"What would it take to start a fund?"

Hey, Jay here. I was a long-time organizer in the startup community of Columbus, Ohio. And in 2017, I was getting a lot of emails from coastal investors who were becoming more and more interested in the Columbus ecosystem.

After making a lot of introductions, I wondered, "How can I invest in my friends' companies too?"

So I got in touch with Eric, a friend from college who was in New York working in financial advisory. Little did I know, Eric was thinking the same thing...and even had a drafted PowerPoint presentation on starting a fund.

We were too time and cash poor to commit to raising a fund. So, inspired by Jason Calacanis's book Angel, we did the next best thing: we launched a podcast in 2018.

We wanted to interview early-stage founders about their companies. This way, we could get some practice in evaluating pre-Series A companies. And we wanted to highlight the companies that weren't already getting attention – founders in cities like Columbus who were building remarkable companies despite being outside of Silicon Valley.

And so, upside was born.

Named a top business podcast by Fortune Magazine, upside examines startup investing outside of Silicon Valley.

Every Wednesday, we speak with an early stage founder. We interview them as if we are angel investors considering the company as an investment opportunity.

Each show has three segments:

1.) Intro: independent research of the company
2.) Interview: interview with the founder
3.) Debrief: breaking down the opportunity

Sometimes, we share Coffee Chats interviewing venture capitalists, community builders, and later-stage founders.

Subscribe and see why Business Insider called our podcast "Almost as Good as Getting an MBA."