VentureCast David Hornik & Howard Hartenbaum

Nice ballance between random chat, real info and insight to their business.

I bought my first iPod, a 2nd gen Shuffle, two weeks before last fall's Podcamp Pittsburgh. Before that purchase, my long daily commutes were spent consuming the Carnegie's audio books and the wonderful broadcasts by West Virginia Public Radio. After the shuffle (and the astounding influence of the podcamp phenomenon) I've been hungrily listening to both present and historical podcasts across a fairly narrow spectrum: tech and investing.

Although I've been driven to create some of my own podcasts, I've been totally enthralled and inspired by the world of podcasting artists...and learning of new podcasts by listening to my daily diet. It took me some time to find Craig and David's VentureCast...and I cannot remember what led me to them -- perhaps it was Craig's involvement in some of Leo LaPort's TWiT and/or Alex Lindsay's Pixelcorps podcasts, or reference by another investing podcast.

Up until I found VentureCast, my favorite investing podcast was Geoff Gannon's "Gannon on Investing" podcast...which unfortunately seems to have suffered from "podfade" though the blog is still going full blast. Geoff had an awesome style for both investment analysis, in the Warren Buffett/Benjamin Graham "value" investing vein, and an interesting knack for involving his audience's feedback into the show. Like Gannon on Investing, VentureCast started out as a one-man show, wherein David Hornik recorded his views and informal chit-chat while driving up I-280 or I-101 to or from San Francisco and Silicon Valley. I liked his style in part because I love the Bay area and can fully relate to driving those highways...and I enjoyed his insights into nascent tech companies and their funding issues.

Enter Craig Syverson: Craig brought understanding of audio/video production to the show, corralling in a sense David's interesting style into a more dynamic and cohesive discussion - and, of course, discussion goes better with someone to bounce ideas off of. Craig does his homework and shows that he has very good insight for someone who is of a more art-oriented background vs. a business/investing background. Craig and David consistantly put together an interesting banter, all based on either the happenings in tech investing, technology itself, or David's globetrotting forays into various industry gatherings.

Episode 026 is a delightful peek into the wild and wooly conglomeration of Silicon Valley technology and money people meeting together in a party atmosphere. Any one of the four people listening to VentureCast (Craig and David's on-going joke about the number of people interested in their show) would die (or at least be willing to put up with cross-country jet travel) to have a reason to be at a party like this. David has hosted a party for three years running for an event sponsored by TechCrunch,* which seems to be the nexus for technologists and VC's: the first generally seeking small-percentage involvement by the second, while the second is seeking large-percentage involvement in the first's companies. At this party, people are either willing to have David and Craig interview them, like the Michael Arrington (founding blogger at TechCrunch) conversation...or not, like the brief conversation with the Apple iTunes guy who shall remain unnamed in this review.

So take a listen to episode 26...and then listen to the other VentureCast episodes from the beginning. Unlike some podcasts which focus on the latest happenings week in and week out, the VentureCast shows will retain a fair bit of informational value for anyone interested in the perennial cross-fertilization of technology with investing.

..alex.

* "TechCrunch, founded on June 11, 2005, is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies."

i like the mix of technology current events, insight into the mechanics of venture capital and a sprinkling of good humor.