Jun 8, 2026 · 39 min · 19 segments
Austin Clements, a co-founder and Managing Partner at a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm, shares secrets about how the industry works and why his company is rooted in economic inclusion. Slauson…
Austin ClementsGuest
Lee HawkinsHost
What venture capital actually means, a lot of people get it confused with angel investing, or those are two very similar things.
The idea is like on Shark Tank, that's angel investing, where you have people that are wealthy, They have their own money, they made their own money, and they're putting money toward new business ideas that they participate in, take a small ownership percentage in, and then if that idea is successful, they get a huge return on their money potentially.
Venture capital, on the other hand, is similar Where the main distinction is, instead of just investing our money, we're actually managing other people's money.
So this might be a university endowment that has billions of dollars under management.
It might be a foundation that has a lot of money, or it might actually be some high net worth individuals.
that all give us their money, we take that pool of money and then we invest it in new business ideas.
And because that is our job, we are professional investors, we have to work really closely with the companies to try to get them from just an idea all the way to a multi-billion dollar company.
What venture capital actually means, a lot of people get it confused with angel investing, or those are two very similar things.
The idea is like on Shark Tank, that's angel investing, where you have people that are wealthy, They have their own money, they made their own money, and they're putting money toward new business ideas that they participate in, take a small ownership percentage in, and then if that idea is successful, they get a huge return on their money potentially.
Venture capital, on the other hand, is similar Where the main distinction is, instead of just investing our money, we're actually managing other people's money.
So this might be a university endowment that has billions of dollars under management.
It might be a foundation that has a lot of money, or it might actually be some high net worth individuals.
that all give us their money, we take that pool of money and then we invest it in new business ideas.
And because that is our job, we are professional investors, we have to work really closely with the companies to try to get them from just an idea all the way to a multi-billion dollar company.
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