POPULARITY
In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, Alex Theuma sits down with Marcus Ryu - Co-founder of Guidewire and now a Partner at Battery Ventures - for an honest conversation about the highs, lows, and hard lessons of building and backing SaaS companies. Marcus shares how he went from pursuing a career in academia to leading a billion-dollar business, what it felt like to face years of rejection, and why he believes true founders don't chase easy wins — they lean into hard problems. He also talks candidly about the realities of being a CEO, the shift into venture capital, and whether AI is truly as transformative as it's hyped to be.Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward:
#233 Post-Acquisition, Pre-Burnout: Surviving M&A as a CFO with Kathy Kinder https://open.spotify.com/episode/5wmvtV5W3CneLlcQwQ0qJh?si=Fejf8jefTK2Lje3nVPHB7g In this insightful podcast episode of the Grow CFO Show, Kevin sits down with Kathy Kinder. Their discussion centers on the critical challenges CFOs face during mergers and acquisitions, with particular emphasis on post-acquisition integration and avoiding burnout. Kathy brings extensive experience from her career spanning multiple private equity-owned companies where she managed numerous acquisitions, growing one company from $30 million to over $130 million in revenue. The conversation highlights the importance of simplifying organizational structures post-acquisition to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Kathy shares valuable insights on managing teams through periods of change, emphasizing communication and addressing performance issues promptly. Her transition from corporate CFO roles to fractional CFO consulting reflects a growing trend among finance executives seeking more balanced careers while still leveraging their expertise to help growing companies avoid costly mistakes. About Kathy Kinder:Kathy Kinder is a former CFO with over 30 years of experience managing accounting, HR, legal and facilities. She focused her expertise as a CFO for tech companies, facilitating over 13 acquisitions. These acquisitions cover private asset and stock sales, carve outs of public companies, and public take private situations. An original founder of LiftBridge, Kathy is now largely retired from direct client work but still contributes as a mentor to those wanting to grow their CFO skills, or for founders needing basic background or increased practical understanding of business and finance. Kathy, along with her co-founders Kay Whitaker and Ashley Vukovits, won the 2022 Mira Award for Service Partner of the Year. The judges for the Mira Awards, presented by TechPoint, ‘determined LiftBridge's effectiveness with its clients is likely to have a lasting impact on the success of the Indiana tech ecosystem startups and scale-ups well past the critical five-year survival mark'. Kathy is a dog lover and former owner of a doggy boarding and daycare business. Key topics covered: Kathy led finance teams through 11-12 acquisitions under Battery Ventures, managing accounting, revenue recognition, HR, facilities, and legal contracts while navigating the complexities of rapid growth Post-acquisition integration requires simplification of organizational structures, including consolidating federal ID numbers to reduce redundant reporting and standardizing employee benefit plans across merged entities Effective team management during M&A transitions depends on clear communication and treating team members as valued contributors rather than subordinates Addressing underperforming team members promptly is essential during acquisitions to maintain overall team morale and productivity The multi-faceted role of a CFO during M&A requires broad knowledge across business functions, with Kathy emphasizing that there are "no stupid questions" when navigating unfamiliar territory Transitioning to fractional CFO work can provide a less stressful alternative for experienced finance executives while allowing them to mentor growing companies and help them avoid common pitfalls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAYQOwPdyhA Links Kathy Kinder on LinkedIn Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn GrowCFO Mentoring Timestamps 00:01:04: Introduction to the podcast and explanation of the recording process with new mentor Kathy. 00:05:00-00:10:00: Kathy shares her background from "bean counter" at Stokely Van Camp to managing growth at a tech company that went public. 00:08:30-00:10:45: Experience leading finance through 11-12 acquisitions under Battery Ventures, growing from $30M to $130M in revenue.
In this episode we speak with Satoshi Harris-Koizumi, Partner at Battery Ventures, a global, tech-focused investment firm with a track record spanning early, growth-equity, and buyout investments. Now investing from its 14th flagship fund, Battery Ventures XIV, and companion fund Select Fund II, together capitalized at a combined $3.8 billion, the firm has raised more than $13 billion since inception. Its core focus areas are application software, infrastructure software, consumer, and industrial tech and life science tools. Toshi, based in New York, leads later-stage and majority investments in software companies reshaping industries like hospitality, manufacturing, engineering, and supply chain, among others. I am your host RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to follow.
Live from San Francisco, Dev Interrupted explores the future of developer productivity with Ori Keren (CEO, LinearB) and Dharmesh Thakker (General Partner, Battery Ventures). The conversation, recorded before a live audience in San Francisco, examines the exciting possibilities and potential challenges of AI-powered tools, from code completion and review to the more advanced agentic AI. Moderated by Ben Lloyd Pearson, this episode captures the excitement of the event, including audience Q&A and feedback. Ori and Dharmesh share their insights on how these trends will shape the future of software development over the next 12 to 24 months, offering predictions and practical advice for engineering teams and leaders. Discover how these shifts will impact your work and the broader tech industry.Show Notes:8 Habits of Highly Productive Engineering TeamsBeyond the DORA FrameworksIntroducing AI-Powered Code Review with gitStreamBook a demoFollow the hosts:Follow BenFollow AndrewFollow today's guest:Follow Dharmesh ThakkerReferenced in today's show:OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says They've 'Been on the Wrong Side of HistorySoftware development topics I've changed my mind on after 10 years in the industryChat is a bad UI pattern for development toolsNASA is going to do a Twitch stream from the ISSSupport the show: Subscribe to our Substack Leave us a review Subscribe on YouTube Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn Offers: Learn about Continuous Merge with gitStream Get your DORA Metrics free forever
In this episode of the Revenue Builders Podcast, hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan are joined by Sunil Dhaliwal, a seasoned venture capitalist and founding partner of Amplify Partners. The discussion dives deep into the challenges and skills required for startup sales leaders, emphasizing the importance of accuracy, adaptability, and honest communication. They explore the different growth stages of a company and how the role of a sales leader evolves with them. They also touch on recruiting, retaining talent, and preparing for board presentations. Dhaliwal shares his journey from Battery Ventures to founding Amplify Partners and provides insights into emerging trends and the impact of AI on various industries.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESConnect and learn more about Sunil Dhaliwal.https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunildhaliwal/Enjoying the podcast? Sign up to receive new episodes straight to your inbox: https://hubs.li/Q02R10xN0Check out John McMahon's book, The Qualified Sales Leader: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064/HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:01:52] The Challenges of Startup Sales Leadership[00:02:49] The Importance of Accuracy in Sales Leadership[00:04:03] Finding the Right Sales Leader for Startups[00:05:47] Navigating the Maze of Early-Stage Sales[00:08:23] Communicating with the Board: Honesty and Accuracy[00:11:29] Key Competencies for Startup Sales Leaders[00:19:14] Presenting to the Board: Best Practices[00:24:26] Establishing an Effective Operating Rhythm[00:30:43] Seeking Advice from Experienced Leaders[00:31:36] Key Metrics for Young Companies[00:32:07] Importance of New Logo Growth[00:33:58] Retention and Sales Productivity[00:34:32] Challenges in Scaling Sales Teams[00:42:51] Stages of Company Growth[00:46:32] The Role of a CRO[00:50:27] Energy Management in Leadership[00:56:33] Founding Amplify Partners[01:00:03] Identifying Emerging Trends[01:02:52] The Future of AI in BusinessHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:03:19] "Their job is accurately conveying what's happening out there. Where are we good? Where are we bad?"[00:12:03] "At different stage companies, if the product's not working, I can complain about it in a startup company. The product is not going to work the way everybody wants it to work."[00:13:32] "Early stage companies, the mission for a CRO is more about discovery and asking questions rather than simply closing deals."[00:17:39] "Your biggest problem is somewhere between your CEO and founder, your board, there is stuff that they believe that isn't true."
Max Schireson and Jason Mendel, from Battery Ventures recently published an article on Managing and Measuring R&D spend including key metrics from the DORA and SPACE frameworks and they also introduced their own 5 step R&D measurement framework including:Allocate top downBreak R&D into granular buckets (not a lump sum)Listen to product-adjacent teams that are customer-facingBe deliberate about measuring success of R&D projectsHold the full team accountableThe article also includes benchmarks from Battery Ventures portfolio company, LinearB.If you are interesting in best practices on measuring R&D productivity, this episode is a great listen!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Dan Wenhold is an early stage investor in built world technology and Partner at Fifth Wall, where he co-leads the Real Estate Technology Investment team. Dan has led investments in innovative CRE tech companies like Fractional, Cottage and Neighbor.com. Prior to joining Fifth Wall, Dan was the first employee and Director of Retail at The Black Tux and a growth equity investor at Battery Ventures. (01:46) - Dan's Journey to Fifth Wall(03:19) - Evaluating PropTech Startups(05:26) - The Role of AI & Interoperability in PropTech(07:19) - Challenges and Opportunities in PropTech Investment(17:31) - Feature: Pacaso - Luxury vacation home ownership, elevated. Be part of Pacaso's growth as an early shareholder at Pacaso.com/invest(20:15) - Impact of Trump & Republican Administration on Proptech(30:00) - Spotlight on Neighbor.com & Self Storage(33:55) - Spotlight on Cottage(37:19) - Collaboration Superpower: Michael Jordan (Wiki) & Ion Țiriac (Wiki)
In this short segment of the Revenue Builders Podcast, Battery Ventures Operating Partner, Bill Binch, talks with Revenue Builders on getting specific on what makes your reps successful and the importance of understanding that success profile as a CRO. If you are hiring in 2025, don't miss this segment. KEY TAKEAWAYS[00:00:27] - Introduction to Bill Binch's career highlights (Battery Ventures, Pendo, Marketo).[00:01:11] - The importance of having a clear and compelling personal and company value proposition as a CRO.[00:02:17] - Lessons from Marketo: Hiring top talent and being ruthless about performance in the early days.[00:03:15] - Defining traits of successful sales reps and discovering the “Monday Morning Meeting Rule.”[00:04:11] - Inputs that predict outputs: The critical metric of nine weekly customer-facing meetings.[00:05:02] - Structuring onboarding and enablement to align activity with success expectations.[00:05:38] - Setting success profiles in interviews to align hiring with organizational goals.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:01:11] - "As a CRO, if you're not audible-ready with your employee value prop or your own story, you're at risk. You're really at risk."[00:02:56] - "If you weren't cutting it at Marketo in 60 days, it was a hard place to be. That ruthlessness shaped our success."[00:03:48] - "Our reps who start the week with nine customer-facing meetings consistently hit quota. Meetings multiply."[00:05:02] - "We shifted enablement from outputs to inputs—measuring activity first to build downstream results."[00:05:38] - "When you start here, this is what we're going to manage you to. Does that sound good?"Listen to Bill's Full Episode Here: https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/a-revenue-builders-journey-from-seller-to-leader-to-operating-partner/Enjoying the podcast? Sign up to receive new episodes straight to your inbox:https://hubs.li/Q02R10xN0Check out John McMahon's book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management's Ascender platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/Read Force Management's eBook: https://www.forcemanagement.com/roi-of-sales-messaging
On today's show, we chat with John Scanlon! John Scanlon lives and works as general counsel of a green fuels company in Pinedale, Wyoming. He also works in the film industry in various capacities, including as a producer. John has served as general counsel to three companies, helped launch, finance and operate several businesses, and has worked on over 100 film and television projects. He was the founding general counsel of Pedestal, an online trading platform owned by Deutsche Bank, Reuters and Battery Ventures; of Federal City Bancorp; and of Culture11, an online media company. He began his legal career at Davis Polk & Wardwell and Latham & Watkins, where he advised on securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions. John earned his J.D. at Georgetown, where he was associate editor of the Georgetown Law Journal, and his B.A. from the University of California, Davis (Phi Beta Kappa). He paid his way through college working as a professional firefighter/EMT. His film credits include BONHOEFFER (Producer), CLEMENTE (Producer), and HONOR FLIGHT (Legal Counsel). ABOUT Bonhoeffer: As the world teeters on the brink of annihilation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is swept into the epicenter of a deadly plot to assassinate Hitler. With his faith and fate at stake, Bonhoeffer must choose between upholding his moral convictions or risking it all to save millions of Jews from genocide. Will his shift from preaching peace to plotting murder alter the course of history or cost him everything? angel.com/movies/bonhoeffer @bonhoeffermovie2024 christianmusicguys.com @christianmusicguys
Chelsea Stoner, general partner of Battery Ventures, has long been focused on the ways in which software is transforming a variety of industries. In a discussion with Goldman Sachs' Michael Brandmeyer, Stoner discusses her path to Silicon Valley, Battery's longevity as a tech-focused investment firm, and her unique outlook on the venture capital and private equity landscape.
In this episode, John Kaplan and John McMahon are joined by Bill Binch, a seasoned sales leader and Operating Partner at Battery Ventures. Together, they explore Bill's extensive career, beginning at major companies like Oracle and PeopleSoft, moving to startups such as Marketo, and eventually stepping into the VC world. Bill shares key lessons on effective sales management, transparent leadership, and strategic hiring. He also emphasizes the importance of consistent messaging, proactive problem-solving, and the integration of new technologies like AI in achieving revenue goals. This episode provides practical insights into growing within the sales domain, understanding the motivations behind career transitions, and the roles of anticipation and deliberate growth for CROs looking to evolve into advisory or operating positions within investment firms.Tune in and learn more on this episode of The Revenue Builders Podcast.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESConnect and learn more about Bill Binch:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-binch-302a4a2/Listen to Bill's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/sound-bites-with-bill-binch/id1732334718Read Bill's Content: https://www.battery.com/blog-author/bill-binch/Enjoying the podcast? Sign up to receive new episodes straight to your inbox: https://hubs.li/Q02R10xN0HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:01:33] Lessons from Oracle and PeopleSoft[00:04:32] Purposeful Career Moves and Sacrifices[00:09:02] Navigating Career Challenges and Mentorship[00:13:05] The Importance of Learning and Patience[00:32:19] Transitioning to Smaller Companies[00:45:57] Transparency and Community Building at Marketo[00:47:13] Simplifying the Message: A CRO's Skill[00:48:48] Recruitment Challenges and Strategies[00:51:55] Building a High-Performance Sales Team[00:52:37] The Importance of Employee Value Proposition[00:55:47] Traits of Successful Sales Reps[00:59:28] The Role of a CRO in a Startup[01:01:07] Navigating the CRO-CEO Relationship[01:05:25] Forecasting and Accountability[01:09:48] Transitioning to an Operating Partner Role[01:18:43] Advice for Aspiring CROs and Board MembersHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:02:28] "People that raise their hands and say the word yes, opportunities open up for you when that happens." — Bill Binch[00:10:50] "Learn, earn, and return. And you don't ever stop; as you grow, you acquire more of those stages." — Bill Binch[00:11:00] "So it starts with learning your craft, learning your skill, getting good at something." — Bill Binch
This episode is sponsored by AlixPartners The Disruption Matters special podcast series is back for a third season, and this year, leading industry experts discuss how private markets can best use today's technologies to create value. In this fourth episode, we discuss tech's role in improving the speed, rigour and ease of roll-up strategies, where a private equity firm acquires a platform company in a fragmented industry and uses M&A to consolidate targets to create a market leader. It's a popular strategy for the simple reason: it's worked so well in recent years. We'll look at what today's cutting-edge tools, including AI, can do for roll-up strategies, and where human expertise and experience still can't be replaced. Guests include David Poole, partner, executive chair of digital at Stanley Capital; Max Julian Kaye, principal at Battery Ventures; Saurabh Singh, partner at AlixPartners; Jason McDannold, partner and managing director at AlixPartners; and Hoyoung Pak, partner and managing director at AlixPartners. Clips -"People," Barbara Streisand. Funny Girl. Capitol -"Human Touch," Bruce Springsteen. Human Touch. Columbia
At InsTech, we love featuring founders who took matters into their own hands to solve the problems they encountered. This episode shines a spotlight on one such entrepreneur who did just that. In the insurance industry, manually cleaning data remains a costly and time-consuming challenge. To explore this issue, Matthew Grant sits down with Nicola Turner, CEO and Co-founder of Scrub AI. Scrub AI is a platform that automates repetitive data cleaning tasks—a solution born from Nicola's own experience as an underwriter struggling with inefficient processes. Key talking points include: Nicola's journey from underwriter to ‘accidental' entrepreneur How identifying a persistent problem led to a solution The challenges and successes of raising funding for a tech start-up Why data management remains such a significant issue in the insurance sector The role of AI, machine learning, and technology in transforming data processes Insights on working with co-founders and finding the right partners Balancing the demands of start-up life with personal well-being If you would like to hear more about entrepreneurs, raising funding and founding a company, listen to episode 317 with Marcus Ryu, Partner at Battery Ventures and Chairman at Guidewire. If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn. Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning. Continuing Professional Development This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme. By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives: Describe what are the current issues with data in the insurance industry Define bordereau and what problems might they pose for an insurer Identify ways in which entrepreneurs can generate funding and develop their team If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 319 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast. To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
What does it take to build a company like Guidewire or attract investor interest? This week, Matthew Grant talks with Marcus Ryu, Co-founder and Chairman of Guidewire, and Partner at Battery Ventures. Marcus, one of Guidewire's five founders, shares his experiences from starting the company in 2002 and the lessons he learned along the way. In this episode, Marcus discusses his shift from leading Guidewire to investing through a multi-stage technology investment firm. The conversation covers topics relevant to those interested in the insurance industry, current trends in insurance technology, and practical advice for entrepreneurs and investors alike. Key talking points include: Graduate school and finishing at the beginning of the dot-com era What ingredients are necessary to found a successful company? Startups are insurgents The first sale cycle - what is ‘wandering in the desert'? Why you need recklessness to start a company The Guidewire story and staying agile in 2024 From founder to investor - joining Battery Ventures Investing in hyperexponential Closing remarks on admin systems and generative AI You can listen to our podcast with Amrit Santhirasenan, Co-founder and CEO of hyperexponential here. If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn. Sign up to the InsTech newsletter for a fresh view on the world every Wednesday morning. Continuing Professional Development This InsTech Podcast Episode is accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). By listening, you can claim up to 0.5 hours towards your CPD scheme. By the end of this podcast, you should be able to meet the following Learning Objectives: Describe what founders can learn from the conditions necessary for a successful startup to grow Specify how a large technology company can remain relevant and agile after being founded over 20 years ago. Identify certain traits and characteristics that investors look for in companies and why If your organisation is a member of InsTech and you would like to receive a quarterly summary of the CPD hours you have earned, visit the Episode 317 page of the InsTech website or email cpd@instech.co to let us know you have listened to this podcast. To help us measure the impact of the learning, we would be grateful if you would take a minute to complete a quick feedback survey.
In this episode, we speak with Vijay Tella, the Co-founder and CEO of Workato, a platform for intelligent integration and workflow automation. In 2013, Workato was founded by Vijay Tella, Gautham Viswanathan, and Harish Shetty. Their intention was automating workflows through a no-code platform. Prior to Workato, Vijay was CEO of Qik, a consumer video communications company acquired by Skype. Workato has raised over $400 million and is backed by Battery Ventures, Altimeter, Insight Partners, Norwest, and other notable investors. I am your host RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode click to follow.
This Week's Episode is Jim Yu, Founder and Chairman of BridgeEdge. Jim is the founder and exec chair of BrightEdge. As CEO of BrightEdge, Jim helped create a whole new category in digital marketing software and built BrightEdge into the enterprise market leader with $100M+ in revenue, profitable, and 500 employees. It is used by 57% of Fortune 100 companies and nine out of the top ten international digital agencies. BrightEdge is backed by Altos Ventures, Battery Ventures, Intel, and Insight Partners.As the global leader in enterprise organic search, content, and digital automation, it empowers marketers to transform online content into business results, such as traffic, conversions, and revenue. It is powered by a sophisticated deep-learning engine and contains the industry's most extensive data set. Its all-in-one platform provides vital market insights and business intelligence based on secure, compliant, and robust sets of first-party, real-time, and historical data.Jim is a founder, digital marketing expert, and speaks at conferences such as Share, Dreamforce, Adobe Summit, as well as Search Engine Expo and Search Engine Strategies worldwide. In addition, Jim is an industry pundit with featured columns in Entrepreneur, Fortune, ClickZ, Search Engine Land and Huffington Post. Jim is widely recognized as the driving force behind enterprise content performance marketing technology, having built the largest and most widely adopted platform which is in use by over 20,000 digital marketing professionals across 8,400 brands around the globe.Jim holds an MBA from Stanford University, a Master's of Engineering from the University of Virginia, and a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science from the University of South Dakota. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/uncharted1/support
In this curated episode of the Revenue Builders Podcast, John McMahon and John Kaplan dive into a compelling conversation with Neeraj Agrawal, General Partner at Battery Ventures. With nearly 25 years of experience and a track record of backing high-profile B2B software companies, Neeraj shares his insights on what separates successful startups from the rest. He discusses the critical dimensions of market, team, technology, and deal terms, and explores the evolving importance of product quality and sales excellence in the cloud eraKEY TAKEAWAYS[00:01:06] Four key dimensions of investment decisions: market, team, technology, and deal terms.[00:01:54] Importance of market timing and inflection points in determining a startup's success.[00:03:14] Evolution of the role of product quality and sales effectiveness from the client-server era to the cloud era.[00:04:23] The necessity of delivering real value in the cloud era, eliminating the possibility of 'shelfware.'[00:05:26] The need for strong foundational sales processes and discipline to sustain long-term growth.[00:06:46] The role of a large total addressable market (TAM) in covering up early-stage mistakes but not foundational flaws.HIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:01:14] "At a high level, I think of four key dimensions in making that decision: market, team, technology, and the deal itself."[00:02:13] "You need great marketing, a great team, to come together at the right time."[00:04:23] "Now, in the cloud era, you have to deliver real value. The idea of shelfware no longer exists."[00:05:26] "When you're growing quickly is the best time to ask, what's really not working?"[00:06:46] "A large TAM and the right inflection points can pull you along nicely, but they won't cover foundational mistakes."Listen to the full episode with Neeraj Agrawal through this link: https://revenue-builders.simplecast.com/episodes/the-busiest-man-in-venture-capital-with-neeraj-agrawalCheck out John McMahon's book here:Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/1K7DDC4Check out Force Management's Ascender platform here: https://my.ascender.co/Ascender/
On yesterday's show, Keith Teare mourned the scarcity of utopian thinking in Silicon Valley. But maybe Keith was looking on the wrong coast. Robert Wolcott, who teaches at the University of Chicago and is the chair of the World Innovation Network, recognizes the value of utopian idealism in his co-authored new book, Proximity: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-in-Time Transform Business, Society and Life. As he told me, the just-in-time tech revolution of generative AI, 3D printing, lab-grown meats, renewable energy, and virtual reality is going to change everything. But what Wolcott can't predict, he confesses, is whether all this radically disruptive new tech will lead us to utopia or to dystopia. Robert C. Wolcott is Adjunct Professor of Innovation at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, and Adjunct Professor of Executive Education at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. From 2010 – 2019, he served as Clinical Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Kellogg. Wolcott won Teacher of the Year from Kellogg's EMBA program in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017. He's co-founder and chair of The World Innovation Network (TWIN), a global community of nearly 4,000 innovation and growth leaders from over 30 countries and across sectors (business, government, the arts, academia, defense). TWIN gathers 400 delegates for TWIN Global each year in Chicago to explore the future, in addition to smaller gatherings and online sessions. The objective is to build trusted relationships across sectors. Wolcott is an angel investor in over 20 companies including crowd funding leader Indiegogo, tech-enabled coaching and culture development platform Abroad.io, student loan innovator Lumni, digital education leader Kiddom, transaction security technology firm Magic Cube, digital mental health platform Silver Cloud Health and ClearCare Online (acquired by Battery Ventures), international art show, EXPO Chicago and MommyDaddyMe.com, a Hong Kong-based online capability development platform for children and their families across Asia. Wolcott holds a BA, European and Chinese History; and an MS and Ph.D., Industrial Engineering & Management Science, Northwestern University. Wolcott is a board member of Clareo, a foresight and growth strategy consultancy serving global corporations, and Abroad.io, a tech-enabled human transformation platform. Wolcott serves on advisory boards for H-Farm, the leading technology ecosystem in Italy, and the Open Innovation Lab of Norway. He serves on the board of Cure Blindness (Himalayan Cataract Project), a global non-profit that has restored sight to nearly one million people in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He is a regular contributor for Forbes on the impact of technology on business, society and humanity. His book, Grow From Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation (McGraw-Hill, 2010) has been published in Chinese and Japanese. Wolcott's work appears in MIT Sloan Management Review, strategy+business, The Harvard Business Review (online), The Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, Business Week, The Financial Times (European Edition), The New York Times and numerous overseas publications.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Welcome back to a new episode of the European VC Podcast!Today, we are celebrating one of the finalists in the Exit of The Year category at this year's European VC Awards, this episode dives deep with Marc-Olivier Luecke, General Partner at Atlantic Labs, and Christian Siewek, co-founder and MD at Vimcar.Atlantic Labs is a 110M EUR fund with 300M under management, based in Berlin, Germany. They focus on pre-seed rounds but occasionally go for seed rounds. They focus mostly on Climate & Energy, AI & Data, and European Deep Tech. Some of the most notable investments from their portfolio are: Choco, Zenjob, Wandelbots, Again, and of course Vimcar.We're going to dive deep into the exit of Vimcar that happened in January 2023, together with Marc and Christian and make sure to touch on things like:the thesis of Atlantic Labs and why they invested in Vimcarthe challenges of building a company like Vimcarthe journey of going from pre-seed to Series B and exit to Battery Ventures… and more that we invite you to discover below.Go to eu.vc for our core learnings and the full video interview
After 18 years leading Guidewire (~$10B), Marcus Ryu made the transition from CEO to partner at Battery Ventures. In the episode, Marcus shares his journey of co-founding Guidewire in 2001, steering the company through its IPO in 2012, and building one of the largest vertical software businesses in the world. He shares his insights on how to build a durable company in troubling times, what he looks for in entrepreneurs, the future of vertical software, and much more. (00:00) Intro(01:31) The Philosophical Approach to Investing and Strategy(03:27) Unpacking the Strategy: Diagnosis, Market Definition, and Execution(04:31) The Intricacies of Investment Decisions and Entrepreneurial Insight(10:39) From Philosophy to Silicon Valley: A Personal Journey(12:29) The Dot-com Bubble and Lessons Learned(26:19) Guidewire's Founding: Identifying a Niche in the Insurance Industry(37:13) The Early Days: Building from Scratch(37:34) The Founder's Balance Sheet: Energy, Time, and Market Demand(37:54) Starting with Nothing: The Humble Beginnings of a Startup(38:14) The Power of Insight and Precision in Startup Success(39:58) Product Development and Market Strategy: The Binder's Role(40:37) The Brutal Reality of Go-to-Market: Rejection and Resilience(42:59) The Parable of the Horse: Navigating Startup Highs and Lows(45:23) Overcoming Legal Battles and Finding a Moral Purpose(48:37) The CEO Transition: Learning from Leadership Changes(50:49) Foundational Principles for Sustaining Founder Relationships(53:41) Cultivating a Company Culture Based on Core Values(01:01:31) The Journey from Founder to Investor: A New Chapter(01:03:53) The Role of a Board and Achieving Founder-Investor Alignment(01:08:25) Managing Founder Psychosis and Scaling as a Leader(01:12:52) The Founder's Journey and Commitment(01:13:27) The Philosophical Underpinnings of Insurance(01:14:03) Insurance: A Civilizational Necessity(01:15:01) The Impact of Insurance on Society and Innovation(01:19:32) Navigating the Complexities of Insurance Regulation(01:21:07) The Dark Side of Ad Tech and Its Societal Impact(01:28:41) The Challenge of Communication and Leadership(01:31:46) The Future of Software: Vertical Specialization(01:42:05) Evaluating Founders and the Essence of Entrepreneurship(01:45:56) Emerging Opportunities and the Specificity of Markets(01:48:53) Concluding Reflections on Authentic Leadership Executive Producer: Rashad AssirProducer: Leah ClapperMixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
David Hauser is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and angel investor known for his remarkable track record of success. He bootstrapped Grasshopper to over $30M+ in ARR, eventually selling it to Citrix for $175M. He also founded Chargify, achieving profitability and gaining investment from Mark Cuban, ultimately acquired by Battery Ventures. Additionally, he founded Vanilla, raising an impressive $42M from Venrock and Insight Partners. David's journey is a testament to his unyielding dedication and innovation in entrepreneurship. Connect with David Hauser:Website: https://www.davidhauser.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidhauser/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dhauser/ TurnKey Podcast Productions Important Links:Guest to Gold Video Series: www.TurnkeyPodcast.com/gold The Ultimate Podcast Launch Formula- www.TurnkeyPodcast.com/UPLFplusFREE workshop on how to "Be A Great Guest."Free E-Book 5 Ways to Make Money Podcasting at www.Turnkeypodcast.com/gift Ready to earn 6-figures with your podcast? See if you've got what it takes at TurnkeyPodcast.com/quizSales Training for Podcasters: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sales-training-for-podcasters/id1540644376Nice Guys on Business: http://www.niceguysonbusiness.com/subscribe/The Turnkey Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/turnkey-podcast/id1485077152 Partner Links -- We use these apps and get amazing results and huge time savings too!Design tool: Canva Pro: Create Stunning Design in Minutes!Check out Headliner to create social media posts with video easily- make.headliner.appSimplecast is the easiest way to set up your podcast hosting- Simplecast.comZoom is the easiest way to schedule meetings and record your podcast interviews. Zoom.usAcuity is the easiest way to schedule your podcast interviews, meetings, and life.Acuityscheduling.com
How I Raised It - The podcast where we interview startup founders who raised capital.
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Tato Bigio of UBQ Materials (https://www.ubqmaterials.com/), a company making plastic substitutes out of mixed household waste: chicken bones, cardboard, dirty diapers, etc. In this episode, we talk about the technology behind turning trash into usable materials, raising capital from strategic investors as well as family offices, VC and private equity, building an ecosystem around your business, and more. UBQ most recently raised $70 million in a funding round led by Eden Global Partners along with TPG Rise Climate, TPG's Rise Fund, Battery Ventures, and M&G's Catalyst strategy. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $17 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com. If you are a VC or investment banker, check out our new platform, www.fundingstack.com
Aileen Lee, Founder and Managing Partner at Cowboy Ventures recently wrote an article entitled "Welcome Back to the Unicorn Club, 10 Years Later" (1/18/24) which was a follow up to an article she wrote in November, 2013 entitled "Welcome to the Unicorn Club: Learning from Billion-Dollar Startups".Our SaaS Talk™ with the Metrics Brothers co-hosts, Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike do a deep dive into how private and public company valuations are calculate, explore the difference between Market Capitalization and Enterprise Value, and uncover a few of the "inside baseball" secrets to how $1B Unicorn may be worth much less.Topics discussed include:Market CapitalizationEnterprise ValueParticipating vs Non-Participating Preferences1x, 2x and 3x Liquidation PreferenceCommon vs Preferred Stock in a Private CompanyStock Option Re-pricing - beware the last post money Unicorn valuationOnceacorn, Decacorn, Supercorn, ZIRPicorns, Papercorn, Zombiecorn, UnicorpseThe number of unicorns has grown from 39 in 2013 to 532 in 2023 per Cowboy Ventures (1,000 according to Battery Ventures). Unfortunately ~ 40% are trading for a much lower price on secondary markets than the last post-money valuations.If you love the idea of creating or being part of a VC backed company worth more than $1B, or are just interested in the material reduction in the creation of new unicorns, this episode is full of detail, insights and a little humor!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Description: In this episode, Chris Stephens, Field CTO at Appen, dives into how CDO's are navigating the world of generative AI. From setting clear expectations to driving adoption within organizations, Chris and Cindi explore the challenges and opportunities in this evolving landscape. Chris shares Appen's innovative approach to integrating humans into deep learning processes and discusses the potential of synthetic data. Plus, he shares how crucial human expertise is, in shaping ethical AI practices and touches on the impact of legislation and industry trends on AI's future.Key Moments: The Impact of generative AI on CDOs [06:19]Appen and the excitement of generative AI [10:34]The potential of synthetic data and content curation [12:13]The importance of CDOs embracing generative AI [17:40]The early stage of generative AI and funding innovation [26:39]The importance of human in the loop [34:09]The role of legislation and industry leadership [38:46]Key Quotes: As a CDO, I think you absolutely have to figure out how to grab onto that, take ownership of it, and provide the leadership that your company needs - if you don't, then of course someone else will. All of the challenges come on the non-technical side. Being successful in these programs is about more humanistic type skills than it is being a wizard in the technology space, in my opinion.The work that Appen does is working in support of all of these global organizations and the key is getting humans involved in these loops. Mentions: Deep learningDeep fake Synthetic data Gartner Generative AI Bio: Chris has been leading large-scale data transformations for over a decade, bringing advanced analytics capabilities to the world for 25 years. Most recently, he served in CDO roles at GEICO, Zendesk, and American Eagle Outfitters. Prior to that he helped lead the Data Science practice at Pivotal Software helping organizations around the world adopt modern data and software practices. He is Field CTO and Head of AI Solutions at Appen bringing AI systems to life for organizations around the world. He is an advisor to Insight Partners and Battery Ventures helping shape a new generation of technology and teams. He is Adjunct Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University teaching our next generation of data and AI leaders. He is passionate about the human side of data, transformation, and innovation. He hails from Pittsburgh with his wife and 5 young adult children. An avid music fan, he reminds us that, "you who choose to lead must follow."Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.
It was another wild week in the world of work. The boys cover a wide range of topics. Here's a breakdown of some of the highlights: PageUp: U.S. tech investor Battery Ventures is looking to cash out of talent management platform PageUp, which it funded in 2018. Despite efforts to expand globally and through acquisitions, PageUp struggled to gain traction in the U.S. market. HireRight: Investment funds affiliated with General Atlantic and Stone Point Capital are acquiring background check solution HireRight for approximately $1.65 billion. The sale suggests a smart move to sell while the stock is high. Beamery: Beamery's CTO and co-founder Michael Patterson has exited the company, amid rumors of acquisition by Workday. However, Workday may wait to acquire Beamery at a lower price, as Beamery has faced layoffs and client loss. The Hatch: Australian startup The Hatch has raised approximately $4.6 million to create a job platform targeting Gen Z professionals, aiming to disrupt traditional job boards by using AI to match users with jobs based on their values and skills. In addition, Chad and Joel discuss various topics related to current events and news, including the National Labor Relations Board's disputes with Amazon, SpaceX, and Trader Joe's, LinkedIn's legal troubles, North Korean hackers using AI for phishing scams, and more. Join us for a lively discussion on labor rights, privacy, and corporate ethics!
Today I'm making friends with David Hauser who has a track record of founding multiple successful companies, building exceptional teams, and investing in innovative ideas.** What I Discuss with David:– Constantly running into each other at LifeTime Gym in Vegas– Why David always knew he was going to be an entrepreneur– How David's parents instilled work ethic in him– Coding websites in the early '00s– How David raised $20m as a 17 year old– Why college can't create entrepreneurs– Building and exiting several successful companies** (Psst... Before I tell you more about the guest, do you like this show? Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts — even one sentence helps!
In this episode, Amir Bormand interviews Kelly Kinnard, the Operating Partner and Head of Talent at Khosla Ventures. They discuss the importance of improving the candidate experience and avoiding pitfalls in the hiring process. Kelly shares insights and strategies for creating a positive candidate experience and highlights the mission of Khosla Ventures to invest in companies that positively impact society. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to enhance their hiring practices and create a better experience for job candidates. Highlights: 00:07:49 Candidate experience is crucial. 00:11:26 Long hiring processes hinder success. 00:16:03 Communication is key for candidates. 00:22:46 Candidate experience is crucial. 00:28:35. Candidates don't get better, they get different. 00:29:03 Treat candidates like external customers. Guest: Kelly Kinnard is an Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures, where she leads the talent team to advise our portfolio companies and helps recruit senior executives. Prior to joining KV, Kelly was the Talent Partner at Battery Ventures, where she managed talent globally across the 125+ venture/growth companies in their portfolio. Previously, she was the executive leadership recruiter for the president of Oracle, and recruited 50 senior technology executives at the VP/SVP/EVP level and above to lead the company's cloud efforts. Earlier, she did executive search for the retained search firms Riviera Partners and SPMB, both of which represent venture capital-backed and emerging growth companies working with the most promising portfolio companies of top-tier VC firms. Kelly graduated from Whittier College and studied in Denmark and Italy. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellykinnard/ ------ Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Talent Tango, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)
Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike continue their break down the recent Battery Ventures - State of the OpenCloud 2023 Report which includes a historic view of performance benchmarks and some predictions on how AI will impact performance metrics in the future.During Part 2 of this episode the co-hosts cover several metrics and SaaS industry trends including:Growth RatesTechnology Buyer Sentiment heading into 2024The impact of balanced growth + profitabilityBusiness model and pricing evolutionStock Option Re-pricingThe human capital impact of AI...beware Sales and MarketingThe entire report is available by clicking here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike break down the recent Battery Ventures - State of the OpenCloud 2023 Report which includes a historic view of performance benchmarks and some predictions on how AI will impact performance metrics in the future.During this episode the co-hosts cover several metrics and SaaS industry trends including:Growth Rates Technology Buyer Sentiment heading into 2024The impact of balanced growth + profitabilityBusiness model and pricing evolutionStock Option Re-pricingThe human capital impact of AI...beware Sales and MarketingThe entire report is available by clicking here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The First 100 | How Founders Acquired their First 100 Customers | Product-Market Fit
Richard Valtr is the founder of Mews — which provides a cloud-based hotel property management platform with tools covering reservations, payments, and more. It has raised $223 million of funding, from notable investors such as Kinnevik, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Revaia, Derive Ventures, Orbit Capital, Battery Ventures, Notion Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Thayer Ventures and henQ, with a potential company a post-money valuation of $865 million.Mews are streets (for example, in London) full of usually small houses or flats converted from horse stables for bigger houses nearby. Ironically, though, Mews the startup is not that small at all. In the year that travel “came back” post the peak of COVID and the various restrictions imposed on people moving around, Mews saw revenues grow 174%, with gross payment volume in the period up 227% and now standing at $2.3 billion. It has customers in 85 countries, and 5,000 hotels in all.Where to find Richard Valtr:• Website: The Hospitality Management System of the Future | Mews PMS• LinkedIn (12) Richard Valtr | LinkedInWhere to find Hadi Radwan:• Newsletter: Principles Friday | Hadi Radwan | Substack• LinkedIn: Hadi Radwan | LinkedInIf you like our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe and support us on your favorite podcast players. We also would appreciate your feedback and rating to reach more people.We recently launched our new newsletter, Principles Friday, where I share one principle that can help you in your life or business, one thought-provoking question, and one call to action toward that principle. Please subscribe Here.It is Free and Short (2min).
This week Mary Ann and Alex covered a host of news events. Here's the rundown:Fintech + AI = ? News that Ramp and Brex are working to lever AI in the wake of reporting that Brex's growth this year on a sequential-quarterly basis slowed had us thinking. Can AI help fintech startups grow more quickly? The fintech sector could use a boon at this juncture, perhaps this is it.Help I drink too much: Alex dug up a recent venture round in the sobriety space. This time it was Sunnyside, which just raised $11.5 million for its subscription service that helps folks cut back on their drinking. We've discussed other players in the space before, including Reframe.What's ahead for the startup M&A market? The Getir-FreshDirect deal had us thinking. Becca Szkutak thinks that it represents the sort of deal that we'll see next year. Even more, we may see more, similar deals next year.Will AI help startups regain their former value? A recent report from Battery Ventures had Alex thinking about how AI-powered automation could help startups spend less as they grow; Rule of 40, here we come!Hormonal health will be is big: The Equity team dug into Allara the other week. Now we're adding Inito, which just raised $6 million, to our list of startups that are building in the hormonal health market. Natasha was right.And that was the show! Next week is a holiday week here in the United States, so expect something special from us next Friday. We'll be on our regular schedule Monday and Wednesday!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews foundersand more!
David Hauser is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and angel investor known for his remarkable track record of success. He bootstrapped Grasshopper to over $30M+ in ARR, eventually selling it to Citrix for $175M. He also founded Chargify, achieving profitability and gaining investment from Mark Cuban, ultimately acquired by Battery Ventures. Additionally, he founded Vanilla, raising $42M from Venrock and Insight Partners. David's journey is a testament to his unyielding dedication and innovation in entrepreneurship. In this episode, we delve into his inner challenges and how he conquered them, persistently utilizing them as a source of motivation, the rationale behind driving a 14-year-old car and never opting for a first-class ticket despite being a millionaire, his upbringing and the freedom granted by his parents, and his core values and how they steer his personal and professional life. For more go to: www.scottmlynch.com Embrace greatness through these empowering offerings: Discover your true potential with the support of a passionate Discord community. Unlock actionable insights on how to master your mindset and optimize your happiness through my weekly newsletter. Embrace the boundless power of your mind. Enroll alongside 154 motivated students in my academy and unlock your true potential. Maximize your potential and experience life-changing growth by either enrolling in my Private Coaching program or Group Coaching program. Subscribe now to access an exclusive collection of 24 ad-free bonus episodes per year, featuring Q&A-based content. Access my downloadable and printable exercises to equip yourself with the essential tools for success. Follow me on social for more inspiration: Instagram Facebook TikTok Twitter YouTube Want to be featured in a future episode? Leave a review here (even one sentence helps)! Music by: Blaize Trulson Produced by Legacy Divisions. Past guests on The Motivated Mind include Chris Voss, Captain Sandy, Dr. Chris Palmer, Joey Thurman, Jason Harris, Koshin Paley Ellison, Rudy Mawer, Molly Fletcher, Kristen Butler, Hasard Lee, Natasha Graziano, David Hauser and Alan Stein, Jr.
In der Mittagsfolge sprechen wir heute mit Veit Blumschein, CEO und Co-Founder von Lanes & Planes, über die erfolgreich abgeschlossene Series-B-Finanzierungsrunde in Höhe von 35 Millionen US-Dollar.Lanes & Planes hat eine Geschäftsreise-Plattform entwickelt, die als Travel- und Beleg-Management-Lösung alle Bereiche einer Dienstreise von der Reisebuchung bis zur Abrechnung digital abbildet. Dabei kann die Plattform in alle bestehenden Unternehmenssysteme integriert werden. Der Software-as-a-Service Anbieter verfügt über ein internes Support-Team in Deutschland, das rund um die Uhr für Anfragen und Unterstützung zur Verfügung steht. Durch die Abdeckung des gesamten Buchungs- und Abrechnungskreislaufs klassischer Geschäftsreisen sowie Spesen und Auslagen jeglicher Art, senkt die Lösung nach eigenen Angaben die Kosten für Unternehmen um bis zu 30 %. Das Startup wurde im Jahr 2017 von Veit Blumschein und Daniel Nolte unter dem Namen TripClickPro in München gegründet. Im Februar 2020 konnte sich die Geschäftsreiseplattform eine Series-A-Finanzierungsrunde in Höhe von 10 Millionen US-Dollar unter der Führung von Battery Ventures sichern. Die Coronakrise hat das Unternehmen dazu genutzt, strukturelle Veränderungen durchzuführen und Geschäftsprozesse zu digitalisieren. Heute vertrauen über 1.000 Unternehmen aller Branchen auf das Lösungsangebot von Lanes & Planes, darunter Edding, Enpal und Personio. Um das Erreichen der internen Qualitätsansprüche sicherzustellen, prüft das Startup regelmäßig seine Prozess- und Ergebnisqualität. Des Weiteren arbeitet das Unternehmen mit den Expertinnen und Experten von Leaders For Climate Action zusammen, um als Teil der digitalen Industrie die Verbesserung des Klimas voranzutreiben.Nun hat das Münchner Geschäftsreiseportal in einer Series-B-Runde 35 Millionen US-Dollar unter der Leitung von Smash Capital eingesammelt. Zusätzlich beteiligen sich die bestehenden Investoren Battery Ventures, Coparion, DN Capital und AllIron an der Finanzierungsrunde. Das frische Kapital soll dazu verwendet werden, das Wachstum von Lanes & Planes weiter voranzutreiben und seine Expansionsbemühungen zu unterstützen.
Dan Nguyen is a Partner at Decibel where he focuses on helping founders build the next-generation of disruptive ML / AI, cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity companies. Prior to joining Decibel, he was a Vice President at Battery Ventures where he led investments in Databricks, SumoLogic, Expel, Contrast Security and InfluxData. Earlier in his career, Dan worked at VMware and spent time at UBS in the technology investment banking group. In this episode, we talk about: - Dan's story & how he started investing?- The origin story of Decibel and how they raised a $225 Million debut fund at the back of strong track record- How they pick companies to back?- Use of AI on both the good and bad side- How has Dan's investing approach evolved over the years?and much more.. Links: Decibel website - https://www.decibel.vc/ Follow Dan on X - https://twitter.com/dannguyenhuu Follow Dan on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-nguyen-huu-11502719/ Hosted by Prashant Choubey - https://www.linkedin.com/in/choubeysahab/ Subscribe to VC10X for more insightful episodes!
NorthOne started as an online bank for small businesses—it's backed by top-tier VCs including Redpoint and Battery Ventures—but the vision from the beginning was to go beyond banking to add automation/intelligence around things billing, cash management—all the stuff big companies take for granted, but that small ones still struggle with. As Northone began rolling out those capabilities, however, CEO Eytan Bensoussan and his team struggled to describe what NorthOne was becoming—to customers, investors, and job candidates. So together we built a narrative around what NorthOne now calls “Connected Banking.” In this episode we dive into what that means and how Eytan and his team got there.
Why the extra edition? Because Battery Ventures dropped an interesting report on Gen-Z and we wanted to talk about it.Alex got Courtney Chow, a vice president at Battery and one of the report's authors to chat about it. You can read the report itself here.This is what we got into:The fracturing of culture: Gen-Z is large, and very diverse. The trend away from monolithic cultural primacy that began years ago has accelerated with the generation, making culture itself more personal, and more distinct. For startups, this means branding will become a different challenge if they want to reach this demographic slice.Everything is short-form video: Given massive usage of TikTok by Gen-Z and the popularity of other platforms that feature short-form video, we were curious how smaller companies can compete with incumbents that already have a Reels strategy, if you will.Ethical capitalism: One of the most interesting areas of the Battery report was its notes on how entrepreneurial Gen-Z is, and how diverse they are. Gen-Z also has expectations around goods and services they purchase relating to the actions of the companies behind the sale. So, if you want to sell to Gen-Z, you might need to care about climate change, for example.Now, that's officially it for us this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and we'll catch up on Monday!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews foundersand more!
Ronni Zehavi's path to becoming a prominent tech entrepreneur is a testament to the power of passion, perseverance, and seizing opportunities. Starting his career in human resources, Zehavi took a leap of faith and ventured into the tech industry, ultimately co-founding successful companies and making significant contributions to the field. His latest venture, HiBob, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like General Atlantic, Battery Ventures, Eight Roads, and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Jonathan Matus, the founder and CEO of Fairmatic and co-founder of Zendrive, has had a fascinating journey from his birthplace in New York to leading two successful tech-based ventures. His time in the tech industry, studying at prestigious institutions, and serving in the Israeli military have instilled a unique blend of tenacity, vision, and innovative thinking in him. His venture, Fairmatic, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Foundation Capital, Battery Ventures, Bridge Bank, and Aquiline Technology Growth.
Bob van Luijt has gone from building websites in middle school to raising tens of millions of dollars for his tech startup. The venture, Weaviate, has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Index Ventures, Cortical Ventures, Zetta Venture Partners, and Battery Ventures.
Jua's weather prediction model will provide a global one-kilometer square's worth of coverage every five minutes and can predict more than fifteen different weather-based parameters, including precipitation, air pressure, wind speed, and wind direction. I interviewed Andreas Brenner, Co-founder and CEO of Jua. He's had a previous exit in fleet management software to Battery Ventures. Now, he's tackling weather. Jua plans to provide startups, companies, government institutions, and researchers with the ability to create purpose-built weather models in a matter of hours. Jua is pre-revenue and experimenting with its ideal customer profile. Founded April 2022 $2.5M pre-seed round Staff of 17 Pre-revenue Luck favors the prepared Andreas Brenner's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasbrenner/ SaaS Fundraising Story: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/jua-raises-2-5-million-in-pre-seed-round Join my SaaS community here: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurray
LeanData's sales organization's head count might seem too costly to some. It was derived out of a constant quest to map internal resources to support customer success - not revenue, yet it is highly profitable. One example, split the customer success manager role into two positions. One checking in to monitor the account health and ensure renewal. The other, a coach to provide ongoing best practice advice to customers.Join us to learn the customer-centric sales enablement process that makes LeanData recession-proof.Chapters:00:00 LeanData - Revenue Orchestration 04:08 Pitching the Problem Not the Solution 06:17 Scaling the Sales Team 08:10 Hiring a VP Sales 11:51 Letting Sellers Sell: 1 to 1 ratio of SDR to AE 16:41 Adding Enablement & Customer Virality 18:57 Revisiting The Customer Journey - Adding Coaches 23:09 Certified Users Have Higher Renewal Rate 27:40 What's Next for LeanDataAbout Our Guest:Evan Liang is the Co-founder and CEO of LeanData. Prior to launching LeanData in 2012, Evan worked in product, strategy, and business development roles at Microsoft, Ebay, Caring.com and Smart Modular Technologies as well as associate positions with venture capital firms Shasta Ventures and Battery Ventures.About LeanData:LeanData is an essential element of the modern revenue tech stack. The LeanData Revenue Orchestration Platform simplifies buyer journeys while accelerating time to revenue through no-code, drag-and-drop lead routing, lead-to-account matching, automated meeting scheduling, engagement analytics, and strategic integrations.Social links:https://www.linkedin.com/company/leandata/https://twitter.com/LeanDatahttps://www.facebook.com/LeanDatahttps://www.youtube.com/@leandataincYou can learn more about and connect with Alice Heiman in the links below.Website: https://AliceHeiman.comConnect with Alice on LinkedIn
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers.
Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this week's show we're fortunate to be joined by Hunter Walk and Satya Patel, founders of Homebrew, a seed-stage firm founded over a decade ago that's backed companies such as Chime, AngelList, and Gusto. Just over a year ago, Homebrew announced that it was moving away from a seed-focused traditional LP-backed fund to an open-ended evergreen structure that is funded from the proceeds of prior investments.Additionally, they are also leading up efforts of Screendoor, a fund of funds focused on supporting underrepresented fund managers by offering capital and counsel. Satya is coming back on the show for the second time, and it was fun to have Hunter on with him this time, as we dove deep into their learnings from building homebrew, what they look for when back fund managers, and their view on what makes a great partner for founders. This was a fun one, and we think you'll really enjoy hearing their thoughts. Let's now get right into it!A word from our sponsor:Privately owned and headquartered in New York City, Grasshopper Bank is built to serve the business and innovation economy. As a client-first digital bank, Grasshopper combines the best of banking technology and years of industry expertise to deliver best-in-class experiences with trusted security and unparalleled support. Grasshopper's digital solutions are tailored for venture capital and private equity firms, startups and small businesses, fintech-focused Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and commercial API banking platforms, and more. Serving clients globally, Grasshopper provides flexible, firm-focused lending solutions, as well as a dedicated Relationship Manager committed to meeting the unique needs and strategic focus of your firm across all entities, including funds, general partner and management companies. Grasshopper is a member of the FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender.For more information, visit the bank's website at www.grasshopper.bank or follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.About Satya Patel:Satya Patel is a Founding Partner of Homebrew and Co-Founder of Screendoor. Prior to Homebrew, he was VP Product at Twitter, building and leading the Product Management and User Services teams. Before Twitter, he was a Partner at Battery Ventures, where he co-led the seed and early-stage investing practices. He joined Google in 2003 and was responsible for AdSense product management and partnerships.Before heading to Silicon Valley for Google, he worked for DoubleClick, in venture capital, and as a strategy consultant.He has a BS in Finance and a BS in Psychology from The University of Pennsylvania.About Hunter Walk:Hunter Walk is a Founding Partner of Homebrew and Co-Founder of Screendoor. Prior to Homebrew, Hunter led consumer product management at YouTube, starting when it was acquired by Google. He originally joined Google in 2003, managing product and sales efforts for AdSense, Google‘s contextual advertising business.His first job in Silicon Valley was as the founding product and marketing guy at Linden Lab.Before graduate school, he was a management consultant and also spent a year at Late Night with Conan O‘Brien. He has a BA in History from Vassar and MBA from Stanford University.In this episode we discuss:(03:32) The decision to move to an evergreen fund structure with Homebrew(07:32) The biggest constraints when early-stage fund sizes balloon(17:34) How to survive a down market and become a force multiplier on a cap table(24:58) The inspiration to start Screendoor(33:33) The type of managers they are looking to back at Screendoor(37:54) Patterns they've seen in great investors(42:13) The most important question they ask GPs(44:42) The biggest lessons from their time as investorsI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Satya and Hunter. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com
Welcome to another episode of Just Checking In. Today our guest is Joe Williams, a tech writer, formerly of Bloomberg, Business Insider, and, most recently, Protocol. But with Protocol's shutdown, Joe had time for us at JCI and offered us an interesting perspective on the state of the media today, including insights about how he likes to cover complicated, B2B technology stories. . This expert in covering wonky tech issues joins the conversation in this episode to talk about the landscape of media business models, the do's and don'ts of covering technology issues, and how to craft a great story. Plus, he's got an interesting viewpoint on Elon's Twitter. Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today's tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they'll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won't hear anywhere else!Jump straight into:03:31 - Catching up with Protocol shutdown - “The media is not immune to everything going on, and particularly when you're in a niche industry, or maybe not niche, but when you're a beat publication and the industry you're covering is going through a tough time, it's pretty evident that that's gonna filter down to you.” 07:39 - The landscape going forward for the media business - “I think fear that consumers aren't going to want to pay, I think it's misguided because I think they don't want to pay for journalism that they don't want or that they don't find useful.”09:20 - The model of self-started journalism - “I worry about kind of tunnel vision or I worry about not having that second set of eyes or that, that newsroom to kind of, you know, bounce ideas off of.”13:52 - What makes a good story within the tech comms industry - “ I think to still talk about it like it's some futuristic like Star Trek concept is really disadvantageous. And frankly, I think kind of insulting to the reader”26:23 - The biggest tech comms PR turnoffs - “Companies now I think, always fear that reporters are always digging for something, which is funny to me cuz that's our job and that's what we should be doing.” 28:47 - Joe's refreshing perspective regarding Twitter - “It's a self-fulfilling cycle. He says something, we write about it, and he says something else. We write about it. There has to be a breaking point that it's, you know, but I don't know what happens, besides him shutting down the website.” Episode resources:Joe Williams's Twitter and LinkedInThank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow Becky and Keyana on social media to know more about them. If you enjoyed this show leave a review and help us find new audiences! This show is produced by StudioPod Media in SanFrancisco. Teresa Buchanan is the Show's Producer. Nicole Genova is the Show...
Episode show notes:Given the current market volatility, all tech companies are, in some sense, in unchartered waters–and comms departments are no exception. To get a better understanding of the current landscape, we've invited comms pro Sean Garrett, the founder of Mixing Board and the first communications hire at Twitter, to share his perspective. In this episode, you'll hear about the genesis of Mixing Board and its business model; his experience with a previous consultancy, the Pramana Collective; Garrett's take on the current Twitter saga (of course!); and his thoughts on how comms professionals can, and should, have a seat at the corporate decision-making table.Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today's tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they'll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won't hear anywhere else!Jump straight into:02:01 - Stripe in the news and turbulent markets - “We always like to just talk a little bit about comms and technology or market topics before we dive in. And this week, I was thinking about Stripe...” 09:29 - Sean Garrett and Mixing Board - “So mixing board was kind of a way to completely shake up, and bring the community into top comms and marketing leaders.” 17:04 - Difficult times for comms - “I'm not sure what I could say about that to make it better besides the fact that like, if you can make it through this, you can make it through anything.”21:53 - It's the inside that matters: The importance of internal comms - “Nine times out of 10, like whatever the end tactical problem was, it was almost always tied to some internal discombobulation.”30:48 - Twitter's case: What to do when a leadership team doesn't respect comms - “Obviously this is a communications platform, that like lives and breathes communications and is all about transparency. It's about openness.”35:34 - The power of comms - “I think like, you know, Brian Chesky kind of did this with Airbnb right after the pandemic started. Everyone praised that. I think certainly the messaging has been good on those kinds of notes.”45:58 - The media landscape in the tech industry - “It's intentional to like create those divisions because you're able to separate the different tribes of this world and now there's like a media tribe and that's counterbalanced with like this tech tribe.”48:53 - New York vs. San Francisco - “There's something very specific about the media industry in New York and their feelings toward this disruptive industry that impacts them specifically.”Episode resources:Sean Garrett's Twitter and LinkedinMixing BoardThank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow Becky and Keyana on social media to know more...
Eytan Bensoussan has taken on the mission of reinventing financial services for small businesses, and dramatically increasing their survival rates. His startup, NorthOne, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Operator Stack, Drew Brees, and Battery Ventures.
This week we recap VMware Explore Europe and discuss the Battery Ventures 2022 State of the OpenCloud report. Plus, some thoughts on cologne… Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode 386 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4_WdZ1ORs4) Runner-up Titles I have conference voice. I thought I had conference voice, but it's COVID. I painted a door. Blue blazer to black t-shirt ratio. The Java hyphen-hyphen capital X talk. I've been to VMware Media Training. Go to the Lenovo Booth. iBanker Butt Sniffing. The Sagrada Familia of iBanker Decks, except the summer interns finished it. That's like buying your steaks at Walmart. Like I said, yesterday I painted a door. Rundown VMware Explore Europe (https://www.vmware.com/explore/eu.html) State of the OpenCloud 2022 (https://www.battery.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Battery-Ventures-OpenCloud-Report__2022.pdf) Them interns are busyAF over there (https://hachyderm.io/web/@cote/109315205406946279). Relevant to your Interests DevOps company JFrog grows at a healthy clip but investors aren't impressed (https://siliconangle.com/2022/11/02/devops-company-jfrog-grows-healthy-clip-investors-arent-impressed/) The future of writing software happens in Cloud Development Environments (CDEs) (https://www.gitpod.io/blog/future-of-software-cdes) Markets Weekend: Moneyball (https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-markets-ed2b997f-75a7-4d51-b357-9204b2eded00.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosprorata&stream=top) Kyndryl loses $281m as modernization agenda continues (https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/03/kyndryl_q2_fiscal_2023/) Twilio's stock crumbles on poor revenue guidance (https://siliconangle.com/2022/11/03/twilios-stock-crumbles-poor-revenue-guidance/) Aboard: From clutter to clarity for you and your team. (https://aboard.io/) Apple is now valued more than Alphabet, Amazon and Meta combined (https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/apple-alphabet-amazon-meta-market-value-cap-trillion-big-tech-2022-11) CEO Patrick Collison's email to Stripe employees (https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/ceo-patrick-collisons-email-to-stripe-employees) 1 big thing: Passkeys enter the mainstream (https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-codebook-e54935ff-fc39-4aef-9529-a5468abc9129.html?chunk=0&utm_term=emshare#story0) Nix (https://whynowtech.substack.com/p/nix) Twitter Now Asks Some Fired Workers to Please Come Back (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-06/twitter-now-asks-some-fired-workers-to-please-come-back) WSJ News Exclusive | Facebook Parent Meta Is Preparing to Notify Employees of Large-Scale Layoffs This Week (https://www.wsj.com/articles/meta-is-preparing-to-notify-employees-of-large-scale-layoffs-this-week-11667767794?mod=e2tw) Musk orders Twitter to cut infrastructure costs by $1 billion - sources (https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-orders-twitter-cut-infrastructure-costs-by-1-bln-sources-2022-11-03/) Amazon EC2 Introduces Replace Root Volume to Patch Guest Operating System and Applications (https://www.infoq.com/news/2022/11/ec2-replace-root-volume/) EdgeDB raises $15M ahead of the launch of its cloud database service (https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/07/edgedb-raises-15m-ahead-of-the-launch-of-its-cloud-database-service/) Kindness, Tech Staffing and Resource Allocation (https://redmonk.com/rstephens/2022/11/01/kindness-and-staffing/?ck_subscriber_id=512840665) Google and Meta Hiring Levels (https://twitter.com/eladgil/status/1589271330255699972) Ionic + Outsystems: The Future of Enterprise App Development (https://ionic.io/blog/ionic-outsystems-the-future-of-enterprise-app-development?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=outsystems_2022) New OSS Security Projects: cnquery and cnspec (https://blog.mondoo.com/cnquery-cnspec) Apple Supposedly Dumping the 'Hey!' From Siri's Wake Phrase (https://gizmodo.com/apple-hey-siri-wake-trigger-change-google-amazon-alexa-1849753396) Imploded Stocks of the Day: Carvana, Twilio, Atlassian, Cloudflare (https://wolfstreet.com/2022/11/06/imploded-stocks-of-the-day-carvana-twilio-atlassian-cloudflare/) Twilio Stock: Absolute Disaster (NYSE:TWLO) (https://seekingalpha.com/article/4554174-twilio-absolute-disaster) Twitter user growth is at “all-time highs” under Elon Musk (https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/7/23445476/elon-musk-twitter-user-growth-all-time-high-advertisers) Legacy's Revenge: Oracle, SAP, IBM Market Caps Rise as Cloud Natives Fall (https://accelerationeconomy.com/cloud-wars/legacys-revenge-oracle-sap-ibm-market-caps-rise-as-cloud-natives-fall/) Nonsense Big announcement pre-re:Invent (if true) (https://twitter.com/aselipsky/status/1589645626769543168) Sponsors Teleport — The easiest, most secure way to access infrastructure. (https://goteleport.com/?utm_campaign=eg&utm_medium=partner&utm_source=sdt) Conferences All Day DevOps | The World's Largest DevOps Conference (https://www.alldaydevops.com/), Nov. 10th THAT Conference Texas Speakers and Schedule (https://that.us/events/tx/2023/schedule/). Jan 15th-18th use code SDT for 5% off CloudNativeSecurityCon North America (https://events.linuxfoundation.org/cloudnativesecuritycon-north-america/), Seattle, Feb 1 – 2, 2023 SDT news & hype Join us in Slack (http://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/slack). Get a SDT Sticker! Send your postal address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com) and we will send you free laptop stickers! Follow us on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/sdtpodcast), Twitter (https://twitter.com/softwaredeftalk), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/softwaredefinedtalk/), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/software-defined-talk/) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi3OJPV6h9tp-hbsGBLGsDQ/featured). Use the code SDT to get $20 off Coté's book, Digital WTF (https://leanpub.com/digitalwtf/c/sdt), so $5 total. Become a sponsor of Software Defined Talk (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/ads)! Recommendations Brandon: The Vow, (https://www.hbo.com/the-vow) Season 2 (https://www.hbo.com/the-vow) Matt: Good customer support Fractal Design (https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/define/define-mini-c/black/) Bare Creek Trail Run (https://barecreektrailrun.com.au/) Coté: whatever version of “Wheelz of Steel” they have in Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/wheelz-of-steel/263570527?i=263570553) is so much more detailed. You can everything, like you're in the room. There's all sorts of asides and little comments that I've never heard before. Photo Credits Header (https://unsplash.com/photos/kMde0v9tYYM) CoverArt (https://unsplash.com/photos/k5eFm1f2esQ)
The Desi VC: Indian Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startups | VC
Gautam Patel is the Founder and Managing Partner of Z3Partners, a growth-stage fund based in Mumbai. Prior to founding Z3Partners, Gautam has been the co-founder of Zodius Technology Fund and Zodius Technology Opportunities Fund, successful early-growth stage Private Equity funds with a track record of investing in industry leaders such as BigBasket, Pepperfry, OfBusiness, Zivame, Medgenome and Antuit. Prior to Zodius, Gautam was the Managing Director and Head of India for Battery Ventures, a Bay-Area based venture capital and PE-fund. Prior to that he was part of the leadership team at iGATE. Gautam started his career in Investment Banking in the US with Lazard Freres. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin.In this episode, we discuss Gautam's journey as an investor and everything he's learned from investing in India and India-focused businesses. Episode notes:1. Lessons learned from investing in India over the last two years (3:30)2. How are investors currently viewing the market? (7:55)3. Conviction building when a fund only invests in 8 startups per year (10:18)4. Why did Guatam transition from operating to venture capital? (15:10)5. Reflecting on Gautam's first investment and its significance in the context of India's growth story (17:40)6. Fundamentals of business management (21:10)7. The privileges and perils of being a venture investor (28:50)8. Key lessons Gautam has learned about company building from his experience operating and investing in the growth stage (41:00)9. How do you turn a business around? (48:01)10. When should investors assist founders in running their businesses? (56:00)11. Collaborating with co-investors (1:06:06)12. To what extent does Gautam's operational experience play to his strengths as an investor? (1:12:11)13. Things about Indian VC that still surprises Gautam (1:16:56). . . Social links:Z3Partners on Twitter: https://twitter.com/z3partnersGautam Patel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gautamapatelPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash
Bill Binch has led revenue teams at highly successful B2B SaaS category creators, including Marketo and Pendo.Having real-life, applied experience and success at scaling high-growth companies, while also having broad insights into several Battery Ventures portfolio companies provides Bill with a unique perspective on how Chief Revenue Officers use metrics to inform their journey.Bill's journey over 29 years has informed how his use of metrics to lead a revenue team has evolved, alongside the advancement of revenue technology options. Though Sales has always been the ultimate function to be measured by metrics (quota achievement), today's CRO can have much better insight into the "signals" or "leading indicators" that directly impact quota achievement.Today's Sales leaders are reviewing and asking deep conversations about pipeline trends, which sources are delivering the most, and highest quality leads that result in Closed-Won revenue. But what metrics does Bill think are most important for each stage of a B2B SaaS company's growth:$
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Logan Bartlett is a Managing Director @ Redpoint, a firm with a portfolio including the likes of Stripe, Nubank, Twilio, Netflix, Snowflake and many more incredible names. As for Logan, at Redpoint he has led investments in the likes of Ramp, Monte Carlo, Cribl, Crossbeam and Acuity MD to name a few. Before joining Redpoint, Logan spent over 5 years with the team at Battery where he made investments in Pendo, Amplitude, Dataiku, Braze and Kustomer. In Today's Episode with Logan Bartlett We Discuss: 1.) Entry into Venture: How Logan made his way into the world of venture joining Battery Ventures? What are 1-2 of Logan's biggest takeaways from his time with Battery? What does Logan know now that he wishes he had known when he started in venture? 2.) The Venture Landscape Today: Is now really the best time to be investing? How does Logan compare today to prior vintages? How does this differ when comparing consumer to B2B? How does Logan analyze the state of the growth market? Is anyone really doing deals today? If so, what is the discount on price vs last year? How do the public markets impact the later stage financings which have disappeared in the last 3 months? How do the later stage financings impact the early stage? Does Logan agree that "venture has never been less collaborative as it is today"? 3.) The Role of the Venture Investor: Why does Logan believe that VCs have gotten lazy over the last 2 years? Does Logan believe we will see even more GPs at the top retire in the downturn? How does Logan analyse his role as a board member today? How has his style changed over time? What is the single best board Logan is on? Why that one? Who is the best board member Logan works with? What makes this board member so good? How does Logan assess the importance of personal brand in venture today? Why does Logan believe no company should hire PR firms from the early days? 4.) Investing Style and Lessons: What has been Logan's single biggest hit as an investor? How did seeing that impact his mindset? What has been Logan's biggest miss? How did not doing the investment change how he thinks about making new investments today? How does Logan assess his own relationship to price? How has it changed over time? As a growth investor today, how important is ownership? How does this change with stage? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode: Logan's Favourite Book: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Logan's Most Recent Investment: AcuityMD
Today, Jason makes his first investment in our new Jay Trading segment (which is not investing advice), and Jason and Molly break it down (3:22). Then, we do a little segment called “Series A & M&A” (24:40)! We also cover Stripe's 409A valuation (37:52). And of course, we have to cover the Netflix + Microsoft partnership (45:50). Finally, we wrap with Peloton outsourcing their hardware manufacturing (57:00). (0:00) Jason and Molly tee up today's show! (3:22) Jay Trading: Bill Gurley bought ~1M shares of Stitch Fix yesterday for a total of $5.4M and the stock popped as much as 15% on the news (14:17) Liquid I.V. - Feel better faster. Get 25% off at https://liquid-iv.com using promo code TWIST (15:30) Talking revenue and profit (23:18) Wealthfront - Get your first $5,000 managed for free, for life at https://wealthfront.com/TWIST (24:40) Series A and M&A: You.com (35:59) Harmonic - Get $4000 off at harmonic.ai/twist (37:52) WSJ reports that Stripe just cut its internal valuation by 28% (45:50) Netflix named Microsoft as its global advertising technology and sales partner (57:00) Peloton is going to stop making its own bikes and tread machines, opting to outsource all manufacturing to Taiwan (1:06:00) M&A: Battery Ventures announced a $3.8 billion raise (1:15:07) Outro + Plugs