Mark Volchek on Surviving the Startup Journey

Mark Volchek, Founding Partner at Las Olas Venture Capital, joins Inside the Fund to talk about the full founder-to-investor journey.

Before becoming an investor, Mark co-founded Higher One as a college senior and helped grow the company from three founders in a dorm room to profitability, more than $250M in revenue, 1,000+ employees, and an IPO. But before that outcome, there were moments when the company had less than two weeks of cash in the bank and could barely make one more payroll.

In this episode, Mark breaks down raising through the dot-com crash, what going public actually feels like, why an IPO is not always the exit founders imagine, and how his operator experience now shapes the way he evaluates early-stage companies at Las Olas VC.

We also get into why investors are often looking for reasons to say no, how inconsistent ARR or revenue numbers can create doubt, what founders should understand about portfolio construction, and why fundraising is ultimately a sales process built on trust.

Follow Inside Startup Funding for more conversations with founders, investors, and operators on what it actually takes to raise capital.