Founders and Funders

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Levels Health has built a wearable device and dashboard that measures your metabolism, offering personalized insights into how different foods affect your body and well-being. Co-Founder Josh Clemente discusses his background at SpaceX, the importance of metabolic fitness, and how his company’s wearable device allows users to monitor and reinforce healthy habits.

As Co-Founder and CEO of Lolly Medical, Zachary Sweeney and his team are building a healthtech platform that allows patients to schedule a doctor’s appointment with the push of a button. Zach is a grant recipient from the 10,000 Entrepreneurs program (or 10KE), an initiative of Alumni Ventures Group aimed at helping young adults explore entrepreneurial careers.

Larry Jen is Managing Partner of Westwood Ventures, a venture capital fund for UCLA alums under the umbrella of Alumni Ventures Group. The Anderson School MBA discusses his investment experience in Silicon Valley, his decision to join Westwood, what it means to be a UCLA Bruin, and why his fellow alums should add venture capital to their portfolio.

Brianna Makaric struggled to find a healthy snack that fit her dietary needs. So she decided to create BRITE Bites, made with high-quality superfoods and probiotics to help support your immune and digestive systems. Brianna is a Grant Recipient from the 10,000 Entrepreneurs program (or 10KE), a nonprofit founded by Alumni Ventures Group to help young adults explore entrepreneurial careers.

Many people are unaware of the potential tax advantages available to accredited venture investors. Individuals invested in Qualified Small Business Stock can claim a federal tax exemption on up to $10M of capital gains. Peter Loukianoff of Strawberry Creek Ventures and Andrea Kushner of Alliance Bernstein discuss QSBS and other advantages of investing in venture capital.

Timi Dayo-Kayode co-founded Worksense to provide people ops professionals with scalable, real-time analytics for identifying, mitigating, and preventing biases in major decisions involving employees. Timi is a Grant Recipient from the 10,000 Entrepreneurs program (or 10KE), a nonprofit founded by Alumni Ventures Group to help young adults explore entrepreneurial careers.

Stanford alums and Tempo Co-Founders Greta Meyer and Amanda Calabrese looked at tampon leakage as an engineering problem and developed a solution based on fluid mechanics. Amanda and Greta are also Grant Recipients from the 10,000 Entrepreneurs (or 10KE) program, an initiative of Alumni Ventures Group aimed at helping young adults explore entrepreneurial careers.

Alumni Ventures Group's 10,000 Entrepreneurs (10KE) initiative is aimed at helping young adults explore entrepreneurial careers. The program is coordinated by Drew Wandzilak, a self-described entrepreneurial junkie who was attracted to AVG’s mission of expanding access to venture capital. Listen as Drew talks about the history, mission, and progress of the 10KE program.

Daniel Gartenberg is obsessed with sleep quality and its health benefits. So he and a team of technologists built a software tool that uses sound, atmosphere, and diagnostics to make sleep more regenerative. His hope is that people will eventually transition to software solutions that provide long-term benefits without negative side effects.

In October 2019, AVG returned to Boston to host the latest installment of its investor appreciation series, Spirits & Startups. Producer Scott Murphy joined the team in Boston to capture the sights and sounds of the event. Listen to our podcast from the event or read a summary episode.

After enduring several failed rounds of chemotherapy, Ping Yeh tried a new type of treatment that would both save his life and change the trajectory of his career. He co-founded StemoniX, a biotech company which helps test different drugs or therapeutics to see if the drugs are safe and if they effectively address various diseases.

Catherine Lu was approached by a few top venture firms after she sold a company that she'd started with Stanford classmates. But it wasn't until she met Andre de Baubigny, Managing Partner of Spike Ventures, that she made the leap into VC. Through Spike, she could be both a venture capitalist and an entrepreneur—all while disrupting the VC industry.

It's critical for cancer patients to get accurate diagnoses and effective treatment plans as quickly as possible. Yet, doctors often struggle with discerning exactly which form of the disease they are dealing with because they can't see the individual cells involved. Charlie Silver, CEO of Mission Bio, hopes to change that with more precise, comprehensive DNA testing.

For years, Rinse Co-Founders Ajay Prakash and James Joun wondered how to increase sales in the static dry cleaning industry. They developed a solution that uses tech to facilitate laundry and dry cleaning pickup with smart scheduling and predictability for everyone involved.

Kelsey Hunter conducted a six-week experiment on Facebook Messenger, interacting with customers on the platform as though she were a chatbot. She discovered that people were more likely to engage with the chatbot if she asked questions. This prompted her to build an e-commerce tool that helps businesses turn Messenger into a new sales funnel.

David Klein attended business school with the goal of starting a company before he graduated. Ironically, the cost of attending business school exposed the very problem he would develop CommonBond to solve. He explains how the company is aiming to help fix the student loan crisis by addressing high interest rates, complex processes, and poor customer service.

According to David Mindell, CEO and Co-Founder of Humatics, it doesn't make sense for a robot of any type to be independent of its environment. That's why Mindell and his team at Humatics are revolutionizing how people and machines locate, navigate, and collaborate in what he calls "situated autonomy."

Green D Ventures Managing Partner Laura Rippy and Partner Lacey Johnson unpack the rationale behind diversification in a way that’s helpful no matter where you are in your investing journey. They discuss time horizons, risk tolerance, and several other relevant concepts.

Greg Baker went to the University of Wisconsin to become an engineer, but a summer internship would change the trajectory of his career. One of his roommates during the internship was Mike Collins, who would later found AVG and call on Greg to launch and lead Bascom Ventures, AVG's fund for UW alums.

Naveen Jain cut his teeth in the entertainment industry working with marquee artists. The challenges of ticketing and navigating the reseller market is foundational to the work he’s doing at Tari, which uses blockchain technology to manage digital assets without forcing the end-user into a world of cryptocurrency.

According to Matt Crowley, the lion's share of connected devices contain low-quality microphones that also dwarf battery life. The result is frustrating and potentially dangerous, depending on the device. That's why Matt and his team developed Vesper MEMS Microphones, built to withstand real-world use in smartphones, wearables, IoT devices, connected automobiles, and more.

In early-April 2019, AVG held the third edition of its investor appreciation event—Spirits & Startups—at the Four Seasons Silicon Valley. Founders & Funders sent producer Ryan Burleson to capture the scene. Listen along as he narrates the sights and sounds, interviews investors and AVG team members, and details how the event benefits all who attend.

Marc Bushala knew he wanted to partner with Bob Dylan as soon as he read that The Bard had registered a trademark for a whiskey brand. So Bushala reached out, talked his way into partnership with the Nobel Prize winner, and influenced the evolution of Heaven's Door, now an award-winning whiskey-label.

Hingeto is throwing a lifeline to brick-and-mortar retailers and indie merchandisers who struggle to compete with online shopping. Ismail Maiyegun and Leandrew Robinson created a B2B marketplace that gives retailers “superpowers to sell any product in the world,” as well as the ability to get those products on their partner sites quickly.

After 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security declared social security numbers would no longer be issued to incoming foreign students. According to Kalpesh Kapadia, this eliminated the ability of thousands of students to establish credit. So he launched Deserve, a credit card company using a new credit score based on a person’s potential.

After a six-year tenure as an Army captain, Christopher Molaro learned firsthand that a lack of mental healthcare awareness and resources awaited veterans back home in the U.S. He enlisted a partner and started developing Neuroflow, a solution capable of facilitating appointment follow-through, enabling remote monitoring, and coordinating care with other specialists.

All that Stephen Kuhl wanted was a comfortable, affordable couch that he could have quickly delivered to his new apartment. That didn’t happen. Within a few months of discussing their shopping miseries, he and a partner founded Burrow, a company that would soon build high-quality, modular sofas that could be on a customer's doorstep within one week.

Mike Collins founded Green D Ventures in 2014 to pool capital from Dartmouth alums to invest in Dartmouth-connected businesses. One of the fund's first portfolio companies was micro-app platform Sapho, which was acquired by Citrix in 2018 for $200M. The exit showed how Green D and its parent company AVG could generate both profit and goodwill in an alumni ecosystem.

Rob Bibow, Managing Partner at Fission Ventures, is a fourth generation graduate of Columbia University. His family's story there dates back to the 1890s, when his great-grandfather graduated from its law school. After more than 30 years of finance experience, he's excited to helm this particular fund that makes venture capital accessible to his fellow grads.

Tom Meyer is Managing Partner at Nassau Street Ventures, which enables alums of Princeton University to access top-tier, diversified venture portfolios. Meyer details his close connection to Princeton, what excites him about the Ivy institution's entrepreneurial ecosystem, and how Nassau Street is able to co-invest alongside the world's top VCs.

Kevin Czinger holds the Yale record for single-season and career sacks, was named First Team All-Ivy League, won the Ivy League MVP, and led the Bulldogs to back-to-back Ivy League titles. Now he's tackling climate change with Divergent 3D, which is leveraging 3D printing technology to make vehicle manufacturing sustainable.

In mid-January 2019, AVG held the second edition of its investor appreciation event—Spirits & Startups—in Manhattan's Langham Hotel. Founders & Funders sent producer Ryan Burleson to capture the scene. Listen along as he narrates the sights and sounds, interviews founders and AVG team members, and details how the event benefits all who attend.

While a graduate assistant and football coach at Stanford University, Derek Belch started working in a virtual reality (VR) lab at the school. Belch hoped to find a way to train football players using VR. His goal evolved into STRIVR, which helps businesses uses VR to onboard employees with a fraction of the time and money typically spent on training.

Employees of large organizations know too well the pain of working on multiple systems. Disconnected data is costly and operationally inefficient, and it prohibits businesses from being able to compete with larger enterprises. Tamr helps some of the largest companies in the world integrate data from across disparate data silos in their organizations.

AVG writes relatively small checks and doesn't take board seats, so it's able to both invest widely and smartly. This novel approach has proven successful for AVG, while also allowing the company to focus on helping enhance the strategic initiatives and possibilities of its portfolio companies.

The idea for ParkWhiz came to Aashish Dalal one day when he wanted to get a prime spot near Fenway Park in Boston. The app allows users to pre-pay for and have a parking spot available when they arrive at their destinations.

OpenInvest helps people buy a collection of stocks that align with their personal interests and causes they care about, all without involving a fund manager and related fees. The company's proprietary platform directly buys up underlying stocks to create customized portfolios.

In late-September 2018, Alumni Ventures Group held its inaugural Spirits & Startups event in Boston's Langham Hotel. The evening brought together the entrepreneurs behind AVG portfolio companies with team members and investors. Founders & Funders sent its producer, Ryan Burleson, to capture the sights and sounds of the event.

According to Arjun Mendhi, the current music industry is broken because it was built for physical media. That's why he founded MTonomy, a digital media store built on the blockchain. Artists can distribute their media globally, protect their content rights, and get paid instantly.

As Payam Banazadeh will tell you, Capella Space builds sophisticated satellites, but it's not a "satellite company." His company designs and launches rockets, but he insists it isn't strictly an "aerospace company" either. Instead, Capella's mission is more nuanced: To create a network of satellites capable of preventing disasters, boosting commerce, and saving lives.

While Chelsea Brownridge didn't think anyone would notice a couple of new doghouses on Brooklyn streets, her "dog-friendly sidewalk sanctuaries" were thrown into the spotlight. The doghouses provide a temporary safe shelter for pets when owners wanted to make a quick visit or run a brief errand inside a venue where dogs aren't allowed.

Peter Loukianoff, Managing Partner of Strawberry Creek Ventures, details the personal and professional path that led him to Strawberry Creek. He also shares his passion for Cal's renowned entrepreneurial ecosystem, as well as the founders, incubators, VCs, and institutional partners that help strengthen the fund's ties to Berkeley's alumni community.

AVG's Venture Fellow Program mixes venture education with hands-on experience, including digital outreach, deal sourcing, and more. More than half of program graduates have transitioned to full-time work in the VC industry. Program founders Luke Antal and Weston Moyer share some specific success stories and how the program started.

When Zac Prince listed his cryptocurrency assets on a loan application, traditional banks turned him down. So he founded BlockFi, a rapidly growing FinTech startup that allows consumers to obtain loans using cryptocurrency as collateral.

Edrizio De La Cruz has always worked hard, from selling guavas on the streets of the Dominican Republic to bagging groceries in the South Bronx. His big break came from Y Combinator, and now, he's CEO of a B2B platform that allows consumers to manage all financial services within their existing banking applications.

Alex Klein's opportunity to make a dent arose when his 6-year-old cousin began talking about building a computer from scratch. He challenged Klein to help make it happen. Unable to find a kid-friendly computer kit on the market, Klein assembled a team of developers to create Kano.

As Managing Partner of Blue Ivy Ventures, David Shapiro is pairing his ties to Yale with his experience in venture capital and passion for helping disruptive technologies commercially scale. David's goal is to maximize returns for investors while boosting his alma mater's entrepreneurs and their wider ecosystem.

The Green D Ventures team has discovered that its network is so interested in fostering Dartmouth-connected businesses that supporters assist companies by making introductions. According to Managing Partner Laura Bordewieck Rippy, the accelerator effect of the Green D and larger AVG network is becoming a key reason for founders to let the fund into their deals.

According to Chris Sklarin, Managing Partner of Castor Ventures, the best deals are competitive. Though Castor Ventures often writes the smallest check in a VC round, their team gets into deals because of the impact they can make in other ways. Portfolio companies enjoy a variety of services, including access to a network of MIT-connected individuals.

Amy Errett didn't intend to start Madison Reed as a full-time business. Already deeply involved in a number of companies and charitable organizations, she initially just wanted to identify the consumer pain point, fund the incubation of the idea, and hire a team to bring the product to fruition. But then her daughter (the original Madison Reed) challenged her to do more.