On this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan and Corey welcome Adrian Fenty to the show. Adrian is the founding managing partner of MaC Venture Capital, an early-stage venture-capital ("VC") firm investing in visionary founders. Before breaking into VC, Adrian was the mayor of Washington, D.C. from 2007 to 2011.

Adrian kicks off the show by discussing how he transitioned from politics to VC, starting with investing in education-technology companies and working at established firm Andreessen Horowitz. As he explains, VC is still the Wild West of investing, so he searches to find "technical" founders with big ideas. Adrian also covers which sorts of companies MaC is invested in right now and how he helps them grow...

Where we can be very helpful is on strategy – particularly fundraising strategy. Because that is something that a venture capitalist sees all the time. We've got much better pattern recognition than them. So we'll say, "OK, no, don't do that. Don't just reach out to one potential investor. Reach out to 10."... [We're helping them by] giving all of them different advice for what they need at different times.

Next, Adrian talks about AI investing in the VC space – what conversations are happening and how companies are keeping up in this new and rapidly evolving ecosystem. He says that the U.S. is "building the future through technology," and it's drawing talent from all over the world. Adrian then discusses why he doesn't encourage early exits, the pattern of larger companies "acqui-hiring" AI engineers and founders from smaller companies, and how he finds promising startups to invest in...

Venture capital is a little more of an art... It's not just about the amount of hours that you put in, although that's important. It's about making sure you're top of mind with really great entrepreneurs who know other great entrepreneurs and that they think highly of you, too.

Finally, Adrian talks politics. Once D.C.'s youngest mayor, he shares his thoughts on city governments and politicians not doing enough for their people, especially in terms of trying to reduce crime and improve public education. His solution for this problem involves putting someone ambitious and qualified in charge of the efforts. Adrian says that, similar to management at successful companies, city officials need to tackle problems head on and not let them fester. He then finishes with a discussion about Americans "letting politicians off too easy," gives his opinion on the upcoming New York City mayoral election, and argues that the government needs to be held to higher standards...

If someone came in to me and said, "OK, we're going to rebuild these three schools in two and a half years," I would just tell them, "No, that's not good enough." It seems like a very simple thing, and it sounds like I'm someone who doesn't know construction – both things are true. I don't know construction, and it is a very simple thing. But I know that that's too long. And so give me a date that's shorter... Government would change so much [if officials did this].

Click on the image below to watch the video interview with Adrian right now. For the audio version, click "Listen" above.

(Additional past episodes are located here.)

The transcript is coming soon.

This Week's Guest

Adrian Fenty is the founding managing partner at MaC Venture Capital. The firm has more than $500 million under management and 120-plus companies in its portfolio. Prior to MaC's founding in 2019, Adrian was co-founder and managing partner at M. Ventures, special adviser at Andreessen Horowitz, and a consultant for Rosetta Stone, EverFi, and several software startups.

Adrian is also a former two-term city councilmember and was mayor of Washington, D.C. from 2007 to 2011. After leaving office, he initially worked at two different law firms (Klores and Associates and Perkins Coie) before getting involved in the VC space.