High Stakes

Zero Churn, 90% Close Rate: The Customer Journey VCs Look For | Paige Soya & Mike Desai (CEO, Truentity Health)

In this episode of High Stakes, K Street Capital Managing Partner Paige Soya continues the Venture Capital 101 season with a conversation about the user journey: how prod

How VCs Actually Think About Startup Valuations? | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala & K Street Capital

What actually determines what a startup is worth? In this episode of High Stakes, K Street Capital’s Paige Soya and Nick Duafala are joined by investment team members Jo

What Makes a Business VC-Backable? | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala, & Jon Sherry (Alium, Ex-CB Insights)

What makes a business venture-backable? In this episode of High Stakes, K Street Capital’s Paige Soya and Nick Duafala sit down with Jonathan Sherry, founder and CEO of

Learn the Lingo VCs Actually Use | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala, & K Street Capital

For years, founders and investors have used terms like “fintech,” “SaaS,” and “platform” without always having a shared definition. But as venture firms rely more heavily

Go-to-Market Is the Moat | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala, and Mark Schacknies (NFTYDoor)

What actually creates a competitive moat? For years, founders believed the answer was simple: build a better product. Today, venture investors increasingly believe the

How VCs Structure Venture Deals | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala & Scott Stern (Partner, Origin Ventures)

Not all venture deals are created equal, and understanding the fine print can make a significant difference for founders. In this episode of High Stakes, K Street Capita

How VCs Evaluate Pre-Revenue Startups | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala & Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures)

What makes a pre-revenue startup worth investing in? Before there's revenue, traction, or a long list of customers, venture investors have to make decisions with limited

Venture Liquidity, Secondaries & How VCs Exit | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala & Andrew (Principal at Savano Capital)

How do venture capital firms actually exit their investments when startups are staying private longer than ever before? On this episode of High Stakes, hosts Paige Soya

VC Deal Timelines & Due Diligence | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala & Matt Bressler (Lookout Ventures & Fmr TDF Ventures)

How long does it actually take to raise venture capital? In this episode of High Stakes, Paige Soya and Nick Duafala sit down with Matt Bressler, Co-Founder and General

Power Dynamics in VC | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala, Haley Bryant (Hustle Fund), & Ann Marie Guzzi (Dalmatian Ops, Angel Investor & Agora Initiative)

In this episode of High Stakes, K Street Capital’s Paige Soya and co-host Nick Duafala sit down with Haley Bryant, Partner at Hustle Fund, and Ann Marie Guzzi, angel inve

How VCs Evaluate Founding Teams | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala, & Neil Shah (CEO, ThinkNimble)

Most people assume VCs are evaluating traction, revenue, or the pitch deck first. Those things matter — but often, the real signal is something harder to quantify: how a

Angel Investors vs. VCs | Paige Soya & Dadi Akhavan (Startup-to-IPO Founder)

In this episode of High Stakes, Paige Soya sits down with Dadi Akhavan, a startup-to-IPO founder and angel investor, to break down one of the most important dynamics in e

How VCs Source Deals | Paige Soya, Nick Duafala & Taylor Margot (Partner, Lytical Ventures)

How do venture capitalists actually find deals and how can founders break into those conversations? In this episode of High Stakes, Paige Soya and Nick Duafala are joined

Not All Capital Is Created Equal: Venture Capital vs. Other Funding | Paige Soya & Jill Ralph (Former Chemonics Capital and Motley Fool)

Venture capital is one of the most misunderstood asset classes in investing and one of the most powerful when approached correctly. In this episode of High Stakes, K Str

An Introduction to Venture Capital: Meet your hosts | Paige Soya & Nick Duafala at K Street Capital: Season 4 of High Stakes

Welcome to Season 4 of High Stakes and this season we’re starting with the fundamentals. In Venture Capital 101, K Street Capital Managing Partner Paige Soya and Princip

Unlocking Women Investing in VC with Julie Castro Abrams

In this episode of High Stakes, host Paige Soya, Managing Partner at K Street Capital, sits down with Julie Castro Abrams, GP and Founder of How Women Invest, for a candi

What VCs and Angel Investors are seeing from Y-Combinator in 2025

In this episode of High Stakes, K Street Capital Managing Partner, Paige Soya, sits down with Gabriel Jarrosson, Managing Partner at Lobster Capital, to unpack how Y Comb

How Early Funding Rounds a Shape Startup's Future

The High-Stakes Decisions Behind Early Fundraising: When to Raise, Who to Raise From, and How Much Equity to Give Up In this episode of High Stakes, host Paige Soya sits

How Diverse Founders Drive Bigger Wins

Many investors still see backing diverse founders as a bigger risk. In this episode of High Stakes, Paige Soya sits down with Melissa Bradley, General Partner at BAE Ven

The Art and Science of Diligence in Early-Stage VC

How do investors evaluate founders when there’s little or no traction? What really drives decisions in early-stage venture capital? In this episode of High Stakes, host