Podcasts about Comcast Ventures

Andrew Cleland, Chief Investment Officer at Techstars, shares how the world's leading accelerator invests in early-stage startups. He breaks down what makes a great founder, how Techstars selects startups from tens of thousands of applicants, and why a strong technical differentiator is crucial. Andrew reveals the most common reasons startups get rejected and how Techstars mentors founders to avoid early mistakes. He also talks about the biggest themes shaping the future of venture capital.In this episode, you'll learn:[03:00] How Andrew's background in consulting, startups, and venture capital led him to Techstars [07:34] How Techstars selects startups from thousands of applications—what matters most[14:01] The #1 mistake founders make when applying to Techstars, and how to avoid[20:50] Why founders need to build investor relationships early when thinking about fundraising[26:04] Why the VC industry needs more transparency—and how that benefits foundersThe non-profit organization Andrew is passionate about: Magic BusAbout Andrew ClelandAndrew Cleland is the Chief Investment Officer at Techstars, where he oversees investment strategy, fundraising, and portfolio growth across Techstars' global network of accelerators. With over two decades in venture capital and early-stage investing, he previously led investments at Comcast Ventures and Time Warner Investments. An INSEAD MBA graduate, Andrew has backed dozens of high-growth startups and is focused on empowering the next generation of global founders.About TechstarsTechstars is one of the world's leading startup accelerators, backing thousands of early-stage companies across 50+ accelerator programs worldwide. Since 2006, Techstars has helped launch 20+ unicorns, including SendGrid, DigitalOcean, Uber, Twilio, DataRobot and Outreach. The program provides mentorship, funding, and global networks to help startups scale fast.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode.

This week's episode of What's at Stake delves into the creation and consumption of media amid the rapid advancement of AI. Sally Shin, venture partner at Comcast Ventures, joins Penta hosts Ylan Mui and Andrea Christianson, to discuss the impact of this convergence on journalism and our daily lives.Their conversation covered:Guardrails to protect intellectual property and the accuracy of AI-generated contentPartnerships between publishers and AI companiesOpportunities to leverage AI within news organizationsThe revolution that voice technologies and no-code tools could bring to content creation

Teddy Himler brings over 15 years of global experience at leading institutions, including Goldman Sachs, SoftBank, Comcast Ventures, and Antler, to his role at Optimist Ventures.Throughout his career, Teddy has cultivated deep expertise in global technology trends, innovative business models, and firm-building, with a focus on sectors such as artificial intelligence, insurance, healthcare, and industrial automation.At Antler, Teddy served as a partner, where he played a key role in the firm's growth, helping it become the world's most active early-stage venture capital firm by deal count.Prior to Antler, Teddy was instrumental in scaling SoftBank's operations in both the U.S. and Southeast Asia. In 2018, he launched SoftBank Group International's first New York City office, where he managed assets outside of SoftBank's Vision Fund, including Arm, Sprint, Boston Dynamics, and Brightstar. Earlier, as SoftBank Capital's first West Coast hire, Teddy served as Vice President, spearheading its Southeast Asia strategy from Jakarta while collaborating with partners like Alibaba.From 2018 to 2021, Teddy was a Principal at Comcast Ventures in New York, where he focused on investments in consumer internet, robotics, fintech (including insurtech and crypto), and other emerging technologies as part of Comcast's corporate venture capital platform.Teddy began his career at Goldman Sachs as an investment banking analyst in the Technology, Media & Telecom group in San Francisco. He holds a B.A. in Government and Economics from Harvard University.Over the years, Teddy has backed five unicorns at the seed or Series A stages and has been a deal team leader or member in numerous landmark investments, including Kabbage, Fitbit, Dialpad, BigCommerce, Grab, Tokopedia, Cheddar, Acorns, Hippo, Blockdaemon, Madison Reed, Blockchange, ABL Space, KeyMe, Arm, Boston Dynamics, SoftBank Robotics, Sprint, Cybereason, Zola, SoFi, Airspan, OneWeb, Kindbody, Berkshire Grey, Lemonade, Brightstar, Airalo, Earlytrade, Folio, Ora Health, Endless Health, and Inshur.Teddy's career reflects a track record of identifying transformative technologies and building global ventures, making him a key figure in the venture capital ecosystem.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teddy-himler-84674719/

In the world of entrepreneurship, few stories are as inspiring as that of Ran Shaul, a serial entrepreneur who embodies the resilience, adaptability, and foresight required to build and scale companies on a global level. Ran also offers insights into raising $380M for K Health from top-tier investors like Valor Equity Partners, 14W, Mangrove Capital Partners, GGV Capital, and Comcast Ventures.

Welcome, thirsty listener, to Episode 8 of the Business of Drinks podcast. Today's show is called “Drinks M&A”, with guest Andrew Merinoff, the founder of DisPact Ventures, and co-founder of Chinola Passion Fruit Liqueur. Tune in as Merinoff  identifies current drinks trends and shares some of the most effective ways to roll out, develop and market a brand. He also reveals where in the US are the best places to grow a company, especially those with an eye on future mergers and acquisitions, and how investors evaluate a company. This episode is packed full of value-add insights. Let's go! Show concept:   This season, we're following a canned cocktail line called Hamlet Hound, from launch to growth.   We've found that people (and brands) don't like to talk about how they become profitable, so we're pulling the band-aid off and delving into actual dollars and cents.   You'll get an inside look at what works, and what doesn't.   Want to know how to build a successful alcohol brand? Tune in as we investigate!   About Andrew Merinoff, guest: Andrew Merinoff has spent his career as a growth strategist and brand developer. Merinoff's extensive experience spans multiple sectors and industries, most notably in F&B, Wine & Spirits, Hospitality, Investing, and Marketing. His company DisPact Ventures began in 2015. It started off as a small fund to assist his close friends and confidants, it eventually grew into a 16 venture portfolio. DisPact's co-investors include giants such as AMEX, Amazon Ventures, MGM Grand, Comcast Ventures, and many others. Merinoff has made several notable investments such as in Chinola Passion Fruit Liqueur (a company which he co-founded),  a rum called Coconut Cartel in Guatemala, a distillery in Copenhagen run by two Ex-Noma founders, a brand development distillery and innovation lab in Long Island, as well as an RTD, called The Long Drink, and many more.    Learn more about Andrew Merinoff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-merinoff-95ab7959/ https://www.dispactventures.com/about-us https://chinola.com/ https://www.instagram.com/chinola/ About Erica Duecy, host: Erica Duecy is co-founder of Business of Drinks, a podcast and content consultancy, and one of the drinks industry's most accomplished digital and content strategists. She has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies. She also has led digital editorial teams at Architectural Digest and Saveur magazines. Her content, podcast, and video programs have won more than 40 digital and editorial awards. She is a WSET Advanced-certified wine and spirits communicator, and author of the cocktail book Storied Sips (Random House), about the real-life stories behind the world's most famous cocktails.    To learn more about Erica Duecy:   https://www.instagram.com/ericaduecy/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-duecy-4a35844/ https://twitter.com/ericaduecy   About Felicity Carter, host: Felicity Carter is a well-known journalist and editor based in Europe. She is co-founder of Business of Drinks, the Editorial Director of ARENI Global in London, International Editor of Star Wine List in Sweden, and a contributing editor to The New Wine Review. Formerly, she was founding Executive Editor for The Drop, and Editor-in-Chief of Meininger's Wine Business International, a trade magazine she built into a global must-read, with subscribers in 38 countries. She has consulted to the Dutch government and to Liv-ex, and been the keynote speaker at the wine industry's biggest conferences and events, from New York and Sydney to Hong Kong.    To learn more about Felicity Carter:   https://twitter.com/felicitycarter

(0:00) Intro.(1:12) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.(2:00) Start of interview.(3:10) Amy's "origin story." (6:23) Her time leading Comcast Ventures, and how Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) has evolved.(9:08) Why SF/Silicon Valley as a tech hub for Comcast Ventures.(11:19) Her first public company board experience (with Adobe).(13:15) Differences on serving on public and private (venture-backed) boards. "Much more hands-on in private companies."(15:27) Differences between young and old public companies. Her experience on the board of On Running. "[M]y one advice to future board members or existing board members is to learn how to listen. And you're listening for different things, again, depending on the stage of the company."(19:42) On "adversarial boards." (24:10) On OpenAI's board fiasco. Trust in CEOs and boardrooms. Private companies and founder misbehavior. "You never fire fast enough." "You know when things are off."(32:35) On the current AI investment cycle.(36:16) On the state of San Francisco as a city and tech hub.(39:35) On women sports, and her involvement with Bay FC, a pro women's soccer team based in SF/Bay Area.(43:09) Her thoughts on the debate and politicization of ESG and DEI.(46:41)  Books that have greatly influenced her life: The Innovator's Dilemma by Clay Christensen (1997)These Truths by Jill Lepore (2018)21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Harari (2018)(47:52) Her mentors: Ralph J. Roberts (founder of Comcast). (49:02) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by: "Old men ought to be explorers" (T.S. Eliot) and "A house divided against itself cannot stand." (Abraham Lincoln)(50:20) An unusual habit or absurd thing that she loves.(51:07) The living person she most admires: Liz Cheney and Taylor Swift.Amy Banse is a Venture Partner at Mosaic General Partnership, a VC firm based in SF Bay Area. Amy has over 30 years of experience starting, investing in, and building businesses at Comcast and as a board member on numerous public and private companies, including Adobe, Clorox, On Running and Lennar Corporation.  You can follow Evan on social media at:Twitter: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__You can join as a Patron of the Boardroom Governance Podcast at:Patreon: patreon.com/BoardroomGovernancePod__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

Dave Zilberman is a General Partner at Norwest Venture Partners. Norwest Venture Partners manages more than $12.5 billion in capital. They have invested in over 600 early-to-late-stage companies, with more than 200 currently active. Dave primarily focuses on early to late-stage investments in enterprise and infrastructure—some of his portfolios include Slack, DocuSign, Amagi Corporation, and more. Before joining Norwest, Dave was the Managing Director of Comcast Ventures.   You can learn more about:  1. How to identify and invest in the next generation of Slack and DocuSign  2. Investing career advice from corporate venture arm to traditional VC fund 3. How do you construct an excellent portfolio to produce good results and stay competitive? ===================== YouTube: @GraceGongCEO Newsletter: @SmartVenture LinkedIn: @GraceGong TikTok: @GraceGongCEO IG: @GraceGongCEO Twitter: @GraceGongGG =====================   Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are going to have conversations with some of the top investors, superstar founders, as well as well-known tech executives in silicon valley. We will have a coffee chat with them to learn their ways of thinking and actionable tips on how to build or invest in a successful company.

Building partnerships and investing strategically can be key in the growth of a business. However, for big corporations, and small start-ups, creating and managing a variety of partnerships can be challenging. Today's guest created his company to help ease that process.On this episode we're sitting down with David Horowitz, founder and CEO of Touchdown Ventures. Touchdown partners with leading corporations to manage their venture capital funds, and currently they partner with Kellogg T-Mobile, Amerisource Bergen, Olympus, and Erie Insurance, Masco and Colorcon just to name a few. Prior to starting touchdown, David was founding partner and managing director at Comcast Ventures for nearly 15 years. There he focused on investments in digital media, advertising, technology, digital home education, and financial technology. David also helped start and was partner at Gencast Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Ventures.Prior to Comcast, David worked in investment banking at Bear Stearns. He started South Jersey Tech Collective and networking group of entrepreneurs and investors in South Jersey, and David is also the inventor of the board game 'Frequent Flyer', which we'll talk about later in the program. Highlights: David's previous work, and introduction to Touchdown Ventures (3:10) Market change and transitioning into corporate venture capital (4:33) Benefits of corporate venture capital investing (6:08) Common mistakes corporations make with investments (7:19) Pros and cons of venture capital partnerships (9:11) Industries investing in corporate venture capital (11:12) What makes a company an ideal partner for Touchdown Ventures (12:53) How Touchdown Ventures' model works, and success examples (14:03) Effects of the current market on investing and venture capital business (15:35) The company's future goals and trajectory (17:45) David's board game 'Frequent Flyer' (18:42) Links:ICR TwitterICR LinkedInICR WebsiteDavid Horowitz on LinkedInTouchdown Ventures on LinkedInTouchdown Ventures WebsiteDavid's 'Frequent Flyer' board gameFeedback:If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, marion@lowerstreet.co.

Discover how investors are rethinking traditional strategies and structures to build new onramps to funding. Featuring Allison Goldberg, SVP & Managing Partner at Comcast Ventures; Shila Nieves Burney, Founding and Managing Partner at Zane Venture Fund; and Jenny Fielding, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at The Fund; with Rogue Women's Fund Managing Partner, Caroline Lewis.

In this week's Immigration Law for Tech Startups podcast, I'm joined by Jed Kodner, a talent partner for both DFJ Growth Venture Capital and Threshold Ventures, advising portfolio companies on identifying, attracting, and retaining world-class talent. Named on Business Insider's list of the 25 must-know recruiters at top VC firms, Jen is highly experienced in talent acquisition at companies including Andreessen Horowitz, Comcast Ventures, Box, and Adobe. People are your biggest asset. Without talent, your business is not going to be successful. Listen in as Jen talks about the importance of being intentional with achieving a higher-level talent acquisition with an early focus on diversity. She shares some keys to attracting, identifying, retaining, and motivating brilliant people in your team, as well as some best practices for hiring in different countries and geographies. Please share this episode with companies, HR and recruiting professionals, startup founders, international talent, or anyone who can benefit from it. Sign up for the Alcorn monthly newsletter to receive the latest immigration news and issues. Reach out to us if we can help you determine the best immigration options for yourself, your company, your employees or prospective employees, or your family whether in the U.S. or abroad. In this episode, you'll hear about: How companies can have an early focus on diversity Changes in pay transparency The current state of the talent landscape Why lean into people you want to keep Hiring people who need immigration sponsorship How to prevent yourself from getting fired from your job as a founder Don't miss my upcoming conversations with top Silicon Valley venture capitalists, startup founders, professors, futurists, and thought leaders on Immigration Law for Tech Startups. Subscribe to this podcast here or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or whatever your favorite platform is. As always, we welcome your rating and review of this podcast. We appreciate your feedback! Resources: https://dfjgrowth.com/  https://threshold.vc/  Alcorn Immigration Law: Subscribe to the monthly Alcorn newsletter   Immigration Law for Tech Startups podcast:   Episode 16: E-2 Visa for Founders and Employees Episode 044: 7 of the Most Startup-Friendly Visas Explained Episode 72: Special Visas for Talent from Specific Countries   Immigration Options for Talent, Investors, and Founders Immigration Law for Tech Startups eBook Extraordinary Ability Bootcamp course for best practices for securing the O-1A visa, EB-1A green card, or the EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) green card—the top options for startup founders. Use promotion code ILTS for 20% off the enrollment fee  

Three Tier is hosted by Jacob Gluck and Taylor Foxman.---ANDREW MERINOFF is the Founder of  DisPact Ventures.A seasoned industry leader and advisor, Andrew Merinoff has spent his career building and refining his skills as a growth strategist and brand development expert. Merinoff's extensive experience spans multiple sectors and industries, most notably in F&B, Wine & Spirits, Hospitality, Investing, and Marketing.Merinoff founded DisPact Ventures in 2015 with the goal of disrupting industries with impact investing. What started off as a small fund to assist his close friends and confidants eventually grew into a 16 venture portfolio. Currently, the portfolio companies have operations in 12 countries with visibility in over 60. The most recent success stems from SevenRooms which raised $50M in April 2020 at a $250M pre-money valuation. DisPact maintains ownership of the company whose co-investors are AMEX, Amazon Ventures, MGM Grand, Comcast Ventures, and many others.Most recently, Merinoff worked to develop intuitive spirit branding for premium spirits importer Proximo Spirits, where his focus centered around creating added value and brand development for the company's current portfolio.Along with brand development, Merinoff was also responsible for developing a complete greenfield product, from creating the liquid to building the overall business, visitor experience, four separate restaurants and bars, and a distillery in Manhattan.Merinoff's passion for building companies, particularly in the Wine & Spirits space, has led him to invest in disruptive spirits brands ranging from the world's first-ever shelf-stable fresh fruit liqueur, called Chinola Passion Fruit Liqueur (which he co-founded), a rum called Coconut Cartel in Guatemala, a distillery in Copenhagen run by two Ex-Noma founders, a brand development distillery and innovation lab in Long Island, as well as an RTD, called The Long Drink, which is on track to reach $40M in their third year and currently holds some of the largest stocks of premium Japanese whiskey and Sochu in the world (launching in 2021).Investment firms ASM Ventures LLC and Tequity: Capitol and Communications were founded when Merinoff was in college. He began using his skills as an industry disruptor and innovator to develop market strategies and advise on business plans, networking, key needs, priorities, and efficiencies. He co-founded these companies and collectively raised over $25M in funding and exited several companies to various entities including Fortune 500's before graduating and moving back into the food and beverage industry.

Teddy is a Venture Capital Partner, running a fund at Antler that focuses on what he calls emerging tech ecosystems. He previously was at SoftBank, Comcast Ventures, and Goldman Sachs. Key Highlights: [00:01 - 14:16] The Impact of Venture Capital on the US Economy VC is responsible for 40% of the workforce and contributes over 80% of R&D spending in the USHow emerging economies are closer to becoming developed economies through venture capitalThe role of private markets in addressing the shortening of the life of public companies [14:17 - 39:11] Geographic Arbitrage: Valuations in Emerging Markets Teddy shares his insights on success in venture capital and finding GPsThe regional advantage and how it can be translated into a dominant market positionHow the US economy is the strongest in the world and has the most robust capital markets [39:12 - 40:28] Closing Segment Email Teddy Himler via teddy@antler.co and follow him on Twitter. Key Quote:“I think success in venture capital comes from really seeing everything and longevity… You should be looking for those GPs who have the benefit of history, whether as an operator or an investor in this specific region, you should look for GPs who are well connected.” - Teddy Himler Connect with Teddy Himler:Twitter: https://twitter.com/teddyhimler Email: teddy@antler.co Resources MentionedThe Power Law by Sebastian MallabyShoe Dog by Phil KnightConnect with me on LinkedIn!LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, AND LEAVE US A REVIEW on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you listen on. Thank you for tuning in and Stay Tuned for the Next Episode COMING SOON!

Amy Errett is the founder and CEO of the fast-scaling Madison Reed hair color company and a partner of True Ventures. Featured in Forbes 50 over 50 last year, Amy has raised almost $200 million for Madison Reed, now on track to hit the $1bn revenue mark. Today we dig deep into what it takes for women founders to raise venture capital, why it's vital to trust your own gut instinct in business with a mix of “resilience and gratitude”, and her own journey scaling Madison Reed, as well as Olivia, Spectrem, and E*TRADE and investing in startups. Download Podopolo to get the video of this podcast, live streamed from Napa at Feast it Forward during the BottleRock music festival. Follow Wings of Inspired Business on Podopolo to keep the conversation going in the episode comments section and invite your friends to connect around podcasts recommended to you by what interests and inspires you.

Amy Errett is the founder and CEO of the fast-scaling Madison Reed hair color company and a partner of True Ventures. Featured in Forbes 50 over 50 last year, Amy has raised almost $200 million for Madison Reed, now on track to hit the $1bn revenue mark. Today we dig deep into what it takes for women founders to raise venture capital, why it's vital to trust your own gut instinct in business with a mix of “resilience and gratitude”, and her own journey scaling Madison Reed, as well as Olivia, Spectrem, and E*TRADE and investing in startups. Download Podopolo here to get the video of this podcast, livestreamed from Napa at Feast it Forward during the BottleRock music festival, and keep the conversation going in the Wings comments section and invite your friends to connect around podcasts recommended to you by what interests and inspires you.

Few early-stage companies combine as many distinct components as Tovala. Based in Chicago, the company pairs a smart oven with a meal subscription service. It truly makes foolproof food. Weekly meals are delivered fresh to the your door. Scan the barcode & you're done. Home-cooked meals that cook themselves. And clearly Tovala is onto something big.  They're venture investors include: Comcast Ventures, Finistere Ventures, Left Lane Capital, New Stack Ventures, Origin Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, RiverPark Ventures, Service Provider Capital, Y Combinator Mike Mason is Tovala's Talent Acquisition Manager, which puts him in the crucial role of scaling this hypergrowth organization. I just had the change to speak with Mike about how he puts a Rockstar in every seat. (And how you can do the same.) Yum.  

This week Chris talks to Allison Page, Founder & CPO of Seven Rooms.Allison Page is Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of SevenRooms, a data-driven operations, marketing and guest engagement platform that empowers hospitality operators to maximize revenue, build brand loyalty and enable personalized experiences. SevenRooms is venture-backed by Amazon, Comcast Ventures and Providence Strategic Growth, and has been named to Inc.'s annual list of Best Workplaces for 2020. The company's clients range from neighborhood restaurants to international, multi-concept hospitality groups including MGM Resorts, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Bloomin' Brands, Topgolf, Jumeirah Group, Wolfgang Puck and Live Nation. Since inception in 2011, Ms. Page has been responsible for driving product innovation, defining the company's product roadmap, vision and strategic positioning, and scaling the platform to over 250 cities worldwide. She holds more than a decade of experience as an entrepreneur in the hospitality industry; launching, building and commercializing high-growth technology platforms across global restaurant, hotel and entertainment brands. She brings knowledge in the areas of technology, guest experience, guest engagement, CRM, marketing, loyalty, data analytics and consumer trends. Prior to founding SevenRooms, Allison started her career in investment banking at Credit Suisse. She holds a bachelor's degree in Finance & Real Estate from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and was named one of Hospitality Technology's 2019 Top Women in Restaurant Technology. She currently sits on the boards of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at Cornell University.During the chat we discuss:Allison's career and her path to founding seven rooms?Tech in the hospitality industry? Are we getting the most out of what is on offer?How operators create a smoother guest experience across establishments by making use of the latest technology.How brands leverage guest data to create personalised experiences that improve guest satisfaction and customer service.How operators level up their marketing strategy to both on and off-premises Tune in each week to the Tech on Toast podcast.

Sports and games are a huge part of our lifestyle and culture and will continue to be for generations to come. But how can investors and creators encourage growth and take advantage of this unique market?Investor, founder, and entrepreneur Kai Bond had spent over a decade in the gaming industry when he realized he wanted to approach gaming as an investable category. So he partnered with the startup Courtside VC, a venture capital firm that challenges the traditional definition of sports, digital media, fitness, and gaming.In this episode, Eddie Lopez and Kai talk about Kai's entrepreneurial journey, how to approach gaming as an investable category, Kai's take on web3, the future of gaming, diversity in the venture community and more.Topics Include: - Understanding what it means to be a good CEO- Challenge of coming from the corporate world to the startup world- The state of venture capital in Q1 2022- The importance of transparency and discipline in VC- What Courtside learned during 2020- Evolution of monetizing assets in gaming - Kai's take on Web 3.0- The future of gaming - Why timing matters in the venture market  - How to increase diversity in venture capital - And other topics…Kai Bond is a partner at Courtside, a VC company that partners with early-stage founders who are challenging the traditional definition of sports, digital media, fitness, and gaming. Before Courtside, Kai was a Principal at Comcast Ventures where he led investments in Catalyst Fund, a seed-stage fund focused on investing in underrepresented founders.  Kai was the founder of pixieTV, an interactive SmartTV platform that was acquired by Samsung in 2014. After that, Kai moved into the role of GM at Samsung NEXT. Kai has held leadership positions in product strategy, business development, and M&A at Microsoft, GLG, and Hatch Labs. Kai is a graduate of Wesleyan University.

Welcome to the GrowthCap podcast where we chat with CEOs, investors and other key industry leaders to uncover insights and strategies for accelerating growth and succeeding in business. I am your host RJ Lumba. In this episode we chat with Greg Marsh, the CEO and Founder of KeyMe, which has disrupted the locksmith industry becoming the nation's most trusted 24-hour emergency locksmith.  The company also has a network of self-service key duplication kiosks located in thousands of retail locations across the country.   Greg shares his insights into the evolution of KeyMe, his entrepreneurial journey and the massive potential that lies ahead for the company.    KeyMe is growing rapidly and has raised over $150M from top-tier investors including Battery Ventures, BlackRock, Brentwood, Comcast Ventures and others. We hope you enjoy the show.

On today's episode of Radically Pragmatic, PPI's Mosaic Economic Project brought together a panel of women to discuss the intersection of access to private capital formation for new and small businesses owned by women and particularly minority women; how the response to the pandemic (government stimulus intervention including PPP) has impacted entrepreneurs and what policies looking forward can and will make a difference in accessing private capital for women entrepreneurs. Joining Jasmine Stoughton, Project Manager of the Mosaic Economic Project is Emily Egan, a graduate of Mosaic's Women Changing Policy Working and Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Tulane University; Kim Armor, Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director at Comcast Ventures; and Emily Waldorf, Senior Vice President of Strategic Development at Comcast. Learn more about the Mosaic Economic Project here: https://www.progressivepolicy.org/project/the-mosaic-project/ Learn more about the Progressive Policy Institute here: https://www.progressivepolicy.org/

Al: Three-time startup builder including Picmonic (Acquired), Medumo (Acquired), and now Safebase. Two-time Y Combinator graduate and Harvard Business School alumni Past VC at Comcast Ventures and Investment Banking at Mooreland Partners Poker enthusiast SafeBase: "The Interactive Security Portal" - SafeBase is a security resume for your organization to share key cybersecurity certifications and capabilities with customers in a streamlined fashion.

We discussed a number of things including:1. How the Corporate Venture Capital sector has weathered the pandemic2. The outlook in CVC sector in short and medium term3. Advice for entrepreneurs and innovators in these disruptive times4. His experience relating to the invention and launch of a new board game5. Answers to your questionsDavid is the Founder and CEO of Touchdown Ventures. Touchdown partners with leading corporations to manage their venture capital funds. Current Touchdown partners include Kellogg, T-Mobile, ScottsMiracleGro, TEGNA, Allegion, Avery Dennison, Colorcon, among many others. Prior to starting Touchdown Ventures, David was a founding partner and Managing Director at Comcast Ventures for nearly 15 years.David joined Comcast Ventures in 2000 as one of the first employees of the venture capital group. David also helped start and was a partner at Genacast Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Ventures. Prior to Comcast Ventures, David worked in investment banking at Bear Stearns. David also started South Jersey Tech Collective, a networking group of entrepreneurs and investors in South Jersey. David graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration with highest honors from the University of Michigan.David is also the inventor and publisher of Frequent Flyer, a new family board game which is available at www.frequentflyergame.com.

Food. Activity. Sleep. If you're not doing all 3 properly, you're far less likely to scale your business successfully. In fact, we're getting less sleep than ever. And, with today's understandable stressors, the quality of our sleep has suffered. But I tracked down a Venture-backed CEO who sleeps like a baby. Nine hours a night. He's Matteo Franceschetti, Co-Founder & CEO of Eight Sleep Based in NY, Eight Sleep developed a proprietary technology called the Pod that enhances sleep performance, and is currently used by pro athletes and top performers across multiple industries to fall asleep faster and get more restful sleep. The end goal of the Pod is to compress sleep and scan your body while asleep to monitor your health. It's the “Peloton of Sleep” Eight Sleep was named one of Fast Company's “Most Innovative Companies” in 2018, recognized as one of TIME's “Best Inventions” in 2019. Matteo & team are backed by some of top VC's around: Azure Capital Partners, Comcast Ventures, Craft Ventures, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, 8VC, Jason Calacanis, Sway Ventures In this 20-minute episode, Matteo reveals how he's putting a Rockstar in every seat of Eight Sleep. (It's sure to keep you awake.)

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with David Rabie of Tovala.com, an AI powered oven and meal kit subscription business. In this episode, David talks about raising capital for a hardware startup, going through Y Combinator, doing an Angellist Syndicate, what has changed between the Series A and Series C rounds, the Chicago startup scene, and much more. The Company most recently raised a $30M Series C funding round led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from previous investors Finistere Ventures, Comcast Ventures, OurCrowd, Origin Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and Joe Mansueto. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at https://www.foundersuite.com/

Joel Montaniel is the CEO and Co-Founder of SevenRooms, a fully-integrated, data-driven guest experience platform for hospitality operators. SevenRooms is venture-backed by Amazon, Comcast Ventures and Providence Strategic Growth and has been named on Inc.‘s Best Workplaces and Forbes' Best Startup Employers lists. The company's clients range from independent restaurants to global enterprises including MGM Resorts, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Topgolf and Live Nation.  Joel's experience is wide and varied from investment banking - dealing with Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) - to global AI-powered messaging technology. 

Treating 300,000 patients per month, NURX has rapidly become the leading Telehealth platform with a female focus. CEO Varsha Rao has led NURX to deliver remote treatment of specific conditions: Contraception, treatment for Acne & Migraine, testing for HPV & STI. To do it, she’s scaled of doctors who evaluate each patient & pharmacists who prescribe appropriate medication. Investors seem to like it too. NURX has partnered with Wittington Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Fifty Years, Trustbridge Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Alumni Ventures Group, Lowercase Capital, Y Combinator Varsha says she spends 50% of her time on the people part of NURX. Prior to Nurx, Varsha served as COO of Clover Health where she brought operational leadership to the health insurance startup. Plus she served as Airbnb’s Head of Global Operations, managing the company’s market expansion & host growth globally. She was also Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Eve.com, the online cosmetics company. In this 20-minute conversation, Varsha reveals how she designed the organization & puts a Rockstar in each seat.

In this episode of The Pulse Podcast, Vivien interviews Andrew Parker, CEO and Co-Founder of Papa, an on-demand assistance service to help people and their family members stay independent while living securely and happily at home. Andrew has a passion for healthcare, technology and people. Prior to founding Papa, Andrew ran Health Systems Sales and Strategy for MDLive.com, a large tele-health provider, where he was one of the first 15 employees. In 2017, Andrew founded Papa with the goal of supporting older adults and their families throughout the aging process. Today, Papa has grown to over 220 employees and over 15,000 Pals on the platform working across the nation, in all 50 states. Papa has raised $18M in Series B Funding in late 2020 from Comcast Ventures, Canaan Ventures, Initialized Capital, AirAngels Syndicate and more.

On this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we listen to Frank Gruber’s interview with Lo Toney at the Startup of the Year Summit in the fall of 2020. Lo is the founding managing partner at Plexo Capital, which is an institutional investment firm he incubated and spun out from Google Ventures. Plexo Capital invests in emerging seed-stage VCs led by diverse teams and invests directly into companies sourced from the portfolios of VCs where Plexo Capital has an investment. Prior to founding Plexo Capital, Lo was a Partner on the investing team at Google Ventures where he focused on marketplaces, mobile and consumer products. Before Google Ventures, Lo was a Partner with Comcast Ventures where he led the Catalyst Fund and worked with the main fund where he focused on mobile messaging and marketplaces. Lo also worked with Zynga as the GM of Zynga Poker with full P+L responsibility for Zynga’s largest franchise at that time. He has also held executive roles with Nike, eBay, as well as startups funded by top tier investors. On another note, we have a very exciting SXSW event planned on March 15 - 20. Our programming will also include a segment for Government Funding Opportunities for Startups and a Venture Capital Reverse Pitch, where investors will actually pitch their funds to startups...which everyone is really excited about. If you are interested in learning more or getting involved visit: www.est.us/sxsw21. We also invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country. It is also that time of year again when the Startup of the Year 2021 Application is open. So if you are a startup looking for exposure and to become part of an amazing community make sure to apply at https://www.startupofyear.com/application. We also want to congratulate Kamana Health (Established Venture Portfolio & 2019 Top 100) for announcing that they've been acquired by Triage. Kamana is a software platform connecting healthcare providers and staffing agencies with traveling nurses and other medical professionals. Learn more at the following: https://www.kamanahealth.com/an-open-letter-to-our-customers/. Lastly, check us out on the Clubhouse App, where we are planning a bunch of new rooms and sessions coming out regularly and we will also have some rooms during our SXSW festivities. Follow our Club - Startup Community Club. Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com/ Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: http://startupoftheyear.libsyn.com/ Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

Miguel Armaza interviews Kathleen Utecht, Managing Partner at Core Innovation Capital, a venture capital firm, with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco, investing in high-growth financial technology companies that can unlock upward mobility for everyday Americans. Kat holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Babson College and an MBA from The Wharton School. We talked about: - Kat’s journey, from family upbringing, schooling, all the way to how she ended up in VC - Why she continues to be excited about Fintech, even after investing in the sector for over a decade - What’s changed in the industry over the past few years - Core’s investment and valuation approach and how they work with portfolio companies to prepare them from seed, to series A, and beyond - Her vision for Core’s future - And a lot more! Kat Utecht Kat Utecht is co-managing partner of Core Innovation Capital, an early stage venture capital fund making mercenary returns through missionary investments in financial services and insurance technology. Portfolio companies include HealthSherpa, Bestow, Ripple and Synapse. Prior to investing with Core and at Comcast Ventures, Kat was CEO of Green Rock Entertainment, a commerce company acquired by private equity in 2009. Kat began her career in financial services, both as an investment banker and a graduate of General Electric Capital's Financial Management Program. Kat has an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BS from Babson College. About Core Innovation Capital Core Innovation Capital is an an early stage venture capital fund making mercenary returns through missionary investments in financial services and insurance technology. Core invests across three themes: 1. Modernizing financial and insurance infrastructure, 2. Expanding access to better financial services and insurance, and 3. Creating wealth through fintech adjacencies that help increase a household or SMB GDP. We optimize our portfolio by focusing on high conviction, early-stage investments with the flexibility to participate in unique opportunities across the venture lifecycle. Our main value add is our contacts - regulatory (e.g. state insurance regulators, CFPB), people flow (internal database for hiring), commercial contracts (e.g. insurers / reinsurers; lenders / debt capital, SaaS customers) - and to bounce ideas off of since we are so focused. Investments include Ripple, NerdWallet, and Oportun, among many others. For more information, visit www.corevc.com.

Founded in 2011 and venture-backed by Amazon and Comcast Ventures, SevenRooms has dining, hotel F&B, nightlife, sporting, and entertainment clients in more than 250 cities worldwide. From neighborhood restaurants to international, multi-concept hospitality groups, SevenRooms is a hospitality platform that helps operators unlock guest data's full revenue potential. By combining operations, marketing, and guest engagement into one front-of-house solution, the platform allows operators to maximize profits, build brand loyalty, and enable personalized guest experiences. Joel Montaniel, CEO & Co-Founder of SevenRooms, returns to the Tech Talks Daily Podcast for a catchup on how their data-driven hospitality platform combines operations, marketing, and guest engagement tools. The last time we spoke, we talked about the tech that's transforming the hospitality industry. It has been a challenging year, and I wanted to learn more about what we can expect in a new hospitality era in a post-COVID world. How will technology help meet guests evolving expectations? And what role will SevenRooms play in that future? These are just a few topics we cover.

Mike Gaston is the President of Stage TEN Studios, and a creative and social provocateur known for "programming between the lines". We discuss launching a profitable poetry press and soon after declaring personal banktuptcy, selling his first music video to MTV, founding viral digital studio Cut.com, and how he'll shape the future of livestream media. Subscribe to our newsletter. We explore the intersection of media, technology, and commerce: sign-up linkLearn more about our market research and executive advisory: RockWater websiteFollow The Come Up on Twitter: @TCUpodEmail us: tcupod@wearerockwater.com--EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Chris Erwin:Hi, I'm Chris Erwin. Welcome to The Come Up, a podcast that interviews entrepreneurs and leaders. Mike Gaston:This is going to sound insane. And I'm going to share this, but my thought was, is it possible to rob a bank and not go to jail? I'm like 19. Now when I'm thinking this way. And then I thought, yeah, I'll just take out a bunch of money on credit cards and then claim bankruptcy. And so like I took on all these credit cards and then I've just started traveling the world in a way that was just absurd. Chris Erwin:This week's episode features Mike Gaston, the President of Stage Ten Studios. Mike is a creative savant, who's known for programming between the lines. He had breakout success when he founded a viral digital studio, cut.com whose first video was about Grandmas Smoking Weed. You see, Mike is the ultimate provocateur, and he's been conducting social experiments since an early age. Like when just 20 years old, Mike launched a profitable poetry mag while apprenticing for an Irish poet. And then intentionally went into personal bankruptcy. Or when he created a music video for a friend's band, just for fun and ended up selling it to MTV. In Mike's current role at Stage Ten, he'll shape the future of live stream media. He talks about his recent work as well as some of his creative side projects at the end of our chat. All right, let's get into it. Mike, thank you for being on The Come Up podcast. So let's talk about where you grew up. What was your household like? What was your parental situation? Tell me. Mike Gaston:I grew up in West Seattle and my mom is an immigrant. She's from the Philippines. She didn't become a citizen until two years after I was born. And my whole family actually immigrated from the Philippines. So all my aunts, my uncles, my grandparents, my cousins, they're all here. And so had that very large Filipino side of the family around me. And then my dad, he's a white dude and he had a very small family that the only people I really got to know were my grandparents and then his brother and my cousin. But we weren't terribly close to them. And so the family was interesting. I had a bunch of essentially under five foot tall Filipinos about. So culturally, everything that I perceive was very much from a Filipino-American experience and not from the experience that my dad had. There wasn't a very strong kind of like a family philosophy or perspective from their side. But from my mom's side, my Filipino side, it was very strong. It pretty much informs everything that I think about today. Chris Erwin:When you mentioned that there was these the strong Filipino identity and cultural values, what were some of those that you remember growing up. Mike Gaston:Family is primary. It's also a very... It's a matriarchal culture. It's funny to say that because you look at authoritarians like Duterte, who actually is leading the country right now. And you're like, Oh, that seems very macho. And that's true. But it's really the women that do things like handle the finances. Chris Erwin:Interesting. Mike Gaston:And are really leading the family. And it's very common to never move out of the house, to live there forever and then your parents die and then you just take over the home. And so it's a very tight knit family structure, that's one. And then the second thing, which kind of I experienced growing up and then moved out of was this sort of mystical form of Catholicism. In Filipino culture, I felt like my grandmother practiced a magical form of Catholicism where it was like, everything was steeped in sort of miracles and possibility, right? I mean, this is a country where they crucify people, literally crucify people as part of holiday rituals in certain parts of the country. And so it's this sort of magical realism idea when it comes to religion. And that informed a lot of my early childhood. Chris Erwin:And when you say it informed a lot of your early childhood, because I'm also thinking to where you are today, which we'll get into, this like visionary in the media space and a point of view of the responsibility of creators. But what seeds was that planting in you at an early age? Mike Gaston:Honestly story. So I was fascinated by the stories that my grandparents would tell me and my mother would tell me. It was interesting because my dad converted to Catholicism as part of his wooing of my courtship of my mother. And he was never, I would call him a believer. I kind of think most Catholics are, it's very much like a more bureaucratic than it is like a belief to him. Whereas the Filipinos and my family is very strong believers in that kind of thing. And I remember as I was growing up, we would go to church every Sunday. And then right after church, we would go to the movies. And at some point, I want to say, when I was around eight or nine, I somehow convinced my parents that we should stop going to church and only go to the movies, which is probably why I make videos now. And I'm not a priest. Mike Gaston:But it's just something, there's some weird connection that was happening there between this religious communal experience that I was having in church. And then the kind that you have in a dark theater, staring at a screen with a bunch of people experiencing different states of emotional catharsis, right? Somehow I attached a more profound meaning to my experience with movies than I did with my experience in the church. Chris Erwin:And as you matured, maybe your sense of, Oh, I have to go to church to have the theater experience. And then you realize, and I think there's some parts of this story that will come out even more later, I don't need the church. I can just go right to the theater. And I think that comes up about you thinking about some of your coursework in school and saying, "Well, some of this coursework is great and some of it is not, I don't need it." Mike Gaston:Yeah. That just general sort of obnoxiousness definitely found its way into my schoolwork too. Chris Erwin:And so thinking also about your character as you kind of grew up and as a teenager and going to high school before you went off to college, reading some of your blog posts, you described yourself as a scared of everything extrovert. Tell me a little bit more about that. Mike Gaston:I've pretty much always been comfortable in social situations. I don't mind meeting new people, although it does have a tendency to impact me energy-wise. But any new scenario that I was in would instantly hit me with a kind of anxiety. There's just sort of a discomfort that comes with suddenly being presented into a new situation. Anytime I had to meet new people, initially, I would be kind of really timid about it. I was sort of in a corner, kind of a bit of a wallflower until I got acclimated to the temperature of the room. And then suddenly I was in the center in some way. And maybe it was certain aspects of my family life or in the early days we moved a bit around. There was so much attention from my mother's side of the family that I felt always like there's a spotlight on me. Mike Gaston:And so that made me kind of shrink into myself. So I would be freaked out a lot about different scenarios that I would be put into. But at the same time, once I got again, acclimated to the temperature, it wouldn't be tough for me to perform suddenly. But yeah, initially I would be freaked out by a lot of things, pretty often actually. Chris Erwin:Did you feel that people sought your attention or sought to interact with you? Because I look at you now and people seek you out for, they want to hear your point of view. They want to hear you speak, at conferences, at summits and for you to attend their events, but you don't always immediately engage. And so curious, going back, did you feel that social groups were like, "Hey, this is an interesting guy. We want to interact with him." Or did that attention not exist? Mike Gaston:So this is strange given it feels like a backdoor brag, but it's not intentional. I was friends growing up, I could be friends with literally anybody, with all the different kids. But I was popular among the popular kids, but I wasn't necessarily a popular kid because I didn't behave like a popular kid. I didn't behave in a way where I was seeing differentiation between me and other kids. So I was friends with a lot of kids. And then for some reason I would end up popular among the popular kids. I think maybe it's, I just knew from very early age, I would ask myself what I wanted. And then I would only just do the things that I wanted. And I think that that creates a gravity that people are attracted to because I think a lot of people don't ask themselves what they want or are uncertain about going after the things that they want. And so it's attractive when you see it in other people. Chris Erwin:So what did you want back then? Like in your teenage years. Mike Gaston:I wanted you to know why, why we did any of the things that we had to do. So I want to say when I was about 12, I became friends with this kid named Jorge Morales he was a really smart dude. The things that he would read was far beyond what everybody else was reading. He was a multi instrument kind of like musician. And he was unpretentious about all the things that he was really interested in, but he seemed so brilliant. And he was the one who introduced me to philosophical thinking in different types of philosophies. And so as a result of that, I instantly became, over the course of that year of seventh grade, I would say, I became really introspective, really reflective. And then what happens as a result of that is I was just suddenly in a question state where I was just trying to understand what are the things that I wanted? Mike Gaston:And I was trying to understand the why's behind the decisions that people were making, especially when you're a child, right? When you're a child, you're subject to what other people want of you, right. You have very little agency over the things that you want. Chris Erwin:Yes. Mike Gaston:And when you become a teenager is when most of that conflict starts to kind of arise. And it's because you're starting to feel your own agency, it's in a conflict with your parents' and their expectations. Well, that happened way earlier for me, that happened before high school. And that's largely because I was asking those questions all the time of what do I want, why do I need to do any of these things? And that became a lot more a macro sort of philosophical point of view for me going on. Before that, before I had discovered philosophy is more tactical, things would come to me and then I would just question it. I had a natural sort of questioning sort of personality. And again, I think there's a thing that happens with kids where you're told so often, your life is so prescribed to you that you're kind of go on a track. You do the things and you don't even know why you're doing any of the things. You're just doing it because that's the expectation. And I was never like that. I was always asking questions my whole life. Chris Erwin:This manifests in a story about your coursework in high school, you rejected one of your courses, tell me about that. Mike Gaston:Yeah. This was actually happened in seventh grade. This is actually before high school. But as I was asking those questions, I started thinking about... My mother again is Filipino and there's that cliché, the Asian tiger mom is not a cliche. That's just real to me. So she was very aggressive with my education, well, before I even got into kindergarten. So I was reading at three and I was writing full on essays before I got into kindergarten. And so by the time I was in kindergarten, everything was slow. Everything was crazy slow to me. Because for her, she was always trying to get me ahead. She wanted me to go to the best high schools, go to the best college, have the best job. And I remember around some of, when I was starting to have like a larger sense of myself and a larger sense of applying this questioning sort of personality but to my entire life. Mike Gaston:I started asking why I had to do any of these things, why do I have to get A's in all these classes? And so then I just started reshaping my world with experiments. And so I was like, "Okay, well, what if I just got A's in everything except this class that I don't really like." And that class was a religion class. Because I was going to private school. And I was like, I've been studying religion for eight years now. I'm in seventh grade. I had gone to Sunday school before I was even in kindergarten. This all feels really repetitive to me. How about this? I'm just going to do the tests. I got a D in that class. I do great on the test. And then I would just not do any work. Chris Erwin:How did that feel to get a D because you probably had excelled in school? Mike Gaston:Satisfying. Chris Erwin:Satisfying, okay. Mike Gaston:It felt liberating to get a D. Chris Erwin:Which probably frustrated your parents who were like, "Oh, you should be disappointed." And they're seeing you elated. Mike Gaston:Oh, yeah. My mom was very unhappy because she was like, "This is easy. Why are you going to getting a D?" This is the class that everyone gets an A in, why are you getting a D in this class? And I was like, "Well, if everyone gets an A and it's clear that I can get A's, why do I need to do that for this class? Well, what is the purpose of this?" And then she would say things like, "You're jeopardizing your chance again to a good high school." And I was like, "Well, then what happens after that?" If I get into a good high school, then it's about a good college and it's about a good job and then I die. I was literally, I would just go to the end of everything. What is the end effect of literally everything that is to that moment. Mike Gaston:And then I was like, "This doesn't seem like a track I want to be on." And my dad, again, because he was more transactional about his relationship with religion. I remember driving with him in the car and he was like, "Yeah. So you got a D." And I go, "Yeah." He's like... He just turned to me, he's like, "Whatever." He's like, "It's not a big deal." And I'm like, "Exactly." It was this moment where I was like, "It isn't a big deal." And so it became a thing where I had started to seek out moments of failure because I wanted to experience it. I wanted to experience what it was like to not meet my own expectations or meet my parents or meet anybody else's. But the way I started to approach it was different. In that instance, it was me not doing things that I knew I had to do in order to achieve something. Mike Gaston:And what it became was I started to seek out failure by doing things that were much harder and it felt impossible. And it was like, well, I'm just going to do this thing and then try and then get comfortable with that feeling. Chris Erwin:Yeah. It feels like you're a provocateur where there's the societal and cultural foundations. And you're like, if I poke at this crack, does that destabilize anything? And if so, does it actually change my life in a meaningful way or not, or change the end state in a meaningful way. And I think it's a very fast way to learn to provoke. Mike Gaston:It absolutely is. It was one of those things where I was just trying to find the boundaries to, everyone has a shape to their life. And it's one that they construct for themselves because we're all kind of editing our lives on our own. And I was like, what is the boundaries to this thing? What could it actually look like? What if I just started doing these things and stopped doing these things, or I start doing these things and stop doing these. Do any of these things matter? We invest meaning in so many, of the things that we're doing. And I was kind of in a constant state of questioning that. And just asking why. Chris Erwin:From there, there is a traditional path that does take place in the beginning of your career. You go to the University of Washington, and then from there, you end up at Boeing, a big company. So I'm curious to hear, just touching on University of Washington. What were the intentions there? Mike Gaston:Actually, out of high school, I didn't want to go to college at all. My plan was to go on a walkabout, but my mom was so disappointed with the idea that she had invested so much of her personal identity into my future success as an academic that I had to go to college, that I actually went to Seattle University for a year. And while I was at Seattle University, my grandfather, my white grandfather, my dad's father, he was in the midst of dying from diabetes and they had no help. So after school and before school, I would go to his house and I would help him. I would help my grandmother, I would help take him to the bathroom. I would help shower him, wipe his ass. He was literally... He couldn't walk, he couldn't... He was blind, had no feeling in the left side of his body. Mike Gaston:And he was literally falling apart. And I was the most depressed I'd ever been just like sort of a witnessing this and being a part of it. And I told him one day, I was like, "I got to leave, man. I can't be... I'm not happy in school. Because I don't want to be in school right now. And I can't do this." And he's like, "Yes, you need to leave." And I was like, "I'm just going to leave." So then I just started leaving the country and then I left the country for awhile and I didn't return for a couple of years. And then when I finally returned, that's when I went to UDaB. Chris Erwin:So when you were leaving the country, were you enrolled in any academic programs or no? Mike Gaston:No. I just left. So I would travel around Europe and I would meet up with friends in Mexico, in different countries. And then I found a mentor and apprenticed with him in Ireland, lived on his farm on the Southwest Peninsula and just study poetry. So I actually met him when I did a study abroad in Ireland. It was like a two week study abroad program. And he was a professor on that program and he was an Irish poet who had been born in Boston. So he had like dual citizenship. And then he would occasionally go and teach at Wesleyan University. And when I was traveling around, I ended up on his doorstep and I was like, "Hey, is it cool if I hang out here for a bit?" And then a bit turned into well over a year. Chris Erwin:So you lived on the farm? Mike Gaston:I lived on the farm and I was so broke. I would have to fish for food every day on the beach. And he was broke as hell too. Because he was... I mean, he's a poet. There's this thing about John? His name was John O'Leary. He was so broke. I remember when creditors would call him and they would demand he pay for bills. One of the last times I was there, he goes, his response to them was, "Now here's the thing. I'm going to tell you what I tell every creditor, I have a fishbowl and in the fishbowl are all my bills. Every month I put them in there. And then once a month I dip my hand into the fishbowl, I twirled it around and I pull out a bill and that is the bill that I pay for. Now, if you keep calling me, I'm going to put you out of the game." And then he just would hang up on them. He was a total character. He was a total character. Mike Gaston:He was such a wonderful weirdo. He looked a little bit like Walt Whitman's corpse on acid, incredibly skinny with crazy wild hair and that kind of thing. And and he was brilliant. He was the type of guy you could start reading from The Unabridged Shakespeare. And then he could just pick up without looking at it. Chris Erwin:It must have been, despite living in near poverty, having to fish for food every day, a very special experience, because I believe that you try to start your own poetry, newsletter or business, knowing you having experience of how difficult the business model is. And you did end up in bankruptcy, but you did it anyway. Because you're like this felt right. Mike Gaston:I don't know what happened like it. Part of my leaving the country a lot, initially when I was leaving the country a lot, I would do it in that sort of romantic nomadic kind of way that everyone who reads Jack Kerouac on the road kind of does where they go out and they're like, "Okay, I'm going to sleep with homeless people in the Gare de Lyon, and I'm going to eat nothing, but like baguettes because it's cheap and really cheap wine or whatever. And I'm going to try like hop on trades and then get off before anyone tries to get me to buy anything." And that gets real old, real fast. After the first many months of doing that, I kind of cracked, so this is getting to the bankruptcy, but what happened was I had a thought to myself and this is going to sound insane. Mike Gaston:And that I'm going to share this, but my thought was, is it possible to rob a bank and not go to jail? So this is, I'm like 19 now when I'm thinking this way. And then I thought, yeah, I'll just take out a bunch of money on credit cards and then claim bankruptcy. And so what I did, that's literally what I did. I took... Chris Erwin:Legal robbing, yes. Mike Gaston:That was legal robbing. And it was one of those things where I was just like, why not? And so I took out all these credit cards and then I just started traveling the world in a way that was just absurd. I didn't have luggage with me. I just had a Jansport backpack. And then if I needed clothes, I would buy it. I would stay at really nice hotels instead of the hostels that I was sort of surviving in. And then when people asked what I did, I would say things like, have you ever seen Doogie Howser? And they go, "Yeah." And I'm like, "I'm not saying the show is about me." And then I would just let it hang. And then I got to a point where I was broke and that's when I was living with the poet. And I was like, now I have to survive by fishing for food. And I had a little bit left over towards the end of my journey there with John. Mike Gaston:I was like, "I'm going to start a poetry press." And that's what I did. And I started this poetry press. And at first, it actually made money. It actually made money. And it's because I would find people like John who actually had a really great following and sell the books at these readings and I would set up tours. And I actually created kind of an independent bookstore distribution. Chris Erwin:Is this in the United States or is this in Europe? Mike Gaston:Both. Where I would do things in the United States and Europe. Chris Erwin:Wow. Mike Gaston:So the books would be in Shakespeare and Company in Paris and they would be in City Lights bookstores in San Francisco. And I would get it in all these places. Chris Erwin:How old were you? Mike Gaston:I was 20. It was kind of crazy because the more I would do things, the more people would buy into it. And so it came to a point where I had professors in all these different institutions hitting me up to publish their work because I was publishing really legit poetry by people that I had met in Europe and different things. And so suddenly they were like, "Well, this guy he's publishing stuff." And so it was very easy for me to find people whose work was actually meaningful within these circles. And I'm 20 and I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I'm just sort of doing it. And then I started going a little bit too crazy and started publishing people who literally didn't have any audience, but I just really appreciated their work. I want to say the first two books were profitable. The next two books broke even, last four books, it was negative dollars in a big way. And that's when I claimed bankruptcy. Chris Erwin:Thinking back to your earlier childhood stories where you wanted to poke the foundation and see what happens when things fail, did you are pushing this business, like how hard can I push this? Mike Gaston:Definitely moments where I was like, "Where are the boundaries again in this scenario? Can I continue to publish books and make money here?" So there was some of that, but largely the desire was I just really respected those writers. And I wanted to see that work get created. Even if I knew that the likelihood of making money was low. Chris Erwin:Another parallel from your early years is rejecting the certain institutions or coursework, but then going to university and then you start to go in different paths and try different things out and travel and go live on a farm and write poetry and start a poetry business. And then you go to Boeing, more like a traditional path again. So how did you end up there? Mike Gaston:Okay. So I claimed bankruptcy and then I decided to go to University of Washington and finish up school. It was one of those instances where I no longer felt like I had to go to school. It was this choice I was making and it was okay. As long as it was a choice I was making. And once I graduated from there, I got into grad school. I was going to go study Shakespeare at St. Andrews in Scotland. My wife now, who was my girlfriend then, got into Cambridge to get her Master's in Philosophy and History. And I was dead broke. I mean, I had claimed bankruptcy a few years before then. I had been paying my way through college. I had taken on two jobs at one point. I would go to UPS very early in the morning, take classes, then work at a sub shop late at night to pay for everything. Mike Gaston:And so I was totally broke and she goes, "One of us should probably have a job." Right. And I go, "Well, you got into the better school. You go to Cambridge and then I'll go get a job." And I applied to Boeing as a joke. Both my parents were working at Boeing at the time. And I had told myself my entire life, I would never work there. But they were hiring. And so I showed up and I was the only one, I remember that it was like this mass sort of they were doing tons of interviews and it's because for years, Boeing had been doing layoffs. And so there's this giant gap between where they had a bunch of people who are about to retire and they had no middle career people because they had laid them all off. And so then they were trying to like backfill with a bunch of young people. And I was the only one who kind of didn't want a job there. And the only one not dressed like they were applying to be on the apprentice. And then I got hired. Chris Erwin:It's like office space, like the less interested you are, the more appealing of a candidate you become. Mike Gaston:So one thing I'll say, here's a little bit of a story when I was offered the job, I was so stunned that they offered me the job because I'm an English major, right. And at the time, I have been told over and over again was that business people get business degrees. And so I didn't think this was going to be a thing. And I remember they called me and they go, "We'd like to hire you for this position. This is their HR department." It was like $42,500 a year to start or something. And this was back in 2004, I think. And that's a lot of money to a person who's been broke, literally his entire life. And so, but my instinct in that moment was to push it and kind of fuck with it. And I go, "Well, that's great. I really appreciate the offer. But I'll be honest with you. When I took the interview, I had a different number in mind." Mike Gaston:I'm literally making all this up off the top of my head because I was just stunned they even called me and they're like, "What are you thinking?" I was like, "Well, I was thinking more like 50,000." And then they came back at like 45 or something like that. And I was like, "Okay." And then I took the job, but it was one of those things where I was just sort of making it up as I went along. And then when I met with my boss for the first time I asked him, I was like, "Why did you hire me?" And he goes, "Your poetry press." I was like, "Really? You mean the thing that utterly failed?" And he goes, "Yeah, absolutely." And I go, "Why?" Mike Gaston:And he goes, "You actually understand something about business that the majority of your colleagues who are new here don't because you actually ran a business where you actually had to create contracts, negotiate that with artists. And also with universities, you had to create a distribution system for your books. You had to literally create tours for your authors. You created a budget for yourself." It was one of those things where it was a... And I was like, "Dang, you're right." I actually did learn a lot just doing that. Chris Erwin:You're at Boeing, but then fast forward, because I want to start setting up the story about you founding Cut and your entertainment drift. You do pull the rip cord at Boeing in a pretty interesting way, that includes pushing the quote unquote red button. Tell us about quitting day and pushing the red button. Mike Gaston:So I was at Boeing for a few years and it became a thing where I was just generally unhappy. There was enough novel problems at Boeing that I'd be interested for awhile. But what made me unhappy was that, this leads to me quitting was that I remember my boss came to me one day and he goes, "Mike, we're having some serious problems with this specific type of part that I was responsible for." Right? I was responsible for a contract that was worth millions of dollars. And there was a specific part that was constantly getting damaged in the factory. And that was impacting everything. And I was like, "Well, let me go investigate that." And I didn't know what I was doing. So my instinct was to then go and essentially create, what I learned later was a lean initiative where I would bring in all these different people who were a part of this whole flow, this process flow in the factory and to understand what was happening. Mike Gaston:And during that, we discovered that where the damage was occurring, why it was happening and how to fix it. And then we created a proposal for fixing it. I got promoted. I was saving the company lots of money. Fantastic. Three months later, my boss came to me and he's like, "Mike, we have this problem that's happening in the factory." And I was like, "Oh, really weird. So let me go investigate." I went investigated it. And I told him, I go, "Glenn, I literally solved this several months ago." Oh you did? I'm like, "Yeah, dude, you promoted me." And I go, "Here's the proposal." He's like, "Oh, fantastic. This is great." And then he left, I would continue to do different work. And then several months later he came to me. He was like, "Mike, we're having this thing. That's happening in the factory." Mike Gaston:I was like, "What is going..." And then when I research, I go, "Glenn, several times now I've solved this. This happened probably four times. And I've felt like I was going insane." Finally, my counterpart on the vendor side of it and I were talking and he had originally been at Boeing and now he was working at this supplier and he's been in this industry for like 30 years. And he goes, "Mike, Mike, Mike, here's the thing, buddy. This is a problem within this airplane since it's been created. And it's over a decade now that they've had this problem. And the thing that you came up with is exactly the solution that a handful of us came up with almost a decade ago." I'm like, "Why am I still solving it?" And he was like, "It's the machine. This is like the inertia of a large machine, like a company like this, where people are changing." Mike Gaston:There's a lot of heuristic stuff in a company like this. And it's very easy for things to kind of fall through and for stuff to get ignored and he was like what happens is, "Every now and then there'll be a new young guy like you who comes in, who discovers the problem, will fix the problem. And then it doesn't get fixed or it'll be fixed for a little period of time, then it'll get broken again." And that was so insane to me that I had been spending a good, over a year now solving the same problem over and over again and it not being fixed. That was like, I have to get out of here. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Mike Gaston:I have to. I feel like I'm in a time loop and I need to leave, but I felt bad. I felt bad because my whole life I've been told that I'm like a quixotic temperamental creative. And that part of me getting a job at Boeing was also sort of like a proof point to Jenny, who's my wife's now family that I wasn't just a crazy romantic artist. I could hold down an actual job that people have. And so I was like, is there a way to get fired? That would be interesting. So I actually tried to get fired, but I made rules for myself for getting fired. I was like one, I have to continue to do my work and I have to do it well, that's one. But two, I can't do anything that would be obvious to get fired. I'm not going to do drugs at work, I'm not going to bring a gun to work. I'm not suddenly going to become like abusive towards people and those types of things. Is it possible to get fired just through non-sequitors? Mike Gaston:Just by being strange. So I would do things, I remember again, the vast majority of the workers at the time were these older white men. And I would do this because I would enter into the restroom. I would apply lipstick on my lips just to see how they would respond. I would busk in the hallways, like with a guitar, I would stand on my desk and rock out to Andrew W.K. Don't Stop Living In The Red. Now, mind you, I'm doing my work at the time. I'm still doing it and I'm doing it well. I'm just being strange. I would do things like I would go to different offices and sit in conference rooms and wait. And then people would show up and then I would run the meeting without telling anyone who I was. Mike Gaston:So I'd be like, "Okay, let's begin the meeting." And I would go, "Let's go around the room. Everyone tell me who you are, how long you've been at Boeing, what your position is." And then I'd point to people. And then they would tell me, and then I'd write notes and I had to assign action items and then I had to leave and I never see them again. Chris Erwin:It seems that you wanted immediate reaction. Because everything you had done in your prior life that you talked about was you do something and there's an immediate result. Mike Gaston:Yeah. Chris Erwin:You hire writers that are not popular. And then you start bankrupting the company, right. You reject coursework, you get a reaction from your mother. So at Boeing is you solve this problem. You're expecting them to be like, "Okay, great recognition." But more of, okay, things are now going to change. That's not happening. So you're like, okay, at this culture, you have to find ways to actually provoke and get reaction. So did you get the reaction that you wanted? Mike Gaston:No, the thing is there would be no reaction. I would do these things and I would get weird stares or things like that. But mostly people were afraid of me or it felt like that. It felt like there was a weird intimidation. And I think part of it is that when you're working in a company like Boeing also, there's a lot of rules. There's rules for literally everything. There's a million rules in they're called PROS, PROS. And there is a PRO for literally every decision that you have to make. And it became a thing where I would say I wanted to get something done and someone would say a PRO about why it couldn't be done. And I became so frustrated by that because I wanted to see things get fixed and changed and I want to see things improve that I just started making a PROS. Mike Gaston:So I would say something in a meeting, I'm like, "This is something that we have to do." And then someone goes, "Well, according to PRO5236, we can't do that for these reasons. I'm like, "Well, actually PRO2348 supersedes PRO5236 because it says that we have to do that. And the thing is no one reads the PROS, man. So I could say these things and then people will be like, "Oh, I guess we have to do it." And then I would get shit done. And it was one of those things where I was like, I have to kind of work outside the system to get things done. The way I quit ultimately was where I was like, "Gosh, I seem to keep doing well at my job and I'm not happy here. I'm just going to leave." Mike Gaston:And at Boeing, their internal intranet and it's called... I think it's called toll access. I can't remember. But there was a big red button on the intranet and it was a self terminate button where you press that button, you were self terminating. And I wrote one day I just press the button. And then I instantly got a call and it was from HR and they go, "Is this Michael Gaston?" Yes, this is. Okay. Well this is Boeing's HR. And we noticed that, did you press the self terminate button? I go, yep. Oh, do you want to self terminate? And I'm like, "That's why I pressed the button." And then they go, "You do realize that once this goes through, it's very hard to turn this around." And I go, "I don't want to turn around. I want to self terminate." Mike Gaston:And then they try to make an argument for why you should stick around. And I just told them that I wasn't interested and this went on for a very long time. And then eventually they got the hand and that's how I fired myself. I literally pressed the eject. Yeah. Right after... So I got married about a year or two years and still working at Boeing. And I was hanging out with a friend of mine who was at my wedding and he used to be in a band called Minus the Bear. And I told him one day I was like, "I got an idea for a music video." And he goes, "Great, but you've never made a music video." And I go, "Well, I'm going to make a music video anyways. And I'm just going to make it. And if you like it, great. And if not, no biggie." Mike Gaston:They were touring at the time. So it didn't matter. And then I went, I created a treatment for it and I hooked up with a friend of mine who was in the New York film industry, but then had moved to Seattle. And then he hooked me up with a really great director of photography. And I brought him over and we made this music video and then I gave it to the band and they all dug it and the label dug it and they showed it to MTV and MTV loved it. And they were like, "Yeah." Chris Erwin:Was the band in the video? Or was it just the- Mike Gaston:No. Chris Erwin:-Music and... Okay. Mike Gaston:Yeah, no, it was for a song called Throwin' Shapes. And it actually starred my wife and one of my good friends and they play these two kind of opposing basketball players who aren't actually playing basketball. They're fake playing basketball on the street. And then they battle. And then the label like, "Yeah, we want to buy this." And so I sold it to them and then it was on MTV. And I was like, why don't I just do this? Why don't I just make videos? Because the first thing I made went on MTV. Chris Erwin:And you had never created any videos prior to this? Mike Gaston:No, I'd love movies. I'd love videos. I grew up in a time where it seemed impossible because equipment is expensive and I didn't go to film school and it felt like outside my reach. But in that instant, I was just like, well, whatever, I'm just going to go make one. And I remember talking to my friend who was in the New York film industry and he would tell me all the things I couldn't do. And I was like, "Well, I'm just going to do them anyways." Right. And then we got it done. And he was like, "How did you do that? How did you..." And I was like, "Well, nothing's really impossible, right? You can pretty much do anything." The hardest thing to do is to decide that you're going to do it. And then you just do it. Chris Erwin:You just fast forward to an end state that you want. And you don't worry about, what are all the different structures or the normal ways for how people would achieve this. You're like, "I'm going to find a way, I'm creative and I'm going to talk to people and I'm going to get it done." And you did. So this starts what I described as you hit the red exit button and you start the entertainment drift. And you're at a few different companies for pretty short stints of time, like one to three years, CBS, Rogue Scholar, Stripes39 and then SFST. And I think some of these companies are related. So during this period tell me... It seems that you're seeking something out or wanting to learn something. What was going on during those years? Mike Gaston:Once I made the decision that I was going to leave Boeing and do videos, the next thing that occurred to me was that I don't know how to do videos, right? I had made a thing and I had sold it, but that... I wasn't suddenly invested with a ton of confidence and about how to do any of these things. And when I was discovering at that moment was actually what my voice was. I'd always wanted to be a writer and tell stories, but I was circling in on the types of stories I wanted to tell and the reasons behind it. But what was still kind of opaque to me was the hows, how to actually get it done. So then my instinct was to just do as many things as possible. I started working for free on a ton of different projects, just to understand how other people ran sets and shoots and then taking jobs at different places. Mike Gaston:It was part of that same kind of instinct. I read every book, I would take jobs, I was taking in inputs to synthesize my own kind of perspective on how I wanted to make anything. Right. Chris Erwin:You always had an output focused mind. So at these companies were you also having an impact? Mike Gaston:To some degree, the thing is part of the reason why I would leave was because I wasn't satisfied necessarily with the impact that I was making. I was having an impact, but it always felt too slow to me in some of these places where... Like CBS, one of the places I worked at was at CBS Radio Seattle, where I worked for a show called the Bob Rivers Show, which was a National talk show. And my job as the video production manager. And there was only so much that you can get done as a video guy at a radio show. And so even though I was having an impact, it wasn't super satisfying. And so then once Bob was moving on from his contract with CBS Radio Seattle, it was clear to me that I had to move on too. And that's when I went and started a nonprofit focused on the digital humanities called Rogue Scholar. Mike Gaston:And I did that and much like my poetry press, that was a no-profit company, made a significantly negative profit. And after doing that for a little over a year, I needed to make money. Again, and I took a job at Stripes39. And this one was interesting because Stripes39 was a startup in internet marketing. And it was the first place that I worked at where suddenly people would listen to me. The CEO would listen to what I was saying. And it was jarring. It was jarring because I had been so used to being kind of like feeling frustrated because I would point out all the things that need to be fixed and how I would fix it. And no one would listen. And finally, there was a guy who I remember telling him, this isn't how I would run a creative side of your company at all. Mike Gaston:And then he was like, "Really?" I go, "Yeah." And then he took me into a room and then spent three hours whiteboarding with me about how I would do it. And then he basically was like, "Go and do that." I was stunned. I was suddenly in an environment where people would listen to me and that changed everything. Number one, it made me a lot more circumspect about the things that I was saying. Suddenly when people are paying attention, you can't get away with the feeling like, "Oh man, I have all these great ideas and no one's listening." Suddenly you have to really examine are these ideas great at all? Because they are listening. Chris Erwin:It's like, crutch to ready yourself for dismissal saying, "Oh, I can say all these big ideas, but no one's going to listen to me. So I'll just... Too bad for them. I'm just going to go on to the next thing and throw out some big ideas." And then all of a sudden they're saying, "No, Mike, this is great. Now do it." And so now this is a new muscle of execution responsibility. And you're getting what you wanted, be careful what you wish for. Mike Gaston:Absolutely, Boeing was formative because I learned a lot about how to create processes in a place and also to work within a large organization. And as much as I was a total brat, when it comes to things I was trying to get away with, I was still doing my job. I was still doing work. And I learned a lot there about project management and about moving things through something really bureaucratic. When I go to Stripes39, it's the exact opposite of Boeing, right? Boeing makes products that last for 40 plus years and that are heavily regulated. So they have nothing but red tape. Then you go to the internet and you're doing internet marketing. And these are for products that lasts for about 30 seconds, right. And then you have to make an entirely new thing. And then you're doing it in a startup where there's literally no process. Mike Gaston:And so one can be paralyzing because of the weight of the amount of buy in that you have to have. And the other one can be paralyzing because all there is, is opportunity with no checks and balances. Chris Erwin:It's chaos. Mike Gaston:And so it's like... It's chaos. And so there was an instance where I was like, "Whoa, people are paying attention." And then what happens is you level up way faster in a world like that because you have to. You suddenly have to be like, "Okay, the things I do have a real impact. So how do I make sure that I'm doing things that have a real impact and not just be the guy who's readying himself for, you said for dismissal, but the guy who knows, well, they're going to hold me to these things." So I actually have to execute on it. Chris Erwin:So you start executing against his vision and what happens? Mike Gaston:So the company ended up turning into a startup studio and they would incubate different business models and then invest in them and Salil, the president of the company early on, knew that he wanted to invest in video. And we got to talking and that's kind of where SFST came out of. He knew that you wanted to invest in video, but we didn't have a business model that we were committed to. So SFST was kind of essentially a creative studio. We were doing for other companies, what we had been doing up to that point for Stripes39, which is create content that would help those companies get to number one on Google. My task at the time was to create viral content for brands like InsuranceQuotes.org and Medical Billing and CodingCertification.net, which is like pushups. If you can make something go viral for a company like that, you can pretty much make it for anything. Chris Erwin:Say if the product or the company wasn't super appealing to you, did you enjoy the challenge of like, "I'm going to make you a really cool video." Mike Gaston:Always. To me, they were just interesting problems to solve. And again, this goes back to this belief that nothing is impossible. So it was fun. It was fun to think of these as exercises. Like, okay, well, how do I get this thing to go viral? How do I make this thing? And then every time we would make something, it would appear on like Gizmodo or some other large site. I feel like I'd won something. Chris Erwin:Yeah. But then it seems that you want to solve more things, but you need more time, more resources and focus to do that, which then seems to be a precursor to the co-founding of Cut.com. Tell me about that transition. Mike Gaston:So Cut was interesting. Because after a year of doing this sort of like creative work for other companies and in that first year we were profitable, but I was not happy. I wasn't happy having to do service work for other companies that I didn't feel really got it. And Salil wasn't happy because he wasn't interested in investing in a production or creative agency. When you're a startup studio, you're investing in products that you're hoping is going to scale to such a degree, that's going to become a billion dollar company. We were at an impasse about what we wanted to make. And I remember having a very specific conversation with him. He was friends with a guy named Matt Inman who created the Oatmeal. And then he created Exploding Kittens and has had massive success in translating his IP into actual products that people want to buy. Mike Gaston:And he would talk about Matt all the time. And I told Salil, I was like, "Listen, you would never invest in Matt, in reality. Matt could never do what he is doing now in your system because you have a very rigid perspective on how things get done." Salil is I think he's a very smart person. I think he's one of the most logical rational people that I met in this industry. And he has like a very specific framework for getting things done that make it difficult for, I think, outliers to exist in his world, which is funny for a guy who essentially creates companies that deal in vitality, right. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Mike Gaston:And I told him, you would never invest in a Matt, and I think that was a dare to him. Because he was like, "Well, what do you want to make?" I was like, "I think if we want to make a company that's focused on media, then it should be about making things that are premium because ultimately what's the point of doing videos, if you don't want them to be premium and actually have an impact on people." The way everyone is doing videos right now, does it make sense to me? And so I told him, I was like, "If you want predictable sources of revenue, don't make videos. Go be a plumber, go buy a bunch of funeral homes because people are always going to die." But for you doing videos, it doesn't make sense to try to eke out money for views through advertising. It's all diminishing returns. Mike Gaston:I'm like, "What you have to do is create content of such supreme intrinsic value to the audience that they end up paying for it or things related to it because it's part of their universe." And he was like, "Okay, go do that." You know, Salil he's a very much a prove it guy. So he was like, "Okay, prove it. I'll give you six months of runway." And at that time I was just like, I doubled down on that. I go, "If I can't make something that's going to go viral, that's going to speak to this editorial vision that I claim to have in a month, I don't need six months. I need a month to do it." Right. And he's like, "Okay." And then within a couple of weeks I made a video called Grandmas Smoking Weed for the first time. And then it seemed like every week after that, me and my co-founders Jason Hakala and Blaine Ludy, we would just keep making formats that would somehow hit the zeitgeists. Mike Gaston:And very quickly after that, we got a lot of interest from a bunch of different companies to invest in us or buy us. And then after that Salil largely trusted my vision for what I wanted to create and then gave me the runway for the rest of the year before I went out to go raise money from Comcast Ventures and Compounder and Sky. Chris Erwin:How did you feel with this success? Was it validating, was it exciting or was it also in a way, could it be interpreted as frustrating where it's like, Oh, maybe I didn't provoke or think bigger and maybe I got to change that. What was going through your head? Mike Gaston:It was validating, I had spent so much time sort of arguing for these things and then as we were doing it, it was like we were proving out exactly what I was saying. And then the attention was validating, but honestly, I wasn't worried about whether or not the vision was big enough. I was more concerned about how were we going to continue to keep executing against it. Right. I had created a model that was completely dependent on the idea that we could always create outliers. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Mike Gaston:And we were doing it and it was just a matter of like, okay, now how do I get to the next level? How do we scale this in some way? Another part of the model was this idea of use the internet as a place to kind of rapidly prototype formats, see if there's an audience and then find ways of leveraging that in some way. And that second part, the leveraging it, was a much harder thing to figure out than the first thing. I was kind of blown away at how our instinct for creating things that would spread was kind of on point, just about everything we were making was killing it. And then it was a question of like, Oh, shit, how do we actually exploit any of these things? Because everything that we're making is doing well, how do you prioritize how you want to then turn that into a revenue stream. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Mike Gaston:And that took a couple more years. Chris Erwin:And did you enjoy thinking through how do we scale this up and spending more time on that part of the business? Mike Gaston:At first, at first, yeah, because it's novel problems. The thing is it's really difficult to get bored in a startup because things are changing so fast, things are moving so quickly. And so every new thing was delightful until it stopped being delightful. When it stopped was when I took a step back and I started examining the things I was focused on and it occurred to me that for a couple of years now, I had stopped asking myself what I actually wanted. My whole life, I had been asking, what do I want, why am I doing this? Why is any of these things happening? I become a lot less reflective on that. And I, instead it was more like I was just solving problems. A problem would introduce itself to me and then I would figure it out and it would be novel and interesting. And then a new one would show up and then I would approach it like that. Mike Gaston:But then when I kind of like woke up for a minute and I looked at what I was doing and I thought is this even what I want anymore? And then I realized that it wasn't. And then I had been sort of distracting myself with the momentum that comes with a startup. Chris Erwin:A startup is all consuming. And then I think with the responsibilities of, I have a team, people that rely on me for employment, investors that are looking to me for return and premium of the capital they've given me, that responsibility you get lost in it. But it is clear that you have this ingrained code in you that is always asking what else or how can this be different? It's interesting to hear that you felt that, Hey, something's missing here. And it's the fact that you're not able to ask yourself these reflective questions. And I think it was when I first met you, I was reaching out to you on behalf of a client we were working with, I got to know you. I saw you at the YouTube summit. You came to some of our events. Chris Erwin:And I remember you said, "Chris, my role is changing. I was just a creative and now it's management and fundraising and I'm on this speaking tour." And I sensed that there was this inner turmoil where you weren't sure, you were like, "I guess this is like the path, I'm doing these new things because there's success here. But is this the success that I want? I'm not sure if this is for me." Mike Gaston:You're literally articulating exactly what was going on in my head, in terms of suddenly I had found myself on a track. Like the person that I thought I was, the person who was sort of like avoiding tracks, suddenly found himself on one. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Mike Gaston:And I'm like looking around being like, "Is this even what I want?" Everyone's telling me, this is what I should want. The company is successful. It's making money, it's profitable. We have all this traction. It seems like opportunity is everywhere. And at the same time, I'm like, "But is this even what I want?" And then I was like, "No, this isn't what I want. There's all these things that I don't like about this. And I don't want to perform this role anymore." It felt like I had solved something and it was no longer interesting to me to continue down the path because I could see where the end point was. There was like real existential crisis happening for more than a year before I eventually left the company. Mike Gaston:And people think all the time, they were like, "Well, you're the CEO of a company that you founded, shouldn't you be able to do whatever you want." I'm like, "No, that's not true. That's not true." When you're really the leader of a company, you're actually beholden to a whole lot of people. You're beholden to all the people that work for you, all the people that invest in you. And then all those tangential people who are around you also, who are kind of invested in your success. And so up to this point, my mom didn't know what I did, right. She did not understand anything. But she understands that there's a name of the company that I founded on a building. She understands that there's a lot of people who work there now for me, she understands that everything that I'm making is appearing on the news and various other things. Mike Gaston:And so it becomes a thing where everyone's so invested in this idea of success that you're creating. And you're like, "Ah, it's my job to prop this up. It's my job to continue to kind of keep this thing moving." And it felt like a trap. Chris Erwin:So I think I got a sense that you did start to act out a bit. Similarly to when you were at Boeing, I remember, I think I may have first met you in person at the YouTube summit in Venice and immediately thought you were a very smart guy, unique point of view, but you felt introverted. And I knew you were about to speak on stage. Wasn't sure if that energy was going to translate, but it definitely did. Mike Gaston:Thank you. Chris Erwin:And I think I remember you speaking, you approached the topic with a really unique point of view and everyone at the summit was talking about your talk after the fact. And then I think there was another talk that you gave at VidCon. I was not there for that. And I think you had been tasked with just talking about building a content business in the new digital economy. And I think the expectation was just talking about me, and I'm making it very tactical, but you commandeered the reins and you went in a very different direction talking about creator responsibility to the audience, to viewership. Mike Gaston:Yeah. Chris Erwin:And so it seems like, from these experiences that this inner turmoil was starting to come out of you, is that right? Do you agree with that? Mike Gaston:No. That's kind of right. I mean, I think there's a... I can't help it, honestly, I can't help. But yeah. I was telling this to Melinda Lee, who I work with at Stage TEN and I go, the difference between how she operates and how I operate is little, is different and neither is good nor bad. Although, maybe you could say that mine is flawed. Companies can be complicated, incredibly complicated and there could be tons of entanglements that make it difficult to get anything done. She is so effective because she knows how to create a path around and through entanglements to get to the thing that she is trying to get done. And I can do that. I can totally do it and I have done that, but I'm kind of like... It almost feels like a mental health issue. Mike Gaston:I can do that for a time, but when I hit a certain entanglement, my instinct isn't to try to find a way around it. My instinct is to literally untie the knots. It's to literally make them untangled. And that is, can be self-defeating, right. Because that's philosophical and foundational and is trying to really get everyone aligned in one way. And so when I would go and have these talks, I wasn't interested in doing the things that I knew, what are the best practices for a talk, right. Okay, I got to speak this quickly and I have to move around the stage and I have to you know, Gary V it up in some way, and I got to put it in very simple terms for people and it's got to be incredibly tactical and practical. And instead when I wanted to do was be more introspective and reflective around the why's and the wants that we all have when we're creating any of the things that we're creating. Mike Gaston:And try to give people some kind of framework for developing their own principles around it. That's really all... I was like, "I'm more interested in that." I'm not interested in optimizing this talk in a way that somehow gives me more credibility with this audience. All I'm interested in now is just articulating for them how I perceive things. And then maybe it strikes, or maybe it doesn't. I don't know. Chris Erwin:If you want to build a sustainable business model, instead of telling people, "Spend this much money on production, put out these types of videos that are optimized for X, that you can get programmatic and direct sales and also build out some DTC channels." What you're saying is that's just a bunch of tactical knots. And the way that we can really untangle this from the top is, here's how to have a creative vision. Here's the creativity that the world needs today. And if you focus on that, you will find success for yourself, for your team and for your audiences. So start bigger. Mike Gaston:Yeah. I literally walked them through the questions that I asked in order to then set out, making a company. Because the point is that if you give people a hundred best practices to deploy, then you actually haven't set them up for success. Because if everyone does those things, then all they're doing is competing with each other, which doesn't give you the traction you think it does, right? Like early days at Cut, I remember Salil who's the president Startup Studio. He wanted me to copy what Buzzfeed and Upworthy was doing. And I remember asking him why. And he goes, "Well, they have all the money. If they have all the money, that means they're hiring the data scientists and the technologists who are essentially creating the tools to help them to predict virality online. Our job is just to draft off their success because you're small and you can do that really quickly." Mike Gaston:And I said, "I don't know, in the history of anything where a smaller force has somehow defeated a larger force by copying the strategies and tactics of the larger force." It doesn't make any sense to do that. My point in some of those talks that I gave was to give people a path where they weren't actually competing with each other, they were competing to create relevance for the audience. Because that's the only thing that matters. Chris Erwin:I liked that because there's also a sentiment that all of you are special. All of you are very capable. Now find your own way and we can all win. Mike Gaston:No, it's absolutely is. I mean, again, this goes back to even raising money. I remember talking to Sam landman at Comcast Ventures. And initially he was like, "Mike, we're not investing in advertising plays." And I go, "This is great because why in God's name would I make a company that orbits something nobody likes." And he's like, "Well, I don't understand what are you making then." I go, "I'm going to make something of such intrinsic value that people are going to pay for it or things related to it." And I go, "I don't need to be Mark Zuckerberg. I don't need to consume the internet in a world where there are billions of people watching videos online every day, I need a million people giving me 10 bucks a month. Can I do that?" Mike Gaston:And that's the truth. If you're creating a media company, you don't need billions of views. You only need that, if you're making like 0.001 cent on every view. What you need is a cross section of people who are invested in your success because you are creating something of value for them. And so they were paying for it. Chris Erwin:You fire yourself, you write a blog post about it. And I want you to give us the summary. And then we're going to talk about what you're doing at Stage TEN. And we'll close with some rapid fire. Mike Gaston:At the end of last year, I became probably the most frustrated with my position. And there had been tension between the things I wanted to do and my board and mind you, my board is actually very... They're probably most flexible and adaptable board you can possibly think of. It's just the things I want to do were not the same as what they wanted. And so it came to a head where I was like, "Yeah, these are things that I need to happen or else maybe I should go." And then out of that, they're like, "Well, what if we did things like this? And could it look like that?" And I'm like, "Nah, I really can't. I got to go." And that was really tough

Don't miss out on the next WeAreLATech podcast episode, get notified by signing up here http://wearelatech.com/podcastWelcome to WeAreLATech's LA Tech Startup Spotlight!“Making Games That Bring People Together”Contributing to our Patreon to show your support is the fuel we need to keep on going https://www.patreon.com/wearelatech/WeAreLATech Podcast is a WeAreTech.fm production.To support our podcast go to http://wearelatech.com/believeTo be featured on the podcast go to http://wearelatech.com/feature-your-la-startup/Want to be featured in the WeAreLATech Community? Create your profile here http://wearelatech.com/communityHost, Espree Devorahttps://twitter.com/espreedevoraespree@wearelatech.comGuest,Eshan Mathur of GameCakehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/emathur/https://twitter.com/eshanmathurFor a calendar of all LA Startup events go to, http://WeAreLATech.comTo further immerse yourself into the LA Tech community go to http://wearelatech.com/vipLinks Mentioned:GameCake, https://www.gamecakestudios.com/Comcast Ventures, https://comcastventures.com/Gameforge, https://gameforge.com/Survios, https://survios.com/Basecamp, https://basecamp.com/People Mentioned:Paul Bettner, https://twitter.com/paulbettnerDavid Bettner, https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbettnerBenjamin Bharier, https://www.linkedin.com/in/benbharier/Credits:Produced and Hosted by Espree Devora, http://espreedevora.comStory produced, Edited and Mastered by Adam Carroll, http://www.ariacreative.ca/Show Notes by Karl Marty, http://karlmarty.comMusic by Jay Huffman, https://soundcloud.com/jayhuffmanShort Title: Family Friendly Games

Episode 99 - How will tech play an even more important role moving forward with Levi Aron from SevenRooms Tech will play such an important role in how hospitality brands function and remain profitable moving forward. One of the most credible players in this space is SevenRooms. Levi Aron is the Chief Revenue Officer at SevenRooms, a guest experience platform for the hospitality industry. Prior to joining SevenRooms, Levi was the Australian CEO and Country Manager of Deliveroo, a London-based food delivery tech startup. Throughout his tenure at Deliveroo, Aron was instrumental in helping grow the service into 13 countries, over 500 cities globally. In addition to being a strong people leader, Levi’s drive for creativity, efficiency and innovation have seen him implement countless data-led strategies across organizations to transform the customer and partner experience. His previous experience includes roles at YumTable, Catch of the Day, and Roxberry Group. SevenRooms is a fully-integrated, data-driven guest experience platform that helps hospitality operators connect data across the guest journey. From neighbourhood restaurants and bars to international, multi-concept hospitality groups, the end-to-end platform enables operators to automatically drive revenue and profitability by leveraging data to build direct relationships, deliver exceptional experiences, and increase repeat visits & orders. Founded in 2011 and venture-backed by Amazon, Comcast Ventures and Providence Strategic Growth, SevenRooms has dining, hotel F&B, nightlife and entertainment clients globally, including Bloomin’ Brands, MGM Resorts International, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Jumeirah Group, Wolfgang Puck, Michael Mina, Momento Hospitality Group, SkyCity Entertainment Group, Matteo Sydney, LDV Hospitality, Zuma, Altamarea Group, Major Food Group, AELTC, Chase Hospitality Group, D&D London, Corbin & King, Live Nation and Topgolf. The company was recently included on Inc.’s annual Best Workplaces for 2020 and Forbes’ Best Startup Employers 2020 lists. Please connect with SevenRooms here: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sevenrooms/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SevenRooms/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/sevenrooms Twitter: https://twitter.com/SevenRooms --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/principle-of-hospitality/message

In this episode, Chris talks about his working experience right after graduating from Yale, the importance of clear communication, and where he was able to be challenged, and grow from those challenges.Guest - Chris HillTwitter - @ChillClimberLinkedIn - Chris HillFollow Us!LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/coefficient-labsInstagram: www.instagram.com/demodaypodcast/Facebook: www.facebook.com/coefficientlabs/Twitter: https://twitter.com/coefficientlabsContact Information: social@coefficientlabs.com

Our Leadership Series interview where we talk to Amy Banse also from Comcast Ventures. “Funky Chunk” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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.      

This Week in Rec Tech is Sponsored by Rejobify.com   Im chris russell here are the headlines this week in recruiting technology   First up, just want to tell you about two upcoming virtual events here at RecTech media, first on July 1st at 2pm we will talk to the founders of Jobwriter an unique to that helps you write job descriptions. It looks to be a better cheaper version of Textio, I have already it and really like what i saw. Register for that event at rectechlive.com Then on July 8th at 4pm ET we will do our monthly virtual meetup for the recruiting technology space, so come network, learn about startups making headlines and more. ...to register head over to rectechmedia.com and look for the link on the home page.. On to the news. Steady, a platform solely focused on advising and advocating for freelancers seeking stable income in the US, announced it has raised an additional $15 million in Series B funding led by Recruit Strategic Partners, a venture capital arm of Recruit Holdings Co., (yes the same company that owns Indeed.com)   Funds from this round will be used to fund accelerated growth to support America’s workforce and grow its U.S. based data, product and technical operations.   The COVID-19 pandemic accelerates Steady’s mission, which is to improve the increasingly challenging lives of American hourly and gig workers. Workers using the Steady platform can track their income, receive personalized income insights, receive guidance on relevant work opportunities, get paid to improve their financial health and receive access to benefits relevant to hourly and gig workers, such as Steady’s new telemedicine support.   Launched in 2018, the Steady app has been downloaded more than 2.7 million times. and can be downloaded for free from the App Store and Google Play.   https://hrtechfeed.com/financial-well-being-app-for-freelancers-lands-16-million-in-funding/ SAN FRANCISCO, June 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Brightside, the leading financial care platform for employers, today announced that it raised $35.1 million in Series A funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from existing investors Comcast Ventures and Trinity Ventures, the a16z Cultural Leadership Fund, and others. This funding will be used to bring Brightside to more employers and families at a time when they need it most, and improve its financial health offering.   Employee financial stress costs employers nearly $4,000 per employee per year under normal circumstances, according to recent estimates.1,2 Millions of working Americans facing the loss or reduction of income in at least one family member will exacerbate this impact. Financial stress reduces productivity and retention, drives up healthcare costs, and poses a major challenge to any employer with diversity and inclusion goals. Brightside helps employers improve the financial health of their workforce by providing a single destination for employees to address any personal finance need. Brightside combines a human-approach to financial health via dedicated Financial Assistants, available to all employee families with advanced rules engines and unique products linked to paychecks in a way that provides real solutions to employees’ financial stress. On average, Brightside puts over $1,200 back in the pockets of the families they serve.   For more information, please visit: https://www.gobrightside.com. https://hrtechfeed.com/financial-wellness-platform-for-employees-gets-big-round-of-funding/ CareerBuilder today unveils innovative updates to its comprehensive Talent Acquisition Suite, helping businesses reach and convert qualified candidates faster. With a suite of services that impact the entire recruitment process, the updates provide clients with easier access to data and information, facilitate improved communication with candidates and provide an enhanced candidate and client experience. The streamlined end-to-end technology solution enables clients to make smarter, faster and more impactful decisions while cutting costs up to 50 percent and delivering a significant return on their investment.   “From our enhanced career sites, improved data and reporting tools, mobile app updates and new employee engagement offerings, the latest updates to our TA Suite were built with market data and  client feedback in mind,” added Humair Ghauri, Chief Product & Technology Officer, CareerBuilder. “Our team continues to be a leader in the HR Tech industry, driving innovation and offering a comprehensive solution built on AI and machine learning technology. Our team thrives on seeing our products deliver more qualified candidates for our end-users, helping them covert them quickly and providing a seamless experience across our client and job seeker audiences.”   Updates being released include: Delivering a seamless client experience and launching a new career site built on the power of CareerBuilder.com platform. CareerBuilder’s Talent Network now allows clients to easily manage their talent network and career site through our robust recruitment platform.             CareerBuilder is also introducing a new self-service career site that enables clients to create and edit their career sites themselves in real-time.                                 Updates to Talent Discovery Platform improve search, messaging and mobile app features. New filter and search functionality will provide recruiters with quick and easy access to data, information and insights on candidates they find most helpful.                                  CareerBuilder Applicant Tracking (CBAT) has been redesigned, ….New dashboard, requisition, candidate and reporting widgets bring critical information clearly to the forefront, helping recruiters respond quickly to activities within their network. Click Boarding integration allows clients to initiate onboarding from a configured workflow stage, monitor progress at a glance and synchronize data between CBAT and Click Boarding.                                   CareerBuilder’s SocialReferral tool has been updated to include a calendar tool to allow admins the ability to schedule and plan posts and competitions in advance. Clients can now embed their timelines from SocialReferral into their career sites, giving candidates insight into the day-to-day of an organization. https://hrtechfeed.com/careerbuilder-announces-updates-to-talent-acquisition-suite/ DHI Group, Inc. announced today that Dice, its leading career hub for technology professionals, has released Dice Recruiter Profile, bringing transparency to the career management process while enabling recruiters to stand out from the crowd with enriched profiles. Recruiter Profile is the first launch toward realizing Dice’s longer-term vision of a space where recruiters and technologists can connect more directly and transparently.   Dice Recruiter Profile allows employers and recruiters to create an enhanced profile and link it to their posted jobs, building trust and long-term relationships with technologists who are eager to learn more about the employers and individuals contacting them for open positions. Recruiters can showcase their areas of strength and expertise, add a profile photo and highlight their tech focus by promoting their latest news, future hiring needs, and upcoming events.   Dice Recruiter Profile will provide recruiters and hiring managers with: Recruiter branding. By personalizing a recruiter profile and linking it to posted jobs, more candidates will see the person behind the recruiter role and the employer behind the brand, opening two-way dialogue between recruiters and technologists, leading to the best matches for tech roles. Opportunities to build candidate trust. By customizing a recruiter profile with insightful and engaging information about the recruiter and hiring company, candidates will feel more informed, helping to drive transparency between recruiters and technologists, encouraging longer-term relationships and a steady talent pipeline. Attention to tech specialization. When employers share their latest wins, future hiring needs and upcoming events on their Dice Recruiter profile, candidates will see the tech specialties of focus for each employer and role, which will quickly lead specialized technologists to where they’re needed most. https://hrtechfeed.com/dice-launches-recruiter-profiles/ ########## Got a project that an HR freelancer can handle? From writing an employee handbook to freelance sourcers to HR bloggers you can find the right freelancer to handle your HR or recruiting needs right now on https://hrlancers.com/ - browse more than 500 freelancer profiles today

Kai is a partner at Courtside Ventures is an early-stage fund focused on sports, fitness and gaming. Kai talks about his past work as 3x Founder,  working at Comcast Ventures leading investments focused on investing underrepresented founders, Hear his process in qualifying startups, founders who stand out, building teams, hiring to motivate & align company culture. He explains thoughts on raising capital, building a network & metrics for performance. Learn the opportunities that Courtside is looking to collaborate on & his words to live by. http://www.courtsidevc.com/ www.CharlieNYC.com http://www.courtsidevc.com/ www.joinentre.com www.CharlieNYC.com

Coronavirus and The Importance of Smart City PlatformsHyperlocal Coronavirus DiscussionsIn my local community in south Palm Beach County, Florida  the importance of community cohesion and a coordinated response to the coronavirus pandemic has been demonstrated through citizen dialogues on NextDoor, a community building smart city platform. Of course, many other community platforms are also just as important – from Twitter to Facebook and even Meetup.In the NextDoor example, here in South Florida, over the past weekend, news was shared by citizens about a local confirmed case, quickly community information began to be shared about national, state, city and many other very local “hyperlocal” resources. This includes neighbors helping neighbors through doorstep delivery of food, medical and other supplies.National and Local Coronavirus ResourcesAdditionally, like many other social media platforms, NextDoor has formally been in contact with the CDC and WHO in order to act as a conduit to local residents. Perhaps more importantly Nextdoor has enabled local public agencies to bring relevant Coronavirus information to their areas, down to very small areas of even a few hundred residents – or smaller.As NextDoor is active in 11+ countries, and the Coronavirus is having a dramatic impact worldwide, you might consider participation in the hyperlocal discussions being hosted by this unique platformSo what is NextDoor?Founded in 2011, Nextdoor is an online platform positioned as the “world's largest social network for the neighborhood”.  Specifically, its mission is to facilitate conversations that empower neighbors to create stronger and safer communities.  Nextdoor is pursuing this objective by defining the physical boundaries of individual neighborhoods, and building an associated, private online community site for each. Users are required to verify that they have a local address before they are allowed to join a neighborhood's Nextdoor site.  Once an online neighborhood has a critical mass of members, those members can begin creating discussion forums on a range of topics.  For example, users commonly leverage the platform to find babysitters, locate lost pets, sell personal items and review local businessesNextdoor is based in San Francisco, California, the company was founded in 2008 and launched in the United States in October 2011. Nextdoor is a privately-held company based in San Francisco with backing from prominent investors including Benchmark, Shasta Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Riverwood Capital, Bond, Axel Springer, Comcast Ventures and others.Other Useful Coronavirus Links:CDC Social Distancing Guidance: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/index.htmlCDC Updates: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/summary.htmlWorld Health Organization https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019Next Door www.nextdoor.comJohns Hopkins Corona Virus Statistics Map: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Today's episode is with Dinesh Moorjani, managing director of LA-based Comcast Ventures.  Comcast's sweet spot is a Series A check ($3-20M) but they are flexible.  Dinesh explains how Comcast operates, tells us about the early days of Tinder, his experience of private equity, and much more.

Dreamit's Steve Barsh speaks with Gil Beyda, Managing Director at Comcast Ventures and Founder & Managing Partner at Genacast Ventures. Steve and Gil dive into why pre-IPO unicorn startups are failing and post IPO valuations are dropping. In addition, based on new market realities, they explore important advice for earlier-stage startup founders on fundraising strategy, valuation, and the key metrics they should pay close attention to.

From the Simplr studios in San Francisco, this is your daily briefing.  IntroductionThis is Today in Five with Madison Huffman, for today, Thursday, February 13th. Here are today’s headlines in digital disruption.Harry’s and Brandless both suffered major setbacks this week, revealing the limits and struggles direct-to-consumer disruptors are facing.First, here are the latest headlines.Goop and Banana Republic Launch Co-Branded CollectionGwyneth Paltrow’s goop brand is launching a co-branded online apparel collection and podcast series installment with Banana Republic. The goop Edit for Banana Republic will launch in spring 2020 and feature five everyday essentials. The capsule will launch exclusively on goop.com February 11th and on Banana Republic’s e-commerce site beginning February 25th.Saks Off 5th Being Led by Former Nordstrom Rack ExecFormer Nordstrom Rack executive, Paige Thomas, will now lead Saks Off 5th, effective immediately. Thomas was most recently the general merchandise manager of men’s and kids at Nordstrom’s full-price business but was general merchandise manager at its off-price Nordstrom Rack operation for more than five years. She oversaw growth in both e-commerce and physical retail while there, including the opening of more than 100 stores and the launch of the Rack website. In tapping Thomas, Saks Off 5th is regrouping under the direction of an executive who once helped lead a powerhouse in the segment. The CEO from Hudson’s Bay Company said, “With her deep merchandising background and instinct to quickly capitalize on digital opportunities, I believe Paige is the right leader to further evolve Saks Off 5th and unleash its potential as a true off-price retailer.” Spotify Purchasing RingerAs part of its push into podcasting, Spotify is reportedly paying close to $200 million dollars for the Ringer, a growing online sports and pop-culture outlet. Spotify is expected to detail the costs in a regulatory filing soon. The streaming service has now spent more than $600 million dollars to acquire four companies that can accelerate its podcasting business. The company is already the world’s largest paid music service and is challenging Apple as the dominant way people listen to podcasts.  What Harry’s And Brandless Mean For DTC DisruptorsThis week, two promising DTC companies suffered major setbacks. Grooming company, Harry’s, learned that Edgewell is dropping its bid to take it over after the FTC sued to block the deal on antitrust grounds. And online consumer goods company, Brandless, shuttered its operations. The brands’ stumbles have a lot in common, notably, an inability to scale on their own. And they reveal the limits of DTC retail.  The principal at venture capital firm Comcast Ventures told a National Retail Federation audience that, “the pendulum has swung,” , regarding venture capitalist expectations, noting that it’s becoming easier to launch a direct-to-consumer company than to grow or sustain one. The fate of Brandless is a prime example of that swing.  The company launched in 2017 saying that each of its items would only be three dollars thanks to the company’s elimination of the middle man and that by going directly to the consumer, Brandless claimed it saved some 40 percent, which was passed along to its customers. The company received backing from SoftBank in 2018, allowing it to expand into new categories. Now, after a little over two years, the company is shutting down.  The two companies pose an interesting example of the changing retail landscape. The disruptor DTC brands have their limitations. The fate of Brandless seems clear, less so Harry’s. But most if not all DTC brands are likely grappling with the same realities of customer acquisition, the challenge of turning a profit, and a need to stand on their own.  ClosingSimplr can help you scale your customer service at any stage of growth. Head to Simplr.ai to learn more. That’s S-I-M-P-L-R.ai.Thanks for listening to this latest episode of Today In Five. We’ll see you tomorrow.   

In this episode, Tej Singh interviews Greg Marsh, the Founder and CEO of KeyMe, a technology company that provides an app for copying keys and robotic kiosks for new key fabrication. KeyMe has raised over $190M from investors like Comcast Ventures and BlackRock. Interview topics include Greg's impetus for starting KeyMe, his path from Columbia Business School to KeyMe, and how he has scaled his business since 2012.

Gil’s technical background got his career going but his open mind propelled his success. A couple wacky business ideas along his path and the similarities between a comedian and an entrepreneur.

From the Simplr studios in San Francisco, this is your daily briefing.  IntroductionThis is Today in Five, for today, Thursday, January 16th. Here are today’s headlines in digital disruption.Ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft have waged a not so silent war on taxis. The effect can especially be felt in Los Angeles, but now the city and taxis are trying to evolve to compete with the ride-hailing services.  First, here are the latest headlines.Retailers Rediscovering Importance of Physical StoresAfter the National Retail Federation’s Big Show, one thing was clear. Many retailers have a newfound appreciation for the value of their physical stores, but also many are struggling with the limits of the online channel. A principal at venture capital firm Comcast Ventures said, “The pendulum has swung.” He noted it has become easier to launch a direct-to-consumer company than to sustain or grow one. While some companies are seeking further investment on the public market, like Casper who recently filed for an IPO, other brands like Billie and Dollar Shave Club were acquired by consumer product goods conglomerates. The store experience is valuable for not only providing in-person, touch-and-feel experiences for shoppers, it also provides marketing that so far online search or sites have not been able to match. The trend seems to indicate that just as e-commerce has become a given for traditional retailers, it now seems like a must to maximize and measure the value of connections and discovery possible only in-store.  Target Sales Fall ShortTarget, who has posted strong quarters and been considered a standout in retail, fell short over the holidays. Target revealed its same-store sales during November and December were up just 1.4 percent, compared with growth of 5.7 percent the year before. Target said it found strength in apparel and beauty, while electronics, toys, and parts of its home business didn’t perform as well as they’d hoped. CEO Brian Cornell said in a blog post, “While we knew this season was going to be challenging, it was even more challenging than we expected.” Cornell also said that while Target faced challenges in November and December in key categories, they were maintaining their guidance for fourth-quarter earnings per share because of the durability of the company’s business model.Secondhand Beauty Industry GrowingYou’ve no doubt heard all about the secondhand apparel craze that has become a booming industry, but what about the secondhand beauty industry? Online platforms like Poshmark and Glambot are normalizing makeup and skincare reselling by using technology that authenticates, sanitizes, and repackages products. The process is just like clothing resale platforms where customers send in lightly used items and, if approved, sell them to other shoppers. Beauty resale allows fast beauty consumers to remain on-trend while solving the consumption problem that fast beauty created.  Los Angeles Taxis Try To Get With The Ride-Hailing TimesRide-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft have waged a not so silent war on taxis. The effect can especially be felt in Los Angeles. According to Los Angeles World Airports, which operates LAX, taxis handled just 22 percent of pickups at the airport for the first three quarters of 2019, with ride hails claiming the rest. The divide in numbers was similar throughout the rest of the city, with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation estimating taxi business was down 75 percent since 2012, the year Uber first rolled into town. Now, the taxis of Los Angeles are fighting back. Instead of calling an individual company to request a cab, passengers will be assigned rides through a centralized dispatch that connects all the cabs in the city. The taxis can be requested with an app or phone call and passengers will know the cost of their rides before getting into the car. Meters will be modernized and cabs’ typical garish colors will be optional. Jarvis Murray, an administrator with the city Transportation Department said, “We want to give them an opportunity to be able to retain and add customers, to be innovative and nimble.”  Dr. Anne Brown compared taxis and ride-hail services when she was a researcher with the Institute of Transporation Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2018. She found the average cost for an Uber or Lyft was less than when using a taxi. She also found that in 10 percent of the trips, taxi drivers traveled twice as many miles as necessary. After interviewing students who had assisted with the research, most said the unreliability of taxis didn’t end once they were in the car. They didn’t know how much the trip would be and there wasn’t always a recourse if they were unsatisfied with the driver. With Uber and Lyft, they could complain and get their money back.It’s these issues that Los Angeles is trying to address with its new taxi permit system. Dr. Brown said taxis have tried to innovate. Many companies have developed their own apps, but they work only for that individual fleet and may not operate in the area where a customer needs a ride. At least one developer has tried to bring all the cabs’ apps under the same umbrella to operate more like Uber or Lyft, but the app doesn’t work well, she said. The findings bring up the question: why not let the taxi system fail if Ubers and Lyfts are superior options?Dr. Brown said, “Taxis are this legacy service...They’re a really important mode for so many travelers.” They’re important for travelers without cars or don’t have the necessary smartphone or debit or credit card to use a ride-hail app. Dr. Brown noted that taxis were used most often by the city’s lowest-income people, who pay with cash.  It remains to be seen how the city’s attempt to modernize the taxi industry will stack up against services like Uber and Lyft who have successfully disrupted the industry.  ClosingFind out how Simplr can cut your customer service response time through cutting-edge technology and on-demand talent at simplr.ai. That’s S-I-M-P-L-R.ai.Thanks for listening to this latest episode of Today In Five. We’ll see you tomorrow. 

Chris holds a diverse range of investment and consulting experience in areas including SaaS, consumer marketplace, entertainment, and real estate technologies. His limitless view of the connected world comes from curiosity and deep-rooted industry connections in the Los Angeles startup ecosystem. Prior to joining Comcast Ventures, Chris served as Principal at Siemer & Associates where he focused on digital media and software startup transactions. He spent his early career as SVP at IMT Capital where he identified growth opportunities and implemented the M&A due diligence process for the firm. In 2013, he was appointed by California’s governor to join the State of California Workforce Investment Board. He received his B.A. in History from Yale. Join us each week as we give you access to the top Venture Capitalists and investors in the country, while taking deep dives with highly successful entrepreneurs that will help you think through some of the most difficult challenges startups face. Big thank you to our sponsor Brex without whom we wouldn't be able to do this show. As a special offering anyone that joins the Sparkxyz community will receive all waived card fees in perpetuity. Card fees are typically $60/card/yr. https://brex.com/sparkxyz/

Lo Toney is the founding managing partner of Plexo Capital, a new $42.5 million fund incubated inside of GV focused on making investments in seed-stage VC firms led by women or people of color. In addition to investing as LPs, Plexo Capital makes direct investments in startups that are funded by firms where Plexo has an LP position. The fund’s investors include Alphabet, Intel Capital, Cisco Investments, the Royal Bank of Canada, Kapor Capital, the Hampton University Endowment and the Ford Foundation. Previous to Plexo Capital, Lo was a partner at GV and Comcast Ventures, as well as an operator in various capacities at Zynga, Nike, and eBay. In this episode, we discuss Lo's unique career journey, some of the early lessons he learned helping to build iconic web products in the dot com era, how he landed at GV and more recently decided to build his own venture platform in Plexo Capital. We're also excited to announce Carta as the title sponsor for this season of Origins, a product we use and love. Get 10% off when you use the Notation Signup Link (Terms and conditions apply). This season is also sponsored by SVB and Cooley, two of the earliest and most trusted supporters of our work at Notation.

David Lafferty, Senior Vice President and Chief Market Strategist at Natixis Investment Managers, discusses current market conditions and his 2020 outlook. Amy Banse, Head of Funds at Comcast Ventures, discusses the venture capital landscape, competition, and current investments. Sarah Green Carmichael, Bloomberg Opinion columnist, on BlackRock’s Mark Wiseman being terminated for failing to disclose a personal relationship. Kathryn Kaminski, Chief Research Strategist at AlphaSimplex, discusses the risk from rising interest rates. Hosted by Lisa Abramowicz and Paul Sweeney. Broadcasting Live from the Natixis Investment Managers headquarters in Boston.

In this episode of the Future 1 web show & podcast, we meet both Kai Bond from Courtside VC & Diana Kontsevaia from Dell Tech Ventures. Kai Bond was previously at Comcast Ventures & the Samsung Accelerator. He focuses on gaming technologies. At Dell Ventures, Diana Kontsevaia enjoys discovering and magnifying successful startup stories, while helping a Fortune 50 company invest $100M annually into early-stage tech startups in the B2B Enterprise IT space, including AI, Big Data, IoT, Cyber-security, Infrastructure, Cloud-native, Cloud storage systems, DevOps. We talk about emerging trends in the market and the future of gaming, computing, the VC ecosystem and challenges with getting allocations to deals & raising assets from LPs. The material contained on this web series & podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer or a recommendation to buy or sell any security nor is it to be construed as investment advice. Music credits: Clouds by MBB | https://soundcloud.com/mbbofficial , Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com , Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US IMPORTANT NOTICE: This web series and podcast is intended for informational purposes only. The views expressed are not, and should not be construed as investment advice or recommendations. Recipients of this should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance (which are not considered in this web series and podcast) before investing. None of this information communication is an offer, nor the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned herein. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/joelpalathinkal/support

Daniel Gulati: Entrepreneurs who are new to an industry are often the ones who disrupt it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Re-run: This episode originally aired in March 2018 but Kai's lessons in entrepreneurship are timeless. In this episode Philip spoke with serial entrepreneur and now venture capitalist Kai Bond. Kai is the lead investor at Catalyst Fund which is a seed fund based in New York City. Catalyst Fund is an extension of Comcast Ventures and it serves as a unique investment vehicle to elevate minority entrepreneurship by matching capital and resources with underrepresented minority entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Catalyst Fund Kai has had a truly remarkable career as an entrepreneur. He’s had some painful failures and tells Phil about his lowest point where he didn’t even have enough money for a subway ride. Kai talks about building his third startup within 60 days (Pixie Tv) which he would then go on to sell to Samsung within a year. Kai was also the General Manager of Samsung's accelerator and Hatch Labs where the dating app Tinder was incubated during his tenure as GM. Visit our site: startuphandmedowns.co

Dimitri Sirota is the cofounder and CEO of BigID which develops a software that helps companies have a secure customer data and satisfy privacy regulations. The company has raised so far $96 million from investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Western Technology Investment, Boldstart Ventures, and Deepfork Capital to name a few. Prior to this the founded wo enterprise software companies focused on security (eTunnels) and API management (Layer 7 Technologies), which was sold to CA Technologies in 2013 for $200M.

Dimitri Sirota is the cofounder and CEO of BigID which develops a software that helps companies have a secure customer data and satisfy privacy regulations. The company has raised so far $96 million from investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Western Technology Investment, Boldstart Ventures, and Deepfork Capital to name a few. Prior to this the founded wo enterprise software companies focused on security (eTunnels) and API management (Layer 7 Technologies), which was sold to CA Technologies in 2013 for $200M.

David Horowitz of Touchdown Ventures joins Nick to discuss Corporate VC. In this episode, we cover: Backstory/ Path to Venture Talk about the 14 years you spent with Comcast Ventures -- what you learned and why you left? What lead to founding Touchdown Ventures? At Touchdown, you partner with leading corporations to manage the complete venture lifecycle from entity formation to investment management…Can you dive into the thesis/focus of the firm? Why would a founder choose corporate VC funding over institutional funding? I was reading through the “Risky Business” blog on the Touchdown website and found some pretty interesting articles…specifically one that talks about “the most overlooked skill in Corporate venture" being deal management…that it “requires more effort than all other activities combined”…why is deal management so challenging? Why do you think CVC's funding has historically been more inconsistent than institutional venture funds? Why are corporations willing to take minority stakes in startups? As Fred Wilson said on CVC—“You want the asset? Buy it.” Is there a risk to founders of taking investment from a large corporate that can "look under the hood" and reverse-engineer the tech or exploit the IP? Is the core objective of a CVC financial return or is it more of a strategy play? (i.e. market insight, actively trying to grow certain sectors) How does the mindset of a CVC change in a bear market, especially compared to institutional VC? How does follow-on funding work in corporate VC? If the corporate has a poor financial year, does a lower funding allocation affect follow-on allotment for winners? The firm was recognized by Global Corporate Venturing for having both established and managed the most corporate venture funds to date… At the industry level corp VC has peaked in funding in recent years. Why do you think corp VC has grown to this level and why did you raise the number of funds that you did? One of the articles on the Risky Business blog talks about fraud detection with reference to Fyre Festival and Theranos…Talk about some red flags that an opportunity may be a fraud and what you should do if those red flags are present?   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

After helping start Comcast Ventures, Rich left with 2 other partners to start Touchdown Ventures.   On this week’s episode, we have a great conversation about his perspective on CVC as well as unpacking the model that Touchdown Ventures is pioneering.   I’ve asked you for feedback on email, Twitter, LinkedIn & Instagram about the kind of content you’re looking for.   I remain interested in that feedback, but one thing I’m consistently hearing is that you want more information about Corporate Venture Capital as a growth strategy. Rich is a great person to kick off these conversations.     Show Links: Touchdown Ventures Focus Areas Want to Break Into VC? Try CVC! by David Horowitz Can Corporate Venture Capitalists Help Startups Go Public? by Selina Troesch

Assaf Wand is the CEO and co-founder of insurtech startup Hippo which offers intuitive and proactive home insurance by taking a smarter, tech-driven approach. The company has raised over $100 million from Lennar Corporation, GGV Capital, Felicis Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Munich Re Ventures, Aquiline Technology Growth, Abstract Ventures, Sinai Ventures, Fifth Wall and Propel Venture Partners. Prior to Hippo Assaf founded Foris Telecom and Sabi (acquired by Urbio Inc.). 

Every week the show host John Siracusa talks with impressive fintech leaders and entrepreneurs, through conversation uncovers the remarkable stories behind them, their creations and the most important topics in fintech. You can subscribe to this podcast and stay up to date on all the stories here on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify and iHeartRadio In this episode the host John Siracusa chats with Brock Blake founder and CEO of Lendio.   Lendio, is a small business lending platform and has raised about 53 million to date from Tribecca Venture Partners and Comcast Ventures.   Tune in and Listen.   Subscribe now on iTunes, Google , Stitcher, Spotify and iHeartRadio to hear next Tuesday's episode with Brian Dally from Ground Floor.   About the host:   John is the host of the twice-weekly “Bank On It” podcast recorded onsite at offices of Carpenter Group, a creative services agency focused on the financial services industry. He's a highly sought after fintech, VC and financial services industry enthusiast and connector. He's in the center of the fintech ecosystem, keeping current with the ever-innovating industry.   Follow John on LinkedIn, Twitter or on Medium

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Danish Dhamani of Orai.com, an app that helps people improve the way they speak. The Company raised a $2.56 million Seed round led by Comcast Ventures with participation from Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Prototype Capital. In this episode, Danish talks about the Philadelphia startup and investor scene, how to think of your seed round as a strategic game and time-bound it, how to maximize your investor funnel, the power of vulnerability when fundraising, and more. Check out www.Foundersuite.com for a full set of tools to raise capital. Clients have raised over $1.2 Billion since 2016.

This week we're talking to Kai Bond. Kai is the Head of Investing at Catalyst Fund, the venture capital arm of Comcast Ventures that invests in early-stage startups led by minority entrepreneurs. He also heads esports and gaming investments and NYC seed investing for Comcast Ventures. http://cvcatalyst.com/ CHOP'N IT UP is a interview web series created by New Age Capital that highlights a few of the dope Black and Latino tech entrepreneurs within the New Age Capital network. CHOP'N IT UP Merch https://thechopnshop.com New Age Capital https://newage.vc Socials https://twitter.com/newagecapital https://www.instagram.com/newagecapital/ https://keepit100.vc/ https://twitter.com/cvcatalyst Like and Subscribe to the channel!

In our latest podcast, Christian Rolon (WG ’19) is joined by Mary-Catherine Lader, the Chief Operating Officer of Digital Wealth at BlackRock. In this expansive interview, Mary-Catherine dives into BlackRock’s digital strategy, technology as an enabler for asset management businesses, and how FinTech startups are partnering with incumbents and expanding their product lines to become the center of consumers’ financial lives. The BlackRock Digital Wealth Group provides software solutions to help retail advisors and institutional investors build better investment portfolios by leveraging the Aladdin operating system. BlackRock has made a number of investments in WealthTech startups and incumbents, including Acorns, Personal Capital, Scalable Capital, Envestnet, and iCapital Network. BlackRock also acquired the robo-advisor FutureAdvisor in 2015. BlackRock has nearly $6 trillion in assets under management, serving retail and institutional investors across the world. Mary-Catherine Lader is the Chief Operating Officer of Digital Wealth at BlackRock where she focuses on improving BlackRock’s product offerings for retail advisors and investors through partnerships, acquisitions, and internal projects. Prior to BlackRock, Mary-Catherine was the co-founder of hiWatson, a Fintech startup managing online benefits for independent contractors. Mary-Catherine also worked in Goldman Sachs’s Special Situations Group as an investment analyst focusing on clean energy. She was also on the Media team for the World Economic Forum. During business school, Mary-Catherine interned at Comcast Ventures. Mary-Catherine Lader received her JD/MBA from Harvard University, and her A.B. from Brown University.

THE SHOW Jewel Burks was the founder and CEO of Partpic, a company she sold to Amazon in 2016. During our chat, we talk about what she learned, how she grew, and why winning requires laser focus.  Behind Her Brilliance: God and Her Mom Say hi to Jewel on Twitter: @jewelmelanie   Get tickets for XX here THE GUEST JEWEL BURKS |Jewel Burks is an advocate for representation and access in the technology industry. As co-founder of Partpic, a startup designed to streamline the purchase of maintenance and repair parts using computer vision, Jewel and her team built groundbreaking technology poised to change the way people everywhere locate products. Partpic raised over $2 million in seed funding from notable investors like AOL co-founder, Steve Case, and Comcast Ventures, and integrated its software into mobile apps/websites of large parts distributors and retailers. Partpic was acquired by Amazon in late 2016 and the technology now powers visual search for replacement parts in the Amazon Mobile Shopping app.  Currently, Jewel serves as Team Lead for Visual Search at Amazon. In addition to this role, Jewel is a proud board member at Goodie Nation and the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, and spends much of her free time advising startups and angel investing.  Jewel has been featured in notable publications such as Forbes, Wired, TechCrunch, Essence, Glamour, and Business Insider. Prior to founding Partpic, Jewel served in management, enterprise sales, and strategic diversity roles at McMaster-Carr Industrial Supply and Google, Inc. Jewel is a native of Nashville TN, and graduate of Howard University.   TOPICS COVERED Jewel's early days and path into tech  How Jewel adjusted to the culture shock of Silicon Valley The brilliant way Jewel discovered the idea for Partpic Lessons Jewel learned raising $2 million The aftermath of selling a company  And more!   STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Jewel Burks  Excuses Be Gone (Lisa Likes)  The Four Agreements (Jewel's book pick)  Start With Why (Jewel's book pick)  Get tickets for XX here 

BigID announced a big $30 million Series B round today, which comes on the heels of closing their $14M A investment in January. It's been a whirlwind year for the NYC data security startup as GDPR kicked in and companies came calling for their products. The round was led by Scale Venture Partners with participation from previous investors ClearSky Security, Comcast Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, Information Venture Partners and SAP.io.

Dinesh Moorjani, Managing Director of Comcast Ventures, talks to us about investing in technology companies, building internet and software companies, and lessons learned along the way. Prior to Comcast Ventures, Dinesh served as an executive in residence at Warburg Pincus and was the Founder and CEO of Hatch Labs, where he and his team built and ran early stage companies, including Tinder.

EP130 - Comcast Ventures Daniel Gulati  We caught up with Daniel Gulati (@DanielGulati) at ShopTalk 2018. Daniel is a partner at Comcast Ventures a venture capital firm that focus on early stage consumer internet investing.  Comcast Ventures was an early investor in Away, MealPal, and recently invested in Zola (hear Zola founder Shan Lyn in episode 98). We spoke with Daniel about his background, his book, Passion and Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders, his portfolio companies, the direct to consumer market, competing with Amazon, and the future of retail. Episode 130 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Tuesday, March 20, 2018. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. New beta feature, Google Transcription: Transcript Jason: [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this episode is being recorded on Tuesday March 20th 2018 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your Scott Wingo. Scot: [0:38] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scott show listeners we are live here from the shop talk show in Sunny Las Vegas and excited to have on the show Daniel Galati [0:48] Daniel is a partner at Comcast Ventures and has Ed Stinson retail with BCG fab.com fashion Steak & More. His current portfolio companies include away mealpal Pancho shine and athletic welcome to the show Daniel. Daniel: [1:02] Hey guys great speaker. Jason: [1:05] So before we even get into it I know you you I had a little experience with Fab is my name bringing. Scot: [1:12] Bad. Daniel: [1:13] I had to do a double-take but I would say it was it was a roller coaster ride at 5 but that old good memories now so I think we're good. Jason: [1:23] That is the beauty of. Daniel: [1:24] Yeah that is video time. Jason: [1:26] Daniel one of the things we always like to do early in the show is get get a little flavor for sort of how you you came to this industry and. Scot: [1:35] What your tournament regulation was. Daniel: [1:37] Totally my matriculation well. Jason: [1:41] Paid extra for using big words I'm not quite the sesquipedalian. Scot: [1:46] I like it I just woke up. Daniel: [1:46] I just write that down so I guess I kind of made a winding road kind of photo ID Road into BC so started my career straight out of undergrad at a company called Boston Consulting Group B C J. Management consulting firm and really a BCG focused on actually read retail clients so like very large retailers. And you know at that time this car 2006-2007 a lot of those retailers were really thinking about just starting to think just starting to think about technology kind of customer facing. So I think historically they had to wait till. Kind of court and Court it is kind of his back office efficiency box that they had to check. And kind of with the growth of Amazon and and and some of the some of the other early e-commerce players Rita's or technology is a customer-facing vectors of strategic tools. Really starting to shift to the to the full front so a lot of my time there was cutting my teeth on filming digital strategy technology is big is Big retailers. [3:06] I figured out that I had a passion for technology for early stage of embryonic Technologies and wanted to kind of double down there. So you're off to a few the BCG few great use a BCG went to Business School. And started my first real company called fashion sacred Marketplace for independent fashion kind of vertical eyes that see. I was at a time where the fashion industry specifically was kind of opening up so. You know it's going to sound really Antiquated but this is 2009-2010 where you at Young blogger is coming to New York Fashion Week to the first time I don't like posting these like. Amazing photos of all the stuff that was going on. That's one of democratization of the industry of never really happened before I think fashion was always cuz it's closed. Closed-loop industry and so what you had was you had these new wave of consumer demand that was Unleashed in consumers were really. Trying to go beyond the traditional luxury brands. And an answer to the aperture so different types of fashion from different types of designers. Was increasing and we will try to hook into that so we we. Rent in your eyes Venture Capital group the team ran the business for a few years. [4:42] And a little company in New York called fab.com was just getting started in 2012. And at the time it was basically the fastest growing e-commerce company you're definitely here in the US. And and maybe even be on that and you're sad was really for those that don't know if that was really a. Highly curated design Centric e-commerce destination. Scot: [5:14] Dynastar was kind of a flash sale and then kind of built kind of more going to carry that stuff around. Daniel: [5:18] Did will actually start a bit actually. Scot: [5:20] Hook up yet. Daniel: [5:21] So was it what we had was kind of it was a hook-up site and then it became so to be a social media site. For the gay population that was Jason Bradford's stick and I had a big following and so have been pivoted to these comments destination. And so they did amazing numbers Haven today the number is kind of throw out there you know you're over a million dollars a month in the first 25 days and to the popping up from there. And I really built their business off of Home Goods actually like Home Goods in and. Home Furnishings in and fashion was always something that they almost needed to get into because of how big it was but just didn't have the right and DNA and and you know we're doing 20 other things that they around the core business. We ended up joining forces in January of 2012. And a whole team went over night I ran the fashion vertical essentially in fashion when did not hear from you know nothing to Fab's biggest vertical softwoods the palace Pacific rated men's and women's wear. Fab's biggest business. He was a bit of a sign of the times I think you'll group and some of the other companies had had popularized kind of online shopping fit for Apparel in a way that. [6:53] I'm didn't exist before end and also from imagine spective it was it was actually really attractive so. Had a great time there for let's roll let's pros and cons didn't want to get back into the early stage well. I'm sorry you're ended up joining Comcast Ventures entrepreneur-in-residence and I've been there since you know 2014. Scot: [7:20] Temples in New York right so they knew the Jew what did you move out to SFO. Daniel: [7:24] So I move to San Francisco in January of last year. So I spend a lot of time in this photo New York e-commerce saying which is like a pretty new singing group in 2007 and and. Scot: [7:39] It's all double click people a lot of it is. Daniel: [7:41] What a double quick people. Scot: [7:42] Double click Mafia that doesn't get talked about as much as I like the PayPal Mafia but there's an East Coast double-click Mafia that's behind most of the companies are. Daniel: [7:49] Totally light where R investors in a lot like really happy messaging in a company called Zoeller and Shannon was obviously a joke group and. Scot: [7:58] She's been on the show. Daniel: [7:59] Stream the show and and and and that. Sort of an issue Cadre that 2007 2008 cohort is kind of old gone in and done really great things in in your bed. To that it was pretty small community now it's a really big Community with all the d2c brands. The time they went that many that many folks in and he come over there and so you want to jump over the VC had the. So have those relationships and had the privilege of some pretty red boss daily deal fudge. It was not hard to kind of bear hug the the sector and come and get to know everyone and then and then you know as I start breastfeeding Comcast Ventures. Your San Francisco is West Coast is kind of too much too big to ignore and so I moved over here and and and try to call the New York from here as well. Scot: [8:57] Brickell. Jason: [8:58] Brief side note one of the founders of half.com Jason Goldberg and I share the same name and he's somewhat of a polarizing figure so I get. [9:08] I used to get like a ton of funny emails intended for him and so we would talk to him I do want all these and he's like only if they're really. Daniel: [9:17] I guess I'm not know my experience. You're reporting directly to him was I've not seen many people that kind of rally troops the way he can rally troops right like internally as well as accidentally with investors in touch I think it's no. It's not anyone who's ever met him into those environments I don't think would be shocked. So the amount of capital he's able to continually raise I think he's a great he's a great Storyteller and and a great salesperson in into the best. That's why I think there's a lot of things that Fab didn't do right I think Jason also has a lot of a lot of strength. Jason: [10:03] In fact he's just starting a new gig which is in the. [10:08] So he found that follow that and start getting that email the you also we talked a lot about Amazon being a friend of me they for sure for you because you have a book that's for sale on Amazon. Daniel: [10:21] I dare I do so passion and purpose. This is going back to 2011 when it was published. The book was really your kind of written at a time when. The economy was talking like this was post financial crisis you know recession was in the air and more importantly. So the ins the core institutions of business were being very much attacked right so I. Why do people pee in the cross the sun on the banking system I think that's a fair characterization. I think large companies are big corporations kind of the Fortune 100 with being. [11:12] Torn down in the in the media and dosage kind of General anti-business anti-capitalist kind of climate right. I really didn't drive with what we were seeing you know it business school and end with some of the folks. Scot: [11:27] The icons in under which was. Daniel: [11:28] But I come tonight which was folks that we using business and they're in their own start a company specifically to kind of be a force for good. And so the book was really a bad hey how did how can we eliminate the stories these kind of green shoes. Folks that are your whether it was in sustainability whether it was in cleantech whether it was in your more traditional kind of Industries trying to. Generate profits but not disregard their obligations to other stakeholders. And so sent you the book is about those people in those stories and trying to provide some inspiration to. The folks in an engender more trust in kind of market economies and and capitalist system is more generally. So I would say Amazon in that do not census is a friend because you know we pretty much know all about all that product for Amazon. Books fit on the Cowboys. Scot: [12:37] Brickell let's dig into to Comcast Center so, every VC that I know has kind of really good kind of a synopsis of what the firm's sweet spot is you guys are interesting cuz you have that Comcast word in there so I would love to hear and understand how that brings the weight of a large corporation to two potential startups, and then would love to hear kind of a Lil Bit about some portfolio highlights of the company's you've invested in while you're there. Daniel: [13:01] Absolutely so yes the way I think about it it's kind of VC Plus. Right so at Comcast Ventures we are first and foremost financially motivated. So it's a it's a completely separate your full of capital all of the partners around the table are. Compensated based on the performance about investing right which is I think. Fundamentally different from a lot of kind of quote-unquote strategic funds out there right so first and foremost was looking for. Great companies Great teams in promising sectors and yoga with the with the goal of generating Roi on this. [13:49] Plus part of it is really around a relation. Kind of special relationship with a soil P which is come to you. Comcast NBC you when you when you can I think about it between the Coca-Cola video Business Wireless bsmd side of the business. Your media side of the business the theme parks out of the visit you want to go on and on and on. It's kind of rare the startup company Weatherby you consume a company or Enterprise company that doesn't have something to gain from a relationship with compass and BECU. So where possible and kind of time these things right. Auntie on both sides we try to we try to broker relationships between between both sides and so really good example of that is showing aggression. So your NBC has your original programming. And and your TV can be really great customer acquisition tool and so y'all better pull for a company shine wear. We really tried to look for opportunities to integrate the shine message in the shine product in the shine story. Into core Embassy you don't listen to the NBC slight that's a really really it's one example of many of how. Scot: [15:21] Play a tool not every VC can bring to the table. Daniel: [15:26] Is one of these things when nothing is again you have to kind of time these things right nothing is promised and lots of stuff but it's something that I think I find at least it helps me differentiate in the Moc. Scot: [15:38] Yeah must be nice to because you could you let say your shoptalk you see this interesting marketing technology from assassin der you can go to you know imagine there's like a. Yo of Pride the best marketing people in the world you can go to and say Hey how do you feel about this cool new email thing or because you know cuz you guys are doing it at a scale that so you know top 20 kind of a scale and they may say wow that's pretty interesting or, oh I've been doing that for 8 years and after that. Must be nice on your side to go and be able to get some real verification from. From practitioners that are doing the stuff on a daily basis. Daniel: [16:12] It is that's all true I think the other point to make is. [16:18] You think about kind of I think I'll give you his financial returns almost proceed strategic value. I feel like there two ways you can look at it one is hey let me just take what Comcast NBC you can currently interested in. And go in investing of sectors by that's one lens and that's a lot of strategic funds corporate funds if the other lands like let me go out and find the best companies. And yeah I think we take that approach because we feel like those companies. Future I will actually be most beneficial to someone who come cost me see you right so that's one kind of premise which is kind of financial value per seeds. [17:03] Eventually eventually create strategic value not the other way around necessarily. I think secondly if you actually look at the data and I was going through this the other day it's kind of like the the hottest sectors of today. [17:19] Accurately predict the best returns of tomorrow I took you look at. [17:26] You're so old I threw that the different life cycles attack you know. Scot: [17:33] If it can be the case that. Daniel: [17:33] Can be the case that you're a hot sector today generates in a great great returns but in general we see that your prices got bit off you get a lot of me to competition to protect I'm sorry. What we really try to focus on his Less on. Sir sector-wide bats but he only the only stage and more and like the individual. Companies in the individual teams and we feel like they're building something kind of unique and interesting I think we we definitely take the point of view that. [18:06] Have to be you have to be contrarian rights to make money right. Scot: [18:12] Go to the you are just some of the normal DC kind of parameters is there a guy's is a certain stage we like series ABC seed and then is there a certain kind of investment amount that you're looking for, what's nice about strategic books is a lot of times I have a lot more flexibility than you know like certain BC will go to their limited partners and go get it. Pretty boxed in LW you know we are a you know, we're looking for series B and their company has to have 5 million in revenue and Scooby consumer internet and and really very specific are you guys where do you find that special. Daniel: [18:45] I would say historically we would have more specific and today we're very. When much more General ride sir historically and I think this is the driving Factor he was kind of around the table would just kind of mole latest stage in their orientation right so we used to. Your before I joined sent me focused on I didn't say post-series be investing. And probably more heavily on the Enterprise so I've been consumed inside. Your ad tax ass even infrastructure was kind of more of the focus I would say since then I've lost you in five or so years. Your appetite for early-stage investing has kind of dramatically increase the man we still we still do a lot of growth growth investing and was still. We got a grave to the Enterprise to be practiced by. Your what we saw was your mormal companies getting through locked up by deep-pocketed BC pretty early on in their in their life cycle. And you're the facts about it was just like we weren't getting a shot if we went already in those companies and so. Increasingly we you know I focus on Seton series I investing almost exclusively and my colleagues and so. You're when you still have put it all together we are a. [20:16] Relatively sector agnostic your and now stage agnostic I think there is some there is some markets that you going to where you kind of say. You know we want to let this play out a little bit and come in a little bit later and and right Bigga checks later. What weekend are we now it's too pretty big effort equipped off this year. And your we've been tracking the space for a number of years and for a variety of different reasons felt like now was a time so come in and. And we're focusing on early stage investing in in in that area and there's some other markets where. Call Madison's is one example of that where. We feel like we can be really competitive at the light stage as well as the early stage and we're happy to sometimes let things play out before kind of jumping in with an investment so it's highly. Secta dependent the teal point I think we've got the flexibility to too so to enter it at most points in the in the business cycle. Scot: [21:22] So give us some so I went through some of the portfolio companies maybe give us like a little kind of summary of some of the ones that would be most appropriate for like the shop talk kind of obvious. Daniel: [21:32] Yeah so just a couple that I've invested in your one of them is a company called a way which is a direct-to-consumer travel brand. So I invested in that company in July 2015 was was when the seed round but Don. And really the the thesis around the investment was you've gone. [21:57] You've got these pretty big incumbents in in Stamps not into me that don't actually generate a ton of. Excitement with consumers and yet at the same time your luggage is a 9 billion dollar category domestically in. Yeah it it's a it's a it's a huge Market opportunity the same time those play as one. Digital natives right and so. You know you could see the opportunity from pretty dramatic shift if someone came in you know applied the DDC model to that industry. And instead of Market themselves is so it is aspirational travel ranches what why is Don and I think. I think it's going a lot faster than than even to the. Investigative have would have predicted and I think that growth is being pretty astounding. They I think you've successfully created like one of the things that I would think about is what makes a great DC brand right like why does away succeed when others even in the category of failed. And I think the thing that makes a really good day to see if I think that away what is white has done really well is created This Woman's aspirational World for the consumer the kind of stepping right so it was never about. Nickel specifications of the suitcase it was never a. Even the suitcase it was about the story around this lighting of the travel the global traveler last all that these millennials. [23:38] I think really took too early. And the fact that matter is when you create that aspirational lifestyle that kind of gives you the license to sell a lot of things to the consumer right like starting with luggage but today they announced. Front pocket you know last week they announced your aluminum luggage a lot of other really interesting things in the pot. But you could have you could have only done that if you had first kind of laid that brand Foundation nothing that's where in the DDC will receive the bifurcation where you know. You would have glossy or away or Casper you guys done such a great job selling the lifestyle to the consumer. And I mean the ones that we see the less successful and just kind of pushing product and playing the same kind of LTD cat game is everyone else in and you got feels a lot more on Sanibel to us. Yeah I think of ways been a really exciting company for us and I think. To give you an example of as more of a Marketplace investment led the series a round in a company called mealpal. Which is a subscription service for meals that you pick up. Scot: [24:54] Meals that you take off. Daniel: [24:57] So that the. Scot: [24:59] This is made by individuals kind of so like I'm a cook I have some extra capacity I want to join the marketplace. Daniel: [25:05] Restaurant meals so existing existing restaurant in the thesis there was really. The market for a $15 cheeseburger delivered to you for an $8 delivery fees pretty tiny Market I think we got. Jason: [25:23] You're looking at that Mark. Daniel: [25:24] It's a it's a you know. The top 1% top of top of Market that you kind of solving for that and it's a pretty. It's a pretty crowded Market actually if you think about all the different plays at it there in that space it's a mealpal was really coming out of it What attracted me to point of view which is. Instead of charging for delivery we going to contact cost out of the chain I'm going to I'm going to give value to the to the consumer and so they're actually going for. You're essentially the most affordable restaurant lunch you can get right into the. The The Innovation there is such kind of the pricing model Innovation there is really to these restaurants in the thousands of restaurants on the on the platform there in 13 series you're going really quick way. The Innovation there was really supply-side innovation. There their deals with with the restaurants and kind of how they get the restaurants to the Albright profitably is being I think pretty unique. I did exactly the business actually has to Marshall a lot of really. Interesting elements right around data around to the operational aspects of the business around you know managing me. Whole Fleet of restaurants in are there a lot of things I have to kind of come together to have this. Lee seamless consumer experience and I think. [27:01] It's one of those it's one of those like complex coordination businesses where you know if you get a ride to Canby it can be really powerful and I think you know the end of the day the market for a $6 restaurant launches. Channel more times bigger than the market for a $19 cheeseburger delivered to you so that's why we got excited about that one. Scot: [27:22] Can you go to these restaurants now and I got his one Chinese on today they really have 10 devices lined up and they've gotten enough to Uber Eats tablet the GrubHub tablet there's usually like to local ones like, in North Carolina we have order up and something else and it some point you're like this is not sustainable. Daniel: [27:39] The last thing we wanted to do was just be another kind of delivery player right we wanted to really crave I for these restaurants. Jason: [27:47] What is interesting to me about that space though is that. [27:51] For a long time we had these are the traditional segmentations of these. Scot: [27:54] Segmentations of these bites. Jason: [27:56] Different ways that consumer saw their eating problem like groceries versus Ready-to-Eat versus USR versus fast casual in life. [28:04] The digital disruption of all of those businesses if it feels right at the moment like all bets are off and they all are potentially competing with each other for the consumer use cases. Daniel: [28:17] I think that's definitely true I think we in the food space generally speaking have. I think what stopped in the in in the food space. Is that you're trying to combine you know Logistics which is essentially a very low margin tough complex business with. Your food prep which is a food supply chains which is like a really low mileage and top business with delivery which is a really let you know like it. I think we're a lot of these players have really Fallen is is impetigo somebody's restaurant today. Maple is a pretty good example where they're just really really low margin complex businesses that done a lot of cash you know I think we could companies it's one where. Retention is is is Yokai the issue there any kind of what happens if you just kind of Chun through your early adopters in your Cactus and it goes off popping up and and kind of Hit the ceiling on. Basement running through your audience so I think we theoretically agree that you know that. Grocery stores selling full movies online in a way that it hasn't in the in the past but I think that will be the domain of the logic. Players so like I just walked into my local Whole Foods on the weekend like the whole front portion of the whole foods with the Amazon 2-hour delivery Prime Bridge. [29:54] And I think that like when you have that scale when you have that physical full praying you're you're really well position to. Century like execute on an omni-channel play right which is order online and they speaking store your kind of leveraging both your online and offline assets. I think for a company starting today. Scot: [30:19] That. Daniel: [30:21] It's kind of subscale I think we feel like the the the ones that are going to win have to have a pretty big balance sheets. Scot: [30:30] Yeah. Daniel: [30:32] I'm wearing dresses in a company in instacart which is a company that space where they have a really big balance sheet and they are doing really well but. Your takes it takes awhile to get there not every company and get the. Jason: [30:47] Yeah it was interesting I moderated a panel on the future of grocery at the show yesterday in one of the the That's My Pan was the founder of Chef. [30:56] And he is so there I mean okay company in his POV was very much. [31:02] The future of me on kids is on demand Not subscription because of the fatigue issues you mentioned and that it's most likely store pickup versus direct-to-consumer which feels like the sort of your bed mealpal as well. Daniel: [31:14] Yeah and I think again that's one where. [31:18] Tren can always favors the incumbents little bit more than the disruptors. And so yeah we never want to throw the baby out with the bathwater when when making Investments why we we try not to redline categories we try to really focus on the individual companies that will be the winners. But I think that one is at your pretty capital-intensive one. Jason: [31:45] Switching topics right away cuz you you mention to instacart and it suddenly dawned on me. [31:53] You you must have some relationship with Unilever because I know you're both investors in instacart and you have a really famous exhibit in our in our space that use Ulta Unilever. Daniel: [32:05] Yeah so your Dollar Shave Club was an investment that one of my partner is Rick Ross co-lead you know that. Business I mean from the get-go was pretty early stories about every business is a roller coaster and nothing goes up and to the right I think that's one where. We pretty much went up into the ride. Time you're right from the get-go right from the video all the way through the 2 to the exit I mean with a few exceptions but for the most part was a very very healthy business kind of early on and so stay that way. You know I think increasingly. For a lot of these big e-commerce Acquisitions you know whether it's in jet whether it's a Dollar Shave Club where there's a chewy. [32:54] It always becomes if you're obviously the fundamentals are important I think. [33:00] Critical to to Taconic stop the conversation. I think a lot of the times these companies and now thinking about how quickly e-commerce is happening and. The fact that if they don't move quickly they're kind of going to get left in the dust and so they're almost thinking about these Acquisitions as. Scot: [33:22] Extent of market cap. Daniel: [33:23] Percent of market cap when was like an insurance play and I think that's what's driving a lot of these kind of strategic multiples I think Dollar Shave Club could have definitely been Justified on fundamentals. But I think that was that was as much a fundamental kind of lead m&a story is it was a strategic Ma. Scot: [33:47] Yeah I think I read some stories and I don't know any of the numbers but I think they were putting some pressure on like Gillette and they're like starting to feel it at the cash register. So I was more than insurance policy is really on to something and eating our lunch. Daniel: [34:03] Totally. Totally and I think it was that was more of like a P&G story but I think the Unilever was a great opportunity to kind of get a shot at running the the male bathroom right so like it was a story around raises but I think. Other ancillary products. Scot: [34:21] Scot some interesting knock on effects there's an activist very active and P&G right now and his whole thesis as you should have bought Dollar Shave Club and you're not doing enough to go to racton, and it's really interesting to see these these really big brand get shaken up from the top down because they day or not interesting enough and direct consumer in France. Daniel: [34:41] Totally and I think you know this way cuz you have to give the Toys R Us and use your that's one where. [34:47] I just feel like that company is being really slow doing today you know it's it's they you're in this huge category. Scot: [34:55] Huge category. Daniel: [34:57] You've got the biggest physical footprint you know in the world in the category you've got almost ubiquitous awareness amongst consumer and and and Muldrow. And so why it's not. [35:13] I think I could have done a lot to Sriracha themselves into this new era and I kind of didn't see the result on the retail side what we see is almost. Application of like retail so I think it's fashionable to come out and say and Retail his dad these retail apocalypse whatever. I think what we're really seeing is there pockets of retail that actually make a lot of sense in that a growing really quickly like off price is really good example of. Actor value segment of retail is growing really fast. And I'll pry specifically are you okay to Ross you work at a TJ you look at a Nordstrom Rack you'll get a Saks OFF Fifth like all of the growth in in in the causes businesses are from the off-price channel. Increasingly Seymour Mo Supply made for channel made for a price you know I think on the other end of the spectrum you got a lot of growth in luxury I think it was as you see the premium ization of also different categories in. You know. The rich getting richer and I think the growth in the luxury segment kind of place to that I think where we see a lot of. Issues a kind of the middle ground right so where you know you know the value play to the consumer you know the luxury play. You kind of a middle play which I think is increasingly kind of nothing play because I think that's where. [36:45] A piece is that where e-commerce your kids you the hottest that's where I was on hit you really hard and I think that's where you saying a lot of these bankruptcies in and what not wear. There's no basis for differentiation in the consumers mind and you just never going to win on price and selection and so that's where they're all failing. Scot: [37:04] Yeah but if you're if you're neither value or convenient then you're toast like Toys R Us isn't like a convenient place to go and it said we not value Macy's allow these guys are closing stores are kind of stuck in that. The Death Valley in the middle there we had books from the light on and they have a really good report about this when they called the retail bifurcation and it got really good data around that that that's a definitely something that that all brands and retailer should have in mind I think. I'm going to think about who they're going after, you kind of brought it up so it was big into it and it wouldn't be a Jason Scott show we did talk a little bit about Amazon how much does that factor into your investment decisions you know what kind of, you know what used to be like when I started mine when I first companies I was like oh my gosh what do you know about Google and then it was you know, there's always some company that that's kind of top of mine with investors seems like Amazon's definitely least in the Public Market Chino they they open up pharmacy license in you have some little part of Florida in like all the, all the drug stores are down 30% is that when you guys go in is that like one of the main things you think about. Daniel: [38:02] For sure yeah I think it's really hot if you know if you have latest at our soul was Amazon is taking like 60% of every new e-commerce tall are coming on stream. And that piss and his actually. Going off of velocity is so I think he's got a tumble is a couple years ago that number was 50% now 60% and so they're actually increasing their share of new e-commerce dollars which is. Kind of scary at the same time like. [38:35] You're speaking to a Avicii friend of mine, talking about shop talk is always become like how to play defense against Amazon. [38:45] There's some retailers again that's that's probably the right you know it's probably a gender item number one. Scot: [38:51] But I don't think that. Daniel: [38:51] I don't think that it is a given that I'm as on will you know when across all categories all geographies or. Your consumer segments is that right I think there was a time where you could serve. Draw boundaries around what Amazon would do ride like they would never get into it supposedly never getting to Fresh That was supposed to be never be able to do high-end fashion like boundaries and now being kind of broken down as Amazon. And needs to be in the biggest markets and will be in the biggest markets at the same time you know I think you. As investors we really think about what are the stop with the consumer. What are the vectors on which consumers make their buying decisions. Price convenience selection experience all the way down to the list and I think you are seeing like I think the data C. The revolution is coming. Because you've got proprietary product not available on Amazon you got right brand stories and you've got your value for money. Scot: [39:57] And I think. Daniel: [40:00] I think you're you're seeing the success of these Brands I think. In a world where I'm is on his is actually you're gaining share I think you're both things can be true but I think you can have vibrant. Lifestyle brands that are worth your billions and billions of dollars and you can also have at the same time I was on kind of growing and you know I don't think those two things are mutually exclusive. You know I think that they're they're all the pockets right like I've been feeling a lot of time in. Sir cross-border near the international weather it is retail is based of the Seas or. Trying to play the geographical Arbitrage between for the east and west and kind of like what wishes done before are the categories and we've seen some great companies in the space that are really trying to. Reinvent the value equation for consumers like I think they did it say brands are really educated consumers that. Traditional Brands can be a riff off right and I think. You look at businesses like Hoshi look at businesses like wish either either going to be really really want me we shorty is a really really big business. In part because it is a value play but also because it's fun right it's fun to shop wish like we're investors in a company hold holler it. [41:27] That the vector those guys are competing on one of the back doors is a shopping experience. Scot: [41:32] And so. Daniel: [41:33] And so that's another thing that we're looking at here which is. I love this company shop shops which is kind of live streaming platform where influences can kind of come on in and talk about the products that they're excited about it and eventually have continued transact like. That's something shopping as entertainment feels like something that I'm is on. Ward get too early. And so you know. Yes roundabout way of answering question like yeah we definitely think about Amazon same time and we try to be full full. Where I'm is on would be weak. And make investments accordingly the other datapoint is like it when you talk about Fanatics or chewy or like these are all. Your horizontal multi-brand retailers right. Arguably competing head-to-head with Amazon so like some of the biggest outcomes that we say some of these companies alike actually. Directly competing with Amazon and so I don't think it's a given I don't fall in the camp that like your multi-brand retail was Dad and it's kind of Amazon forever and ever. I think that you know. [42:49] For those companies I think the main. Echo by which a computer customer service and so you really trying to get the customer to shop you for a particular category ride for cherry wood. [43:03] Yeah I think Pat's I think my pad I think Cherry Fest and I think if you can do that you can't really compete against against I was adding takes a lot of things really hard to do that increasingly difficult to do that like a job is to really try to find the. Exceptions. Jason: [43:19] We we hear that a lot though the shoppertainment component being a potential differentiator the sort of. [43:27] Discovery X-Type experiences nothing Amazon strengths but you put all those things together in the the big winner that we think at the moment is the most defensible against Amazon is branded live marijuana plants. [43:40] Just as I am. Scot: [43:41] I'm done with Dad. Daniel: [43:42] I'm going down I'm doubling down. Scot: [43:43] When I before I move on from the Amazon topic so the one tactical kind of thing that a lot of Brands struggle with and you're just too kind of pick you up you mentioned a way which is kind of a travel company. Should they sell on Amazon so you created this this brand if you're not an Amazon you're missing like 60% of e-commerce so. An unbiased on this one cuz you started companies helps people selling Amazon so but it is an interesting dilemma because you know. The argument against it would be all right now we're going to educate Amazon in this category were going to show him our best sellers will come out with private label but you're kind of like you know damned if you do damned if you don't so. Daniel: [44:22] Yeah I think where I coming come down on that is it really depends on the company I think if you are building. I think the risk with selling on Amazon for direct consumer that brand that's what we're talking about is. You get your scent to get commoditized weed in the Amazon environment I'd still like. What what happens is you of your number x on a list of products and your the consumer is essentially. Intent driven enough discovery-driven in and very very very price conscious right and so if you think about a brand that is trying to tell its story. Amazon the Amazon environment just doesn't give you much. Breath to give you much rope to tell your brand story right and they're going to a discussion earlier then give you any, way to create this world that consumes kind of step into going back to what makes a great Lifestyle brand. There are a ton of risks or d2c brands that are trying to tell this all encompassing story. Deciding to go on Amazon for the volume and find themselves speak commoditized I actually think about it last is like Amazon copy your and I have so much dead already without you being there that like. Went out investors in older than me if you look at all soon as such old is on Amazon like there are hundreds of CopyCat products already right. [45:53] Weather old veggies on there or not I think that that activities would have happens. So it's I think on the brand side it's it's kind of tough to two face. Commoditization. That's it I didn't Amazon I'm actually looking for companies that are leveraging Amazon of the platform right and so like I think that. [46:15] You know I think that there are really interesting things you can do with Amazon data outside in. I think they're really interesting things you can learn from trending products on Amazon. And I think some at the same time on the supply chain side things are getting a lot quicker than they've ever being right to life. I'd love to see more companies that are actually kind of. Playing to the strengths of Amazon and really trying to leverage Amazon and you talk about some of the biggest companies in the world like. A lot of a lot of becoming get started because you have some sort of distribution unlock. I need to think about gaming space single on Facebook right it is very obvious example where you know. You kind of unlock this proprietary distribution you can get this guy really quickly. Amazon could be. Now for for the right types of companies you know. Types of companies will be aspirational lifestyle Brands but I think there are other types of companies that are more kind of data-driven foston you know companies that you can see being I could built on Amazon and being very successful. Jason: [47:29] If you are you trying to see any like Amazon ad Tech deals yet that seems like I've been coming space. Daniel: [47:35] Definitely we pray like every off AC haven't really focus on that Tech recently. But yeah I think there's some really interesting I think I think Amazon itself is only starting to get into the potential of the their platform in that in that respect I think. Name something that we continue to look out for and we've seen a couple we haven't really. Well I'm really dog and I think to the extent that we will but suddenly interested in that in that space in those opportunities I also think that like. I think about bonobos is an example on on Facebook you on Facebook open that right rail like one of us was right there and I think they had benefited a lot from those early. Nordstrom sales perspective but just from an iguana spective like if you were on Facebook you were in their target market at that time like you sold but overhear you sore but other side and I think Amazon. Add ecosystem is out of similar kind of point in time out where it's not. I think in a couple of years it'll be very very expensive I don't think it's quite there yet so there's this kind of this window of time. Jason: [48:49] Not if it's going to be interesting to watch I think you know special. [48:53] It's becoming important platform for all the brands into your like months earlier contrarian point like I. [48:59] Probably wouldn't be very excited about adtec around Google or Facebook at the moment but but Amazon may be an interesting space and we had a couple of interesting guest on the show that I want a pivot the. Scot: [49:10] I want to put it though. Jason: [49:13] One for the last last set of questions before we have to break. [49:19] All these Trends due to the sort of the traditional notion of a store I know I am in particular you you. Scot: [49:26] Mentioned the way which I think. Jason: [49:30] A way which I think I have a couple stores. Daniel: [49:34] . yeah yeah so we spend we spend a lot of time thinking about then you store format right and I think. [49:43] That probably gives it away right which is like when not we don't think about it as. [49:48] This this nice wipe out of physical retail you think about it and he's probably a pretty consensus of you we think about it as the innovation of the stall format. And what does that actually mean right so you know you know why is example display the the easiest one to Think Through. Yeah you going to the store you got to walk to the back of the stores to find a suit, right like it is it's it's a it's a very intentionally design store. Around giving the consumer a inspiring the consumer to think about travel and. And really dig into that you're the next. Yeah that actually like it's funny like in the New York still have got a cafe with all these travel guidebooks a lot of people sit there and read these guide books and. Yeah it is the stores are intentionally designed to kind of make you think about traveling and have you think about traveling always give you this. Oasis like in your day to kind of have that space and and. Scot: [50:54] How do you buy into that buy my cell right now. Daniel: [50:54] How do you buy into that that last all right and then I serve at the end of that process your hair if you want to buy suitcase we have them to. That's a very different it's a nuanced but very important distinction. Between your something like that and you're the physical store as a repository of product. When you think about the physical stores are product repository that's kind of dying and I'll Ghibli. That death is kind of going to come about foxes in a lot of people think I think it's one of those things where you kind of declined 2% a year and then you cut a full off a cliff because the operational Leverage is is such the bad happens. [51:44] If you can and we think a lot of that stores as experiences and what does that mean for the individual brand and not trying to push you Prada. And I think some of them are tactical parameters that are typically smaller format stores typically less inventory in the store sometimes no inventory in the store. Typically an online offline sync right whether it be. The conversion happens online and pickup happens offline or is some data collection online and you know the inventory fulfillment happened I'll fly out of whatever the parameters are. Your we talked about small short-term leases only said about Tactical. I think. Scot: [52:35] We really it's. Daniel: [52:36] We really it's kind of rare the direct-to-consumer brand at scale that won't have their own stone at work I think that store network will look very different to the incumbent stone at work. Jason: [52:48] I suspect a you may well be right and Daniel that's going to be a great place to leave it for today because it's happen again we've used. About a lot of time so folks want to continue the conversation we didn't charge you to jump on her. [53:01] Page and leave us some questions if you enjoyed Today Show we would certainly appreciate you jumping on iTunes and giving us that 5-star review. Scot: [53:09] Daniel thanks for doing this today if people want to find you online what's the best way to find you. Daniel: [53:13] You can tweet at me I'm at Daniel Galati Daniel gulati on Twitter. Scot: [53:20] Awesome thanks Ryan coming. Jason: [53:22] Until next time happy commercing.

Daniel Gulati is partner at Comcast Ventures, a corporate venture firm focused on early stage consumer internet companies. Prior to becoming a VC, Daniel founded FashionStake an indie online designer marketplace which was later acquired by Fab.com. He also an author, prior consultant and blockchain enthusiast. Listen and Learn: How ecommerce has evolved and continues... The post The Law of Small Numbers, Power Law Investing and Picking Unicorn Startups with Daniel Gulati of Comcast Ventures appeared first on The Syndicate.

In this episode, Hall T. Martin conducts an interview with Roger Chen of Silverton Partners. Silverton Partners has been around for 15 years and currently investing out of their fifth fund. A technology investor prior to joining Silverton, Roger was a Principal with Genacast Ventures in New York, a leading seed-stage VC firm affiliated with Comcast Ventures. He previously spent time with Comcast Ventures and Fontinalis Partners, and has been a consultant to several West Coast VCs. Prior to venture capital, Roger spent time at various tech firms including Google as a Product Manager for Google Maps. Hall and Roger discuss Roger's thoughts on entering the VC space and what surprised him the most. They also speak on some of the key skills needed to be successful as a VC and some of the key trends happening.

As Director of Comcast Ventures, Gil Beyda is interested in “hard technology problems.” Comcast Ventures is the investment arm of Comcast/NBC Universal and according to Beyda, he is incredibly “excited” about blockchain technology and the potential for new business models. Comcast Ventures works with a diverse range of products and businesses, but Beyda is mostly involved in B to B enterprises that deal with hard technology including cybersecurity, “the internet of things”, blockchains and IT. According to Beyda, the cybersecurity space is quite interesting today because of the “cat and mouse game” that allows hackers to use the same tools that enterprises benefit from such as cloud storage and open source applications. As for blockchain technology, Beyda predicts the core blockchain technology will be able to accelerate many business and act as a springboard to new products and services. He sees tremendous potential in the use of blockchain in advertising, loyalty/reward programs, and “the internet of things.”

ShopTalk is an annual trade show held in Las Vegas focused on retail and e-commerce innovation.  In it's third year, it has become the fastest growing can't miss event in our industry.  This year 8,400 industry professionals attended the event (up from 5,400 last year).  The 2018 version took place March 18-21, 2018 at the Venetian in Las Vegas. There is so much content at the show, that we've divided our recap into two parts.  You can get part 1 here, in Part 2 we cover: Grocery Track - Catering to new consumer - Narayan Iyengar, Senior VP of Digital at Albertsons Glossier Keynote - Emily Weiss, CEO+Founder Amazon Keynote - Eric Broussard - VP of International Marketplaces and Retail Coach Keynote - Joshua Schulman Walmart Keynote - Mark Lore and Andy Dunn Houzz Keynote - Alon Cohen president and co-founder Google Keynote - Daniel Alegere, President, Retail and Shopping Code Commerce - Erik Nordstrom  (President of Nordstrom) and  Don Kingsborough (CEO One market) Code Commerce - Doordash - Tony Xu, CEO Code Commerce - Jennifer Hyman, CEO, Rent the Runway eBay Keynote - AI eBay Keynote Jan Pedersen, Chief Scientist and Scott Cutler, SVP, Americas Ascena Keynote - Ascena Keynote - David Jaffe, Chairman & CEO Boxed Keynote - Chieh Huang, CEO We've been honored to be included on a few lists of top e-commerce podcasts this week. DisruptorDaily Top 10 Retail Industry Podcasts BoldCommerce 16 Best E-commerce Podcasts of 2018 Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 122 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday, March 22, 2018. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this episode is being recorded on Thursday March 22nd 2018 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:38] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners episode wanted to take a rare pause on the show and Pat ourselves on the back. Jason: [0:52] Let's do it my arm is breaking as I'm doing it. Scot: [0:54] Awesome, T-Rex help Pizza patting himself on the back of fun fun dinosaur fact so we have received a couple accolades on the show much to our surprise so first of all there is a site called disruptor daily and they rank podcast and different, Industries and they put the Jason Scott show on their top 10 retail industry podcast so that was exciting. And then another company called bold Commerce they put out 16 of the top e-commerce podcast books are pretty intense cuz you can tell they actually listen to all the different podcast out there, we can even put forth on that one so our goal next year is to move up the list or real happy to be placed in the top quartile there and they took three of their favorite episodes. And one of them was episode 74 with our good friend Melissa Burdick so thanks to Melissa for helping us make the list next up was. Episode 89 which was our hot take on the Whole Foods Amazon acquisition and last but not least Andrea. Like episode 83 so it's good that we before we even saw this we had have them both back on the show for a second appearance so it's good that we since those were quite popular that we've had those books back on. Jason: [2:13] Yeah you know there's a little inside baseball on the Jason Scott show there's a lot of. Jogging for the first guest to get a third appearance on the show I know it's very competitive and I'm a little worried that some violence could come into play. Scot: [2:30] The knives are out for sure really kind of trying to figure out what's going to happen there so this this is a good. Jason: [2:38] Sorry one of the important side note about the Bold Commerce list number 10 on that list was our friend Eric you didn't at ecommercefuel who's been doing a great podcast for a very long time and what was cool about that is their favorite episode of of of Andrews was an interview with me, so basically I'm the most powerful person on the list. Scot: [2:59] Absolutely I don't think anyone would disagree that. We'd like to thank our listeners for a we could not be receiving these accolades if it weren't for you guys. We always talk about it in the show so I'll put in a plug here, it definitely helps us to continue to get listeners and receive factly it's like this if you subscribe to the show so whatever your favorite podcast listening technology is be at the iTunes iOS podcast app or whatever, please make sure you subscribe that helps us with our podcast SEO rankings and definitely tell your friends. [3:37] Poop so jumping right in here and episode 122 this is so we we continued. We concluded Shock Talk yesterday and while it's still fresh in our minds we wanted update everyone on the highlights from the show so the second part of a two-part series, back and we back in episode 121 we covered the first half is kind of halftime report of what happened at shoptalk so that covered the Sunday and Monday of the four days and then here in episode 122 we're going to cover the back half for the second half of shop talk and really dive into what happened Tuesday and Wednesday. Jason why don't you kick it off with some of the first things that you attended Tuesday morning. Jason: [4:18] So I have to start with some hearsay news we were recording a podcast so I didn't get a chance to attend this, but there was a the grocery track was going on Tuesday morning and at least to me a piece of news broke in the grocery track of the VP of digital at Albertson's announced that, Albertsons would be launching a third-party Marketplace in the grocery space on their site later this year so they were they were soliciting, applications from sellers interested in being on the marketplace. Scot: [4:53] Sprinkle and dumb, I read the news report and it said something like is almost a dig at Amazon Whole Foods at there's something about those guys are some brands are leaving and Albertsons was building this Marketplace almost as a home for this works is that is that kind of. Jason: [5:11] At least partially in again I wasn't at the session so I'm kind of putting some pieces together you know as we've covered on the show little bit like there. There has been some blowback in the Whole Foods acquisition. And it's not clear whether this was driven by Amazon or this was a change that, Whole Foods was in the process of making sort of in parallel with the Amazon acquisition Whole Foods used to have a very sort of local orientation with their suppliers and so individual. [5:42] Stores could buy from suppliers suppliers could have autonomy to do their own merchandise in the store and they're welcome to come into the store and set up their own displays and do sampling and things like that. And coincidental with the Amazon acquisition. Whole Foods has moved to a much more National management of vendors are some of the small vendors have gotten kicked out some of the vendors have less control over their own stuff in the stores and as you can imagine some of the vendor community. Is a little disgruntled with that so I think weather. Weather that's you know actual discontent or whether you know that's just a mild annoyance it it certainly makes sense that a competitor like Albertsons would try to make some hey there and I think they. They mention that's one of the reasons that they that they wanted to offer a a. Marketplace alternative to Amazon in the groceries based I would also say in some ways Albertsons has been one of the more digitally aggressive. Traditional Grocers so that you know that they brought out a lot of the. Expected program GNC like expect to see like curbside pickup but you know they also made the. The hugest acquisition in the traditional grocery space they they even spent over a billion dollars on plated to have their own did you admit native meal kit service since I know you know this is. You. There's a lot of questions in my mind about how a market place for fresh would work but the. [7:15] You know I I will certainly be watching it and will cover it on the show. Scot: [7:19] Grateful I'm just excited to have more marketplaces out there this is going to be a theme of today show Ms is Mo marketplaces so, that's exciting and it'll be interesting to see you know they're what their vision of a grocery market place looks like sometimes we find retailers use the language Marketplace but really what they mean is just kind of Dropship so you know they, they use EDI and curated kind of a thing and kind of old-school mechanisms to expand their selection versus when I think of marketplace it's usually much more you know of an Amazon Marketplace, model or even an eBay where you know any brand could go to Albertsons and say Hey I want to join this Marketplace I've got this cool hip new that are no energy drink or something and want to make it available to your audience so, well I'll be eagerly watching to see what you learn about what it looks like. Jason: [8:08] Yeah yeah and I assume your strength is much deeper than mine in this bed. I suspect you agree it's not uncommon for a retailer to underestimate the complexities of running a Marketplace. Scot: [8:22] Yes absolutely. Jason: [8:23] Yep so then we wrapped up the podcast we were recording and we made it to the first keynote in the morning which was Emily Weiss who's the CEO and founder of glass CA. Garcia is a cool digitally native brand in the beauty space that has been experiencing rapid growth and gets a lot of Buzz and Emily you know strictly talked about is one of the sword. Next Generation female leaders of successful company so it was interesting to hear from her. And she talked a lot about sort of what she called the new definition of a brand. And you know this is a theme that continued with some of the other speakers and that. I've been continuing to have with some folks on Twitter you know right up to Showtime today. But there's that you know this notion of of another company no longer being in charge in the consumer being in charge and so you know Emily describe glassy a as a brand that was really designed. Around listening to the customer instead of talking to the customer until she talked a lot about how traditional. Brands when they when they you know want to be more customer-centric there their real goal is to make the customer feel like they're heard and you know she was making the point that. Making customers feel like their hood is heard is a far cry from actually hearing customers. [9:55] Answer sheet you know she thinks a lot of their you know what their goals are disingenuous and then it's much harder to build a company that's really responsive to things are hearing from customers. And that the way this manifest itself is she's like you know the days when a customer turns to an expert be that a spokesperson or brand. For product Discovery are sort of over in her mind and she thinks that you know today, with the Advent of digital in 1 to 100 and all this transparency that consumers are much more likely to turn to the their peers for product Discovery than they are to, decentralized experts and and her proofpoint for that is the 80% of all of her customers came to Glass EA based on a peer recommendation and so, that was interesting to me because it's a it's a thing that that comes up in a couple of the other presentations on on Wednesday about the role of, a brand and how important brand is in the role of of sort of spokespersons and celebrity endorsers in those sorts of things so so more to come on that. Scot: [11:01] Close confused for most of this one because where I come from we call it glossier and I was like where is the glossier person and never could find them. Jason: [11:12] Yep when you work for a French company you learn to make everything sound a little more pompous. Scot: [11:21] Then I after the glossier keynote we had Amazon and this exciting as they had to Amazon Keynotes at the show which is pretty unusual usually pretty. Turtle wish they didn't like to come to these events and really say much but at if your member in the first half we talked about the Amazon go execs they're talking about that and then here we had Eric Broussard. He is a VP of international, International marketplaces and Retail at Amazon. [11:49] And it's really interesting because you know what what Amazon has done is built over a hundred 75 Global fulfillment centers but they were very country-specific so you could load balance. [12:04] Products made in the USA Fountain Centers let's say you. You were a third party and you're using a PA and you were selling widgets and you would send those widgets in the Amazon list they saw a thousand Amazon what kind of load balance those across is fulfillment centers based on where anticipates the the local points of demand. That's really cool. [12:25] But Amazon historically hasn't had a way for you to really leverage that week we've had several customers really but their heads up against this where they wanted to expand to the UK for example and leverage app, Amazon Local UK people were like well you have to have an entity and you have to have a bank account and you have to have a tax document and you have to have insurance document and you know you have to, do you all these different things so. So really this is a program it was on spin working on for a while and you know I don't know if formally announce it here but they are, they're kind of getting a lot of details so so so see what they can do now is your product can be seamlessly sold globally across the all the hundred seventy-five phone is Interstate that's a great use cases so. [13:13] You could be a u.s. seller and then sound of Europe you can you know as you know they're really big in Indiana they have like 40 performance centers in India that's a huge Battleground for them Japan China are there now in Australia. There's rumor still be in Brazil at some point so you could really use Amazon for your Global infrastructure and. Interesting about this that gives Amazon a huge Edge is Amazon's also invested a ton of money into their catalog and you know so Dave. Unlike a Marketplace like eBay which is more freeform not and where everyone that sells an Xbox or something kind of. Describes it in their own unique way on Amazon they have this kind of golden description of. Every Xbox and whatnot and what's nice about that is it allows them to then as they going to other countries translate that that skew or that a sand once. And then now you as a seller if you match up against that and it's the same products as in like less you say France in the US you get kind of translation for free. I just kind of the punchline they're so so that's a really nice benefit of the Amazon Marketplace solution say really talked about. Kind of a six-step process where they made it, insanely easy to sell globally system as you send your inventory so whatever your country you're in and also this is all cross-country so you could be an idiot seller as well as a UK cell or whatever so whatever you said your inventory into FBA they receive it in storage. [14:44] And then it becomes Prime enabled and then Amazon you can tell Amazon what countries you want to listen to and then they will put the product into this country's and they will load balance across country so number three. The customer orders the product number for Amazon pick packs and ships they handled the front end customer service so if someone has a question about the product, eye of your delivery or anything like that they have their entire force of local folks even handle the reverse Logistics through back to the system so, pretty amazing and a lot of people questioned Amazon's got money. Don't doubt for this performance centers of the powerful things you can do when you do have that ass that you know they have to look at all the other. Companies out there no one has as many assets like this as Amazon so so you can eBay when they're doing cross-border trade. They're using and I think someone like a Pitney Bowes or something to kind of do the freight forwarding which is great and I'm sure that's a very capable thing. But it's not hundred 75 fulfillment centers it's kind of a reshipping, model versus a get it native and sell the ones he too, A2Z efficiently out on stage two examples of this one was exploding kittens if you don't know exploding kittens it's a fun card game that and. [16:06] Kittens do not get hurt in this game is Callicoon oh except the draw for is an exploding kitten that's kind of the short version of it and then. [16:14] They talked about how Amazon enabled them to essentially Go Global with you cut a five-person company that was really focused on creating a card game with witches. Pretty amazing and then they booking did that we just got very untrue real story with Phillips and Phillips talked about how they launch the product and India using the Amazon Global selling offering so what's the one thing that's interesting is. All the big guys were very much in by big eisenmann Google Facebook Amazon eBay all their talks were really geared towards. How do you say wanted Brands to kind of get on their platforms which is pretty interesting cuz you know 3 years ago it was all about Sellers and that kind of thing now. Everyone really excited about more emerging Brands and old-school Brands and how to get them on to these platforms so those are my takeaways from them. Jason: [17:05] Yeah and once I don't own that one there's a show in Las Vegas earlier in March called Prosper which is, show really targeted at Amazon sellers I did not attend but one of the news items out of that was they formally did announce this program in North America and so they like apparently it's at least formally been, announced that anyone can opt-in if you have FBA inventory in the US that they'll now will fill it in Mexico or Canada if you choose. Scot: [17:39] Sprinkle. Jason: [17:40] So it seems like it it's a real thing and I I really like I was super interested in that because it just seems. Where you like we are to be successful. This is all one in 2D versus you know the sort of complicated orchestration and multiple partners like handing off the Box between. Freight forwarders & Custom agents and all those sorts of things. Scot: [18:05] When you do that you lose things like trackability in a little details like that. Jason: [18:10] Exactly and the way the package arrives at the customer may not be the customer experience you want. [18:17] So then the next keynote was the president of coaches Joshua Schulman. And very different than the Amazon presentation is a brand presentation and coached of her listeners is going through a little bit of a change you know the parent company used to be coach when they were a single brand. In the last I think year or two years they've acquired a couple companies so they acquired. Alegria shoe manufacturer Stuart Weitzman and then last year they acquired Kate Spade and so they become sort of a house of luxury Brands and they renamed. The parent company tapestry so Josh was the president of Coach which is you know the biggest of three brands owned by tapestry. And Joshua talked a little bit about this this Big Brand Evolution that coaches just kind of completing. They over a number of years had really kind of moved from, luxury to mid-market so they they had gotten very promotional they were selling throw out of department stores that were very Promotional and a lot of people felt like the equity in the brand have greatly eroded. And so for the last you know I guess I would say 2 years coaches been making this over to effort to. Take themselves out of the discount supply chain as Joshua says is it that you know we are focused on reducing our promotional impressions. And that's it. He's probably a smart thing to do it it's both been reflected in coaches results which which have been much much more favorable this last year. [19:55] But also as we've talked a lot about this show that you know Casey well and Bob would say the retail bifurcation, but there's a lot of Market customers and you can do real well catering in them and there's a lot of Deep Discount customers and you can do really well catering to them but where you really don't want to be is the uncomfortable middle in between those two extremes, and that's kind of where coach at Swift and so they've kind of done a successful job of moving themselves back up market so so Joshua was talking a little bit about that. He did such a dress department stores which I found interesting I'm not I'm not sure that they mentioned it but Joshua is new to Kochi he became the president of coach last year and he was formerly the president of. Bergdorf Goodman which is one of the you know the the. [20:44] Kind of historic famous luxury department store so obviously you know he has a strong affinity for department stores and he shared his POV that you know department stores aren't going away there an important part of the ecosystem. And then he kind of talked about the future of the coach brand. And you know a big part of coaches future he believes is personalization so coaches rolled out a lot of capability to customize handbags on an individual basis so now from their website you can. Personalize a lot of your products and their coach owns a bunch of different stores they're starting to deploy that. Personalization capability in the stores as well so you know instead of getting the same bag as everyone else you can get a bag that's completely unique just for you. Which I do agree that I think is an important part of the evolution of all these Brands and then his last point in. North America which is coach's Home Market that you know where Promontory thought of is a handbag manufacturer and so they're they're investing a lot in. Redefining themselves as a Lifestyle brand and in that sort of a jargon for, where we're going to sell apparel and other items in addition to Handbags and he talked about markets like China where, they've been a Lifestyle brand from the beginning because they had this much broader assortment when they first went into that market and how differently the Chinese customer thinks about Coach then the the North American customer and so that that was sort of his pitch for the evolution of the brand. Scot: [22:16] Recap my favorite part of that one was Courtney Reagan I'm a big CNBC junkie and she didn't really do it here but on TV I've seen her, when you I think what happens is Sony's Executives meet these reporters and they just kind of assumed they're just general business reporters and don't know the industry Courtney has like an MBA in economics and Retail and she's been at this for for a long time and I've seen her just eviscerate Executives before I guess are good she had, Lundgren tied up in knots one time. When you just talk about the Amazon competition so I was kind of really waiting there for her to catch him in the Trap in and I think she went pretty easy on him because the cameras weren't rolling I do think you know why. What are these guys seem like they're in denial about stories it's like they won't admit that. Yeah it's a challenge or something like I got a really weird vibe from him that everything's hunky-dory Pollyanna you know stores are great brands are great and you know. I can talk doses PR or if he was like really believed it also if that was kind of you know a little concerning. Jason: [23:20] Yeah and I think there is a theme you know all of these guys came on and they're they're defending their legacy ass that's right so he's talking a lot about how important the store experience is and in addition to, you know the Wholesale stores that coach yells through coach owns a bunch of their own store so they certainly have a expensive asset there that they want the world to believe is valuable and I would argue, is valuable and it's going to come into play on some of the other teammates were going to talk about later when you know when, the CEOs have to spend a lot of their time justifying why their legacy assets are so valuable like you know it's it's it's fair to question you know if they really were that valuable they probably wouldn't have to spend a lot of their time saying they were valuable. Scot: [24:02] Yap exactly. Jason: [24:03] And by the way I randomly I happen to be sitting for that keynote next to Warren Thomas who's the other retail reporter at CNBC so that was so we were we were watching Courtney together was kind of fun. [24:17] So then the next keynote was a very good get for shoptalk it was Mark Lori that the digital president at Walmart and Andy done the, the founder of bonobos which is now a brand owned by Walmart. Scot: [24:35] Yeah this was a last-minute addition which I thought was interesting it almost kind of felt like maybe they came because they had something to say so I think we were all you really waiting on this one. Jason: [24:46] Yeah. That that probably is true and I would argue that in a way that made it so it be less interest in keynote than it might have otherwise been for me because as we've covered on this show Walmart had a very visible Miss on there, their Ecommerce growth last quarter in their their stock took a pretty significant hit as a result of that and so you know that was the 1st? Was was to, kind of talked about in justify, the the in a fact that they had something like 20 or 25% growth versus the 40% growth that folks were expecting and you know I'm really interested in and hearing him talk about that like it it did take up the bulk of, this particular a keynote and you know I would have been interested to hear a little bit more about about some other aspects but I will say, Mark's answer which seems like it's now that the corporate line there is essentially that Walmart planned, to have slower growth and Q4 and that it was sort of a retooling quarter for them you know after that had had several quarters of, a very fast growth and he kind of pointed out that look we don't give quarterly guidance we gave annual guidance and we hit our annual guidance so we don't understand why everyone was so surprised. [26:12] And I like I I think it's fair to say we're all a little cynical of that that story. Scot: [26:17] Yeah I don't know if it's because of the podcast or what not but I think. Between the two of us if I had 40 people come up and offer that they thought that was totally BS that you know the drill line was that you know nobody in retail plans for the 4th quarter to be a reach 1/4. Jason: [26:33] I think I think the the summary they're like well I think for an update they hit their annual guidance and that's all great if your plan is to have a soft fourth-quarter it's a bad plan. [26:46] So other than that there were some interesting tidbits from that presentation you know Marc reported that they're up to seventy-five million skews for sale which is you know from a couple years ago that they were in the you know couple million skews so that's. Astronomic growth I would assume the bulk of that is Marketplace and there's you know a slight bit of controversy, here in the there is a former Walmart exact it's actually suing Walmart and one of his main claims is that Walmart store to artificially inflates this number bye. By saying how many skus are in the database and not necessarily actively for sale but I think I think directionally. Walmart has added an awful lot of skews and is within an order of magnitude of of Amazon which is pretty impressive. [27:36] Is what I think Amazon's about 400 million skew something in that range. [27:42] So then he did talk about you saying we talked about a lot on the podcast which is Walmart's grocery Grocery progress then I'll have 1200 stores that do grocery pick-up and so what that means is 1200 cities where customers can order groceries. Online and I drive by the store and pick it up and you know except for those 1,200 stores you can't order fresh groceries from Walmart so. That this is this weird thing and I think the analyst had until he picked up on you. When you're talking about store sales you talk a lot about same-store sales cuz you compare apples to apples when you talk online you talk you know General growth. But now you really have this third category which is sort of. Online grocery growth which is a hybrid you can only deliver if you have a store and able to do so so there are 1,200 stores and they they expect open another thousand storms this year. You know you're my mind that has been the primary driver of their they're huge e-commerce growth and so I think they need to open a thousand or 1200 more stores this year to comp well against. Against the last year or they're going to they're going to laugh all those those grocery stores they opened last year and then and that would dramatically swell their comps. He also mentioned that they are now in 100 metros with same day delivery this is this Blended solution where I think they're using to live they're using Uber and they're letting their own employees do deliveries. So that that is interesting we we will hear about that from Target as well and then Andy talked a lot about the did you need a vertical brand which is a term he coined and and how that fits into the Walmart strategy. [29:23] I think it's Mark Lori that always uses this metaphor a bit but they talk about the the. The analogy of Walmart to Netflix and they say you know I got you. Netflix is a super successful model you can go watch a bunch of other people's movies on Netflix but increasingly, the big draw to Netflix are these first-party content that Netflix created exclusively like house of cards or Orange is the New Black and so to Andy and Mark these, did you need a vertical Brands like bonobos ModCloth are. The sort of unique videos in the in the Netflix model I don't know what they meant to but they did make an announcement that I had not. She heard before which is that all of those did you need a Brands will eventually find their way onto the jet sales platform which many of them are not right now so that would be ModCloth for example would be sold through Jets and, Martinez said the high level strategy is look where we're redefining the jet brand we're going to use jet as, the brand to win affluent Urban Millennials and you know which sort of perfectly complements the markets that the Walmart brand is really good at winning. Scot: [30:44] Couple funny things in their answer to the question of the bonobos being on chat was, your Delray Jason had gone out and search and I found like this pictures of monkeys since he couldn't find my notes they kind of lost Jason he was like so going to be a media company I don't think he understood the, metaphor of unique, original content that they were trying to make their butt but it is it's early as you know it's definitely I think it's a very valid strategy it's kind of like Prime exclusives that Amazon is doing the challenge with Walmart is, you know they've got like 8 things going on that that are pretty intense and each of their own and their e-commerce. Peace is not at a scale that Amazon is so sweet hard for them to execute well in all of this. [31:39] The warmers. Jason: [31:44] I think that was the main main adjust of the Andy and Mark show other than. Scot: [31:49] Are you crushing on Andy Dalton. Jason: [31:50] Andy Andy had some really cool slippers on that apparently where the celebrity got married in. Scot: [31:56] Took a picture, I guess my picture that was circling this fine then up next was house in the house Houzz, and houses really cool story so I actually know one of the founders his name is Alana and he was from 2001 to 2010 he ran a bunch of engineering groups at eBay and his wife's name is I'll probably put you this but, Adi tatarko. [32:26] And they are from Israel and they moved to Silicon Valley and by house probably for a bazillion dollars and they were they were working on refurbishing the house I think about. 8 years ago now and you know what they found was there was no. Great Ecommerce experience for Furnishing your house so house is borns they built house is a way it's kind of a it started out as really a place where. Counting is a super vertical Pinterest so. If you did a project where you refurbish your kitchen for example and you wanted and a designer wanted to maybe kind of get involved it was coming designer Marketplace so you could get ideas from other people could have done it and then also designers and an end designers like, because it was a way for them to acquire customers and that's how they were kind of monetizing it. Then what happened is there so many do-it-yourselfers that would say hey I really like how Jason and his wife did their kitchen. I want to and I can see this faucet in there that I really like and this countertop but I want to know exactly what it is and how to go buy it. So there's this disconnect between the, products you would see in these kitchens in other rooms are being refurbished and ability to buy them so they created a product Marketplace on there in full disclosure we've been a partner of there is that channel visor for a very long time, I used to be more of a paid less than kind of moved to a pure market place we can buy them all and house and they've been a great partner verse so it was cool to hear the story I've never heard the story from kind of that. [34:00] That start to where they are now and here they are today they fit 10 million items on the marketplace they've got over 20,000 Sellers and 40 million monthly active users so you know it's pretty pretty neat that they kind of just. Really solve the problem and we're able to build a couple different ways of monetizing that on there he was interviewed by Alfred Lynn who was one of the. Jason: [34:28] Yeah that's a good question yeah I think he was there at the beginning I do not know if he's officially a founder or not. Scot: [34:34] Yep but he left free shortly after the Amazon acquisition and Joint Sequoia which is one of the. List of blue chips are in the Bay Area so a lot of his questions I wasn't sure the retailers were rocking on cuz he's talking about MARC station strategies, yeah he's like going kind of deep into the VC language they're so it's kind of interesting and then, the last thing I thought was interesting was they did talk about you know, they are so this is really big right now in the home category, where you know you can not eat you can use augmented reality to look at a room and being a piece of furniture or a faucet or something like that or maybe in the cabinet you can kind of get a feel for how that's been looking so they have a million skus that are when I call a are enabled and, this was one that will make sure that we caught that, it improves your conversion 11 x when when people are using they are to look at an item, so in my calculus I kind of said well that was conversion rate something like two to three percent so what is that like 33%. [35:39] What your kiss makes sense cuz people going to be pretty far down the funnel if you're going to be like okay I'm going to go home, I'm going to fire up the say our thing and I'm going to drop that widget that piece of furniture whatever it is into my room to see if it's it's so it's so I guess it does kind of like a really big bump to me. [35:57] Does that jive with you. Jason: [35:58] It does and I think YG for the reason you mentioned like I don't think if you just took any random Shopper on that site and force them to to use an AR experience that they would suddenly convert. 11 x better so I don't think they expect you know why these friends probably is better is, I don't think it it's this the magic Silver Bullet to cause everyone to buy. I think you have to already have a much higher buying intense. To be interested in trying they are Peter so you have to already be more attached to the item and you're investing more time and in kind of setting it up on your phone and walking to the environment where you want to use it and so it's it's, it's one step below are on the funnel and in so I think it is a great tactic, they are also that your web urging a something we talked about in the show Google and and, Apple have both rolled out AR kits for their operating system that make it way easier to do this kind of stuff well and so. Pals wizard of the pilot user of those two stacks the what people is usually underestimate when they implement this feature, is you need a source of really good data to have the 3D models of all these items into the fact that they have a million items out of there, their inventory of, you know that they have good 3D models for is is to me pretty impressive and that that now is officially the big barrier for any other retailer that wants to add this feature is just how do you get the good 3D data and I I think in the long run. [37:32] The brands are all you know in the same way that they have to provide a long and short description for a retailer when they want to sell something you know what the brands are going to have to start providing 3D files for for these things as well. Scot: [37:45] Yeah that seems like a very large number to me because you and I know most manufactures is a struggle to get a you know a human readable short description you know so they'll be like. Wooden chair so I kind of was locking the logic I was like wow that's a million is like 10% that's why I would have guessed. Jason: [38:07] Generally these first-generation experiences it's more the retailer created the data themselves. Scot: [38:14] Yeah so they must be like you, getting the products in and scan I know people will shoot videos and practice way there's these houses that get quantity one of these things to do that so I was thinking maybe they picked they have the benefit of knowing the top 10% items get them into a studio and then you can run a scan on them that was did you wrote did you walk to the same process. Jason: [38:34] Yeah and they didn't talk about how they do it that's and I would have love for them to Deep dive into that but that's exactly what I would assume and it does create this interesting thing so, and house where is really weird category cuz a lot of furniture is. It's not really branded Furniture it's like private label furniture that a bunch of different retailers all sell the same thing and call it something wildly different so there is some office case in their butt. [39:03] If you think about it house now has that in owns that 3D data the manufacturer doesn't so when. [39:13] Amazon or Crate & Barrel or some other seller wants to sell that same item you know they they, they're going to eat at to spend the same money has spent or the manufacturers are going to have to go spend the money to do a 3D scan the file or, go back to the designer and get the 3D CAD files from the designer in so it does it does create this new work stream this is how, a lot of new attributes in e-commerce this is how they start the first time someone a retailer wants to use in the retailer has to invent them and once it becomes a best practice it gets put back on the manufacturer and eventually the manufacturer gets couldn't provide that mean the same as it is true a digital images. Scot: [39:52] It also made me wonder you know the wafer ones talked about a lot that made me wonder how many models they have and if they're doing something somewhere. Jason: [39:59] Yeah and if you think about it in this category is even more ugly like a, the hardware the 3D scan these big items is more convoluted than then you know like simple tabletop items and so much of the stuff is drop shipped like if these were shoes that sat in a filming Center you can imagine sitting up shop and seeing a bunch of shoes in the Fulfillment center but a lot of these things. You know you like it in the case of Wayfair they never pass through a Wayfair facility where Wayfair could scan them. Scot: [40:27] F R Anderson cool so after house we had a Google up and the Google one was probably if I was going to pick one that was my highlight of this would have been it and even then I think it was, how what Google announced the show was largely misunderstood so I wanna spend some time on that because I think it's, pretty important so what are the interesting things that's going on is the the guy that used to run retailer Google his name was John a furnace and he was he left to join Pinterest and saw him several times the show he was there with pry like 50 Pinterest people which I thought was interesting because, you know I'm easily sink shoptalk in Pinterest so I just got this vibe that there's something going on there. And I don't know what it is but but he's also like his official title there is SVP of ads okay so that makes sense and commerce it Pinterest so pictures has had when I would call some. Pretty you know man e-commerce things that got rich pins they did a little Marketplace I kind of went about it in a weird way that was not very. Customer friendly was easy to implement but not a great customer experience so I almost kind of like was wondering you know. Why is Pinterest have so many people here why they hire Al Fitness e-commerce have answers but I just thought was interesting to see that so anyway, Daniel is a great addition to the retail team so it's official title is president of retail and shopping at Google I talk to a lot of googlers and they were all really excited because this kind of the folks that are in the Google shopping side and they've been working on retail for a long time. [41:59] I feel like retail is really elevating at Google and. The person they talk about Daniel has been a senior leader Google for quite a while I think his prior title. [42:13] I was stressing yeah he was like Global and strategic Partnerships so you know he he was quite a senior person and, he's also well known a Google you know these companies like a Google or an Amazon aren't really known for their ability to partner with other people wear as you know I think he has led the charge in certain categories were partnering is going to be essential for the wedding so I was really eager to hear what he had to talk about he went through you know. [42:40] I don't think whatever Google people get up there they have to kind of go through the rigmarole of, we have seven properties that were billing users were Google where mazing here's the big trends we see the meat and potatoes of his talk to me was the announcement of I called this Universal shopping cart and I'm not a fan of that I've had these two spirit things at Google, send it. Google Assistant which we know and love on the show they've had Google Express. What started out as a kind of delivery service in a couple of areas and just think of it as kind of one hour type. Product and then they've had product listing ads and so through a the pieles are a. A shopping enabled kind of a not enabled e-commerce ad unit if you will so far. 20 products that has a price and that kind of stuff so they put them all under this umbrella now and they've actually. The cool thing for me is I sent you they built on Marketplace on the park posting ads and that they taking a couple shots at this last time I was called by on Google and. It was just so micro so it was like 5 merchants on Android only Angie had to have Google pay and it had to be enabled it had to have this that in you but time you slice all that stuff you're looking at like you know. 500000 users which which is nothing but in the world of Google with all these billion dollar properties it's like why are you so where she going after these like you know, like slice of a size of a slice of a slice but unfortunately are not doing a great job of describing it I think about it is you can now take any SKU and have it available in a lot of different flavors so so first of all. [44:26] If it's like what I would call an e-commerce Q me you're going to ship it either from a fulfillment center or a store so kind of like a two-day plus kind of a thing you can make that viable in a Google search result. Is that product is near the user and available for delivery same day that's another option Source, these rings of availability. And then also you can make that SKU available to Google assistant so example that they have used a lot is as you know target has a private label cpg brand called up and up. [44:55] So they show this this detergent that has been enabled with this new ad unit that's called shopping action, abled then there's three use cases so you can say OK Google, buy up and up laundry detergent and it will it will know then. Based on where you are if you can get it kind of same day or in an e-commerce kind of a Note 2 day type experience so you it will ask you and if it's available in both It'll ask you which one you want. The baby shopping shipping fees and stuff there and then if you're in the Google Express experience you'll see that product because it is available at a local store and then if you're in a sponsored. Pla you will see it there as well so there. You know we are at Channel advisor we are in early partner on this and it I can say they said on stage, Target and Ultra Ultra are seeing 20% left from that, police unit and I can say there's there's several other people in there and and this is causing really good lift for folks in this is something I think it's been a long time coming, there's certainly some attribution things in there but but I think happens if the desktop metaphor doesn't work on mobile the whole go search for detergent go in to target.com forget your credentials. Get a password reset login put it in your Target card. Then order Denver enter your credit card that's such a drag because up further in the stack the phone already knows who you are and you already have your credit card in the Play Store so why not just use those credentials so so this is another attempt I think at kind of. [46:38] Elevating that transaction higher in this. So I'm excited about it and they went to Great pains not to call the Marketplace but my mind it's Marketplace. [46:48] So so I took this to mean Google is getting a lot more serious about Marketplace and how do they surface this product and make it. Yo and partner with retailers to two. I think the big win here is going to be closing the mobile Gap and what did Al furnace did is he came from the Travel Group. At Google where they did this to an Indus was controversial because some people thought they were kind of going around to Travel Systems and stuff but you can actually buy a hotel room right on, Google mobile and dramatically increase conversion rates versus kind of like that again that desktop metaphor of OK Google says there's a hotel over here, now let me go to that hotel site and then iterate through you can actually go by that room on Google Now I'm so so I think they seen some really interesting things on travel and they want to bring it here they did a 100 of it over the last 2 years that didn't get a lot of success and then this time it's feels like they're taking a much bigger at that swing. Jason: [47:46] For sure like I do think they're taking a bigger swing it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. Huge difference between travel and most of the sort of product Commerce you know, in travel you're mainly trying to sell a room or a flight and if you can bundle other travel Services into that sell it's great but like the overwhelming majority of the time it's a win the book a room, a lot of individual items that you sell an e-commerce are only profitable if you get the customer to buy more than one thing and so you know that the level of difficulty for Google is is much higher in the Commerce base than the travel space in my mind because, it can't just be. Click to buy button in search results because that that frankly is going to drive everyone a single item purchase is a oviso go down and you know the artiste rest. Profitability in the in the whole ekosistem would get even more stress so it's going to it's going to be interesting to see how all that plays out to. I I get so one funny thing the economic model is different than most other Google ads units in in you know most cases your you're paying for that. That exposure in the ad world and you know Google is charging much more like a Marketplace hear your your you know paying at a crate on the on the stuff that Google help you sell or you know in the. The ad business they call this a rev-share model and when the word got out that they were watching this format. All the traditional SEO guys piano. [49:17] Because they misinterpreted this as Google will now share the profits with you and elevate your listings in organic search so they. They said it was a you know several days of panic on Twitter where it where that was sort of going around I guess one other interesting outcome of this is. It also creates the scenario where you may not have paid to have a pla show up. But Google me decide to place your POA extra times that you didn't pay for and take the rev-share from it and so that that's it in aspect of this program as well as the Google can Canal run Google funded pla. Scot: [49:57] Yeah it's going to be really interesting to see and I know we're going to type for time but let's talk about some of the implications in a future show. Jason: [50:06] For sure we had to run from that Keynote. To another event that that they is sort of an event within an event Jason Del Rey from recode they they host a. A dinner or in the evening at shoptalk they call code Commerce and so you know he he typically gets like about three interesting speakers, you know at at this sort of show within a show and so we. We hooked it from the keynote to join Jason's event and there's some interesting speakers there as well so the 1st guys up there. Was Eric Nordstrom who's one of the three. Nordstrom Brothers running Nordstrom's right now and who does not do a lot of public event so that that is kind of a cool get and he was on stage with. This gentleman Don Kingsborough who's from a company called one market and I'll get into that in just a second so having Eric there. [51:14] Would be cool under any circumstances but news and come out bad day that the board of directors of Nordstrom had sort of turned down the Nordstrom families offer to buy. The company back and take it private and so the the you know according to the reports the deal is dead now. And so you know that was obviously a piece of news that Jason went right at Eric about. And which Eric had very little interest in discussing and probably let you know wasn't at Liberty to discuss it created some sort of. A humorous for us awkward for Eric moments at the beginning of that interview. Scot: [51:54] God knowing you Delray didn't what up it kept coming up he kept on them. Jason: [51:59] Exactly and I kind of a funny line he's like you know I'd like to say I appreciate the question but I really don't. That's what I heard of humorist in so he's he was on stage with this guy Don Kingsborough and Don is the CEO of a company called One Market. And there are there a spin-off out of a incubation lab that's owned by Westfield malls in so I don't think. [52:26] Westfield may still hold an interest in one market but they're separate entity now I think they probably figured out that nobody would want to. Participate with one market if they were exclusively owned by this one mall and one market is kind of an interesting venture. You know personally I'm a little skeptical on it but the the gist of it is that hey, Amazon has walked up a big chunk of the market and then this huge unfair Advantage Amazon has all this data about the consumer, they see way more of the consumers purchase behavior and more the browsing Behavior than anyone else and they're really putting all the traditional retailers at a disadvantage because no one retailer. With the you know possible exception of of Walmart really has the the. Date of his ability to know the customer as well as Amazon does and so what Market is an effort to say let's create a data Coop where all the retailers share everything they know about a consumer, and then we'll make. That data available to any of the retailers in the coop to improve their experience and they have to make that data available in a, a very limited way like they can't share. Personally identifiable information from one retailer to another and they they can't you know give one retailer another retailers customers but essentially if. If you're a customer and you've done a bunch of shopping at coach and so coach knows you really well and then you walk into Michael Kors. [54:02] And you know Michael Kors says Hey I just met this guy Scot wingo and he's in the coop database the the, One Market would be able to share some of the the enhanced data they know about Scott Wingo that they learned from Scott shopping with coach, and so so at at it. I don't know if I explained that very well but at the highest level this is sort of a customer data Co-op to compete with, Amazon. Scot: [54:30] Yeah I have to say I've never met non-don before but he seemed like a really story guy it did like it has a really great since it like PayPal and places so so no doubt he can build with it he says Google but I honestly didn't understand if it about it. I did I guess I didn't get to use case it's like I don't really care if I go to Southpoint mall and then I go to Crabtree mall and didn't know about me like, I just don't understand, but I couldn't really get my head around you space and maybe that's cuz I'm a very transactional Mall person am I going to the Apple store to get my airpods that's it I'm not I'm not like a browser baby but I don't know I kind of missed the use case. Jason: [55:06] So you you are so you are hitting on one of the potential liabilities of this model is none of these retailers are pretty good at using the data they do already have about all of us when we shop and so it's it's hard to say that their biggest problem is they don't know enough about us, but it is fair to say you know the date that they are worried that they know less about us than Amazon does so I can I get that a big problem with this model is is, anytime you explain anything like this model to a consumer they're going to immediately panic and get creeped out and it it just sounds like big brother, and so it's. We'll have to see if it's focused on the Legacy mall guys in a Dina retailers and of course they have a bunch of other headwinds that are unrelated to any of this so, I don't know I'll be honest though I did get the impression, the Don has a personal relationship with Eric and that the deal struck and by the way Nordstrom is one of the retards participating in one market so I suspect the deal struck was, Eric will come onto code Commerce and talk with Jason Delray if he gets to bring down with him and gone gets to make a pitch for one market. Scot: [56:14] Yeah and they didn't talk about it but I kind of got the vibe Nordstrom Ava invested in that that entity. Jason: [56:21] Yeah that well so it's a it's a co-op I think all the retailers that participate are basically investors why do you own a piece of it so it's so absolutely. [56:30] Until Eric had a vested interest in Dawn doing well and you know let me just say like I don't think Jason had a lot of super interesting questions for Don I think he was a lot more focused on what did you get out of there. Scot: [56:43] Absolutely. Jason: [56:45] So I am not sure it was a lot of interesting Nordstrom revelations in in this interview other than. You know the plan at Nordstrom's to do what they've always been doing you know it's the fact that we didn't buy the company back doesn't change anything was kind of Eric's message. I thought it was kind of a just a funny random story Eric telling the story about his dad Bruce Nordstrom that was in a former president of Nordstrom's and how whenever someone would call Nordstrom department store. How Bruce would be really upset and say we're not a department store where specialty store and you know for the. [57:23] You know if I was listening Nordstrom started out as a shoe retailer and they they still like have a lot of that DNA and. Eric said if not you know I would be like whatever Dad where we're big store with a escalator so call it what you want and it just was a funny moment for me thinking of this I store a retail family like having these arguments around the Thanksgiving table about whether there a department store or not. Scot: [57:47] Yeah I'd never met at Nordstrom's that was kind of cool. Jason: [57:51] The other thing that came up a little bit which is interesting I don't think Eric Shirley new information but Nordstrom has the store in Los Angeles called Nordstrom local, and this is a small a small store by Nordstrom's standards I think it still pretty big I think it's like that twenty thousand square foot store which a full Nordstrom might be why. 50000 square feet. [58:14] And there is no inventory for sale in the store so it's kind of like a bona bus guide shop like it's either you know there's personalized customer experiences and shopping concierge and lots of mannequins that you can look at, but then you you order the product in Nordstrom ships at your house and the talking point that Jason was focused on was. I've heard a lot about the store in the fact that it's. It's not profitable and isn't likely to be profitable in the in the near future and so this feels like. Kind of a project or an investment for Nordstrom and you know aren't you worried about not being able to make those kind of Investments going forward since you you know you were unsuccessful in in going private. And I think Eric's point was no we we paid for this without going private then we we do lots of things like this all the time so this is sort of business as usual for us is, and we do some things we expect to be profitable right away and we do some things that we expect to learn from and hope to make a profit in the longer Horizon. Scot: [59:18] Call the sex would really quick so I was excited at shoptalk surely but also could Commerce there was a little bit more, kind of of the different models out there this one I would put kind of squarely in the on-demand economy bucket which is I'm obviously pretty fascinated with, funny company in this is in the food delivery category where there is a battle royale going on so they had the CEO doordash in his name is Tony shoe, oh that's spelled XU and then he was on stage with one of the leaders at the Cheesecake Factory which is a very popular restaurant and they had just announced that they are doing a delivery food delivery for cheesecake through doordash. And I didn't realize it until I saw eBay partnership, from 2009 to 2011 so that was cool to see someone from the world of e-commerce kind of spread his wings and becoming an option or. The one of the. Big news items us and Kara Swisher did the interview here and she couldn't seem to get her head around the fact they just raised over $509 so they're there well beyond the Unicorn. Status which is Sue sought-after in the Bay Area which means you have a valuation over billion I would Hazard a guess or pry a deck of corn which is a 10 billion dollar valuation so there's so there's aislers GrubHub which is actually, public there's the big one that's really gaining popularity is ubereats and then there's many many more of these there. [1:00:48] Pretend food did this is like prepared food delivery companies and if you widen the radius little bit to include ingredient make yourself kinds of things than the category it's even even. Even got more crowded and so she's kind of hammering on like you know why would you waste so much money and that kind of thing. This is I commiserate with the size opportunity and he's right you know this is a multibillion-dollar opportunity if they can get 5% of all restaurants business to be, true you're just in the industry and they capture 30% of that that ends up being a, a really really big number so any talked about I think you said there in 30 markets and they're going to get into 80 so there there's a geographic component of this, yeah when funny question was she asking what are you scared most of these at the telephone and she was like. [1:01:41] What you mean and you know it's just like that's the customer experience they're up against is they kind of have to be better than just calling the restaurant on the phone to do take out with witch and and then you obviously have to go get it but I thought that was kind of interesting. [1:01:55] And then you and I is kind of funny you and I had kind of had this discussion around you know with these with this business isn't good for the restaurants in bad and, there's an argument that the sex it hurts marching, because you're already paying for that kitchen staff and everything and then if they're making meals for this pickup you don't get a lot of that up sell that you get in the restaurant is your same argument that they made with the Google marketplace, when you went to people go to restaurant have a meal there's alcohol involved there's maybe a dessert that you didn't plan to have appetizers and that kind of thing, Raz I think, I would guess the ticket when you're doing takeout or delivery is much less and you obviously don't get alcohol sales which is where there's a lot of margin but they got to ask a question about that and the cheesecake guy I explained that you don't know it's really. Incremental business so they already have the fixed cost of the kitchen and they viewed it as incremental and they therefore you know yes the margin is lower. Then an end in a dine in guest. But it's incremental margin so you going to help the prophet leave the restaurant so I thought that was an interesting argument you a lot of people that I talk to after. Forecast skeptical about that so and then he did talk about at the Cheesecake Factory. Like 2 years ago they had 8% take out and now it's kind of risen to 12%. [1:03:18] Didn't ever say if this was exclusive because one of these guys do is they will actually kind of order as if their customer and then said their drivers so they don't have to have a you know a relationship with the restaurant so I know GrubHub does that for example so. Part of that 12% is not only doordash but probably all the other delivery guys too and then lasalette said that they said that. 25% of doordash volume is from chains and then. I thought they said the rest was for Independence but I think you took a note and tweeted 5% so. Jason: [1:03:51] No no no. That's a typo in your notes you are exactly right 75%. Scot: [1:03:54] He has a deep restaurant background I think. I think he said his parents are restaurant for sure. Jason: [1:04:06] Is Mom still run the restaurant. Scot: [1:04:07] Yeah but then somewhere in there someone said I think he said his grandparents also had a restaurant I I couldn't tell it maybe his mom is taking over the enrichment videos. You can't came back to his roots and, I'm really understood the restaurant business deeply and then final comment when asked you know there's always competitors out there when asked how they're going to win I thought his answer was pretty clever he said you know we're really just focused on this we're not doing self-driving cars were not doing. [1:04:33] You know building a whole delivery Network that separate were really focus on how do we deliver an amazing dining experience and you know how do we in the he said it was very Amazon way of thinking it out we measure every second. Between when the order comes in and it gets delivered and how do we get the food there hot fresh so I left that you know thinking, here's a guy that's really kind of gets it he understands the customer and he's going to Worcester 500 million so so I felt like he had a pretty good shot at winning and I was excited to see where they take it. Jason: [1:05:04] That I would also argue that he already has a considerably better customer experience than a lot of his competitor so I'd like some of that that focus and Care like is already very evident in in their customer experience. Scot: [1:05:20] Yeah one one example of that was even worrying about you when they deliver the cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory making sure the slice looks perfect and it hasn't like flipped on its side or getting off stuck around in the container, that's those kind of details that I spent a lot of my day on this site I really appreciated that level of detail that they think about. Jason: [1:05:38] Yeah for sure and I think that I would just you know mention that listeners this is an area to pay attention to the whole food consumption industry is going through major disruption right now and it's really unclear. What the future looks like but you know when the friction to get food restaurant food delivered home is way lower suddenly those restaurants are competing with. What used to be grocery trips when you buy ingredients and make your own dinner and th

This is Part 2 of Philip's interview with serial entrepreneur and now venture capitalist Kai Bond. Kai is the lead investor at Catalyst Fund which is a seed fund based in New York City and an extension of Comcast Ventures. The second half of this interview Kai talks about his experience as a founder of color and also what founders of colors can do to increase the 1% of venture capital funding that goes to founders of color. This episode is brought to you by DesignCrowd. DesignCrowd is a website that helps entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses outsource or ‘CROWDSOURCE’ design. DesignCrowd has over 600,000 designers from Sydney to San Francisco ready to help you with awesome creative ideas. Get the perfect custom design, every time. Get $100 off your first project with this link designcrowd.com/hmd

Today Philip spoke with serial entrepreneur and now venture capitalist Kai Bond. Kai is the lead investor at Catalyst Fund which is a seed fund based in New York City. Catalyst Fund is an extension of Comcast Ventures and it serves as a unique investment vehicle to elevate minority entrepreneurship by matching capital and resources with underrepresented minority entrepreneurs. Prior to joining Catalyst Fund Kai has had a truly remarkable career as an entrepreneur. He’s had some painful failures and tells Phil about his lowest point where he didn’t even have enough money for a subway ride. Kai talks about building his third startup within 60 days (Pixie Tv) which he would then go on to sell to Samsung within a year. Kai was also the General Manager of Samsung's accelerator and Hatch Labs where the dating app Tinder was incubated during his tenure as GM.

 Terri talks to Micah Brown about his experience as a founder of color in New York City and how we can change the funding dynamics for founders of color and female founders and ultimately the definition of success.  This is the second part of the interview that we abruptly cut off last week leaving you, hopefully, hanging on the edge of your seat for Micah’s experience with the diversity investor. Wait no more.        Who is Micah Brown?  Micah is a self-proclaimed visionary technologist with an intersection of skills consisting of data and algorithm understanding, HCI-centric digital technologies, financial services, financial engineering and media services. He has over 10 years of experience (up to the SVP level) across companies like Aon, Barclays, NBC and Viacom. Micah has a deep technological understanding and a strong commitment to social causes; at the center of Centiment and FilmFundr is the need to level the playing field in media for minorities.    Show Highlights  Micah talks about an experience with an investor with a diversity lens who led him to take a hard, corrective action.  The investor said that Micah was example of a POC founder that should be invested in although he doesn’t actually invest in diversity.    Micah points out some logic to the investor about his portfolio, the data around the startups in his portfolio, and then the data about the POC company in his portfolio which was beating out all the other companies in the portfolio.   Micah points out the importance of deploying raw intellect with these investors to point out the flaws in the investors’ hypotheses to ultimately shift.    Terri talks about how difficult for people to shift off their value sets to   Terri poses the question as to whether we are going to be able to get these primarily white male investors to shift in their investing or do we need to create a new ecosystem of funding.   Micah talks about how difficult it is starting up a company and raising money and the difficulty for the investors to empathize with struggling founders of color.    Micah talks about the difficulty in getting funding if you are a person of color because of the makeup of the current VCs.    Micah talks about the importance of getting LPs to invest in funds that can create a new ecosystem of funding to invest in startups because right now saying that you invest with a diversity lens is PR and there is no substance behind it.   Micah talked about the H&M and Pepsi advertisement debacle where they had badly sourced focus groups.  This was a perfect example of why having people who could potentially be offended in the decision-making process  Last year in NYC, there were 780 non-POC companies that got funding in 2017 and only 15.    He talked about the importance of naming and shaming to raise awareness and begin to affect change.    Terri talked about how Trump’s election triggered many people, including her, to no longer be complacent, and emphasized the need to speak up and take action.  She was cautiously optimistic after the Justin Caldbeck scandal but then more optimistic after Harvey Weinstein and then the politicians in terms of we might be able to move the needle and move more quickly in leveling the playing field.     Terri talks about the importance of getting LPs to invest not because it’s a diversity play, but because it’s a good business play.  Terri is concerned about the funding gap in later stages for these startups.    Centiment is brain-powered advertising.  Micah said that big companies are able to get away with what they are doing because their processes and perspectives are narrow.  Centiment.io is scalable neurocomputing delivered by SaaS that can be used to provide responses as one would get in focus groups.  They have an emotional search that takes the ideas and provides feedback as to what the emotional response will be.    If Micah could wave a magic wand, he would change the definition of success.  Once you change the definition of success, you can affect so much including how women perceive themselves and promoting opportunities for the American Dream for a larger group of people.   Micah and Terri talk about what they have sacrificed, and the cost associated with pursuing ‘success’ as it is currently defined.      Terri’s Key Takeaway  We need to redefine the definition of success that is more inclusive and is more aligned with a broader value set.      References in the Podcast  Centiment: https://centiment.io/beta/  Film Fundr:  https://filmfundr.com/  Harlem Capital Partners:  http://harlem.capital/  Kapor Capital: http://www.kaporcapital.com/  Backstage Capital: http://backstagecapital.com/  Charles Hudson: @chudson  Monique Woodard:  http://www.moniquewoodard.com/  Jillian Manus:  http://structure.vc/  New Age Capital:  http://www.newage.vc/  Comcast Ventures:  http://comcastventures.com/  StitchFix: https://www.stitchfix.com/  Neuromarketing: Neuromarketing is a field that applies the principles of neuroscience to marketing research, studying consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli (Wikipedia).  How Centiment could have helped H&M avoid the PR issue:  https://brandthropologie.com/hm  Founders Privilege:  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/founders-privilege-doing-everything-nothing-ainsley-patrick-brown/?trackingId=CuoGabO7WC4wrR8OXAEyMg%3D%3D  Girl Boss Radio:  https://www.girlboss.com/podcast/    Contact  Micah can be reached via Twitter @MicahAPBrown  You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.   Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.  To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.   

Comcast Ventures Investor Cong Ding understands what it takes to carve out space in early technology and venture capitalism industries. She shares her perspective and insight with host Aaron Strout. Plus, you’ll see how she feels about Pirates of the Caribbean and Taylor Swift.

Learn about Paul McConville's journey to become a hugly successful sales leader on the Sales Game Changers Podcast! Check out the complete transcript of this podcast here. Paul McConville is a leader in SaaS and analytics businesses. He is SVP of Sales and Account Management at Hobsons with global responsibility for the success of their 12,000+ K-12 and higher education clients. He was previously Chief Officer at Jornaya, a Comcast Ventures and Edison Partners backed consumer analytics business. He spent 10 years at TARGUSinfo and led sales and marketing prior to the acquisition by Neustar for $657MM. He is the father of 3 daughters and husband to a wonderful wife. When not competing in business, he competes in tennis and basketball.

On this episode of BlockChannel, Mckie and Dee sit down with tech veteran Adi Sideman, as we discuss his latest project “Props” by the existing company “YouNow”. Props plans to be a live streaming video platform/social network with built in rewards and incentives powered by their ERC20 “Props” token. Listen as we dig in and try to figure out whats got Union Square Ventures and Comcast Ventures excited; while getting the lowdown on the technical aspirations behind the platform. Show Links: Props Website: www.propsproject.com Props Telegram: t.me/propsproject Intro/Outro music “Tempo” by Zip K: Iamzipk — Zip-k-tempo-prod-by-l3no Show Sponsor(s): Status Messaging Client: status.im Status Developer Documentation: wiki.status.im/contributing/deve…ent/introduction/ Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, it is an engaged discussion on new technology; BlockChannel reminds you to always do your own due diligence before investing in any crypto-related project in the industry.

On this episode of BlockChannel, Mckie and Dee sit down with tech veteran Adi Sideman, as we discuss his latest project "Props" by the existing company "YouNow". Props plans to be a live streaming video platform/social network with built in rewards and incentives powered by their ERC20 "Props" token. Listen as we dig in and try to figure out whats got Union Square Ventures and Comcast Ventures excited; while getting the lowdown on the technical aspirations behind the platform. Show Links: Props Website: http://www.propsproject.com Props Telegram: https://t.me/propsproject Intro/Outro music "Tempo" by Zip K: https://soundcloud.com/iamzipk/zip-k-tempo-prod-by-l3no Show Sponsor(s): Status Messaging Client: status.im Status Developer Documentation: wiki.status.im/contributing/deve…ent/introduction/ Disclaimer: This is not investment advice, it is an engaged discussion on new technology; BlockChannel reminds you to always do your own due diligence before investing in any crypto-related project in the industry.

Kathleen Utecht is a General Partner @ Core Innovation Capital, I would say one of the most under the radar but immensely exciting funds in market and they are looking to revolutionize financial services with their portfolio. With their portfolio are the likes of NerdWallet, PayJoy, fundera and Mayvenn just to name a few. Prior to Core, Kat was an investor at Comcast Ventures and WVP Ventures. Prior to her venture roles, Kath invested in and led Green Rock Entertainment, an online/offline commerce startup. Before that, Kat cut her teeth in the world of finance working as an investment banker at Raymond James. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Kat made her way from car entrepreneur dreams to operator to now, General Partner @ Core? 2.) Why does Kat believe that "society is on a downgrade"? Does Kat agree with the Thiel thesis of "we expected flying cars and were given 140 characters"? Where does Kat most want to see entrepreneurs spending their time and skills? 3.) How does Kat view regulation with regards to startup operations and expansion? Why does Kat believe that "sector specific funds should be in every highly regulated deal"? What are the core benefits? How can VCs really aid with regulation? 4.) Kat has previously said that "VC is a lifestyle not a job", what does Kat mean by this? How does this mean VCs should behave with regards to founder interactions and communications? How can entrepreneurs stress test whether a VC has this belief? 5.) How does Kat view the process of losing companies? What does her post mortem analysis look like? Why does Kat believe that if you do not lose companies, you are not taking enough risk? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Kat’s Fave Book: Atlas Shrugged Kat’s Fave Blog: AVC by Fred Wilson As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kat on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. If you are an early stage startup, the right infrastructure and support systems are critical, that is where First Republic is so good. First Republic’s resources network and expertise allow entrepreneurs to customise a solid foundation for their business. Why First Republic, well you get to leverage their incredible network of VC firms to prepare you for future fundraising events, you get to count on a single point of contact that will be there for you and your employees, you get access to exclusive events and networking opportunities. Their clients include the likes of Instacart, eShares and Wish just to name a few. Check it out by heading over to innovation.firstrepublic.com Segment allows you to collect data from every platform (mobile, web, server, cloud apps) and load it into Segment. Segment then sends the customer data to your tools and destinations where it can be used most effectively, destinations include email, analytics, warehouses, helpdesks and more. With over 200 sources and destinations on the Segment platform that can empower your team, Segment really is the last integration you will ever do and that is why the world’s best companies use segment to drive growth and revenue including Atlassian, New Relic and Crate & Barrel. Simply head over to segment.com to find out more.

Daniel Gulati, Principal and Head of Seed Investment Practice at Comcast Ventures, discusses e-commerce startup trends and what can and cannot be venture financed at this stage, and why.

In the game of fundraising, the first impression is usually the only one you will get. Kai Bond is an investor at Comcast Ventures and manages the Catalyst Fund - a $20 million fund focused on investing in early stage tech startups led by minority entrepreneurs. We traveled to the Comcast Ventures office to personally learn the art of connecting, emailing, and networking with investors. This is definitely an episode you don't want to miss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The team at the African Tech Round-up has returned from the Festive break, and so we’re officially back to our normal programming. At the tail-end of this episode, Andile Masuku chats with Nicholus Steward, founder and CEO of the Swazi Bridge Project. He attended the world’s biggest tech show, CES 2017 in Las Vegas two weeks ago, and he’ll be sharing insights he gleaned from the event. We’re also catching up on some biggest stories that broke while we were on holiday, including Standard Bank acquiring Firepay— the company behind the SnapScan payments app, the George Soros-backed VC, Leapfrog raising $800 million to invest in Africa's finance scene, and the Nigerian fintech startup, Paystack, closing a $1.3 million seed investment round involving Tencent, Comcast Ventures and Singularity Investments. There's no doubt about it, folks. Fintech is definitely a hot ticket at the moment! Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution

Amy Banse, Managing Director of Comcast ventures. Comcast made news recently when it was announced that their NBCUniversal arm would be buying DreamWorks Animation for 3.8 Billion dollars. Prior to leading Comcast’s corporate venture arm, Amy spent more than 20 years as an in house attorney for Comcast responsible for programming acquisition including brands like E, the golf channel, versus, G4 and more. Amy received her BA from Harvard and her JD from the Temple university law school.  Toptal is an amazing company. They've got over 2,500 developers and designers in their network.  They've screened them extensively so that you get to work with the top 3% of developers and designers. So basically what happens is that you let Toptal know what type of developer or designer you're looking for, they understand your business and technical requirements and they search for the right person for you. You don't have to do all the screening and interviews that you normally would and they make it really easy for you. You can even do part time hires that are a few hours a week or full time hires as well.  If you want to get connected to them, send me a note at  laura@startupgrind.com and I can personally introduce you to my friend Nelson. He's a VP at Toptal who will make sure you get an amazing experience.   

William Crowder is a venture capitalist at Comcast and DreamIt Ventures. At Comcast, he leads the Catalyst Fund which is focused on investing in startups with diverse founding teams. He previously served as Director of Strategy and Business Development at AOL. We discuss diversity, what he looks for in startups, and building tech outside the norms. This episode is brought to you by Classana. Find the best books to read and classes to take on Classana.com.

On this episode, I chat with co-founder and VP of Growth at Balanced, Jareau Wade. We discuss financial technology (FinTech) startups, getting more kids involved in technology, and ramble a bit about our history with the music industry. Part 2 features Lo Toney, a venture capitalist at Comcast Ventures. He spent time as the chief executive officer at Learnstreet that provided online education for computer programmers. He was also the executive in charge of Zynga Poker at Zynga. We talk about startup funding, Miles Davis and Rachmaninoff, and his journey in technology.