Behind the Grind: Marlon Nichols

Hey, Justin here, and welcome to Just Go Grind, a newsletter sharing the lessons, tactics, and stories of world-class founders! Premium subscribers get full access to this newsletter, exclusive events, event discounts, and more.

I went to an event yesterday, Beyond Content: The Next Generation of Creator Businesses, at The Lighthouse in Venice.

The event was a Q&A with Billy Parks and Megan Lightcap from Slow Ventures, moderated by Neil Waller, Co-Founder of the Whalar Group.

Slow Ventures recently announced a new $60M fund to invest in creators and the discussion centered around this topic.

Some quick thoughts:

• The Lighthouse is an incredible space and I’m tempted to become a member because they have a podcast studio as well. There are lots of membership clubs out there now, but this one feels a bit different, in a good way.

• I love what Slow Ventures is doing, but the $1 million to $3 million checks they write are primarily for creators already doing $1 million in top line revenue (Not a hard line, but they mentioned it) - there is a lot of white space between $0 and $1M in revenue to fund creators.

• To the point above, I gave a shoutout in the talk to Will Stringer and Chisos Capital when they asked about funding options earlier than Slow. I think there needs to exist funding options for a wide range of creators and entrepreneurs - I’m glad both of these options exist and there are many others outside of traditional venture capital.

• I think we’ll see more funds dedicated to investing in creators, but it’ll take some time. Creators solve one of the hardest parts of building a company - distribution. For those with the ambitions of building bigger businesses off of their audience and community, beyond solely relying on brand deals, funding will undoubtedly help them build some very big businesses. I’m excited to see where the space goes.

On another social note, I hosted a poker game on Wednesday in Santa Monica with a mix of founders, operators, investors, and couple of guys in media and it was so much fun.

It reminded me once more of just how powerful in-person connections are, even more so in this world of distributed work and AI.

Shoutout to ​TRIBE, is a vetted network for top early to mid stage entrepreneurs, for helping make the event happen.

Today, we have an interview with Marlon Nichols, Managing Partner of MaC Venture Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in technology startups leveraging shifts in cultural trends and behaviors.

Late in 2024, they announced a $150M Fund III and I previously interviewed Marlon on the Just Go Grind podcast in 2021.

Marlon and his team are incredible and I’m grateful he agreed to share some of his insights in today’s newsletter.

Let’s dive in.

Next week I’m co-hosting a Podcast Relaunch Mixer with Rho in Santa Monica to celebrate the Just Go Grind Podcast being back after a 2-year hiatus.

We’ll have food, drinks, and good people at one of my favorite spots in LA… what could be better?

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How would you define "Cultural Investing" today, and how has it evolved since you started?

Cultural investing is about understanding where people—whether consumers or businesses—are going to spend their time and money in the future.

It’s all rooted in studying behaviors because behaviors turn into norms, and norms shape culture. 

Honestly, the philosophy hasn’t changed much since I started. Whether it’s B2B or consumer-focused, it all boils down to the people, the accuracy of the thesis, and predicting which behaviors will become a part of popular culture.

How do you see "Culture as Currency" evolving with AI and automation?

When we first talked about “Culture as Currency,” it was about how understanding culture could lead to great business outcomes.

That hasn’t changed, but AI and automation have added new layers. For example, financial platforms like Era helps people manage their money better, which speaks to a real cultural need.

Agentic AI is growing, which creates opportunities to give people what they want—financial tools, credit access in underbanked regions like Africa—without requiring them to be in a different financial bracket.

Culture as currency is a way to leverage a growing trend or ownership of digital assets, to provide a product that works and creates greater accessibility for those who typically don’t have access. It’s about meeting people where they are, but with smarter tools.

What’s one hard truth about venture capital that most people don’t talk about?

No one talks about how much of a business venture capital itself is.

You’re not just investing; you’re running a firm—managing an operations team, handling LP reporting, distributing capital calls, hiring and managing staff, complying with federal and local government regulations, etc..

If you’re trying to become an institutional fund, this is a massive part of the job, and it doesn’t get easier until you can afford a solid operations team. It’s a lot more than just picking startups and deploying capital.

What’s a recent investment decision that challenged your thinking?

I’m in the middle of one right now. It’s a good business, and the customer need is clear, but it’s not a category creator.

That’s tricky because you have to decide if it’s worth going all-in or waiting for something more groundbreaking.

It’s a balance between risk and reward, even when the team and the fundamentals are solid.

What’s an underrated trait in founders that you’ve seen lead to long-term success?

Being able to sell is one trait.

Founders who can sell their vision, recruit great talent and have the ability to take an idea and turn it into a real product are the ones who succeed.

Technical skills and domain expertise are also key. If a founder or the founding team doesn’t possess all of these traits, it makes it much more difficult to succeed in today’s tech landscape.

What are the best founders you’ve worked with doing differently?

The best founders I work with know their industries inside out, and they never stop learning. They’re curious and constantly adapting.

At the same time, they are still super humble but bold enough to make massive moves forward to evolve and push the envelope in their respective sectors.

It’s that combination of knowledge, curiosity, and boldness that sets them apart.

How do you think about founder-market fit, and what’s the best example of it you’ve seen?

Founder-market fit comes in three ways: solving a problem they’ve personally experienced, being a domain expert, or having direct experience from working in the space.

For example, someone who worked at Waymo and identified gaps in the AI models might leave to create a solution because they understand it better than most.

This led to the creation of Coval, a platform that builds simulations for AI voice and chat agents that tests and evaluates how they perform tasks in the same way its founders tested self-driving cars at Waymo. That's a founder-market fit in action.

How do you navigate founder relationships when things aren’t going well?

If I’ve done the work upfront to really understand the founder and build trust, those tough conversations aren’t as hard.

I look for founders who can handle competing opinions and have thoughtful discussions—and, yeah, sometimes that means a late-night call.

It doesn’t mean they’ll always agree with me, but if they’re mature enough to talk through it and take my advice into consideration, that’s a founder I can work with. 

What’s the most common reason early-stage startups struggle to scale?

A lot of startups build something they think customers will pay for, but it turns out they won’t—it’s more of a “nice to have” than a “need to have.”

Other issues include co-founder conflicts or not having someone on the team who’s technically capable of building the product they envisioned.

What are the most non-obvious trends you’re paying attention to right now?

One big one is the intersection of AI and energy.

AI data centers use insane amounts of energy, and there’s a huge opportunity to optimize that.

Using AI to make energy distribution smarter and more economical could be a game-changer, especially as the demand for AI grows.

How do you evaluate whether a founder truly understands their market at a deep level?

It’s all about conversations. I’ll ask about margins, competitors and customer feedback—basically, the numbers and the landscape. If they really know their market, they’ll be on top of all of it. If they don’t, it’s a red flag.

If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice before entering VC, what would it be?

Be more social.

Venture capital is a cliquey industry, and relationships matter a lot.

You want to be on the inside of those networks, and being liked makes it easier.

People share opportunities and insights with people they enjoy working with, so it’s important to focus on building those connections early.

What’s the best investment of time or money you’ve ever made in yourself?

Joining the Kauffman Fellows program.

It gave me access to a network that I don’t think I could have built on my own.

The knowledge and resources I gained through that program made building Cross Culture Ventures and then MaC Venture Capital more plausible. Without it, the process would have been more difficult and taken a lot longer.

In the past two years, we’ve published dozens of deep dives on world-class founders, sharing how they built their companies. These typically take 20-30 hours to research and write. The most recent ones are below:

Best,
Justin

Founder of Just Go Grind

P.S. Hiring? Check out the team at Athyna