth.
- [Tweetstorm: SDR productivity being a leading indicator of PMF in SaaS](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/sdr-productivity-pmf-leading-indicator): Tweetstorm highlighting SDR productivity metrics as early indicators of product-market fit in SaaS, focusing on conversion rates and demo scheduling consistency.
- [Tweetstorm: Preparing budgets in SaaS startups](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/tweetstorm-preparing-budgets-in-saas-startups): Tweetstorm on why SaaS founders should plan 24 months ahead instead of 12, especially when transitioning from PMF to growth mode around $1M ARR.
- [What I look for in early stage enterprise software](https://www.audacious.co/thoughts/what-i-look-for-in-early-stage-enterprise-software): Framework for evaluating Series A enterprise software investments, focusing on five key qualitative factors beyond metrics: timing, product category, market size, distribution, and moats.