Podcasts about boldstart

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Best podcasts about boldstart

Latest podcast episodes about boldstart

The Data Minute
Backing Founders From Day Zero | Ed Sim (Founding Partner, Boldstart Ventures)

The Data Minute

Play Episode Listen Later May 22, 2025 51:40


What does it mean to be a “day one partner” for founders—and how does that change in an era of AI-driven acceleration?On this episode of The Data Minute, Peter sits down with Ed Sim, founding partner of Boldstart Ventures and the voice behind “What's Hot

E66: Why Inception Investing Beats Traditional Seed with Ed Sim of Boldstart

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2024 56:12


This week on Turpentine VC, Erik Torenberg interviews Ed Sim, founder of boldstart, on growing the firm from a $1 million fund to $800 million in assets, with a focus on early-stage enterprise and AI investments. For full show notes, visit: https://highlightai.com/share/d0139578-d85f-4171-b879-059dd2813450  —

Scaling DevTools
Ellen Chisa - Partner at Boldstart Ventures

Scaling DevTools

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 5, 2024 38:26


Ellen Chisa is a partner at Boldstart Ventures. Prior to Boldstart, Ellen founded Darklang - a programming language. Before Darklang, Ellen worked in product. What we discussed: Startups should focus on building one SDK and doing it well, rather than trying to build multiple SDKs at once.North Star metricsDeveloper tooling companies can learn from consumer-facing companies in terms of marketing and creating an identity for their product.Being authentic as a founder and actively engaging with the community can help establish a strong brand and attract users. Recognize and leverage your unique strengths and skills.Busy work can be valuableThe importance of segmenting your messageLinks:Ellen's Twitter/X https://x.com/ellenchisa?lang=enBoldstart Ventures https://boldstart.vc/darklang https://darklang.com/

Scale with Strive Podcast
'Advice for Early-Stage Founders' with Ellen Chisa

Scale with Strive Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2024 35:14


Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world's most influential leaders of the SaaS industry.

Artificiality
Ed Sim: AI Venture Capital

Artificiality

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2024 50:28


Few understand how to anticipate major technology shifts in the enterprise better than today's guest, Ed Sim. Ed is a pioneer in the world of venture capital, specifically focusing on enterprise software and infrastructure since 1996. He founded Boldstart in 2010 to invest at the earliest stages of enterprise software companies, growing the firm from $1M to around $375M today. So where does an experienced investor who has seen countless tech waves come and go place his bets in this new AI-first future? That's the key topic we dive into today. While AI forms a core part of our dialogue, Ed emphasizes that he doesn't look at pitches and go “Oh, AI, I need to invest in that.” Rather, he tries to see if founders have identified a real pain point, have a unique approach to solving it, and can clearly articulate how they will provide a significant improvement over status quo. AI is an important component, of course, but it isn't a reason to invest alone. With that framing in mind, Ed shares where he is most excited to invest in light of recent generative AI breakthroughs. Unsurprisingly, AI security ranks high on his list given enterprises' skittishness around adopting any technology that could compromise sensitive data or infrastructure. Ed saw this need early, backing a startup called Protect AI in March 2022 that focuses specifically on monitoring and certifying the security of AI systems. The implications of AI have branched into virtually every sector, but Ed reminds us that as investors and builders, we must stay grounded in solving real problems vs just chasing the shiny new thing. Key Points: Ed Sim started Boldstart Ventures in 2010 to provide early stage funding for enterprise startups, writing smaller checks than typical VC firms. The firm now manages a nearly $200 million main fund and a $175 million opportunity fund. Generative AI is an exciting new technology, but the key is backing founders who are solving real problems for end users in a unique way that is 10x better than current solutions. AI is just the underlying technology. AI security is critical for enterprise adoption. Ed invested early in Protect AI, which helps monitor AI models for security, privacy, and compliance issues. AI security will be key to scale adoption. There are still open questions around data governance with large language models that access sensitive company data. Approaches that check governance policies before providing answers are the safest for now. Factors like inference cost, subscription fatigue, and proving ROI will impact how quickly some of the consumer generative AI applications gain traction. Creative solutions around caching, pricing models, and hybrid human+AI loops can help. There will be opportunities related to embedding expertise into systems to empower junior and senior employees. Tools like GitHub Copilot show potential to augment technical skills. If you enjoy our podcasts, please subscribe and leave a positive rating or comment. Sharing your positive feedback helps us reach more people and connect them with the world's great minds. Subscribe to get Artificiality delivered to your email Learn about our book Make Better Decisions and buy it on Amazon Thanks to Jonathan Coulton for our music

The Full Ratchet: VC | Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startup Investing | Fundraising | Crowdfunding | Pitch | Private E
Replay - Velocity as a Superpower, Why Contrarians Win, The Role of a Board Member, and Why Some Challenge When they Should Chill (Ed Sim)

The Full Ratchet: VC | Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startup Investing | Fundraising | Crowdfunding | Pitch | Private E

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 25, 2023 48:37


In this special replay episode Ed Sim of Boldstart ventures joins Nick to discuss Maintaining a Disciplined Fund Size and Strategy, The Rise of NYC Tech, and Changes in the Exit Environment. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What's the thesis at boldstart ventures? What was it like starting Boldstart in NYC in 2010? Tell us a bit about the thesis at investment and how things evolved over the years until the ultimate exit? What's your preference…  Niche and narrow problems or big and expansive opportunities? What is your mental model for investing in enterprise founders with ideas? category creation Why only technical founders? Will this enterprise bull market sustain? You've talked about being involved and sitting on boards from “whiteboard to scale” ?…  how do you manage ever-increasing board responsibilities with other demands of the job? Where are VCs most lacking when it comes to the value that early-stage founders require? Do you think there's too much money in venture? How do you win in a seed with so many seed funds? Guest Links: boldstart ventures Ed's Twitter Ed's LinkedIn The hosts of The Full Ratchet are Nick Moran and Nate Pierotti of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. Want to keep up to date with The Full Ratchet? Follow us on social. You can learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our LinkedIn and Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and we'll send a list of potential investors right to your inbox!

Podcast Notes Playlist: Business
20VC: The Three Types of Seed Round Today, Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive, Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher, Why Boards at Pre-Seed Can Be Helpful & How Too Much Cash Too Soon Can Harm Companies with Ed Sim, Founder @ Boldstart

Podcast Notes Playlist: Business

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2023 47:48


Twenty Minute VC Key Takeaways  The best talent wants to join a company not at the highest price, but at the best price with the right amount of capital for the right risk There are three types of seed rounds: Discovery (sub $2m), Classic ($3m to $5m), and Megatron Jumbo ($5m+)To win in today's venture climate, you must get “ball control” in any round that is presented to youBe as disciplined as possible concerning your entry price “I think AI is the most transformational thing that we are ever going to see in a long time. However, I still think it's f***ing hard to make money there.” – Ed Sim  While some people encourage investors to perpetually lean into their investments, sometimes it is best to lean out and strategically sell in increments over time Ownership matters, but it must also be balanced out with valuations The hardest problems to solve often take longer to solve; businesses working on addressing these problems may appear “slow”, but they might be massive winners in the long run Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org Ed Sim is one of the best seed round investors in venture as the Founder and Managing Partner @ Boldstart, Ed focuses specifically on developer, infra and SaaS at pre-seed and seed round. Over the last decade, Ed has backed some of the best including Snyk, BigID, Kustomer, Front and Superhuman. In Today's Episode on Seed Rounds We Discuss: The Three Types of Seed Round: What are the three different types of seed round today? Has seed ever been this competitive? Will seed be unimpacted by the macro decline we are seeing? Why are growth and multi-stage funds being more active than ever in seed? 2. Too Much Cash Will Kill You! Why does Ed believe that too much capital can kill companies at the seed round? Why does Ed believe that the best founders are not always optimising for the highest price? What are the single biggest negatives of taking a high price at the seed round? What advice does Ed have for founders who have large offers from multi-stage funds at seed? 3. Is Growth Dead? Why does Ed disagree and suggest that growth is not dead? What do multi-stage and growth funds now what to see that they did not before? How will the growth market evolve over the next 12-18 months? 4. IPOs, AI and M&A: What will cause the IPO windows to crack open again? Why does Ed believe that many investing in AI are simply giving money to Nvidia? Does Ed agree that 95% of the cash going into AI from venture today will go to zero? Will we see more or less M&A in the next 12 months? How did Ed evaluate the Loom acquisition by Atlassian?

Podcast Notes Playlist: Startup
20VC: The Three Types of Seed Round Today, Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive, Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher, Why Boards at Pre-Seed Can Be Helpful & How Too Much Cash Too Soon Can Harm Companies with Ed Sim, Founder @ Boldstart

Podcast Notes Playlist: Startup

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2023 47:48


Twenty Minute VC Key Takeaways  The best talent wants to join a company not at the highest price, but at the best price with the right amount of capital for the right risk There are three types of seed rounds: Discovery (sub $2m), Classic ($3m to $5m), and Megatron Jumbo ($5m+)To win in today's venture climate, you must get “ball control” in any round that is presented to youBe as disciplined as possible concerning your entry price “I think AI is the most transformational thing that we are ever going to see in a long time. However, I still think it's f***ing hard to make money there.” – Ed Sim  While some people encourage investors to perpetually lean into their investments, sometimes it is best to lean out and strategically sell in increments over time Ownership matters, but it must also be balanced out with valuations The hardest problems to solve often take longer to solve; businesses working on addressing these problems may appear “slow”, but they might be massive winners in the long run Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org Ed Sim is one of the best seed round investors in venture as the Founder and Managing Partner @ Boldstart, Ed focuses specifically on developer, infra and SaaS at pre-seed and seed round. Over the last decade, Ed has backed some of the best including Snyk, BigID, Kustomer, Front and Superhuman. In Today's Episode on Seed Rounds We Discuss: The Three Types of Seed Round: What are the three different types of seed round today? Has seed ever been this competitive? Will seed be unimpacted by the macro decline we are seeing? Why are growth and multi-stage funds being more active than ever in seed? 2. Too Much Cash Will Kill You! Why does Ed believe that too much capital can kill companies at the seed round? Why does Ed believe that the best founders are not always optimising for the highest price? What are the single biggest negatives of taking a high price at the seed round? What advice does Ed have for founders who have large offers from multi-stage funds at seed? 3. Is Growth Dead? Why does Ed disagree and suggest that growth is not dead? What do multi-stage and growth funds now what to see that they did not before? How will the growth market evolve over the next 12-18 months? 4. IPOs, AI and M&A: What will cause the IPO windows to crack open again? Why does Ed believe that many investing in AI are simply giving money to Nvidia? Does Ed agree that 95% of the cash going into AI from venture today will go to zero? Will we see more or less M&A in the next 12 months? How did Ed evaluate the Loom acquisition by Atlassian?

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: The Three Types of Seed Round Today, Why Seed Has Never Been More Competitive, Why Pricing Has Never Been Higher, Why Boards at Pre-Seed Can Be Helpful & How Too Much Cash Too Soon Can Harm Companies with Ed Sim, Founder @ Boldstart

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2023 47:48


Ed Sim is one of the best seed round investors in venture as the Founder and Managing Partner @ Boldstart, Ed focuses specifically on developer, infra and SaaS at pre-seed and seed round. Over the last decade, Ed has backed some of the best including Snyk, BigID, Kustomer, Front and Superhuman. In Today's Episode on Seed Rounds We Discuss: The Three Types of Seed Round: What are the three different types of seed round today? Has seed ever been this competitive? Will seed be unimpacted by the macro decline we are seeing? Why are growth and multi-stage funds being more active than ever in seed? 2. Too Much Cash Will Kill You! Why does Ed believe that too much capital can kill companies at the seed round? Why does Ed believe that the best founders are not always optimising for the highest price? What are the single biggest negatives of taking a high price at the seed round? What advice does Ed have for founders who have large offers from multi-stage funds at seed? 3. Is Growth Dead? Why does Ed disagree and suggest that growth is not dead? What do multi-stage and growth funds now what to see that they did not before? How will the growth market evolve over the next 12-18 months? 4. IPOs, AI and M&A: What will cause the IPO windows to crack open again? Why does Ed believe that many investing in AI are simply giving money to Nvidia? Does Ed agree that 95% of the cash going into AI from venture today will go to zero? Will we see more or less M&A in the next 12 months? How did Ed evaluate the Loom acquisition by Atlassian?

Origins - A podcast about Limited Partners, created by Notation Capital
Q4 Market Predictions w/ Ed Sim (Boldstart) & Seyonne Kang (StepStone)

Origins - A podcast about Limited Partners, created by Notation Capital

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2023 64:18


In this episode of Origins, Nicholas Chirls (Notation) and Beezer Clarkson (Sapphire Partners) host Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart and Seyonne Kang, Partner at StepStone. Ed is the founder of boldstart ventures, a day-one partner and true believer for developer first, enterprise infra, & SaaS founders. He is currently a board member/observer of Snyk, Blockdaemon, Kustomer (sold to Meta), BigID, Protect AI, Env0, among many others. Seyonne is a member of the private equity team, focusing on venture capital and growth equity investments. Prior to StepStone, she was a partner with Greenspring Associates, a venture capital and growth equity investment firm that merged with StepStone in 2021. We cover a wide range of topics, including our predictions for Q4 fundraising, when the market will bottom (if it hasn't already), what happens to multi-stage firms, AI (and other) hype cycles, and how VCs can and should think about liquidity in a market like this. Enjoy! Links to articles discussed: Best startup locations in the US Raise Less, Build More

Kruze Consulting's Founders and Friends Podcast for Startups
First Check Investors: A Deep Dive with Boldstart VC

Kruze Consulting's Founders and Friends Podcast for Startups

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2023 36:42


Shomik Ghosh, partner at VC firm Boldstart (https://boldstart.vc), discusses the types of companies Boldstart invests in, and looks at the current venture capital marketplace. Kruze Cares More - We take our clients' success (https://kruzeconsulting.com/reviews) - and happiness - seriously. Kruze has worked with hundreds of early-stage companies, many of which have gone on to raise tens to hundreds of millions in venture financing - and a number of which have been successfully acquired by major public companies.

Category Visionaries
Funding the Future: Shomik Ghosh, Partner at Boldstart Ventures

Category Visionaries

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2023 26:58


In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Shomik Gosh, Partner at Boldstart Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in backing founders from before they've even laid down their first line of code, about why being part of a startup journey from the very first step is such a rewarding experience. Providing insights and support for everything from concept creation to preparing a market-ready offering, Boldstart believes in giving every founder with a truly game-changing idea the best possible chance of making their difference. We also spoke about the venture space's focus shifting back to profitability, why pain points should still be the priority when developing a business model, how premature scaling can be a big risk for new businesses, and why, in Shomik's mind, it's always better not to get caught up in the marketplace hype. Topics Discussed: Shomik's career in sales and trading, and why a fascination with the potential of technology pushed him to make the move to the Bay Boldstart's funding legacy and the funds they're preparing for startups old and new in the space The current state of venture investment, and why profitability is starting to take center stage again What gets Shomik so excited about joining founders' journeys, and why he loves to see people bringing new solutions to legacy problems The risks for founders of getting too caught up in market hype, and why it's always preferable to stay focused on real pain points Why rejections are just a part of starting a business, but how real perseverance can really pay off

Open Source Startup Podcast
E86: Building Secure Containers Faster with Slim AI

Open Source Startup Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 15, 2023 37:07


Kyle Quest is Founder & CTO of Slim AI, the platform to help application developers build secure containers faster. The company's open source project, Slim (previously known as Docker Slim), shrinks container images by up to 30x and makes them secure. It currently has 17K stars on GitHub. Slim AI has raised almost $60M from investors including Insight & Boldstart. In this episode, we dig into where the idea for Slim came from (Kyle was trying to solve his own pain), building for multiple personas (in this case, security and developer teams), the shift left movement in security & much more!

Open Source Startup Podcast
E83: Developer-First Security with Snyk

Open Source Startup Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2023 45:31


Guy Podjarny is the Founder of Snyk, the developer-first security platform that helps companies find and fix vulnerabilities in their code, open source dependencies, containers, and infrastructure as code. Snyk has raised $1.2B from investors including Boldstart, Accel, Tiger Global, and Addition. In this episode, we dig into selling security products to developers, the pros and cons of being open source (Snyk is not!), Snyk's fundraising journey and challenges early on, how Snyk has evolved over the years, the decision to bring in an outside CEO & more!

Open Source Startup Podcast
E74: Dev-First Testing with AtomicJar & Testcontainers

Open Source Startup Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2023 41:02


Sergei Egorov is Co-Founder & CEO of AtomicJar, the developer-first testing platform built on top of open source testing framework Testcontainers. AtomicJar provides Testcontainers Cloud which allows users to run tests in the cloud with anything that can be containerized. AtomicJar has raised almost $30M from investors including Insight Partners and Boldstart. In this episode, we discuss user demand driving the creation of a company alongside an open source project, using a different name for the company to have the ability to work with other projects, learnings from early scaling & more!

Open Source Startup Podcast
E67: Automated Certificate Management with Smallstep

Open Source Startup Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 9, 2022 33:59


Mike Malone is Founder of Smallstep, the automated certificate management platform for DevOps teams. Their certificate management project, also called smallstep, has 5K stars on GitHub and provides a private certificate authority and ACME server for secure automated certificate management. Smallstep has raised $26M from investors including Boldstart and StepStone Group. In this episode, we discuss the importance of staying lean before achieving PMF, where to draw the line on free open source vs. paid product, his learnings as an engineer-turned-founder & more! YouTube version of the episode here

Open Source Startup Podcast
E62: Bring Visibility to Your Codebase With CodeSee

Open Source Startup Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 7, 2022 33:32


Shanea Leven is Founder & CEO of CodeSee, the cloud-based data visualization platform that helps users master the understanding of their code. CodeSee has raised $10M from investors including Uncork, Boldstart, and Wellington. In this episode, we discuss how to test messaging, the importance of having a strong GTM strategy early-on, what a great onboarding experience looks like, and more!

Public Key
What Does Crypto VC Funding Look Like In A Bear Market?

Public Key

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 14, 2022 28:46


What Does Crypto VC Funding Look Like In A Bear Market? In this episode of Public Key, our host, Ian Andrews (CMO at Chainalysis) is joined by Ed Sim (Founder and Managing Partner, Boldstart Ventures) to discuss what it takes to build companies in an economic downturn, how he finds great founders and what crypto tech gets him excited.  The conversation addresses tokenization versus infrastructure and databases versus blockchain and reviews why Boldstart just raised two new funds to continue to build their crypto portfolio amidst heightened volatility and fear in the current bear market and various outcomes on enterprise blockchain use cases.  Minute-by-minute episode breakdown (2:05) – Boldstart's crypto origin story of partnering with tech founders before company creation and creation of tipping using crypto (4:25)  – Boldstart partners with IBM to review blockchain enterprise use cases and future investment opportunities  (6:40) – The difference between needing a database versus a blockchain  (11:25) – The strategy to investing into the core infrastructure of crypto applications and user experience (15:27) –Raising funds during a volatile or bear market  (18:00) – How investment into crypto is moving away from just projects with tokens to also projects with infrastructure alone  (26:18) –How do you pick crypto founders that are thinking long term sustainable growth to invest in  Related resources Check out more resources provided by Chainalysis that perfectly complement this episode of the Public Key. Blog: The Trades That Triggered UST's Collapse Boldstart Newsletter: Ed Sim's weekly readings and notes on enterprise VC, software, and scaling startups Boldstart Website: The Chainalysis 2022 Crypto Crime Report Boldstart Fund Announcement: Announcing $367M in new Boldstart Venture Capital funds Video: Chainalysis Links New York 2022 (Video Replays)  Speakers on today's episode Ian Andrews * Host * (Chief Marketing Officer, Chainalysis) https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianhandrews Ed Sim (Founder and Managing Partner, Boldstart Ventures) https://twitter.com/edsim This website may contain links to third-party sites that are not under the control of Chainalysis, Inc. or its affiliates (collectively “Chainalysis”). Access to such information does not imply association with, endorsement of, approval of, or recommendation by Chainalysis of the site or its operators, and Chainalysis is not responsible for the products, services, or other content hosted therein. Our podcasts are for informational purposes only, and are not intended to provide legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. Listeners should consult their own advisors before making these types of decisions. Chainalysis has no responsibility or liability for any decision made or any other acts or omissions in connection with your use of this material. Chainalysis does not guarantee or warrant the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, suitability or validity of the information in any particular podcast and will not be responsible for any claim attributable to errors, omissions, or other inaccuracies of any part of such material.  Unless stated otherwise, reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Chainalysis. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by Chainalysis employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the views of the company. 

Through the Noise
E9: Shomik Ghosh - Investing in Enterprise Software

Through the Noise

Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2022 62:07


Shomik Ghosh is a Principal at Boldstart Ventures, a day one partner for developer first, SaaS, & crypto infrastructure founders backing the likes of Snyk, Blockdaemon, Kustomer, BigID and Superhuman. At Boldstart, Shomik invests in enterprise software with pre-product founders. Prior to Boldstart, Shomik worked as a growth stage investor at Top Tier Capital where he invested in companies like CircleCI, Anaplan, Area 1 Security, and Shape Security. Shomik is also an active angel investor, having invested in Koyfin, Gitpod and Logixboard to name a few. Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com

Open Source Startup Podcast
E20: Building Programming Language & Infrastructure Company Dark

Open Source Startup Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2022 29:09


Ellen Chisa is Cofounder & CEO of Dark, a programming language, editor, and infrastructure that makes it easy to build backends. Dark is source-available (open-source "adjacent") and raised $4M from investors such as Cervin Ventures, Boldstart (where Ellen now works as a Founder-in-Residence), Data Collective, Harrison Metal, and Xfactor.

Decode Business - FrenchWeb
[Seed] Future of Work: Liveblocks lève 5 millions de dollars auprès de Boldstart et Kima

Decode Business - FrenchWeb

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2022 8:03


Interview de Steven Fabre, co-fondateur de Liveblocks

Console DevTools
Designing dev products, with Ellen Chisa (Boldstart) - S02E09

Console DevTools

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2022 32:45


In this episode we speak to Ellen Chisa, who was previously CEO of Dark, a programming language startup that allowed you to focus on your backend code and forget about frameworks, deployments, and infrastructure. We discuss whether that is the right way to think about coding, where no code or low code fits into the modern development stack, how developers should think about open source and the challenges of building dev tools versus getting developers to actually use them.About Ellen ChisaEllen Chisa is a founder, angel investor, and engineer. She created Dark, a programming language coupled to its editor and infrastructure. Previously, she was the first employee at Lola, combining the best of technology and people for travel planning. Ellen Chisa is currently a Founder in Residence at Boldstart Ventures.Things mentioned:The Self Provisioning Runtime - Shawn WangBret VictorChris GrangerLambdragonFuture of CodingSteve KrouseDarkVisual Studio CodeAzureRed Hat MongoDBElasticLet us know what you think on Twitter:https://twitter.com/consoledotdevhttps://twitter.com/davidmyttonhttps://twitter.com/ellenchisaOr by email: hello@console.devAbout ConsoleConsole is the place developers go to find the best tools. Our weekly newsletter picks out the most interesting tools and new releases. We keep track of everything - dev tools, devops, cloud, and APIs - so you don't have to. Sign up for free at: https://console.devRecorded: 2021-10-12.

Console DevTools
Devtools investing, with Ed Sim (Boldstart) - S02E05

Console DevTools

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2022 30:38


In this episode we speak to Ed Sim, Founder and General Partner of Boldstart, a venture investor specializing in DevTools and software. Ed has invested in developer-focused companies like Snyk, Slim.ai, and Jit Security. We discuss what engineers should think about when working on side projects, when and if they should seek out investors, how to pick the good ones, whether raising money is even needed, and what the role of open source is.About Ed SimEd is the Founder of Boldstart Ventures, a day-one partner and true believer for developer first and SaaS founders. Boldstart is a lead investor and often partners with technical founders at company formation, helping accelerate their path to product market fit.Ed is currently a board member/observer of Snyk, Kustomer, BigID, Blockdaemon, Env0, Dooly, and Cape Privacy. Other notable day-one investments include Superhuman, Security Scorecard, and Front. Ed previously co-founded Dawntreader Ventures where he led first round investments in LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN), GoToMeeting (acq. By Citrix), and Greenplum (acq. EMC/Pivotal). Ed has a BA in Economics from Harvard.Things mentioned:SnykSlim.aiCodeSeeAtomic Jar TestcontainersAkamaiSourceClearNodeRubyGemsDigitalOceanAtlassianTwilioGitLabBitbucketGreenplumEucalyptusCape Privacy Gavin UhmaDropout LabsTensorFlow encryptedMongoDBElasticsearchRed Hat JBossBoldstart.vcWhat's Hot in Enterprise IT/VCLet us know what you think on Twitter:https://twitter.com/consoledotdevhttps://twitter.com/davidmyttonhttps://twitter.com/edsimOr by email: hello@console.devAbout ConsoleConsole is the place developers go to find the best tools. Our weekly newsletter picks out the most interesting tools and new releases. We keep track of everything - dev tools, devops, cloud, and APIs - so you don't have to. Sign up for free at: https://console.devRecorded: 2021-10-15.

Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers.
Boldstart ventures Ed Sim on starting his career during the dot-com bubble, the opportunity as being a true day one investor, and views on today's VC market compared to past eras

Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers.

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 14, 2021 60:04


Our guest today is Ed Sim, founder and general partner of boldstart ventures, an NYC-based firm started in 2010 with the focus on being a day-one partner for founders. Boldstart had a modest beginning, with only a $1M fund in 2010, it has since grown to just under $500M in AUM. Some of his first check investments include Snyk, Kustomer, BigID, and Superhuman. Subscribe at ventureunlocked.substack.com

OV | BUILD
Ed Sim (Boldstart): Patience is a Founder Virtue

OV | BUILD

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2021 4:16


It's tempting as a founder to skip steps. Either because you're eager to ship, or because you unknowingly lack visibility on key aspects of your business. Ed tells us why wiring up analytics from Day 1 is critical.

OV | BUILD
Ed Sim (Boldstart): What Do VCs Look for in PLG Founders?

OV | BUILD

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2021 16:08


Ed is a really great VC. He backs founders from “Day 1” long before there's a product. Even better, Ed happens to love PLG just as much as I do. We discuss the differences in backing PLG startups at different stages.

StrictlyVC Download
Ed Sim of Boldstart Ventures on the Next Wave of Developer First Startups

StrictlyVC Download

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2021 32:44


Connie & Alex parse through this week's top technology stories and then speak to Ed Sim, founder and managing partner of Boldstart Ventures, about Boldstart's "developer first" focus and strong interest in betting on technical entrepreneurs before a product has even been created.Music: 1. "Inspired" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired)2. "Dream Catcher" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4650-dream-catcher)3. "Blippy Trance" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5759-blippy-trance)4. "Pamgaea" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea)5. "EDM Detection Mode" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3687-edm-detection-mode)

The Full Ratchet: VC | Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startup Investing | Fundraising | Crowdfunding | Pitch | Private E
266. Velocity as a Superpower, Why Contrarians Win, The Role of a Board Member, and Why Some Challenge When they Should Chill (Ed Sim)

The Full Ratchet: VC | Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startup Investing | Fundraising | Crowdfunding | Pitch | Private E

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2021 48:22


Ed Sim of boldstart ventures joins Nick to discuss: Velocity as a Superpower, Why Contrarians Win, The Role of a Board Member, and Why Some Challenge When they Should Chill Walk us through your background and path to VC What's the thesis at boldstart ventures? What was it like starting Boldstart in NYC in 2010? Tell us a bit about the thesis at investment and how things evolved over the years until the ultimate exit? What's your preference...  Niche and narrow problems or big and expansive opportunities? What is your mental model for investing in enterprise founders with ideas? category creation Why only technical founders? Will this enterprise bull market sustain? You've talked about being involved and sitting on boards from "whiteboard to scale" ?...  how do you manage ever-increasing board responsibilities with other demands of the job? Where are VCs most lacking when it comes to the value that early-stage founders require? Do you think there's too much money in venture? How do you win in a seed with so many seed funds?

Value Hive Podcast
All Things Enterprise Software w/ Shomik Ghosh, Boldstart VC

Value Hive Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 25, 2020 81:47


This episode is brought to you by TIKR. Join the free beta today at TIKR.com/hive. They're constantly releasing new updates that make the platform better including a new Business Owner Mode that hides share count, market cap, and enterprise value. I couldn't be more excited to partner with TIKR. Shomik Ghosh is a principal at Boldstart VC by day and resident Enterprise Software savant by night. Shomik's job at Boldstart VC is to find and become Day One partners with passionate, technical Enterprise Founders. This means Shomik spends all his time thinking, analyzing, and valuing enterprise software businesses. Our conversation dives deep into the world of Enterprise Software. More importantly, Shomik takes us on a journey through his slide deck "Framework For Evaluating Enterprise Software Companies". This is one of those podcasts you'll want to listen to twice. Shomik breaks down competitive advantages, favorite stacks within Enterprise Software, as well as rebuking common myths investors believe about the space. Here are the show-notes: [0:00] Who is Shomik? [6:00] The Importance of Founders [10:00] Differences between Investing in the Private Markets and Public Markets [16:00] 6 Steps for Evaluating Enterprise Software Companies. [20:00] What is Alignment of Cost Structures? [27:00] The Importance of Switching Costs [45:00] Distribution in Software Companies [53:00] Security as Enterprise Software [1:03:00] Exciting Areas in the Enterprise Software Industry [1:13:00] More from Shomik and Closing Questions If you like what you heard from Shomik, check him out on Twitter @shomikghosh21

Your Business Greatness
Leveraging a Passion for People to Bolster a Dynamic Career

Your Business Greatness

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 23, 2020 24:56


Natalie Ledbetter calls herself a “swiss army knife.” Over the past 17 years, she has cultivated different skill sets and worked in a variety of industries, such as fashion and technology, to become effective and successful in her career. She is Head of People & Platform at Boldstart. Her passion in life is people. She is curious about people, their motivations, and leverages her diverse background to effectively navigate the people dynamics required to build and scale companies. In this episode, she shares the importance of a strong network, ways to pay it forward, and how to be strategic with relationship building. To connect to Natalie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-ledbetter/ @LeUnicornHunter Connect to Your Choice Coach: www.YourChoiceCoach.com www.linkedin.com/in/simonesloan https://yourchoicecoach.com/hot-nuggets/

Yet Another Value Podcast
Minion Capital (aka Shomik Ghosh) on Shopify and VC investing

Yet Another Value Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 2, 2020 61:00


Shomick Ghosh (aka Minion Capital), a Principal at Boldstart, talks about his experience as a Venture Capitalist and how he balances investing in both public and private companies. Then we dive deep into the investment case for Shopify (SHOP).Minion Capital twitter: https://twitter.com/MinionCapitalShomick's twitter: https://twitter.com/shomikghosh21Boldstart: https://www.boldstart.vc/

Software Engineering Daily
Enterprise Investing with Ed Sim

Software Engineering Daily

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 18, 2020 51:25


Investing in enterprise software has become a competitive business. Lots of venture capital firms compete for the good deals at every stage. This level of competition has driven more capital into the early stages.  Ed Sim is a partner with Boldstart, an early stage enterprise investment firm. He joins the show to talk about modern The post Enterprise Investing with Ed Sim appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

Software Daily
Enterprise Investing with Ed Sim

Software Daily

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 18, 2020


Investing in enterprise software has become a competitive business. Lots of venture capital firms compete for the good deals at every stage. This level of competition has driven more capital into the early stages. Ed Sim is a partner with Boldstart, an early stage enterprise investment firm. He joins the show to talk about modern enterprise investment strategy and his own varied personal experiences in working at funds.

Business and Philosophy
Enterprise Investing with Ed Sim

Business and Philosophy

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 18, 2020 51:25


Investing in enterprise software has become a competitive business. Lots of venture capital firms compete for the good deals at every stage. This level of competition has driven more capital into the early stages.  Ed Sim is a partner with Boldstart, an early stage enterprise investment firm. He joins the show to talk about modern The post Enterprise Investing with Ed Sim appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

Podcast – Software Engineering Daily
Enterprise Investing with Ed Sim

Podcast – Software Engineering Daily

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 18, 2020 51:25


Investing in enterprise software has become a competitive business. Lots of venture capital firms compete for the good deals at every stage. This level of competition has driven more capital into the early stages.  Ed Sim is a partner with Boldstart, an early stage enterprise investment firm. He joins the show to talk about modern The post Enterprise Investing with Ed Sim appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: How Fundraising For Funds Has Changed in The World of COVID, The Benefits of Managers Selling Part of Their GP & How To Think Through Your “Minimum Viable Fund Size” with Lo Toney, Founding Managing Partner @ Plexo Capital

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 26, 2020 40:17


Lo Toney is the Founding Managing Partner @ Plexo Capital, a very unique firm making both direct investments and fund investments. They have invested in Precursor, Boldstart, Female Founders Fund and WorkBench on the fund side and then PlayVS, Replicated and StyleSeat on the direct side. Prior to Plexo, Lo was a Partner @ GV (Google Ventures) and before that was a Partner with Comcast Ventures where he led the Catalyst Fund. Before venture Lo was an operator enjoying exec roles at Zynga, Nike and eBay. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Lo made his way into the world of venture with GV and how that led to his innovating on the venture model investing in both funds and directly with Plexo today? What were Lo's biggest takeaways from his 5 years as a Partner @ GV? 2.) How will GPs raising today be impacted by COVID? How does this differ dependent on the stage they invest and the size of fund they are raising? How does Lo advise managers communicating with existing and new potential LPs today? 3.) What does Lo mean when he discusses your "minimum viable fund size"? How does Lo advise GPs when it comes to closing strategies? How much do they need for first close? How many closes should there be thereafter? Should they take the money when it is on the table? 4.) How does Lo feel about anchor LPs taking/investing in the GP? What are the benefits for the manager of doing so? Why does Lo believe there is such a binary view towards it? Why does Lo disagree with the benchmarks set of what a GP commit "should be"? 5.) Why does Lo believe we will see the hybridization of GP/LP over the coming years? What are the benefits of having your LP also direct invest? What are the core challenges to the model? How does Lo envisage the world of venture evolving over the next decade? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Lo’s Fave Book: Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?: How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Lo's Most Recent Investment: PlayVS As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.      

Funding Crush
#3 eFounders, les rois du SaaS made in France - Thibaud Elzière, cofounder & CEO

Funding Crush

Play Episode Listen Later May 26, 2020 39:25


Pourquoi Thibaud Elzière a monté eFounders et partage maintenant son temps entre eFounders et Folk. Les SaaS locaux (Payfit, Alan, Doctolib, Swile) avec une forte dimension régionale due à la régulation mais avec une forte profondeur de marché versus les SaaS dans lesquels eFounders s'est spécialisé qui répondent à des problématiques horizontales des PMEs (de 20 à 2,000 employés). Pourquoi eFounders incorporent ses boîtes aux Etats-Unis plutôt qu'en Europe. On discute des opportunités et de la saturation potentielle de certaines catégories en SaaS (collaboration, productivité, project management etc.). La hype d'un software ne dure qu'un temps : il y a de la place pour plein d'acteurs et ce ne sont pas des marchés winner takes all. Comment Efounders a accompagné une vingtaine de sociétés à lever des tours de Seed de plusieurs millions de dollars et souvent closée en quelques semaines. L'importance de structurer un bon deck mais finalement de ne pas le présenter quand on parle avec des investisseurs. On explique ce qu'est une Pégasus : les boîtes qui lèvent moins pour faire plus ! On parle de fonds US comme Coatue (Snapchat, Uber, Box, ...), Boldstart ventures. Thibaud dévoile aussi avec qui Folk a levé son tour de Seed et pourquoi Bonjour n'a pas avancé avec Sequoia (Apple, Facebook, Zoom, Whatsapp, Github...). La nouvelle ère du coronavirus pour le Seed investment, la nouvelle génération des VCs en France, …

VC Hunting Podcast - Know the Money!
VC is about Helping Founders Scale and We Love Being in the Trenches! - Eliot Durbin | Boldstart.vc

VC Hunting Podcast - Know the Money!

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2020 38:54


www.vchunting.com/eliot-durbin - For the full field notes

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
SaaStr 301: BigID’s Founder Dimitri Sirota on Raising $105M In The Last 5 Months of 2019, How To Know When To Pour Fuel On The Fire & How Founders Should Think About Runway and If There Is Cash On The Table, Whether You Take It?

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2020 26:54


Dimitri Sirota is the Founder & CEO @ BigID, the startup that provides advanced data discovery and intelligence for the data centre and cloud. To date Dimitri has raised over $145M for BigID from some of the best in the world of enterprise including Boldstart, Scale Venture Partners, Bessemer, Salesforce Ventures and Tiger Global who just a couple of weeks ago, led their latest $50M Series C. Before to BigID, Dimitri founded 2 prior businesses, the first in 1999 being a VPN security company called eTunnels and then the second being Layer Technologies where Dimitri enjoyed an incredible 10 year journey leading to their acquisition by CA Technologies in 2013. Dimitri is also an angel investor with a portfolio including Zume Pizza, Modalyst and TalentClick.  In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Dimitri made his way into the world of enterprise software and came to found BigID as his third company?  What specifically would Dimitri advise founders when the interests of their investor are not aligned to theirs? What is the right way to manage that situation? Does Dimitri believe that founders should always be raising? Does Dimitri believe when the money is on the table, you should take it? What is the right way for founders to think about valuation?  What did the fundraising journey look like for BigID? What situation does every founder want to put themselves in? How does Dimitri think about runway and using fundraising for optionality? What does Dimitri make of the rise of pre-emptive rounds? How does Dimitri determine when is the right time to pour fuel on the fire?      Dimitri's 60 Second SaaStr: What is his biggest strength and biggest weakness as a CEO? Who was the first check in BigID? How did the check come about? What does Dimitri believe that most around him disbelieve?  Read the transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Dimitri Sirota

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Rahul Vohra @ Superhuman, The Most Downloaded Founder Episode of 2019

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 3, 2020 41:27


Rahul Vohra is the Founder and CEO @ Superhuman, the fastest email experience in the world. Fun fact, users get through their inbox twice as fast — and many see Inbox Zero for the first time in years! To date, they have raised funds from our friends at Boldstart, First Round, John Collison, Sam Altman, Wayne Chang, Mike Ghaffery and Yes VC just to name a few. Previously, Rahul founded Rapportive, the first Gmail plugin to scale to millions of users. Rapportive was ultimately acquired by LinkedIn. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Rahul make his way into the world of startups with the founding of Rapportive and how did that transition to changing the world of email with Superhuman? 2.) What does Rahul mean when he says, “you can reverse engineer a process to get to product-market fit”? What does Rahul believe is the defining metric which determines your “product-market fit score”? What is Julie Supan’s framework? How did Dropbox and Airbnb use it to increase their product-market fit? How can founders implement it into their process? 3.) What can founders do to expand the customer base to include users that currently are “somewhat disappointed”? What are the right questions to ask? What do we do with this feedback? How do we further segment the user base? Why should we “disregard the users whereby the primary benefit of the product does not resonate”? 4.) How does Rahul approach product roadmap and prioritisation? How can founders ensure that continuous tracking and user feedback is engrained within the organisation? What tools does Rahul do to monitor and capture this? What are some of Rahul’s biggest lessons from going through this painstaking process stage by stage? 5.) Finally on fundraising, what does Rahul mean when he says, “always be raising but never be actively raising”? What are the benefits of this? How can founders transition catch up coffee into fundraising subtly? How does Rahul feel about party rounds? What are the pros? What are the downsides? How does Rahul advise founders here? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Rahul’s Fave Book: The Art of Game Design As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Rahul on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Inside The Mind of A Leading LP: How LPs Evaluate New Fund Managers on Everything from First Meeting to Portfolio Construction To Fees and Carry with Lisa Edgar, Managing Director @ Top Tier Capital Partners

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2019 32:48


Lisa Edgar is a Managing Director @ Top Tier Capital Partners, one of the leading venture fund of funds over the last decade. Included in their stellar fund portfolio is the likes of Index, Initialized, True Ventures, a16z and Boldstart, to name a few. Prior to Top Tier, Lisa was part of the asset management team at WR Hambrecht + Co focusing on new and emerging private equity funds. Before that, Lisa spent ten years at Horsley Bridge. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Lisa make her way into the world of investing in funds and how did that lead to her becoming Managing Director at one of the leaders, Top Tier? 2.) Lisa has seen the boom and bust of the macroeconomy twice now, how has that impacted her mindset today when investing in funds? What have been the most prominent changes in the venture ecosystem that Lisa has seen over the last 20 years? What changes have been good? What changes have been bad? 3.) What is the best way to get in the room with LPs? Does it have to be through warm intro? What are the signs for the GP that that first meeting went well? If an LP does not respond to emails, does that mean they don't want to do it? How does Lisa and Top Tier structure the investment decision-making process? How does that differ when re-investing in existing managers? Is it worth it for first-time funds to pitch institutions for fund 1 when they know they will not invest in the fund? 4.) How does Lisa think about GP commits today? How does Lisa look at what is reasonable and what is required? Is it individual and context-based? How does Lisa feel about different carry structures? Are kickers when past a certain return profile amenable to LPs? 5.) Lisa has seen some of the best emerging managers in the US over the last decade, what learnings does she have from them in terms of what separates the good from the great? How do they think about partnership dynamics? How do they think about firm culture? How do they think about generational transition? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Lisa’s Fave Book: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Lisa’s Most Recent Investment: Boldstart Ventures As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!

Enterprise Masters
Ed Sim of Boldstart VC

Enterprise Masters

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2019 34:16


In our first episode, Venu interviews Ed Sim from Boldstart to learn about the investment strategies that helped him build companies like Kustomer, SecurityScorecard and Big ID. Topics include what entrepreneurs should know about Boldstart (1:14); how Ed makes investment decisions (3:30); how to inspire passion, conviction and flexibility in entrepreneurs (6:17); first time entrepreneurs vs. those with experience (11:30); do’s and don’ts of a first time founder (15:06); how to approach advising a Founder to hire a CEO (17:12); when an early stage company should hire their first salesperson (26:49); the importance of culture at software startups (30:21).

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
SaaStr 255: Why Enablement Must Be An Early Investment and How To Structure It, Why The SaaS Incumbents of Today Are Not As Strong As We Think & How To Build A Sales Culture of Confidence Without Arrogance with Vikas Bhambri, SVP Sales and Customer Ex

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2019 36:01


Vikas Bhambri is SVP Sales and Customer Experience @ Kustomer, the startup providing Real-time, actionable views of customers with continuous omnichannel conversations and intelligence that automates repetitive, manual tasks. To date they have raised over $113m in financing from some of the best in the business including Tiger Global, Battery Ventures, Boldstart, Canaan, Cisco and Redpoint just to name a few. Prior to Kustomer, Vikas spent over 20 years implementing, consulting, marketing, and selling CRM and ContactCenter solutions with companies like LivePerson and Oracle.  In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Vikas made his way into the world of SaaS and came to be at the rocketship that is Kustomer? Why does Vikas believe that a wave of SaaS incumbents are about to be displaced or disrupted? What about the changing tech stacks and infrastructures makes them vulnerable to up and comers? Does this not lead to a consolidatory environment? How does Vikas see the space play out in the coming years when it comes to acquisitions? What have been the dramatic changes that have happened in sales over the last few years? What is the right way for startup founders to address sales rep onboarding? Why is it so crucial to invest in enablement in the early days? How should this enablement be structured? How does this change sales rep payback periods? What is a good payback period?  How does Vikas feel about discounting? If accepted, what must the startup ask for in return? How does Vikas think about multi-year deals? When are they good? What sort of terms make them less beneficial for the vendor?  How does Vikas think about professional services? What is a good margin for professional services? What ratio of revenue is healthy for professional services to account for? When should one look to hire their first customer success reps? What should they look for in those reps?  Vikas’ 60 Second SaaStr: What does Vikas know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? What is his secret to building diverse teams? The sales leader Vikas most respects and admirers and why? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Front's Mathilde Collin on Why Discipline Is More Important Than Vision, The Right Way To Approach Investor Updates and Director Reports & How To Effectively Structure 1-1s

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2019 33:06


Mathilde Collin is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Front, reinventing the email inbox with new workflows and efficient collaboration so people can accomplish more together. To date, Mathilde has raised over $79m in VC funding with Front from some of the best in the business including Bryan Schreier @ Sequoia, Initialized, Uncork Capital, Boldstart and individuals including Andrew Chen, Elad Gil, Ray Tonsing the list goes on. With 4,500+ customers, and 100+ employees, in Paris, San Francisco and Amsterdam, Front is one of the fastest growing companies in SaaS and Mathilde has become a thought leader for the next generation of SaaS CEOs, read more on her blog here.  In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Mathilde made her way from product manager in Paris to founding one of the hottest and fastest growing companies in the world of SaaS in the form of Front? 2.) What does Mathilde mean when she says, "I would choose discipline over vision any day of the week"? What does discipline really mean to Mathilde? Why is it a priority in the early days? How can a VC stress test and determine the level of discipline a founder has in first meetings? What are the signs or leading indicators? 3.) Communications: Investor Updates: What is Mathilde's biggest advice to founders when it comes to investor updates? What should they contain? How often should they go out? How should founders ask for help in updates? Where do founders often make mistakes? Revenue Updates: Why does Mathilde do revenue updates with the team? Is there a danger of being too transparent? What are the benefits of this transparency? What is the structure of the update? Who is privy to it? Direct Reports: How does Mathilde communicate with her direct reports? Why does Mathilde believe that CEOs should have their calendar public? What is the right cadence for these direct reports? 4.) How does Mathilde approach and think about fundraises with Front today? How can founders know when is the right time to raise? How does Mathilde think about building relationships with investors when she is not raising? How transparent should founders be when they are not raising? What are Mathilde tips for always overshooting her numbers? How does Mathilde conduct DD on potential investors in the company? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Mathilde’s Fave Book: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Mathilde on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Task Force 7 Cyber Security Radio
Ep. 81: Hear How An Expert Investor Analyzes Security Investments

Task Force 7 Cyber Security Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2019 58:36


The Founder and Managing Partner of Boldstart, Ed Sim joins Task Force 7 Radio to talk about how he applies a First Check for Enterprise Technology Entrepreneurs, how he identifies pain in a new startup, and what's hot in the Cyber Security VC market. Sim also gives him opinion on if emerging technologies being built with security in mind, what are the basic cyber security threats and concepts that companies should be worried about, and if smaller companies are at a disadvantage relative to bigger companies in terms of rolling out mature cyber security products and services. And the big question everyone in the VC market is talking about: Is the Cyber Security Industry in a bubble? All this and much, much more on Episode #81 of Task Force 7 Radio!

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Superhuman's Rahul Vohra on How To Measure Product Market Fit, How To Construct A Process To Increase It & How To Implement A Strong Feedback and Reporting Cycle To Sustain It

The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 22, 2019 41:30


Rahul Vohra is the Founder and CEO @ Superhuman, the fastest email experience in the world. Fun fact, users get through their inbox twice as fast — and many see Inbox Zero for the first time in years! To date, they have raised funds from our friends at Boldstart, First Round, John Collison, Sam Altman, Wayne Chang, Mike Ghaffery and Yes VC just to name a few. Previously, Rahul founded Rapportive, the first Gmail plugin to scale to millions of users. Rapportive was ultimately acquired by LinkedIn. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Rahul make his way into the world of startups with the founding of Rapportive and how did that transition to changing the world of email with Superhuman? 2.) What does Rahul mean when he says, "you can reverse engineer a process to get to product market fit"? What does Rahul believe is the defining metric which determines your "product market fit score"? What is Julie Supan's framework? How did Dropbox and Airbnb use it to increase their product market fit? How can founders implement it into their process? 3.) What can founders do to expand the customer base to include users that currently are "somewhat disappointed"? What are the right questions to ask? What do we do with this feedback? How do we further segment the user base? Why should we "disregard the users whereby the primary benefit of the product does not resonate"?  4.) How does Rahul approach product roadmap and prioritisation? How can founders ensure that continuous tracking and user feedback is engrained within the organisation? What tools does Rahul do to monitor and capture this? What are some of Rahul's biggest lessons from going through this painstaking process stage by stage?  5.) Finally on fundraising, what does Rahul mean when he says, "always be raising but never be actively raising"? What are the benefits of this? How can founders transition catch up coffee into fundraising subtly? How does Rahul feel about party rounds? What are the pros? What are the downsides? How does Rahul advise founders here? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Rahul’s Fave Book: The Art of Game Design As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Rahul on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
SaaStr 205: The Secret To Building A Truly Successful Freemium Product | The 3 Classes of Product & How To Think About Feature Prioritisation | A Framework For Building Strong Cross-Functional Communication Across Locations with Guy Podjarny, Founder

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 17, 2018 37:53


Guy Podjarny is the Founder & CEO @ Snyk, the developer-first solution that automates finding and fixing vulnerabilities in your dependencies. To date, Guy has raised over $32m in VC funding from Snyk from some of the great of venture including Accel, GV, our friends at Boldstart and Canaan Partners, just to name a few. As for Guy, prior to Snyk, he was the CTO of Akamai’s Web Performance Business following their acquisition of his startup, Blaze.io. Before founding Blaze, Guy built Web Application Security products, including the first Web App Firewall (AppShield), Dynamic Application Security Testing tool (AppScan) and Static Application Security Testing tool (AppScan Dev Edition). Fun fact on Guy, he is the holder of 18 patents related to security and performance. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Guy made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found one of the hottest open source companies of our day in the form of Snyk? How does Guy navigate between the difficult balance of going wide on market and shallow on product or narrow in market and deep in product? What is the decision-making process? What does Guy advise founders on feature prioritisation in the early days? Does Guy agree if you are not embarrassed by V1, you have shipped too late? How does support provide a feedback loop on what to build next?   Why does Guy believe that, “successful freemium requires giving away your secret sauce”? How can one give away enough secret sauce in freemium without giving away too much people don’t buy? How does freemium fundamentally alter your relationship to revenue? Where does Guy see many going wrong when pursuing the freemium model?   How does Guy think about the problem of agency with developers using the product but having to sell to CIOs? What 2 things can be done to make this sell easier? What does Guy believe is the right framework to think about pricing through? Why is transparency in enterprise pricing not always optimal? What does Guy believe is required to have strong and seamless communication across functions and locations? How has Guy seen this change over time and with increased locations? Where does Guy see many going wrong when trying to scale team across location?    Guy’s 60 Second SaaStr: How does Guy know when is the right time to hire your first sales person? How did Guy learn to let go and trust his team? What does Guy know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:  Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings  SaaStr Guy Podjarny

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
SaaStr 193: When Does ABM Make Sense and How To Execute The Strategy Effectively, Why Marketing Must Be Held Accountable To A Number Tied Directly To Revenue and What Makes The Truly Special CMOs with Joe Chernov, CMO @ Robin Powered

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2018 32:29


Joe Chernov is the Chief Marketing Officer at Robin, the startup that simplifies scheduling, visibility and management of meeting rooms, desks and people in your workplace. To date, Robin have raised over £9m in funding from some of our dear friends in the form of BoldStart, Accomplice and FirstMark, just to name a few. As for Joe, prior to Robin he was the CMO @ Insight Squared where he led the transition from an email-driven leads model to an account-based marketing model that's tightly coupled with sales. Before InsightSquared, Joe was Head of Content Marketing at Hubspot where he increased blog traffic by more than 1M visits/month and increased leads by 40%. Finally, pre-Hubspot, Joe held VP of Marketing roles at Kinvey and Eloqua. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Joe made his way into the world of startups and SaaS marketing many years ago? What was Joe’s missed founding story and how does that affect his thinking today? Does Joe believe that ABM is a paradigm shift in the way we approach marketing or another word for high ACV target sales? How can founders determine whether they have the right business, pricing and hiring strategy that will align with an ABM strategy? Is it the right decision to focus squarely on ABM? How should it play into your overall marketing portfolio? Why does Joe believe we have seen a massive rise in SaaS conferences? How can a startup determine whether the conference strategy is the right strategy for them? Where does Joe see many startups going wrong when selecting this approach? Why does Joe believe you have to get comfortable with losing money in conferences? What are the determinants or leading indicators of a successful conference? What is the ideal composition in terms of attendance? Why does Joe believe that marketing should be held accountable to a number that is directly tied to revenue? Why does Joe believe that Head of Sales and Head of Marketing should not be separate functions? What is it that leads Joe’s thinking when saying, sales and marketing are overlapping functions?   What are the commonalities of the truly special CMOs? When is the right time to really consider adding the CMO to your exec team? What is the ideal relationship between the CMO and the CEO? What is the one question that will largely determine the strength of a potential CMO? Joe’s 60 Second SaaStr: What does Joe know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? Who does Joe believe is killing it in SaaS today and why? Advice Joe often hears in the world of SaaS that he actively disagrees with? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Joe Chernov

Venture Confidential
Ep. #14, Building Community with Boldstart’s Ed Sim

Venture Confidential

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2018 47:01


In the latest Venture Confidential, Peter is joined by Boldstart's Ed Sim to discuss community-building between founders and investors, and more. The post Ep. #14, Building Community with Boldstart’s Ed Sim appeared first on Heavybit.

Venture Confidential
Ep. #14, Building Community with Boldstart's Ed Sim

Venture Confidential

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2018 47:01


In the latest Venture Confidential, Peter is joined by Boldstart's Ed Sim to discuss community-building between founders and investors, and more.

E12: BoldStart Founder Ed Sim on 20yrs seeding 50+ enterprise co’s, how his father’s fleeing N. Korea shaped his VC, NYC deep tech, & being 1st dollar in to help move founder-product fit to product-market fit to self-sustainabilit

"Angel" hosted by Jason Calacanis - Audio

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 17, 2017 58:38


BoldStart Founder Ed Sim on 20yrs seeding 50+ enterprise co’s, how his father’s fleeing N. Korea shaped his VC, NYC deep tech, & being 1st dollar in to help move founder-product fit to product-market fit to self-sustainability.

E12: BoldStart Founder Ed Sim on 20yrs seeding 50+ enterprise co’s, how his father’s fleeing N. Korea shaped his VC, NYC deep tech, & being 1st dollar in to help move founder-product fit to product-market fit to self-sustainability.

"Angel" hosted by Jason Calacanis - Video

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 17, 2017 58:38


BoldStart Founder Ed Sim on 20yrs seeding 50+ enterprise co’s, how his father’s fleeing N. Korea shaped his VC, NYC deep tech, & being 1st dollar in to help move founder-product fit to product-market fit to self-sustainability.

Venture Studio
Ep 43 - Ed Sim - Boldstart Ventures (2 of 2)

Venture Studio

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2017 24:37


This week is part 2 of our interview with Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart Ventures, an enterprise seed fund which focuses on infrastructure and SaaS startups. Part 1 is here: https://soundcloud.com/venture-studio/ep-42-ed-sim-boldstart-ventures-1-of-2 All of our shows are available on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, TuneIn and Google Play. Make sure to subscribe on iTunes and follow us on twitter @venturestudio. ======= Boldstart.vc Twitter: twitter.com/edsim Newsletter: digest.beyondvc.com From Beyondvc.com: ENTERPRISE TECH IN 2017 http://www.beyondvc.com/2016/12/boldstart-in-2016-enterprise-tech-in-2017.html Episode 24 with Eliot Durbin: https://soundcloud.com/venture-studio/Ep-24-eliot-durbin-boldstart-ventures Episode 32 with Jonathan Lehr of Work-Bench: https://soundcloud.com/venture-studio/ep-32-jon-lehr-work-bench

Venture Studio
Ep 42 - Ed Sim - Boldstart Ventures (1 of 2)

Venture Studio

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 7, 2017 31:17


This week's guest is Ed Sim, founder of Boldstart Ventures, an enterprise seed fund which focuses on infrastructure and SaaS startups. All of our shows are available on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, TuneIn and Google Play. Make sure to subscribe on iTunes and follow us on twitter @venturestudio. ======= Boldstart.vc Twitter: https://twitter.com/edsim Blog: Beyondvc.com Newsletter: digest.beyondvc.com Episode 24 with Eliot Durbin: https://soundcloud.com/venture-studio/ep-24-eliot-durbin-boldstart-ventures

Venture Studio
Ep 24 - Eliot Durbin - Boldstart Ventures

Venture Studio

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2016 38:11


This week, Eliot Durbin, General Partner at Boldstart Ventures, joins the show. Miss an episode, such as the Dave's classic interview with SoftTech's founder Jeff Clavier that Elliot referenced during this week's show? Check out our entire archive at venturestudio.org or on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher or TuneIn. Remember to subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode and follow us on twitter @venturestudio to stay up to date. In today's episode, Eliot talks about Boldstart's investment themes for this year - Googlization of IT, SaaS 2.0 and Smart Data. In addition, Eliot and Dave also discuss the rise of shadow IT at large enterprises, the market potential in B2B on-demand, and how to tell the difference between a pretty big problem and really big problem.