The VentureFizz Podcast

Episode 383: Rob Biederman - Managing Partner, Asymmetric Capital Partners by VentureFizz

Episode 382 of The @Venturefizz Podcast features Abe Murray, General Partner at AlleyCorp. I recently had Matthias Hofmann, the Co-Founder & CEO of Eyebot on the podcast and when I was doing my research on the company, I realized that their recent investment from AlleyCorp was led by one of their partners who was located in the Boston area. It made me pause, as I didn't realize that AlleyCorp had someone in the local Boston area. If you are not familiar with AlleyCorp, it is the venture fund started by Kevin Ryan who is a tech icon in NYC. Kevin led DoubleClick's growth to an IPO and acquisition by Google. He's also a co-founder of MongoDB, Business Insider, Zola, Gilt Groupe, and many others. AlleyCorp was backed as a family office by Kevin until last year when it became an institutional VC firm through the announcement of its $250M Fund I which includes outside LPs for the first time. Abe is leading AlleyCorp's deep tech investments, so it just makes sense that he is based in the the Boston area, as there is such a high concentration of innovation and companies in the Northeast. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Abe's background story which includes dropping out of high school to run fishing boats & factories in the family aquaculture business and the importance of growing up with a chip on your shoulder. * Starting his career at BAE Systems where he worked on Generative AI and advanced technologies for the defense industry. * Going to Harvard Business School and working on a startup called Doodbleboard, an online whiteboard. * Landing at Google, then later Alphabet, where he worked on various AI/ML initiatives, as well as the Android mobile team with Rich Miner. * Taking on the healthcare industry and leading the Boston office for Verily, an Alphabet company. * Getting into angel investing and how he landed at AlleyCorp. * All the details about AlleyCorp and the investments they are making across the firm, plus the specifics about what Abe is targeting. * The importance of storytelling and advice on how to get great at it. * And so much more. Eyebot interview: https://venturefizz.com/insights/episode-368-matthias-hofmann-co-founder-ceo-of-eyebot/

Episode 381 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Mike Massaro, CEO of Flywire, a global payments enablement and software company. This is the full lifecycle story of an idea to a pillar publicly traded tech company in the Boston tech scene and it has it all. An international founder who discovered a major problem while trying to pay his tuition at MIT, to Mike joining the company after its Series A, an evolving business model from consumer to B2B, navigating choppy near death experiences to scaling aggressively, then raising multiple rounds of venture funding to an IPO, and more! It really is an inspirational story for all entrepreneurs to hear, as it is never an easy up & to the right story. There is so much that goes into building a successful company and this one does not disappoint. Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:17 Learning to Lead & the Importance of Communication 04:51 Mike's Background & Getting Started in Tech at edocs 15:00 Carrier IQ 19:47 The early days of Flywire 19:52 Navigating the Go-to-Market Strategy 29:52 Moving into the Role as CEO of Flywire 31:55 Challenging Times 35:09 Scaling the Company & Playing Long Ball 39:17 Expanding into New Industries 41:47 The Impact of COVID-19 45:20 Flywire IPO 50:06 Looking Ahead: Growth and Innovation 51:42 Building a Strong Company Culture 57:12 The Importance of a Strong Board of Directors 59:50 Hiring for Leadership Roles 01:02:13 Apps, Books, & Fun Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 380 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Eduardo Torrealba, CEO & Co-Founder of Lumafield. As part of my conversation with Eduardo, we talk about the importance of working on hard things. Yes, it's hard to build things that seem impossible at the time but it is that level of difficulty that attracts the top talent across engineering and other functional areas to join the company. And, it is that level of difficulty that once you establish product market fit, it can been highly defensible and really difficult to copy. And, it is that level of difficulty that attracts the best investors to fund a company with the hopes that it can be an industry defining company, especially when there is hardware involved. Take Lumafield, a pioneering developer of accessible X-ray CT technology, recently announced a $35M Series B round of funding led by Spark Capital, along with previous investors Lux Capital, Kleiner Perkins, DCVC, Future Shape and angel investors like Tony Fadell - yes that Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod and Founder of Nest. When you have an industry leader like Tony, who after seeing their product & vision and ended up committing to an investment into the company after a 30 minute meeting, you know you are on to something big, as he understood the problem first hand based on his experience. In the video version of our podcast, there is a brief video showing Lumafield's platform in action, as you need to see it to truly appreciate the complexity yet the obvious use case it has when building physical products. In the show notes, I have also included a fun video from Lumafield with Tony where they take a look at the evolution of the iPod by looking at the inside of different generations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC6BQPowf7w In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Eduardo's background story and his initial journey into entrepreneurship with an IoT soil moisture sensor company called Oso Technologies. * Joining Formlabs and what he worked on in the earlier days of the company and what he learned during the company's growth to a billion dollar valuation. * The full story of Lumafield in terms of how the team came together and the problem they are solving. * The fundraising process and the current state of the company, plus future plans ahead. * Lessons learned from building companies and raising capital. * The importance of a strong company pitch. * And so much more Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 379 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Graham Brown, Managing Partner at Lerer Hippeau. It seems like just yesterday when I first interviewed Graham seven years ago back for Episode 32 (https://soundcloud.com/venturefizz/episode-32-graham-brown-partner-at-lerer-hippeau) when Lerer Hippeau was announcing its sixth fund. This puts Graham in elite company as one of the very few people who have made a repeat appearance on The VentureFizz Podcast – which I'm sure is an incredible honor for Graham to achieve… just kidding obviously. But in all seriousness… in that first interview, we discussed Graham's background (he's actually a fellow native of New Hampshire) and the early innings of his career, so in this interview, we were able to get much deeper into other topics around startups and fundraising. As you might know, Lerer Hippeau is one of the top early stage VC firms in the country and they recently announced another new fund, that one being LH Fund IX, a $200M fund which is exclusively focused on early stage companies. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * How to land a job in venture capital. * How our original interview discussed AI seven years ago and what Graham is excited about in terms of this platform shift. * The renewed interest in energy startups and the innovation in this sector. * What he's looking for out of a first meeting with an entrepreneur & the process of getting funded. * PLG versus founder led sales and advice on avoiding entrepreneurial envy. * The latest on the NYC tech ecosystem. * And so much more Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 378 of The VentureFizz Podcast features two of the Co-Founders of Copley - David Henriquez, CEO and Sean Marshall, Chief Operating Officer. It is just a necessity for any thriving tech ecosystem. You need companies that scale and people from those companies take their learnings and go off to start their own company. HubSpot has been a big feeder of alumni who have gone off to start companies and you are starting to see the next wave with founders coming from Toast and now Klaviyo. What's even better is when you see the founders of these anchor tech companies fund the next generation of entrepreneurs. David & Sean were part of the hypergrowth scale up years at Klaviyo that ultimately led to a pillar public tech company in the Boston tech area. David held a variety of engineering & sales engineering roles, whereas Sean led global sales. Now, they are building a new company with a third Co-Founder & CTO, Mike Torra called Copley. It is an AI-Powered Content Optimization Platform that allows marketers to quickly create, test & deploy content everywhere. Copley recently announced a $4.8M pre-seed round of funding led by Asymmetric and Underscore. And yes, the founders of Klaviyo - Andrew Bialecki and Ed Hallen are investors… plus Tom Ebling & Jeffrey Barnett of Demandware which was acquired by Salesforce. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Startup fundraising advice for first-time founders and the importance of building long term relationships with investors. * The background stories for both David and Sean. * The explosive growth years at Klaviyo. * The full story of Copley in terms of the problem they are solving and their unique approach to finding early adopter customers. * GTM advice for early stage startups and the importance of storytelling. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode #377 of The VentureFizz Podcast is Victor D. Lombard (aka DIVINE), CEO & Co-Founder of Notes. As the host of this podcast, I have the honor of being able to help tell the story of so many founders and investors and each story is unique. But this one is a whole new level. DIVINE's full story is probably the most unique entrepreneurial story that has been told on our podcast.  From the streets of NYC to incarceration to master networker to fintech entrepreneur, this story has it all… including how one of Silicon Valley's top venture capitalists, that being Ben Horowitz helped change his life and built a friendship, plus his rap song that was the intro for the A16Z podcast. Oh… and it just so happens that the co-founder of his latest startup called Notes is Rakim. Yes, that same Rakim from the 80's hip-hop duo of Eric B & RAKIM… with legendary songs like Don't Sweat the Technique and Paid in Full… which is why you are hearing their song Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em for this podcast intro and outro. Notes is a fintech and AI-powered platform empowering independent urban music artists and creators with access to capital, financial literacy, entrepreneurship and music business education, and more, for financial independence, and career growth and sustainability.  The company is in pre-launch. We cover a lot of ground in this podcast including: * DIVINE's full background story * His journey into the tech industry including working with Greg Selkoe at Karmaloop * How he connected with Ben Horowitz * The details of his own career as a rap artist * The journey into entrepreneurship * All the details on Notes * And more!

Episode #376 features Prem Sharma, Founder & CEO of Tandem. When you are a serial entrepreneur like Prem, you are probably coming up with lots of ideas but how do you decide which one is viable to focus on and actually build a company around? For Prem, it comes down to recognizing an experience that is broken and lots of market research. And this is not light market research, this is total submersion into the industry market research. The interest in Tandem started with a puppy arriving at his home as a new family pet and an experience at the vet. During a visit, he recognized how fragmented the industry was and how inefficient the office operated. This got him thinking about a unified vet experience. But, before jumping into build mode, he spent time working at veterinary clinics and recognized that the appetite for adopting a whole new system was not going to happen, so just a new tech platform wouldn't be the answer. Instead, he had to build a healthcare company from the ground up that includes a comprehensive service leveraging onsite clinics, mobile care, telehealth, and a whole new tech stack for running the overall operation. Tandem raised $10M in funding earlier this year to redefine veterinary care with a comprehensive solution through its novel approach to care delivery, AI technology, and more. Chapters: 00:00 Prem Sherma Intro 02:48 What Ideas Should You Build a Company Around? 07:00 From Childhood Dreams to Startup Realities 10:39 Navigating the Startup Landscape 14:30 The Full Story of DayToDay Health 18:16 Building Impactful Solutions in Healthcare 21:50 The Complexity of Patient Care 27:03 Lessons Learned From Building DayToDay Health 29:45 All the Details about Tandem 38:26 Current State of the Business & GTM 44:36 Advice for Building a Healthcare Company 50:00 App & Book Recommendations Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 375 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Becca Xiong, Managing Director of Programs & Engagement at Harvard Innovation Labs. Becca is a serial entrepreneur with the rare experience of having success in both consumer and B2B products. She was a Co-Founder of an early social networking startup called Going.com which was acquired by AOL and then she went with her fellow Co-Founder, Roy Rodenstein to start SocMetrics, a social insights platform for marketers that was also acquired. This combination of experiences makes Becca the perfect leader for the Harvard i-lab where 1 in 9 students across all of the schools under the Harvard umbrella are a member of the i-lab. Since its founding in 2011, the i-lab has supported over 6,000 ventures that have gone on to raise over $8B in funding including unicorns like WHOOP, Shield AI, Mark43, Lightmatter, and others. Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:34 The Most Common Startup Mistakes 04:40 The Importance of Storytelling for Startups 06:31 Becca's Background Story 09:26 Early Career and Startup Experiences 13:28 The Story of Going.com 27:00 Building Socmetrics: A Social Insights Platform 30:34 Difference Between Building B2B & Consumer Products 32:52 Transitioning from Startups to Supporting Entrepreneurs 36:05 The Harvard i-lab: Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship 40:46 How the Harvard i-lab Supports Student Entrepreneurs 43:55 Alumni from the Harvard i-lab 45:10 Using ChatGPT for Customer Research 47:05 Startup Pitch Advice 51:15 Fundraising Advice 53:34 Book Recommendation for Founders

Episode 374 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Dave Blundin, serial entrepreneur & investor. Dave's track record is legendary as one of the top entrepreneurs and investors in the Boston tech scene. He's co-founded 23 companies… and many have been incredibly successful: * DataSage - acquired by Vignette for over $1B in today's dollars * EverQuote - which went public * Vestmark - manages over $2 trillion in assets Companies like CourseAdvisor, Jobcase, Autotegrity, LeadKarma were all acquired. Plus he's invested in CarGurus, TripAdvisor… and he is the Founder & General Partner of Link Ventures and he's also the founder of the startup incubator, Cogo Labs. One might think that after all of this success, Dave would downshift and relax… but it is the exact opposite. He has been waiting for this moment since he was 14 years old and that is the current platform shift to AI. He studied AI at MIT back in 1984 and pioneered quantizing neural networks as early as 1992. Needless to say… his time is now and he believes that it has the potential to be the greatest thing that ever happened to humanity. He wants to savor the moment and work to train and build faster, better, & smarter AI. Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:43 Dave Blundin's Journey Begins 08:27 Founding DataSage and Early Innovations 15:55 Meeting Jeff Bezos & Building Personalization at Amazon 18:18 DataSage Acquisition by Vignette 20:59 Founding Story of Vestmark & Its Scale 27:39 Link Ventures & Cogo Labs - Building Consumer Companies at Scale 32:31 Story of EverQuote to IPO 35:04 The Best Friend Method for Investing 36:33 AI & The Importance of Chip Manufacturing 41:45 The AI Revolution & Opportunities 44:11 Liquid AI: General-Purpose AI Systems at Every Scale 47:45 Boston's Talent Density & MIT's Advantage 53:44 Personal Insights and Hobbies 57:40 Podcast & Book Recommendations Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 373 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Jeff Bussgang, General Partner at Flybridge. Jeff has accomplished so much throughout his career. I'm sure lots of people probably know him best as a Venture Capitalist and Professor at Harvard Business School. But... you might not know the details about his startup career prior to Flybridge which I was really excited to dig into because he played a key role at two incredibly successful companies in the Boston tech scene. The first being OpenMarket, which pretty much invented eCommerce with its shopping cart technology that was licensed by companies like Amazon when they were just getting started. The company went public at a billion dollar valuation back in 1996 which was a very big deal. The second company is Upromise, where he was a Co-Founder along with Michael Bronner, who was also the Founder of Digitas and really helped establish the world of direct & loyalty marketing and David Fialkow, who you might also recognize as one of the founders of General Catalyst. Upromise allowed consumers, including myself, to save for their kids' college education through a loyalty rewards program. The company was very successful and it was later acquired by Sallie Mae. In addition to being an entrepreneur, investor, and professor, Jeff is also an author of three books and his latest book is called The Experimentation Machine - Finding Product-Market Fit in the Age of AI. Plus we talk about his Dad (Julian Bussgang), a scientist and entrepreneur who developed the Bussgang Theorem, Jeff educational background in AI, Flybridge's history of investments in AI, Hack.Diversity and so much more! Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:05 Jeff's New Book - The Experimentation Engine 04:47 Jeff's Background and Early Influences 08:47 The Story of OpenMarket & Shopping Cart Tech 17:21 The Creation of Upromise 25:06 Transition to Venture Capital & Flybridge 26:37 Flybridge's History & Focus on AI 32:50 Flybridge's Investment Process 34:13 Advice on Go-to-Market Strategy 35:36 Getting Pitched by Curt Schilling 38:03 Teaching at Harvard Business School 39:48 Career Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs 42:22 Must-Have Versus Nice-to-Have Products 44:00 Hack.Diversity 46:46 The Boston Tech Ecosystem & AI 52:55 Recommendations - Apps & Podcasts Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 372 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Florian Hillen, CEO & Founder of VideaHealth. It goes without saying that AI is going to transform pretty much every industry, but I think there is such a unique opportunity in healthcare as the benefits are hopefully going to be extraordinary. The tricky thing about building a company in healthcare is that it's heavily regulated industry, so you need to get FDA approval on the algorithms and AI technology if you are building software as a medical device, so that is going to take a lot of time… but once you get there, it makes your company highly defensible. And this is the very case of VideaHealth which was ahead of the curve as an AI native company that has been in existence for 6.5 years and crossed the hurdles of the FDA. Fast forward to today, VideaHealth has scaled to over 40,000 dental clinicians using their platform every day for identifying and treating dental conditions and the company is processing over a half of a billion x-rays a year. VideaHealth recently announced a $40M Series B round of funding. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:10 The Rise of AI in Healthcare 03:19 Florian's Journey from Medicine to Entrepreneurship 08:35 Founding VideaHealth: The Vision Behind the Company 12:03 The Importance of Oral Health and Its Impact 13:34 Early Days of VideaHealth 18:10 Transforming Dental Practices with AI 25:06 Scaling Through Strategic Partnerships 26:56 Hiring and Company Culture at Video Health 30:00 Lessons Learned in Building a Startup 30:15 Hiring & the Importance of Talent Density 31:09 Priorities and What You "Do Not Do" 31:49 Be Customer Obsessed 32:59 Process for Fundraising 39:07 App, Podcast, & Book Recommendations

Episode 371 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Melissa Withers, Managing Partner & Co-Founder of RevUp Capital. As an entrepreneur, are you thinking about your capital stack? Meaning, how are you going about funding your company? There are lots of options… you could bootstrap, raise money from friends & family, grants, and of course, raise venture capital which is the most discussed option in the media and blog posts. But, one vehicle that I don't think is talked about enough is Revenue Based Financing which is a non-dilutive form of financing where repayments are tied to a percentage of the company's revenue. In this interview with Melissa, we get into lots of details about what why this is a compelling option for entrepreneurs as RevUp is focused on this category as a non-equity investment fund for B2B and B2C companies ascending the $1M-$10M growth curve. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics: * Melissa's background and the story of her journey to becoming an investor. * All the details about RevUp and how their model works. * The importance of storytelling when pitching your startup to investors. * KPI's and figuring out your company's God Metric. * The importance of mental health and balance for entrepreneurs. * And so much more

Episode 370 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Toshit Panigrahi, Co-Founder & CEO and Olivia Joslin, Co-Founder & COO of TollBit. There are going to be so many amazing benefits and advancements that are a result of the platform shift to AI. However, in this new world, many industries will need to go through radical transformation and the publishing industry is right in that mix. We even see some of these issues with VentureFizz, of course at a much smaller scale as compared to major publishers. For example, if you are searching for information about some startups in Boston, it's possible that the results will include content from VentureFizz in the results from Google Gemini. While in one regard, it is great that Google views us as an authority on the topic, it does however eliminate the need for the consumer to come to our site because they likely have their question answered. It's really not a major problem for us because of our business model, but it is certainly a major problem for publishers who count on pageviews for ad revenue. Enter TollBit, a two-sided marketplace for AI companies and publishers started by two alumni of Toast. The platform seeks to address the new economics of content creation in the AI era by reducing the legal uncertainties of scraping and protecting the health of the entire content ecosystem. The company recently announced a $24M Series A round of funding in October of last year which comes shortly after raising a $7M seed round in March of last year, as well. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics: Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:10 AI & the Media Industry 03:51 Olivia's & Toshit's Background & Professional Journey 12:48 Starting TollBit 17:46 The Details of TollBit's Platform 25:07 TollBit's Funding & Pitch Advice 31:06 TollBit's Business Model 37:27 The Importance of Advisors for Your Startup 39:12 Lessons Learned While Building TollBit 42:18 Hiring 44:11 App & Podcast Recommendations Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 369 of The @Venturefizz Podcast features Krenar Komoni, CEO & Founder of Tive. The question: “What led you down the path to start this company?” is always interesting, as you never know what ultimately inspired the entrepreneur. It could be years of experience working in an industry, maybe it is a personal experience, or it could be a tremendous amount of research to find a problem that's worth solving… or in the case of Krenar and Tive, it could be your family as the idea stems from his father-in-law's trucking company and the manual process of located its drivers. From Krenar's point of view, it is a problem that could be fixed with a tracking system and oh… it is a problem that Krenar just happens to be uniquely qualified to solve based on his expertise and background with wireless connectivity, hardware, and chipsets. Fast forward to today, Tive is a leading provider of supply chain and logistics visibility technology. Trusted by over 900 customers, the company recently announced a $40M Series C round of funding led by WiL (World Innovation Lab) and Sageview Capital. Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:23 Advice for Raising Follow On Rounds of Venture Capital 08:47 Krenar's Background Story in Kosovo 11:11 Landing in Vermont & Experience at Startups 19:45 Background Story of Tive 23:32 Industry Trends 25:22 Naming the Company 28:25 Landing First Customers 30:50 Early GTM Approach & Learning from the Sales Team 36:08 Picking the Right Industry Vertical 43:19 The Latest at Tive 46:35 The Question that Entrepreneurs Need to Ask Themselves. 48:09 The Culture at Tive 48:20 New Chapter 50:06 Apps & Book Recommendations

Episode 368 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Matthias Hofmann, Co-Founder & CEO of Eyebot. I met Matthias and Jack, Eyebot's Co-Founder & CTO at a pre-party for TechCrunch's Early Stage event in Boston a couple of years ago. It was one of those meetings that when someone describes their product - an AI powered kiosk that could conduct vision tests in 90 seconds… it sounded like something out of science fiction… but it made you pause and think… what if they actually build this… the market opportunity is massive - like TAM - everyone in the world massive. On top of that, here are some crazy stats of the void in the market that needs to be addressed with a solution: 40,000 unfilled eye doctor positions in the U.S. - more doctors retiring than graduating from school) 25% of U.S. counties don't have a practicing eye care provider 63% of Americans don't have vision insurance Well, this product and solution became a reality when Eyebot announced its partnership with Zenni Optical by deploying their kiosks in various locations and as you'll hear from Matthias… the pipeline of demand for their kiosks is incredibly strong. Another crazy stat that he shared with me is that the team is only 14 people. It's another perfect example of the level of innovation in the Boston tech scene with several next generation hardware & robotics companies that are emerging like 10 Beauty, Ozlo Sleepbuds, Pickle Robot, and many more. Eyebot raised a $6M seed round of funding last year led by AlleyCorp and Ubiquity Ventures with participation from other top investors. In this podcast, we cover: * Eyebot's first appearance at CES this year and advice on how to create a buzz. * Matthias' background story and how positions at EyeNetra & Formlabs helped shape his career. * The full story of Eyebot and the challenges in the market that they are addressing. * How their technology works, plus their go-to-market strategy, and details on funding. * Advice for founders on building hardware and raising capital. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 367 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Vivjan Myrto, Founder & Managing Partner at Hyperplane. Why Boston Be The Star of the AI Revolution - this is the title of an article that Zach Winn wrote for VentureFizz seven years ago. It talks about the history of AI in the Boston area including Marvin Minksy's first neural net machine back in 1951, the amazing academic institutions, plus the state of the tech ecosystem in this industry back then. Vivjan was featured in this article along with this quote: “I think machine intelligence represents a once in a lifetime opportunity for entrepreneurs...” It's impressive to see how Vivjan and his partners were well ahead of the AI hype machine, as they built Hyperplane's focus around backing the best founding teams working in this sector along with other innovations in hardtech like robotics, sensors and more. The firm's name is even based on a term in machine learning applications, a higher-dimensional plane used to help categorize data based on its underlying structure from images to real-world events. In this podcast, we cover: * Vivjan's inspirational background story from growing up in Albania to fighting cancer and moving to the United States for treatment and learning how to speak English while he was in the hospital. * Going on to build a healthcare startup that was acquired. * How Hyperplane came to fruition and how they raised their first fund. * All the details about Hyperplane and the firm's area of focus for investments. * A deep dive into Modulate, one of their portfolio companies. * Advice on taking the entrepreneurial leap * A discussion around the Boston tech scene and areas for improvement. * His passion for wind sports and photography. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode #366 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Graham Brooks, Partner at .406 Ventures. “Data is the new oil” - it's a slogan that you hear everywhere these days… it's on TV commercials, print ads, LinkedIn posts… but this is not a new trend or revelation for Graham. His interest in data goes back to his first job out of college and his passion for data has followed him throughout his career, including in his current role as the leader of .406 Ventures' Data + AI strategy. .406 Ventures is a Boston-based venture capital firm with over $1.4B under management and nearly two decades of experience leading or co-leading early-stage investments in pioneering healthcare, data + AI, and cybersecurity companies founded by visionary entrepreneurs. Oh… and here's a fun fact about Graham… his sport of choice while growing up was fencing. He competed all over the world and was a two-time All American at Princeton. So cool. In this podcast, we cover: * Graham's thoughts on AI and the investment outlook for 2025. * His background story including how he got into fencing. * Joining a Princeton startup called ALK Associates which was early AI for data cleansing that was acquired by Trimble. * Learning sales and fundraising as part of the founding team at Accentus after he received his MBA at Dartmouth. * Graham's journey to landing a job in venture capital which was intentional, plus he shares some great advice for others who are interested in this career path. * The details about .406 Ventures and its thesis driven approach, plus portfolio company examples and their investment process. * His passion for extreme sports * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 365 of The VentureFizz Podcast features John Harthorne, Founder & Managing Director of Two Lanterns Venture Capital and Founder and decade-long CEO of MassChallenge. A career is a body of work. It doesn't have to be a straight line… it can take twists and turns… yon can switch industries… you can reinvent yourself… and it should be fulfilling. As you'll learn from John's background, he had lots of twists and turns but ultimately, he decided there must be more to his career. One where he can make a massive impact, but he obviously had to weigh the risks of the unknown during one of the worst economic conditions back in 2009. That unknown became one of the largest accelerators in the world with over 4,000 alumni and over $13B raised with a 65% survival rate which includes companies like Flywire, Ginger, Bitso and many, many more. It's proof that you can think and dream big! Today at Two Lanterns Venture Capital, John is focused on making pre-seed and seed investments in software startups in the U.S. and Israel. In this podcast, we cover: * John's outlook for 2025 as an investor. * His background with lots of twists and turns, including how he landed in the tech industry at a cybersecurity company called @stake. * The decision to go back to business school at MIT Sloan and how his passion for entrepreneurship developed. * The full lifecycle story of MassChallenge. All the stories from leaving Bain as a consultant along with Akhil Nigam to start the accelerator, all the obstacles they overcome, and then scaling the organization. * What led him down the path of starting Two Lanterns Venture Capital, plus all the details on the firm and what they are targeting for investments. * Common entrepreneurial mistakes. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode #364 of The VentureFizz Podcast features John Andrews, Co-Founder & CEO of Cimulate. There is a wave of entrepreneurs who are uniquely qualified to build a pillar tech company in the Boston tech ecosystem while leveraging the platform shift to AI. Not only is John one of them, but he is also an alum of the very successful crew from Endeca. John and his co-founder, Vivek Farias, are tackling the future of eCommerce and as you'll hear, their platform is a perfect use case for Gen AI. Their last company, Celect, was a big data predictive analytics platform for the retail industry which was acquired by Nike. Cimulate recently announced a $28M Series A round of funding led by Spark Capital with participation from their seed stage investors SIERRA Ventures and Pillar VC, with additional participation from LFX Venture Partners and Commerce Ventures. In this podcast, we cover: * A deep dive into the use cases of AI in the retail & eCommerce industry especially around personalization. * John's background story and getting his career started at Deloitte Consulting and getting an MBA from HBS. * How he met Steve Papa, the founder of Endeca, and the full lifecycle of his experience there including the acquisition by Oracle and integration of their tech there. * Connecting with Vivek Farias and Devavrat Shah through Steve Papa and the story of building Celect which was using AI / machine learning back in 2014. * How the acquisition by Nike came together * All the details about Cimulate and how the platform works, plus their growth plans ahead. * Biggest lessons learned as a multi-time CEO. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 363 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Jay Batson, Acquia Co-Founder & Founding CEO, serial entrepreneur, investor, and mentor. Lots of people like to make predictions, especially around this time of the year. Few are right. Jay on the other hand made some bold predictions about the future in a Forrester report that he published back in 1995 called Beyond Internet Gaga and it is pretty remarkable. So what does Jay predict in 1995? Yes, the internet was emerging but these predictions were made when there were only about 35 million internet users and before the Netscape IPO. He detailed three scenarios: 1. The first was internet-based cyberattacks. 2. The second was how a younger generation would be glued to the internet (think screentime) and how it would replace the television, plus the emergence of social media, & online gaming. 3. The third was the advancement of smart appliances. It's really amazing and as you'll hear, Jay has a knack for seeing the future and creating businesses that capitalize on shifts in technology, some that have been widely successful or some that just didn't hit. We chat about all of them. In this podcast, we cover: * Jay's background story and how he got started in entrepreneurship by building a company in the energy sector. * Moving to Boston and more of his early experiences in the tech industry. * All the details about founding PingTel and its innovation in IP phones and he even pulls out one of the phones for the visual, plus his reflection on why the company didn't succeed. * The full story of how he met Dries Buytaert (who was a guest on Episode #326) and how they co-founded Acquia together and lots of great scaling stories to unicorn status. * His role post-Acquia as a mentor and investor. Why founders should spend more time on their go-to-market strategy. * The importance of co-founder and investor alignment. * And so much more.

Episode 362 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Alice Pomponio, Managing Director at BrightEdge, the investing arm of the American Cancer Society. Venture capital and private equity investors are all working on meaningful initiatives in terms of building great companies with the hope of gaining a meaningful return for investors. However, the role that Alice plays in the world of investing into startups is different… As the innovation, impact investment and venture capital arm of the American Cancer Society, BrightEdge propels groundbreaking patient-centric solutions by accelerating ACS's mission to advance science, reduce disparities, and promote healthcare sustainability. All of the investments from BrightEdge have a common goal and that is to fight for a world without cancer. On top of this incredibly important mission is how the firm operates where the financial returns are reinvested back into the fund or are returned to the American Cancer Society to build a diversified and sustainable source of funding for the organization. In this podcast, we cover: * The platform shift to AI and its potential impact on cancer research. * Alice's background and how cancer has affected her family, plus a walk through her career in the biotech & pharmaceutical industry. * The details of the firm's proprietary Cancer Impact Investment Framework. * Sample portfolio companies and the overall impact that BrightEdge has made. * How BrightEdge is helping to advance health equity and increase representation for underserved populations. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 361 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Phil Pergola, CEO at CloudZero. Phil has a tremendous track record and we talk about a lot of great companies that he's helped build throughout his career, but I need to highlight one of these companies in this intro and that is BladeLogic and the lasting impact the company has made. If you've ever read the famous startup book by Ben Horowitz called The Hard Thing About Hard Things… the competitor to his company Opsware was BladeLogic which is absolutely classic. BladeLogic went on to become a public company and was subsequently acquired by BMC Software. Another fascinating point about BladeLogic is the people and how many have gone on to become C-level sales executives or advisors at some of the most successful companies out there like MongoDB, AppDynamics, Snowflake, Wiz, Okta, and others. There is even a podcast called Hunters + Unicorns which interviews a bunch of them. CloudZero is the leader in proactive cloud cost efficiency. They enable engineers to build cost-efficient software without slowing down innovation. The company announced a $32M Series B round of funding last year. In this podcast, we cover: * The importance of building a successful pre and post-sales organization, plus the details of the LAYR model (Land Adopt Expand Retain). * Phil's background and the story of his initial interest in pursuing a career path as an actuary. * A trip down Boston tech memory lane across multiple companies like Eggrock Partners which was acquired by Breakaway Solutions, BladeLogic, enerNOC, and CloudHealth Technologies. * All the details about CloudZero - how they found product market fit, why he joined as CEO, and the latest at the company today. * Advice on raising venture capital funding. * Lots of great advice on being a first time CEO - his lessons learned, what you should think about in the first 90 days, and advice on how to get on the radar for CEO positions. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 360 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Mike Troiano, Partner at G20 Ventures. When I think of Mike, I think of a master marketer, a branding guru, and an amazing storyteller. As we start our conversation we discuss the importance of these traits as it relates to entrepreneurs. The importance of storytelling and brand building is often overlooked by entrepreneurs. Yet, it is such a critical part of a startup's success as a good story attracts customers, talent, and capital. If you haven't followed his blog, please make sure you check it out on Medium, as there are so many great pieces of advice to help you improve your skills in storytelling, creating a brand, and building a startup. He's one of the best. G20 Ventures is the capital partner that helps new businesses grow with smart money, great storytelling, and the right connections. The firm's sweet spot is mainly Series A investing in enterprise software companies. In this podcast, we cover: * Playing sports at Cornell and getting his career started in the marketing agency world, plus starting his own company which was acquired and went public. * The full lifecycle story of M-Qube which was acquired by VeriSign and all the details about how the company powered the voting for American Idol and the lucky case drawing for Deal or No Deal. * Launching a startup called MatchMine which was backed by the Kraft family and was building a personalization tech for consumers that ended up being too early for the market. * The story of Actifio and its copy data management solution which grew into unicorn status with backing from Tier A investors and was acquired by Google. * How a viral post on Medium started his journey into venture capital and joining G20 Ventures, where he was a founding member and LP. * Getting started as a VC and how he found his Zone of Genius, plus what he's targeting for investments. * The 5 phases of a career. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 359 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO of Sincere. Boston has this legacy reputation that you can't build consumer companies in the area, yet there are so many great companies that have scaled like Wayfair, DraftKings, iRobot, SimpliSafe, and so… so… many more. Plus, don't get me started on how many brands, especially footwear, are located here. Anyway, Sincere is another example of a great consumer company at scale. It is highly likely that you've used one of their products like Punchbowl to plan a party, Timehop to relive past memories, or Memento, where you can collect and preserve memories together for a group video or photo album. Sincere's latest brand is Lovebird, a new platform for the wedding industry which is taking on The Knot and other outdated incumbents and as highlighted in this interview with Matt, there will be more coming from Sincere. In this podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the legacy of an entrepreneur and what led Matt down the path of starting a corporate foundation at Sincere for charitable initiatives. * Matt's background story, growing up with 5 brothers and how he started his entrepreneurial roots early on. * Getting his career started and how he became the youngest Product Manager at Adobe. * His brushes with tech luminaries like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Alexis Ohanian, Justin Kan, and Dharmesh Shah. * The background story of Punchbowl and the three key characteristics he used for building a business. * Why the expansion into the wedding market with Lovebird made sense for the company and how they are differentiating themselves from the competitors. * Matt's philosophy around buying premium domains and a hint about his best 5 letter domain that is not even live yet. * And so much more.

Episode 358 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Simon Taylor, Founder & CEO of HYCU. One of the things that I love about this podcast is hearing the stories of entrepreneurs and the ambitious moves they make to build their companies. For example, last week's interview with Brian Liu was a great example where he and his Co-Founder cold called and got the most recognizable lawyer on the planet - that being Robert Shapiro - involved with LegalZoom in the early days of the company. Simon's story is also legendary. At the point of having an MVP, they wanted to partner with a fast growing company called Nutanix. He flew out to the company's offices in California and unannounced, he asked to speak to the CEO. After pitching his company and convincing team members during that initial unannounced call, the CEO did finally sit with him and after building a backup solution for Nutanix, a partnership was established and they were off and running. HYCU is a leader in the multi-cloud and SaaS data protection as a service industry. The company has raised $140M in VC funding to date. In this podcast, we cover: * A discussion around leveraging a partnership model for a company's GTM strategy and how to build it with the right mindset and approach. * Simon's background story, including receiving a signed book from legendary computer entrepreneur An Wang, the founder of Wang Laboratories, when his family moved to the U.S. * Starting his career in cubicle jobs and how he learned the importance of rigor like his experience as a 401K rep answering phones and how it helped shape him as an entrepreneur. * Building his first company in Prague, an IT outsourcing company which was acquired by Comtrade and then his next company, a monitoring tools company that was acquired by Citrix. * The full lifecycle story of HYCU and all the details about their platform. * The benefits of raising capital from corporate VCs. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 357 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Brian Liu, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of companies like LegalZoom, BizCounsel, & Overture. Lots of the best ideas come from experience within your own industry and it was Brian and his co-founder, Brian Lee (who has since gone on to be a co-founder of ShoeDazzle and The Honest Company) who both had experience in the law industry and saw an industry which was ripe for disruption. After experimenting with some ideas, the idea for LegalZoom had the best validation for building a company and some of the most successful entrepreneurs take bold risks. For example, to bring validation for consumers about the legitimacy of their business for legal docs, they cold called and got Robert Shapiro (yes, the high profile attorney from the OJ Simpson trial) involved in the business… and from there, they were off and running… which ultimately led to a publicly traded company. His latest company is Overture, an attorney-to-attorney referral platform for solos & small firms. In this podcast, we cover: * A discussion about the impact and potential that AI has for the legal industry. * Brian's background story and his experience as a practicing attorney. * The full lifecycle story of LegalZoom, including the Robert Shapiro cold call and how they scaled the company. * All the details about Overture. * Brian's work as an advisor for entrepreneurs like Julia Rodgers from HelloPrenup, who was featured in Episode 336 of The VentureFizz Podcast. * And so much more.

Episode 356 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Erika Ebbel Angle and Colin Angle. I've had co-founders on my podcast in the past but it is very rare that I have a married couple and it is very hard not to use the phrase power-couple of this one. Having both Erika and Colin on the podcast was awesome, as we were able to dig into both of their background stories and professional journeys. If you are in the Boston tech scene, you probably know about Colin as a co-founder and former CEO of iRobot, but equally impressive is his wife, Erika. Here are some examples of her many professional accomplishments: * B.S. in Chemistry from MIT; Ph.D. in Biochemistry from BU. 2004 Miss Massachusetts * Founder of a non-profit organization called Science from Scientists which teaches STEM lessons to students in grades third through eight. * TEDx speaker about Your Gut Microbiome that has over 2 million views. Co-Founder & CEO of Ixcela. Ixcela is a pioneering company in internal fitness, specializing in the gut microbiome. The company recently announced its Ixcela Cancer Support Program in collaboration with Roper St. Francis Healthcare which showed the critical role that gut microbiome health plays in reducing cancer care side effects. Ixcela's supportive care is designed to be hyper-personalized to help mitigate symptoms and improve the patient's health. In this episode of our podcast, we also cover: * A discussion about the gut microbiome and Erika's research. * The story of iRobot and how they discovered product-market-fit through a combination of work in mine-hunting algorithms, industrial store cleaning, and the My Real Baby doll with Hasbro led to the Roomba. * All the details about Ixcela and how their personalized care and support works. * Colin's role in Ixcela as a member of its Board of Directors. * The state of personalized healthcare and how AI has its place but why the human element is still very important. * The future of robotics and AI, plus a discussion about 10Beauty. * What dinner looks like in the Angle household. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 355 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Ben Maitland-Lewis, Director of Startup Banking & Founder Success at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and yes, this episode is also sponsored by SVB. Ben and I go way back. His previous company, Pretty Instant, had a long-standing relationship with VentureFizz. This Y-Combinator company was an on-demand photography marketplace that did all of our office tour photoshoots on VentureFizz. It honestly was an amazing experience… such a great company. But even when you work with someone for a long time and you have a great professional relationship, there is so much about the person that you don't know and this is one of the reasons why I love this podcast. I learned that Ben's background story is very eclectic… from living abroad as a child, to being a street performer and being in the circus to playing music with an orchestra… and then being in a band playing the top clubs in LA to playing drums for other bands like Incubus, Dishwalla, and others… I could go on and on, so I'll stop here and let him tell his story in this interview. Today, Ben is still leveraging his experience as a founder but helping other entrepreneurs in lots of meaningful ways at SVB. In addition to Ben's background story, we also cover: * A discussion about making the transition from founder to employee. * Ben's journey into entrepreneurship and the story of PressKit. * All the details about Pretty Instant and how the company got started and scaled. * His current role at SVB and the different ways he is working with founders. * Some analysis and positive vibes from SVB's State of the Markets report. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 354 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Paul Morville, Co-Founder & CEO of Parrot AI. This episode was recorded live at Startup Boston Week at Suffolk University. I recorded two episodes at this year's event, so stay tuned for the second episode in a couple of weeks. Paul is a serial entrepreneur and as you'll hear from our podcast, he is very successful but likes to fly under the radar. Case in point, while most companies can't wait to broadcast a round of funding, I couldn't find any press releases or media coverage about any outside investment for Parrot AI. Come to find out, the company raised capital in 2021 from Accomplice, Pillar, Legion Capital, and others. We discussed his reasoning as to why they decided against announcing funding which was very interesting. Parrot AI is not just a meeting recorder, transcription, and note-taking tool. It is an AI-powered collaborative workspace that turns conversation into results because of its understanding of the full context of a business. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The 2 biggest lessons learned while building multiple companies. * Paul's background story and his work on building Barron's online property which was one of the first financial websites. * His professional journey as a Product Manager, including experience at Arbor Networks and how so many people have gone off to start other companies like Twilio. * The founding story of Confer which was one of the first endpoint security solutions in the cloud that was acquired by Carbon Black which later went public & was acquired by VMware. * His decision to pass on an opportunity to join a VC firm and continue down the entrepreneurial path. * All the details about Parrot AI and how it differentiates itself from competitors. * What makes a great Product Manager. * And so much more.

Episode 353 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Giuseppe Stuto, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 186 Ventures. Did you know that the venture capital industry originated in Boston back in 1946 with the founding of American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC) which backed Digital Equipment Corporation and saw a 1200X return when the company went public. Since then, Boston has been very fortunate to have a steady stream of VC investors at all stages to foster the local startup ecosystem and one of the newest firms is 186 Ventures. Co-Founded by Giuseppe and Julian Fialkow, 186 Ventures is a pre-seed & seed stage VC firm investing broadly across technology. I kept hearing about the firm, so I was excited to interview Giuseppe for the podcast as they have been out there hustling and have been earning the respect from entrepreneurs and their peers in the VC industry. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the importance of investor & founder alignment. * How a conference at Stanford changed the trajectory of his career into entrepreneurship. * The full background story of SmakHigh and how they evolved to Fam, the first live group video application for iMessage, including how Jeff Bussgang's book - Mastering the VC Game - helped them raise venture funding from Jeff. * The full story of how the acquisition by DraftKings came to fruition. * The details about 186 Ventures and what they are targeting for investments. * The 4 fundamental parts of a business that matter. * The importance of building a repeatable sales model for not only your go-to-market strategy but also how it factors into raising capital. * Why Boston is the best place to build an AI startup. * And so much more.

Episode 352 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Mark Ghermezian and Manisha Shah, Founder of Tildei. Mark is the Founder and General Partner of m]x[v Capital and he's also the CEO of two companies that have spun out of his firm, that being Tildei and Gynger. Mark has been an entrepreneur pretty much his entire life and he shares lots of fun and interesting stories of these ventures, including the full story of Braze, a customer engagement platform that eventually went public in 2021. Manisha is a Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Tildei. In this interview, she shares her professional journey into the tech industry and ultimately running customer success at Rebel which was acquired by Salesforce. Tildei is changing how companies and customers communicate. The company's AI-powered platform, which is initially focused on WhatsApp, enables brands to build deep relationships with customers through conversation at scale. The company has raised $6M in funding led by Susa Ventures with participation from Ludlow Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Vine Ventures, MXV Capital, Marcelo Claure, Jason Lemkin, and other angel investors. In this episode of our podcast, we also cover: * The importance of persistence and grit when building a startup. * How Mark and Manisha came together to build Tildei and how it works. * Building and investing into companies from m]x[v including the details on Gynger. * Mark's contrarian point of view of PLG sales models and why he favors a traditional outbound sales operation. * Manisha's biggest lessons learned as a co-founder. * And so much more.

Episode 351 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Meredith McPherron, CEO & Managing Partner at Drive by DraftKings. Legalized sports betting, NIL, transfer portals, college conference re-alignment, streaming, pitch clocks, new kickoffs, the explosion of pickelball, and so much more, there is no denying it, the sports industry is going through a rapid amount of transformation. But the number one area that I'm the most excited about is the explosion of women's sports… from college basketball, WNBA, NWSL, Olympic success, and more… there is so much going on! Thus, I couldn't pick a better person to have a conversation about how women's sports are having a moment than with Meredith and this topic is exactly how we kick off our interview. If you are not familiar with Drive by DraftKings, the firm invests in seed and Series A companies in the SportsTech and Entertainment industry specifically in Gaming, Fandom, and Human Performance. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Meredith's background story including being a walk-on two sport Division 1 athlete at Harvard. * Getting her career started in investment banking and consumer products at General Mills and how she made the switch to the tech industry. * Running her own startup called Zipteva, which was early to market and would have been perfect in today's world of NIL deals. * Her role at The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at HBS which was the segue into her role as a VC at Glasswing Ventures. * All the details about Drive by DraftKings and what she is targeting for investments, plus its all-star network. * Biggest challenges around building a startup in the sports industry. * And so much more.

Episode 350 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Steve Papa, serial entrepreneur, mentor, and investor. It is time for another milestone episode and I couldn't be more excited about this interview. Steve has accomplished so much throughout his career, so let's just dive in. In this interview you are going to hear lots of amazing stories like: * Steve's background and how he got his career started in the tech industry, including his involvement in the early days of Akamai. * The full lifecycle story of Endeca in terms of how the idea originated, to getting traction and raising funding, scaling, to a $1.1B exit to Oracle… plus so many amazing stories along the way. * The Special Ops team at Endeca and how many of the members of this team have gone on to be founders & leaders of companies. * Investing all of the money that he made from Endeca back into startups. * The story of Toast and how its distribution channel innovation drove the company's success and helped create the vertical SaaS category. * The importance of Parallel Wireless and why it is such a passion project for him. * The problem that Shoobx was solving for startups and its exit to Fidelity. * How the tech industry repeats itself and his thoughts on AI. * Plus so much more! Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 349 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Chris Gardner, Partner at Underscore VC. One time, could be luck. Two times, ok… maybe you are on to something… but in the case of Chris, he has been part of several acquisitions, so there is something deeply there in terms of his ability to pick the right company to join or company to help co-found. There is no denying it, based on his track record as an operator, there is an obvious translation to his current position as a venture capitalist. This episode is another fun walk down Boston tech memory lane, as we talk about some legendary companies that were acquired like edocs (an early e-billing and customer self-service applications), M-Qube (early mobile messaging and content services company), ExtendMedia (white label video platform), and Paydiant (an early mobile wallet tech company that powered payment apps for Subway, Harris Teeter supermarkets, Capital One, MCX, and many more). What I also find really interesting is how Chris' background spans across both product and marketing, where he led both entities at companies. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it is a skillset that I haven't seen too often. Chris is currently a Partner at Underscore, a firm that is investing in pre-Seed and Seed B2B software founders. The firm recently announced a new $58M Fund III. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Chris' background story and how he got into the tech industry. * The stories and his role in the companies previously mentioned including being a co-founder of Paydiant, their impact on mobile wallets, and the company's acquisition by PayPal and what he learned there. * How Chris became a VC and the details on what he is targeting in terms of investments at Underscore. * Pitch advice for startups and the importance of storytelling. * How you need to think about compensation structure as a company scales. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 348 of The VentureFizz Podcast, sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank, features Jonathan Bensamoun, Founder & CEO of Fi. It's crazy to think that The VentureFizz Podcast has been around since 2018 and I believe that I've only had one repeat guest and that founder was talking about a new company. Thus, this is the first time I am doing a follow up episode and Jonathan was my guest for Episode 110 back in 2019. I ran into Jonathan at the Lerer Hippeau summer party in NYC and as we were chatting about his business, it seemed very obvious that we needed to do a new interview. What's cool about this episode is the format, as it is different from most of my interviews. Since we already discussed his background story in the original episode, we were able to go deeper into Fi's business and what has happened over the past 5 years. If you are not familiar with Fi, they are the creators of the Fi Smart Dog Collar which not only has real-time location tracking, but the device also includes activity, sleep, and behavior monitoring. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A brief overview of Jonathan's background story and what was the inspiration behind Fi. * The latest about the Series 3 product line, plus a demo and all the cool features. * The importance of sleep tracking for your dog and how the movement to health tracking is a key piece of Fi's strategy. * Lessons learned from retail and why a straight direct-to-consumer model is the right fit for them at this point in time. * Building out a company's leadership team and Board of Directors. * What the fundraising process has looked like through Fi's journey. * Creating a category and why more competition in the industry would be a good thing. * And so much more. More about our sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 347 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Joe Caruso, Investor & Mentor. Lots of people know of Joe as an angel investor, but when I think of Joe… I think of a mentor to so many entrepreneurs and a major supporter of the Boston startup ecosystem. If you go through Joe's portfolio of investments from his Bantam Group website, it will give a strong perspective to the depth of his connection to the Boston tech scene. This podcast interview is a bit different. We start off by talking about his role as a mentor and during that conversation, we weave in his background like leaving high school before getting his diploma and enrolling into Northeastern. He shares lots of great advice throughout the conversation. What I found to be incredibly fun was the talk down memory lane and getting to hear the inside story of some of his investments in companies like HubSpot, Constant Contact, Carbonite, and LevelUp, plus the missed opportunity with DraftKings. And one of my favorite stories actually has nothing to do with tech… he was on the board of the company that invented the Frappuccino. Oh, you think that was Starbucks? You'll have to listen to find out…

Episode 346 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Scott Weller, CTO & Co-Founder at EnFi. The formula for a thriving tech ecosystem ideally looks something like this: * Entrepreneurial-minded person works for startups and learns a ton. Perhaps they even witness success at scale to an exit. * Said person takes lessons learned and builds their own company to an exit. * Said person then starts to mentor and invest back into the ecosystem to fund the next generation of companies. * Said person eventually finds an idea that they can't get out of their head and launches another company. This is the case for Scott, as he was involved in tech from an early age and connected with a talented group of entrepreneurs who were building the first generation of online gaming where he witnessed a couple of exits. He then co-founded and was the CTO of SessionM which led to a successful exit to Mastercard. He was angel investing and advising companies when he and another successful entrepreneur, Josh Summers, saw a problem which was a perfect opportunity to disrupt an industry using AI. Josh has the same startup founder pedigree as he was part of the WHERE team that was acquired by PayPal and then went on to found Clypd which was acquired by Xandr. The two have come together to build a company called EnFi which recently announced $7.5M in seed funding led by Unusual Ventures with participation from Boston Seed, Argon Ventures and Impellent Ventures. EnFi is accelerating complex credit analysis and risk monitoring with AI Assistants for bank and private lending origination, underwriting, and portfolio management teams. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion about the AI landscape in the Boston tech scene. * Scott's background story and his early involvement with one of the very first Internet Service Providers called Intelecom Data Systems as a teenager. * Working at an early stage web gaming startup called Gamesville which was acquired by Lycos. * GameLogic and the early innovation of working with regulated games and the level of innovation in terms of patent creation which was acquired by Scientific Games. * Being early to market with an online video product for SMBs called SnapYap that he started with others. * The founding story of SessionM with Mark Hermann & Lars Albright and how the company evolved through the years, plus its acquisition by Mastercard and how things materialized post-acquisition. * SessionM's involvement in building the very successful mobile app for Starbucks and its bonus & loyalty campaigns. * The background story and all the details about EnFi and how they are disrupting the market. * Common startup mistakes that he sees entrepreneurs make over and over again. * And so much more.

Episode 345 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Laura Teicher, Executive Director at FORGE. Did you know that there are over 7,000 manufacturers in the state of Massachusetts? I certainly didn't. My gut is that most entrepreneurs think that they need to go overseas for manufacturing versus leveraging local resources. And, let's face it, building a startup is hard but when it is a physical product… it is a whole different ballgame. However... FORGE can help. Spun out of Greentown Labs, FORGE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps startups figure out some of hard stuff through the journey from physical prototype to commercialization. The organization works with startups to help them figure out how to establish and scale manufacturing to sourcing from supply chains and suppliers. FORGE has supported over 800 startups with an amazing high survival rate. So, you are probably thinking… is this an accelerator… or what's the cost… maybe they are expecting equity from your company… nope. It's free and their impact is massive as you'll hear from this interview with Laura. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The specialized and collaborative nature of the organizations that support the Boston hardtech startup ecosystem. * Laura's professional journey including how volunteering helped open doors for her career. * All the details about FORGE in terms of how companies can get involved and how they help companies at each step along the way. * The key benefits to manufacturing locally and some of the hidden costs that can arise from offshore manufacturing. * The Valleys of Death for building physical products. * And so much more.

Episode 344 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Wardah Inam, Founder & CEO of Overjet. Building a company in an underserved industry has its pros and cons. Yes, it's nice to have less competition and a head start, but on the flip side… it might be harder to raise funding if it isn't a sector of interest for investors or it might even tougher to acquire customers because you have to educate the market. But… if you can build it and the market is ready… it can be magic, just like you'll hear from Wardah's interview. Based on a personal dental experience, she recognized a problem and embarked on a journey to build a dental AI platform which ended up being the first FDA approved solution. From detecting oral disease with unmatched precision to educating patients with clearly annotated images to getting insurance claims approved 5X faster, Overjet is the dental AI platform that lets dental professionals put patients first and operate efficiently. Back in March the company announced a $53.2 million Series C round of funding which is the largest investment ever in an AI for dentistry company and it brings the total funding to date at approximately $133M. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Wardah's background story including how she got started in building autonomous robot during undergrad. * Her history as an entrepreneur starting multiple companies and her early experience working with AI. * The full story of Overjet and how a lucky Uber-pool ride helped her get started in terms of building expertise in the dental industry. * All the details about the company's platform and value, plus the current state of the state of the company. * Fundraising advice for underserved markets and how the Overjet story evolved over time. * The importance of velocity for a startup. * And so much more.

Episode 343 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Jonathan Corbin, Co-Founder & CEO of Maven AGI and our first sponsored podcast episode! Yes, please welcome Silicon Valley Bank (more info about SVB below) as a supporter of The VentureFizz Podcast. Any time I see a funding announcement for a new company, I get excited, as I'm an optimist and I hope that every company will scale and reach great milestones… but when I saw the news about Maven and how they are using Generative AI for enterprise customer experience… it was different… it was a no-brainer moment and I'm calling it now… this is going to be an anchor company in the Boston tech scene. Why? The team. They have a world-class team from HubSpot, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Stripe. Take Jonathan for example. He was the Global VP of Customer Success & Strategy at HubSpot where he led a team that was responsible for over 200,000 customers. Prior, he held leadership roles with major tech companies like Sprinklr, Marketo, Adobe, and others. He is one example of a team that is uniquely qualified to solve this problem. The problem. The use case for Generative AI at Maven just makes a world of sense and they already have early customers with amazing results which he gets into in during our discussion. Backing. In May, Maven announced that it had raised $28 million from investors Lux Capital, M13, E14 Fund, Mentors Fund and 786 Ventures, with participation from executives from OpenAI, Google, HubSpot, and Stripe. Maven is absolutely a company to keep an eye on and one of the key companies that are part of the next wave in the Boston tech scene. Oh... and they are hiring - you can check out their jobs here. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * What the fundraising process looked like for Maven. * Jonathan's background story and a journey through his career path, plus his early entrepreneurial roots as a kid. * How he learned to lead a global organization of over 1,000 team members at HubSpot. * What led Jonathan and his two co-founders Eugene Mann and Sami Shalabi down the path of starting Maven. * All the details about Maven and the velocity they have been operating under in terms of building the platform and getting early customer adoption. * Advice for startups on building out a customer success function. * The vibe for the AI startup community in the Boston tech scene. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $40B in loans as of Q1 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 342 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Matt Weinberg, Partner at Max Ventures. Did you know that there are a ton of resources available for startups from the government including non-dilutive funding? I'm talking billions of dollars are allocated to hundreds of startups every year. This is a topic that has never been discussed on The VentureFizz Podcast and Matt is uniquely qualified to speak about this topic based on his experience in the public sector, including his time at the Small Business Administration's Office of Investment and Innovation. Matt shares some very useful information about the pros and cons of exploring this potential funding path which includes information from organizations like the National Science Foundation's SBIR program. Today, Matt is in the private sector as a Partner at Max Ventures, an early-stage venture firm based in New York City with a global reach and a primary focus on digital health, SaaS, and digital commerce. The firm has also co-founded 8 venture backed companies. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Matt's background story and getting his career started in government under the Obama administration. * How his various positions in the public sector helped him take his career into venture capital. * Joining Max Ventures in the early days of the firm and how it differentiates from other VC firms in terms of both investing and incubating its own companies. * The details about The Post and Elion, two of the companies it has launched. * How to get on Matt's radar and what he expects to get out of a first meeting. * The benefits of small group dinners and some tips for success. * And so much more.

Episode 341 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Somak Chattopadhyay, Managing Partner at Armory Square Ventures. Yes, markets like the Bay Area, NYC, and Boston get a lot of attention when it comes to building startups and having the ability to raise capital, but there are lots of other places to build a successful company. This has always been the case, but the pandemic definitely pushed this reality further. This is why a firm like Amory Square Ventures exists. There are lots of secondary markets where entrepreneurs need access to capital and it is also a very important matter for the local economy for these companies to grow and create jobs, versus relocating. Somak shares the details of what led him down the path to start Armory Square Ventures, a seed and early stage venture fund, and why their approach of investing in seconday markets has not only been a differentiator for their firm but what they also consider as an optimism engine and a community catalyst for regions outside Silicon Valley. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice on how founders can push back on advice from investors. * Somak's background story and his early career in startups. * How he landed in venture capital at Edison Ventures and Tribeca Venture Partners. * The details on what they are targeting for investments and portfolio company examples like Machinery Partner and ACV Auctions, a Buffalo company that went public. * Somak's anti-portfolio, companies that he reviewed and an investment didn't work out and went on to be a successful company. * Advice on building a marketplace. * And so much more.

Episode 340 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Steph Johnson, Co-Founder & CEO at Multiplayer. Steph is an inspiration. As discussed in this interview, her background might not be the prototypical tech CEO profile for a few reasons. First, she came up through the agency world and then ran comms in-house for major tech companies like DigitalOcean and MongoDB. Second, she is a female founder of a dev tools platform startup and yes, we need more female founders. And third, she has a neurological condition called Tourette Syndrome. All of these factors have ultimately given her unique skills to thrive in her current role. Multiplayer is a visual collaborative platform that makes it easy for engineering teams to design, develop, and manage distributed software. The company is venture backed and on a mission to create better ways for developers to work. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Steph's background story and how she got her career started with agencies in NYC. * Her decision to move in-house to run comms at DigitalOcean and MongoDB, plus what she learned at each company like the importance of a developer community. * Advice for making the shift from agency to in-house roles. * Founding Multiplayer with Tom Johnson, her Co-Founder, CTO, and husband… and why being married was a strategic advantage when they raised capital. * The details on the Mutliplayer platform and its beta release. * Advice on the storytelling element for a company building technical products. * And so much more.

Episode 339 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Andy Palmer, serial entrepreneur, seed investor, and now author. Andy is one of my OG's, that being original guests. If you go way back into the archives of The VentureFizz Podcast, you'll find my first interview with him for Episode #22 back in 2018. In that interview, we talk about his full background story, his career building companies like Tamr & Vertica, plus investing in companies. For this interview, Andy and I connected for a different reason. He has written a book with his co-author, Paula Caliguiri titled “Live for a Living: How to Create Your Career Journey to Work Happier Not Harder.” The two met on a Bumble date which resulted in a friendship and a collaboration for this book, which is useful at any stage of one's career. It's ultimately a guide to designing a life that leverages your personal values, motivators, and goals in your career. I'm a fan of audiobooks, so it was fun listening to Andy and Paula narrate the book and I have to admit, they both have great voices for it. Plus, it was cool to know some of the people that they highlight in the book like Elizabeth Lawler, CEO & Co-Founder of AppMap, who we recently on my podcast. The format of this interview is different from my normal style which was a fun change of pace. In this episode, we chat about: * How Andy got involved in AI back in the 80's and how this is his third AI hype cycle, plus the details about his latest company called DBOS. * The inspiration behind the book. * The 5 phases of ideal careers that being: Starter Phase, Foundational Phase, High-Growth Phase, High-Focus Phase, and Give-Back Phase. We go through each phase in detail. * Why a simultaneous career path can be a benefit. * The advantages of working at startups and how it can push your career forward. * And more! There is obviously a lot more to this book than what we had the opportunity to chat about, so make sure you check it out! The title again is Live for a Living and you can find it on Amazon or the audio version Spotify or any other major outlet.

Episode #338 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Tasneem Dohadwala, Founding Partner at Excelestar Ventures. It's a lot more common to find VC firms that are investing into deep tech or hard tech, but when Tasneem started Excelestar Ventures in 2010, it was far from the norm. Not only was it abnormal to invest in companies building highly advanced engineering products, but it was also a very challenging time in the tech industry in general. So, to start a new VC firm was very rare. Excelestar Ventures is a bit different than most VC firms as they operate an evergreen fund which gives them flexibility, especially during different economic cycles, in terms of the types of investments they can make versus having to raise a new fund every 2-3 years. The firm is also passionate about funding disruptive businesses led by under-represented founders. Across Excelestar's entire portfolio, 61% of their companies are minority-led and 50% are female-led. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Fundraising advice for women or minority founders and why you should always be thinking about asking for introductions. * Tasneem's background story and how she got her career starting in finance at Goldman Sachs, plus her decision to go back to B-school at HBS. * All the details about Excelestar Ventures in terms of the companies they are targeting, including her interest in personalized medical devices, as well as how their due diligence process works. * Tasneem's involvement with Golden Seeds, a firm focused on investing in women-led companies. * Advice for pitching your company and the importance of being able to properly articulate the value proposition of your company, having the right market size for that investor, and another factor that she calls the confirmatory mindset. * And so much more.

Episode 337 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Gloria Hwang, Founder & CEO of Thousand. Gloria's career has centered around mission oriented initiatives and companies. Starting at Habitat for Humanity… then to TOMS, which is the gold standard in terms of businesses with a social mission based on their One for One model. She joined the company in its early years and played several key roles while there. As the Founder of Thousand, a Public Benefit Corporation, Gloria named the company after an initial goal of saving 1,000 lives (which they have passed) by making a bike helmet that consumers will actually enjoy wearing. The inspiration for the company came from a tragic story of a coworker who passed away from a bike accident in NYC. When you think of it, it is a category that hasn't really evolved in terms of style and functionality. What started out as a Kickstarter project… then fast forward to today, Thousand has brought a new level of style and innovation to a category that has been stagnant forever. And, it is working. The company continues to grow aggressively and has been expanding into other categories like the launch of its Thousand Jr. collection. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A deep discussion around building a company that is mission and community focused. * Gloria's background story and her mentality as a builder that started as a child which was influenced by her father who started the robotics program for NASA. * Her experience at TOMS including playing a key role in building out their non-profit and giving programs and what it was like working closely with Blake Mycoskie. * The full lifecycle story of Thousand, including how she got started from designing the product to manufacturing to building a brand. * How they decided to expand their product line based on feedback from existing customers versus trying to build out new markets. * Starting the company with a bootstrapped mentality and how that helped the company over the long run. * And so much more.

Episode 336 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Julia Rodgers, Esq., CEO & Co-Founder of HelloPrenup, a platform that takes the awkwardness out of discussing and creating prenuptial agreements. This is the 3rd and final podcast interview from my live sessions at Suffolk University with 3 alums that being Don Bulens, Ernesto DiGiambattista, and Julia Rodgers. Some of the best entrepreneurs that I have interviewed for this podcast have either bootstrapped or raised a very, very minimal amount of capital to build their company in the early years. If you are successful with this approach, there are many benefits including the fact that you will have likely built a solid foundation for your business and if you do decide to raise capital to help fuel the growth, you'll have a lot more control over the terms. As you'll hear from this interview, Julia has raised only $150,000 total. She started working on HelloPrenup while working a fulltime job. This would involve working with the developer on the initial build of the product while also writing 1,200 word blog posts daily about prenups. This is a true foundational story of entrepreneurship and why I love doing this podcast. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Julia's background story and her experience as an attorney in family law. * The industry trend that prompted her to start a business around prenups, a topic that has a history of being a taboo between couples. * All the details about HelloPrenup including how she met her co-founder, Sarabeth Jaffe. * A deep dive into their appearance on ABC's Shark Tank and their successful investment from Kevin O'Leary and Nirav Tolia, the Founder of Nextdoor. * Why she hasn't raised institutional venture capital funding to date. * How she has approached hiring for the team and found people who are passionate about their business. * Advice for female founders and the power of networking. * And so much more.

Episode 335 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Ernesto DiGiambattista, entrepreneur and investor. This episode is the 2nd of three interviews that were recorded live at Suffolk University with Suffolk alums. Ernesto has a unique background that hits the trifecta of experience. He spent time in senior roles with larger enterprise corporations, then he founded a venture backed company called ZeroNorth which was acquired by Harness, and he's now an investor in early stage startups as Managing Director of Genesis Accel. Thus, he was able to provide a very unique perspective, not only around building companies but we also talk about some of the inner-workings of the venture capital industry. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The details behind EIEIO, which is the acronym that Ernesto uses for hiring, that being Energy, IQ/EQ, Experience, Integrity, and Organizational Fit. * Ernesto's background story and how he got his career started in the tech industry and how he landed his role at Bank of America and then as an executive at Sentinel Benefits. * What led him down the path of entrepreneurship and how he recognized the market opportunity that turned into ZeroNorth and the full lifecycle story behind the company. * What Ernesto and his partner, Tom Meredith, are targeting for investments. * The importance of understanding the fund dynamics of a VC firm like their deployment requirements and other key factors. * Common pitch mistakes that he sees from founders and why you should show customer retention and revenue growth. * His view on customer success at a startup in the early stage and why it might be more important than sales. And so much more.

Episode #334 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Don Bulens, 5 time Startup CEO and Executive Chair at CloudZero. This episode was recorded live at Suffolk University which was so much fun! We recorded 3 interviews with Suffolk alums on April 2nd, so this is the first conversation and we'll have two more coming in the following weeks. And just a side note about Suffolk, the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well at the school. I was blown away by how many students attended the sessions and how many came up to me afterward with great questions. Back to this episode... Don has had lots of success throughout his career including being the CEO at EqualLogic which exited to Dell for $1.4B in cash, which was the largest cash transaction of its time for a venture backed company… but what I admire about Don is his transparency about his failures. His first two CEO positions didn't quite work out and he shares the details of this experience of getting knocked down and losing confidence, but how he got back at it and ultimately persevered. Today, Don is the Executive Chair at CloudZero, a venture backed cloud cost intelligence platform, which raised $41M last year in one of the most difficult markets to raise capital. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Why the success of a company is all about the people. * Don's background story and how he got into sales, plus the importance of learning how to sell. * A journey down the tech industry across the companies he led as a CEO - that being Radnet, Trellix, EqualLogic, Unidesk, and CloudZero. * Don's 3 secrets to success. * The story of the EqualLogic exit. * All the details about CloudZero and how they found product market fit. * Meeting his wife, Lynne Capozzi at Suffolk, who was the Chief Marketing Officer at Acquia. * And so much more.

Episode 333 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Geri Kirilova, Managing Partner at Laconia. From what I've seen, it is very rare for someone to start their career in venture and continue to progress up the ranks. Usually, an Associate or Senior Associate will do a rotation for 2-3 years and then move on to a portfolio company, maybe start a company, or do something else. For Geri, outside of a stop at Techstars, the path to venture capital started when she was at NYU as an intern for VC firms including Laconia. Fast forward to today, she is a Managing Partner at the firm and has been recognized by Forbes as a 30 Under 30 recipient. Laconia leads investments in pre-seed and seed stage B2B software companies with a focus around supporting founders in the early days in terms of sales acceleration, operational execution, and capital strategy. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice on building a career in venture capital. * Why she chose NYU and the details of her experience while in college as an operator. * A masterclass on how to build your network and lots of really useful tips on how to avoid the uneasy feeling that some people might have with networking at events. * How Laconia got started by David Arcara & Jeffrey Silverman, plus all the details on the firm. * Seed round funding benchmarks in the current market. * The unique due diligence process that Laconia runs which helps founders make potential customer introductions. * Details on Laconia's internship and fellowship programs. * And so much more.