215. Crisis Coverage w/ Darren Bechtel - The Built World & Construction Tech, Post-Pandemic

Darren Bechtel of Brick & Mortar Ventures joins Nick on a special Crisis Coverage installment to discuss The Built World in Crisis. In this episode, we cover: Background and path to venture? South Park... must be a story behind the name there? Overview of the thesis at Brick & Mortar? Just have to say... I suspect that the impacts of this crisis on the built world will be more profound that we can possibly imagine... and I won't pretend to know what those might be. Can you talk a bit about what you're seeing and what that could mean for the future? Circling back to your path to venture... How did your family react to your pursuit of a career in VC in lieu of the family business? Walk us through your first angel investment -- was it opportunistic or were you looking for startup investments actively? How'd that one turn out? Prior to founding the firm, were there any existing firms in the space that you looked to for inspiration? Talk about your first fundraise... you had access to a lot more capital than you closed. Why didn't you raise more? What was the biggest mistake you made when launching your first fund? Now that you're nearly 5 years into Brick and Mortar, is Built/ Construction tech where you expected it to be and are you as bullish on it now as you were then? Do you think a major infrastructure bill gets passed? Trump has been talking about this for years and it seems like, with the current stimulus, now is his opportunity? I have to imagine this will be a big tailwind for some of your portcos (and prospectives)? Safety has been an area of interest that you've spoken about in the past. How does that apply in the context of your investment focus and does that change w/ the current crisis? What advice would you give to a founder in the built technology space and how might that advice differ from the standard advice given to SaaS or consumer tech companies? To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.