Podcasts about docsend

Text your thoughts directly to Rich. Understanding that you have a very limited amount of time and space to compete for a limited amount of investor attention.About Justin IzzoJustin is the Lead Data and Trends Analyst at Dropbox Docsend and trusted insights professional with 15+ years of research and leadership experience. He is the driving force behind DocSend's pitch deck metrics and annual slide-by-slide analysis reports, also hosting pitch deck teardowns to provide founders with actionable next steps. Justin loves designing research and strategies that leverage his unique Ph.D. background in the humanities and social sciences. He has an expert understanding of narrative, language, and culture coupled with a talent for deriving human insights from the social world.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-izzo/About DocSendDocSend enables companies to share business-critical documents with ease and get real-time actionable feedback. With DocSend's security and control, startup founders, investors, executives, and business development professionals can build business partnerships that have a lasting impact. Over 30,000 customers of all sizes use DocSend today. Learn more at docsend.com.About AVL Growth PartnersAVL Growth Partners, founded in 2009, is the leading fractional Finance and Accounting firm supporting organizations in pivoting from growth to scale. AVL brings an experienced team of CFOs, Controllers, and Accountants to your organization, delivering transparent, strategic actions for short and long-term success. Transform your financial approach affordably with AVL, supporting companies coast to coast - get to know AVL Growth Partners at avlgrowth.com. (Sponsored)About SpringTime VenturesSpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech & insurtech, and logistics & supply chain. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.     

Text your thoughts directly to Rich. The Team slide is your chance to answer the question, "why you?" A handful of logos is no more helpful than two paragraphs of text.About Justin IzzoJustin is the Lead Data and Trends Analyst at Dropbox Docsend and trusted insights professional with 15+ years of research and leadership experience. He is the driving force behind DocSend's pitch deck metrics and annual slide-by-slide analysis reports, also hosting pitch deck teardowns to provide founders with actionable next steps. Justin loves designing research and strategies that leverage his unique Ph.D. background in the humanities and social sciences. He has an expert understanding of narrative, language, and culture coupled with a talent for deriving human insights from the social world.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-izzo/About DocSendDocSend enables companies to share business-critical documents with ease and get real-time actionable feedback. With DocSend's security and control, startup founders, investors, executives, and business development professionals can build business partnerships that have a lasting impact. Over 30,000 customers of all sizes use DocSend today. Learn more at docsend.com.About AVL Growth PartnersAVL Growth Partners, founded in 2009, is the leading fractional Finance and Accounting firm supporting organizations in pivoting from growth to scale. AVL brings an experienced team of CFOs, Controllers, and Accountants to your organization, delivering transparent, strategic actions for short and long-term success. Transform your financial approach affordably with AVL, supporting companies coast to coast - get to know AVL Growth Partners at avlgrowth.com. (Sponsored)About SpringTime VenturesSpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech & insurtech, and logistics & supply chain. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.     

Text your thoughts directly to Rich. If your pitch deck should form an argument, the best way to formulate that argument is by writing it out in three sentences. About Justin IzzoJustin is the Lead Data and Trends Analyst at Dropbox Docsend and trusted insights professional with 15+ years of research and leadership experience. He is the driving force behind DocSend's pitch deck metrics and annual slide-by-slide analysis reports, also hosting pitch deck teardowns to provide founders with actionable next steps. Justin loves designing research and strategies that leverage his unique Ph.D. background in the humanities and social sciences. He has an expert understanding of narrative, language, and culture coupled with a talent for deriving human insights from the social world.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-izzo/About DocSendDocSend enables companies to share business-critical documents with ease and get real-time actionable feedback. With DocSend's security and control, startup founders, investors, executives, and business development professionals can build business partnerships that have a lasting impact. Over 30,000 customers of all sizes use DocSend today. Learn more at docsend.com.About AVL Growth PartnersAVL Growth Partners, founded in 2009, is the leading fractional Finance and Accounting firm supporting organizations in pivoting from growth to scale. AVL brings an experienced team of CFOs, Controllers, and Accountants to your organization, delivering transparent, strategic actions for short and long-term success. Transform your financial approach affordably with AVL, supporting companies coast to coast - get to know AVL Growth Partners at avlgrowth.com. (Sponsored)About SpringTime VenturesSpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech & insurtech, and logistics & supply chain. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.     

Text your thoughts directly to Rich. Structure your pitch deck in a way that it forms an argument and each slide supports that argument all the way through. About Justin IzzoJustin is the Lead Data and Trends Analyst at Dropbox Docsend and trusted insights professional with 15+ years of research and leadership experience. He is the driving force behind DocSend's pitch deck metrics and annual slide-by-slide analysis reports, also hosting pitch deck teardowns to provide founders with actionable next steps. Justin loves designing research and strategies that leverage his unique Ph.D. background in the humanities and social sciences. He has an expert understanding of narrative, language, and culture coupled with a talent for deriving human insights from the social world.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-izzo/About DocSendDocSend enables companies to share business-critical documents with ease and get real-time actionable feedback. With DocSend's security and control, startup founders, investors, executives, and business development professionals can build business partnerships that have a lasting impact. Over 30,000 customers of all sizes use DocSend today. Learn more at docsend.com.About AVL Growth PartnersAVL Growth Partners, founded in 2009, is the leading fractional Finance and Accounting firm supporting organizations in pivoting from growth to scale. AVL brings an experienced team of CFOs, Controllers, and Accountants to your organization, delivering transparent, strategic actions for short and long-term success. Transform your financial approach affordably with AVL, supporting companies coast to coast - get to know AVL Growth Partners at avlgrowth.com. (Sponsored)About SpringTime VenturesSpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech & insurtech, and logistics & supply chain. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.     

Text your thoughts directly to Rich. Market sizing should articulate how you see the market, showing that you understand your target market and can focus on it. About Justin IzzoJustin is the Lead Data and Trends Analyst at Dropbox Docsend and trusted insights professional with 15+ years of research and leadership experience. He is the driving force behind DocSend's pitch deck metrics and annual slide-by-slide analysis reports, also hosting pitch deck teardowns to provide founders with actionable next steps. Justin loves designing research and strategies that leverage his unique Ph.D. background in the humanities and social sciences. He has an expert understanding of narrative, language, and culture coupled with a talent for deriving human insights from the social world.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-izzo/About DocSendDocSend enables companies to share business-critical documents with ease and get real-time actionable feedback. With DocSend's security and control, startup founders, investors, executives, and business development professionals can build business partnerships that have a lasting impact. Over 30,000 customers of all sizes use DocSend today. Learn more at docsend.com.About AVL Growth PartnersAVL Growth Partners, founded in 2009, is the leading fractional Finance and Accounting firm supporting organizations in pivoting from growth to scale. AVL brings an experienced team of CFOs, Controllers, and Accountants to your organization, delivering transparent, strategic actions for short and long-term success. Transform your financial approach affordably with AVL, supporting companies coast to coast - get to know AVL Growth Partners at avlgrowth.com. (Sponsored)About SpringTime VenturesSpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech & insurtech, and logistics & supply chain. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.     

Text your thoughts directly to Rich. You don't have critical distance from your business to be able to get out of the weeds. Get feedback on your deck from someone with that critical distance. About Justin IzzoJustin is the Lead Data and Trends Analyst at Dropbox Docsend and trusted insights professional with 15+ years of research and leadership experience. He is the driving force behind DocSend's pitch deck metrics and annual slide-by-slide analysis reports, also hosting pitch deck teardowns to provide founders with actionable next steps. Justin loves designing research and strategies that leverage his unique Ph.D. background in the humanities and social sciences. He has an expert understanding of narrative, language, and culture coupled with a talent for deriving human insights from the social world.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-izzo/About DocSendDocSend enables companies to share business-critical documents with ease and get real-time actionable feedback. With DocSend's security and control, startup founders, investors, executives, and business development professionals can build business partnerships that have a lasting impact. Over 30,000 customers of all sizes use DocSend today. Learn more at docsend.com.About AVL Growth PartnersAVL Growth Partners, founded in 2009, is the leading fractional Finance and Accounting firm supporting organizations in pivoting from growth to scale. AVL brings an experienced team of CFOs, Controllers, and Accountants to your organization, delivering transparent, strategic actions for short and long-term success. Transform your financial approach affordably with AVL, supporting companies coast to coast - get to know AVL Growth Partners at avlgrowth.com. (Sponsored)About SpringTime VenturesSpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech & insurtech, and logistics & supply chain. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.     

Text your thoughts directly to Rich. The author of Dropbox DocSend's pitch deck analyses shares his insights into building a "snappy" pitch deck.About Justin IzzoJustin is the Lead Data and Trends Analyst at Dropbox Docsend and trusted insights professional with 15+ years of research and leadership experience. He is the driving force behind DocSend's pitch deck metrics and annual slide-by-slide analysis reports, also hosting pitch deck teardowns to provide founders with actionable next steps. Justin loves designing research and strategies that leverage his unique Ph.D. background in the humanities and social sciences. He has an expert understanding of narrative, language, and culture coupled with a talent for deriving human insights from the social world.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-izzo/About DocSendDocSend enables companies to share business-critical documents with ease and get real-time actionable feedback. With DocSend's security and control, startup founders, investors, executives, and business development professionals can build business partnerships that have a lasting impact. Over 30,000 customers of all sizes use DocSend today. Learn more at docsend.com.About AVL Growth PartnersAVL Growth Partners, founded in 2009, is the leading fractional Finance and Accounting firm supporting organizations in pivoting from growth to scale. AVL brings an experienced team of CFOs, Controllers, and Accountants to your organization, delivering transparent, strategic actions for short and long-term success. Transform your financial approach affordably with AVL, supporting companies coast to coast - get to know AVL Growth Partners at avlgrowth.com. (Sponsored)About SpringTime VenturesSpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech & insurtech, and logistics & supply chain. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.     

Looking for expert insights on startup success and leadership strategies for CEOs?

Alphabet is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion. If completed, this would be Alphabet's largest acquisition to date. This potential deal could act as a catalyst in the sluggish startup M&A market, which saw 356 acquisitions in the first half of 2024 compared to 771 in all of 2023. According to Angela Lee from Columbia Business School, the acquisition may not solve liquidity issues for large, late-stage startups or switch IPO trends to M&A but could positively affect venture fundraising. U.S. venture capital fundraising is projected to fall below the $81.5 billion raised in 2023, less than the $191.3 billion in 2022. The acquisition of a younger company like Wiz might ease Limited Partners' hesitations and offer venture capitalists leverage in fundraising. Data from DocSend indicated increased pitch deck activity in Q2 2024, although actual deals have not significantly risen. However, the deal's completion remains uncertain and could face antitrust challenges.Learn more on this news visit us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neste bitalk vamos descobri porque devias despedir os teus clientes com André Oliveira, Founder e CEO da Pixelmatters. Sabes o que é UX/UI?

JH Scherck is a growth consultant known for his expertise in developing effective content strategies for SaaS companies. He previously worked for companies like WP Engine and Docsend before striking out on his own with his SEO and content strategy agency, Growth Plays. JH is a wealth of knowledge about B2B marketing strategies, audience development, and SEO. Check out the full podcast to learn more about: (00:00) Introduction (01:47) Early career mistakes (11:34) Why targeting zero-volume keywords makes zero sense (15:54) How to market a product with no search demand (20:08) Owned vs earned media (26:46) Brand vs personal brand for social media (37:25) What is a community and how do you build one? (42:58) Why should you attend industry events? (51:07) Facilitating connections at events (55:39) When is marketing attribution useful? (01:11:31) Why AI will encourage uniqueness in marketing Where to find JH: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhtscherck/ X: https://x.com/JHTScherck Website: https://growthplays.com/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: https://x.com/timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/ Referenced: Docsend: https://www.docsend.com/ WP Engine: https://wpengine.com/ Salesforce: Marc Benioff: https://x.com/benioff Drift: https://www.drift.com/ Dave Gerhardt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegerhardt/ Alex Poulos: https://www.linkedin.com/in/poulos/ MozCon: https://moz.com/mozcon Rand Fishkin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/ Sparktoro article (Provable Marketing Attribution Is a Boondoggle): https://sparktoro.com/blog/provable-marketing-attribution-is-a-boondoggle-trust-your-gut-instead/ Orbit: https://orbit.love/ Orbit model of community: https://orbit.love/model Olivier Pomel (CEO of DataDog): https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierpomel/ Mattermark: https://mattermark.com/ Danielle Morill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemorrill/ Patrick Stox: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickstox/ https://x.com/patrickstox Joshua Hardwick: https://x.com/JoshuaCHardwick Ryan Law: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingslow/ https://x.com/thinking_slow Jason Cohen (WP Engine): https://x.com/asmartbear Ross Hudgens: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosshudgens/ Wil Reynolds: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilreynolds/ Hubspot: https://www.hubspot.com/ PubCon: https://www.pubcon.com/ Dmitry Gerasymenko: https://x.com/botsbreeder

Maybe a founder could explain to me why you would not follow up with investors that opened your deck on DocSend? About AVL Growth PartnersAVL Growth Partners, founded in 2009, is the leading fractional Finance and Accounting firm supporting organizations in pivoting from growth to scale. AVL brings an experienced team of CFOs, Controllers, and Accountants to your organization, delivering transparent, strategic actions for short and long-term success. Transform your financial approach affordably with AVL, supporting companies coast to coast - get to know AVL Growth Partners at avlgrowth.com. (Sponsored)About SpringTime VenturesSpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech & insurtech, and logistics & supply chain. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.   

In today's episode of the Real Estate Syndication Show, we had the pleasure of welcoming back Lance Pederson, co-founder at Passive Advantage and creator of the Empire Builder Formula. Lance brings a wealth of experience in advising both General Partners (GPs) and Limited Partners (LPs) in the real estate syndication space.Our conversation with Lance was incredibly insightful as we delved into the common frictions that arise between GPs and LPs and how to mitigate them. Lance shared valuable suggestions that can help both GPs and LPs have a smoother and more transparent partnership.Key Takeaways:Transparency and Access to Information: Lance emphasized the importance of GPs being transparent with LPs by sharing detailed financial models and documentation. He suggested using secure data rooms like Google Drive, Dropbox, or DocSend to provide LPs with access to sensitive information under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).Background Checks and Principal Questionnaires: He recommended that GPs run annual background checks on themselves and upload the results to the data room, along with a principal questionnaire, to build trust with LPs.Realistic Underwriting: Lance discussed the pressure GPs face to inflate their underwriting to show higher potential returns. He advised GPs to be conservative and honest in their projections and to educate LPs on the reality of investment returns in the current economic climate.Personal Habits for Success: Lance attributes his success to his habit of going to bed early and waking up early, which allows him to have a productive start to his day.Spiritual Discipleship: Lastly, Lance spoke about the importance of discipleship and mentoring in one's spiritual journey, highlighting the need to actively help others grow in their faith.We're also excited to announce that Lance will be contributing to the podcast by hosting some shows, bringing his expertise to our listeners.Remember to like and subscribe to the Real Estate Syndication Show for more valuable insights into the world of real estate investing. Share this episode with friends who are looking to improve their GP-LP relationships and stay tuned for more expert advice on navigating the real estate syndication landscape.VISIT OUR WEBSITEhttps://lifebridgecapital.com/Here are ways you can work with us here at Life Bridge Capital:⚡️START INVESTING TODAY: If you think that real estate syndication may be right for you, contact us today to learn more about our current investment opportunities: https://lifebridgecapital.com/investwithlbc⚡️Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRealEstateSyndicationShow

Russ Heddleston, Co-founder & former CEO, DocSend Every owner loves their business. This makes selling their company even harder than it already is. But aside from the emotional turmoil that founders go through every exit, there are also a lot of intricacies included in the process.  In this episode of the M&A Science Podcast, Russ Heddleston, Co-founder & former CEO of DocSend, discusses the challenges of sell-side M&A. Things you will also learn in this episode: Considerations in Potentially Selling a Startup Challenges of sell-side M&A Key Factors for a Successful Exit  How to manage diligence in sell-side M&A Episode Bookmarks 00:00 Intro 04:10 Starting DocSend  06:08 Identifying the Inflection Point to sell 09:01 Selling a Startup 10:46 Considerations in Potentially Selling a Startup 14:28 Best Time for an Exit 16:00 Balancing Stakeholder Interests in an Acquisition 17:50 Relationship Management in an Acquisition 19:46 How Relationships Influence Negotiations 20:41 Relationships with Bankers 23:14 Reaching out to DropBox 26:16 Key Factors for a Successful Exit 28:04 Impact of Market Conditions on M&A 28:45 The Unknowns of Selling a Business 30:53 Post-Acquisition Challenges and Unknowns 32:34 Enhancing Preparation for Post-Close Integration 34:05 Tips for Buyers for Smoother Integration 35:18 Challenges of Sell-side M&A 37:15 Efficiently Managing Diligence 38:46 People involved from pre-LOI to Close 41:36 Post-Acquisition Team Dynamics 43:01 Evaluating Alternatives to Selling 48:28 Fundraising Strategies to Minimize Dilution 49:44 Advice for Acquirers Seeking Successful Acquisitions 51:29 Effective Strategies for Corporate Leaders to Engage with Founders 53:14 Craziest thing in M&A  

Justin Izzo is Research Lead and Data Expert at Dropbox DocSend, a popular deck sharing and analytics tool used by founders across the world.  In the episode we talk about: - What are the most important slides to include in your pitch deck?  - What slides do investors spend the most time on? - How many slides should your pitch deck contain?  - How to access and analyze pitch deck interaction insights? - Importance of communicating path to profitability to investors - Are investors experiencing any kind of FOMO or are they willing to wait and watch as they sit on dry powder? & lots more Links:  Docsend - https://www.docsend.com/ Docsend on X - https://x.com/DocSend Docsend on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/docsend Subscribe to VC10X for more insightful episodes!

Our Social Media Pages, follow us and engage with the Pill-grim community!Join our Entre CommunityInstagramTwitter YouTubeTikTokLinkedInAnd now for this week's prescription:On this week's dose, we have Justin Izzo, Lead Data and Trends analyst at DocSend, the secure document sharing platform everyone can use. After a long career in academia as a professor at both Duke and Brown University, Justin joined Docsend to help make sense of all the pitch deck data they've collected from founders and investors using their platform.In the interview, you'll hear about Justin's insights pertaining to current pitch deck data, both granularly and in aggregate. You'll also hear about how the pitch deck has evolved over time, and what founders and investors are looking for in today's more competitive fundraising conditions. It was great hosting Justin, AKA the “Pitch Deck Professor” on this week's dose, and class is now in session. Sources:https://www.docsend.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-izzo/Music Credit: Chapter One by Cole Bauer and Dean Keetonhttps://www.colebauer.com/https://www.instagram.com/deankeeton/?hl=enDisclosure:The views, statements, and opinions,  expressed herein by the hosts and guests are their own, and their appearance on the podcast should not be construed as reflecting the views or implied endorsement of Independent Brokerage Solutions LLC or any of its officers, employees, or agents. The statements made herein should not be considered an investment opinion, advice, or a recommendation regarding securities of any company. This podcast is produced solely for informational purposes and is not to be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy a security.

Join us for the latest episode of Sit Down Startup! Anyone want to order a pizza? You're in luck. This week's guest Ilir Sela is the founder and CEO of Slice, a platform that "builds innovative tech to empower America's independent pizzerias." Sounds delicious! Ilir dives into...Fax-machine-MVP - meet the customer where they areWhy he bootstrapped to $40M GMV vs. raising soonerWhat he looked for in a VC partnerAnd more!Shoutout to our partners DocSend and The Launch Box!DocSend: DocSend allows you to securely share your pitch deck and streamline fundraising - with DocSend, you maintain control over sensitive fundraising documents, know which investors are engaging with your decks and get real-time, actionable feedback with document analytics.Founders can get up to 90% off DocSend for a year by filling out the form here: https://try.docsend.com/zendeskThe Launch Box: The Launch Box is a boutique marketing services firm that is on a mission to help more founders succeed by embedding established marketing principles into their company DNA from day 1. Take our FREE STARTUP QUIZ to assess the market fit of your new business and get actionable advice on what you can do next to accelerate your path to market and optimize your chances at success. https://thelaunchboxus.com/startup-quiz

This week our host Brandi Starr is joined by Taft Love, founder of Iceberg RevOps.   Iceberg RevOps is a service that helps sales and marketing teams with their operation needs.   Taft is also the head of sales for DocSend, a Dropbox company.   When he's not focused on sales or revenue operations, Taft is usually spending time with his wife and son or volunteering as a medical transport pilot.   On the couch, Brandi and Taft will tackle Outsource to Outperform: Unlocking Growth by Embracing External Expertise.   Links: Get in touch with Taft Love on LinkedIn Iceberg RevOps Check out Revenue Rehab Episode 50: RevOps as a Growth Driver: Why CMOs Need to Invest   Subscribe, listen, and rate/review Revenue Rehab Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts , Amazon Music, or iHeart Radio and find more episodes on our website RevenueRehab.live

This podcast interview focuses on sharing some of the big lessons learned from building Europe's largest B2B SaaS community. My guest is Alex Theuma, CEO of SaaStock. Leave a comment or a question for Alex and Ton. After 11 years of sales experience in IT, Telecoms & Cloud, Alex started a blog on SaaS called SaaScribe. This soon caught on, and he built a powerful network across the SaaS founder and investor community. The blog soon led to the creation of the first-ever podcast on B2B SaaS, called The SaaS Revolution show, which led to the first exclusively SaaS-themed meetups in London, Dublin, and Berlin. In 2015 SaaStock was founded on the back of that, which, in the meantime, has become the world's most impactful conference for SaaS founders on the journey to $10M+ ARR and beyond. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Alex to my podcast. We explore what Alex sees as key criteria to succeed in B2B SaaS. We discuss how to start off on the right foundation, what to bet on, and what not, and how to avoid making the costly mistakes other SaaS founders made.  Here's one of his quotes I speak to people that have been running a business for like two years and are struggling, and they're still trying to figure out their ICP. So try to figure it out super early - maybe even before you launch your product. Another bonus is one is positioning. We've seen how that's transformed companies. An example of that would be DocSend (bought by Dropbox). The thing that really created the inflection point for them after many years was when they nailed their positioning. That caused them to get the hockey stick growth. During this interview, you will learn four things: Why segmentation and positioning are wrongly undervalued What signals to look for from customers to know you're on the right track Why each B2B SaaS Founder should build a personal brand  What to do and avoid doing to prevent ending up in the valleys of death For more information about the guest from this week: Alex Theuma Website: SaaStock Leave a comment or a question for Alex or Ton. Subscribe to the Daily Value Inspiration Get my free, 2 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Badass Clinicians, Dr. Natty meets with Dr. Dinkin. They discuss how hard it is to find a good partner in the business world, as well as speaking out against the norm and standing up to the negative entities in the Health Care World. Connect with Jeremy on Instagram @rsm_athlete_docSend him a DM...tell him I sent you!As always you can follow me anywhere @doctor.natty 

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Justin Izzo, Lead Data and Trends Analyst at Dropbox DocSend. Located in San Francisco, California, Dropbox DocSend enables companies to share business-critical documents with ease and get real-time actionable feedback. With DocSend's security and control, startup founders, investors, executives, and business development professionals can build business partnerships that have a lasting impact. Over 30,000 customers of all sizes use DocSend today. Dropbox is the one place to keep life organized and keep work moving. With more than 700 million registered users across 180 countries, they are on a mission to design a more enlightened way of working.  Justin is a trusted insight professional with 15 years of research and leadership experience. He is a passionate data-driven researcher who uses deep analysis, persuasive writing, and interdisciplinary skills to find new opportunities, discover unexpected connections and tackle organizational challenges. Justin conducts research experience, including applied research, for example: Focus groups, participant observation, structured and semi-structured interviews, ethnography, narrative strategies, cultural studies, and content analysis. He attended Duke University and holds a Ph.D. in Literature and a MA in Cultural Anthropology. Justin also attended New York University for his Bachelor of Arts in French Language and Literature. Justin helps folks how to prepare pitch decks and fundraise, using fundraising surveys and pitch deck data.  Visit Dropbox DocSend at   Reach out to Justin at , and on LinkedIn at  _______________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at:    Check out our other podcasts here:   For Investors check out:   For Startups check out:   For eGuides check out:   For upcoming Events, check out    For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group    Please , share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of .

Justin Izzo is the research lead at DocSend, the secure document sharing platform that provides founders with the insight they need to succeed throughout their fundraising journey. Justin brings 15 years of research and leadership experience to the role in combination with his passion for educating and empowering startup founders.On today's episode, Justin shares his unique insights into what it takes to develop and effective pitch deck.In this episode, you will hear:The slides you haven't included in your deck, but maybe should haveThe giant change that's happening in pitch decks in 2022 and what it means for youWhy you absolutely can't forget the competition slideFounders looking to amplify their outreach to VCs can join the DocSend Fundraising Network here: https://www.docsend.com/fundraising-network/ Connect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

¡Episodio 62 de ConToda Podcast!

Right now, more so than ever, it is critical for salespeople to learn how to navigate in a tight economy. On today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, our host, Donald Kelly, talks with the co-founder of DocSend, Russ Heddleston, about how to listen more, use the prospect's language, and how do ONE thing well for them.  Why won't order-takers survive in a tight economy? Over the last few years, more and more order-taking roles are being pushed to automation. The role of the salesperson is changing because of the amount of competition and vendors. What can we do? Be curious and listen more Your first job is to listen and understand why you are having a conversation and how you can help your customer.  Look up who you are talking to ahead of time. Russ says that very few of the salespeople he talks to have done their research ahead of time.  The process will move faster if you are more patient on your first calls.  Bridge the gap between value and the company's goals Companies have been through the ringer in the past year, so have empathy for your prospect. Your best bet to get them to buy is to understand their business. Understand what they are trying to solve so that you can become a partner to them.  Use their own language The person you are talking to is not the only person involved in the buying decision. Even if you convince them, they need to convince everyone else in the company.  To help your champion save time, recognize their language and use it so that they can turn around and explain it to their company.  If you are not versed in their industry, talk to product marketing and your support team, then document it for the next person.  Do ONE thing well for them Make it simple, not complicated, for why they should buy.  Take all the value propositions your product has and boil it down to one thing. The discovery is key in this process so you know what is important to them.  Episode resources Connect with Russ on Twitter and Linkedin. Check out DocSend here. This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn. The sales landscape is totally changing. The way that we are selling is out of line with the way our prospects are buying. You need to adapt to succeed. Imagine if you could use data that could give you insights into when somebody is ready and the challenges they are facing so you can fine-tune your message specifically toward them. Deep Sales, a part of the next generation of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, can help you do just that. Check it out yourself and get a 60-day free trial at Linkedin.com/TSE. This episode is brought to you in part by Scratchpad. Are you tired of a digital workspace cluttered with notes, folders, files, and half-filled spreadsheets? (Not that we're speaking from personal experience.) Luckily, we've found the solution. Scratchpad is the first Revenue Team Workspace specifically designed to adapt to each salesperson's workflow, so you don't have to change your habits. Scratchpad creates a streamlined workflow that allows everyone to be a little more productive each day without the hassle of updating a database with whatever info you can find. Get Scratchpad free at Scratchpad.com.  This episode is brought to you in part by Calendly. The power of scheduling automation has never been more critical than it is today. Your sales team needs a solution to easily meet with prospects at the right time, every time. With calendly, you can turn more meetings into revenue, accelerate your sales cycle, and increase your win rate when you choose to use calendly to automate your scheduling. Finish the year strong and request a demo of calendly today at Calendly.com/TSE.  This episode is brought to you in part by Skipio. Are you sick of crickets? As a salesperson, the pain of reaching out with phone calls or emails and not receiving a response is real. But all text messaging is not created equal. 85% of people prefer text over email and phone calls because they want to engage in a conversation, not listen to bots. Be more like people and start having conversations that end in the conversions you want. Try Skipio at www.Skipio.com. As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey. We'd love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify. Audio provided by Free SFX, Soundstripe, and Bensound. Other songs used in the episodes are The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and Produced by Brightseed and Hill.

When you hear that today’s guest sold his document sharing startup to Dropbox for $165M you might wonder how someone could be so lucky. Well, as you’ll hear in this interview, it was not an easy journey. Russ Heddleston is the founder of DocSend which was acquired by Dropbox. Russ Heddleston is the founder of DocSend which was acquired by Dropbox. Sponsored byLemon.io – Why squander time and money on developers who aren't perfect for your startup? Let Lemon match you with engineers that can transform your vision into reality — diabolically fast. Go to Lemon.io/mixergy for a 15% discount on your first 4 weeks with one of their devs. Masterworks – Masterworks is the first platform making it possible to invest in multimillion-dollar works from artists like Banksy, Kaws, Basquiat, and many more. It’s an exclusive community that allows investors to access multimillion-dollar paintings, buy and potentially sell shares on Secondary Market, and receive proceeds if and when the painting sells. Join the community at Masterworks.art/mixergy More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

Russ Heddleston, Co-Founder & CEO at DocSend, talks about how to create a category or a new market. There's no denying that organic growth takes time to scale whether it's SEO or product-led growth. However, building in the sharing aspect into your product from the start sets you up for success and kick starts the growth of your organic growth channels. Today, Russ discusses why self-serve outperforms outbound marketing. Show NotesConnect With:Russ Heddleston: Website // LinkedIn The MarTech Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterBenjamin Shapiro: Website // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Russ Heddleston, Co-Founder & CEO at DocSend, talks about how to create a category or a new market. There's no denying that organic growth takes time to scale whether it's SEO or product-led growth. However, building in the sharing aspect into your product from the start sets you up for success and kick starts the growth of your organic growth channels. Today, Russ discusses why self-serve outperforms outbound marketing. Show NotesConnect With:Russ Heddleston: Website // LinkedIn The MarTech Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterBenjamin Shapiro: Website // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Russ Heddleston, Co-Founder & CEO at DocSend, talks about how to create a category or a new market. When bringing a new product to market, it's easy for us to get caught up trying to make it the most optimal for a specific target audience. DocSend turned that concept on its head completely and launched the product first, then saw who was using it, and doubled down on their marketing efforts in those areas. Today, Russ discusses creating a new product category. Show NotesConnect With:Russ Heddleston: Website // LinkedIn The MarTech Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterBenjamin Shapiro: Website // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Russ Heddleston, Co-Founder & CEO at DocSend, talks about how to create a category or a new market. When bringing a new product to market, it's easy for us to get caught up trying to make it the most optimal for a specific target audience. DocSend turned that concept on its head completely and launched the product first, then saw who was using it, and doubled down on their marketing efforts in those areas. Today, Russ discusses creating a new product category. Show NotesConnect With:Russ Heddleston: Website // LinkedIn The MarTech Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterBenjamin Shapiro: Website // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Since launching at New York's TechCrunch Disrupt back in 2014, DocSend was acquired by Dropbox in March 2021 and has brought on over 20,000 customers. In our Season 5 opener, Adam sat down for a virtual coffee with Co-Founder Russ Heddleston to get the lowdown on: How word of mouth is still important to achieve growth Using customer feedback as a base for making improvements Why founders should monetize their products from the get-go

Mike Maynard, Managing Director and CEO, Napier Group (Chichester, England) Mike Maynard is Managing Director and CEO at Napier Group, an agency focused on marketing technical products to technical audiences. Clients include major companies selling semiconductors, industrial automation systems, cellular communications infrastructure, complex software, and even a baggage-handling system manufacturer. The customer “audience” for these products is “super-targeted, super technical, and . . . demanding.” A disillusioned engineer who loved talking tech, Mike stopped designing products and re-engineered himself as a tech salesman. In 2008, he bought out the tech-focused marketing agency his company had been using – two weeks before the dot com crash. With ALL of his money invested in the agency, Mike had no choice but to make the venture succeed. Today, the agency is a mix of geeks – engineers or technical journalists who understand the technology – and marketing experts. Based in Chichester, England, the agency works with a good number of American companies to target their American customers . . . and is in the process of adding a U.S. office. Some of Napier's clients have products with fairly quick purchase/sales cycles. Others, such as the airport baggage handling system manufacturer, may have cycles ranging from seven to twenty years. When the sales cycle is long, a client is not “trying to think about closing a sale all the time.” Multi-year sales cycles require marketing to build relationships and rapport. The objective is to keep the product long-term on the minds of “future” customers by helping them stay apprised of industry trends and leading-edge developments. Mike explains that, when a product is technical, “people shortlist a very small number of suppliers.” While the customer journey for a consumer product is usually short and straightforward, marketing technical products takes a “very long time,” “involves different stages of research,” and “requires “very different information.” Mike says you have to understand your customers, what they need, and the information they need; “take this really complicated thing and then narrow it down to clear reasons why somebody should consider the product;” “keep talking to the client over a long period of time because of the long sales cycle”; and make their decision and customer journey as easy as possible. In this interview, Mike discusses TURTL, an in-Beta, analytics-rich, flipbook style content platform that tracks audience engagement – whether a document is opened, how long a reader looks at it, and how far through the information the reader gets – which allows document owners to optimize their content, enrich relevant and eliminate irrelevant information, and customize the material to the needs of individual prospects.  Instead of following “vanity metrics” (click-through rates, numbers of clicks), TURTL helps answer the questions, “What does your audience care about? What do you need to give them more of? What do you need to stop talking about? How can you optimize your campaigns?” Mike says, “It's a phenomenal superpower,” being able to “learn from the behavior of your audience” particularly when you've got the long, complex documents typical in tech industries. Mike can be reached at his agency's website: napierb2b.com, on LinkedIn (Mike Maynard at Napier), or by email at: mike@napierb2b.com. ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Kischuk, and I am joined today by Mike Maynard, Managing Director and CEO at Napier Group based in Chichester, England. Welcome to the podcast, Mike. MIKE: Thanks for having me on the podcast, Rob. Appreciate it. ROB: Excellent to have you here. Why don't you start us off with an introduction to Napier Group? What is the firm's expertise? MIKE: Basically, what the firm does is we get geeks and techies excited. Our business is helping people market in the B2B technology space. It's all about selling technical products to a technical audience that's making a technical decision. ROB: Got it. How technical are we talking here? Is it gadgets, is it software, or is it heavy-duty engineer cloud platform kind of software developer stuff? MIKE: It's pretty geeky stuff, Rob. To give you an idea of some of our clients, we work with one of the leading semiconductor companies in the world. We work with companies that sell industrial automation systems. We work with people selling cellular communications infrastructure. We even work with the world's largest manufacturer of baggage handling systems. ROB: It sounds like these are not Super Bowl ads, right? This sounds like pretty targeted audiences. MIKE: These are super-targeted, super technical, and generally speaking pretty demanding audiences, yeah. It's definitely not Super Bowl ads. ROB: It seems like whether you're talking about semiconductors, whether you're talking about communications, this is pretty technical stuff. I'm imagining you're largely a firm of marketers; how do you equip your team to be prepared to speak this language? Are they reformed geeks, or what is the secret here? MIKE: I'm not sure I'm reformed, but I certainly am a geek. I started my career as an electronics engineer and spent years in design and then in technical support for semiconductor companies. So I'm certainly very technical. And actually, just over half the agency is very technical, typically coming from either an engineering or a technical journalism background. So how do we equip people? The answer is we mix together people who understand the technology with people who are really good at marketing, and that's how we get the results. ROB: Got it. I am also a computer engineer by education, but now wear all the hats, much as you do in some seasons, I am sure. How, then, do you think about how to reach the audience, where to reach the audience? How do you find these very specific buyers? And these also sound like probably longer purchase cycles while we're at it. MIKE: Yeah, two very insightful questions, Rob. Talking about the purchase cycles, we do have a range of purchase cycles. With some of our clients' products, we can actually get fairly quick turnarounds, and indeed, a couple of our clients actually sell online, so they will be able to sell particularly things like development kits (the things to start a development process going) online fairly quickly, although there'll then be a development cycle involved for the engineers. But if you look at, for example, selling a baggage handling system into an airport, if you want to sell a baggage handling system, someone's really got to be building an airport terminal to buy a baggage handling system. They need somewhere to put it. Actually, you look at those sales cycles, the fastest turnaround they can get is typically about 7 years, and the sales cycle goes up to 20 years for these systems. It really is a case of not trying to think about closing a sale all the time. With a multi-year sales cycle, that's ridiculous. It's about building that relationship, that rapport through marketing, and basically staying top-of-mind, staying the product that the customers want to choose. ROB: How do you stay top-of-mind for seven years? MIKE: The answer is you have to do interesting stuff. It's really simple. In all our industries, if you look at it, there are people buying who are making very technical decisions over a long sales cycle. What these guys and girls want to do is understand what's going on in the market, because they may go for a long period of time without making any specific purchasing decision. If you could be helping them, educating them, telling them about the trends, and hopefully introducing developments that actually are leading the industry, then you're going to get them engaged. It's about presenting that kind of information in a compelling way that really gets the techies excited. It's about helping them as well as marketing to them. ROB: I'd imagine at least you have plenty of time to pull together a case study. It's not a quick turnaround, necessarily. MIKE: The problem is everybody wants case studies, and case studies are notoriously difficult to get done. We're forever trying to get case studies. Actually, the case studies are one of the fastest things that happen because typically they happen once a sale is completed and you've had a product, for example, go into production. Then you can turn around the case study really quickly. So you wait for it for a really long time – it's like being a kid waiting for Christmas. You think it's forever till it's going to happen. You know that the client's got this amazing project they're working on, and then finally you get the opportunity, and suddenly Christmas is there and it's amazing, and you get a fantastic case study. ROB: Yeah, that sounds like Christmas all over again. If we rewind the clock a little bit, what led you into this business? How did this whole thing get started? MIKE: It's a very unplanned story. I used to be an engineer, and I was designing electronic systems. I designed everything from systems that could engrave printing rollers using big industrial lasers through to recording for music studios. Then I decided I wasn't very good at the engineering part. I actually quite liked talking about the technology, so I went into technical sales. In the UK at the time, you used to get a company car, a car provided by the company, if you were in marketing. I kind of liked the idea of moving into marketing because my car was getting old, so I moved into marketing because of that and spent a few years in marketing, running European marketing for a semiconductor company. Then I went on a course. It was a residential management course, and there were a few glasses of wine on the last night, and we got into talking about what people's ambitions were. Someone said to me, “You should run your own business, Mike.” I think they were really polite and they were saying, “Oh, my God, I would hate to be your manager, Mike,” but they presented it in this lovely way of . . . “You should run your own business.” About two months later, my main contact at the agency I was using said, “The two founders are looking to retire and sell the business, and I think you should buy it.” I thought, how hard can it be to run an agency? I've done marketing. An agency's got to be basically the same as being on the client side. Let's just try it. And then I learnt. ROB: Purchasing a business can take on a few different forms. What did the purchase process and structure look like for you? I imagine there's enough distance between here and there that you can probably talk a little bit about it. MIKE: The approach actually was really simple. There were some technical issues; obviously, companies structure very differently. In the UK, you can have a partnership or you can have a limited liability company or you can have a listed company. At the time, the current company was a partnership. I basically bought the assets, put it into a limited liability company because I had no money, and certainly after the purchase, I had no money. I never really added up how much debt I'd run up because I think I would've never done it if I'd realized that. But it was a relatively straightforward process. Frankly, buying businesses is nowhere near as difficult as it sounds. But I do have one great bit of advice for buying businesses. If you're going to buy an agency that is 100% focused on technology clients, buying that agency about two weeks before the dot-com crash is a really, really bad idea. That's my advice to anyone: get your timing right. That's probably a bigger challenge than actually the whole process of buying a business. ROB: Yes, timing would seem to matter a great deal there. But perhaps then also part of going through that season has probably helped along the way. How did you make it through the downturn, the dot-com crash? That's certainly a baptism by fire, if you will, into the privileges of business ownership. MIKE: That's a great question. I think making it through was not really the problem, because I'd taken all the money I had, I put it into the business – there was no option. I had to make it succeed. I think a lot of agency owners will relate to this with COVID and typically having to leave the office, work from home – you get through that. I think the biggest problem is how that impacts you in the longer term. For me, after buying the agency, it really made me overly cautious. We were always wanting to have cash in the bank. We always wanted to be safe. We wanted to have runway. We didn't go out and invest as much as we should. We didn't actually take advantage of the cycles when there were upcycles. It really had a long-term impact on me. Agency owners who've been through COVID, a lot of agency owners have really struggled; the one thing I'd say is these exceptional situations are exceptional. And yes, there'll be problems. There'll be bumps on the road. It won't be an easy route. But I think as we come out of this horrible pandemic, we've got to look back to building our confidence as agency owners and being prepared to go back to taking the risks you were taking before the pandemic. ROB: How did that experience, and maybe the learning from that dot-com crash, affect your reaction to however much 2008 impacted you, and then what sort of footing were you on heading into COVID? You saw it. You clearly saw, “Here we go again”; how did your mind and your attitude react differently in that case? MIKE: That's a great question because I think the two are very different. 2008 obviously had a big impact on us, again, being a technology agency with a big tech downturn. But we were still running the business very conservatively. We were still, in my opinion, being a little bit overly cautious. We had cash, we were safe, we got through the downturn, and it was okay. By the time we get to the pandemic and COVID, we changed our philosophy. We were investing more. We're still running the business with cash in the bank rather than running it on an overdraft, so to some extent keeping safe. But honestly, for us – and we were lucky in the business we're in. There are other agencies that have been hit far harder. For us, we came through COVID and it was like, actually, the impact to the business was pretty small. I mean, yes, we had to move everybody, make them remote, we had to do that in virtually no time, we had to deal with communications issues. We had all these problems. But basically, the money kept coming in, and that was great. Some of the clients cut back, but nobody really pulled out. It was actually so much easier having been through financially what were far worse downturns. ROB: Yeah. Some of these products you're talking about – I think any marketer, any client, any seller, any buyer is expecting the entire conversation to last longer than any downturn, so I can see how that makes sense. I am curious as I think about it – most of what you're talking about, these things sound like they are more sold than bought, if you will. They're things where, as a marketer, you're not just trying to get somebody to check out and buy a bunch of things to outfit all their cellphone towers for their entire country network buildout. In some ways you're equipping and supporting a salesforce, I would imagine. So. what are the channels that you're reaching, and how do you come alongside when the actual purchase is probably with a human and maybe an RFP and a whole bunch of other things? MIKE: That's a great question. If you look at the research with these highly involved decisions – and I know LinkedIn has published something recently about financial purchases – actually, people shortlist a very small number of suppliers. Typically a couple of suppliers. What you have to do is really understand the customer journey. People talk about the customer journey, and you can look at a customer journey for a consumer product; it's very short, and it's probably not that involved. A customer journey for the kind of products we're taking, it takes a very long time. It involves different stages of research. They need very different content, very different information. It's about really getting into the head of those customers, understanding what they're doing, understanding what they're going through, what they need, and then delivering the right information. I can't change our clients' products, and I can't make our client always have the best product in the world. But what I can do is present the product in the best light, and I can make it as easy as possible for the customer to choose our client's product. A lot of it is about removing these roadblocks that make it difficult to choose and just making that journey as smooth as possible. ROB: It's such an interesting journey along that way. You did mention, as we were getting you lined up to be on the podcast, you're going to be at the B2B Expo in Los Angeles at the start of April. How does that fit into your mix of operating the firm? And that's a little bit of a journey for you. MIKE: Because we're in technology, most of our clients are American, or certainly most of our revenue comes from clients that are ultimately headquartered in the States. Silicon Valley is a big area for us, but also we have some industrial technology companies we work with who are based in the States. So, we've always got a lot of our business from the States. At the moment, we're looking for creative things to do. We've recently signed a partnership with a content platform called TURTL. We're looking to promote that as well, both in Europe and in the U.S. And then lastly – and this is news that very few people know outside of the company – we actually have someone who's moving out to the States in the next week or two to begin opening a presence in the U.S. We're already working for American companies to target some of their American customers, and now we're building that out. That's the next stage. All of these things came together, along, frankly, with a 50% grant from the UK government to go to the show. So it made a lot of sense to go and see if it works. It's very much an experiment for us. It could be a complete disaster, but I think like every marketing tactic, if you don't try it, how do you know whether it works? ROB: Sure. That's actually a topic that's been very near and dear to us as well. When you talk about these conferences, the decision of how much to experiment versus how much to commit – when you come to thinking about going to a conference like that, how do you think about what an experiment looks like versus a strong conviction that it's the right place? What do those different investments look like? MIKE: That's a great question. I think you look firstly at the cost in terms of money, and then secondly at the cost in terms of time. For us, we've got a number of clients in the States, and I can combine a meeting with probably three of those clients as well as the event. I can actually get these client meetings that I'd probably want to fly to the States for anyway included. That makes it very much more compelling. There's not much for time cost involved. As I say, we've signed this new technology partnership; we really want to promote that. We think there's a lot of opportunity. The company is UK-based. It's just launching and trying to build in the States. Again, it's perfect timing. You look at everything and you go, “Does my gut feel that the amount I'm investing is a small amount compared to the potential return? Yeah, I need one client from this show and I'm gold.” That's a relatively small investment. If I don't get anybody, it's not the end of the world. I've had some great client meetings, I've learnt a lot about the market, I've been able to go to the States in front of some American clients and some prospects. It almost feels like it's a “can't-lose,” even though we're doing the tradeshow route – which, particularly after COVID, feels a little bit risky. ROB: Right, it's a little bit of an experiment for everyone, but it's definitely a good perspective to think about needing one good client to rationalize the entire endeavor. It sounds like TURTL is strategic to you. Tell a little bit more about what that does. What does it do, how does it work, how does it help you? MIKE: We've recently signed up with the guys. They have a technology to present information in somewhat like a flipbook style. You go online, you read the information, and you can delve down into the topics that interest you. On the face of it, that's kind of like a number of other technologies, but what TURTL does is provides phenomenal analytics to the marketers. Typically, in our world, it's all PDF. All the datasheets, manuals, instructions, brochures, everything is PDF. You send someone a PDF. Did they open it? I don't know. Did they read the first page? I don't know. Did they get to the end? I don't know. With a TURTL document, you get information on which pages they looked at, how long they looked at it, where they delved down for deeper information. Hopefully the TURTL guys won't mind me saying this – the technology for presentation is good, it's really good, but it's not world-changing. The technology behind the analytics, though, for my clients is amazing because they're producing massive books of information, and they have no idea whether anybody reads some of those pages. Now they know, and that's so powerful. They can optimize the content. And of course, within TURTL, like many of these other platforms, you can customize the content as well. You can work on the pages that people, your audience, care about, and you can also make sure you filter out the ones that are irrelevant to each prospect. To me – and maybe this is more of a trend than just about TURTL – we've gone away from analytics being, “What's your click-through rate? How many clicks did you get?” Everyone has realized that's kind of vanity metrics, and now I think analytics are “What does your audience care about? What do you need to give them more of? What do you need to stop talking about? How can you optimize your campaigns?” That's something that, to me, TURTL will give our clients, and it's a phenomenal superpower. ROB: It reminds me a little bit of DocSend, but for a different industry. Do you know DocSend? MIKE: Yeah, DocSend. ROB: I googled them again just to make sure I wasn't crazy, and they're all about investors and investing and those pitch decks that you send to investors. But it's the same need and the same problem. It helps me picture – the displaying of the document, that's table stakes. It's necessary. It's what the product has to do. You can't do anything if you don't do that. But it's the insights it can give you that really – you know where you're wasting your time, where you're not. There's a lot going on there, what content is communicating and maybe what isn't. Or even with client needs, right? MIKE: Absolutely. It lets you really understand what matters to the audience. You could do that on an individual level and that's kind of cool, but it's that aggregate level. We produced a general TURTL document from one of our previous PDFs, did a little bit of promotion over email, and 70% of people flipped all the way to the end. We were like, 70% going to the end? I wouldn't have bet that on PDF. And okay, some of it is a new format, some of it is exciting. Then we look at it and it's like, page seven – nobody liked that. Why do we talk about this stuff? Nobody cares. The next thing we're going to do is take out page seven, and suddenly that document becomes even more engaging to the audience. So, you can really learn from the behavior of your audience, and that to me is really powerful, particularly when you've got long and complex documents, which a lot of our clients have. ROB: Mike, we talked a little bit about the past of the firm, but as you reflect – we've already shared some lessons, but what are some of the key lessons you feel like you have learned in building and operating the business and things you might suggest to yourself to do a little bit differently if you had the chance to go back and tell yourself? MIKE: Wow, that's a great question. I think looking back – I actually talked with one of my other directors, who has been with me for the whole journey, from buying the agency all the way through to today, and we said we lacked confidence. Quite often, if you don't come from an agency background, you're not used to what agencies do at different sizes. You think big agencies are some sort of unbelievable, amazing organization that you can't touch. To me, we lacked confidence to go pitch for some of the big businesses. When we look at where we do our best job, where we deliver the best value, actually a lot of the time that's with our biggest clients. Not with the small companies, but with the really biggest clients. So, I think it's about being confident in your offering and what you're doing and really being prepared to put yourself out there. ROB: I can almost see once you have that confidence, you think about “who is not your customer” more clearly, but also probably it creates an interesting perspective on what industries you see emerging and who would be a good customer. What have you seen coming to market that you would not have predicted, but you look at it and say “Hey, that's actually a great prospect for us”? What types of things have surprised you? MIKE: That's really interesting. I think certainly the comment about being prepared to be clear about who's not your customer is really important. We've turned down quite a few clients – probably more clients than we've actually pitched, over the last six months. In terms of the markets that are interesting, I think actually if you look at your business, what you need to do as an agency owner is see what you're good at and then see what's one step away. As you want to grow and expand out, you need to look at where you are one step away. A lot of what we do is around quite complex software, so we're really good at helping software companies sell a complex product. There are lots of areas in business where software is really taking over, whether that be in terms of advertising technology or whether it's in terms of purchasing or whether it's in terms of understanding maintenance in a plant. All of those are a slightly step away from what we were doing originally, but actually we're really good at that stuff because we understand how to take this really complicated thing and then narrow it down to clear reasons why somebody should consider the product, and then keep talking to that person over a long period of time, because there's a long sales cycle. ROB: In software, do you end up with anything that's a much shorter purchase cycle maybe than some of the complex hardware? Or do you find software with longer implementation cycles, more considered purchases, is a better fit? MIKE: If I'm to be honest – and this comes back to the fact that as you grow your agency, you've got to be confident about where it's not a good fit – if it's more of an impulse buy, it's a very short sales cycle, why do you need us? We're really good at taking this technical information and communicating it over a long period of time. That's what works really well. Why would you get us if it's a software where you just need to run Google Ads and people buy it? So, I think it's probably not the right fit for us. It's not somewhere we'd go, and it's certainly not somewhere we're chasing. We're definitely chasing the complex enterprise kind of software businesses because that's where we're successful. That's where we add value. ROB: There's certainly a buzz phrase circling in the software world of product-led growth. Everybody talks about PLG this and PLG that. Is that not at all relevant to some of these more enterprise solutions? Or are there ways it's creeping its way in that are worth discussing? MIKE: I think in terms of product-led growth, it's difficult. The enterprise software companies are trying to be more agile. They're trying to look more like almost the prosumer-type companies. But it is a different sale, because what you're doing is selling something that's going to handle a very large proportion of activities. It's a very complex project. It's got a lot of different processes inside it. If I'm the enterprise buying that, I kind of want to know that if it works today, it's going to work tomorrow and it's going to keep going. Stability is actually a real benefit. So, I think we are going to see the software engineering market fragment, and there's definitely the less involved purchases in software that are fantastic. You look at it in marketing, it could be anything from tools to create banner ads to some of the tools to view websites on different platforms. They're actually quite low engagement processes, and there's relatively low switching costs. They don't matter. I think there'll always be software like that, and that's great because you get very fast innovation. You get new players in the market. At the other end, you've got something like a marketing automation platform, and there, it's not the platform that's complicated; it's the data and getting your CRM data, getting things synced up, getting history, being able to get things to work based upon behavior. And honestly, if you buy a marketing automation system and it looks completely different in a year's time, that's a huge risk for anybody. So, I think different things need different approaches, and we're definitely into the complex product where a certain degree of stability is absolutely important. It's vital for the customer. ROB: Certainly makes sense. Mike, when people want to find and connect with you and Napier Group, where should they go to find you? MIKE: We've obviously got a website, napierb2b.com. People can go there. People can go on LinkedIn and find me; I'm Mike Maynard at Napier. I'm the only Mike Maynard at Napier, so that should be fairly easy. But frankly, I just love talking to people, so if anyone wants to email me, I think most agency owners will work out my email address; it's mike@napierb2b.com. Just send me an email. I'd love to hear from you. ROB: That is excellent. Mike, thank you so much for coming on, for sharing your expertise and your experience. We are all better for it, and I wish you the best. MIKE: No problem. Thanks for having me on the podcast, Rob. ROB: Thank you very much. Take care. Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com.

When you're just starting, all you have is your team. VCs emphasize team experience the most when reviewing decks.

Sam Lee gives us an inside look at a few of the projects he's supported at DocSend including enabling his marketing team to use their MAP and report on data, using integrations to enable data actionability and data exploration, and MOPs role during the DocSend Dropbox acquisition. He also shares why the most difficult skill a MOPs professional can learn is knowing when to say "no," why RevOps should not be just another way to define SalesOps, and the role of MOPs in a PLG motion.

In 2016, Guy Friedman was a successful startup founder with an exit.  Most would think that would make raising money for his next company SteadyMD a breeze. Instead, none of his prior investors decided to back him and he was on a familiar grind to getting funding. Fast forward to 2020 and Guy was steadily growing his core business when a wave hit in the form of acceleration towards telemedicine.  All of the sudden he was surfing and fundraising became a very very different experience.----------If you're looking for more fundraising content, grab my weekly newsletter packed full of strategies and insights around how to raise money: fundedpod.com/newsletter

Our most  popular Funded interview from Season 1 was an incredible 2-part episode where Sam Corcos, the CEO of levels talked about his scientific approach to fundraising.  As more people ask about Sam and our episode, we decided to remix the 2 episodes into a single episode and add a fun  new debrief to the update you all on how the episode content holds up nearly a year later.  Read on...Much like the "secret master plan" for his company Levels, Sam Corcos openly talks about what he was able to decipher when it comes to the science of fundraising. This is exciting because fundraising approaches have traditionally been shared with tribal knowledge, feel-based language. In this conversation, Sam talks about how how he decided to follow his training as a scientist rather than rely on fundraising folklore. The result was a data driven process that has left even the most experienced investors speechless.  In addition, Sam shares details around a large key to his success - his very large cap table. Afterwards, we discussed specifics around his approach to attracting a $12MM seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz and how newcomers to the sport of fundraising might fare employing similar tactics. We wrap the episode as we always do with a debrief, but this time also include a special guest who had a front row seat to all the action. Thanks to our sponsors DocSend  and Vanta for supporting this!----------If you're looking for more fundraising content, grab my weekly newsletter packed full of strategies and insights around how to raise money: fundedpod.com/newsletter

In this episode, Patty and Justin Izzo discuss using analytics to build your pitch deck and fund your startup. Justin Izzo is the Content Marketing Manager at DocSend, a secure file-sharing platform with real-time control and insights. DocSend helps startup founders and venture capitalists who are raising money. Real-time analytics provide data on how users engage with files and how founders can successfully tailor their approach to fund their business.  With DocSend's reporting process, startup founders and their team can gain insights into their company data and the data across the DocSend platform. Key TakeawaysThe average length of a pitch deck (it's not what you think)Where investors spend most of their time on pitch decks and how it correlates with the chances of being fundedThe most critical information to include in your pitch deck and the fool-proof order to place them inHow much time investors spend looking at your pitch deckHow gender, minority, and team makeup play a role in fundingWhat sectors have seen the most growth in investments in the past yearReady to start hitting your fundraising goals? Hit play on episode 11 of the Persevere Podcast now! Connect with Justin on LinkedIn!Can't wait to join DocSend? Sign up for DocSend now! PERSEVERE PODCAST SHOW NOTES: https://www.perseverepodcast.com/CHECKABLE MEDICAL INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/checkablemedical/CHECKABLE MEDICAL WEBSITE: https://www.checkablemedical.com/

Russ Heddleston is the co-founder and former CEO of DocSend, which was acquired by Dropbox for $165 Million in early 2021. Russ currently works at Dropbox continuing the vision he had for DocSend. During this interview we hear how Russ went from studying at Stanford, to working at a startup called Greystripe, then as an intern at Dropbox, and then launching his own startup Pursuit. Pursuit was later acquihired by Facebook, where Russ continued to work for two years. He shares some interesting insights into why Pursuit didn't take off and the lessons learned, which he then took into his next startup, DocSend. We spend a good amount of time talking about what marketing Russ and his team did to grow DocSend, how they revised their positioning and copy on their website to add fuel to their growth and how eventually the deal with Dropbox happened. If you like B2B SAAS startup stories, this interview is for you. Enjoy the podcast. Yaro Podcast: https://www.yaro.blog/pod/  Blog: https://www.yaro.blog/

Cassie Pallesen, who's on the Content & Comms team at Dropbox, joins Brett in discussing cross functional working, the value of content marketing, and communicating that value internally to stakeholders. After marketing at several companies, Cassie saw that pumping out high volumes of content for SEO rankings wasn't effective in the long term in finding the right customers. 0:00 Intro 0:55 Conversation with Cassie 1:30 DocSend acquisition 3:05 Value of content 8:42 Quality vs quantity 10:05 Issue with volume marketing and SEO 12:30 Driving organic growth 13:28 Tracking and dashboards 18:13 Creating VS measuring 22:39 Communicating results with stakeholders 25:00 Connecting with Cassie 26:05 Outro  Join The JuiceFollow Cassie | LinkedInFollow Brett:| Twitter | LinkedIn   

Remember, we welcome comments, questions and suggested topics at thewonderpodcastQs@gmail.com   S2E32 TRANSCRIPT: ----more----Mark: Welcome back to the Wonder Science-based Paganism. My name's Mark.  Yucca: And I'm Yucca. Mark: And today we're talking about nature based paganism. What is nature-based paganism? What the point of nature-based paganism and how are, how can we, pursue a nature based practice as a part of, practicing our science-based pagan approach?  Yucca: That's right. And we'll get in a little bit to what is nature and why is that important as well? Mark: Right. Yeah. always the best first thing to do when you're talking about anything is to define the terms. So, we'll, we'll jump into that right away. when we first. Conceptualized this podcast, the idea was, you know, we are we're Earth oriented pagans. there are some folks who self identify as pagans who are not as focused on the Earth, who are focused on gods Or particular pantheons of bygone cultures that they're working to reconstruct or.  Yucca: magical practices or things like that. Mark: kinds of magical practices, certainly, or,  Yucca: The occult in general. Mark: yes, or work with, spirits that they. I believe they have influence over and can, you know, make arrangements with there's a lot of different ways of coming at this sort of broad umbrella of, practices that we call paganism. But we're very clear that we, like, I believe most pagans are really oriented towards the Earth, which means nature.  Yucca: Okay. Mark: The, the difference in our approach is that we are rooted in science and critical thinking. And therefore, rather than sort of a romantic kind of Bambi,  Yucca: Yeah. Mark: Disney-fied sort of orientation to nature. We're really about the real nature. That's, that's here and out there and in our own bodies and very excited about all the, the manifestations of life here on Earth.  So that's, that's where we start from that. we are products of, and participants in. This tremendous complex, interesting, amazing, beautiful fabric that occupies planet Earth's biosphere sphere that comprises planet earth biosphere, really. and of course, therefore is also supported by the substrate of the rest of the universe. Right? All the, all the amazing physics of the rest of the universe.  Yucca: Yeah, we're part of a solar system. That's part of keep going up and up and up, you know, go past Laniakea to Cosmic Web and on. But I think that you said something really, really important that is that we are part of nature. I think that's a really, really important place to start because in our language we often talk about humans and nature. And we talk about things being natural versus human-made. And we create this line in this distinction, in our minds, which doesn't always serve us. And certainly in today's world, where many of us are living in. An urban centric society. Even those of us who aren't in an urban environment who live in a rural environment, our culture in our society is still very urban based in which we have really tried to strengthen and define that line of human versus nature. Now we've built a concrete wall and reinforced it with steel to try and say this were two different things. And yet we really, really aren't. And when we can start recognizing that our lives are very enriched. Mark: Right, right. Yeah. There's a lot to be said about where that line came from and where the romantic ideas of nature stem from. I mean the whole, the romantic movement of the late 18th into the early 19th century. Has a tremendous influence over not only our understanding of our relationship with the natural world, but also particularly the, the, the eventual development of modern paganism. You know, the idea of wild, beautiful nature outside of the city, as you know, something to be exalted. And, in many cases, emulated, if you look at some of the big romantics like Byron, for example, he thought that being kind of a rude, irresponsible, abusive wild man was, a way of reflecting his net, his natural state. Right. The truth is that even the modern environmental movement has been, has been rooted in a lot of that romanticism. And it's only in the past 20 years in my experience. And I've been working in environmental stuff or longer, much longer than that. Has begun to climb out of this kind of romantic idea of, of nature with a capital N equating to this sort of romantic good. And instead understanding it as a set of complex living systems that are interpenetrated with one another and whose. behavior and manifestations may be very beautiful and very interesting. they can also be very terrible and destructive and, still very interesting.  Yucca: Yeah.  And really all of that at once nature, isn't all. What is it? Red in tooth and claw.  Mark: Right,  Yucca: And, but it's also not all rainbows and butterflies, right? It's a, there's a combination going on there. so we feel that, I mean, I guess that it would be a little bit more pugnacious to say it this way, but we could have called this podcast. Reality-based paganism.  Yeah. Mark: Because that is certainly our intent. Our intent is to root our spiritual understanding and practice in the empirical objective nature of reality of the world that we live in of our nature, the nature of ourselves as homosapiens organisms, as the, observable phenomena that take place around us, that we are a part of the fabric of. And so even though it's really easy to get sucked into the romance of planet earth, because boy, you look at that, that blue marble photograph hanging out there in space. And it's pretty easy to want to cry. You know, it's just so beautiful, but it's important for us to, to, to go beyond that. You know, we can hold that in our hearts, but to go beyond that and really do what we can to encounter nature, to, to understand it as best we can and to find not only the big wonder in, you know, That pale blue dot hanging in a Sunbeam from as viewed from Saturn, but in the, the tiny miracles, the, the, the never ending list of tiny miracles that comprise nature and earth, nature and life here. honor.  Yucca: Okay. Mark: So that's what this episode is about. This episode is about, Kind of getting a handle on what do we need? I mean, when we say that we're a nature based religion and then how can we best make that more real, make that more true for ourselves and for the way that we live our lives, because I can say for myself, it's enormously satisfying to do so. it brings, just a deep abiding sense of, of joy. to feel so connected to what we are and where we come from and what makes us.  Yucca: Yeah. And in addition to that joy, also some very practical health. Differences when we are connecting in with the, with what our bodies are built for, so that fresh air and that sunlight and all of that stuff that now is getting, we were talking about before we started recording is actually getting prescribed to people, right? You go for your forest bay, they ignore your time on the beach or whatever it is. Mark: right, right. Which to, some people sounds really silly. There's a reason why people go to the beach. There's a reason why people go for wa for hikes in the woods. I mean, when you think about it in, in the true abstract, why would any organism do that? Burn calories for no reason, other than to be in a particular place and then burn more calories packing up and going home. And the answer is. that it does real stuff for us, real beneficial stuff that we can feel in our bodies. And that's why we go hiking. It's why we go to the beach. It's why we go to beautiful places in nature on vacation, because that natural beauty. Means something, it has an impact on us, organically, not just, not just on our minds, but on our actual physical beings, which remember, as we've said over and over again are the same thing.  Yucca: Yeah. Okay. Mark: So another thing that I can say about this is that. Getting connected in with nature also kind of helps us with our, our value priority. when we understand ourselves as part of a greater whole and as part of concentric circles of greater wholes, meaning not just families, but societies, not just societies, but entire ecosystems, not just entire ecosystems, but systems stretching out beyond the plant. All the way to those, you know, very, very large structures, beyond the galaxy, beyond the supercluster, part of what that can do for us is it can help us to get our priorities straight around what we think is important and what's worth fighting for. one thing that the atheopagan path that I follow is very explicit about is that we consider activism to be. An integral part of what we do because we have responsibility to one another. And so whether it's as little as simply voting when the time comes to do that, or whether it's a lot more in terms of contacting representatives that are going to make decisions, talking with other people about how we feel about things working to make the world a better, kinder, more sustainable, more, More happy place, becomes something that is not arbitrary, but he's a natural outgrowth of our understanding of where we are And who we are. as humans. Yucca: And that can come from or be supported by the relationship with our environments.  Mark: Yes.  Yucca: So, and. On the one hand, you know, learning on a very intellectual level about how these things work and what we're finding out. And the latest research that is that's powerful on the one hand, but just having the actual relationship, the experience with, with our environments with nature. So to say, can. Really strengthened that. Mark: Yes, because you look with some with, with markedly different eyes, when you have that, that understanding, and you look at a tree, for example, and I hate even to say a tree because it's so generic, I'd rather, you know, stipulate some particular kind of tree, like a maple tree. Right? Well, here's an organism. Rooted in the ground, where, from which it's drawing water and nutrients, and it's doing kind of a dance with a whole bunch of microorganisms in order to get its needs met and to meet the needs of those microorganisms as well. And then it, it deploys solar panels all over itself. And charges itself up every day. Turn in many cases, turns those panels in order to follow the sun, as it moves across the sky. I mean, this is a remarkable thing. This is something that humans have figured out how to do in a, in a limited capacity only in the past 20 years.  Yucca: And in working with its neighbors can actually literally change the weather  Mark: Yes.  Yucca: it.  Mark: Yes.  Yucca: So releasing VOC that ended up becoming cloud condensing, nuclei, and increasing the rain and changing the temperature on the ground, which then changes the way that the local wind patterns are working. Like all kinds of just incredible interactions. Mark: Right. Right. And the more we understand about that, the more remarkable it becomes. And so it's not just the, the romantic appreciation of the fact that it also happens to be breathing out pure oxygen, which is something that we find useful.  Yucca: Yes. Mark: And, and also, processing carbon dioxide, which is something that we find less useful. but that it's, it's going through all of these extraordinary processes at every level of its existence, underground above ground, and then kind of in the canopy, above the surface of the ground, and its relationship with the atmosphere. And that's just a tree. This is one tree.  Yucca: Yeah. Now let's start talking about the lichen growing on that tree. And the mycelium connecting it to another one and on and on and  Mark: communities of animals that depend on. its seeds, for nourishment and its branches for various kinds of shelter and nesting opportunities. And, Yeah. the. There's a reason why there are certain kinds of species in different biomes that we refer to as Keystone species, because they are so essential to the living creatures that live in those areas where I am. It is the California live Oak. because if you removed all the California live Oaks from this place, we would have an ecological crash. Unlike any that we've seen so far in this local region, because of the dependency of so many organisms on that particular species of tree.  Yucca: Yeah.  Mark: So all of this is very cool and, we should not undersell the, The overlap between the spiritual impulse and the very cool factor, you know, part, part of the reason why we feel moved spiritually by things is because they're amazing. They're just, they're so extraordinary, that they, they give us a big emotional. Jolt just by realizing them. And that's true of every religion. I mean, if you believe that Jesus died to what, whatever to, you know, mitigate our failings, then that's kind of amazing. I mean, if you believe that you have these inherent sin and that you've been accumulating more of them ever since you arrived on the planet. but that this death 2000 years ago, wipes it all out. As long as you say the right words and believe them in your heart. That's amazing. I mean, I don't believe it at all, but if it were true, it would really be amazing.  Yucca: Well, and it still has the same emotional impact if you believe at whether it's true or not in terms of the emotional impact, right? Mark: Yes, exactly. So, but the reason why I said we could have called this podcast, reality-based big aneurysm is that nature is real  Yucca: Yeah. Mark: nature exists. We are nature. There isn't anything that isn't nature and,  Yucca: So even when we put in the roads, even when we build our foundations and our buildings and all of that, that's not locking the nature out. nature is still, I mean, it, it is what it is, we're changing it, but that's also what we do as animals that are part of this.  Mark: Yes,  Yucca: And we're not the first ones,  Mark: no.  Yucca: architecture, farming, warfare, all these things that we like to think of as being only human, we might do it in a very unique human way, but these things have been around for millions of years. Mark: Yes. mostly by ants. Yucca: Yes. And so I've been doing all of those things, some other kinds of creatures too, but answer, just answer amazing.  Mark: They are really, They're really amazing. And so one of the. Approaches one of the orientations that can be really useful as we pursue nature-based paganism is to understand ourselves as part of nature. And so if you do live in a big city, look around, look at all the structures that have been constructed by this particular kind of organism and these amazing machines and, and communication devices and all this stuff. It it'll give you a renewed appreciation for just how amazing humans are in the romantic view. It's often nature versus humans, right? And you have to pick a side. You either you're either with nature and therefore kind of anti-human or you're with the humans and nature is always trying to kill you. And so you want to control it and tame it and. reduce its its power, which good luck with that. but a, in a more factually correct approach, Yucca: Integrated. Mark: an Integrated. it's an integrated approach and all of it is nature. And so understanding ourselves as natural creatures can help to fill us with wonder at the Marvel of what we are. Because humans are extraordinary organisms,  Yucca: Yeah. Mark: extraordinary organisms. They're they're unlike anything that we are familiar with anywhere in the universe, in terms of what we do, what we're capable of, we are just these really, really remarkable critters.  Yucca: Yeah. And there's some pretty incredible creditors and other life forms that we partner with on, without even realizing it. Talking about the urban environment. I don't recall the professor's name at the moment, but put forth the idea where basically he was looking at the urban environment and this species that tend to come along with us in an urban environment. So thinking about your, rats and pigeons and Dan D lions and things like that, and noticing that these are almost all species that come from. Caves or the entrances to caves  Mark: Yeah.  Yucca: and noticing that there's a, there's a lot of parallels there between our architecture and who comes along with us and what systems we end up building that, that create environments for these other creatures that we actually live symbiotically. Right.  Mark: Hm.  Yucca: And the symbiosis doesn't just have to be mutualistic symbiosis, right? We've got parasitic and commensal relationships if commensal actually even exists. the idea that one organism isn't effected by the other organism as a, as a hard sell.  Mark: Yes.  but that, that our urban environments are these really special. Yucca: Environments and some of the functions might be a little bit broken compared to other systems where you might the resource cycling. When I say broken, that's what I'm talking about. Not that any moral judgment on it, but on its functional. what is it actually doing? Some of those systems might be a little bit broken, but they're still, there's still a beauty and wonder in that and we're still. Part of it. All of our biological functions are still going on whether or not we acknowledge them. Mark: Sure. Sure. I mean, the disadvantage that humans have is that because we do things so quickly. We don't have the advantage of thousands or millions of years of slow evolution in order to balance the efficiencies of the system. Right? So we have huge mounds of waste that we. Have any real way of processing, right? We have, pollutants of various kinds that, can cause various impacts that we find, disadvantageous not only to ourselves, but also to the natural world. And we don't, we haven't figured out how to solve them.  Yucca: we as individuals live for such a short period of time. From an ecosystem's perspective that we don't clock that, that something's not right.  Mark: Right.  Yucca: Right. Many of us are living in incredibly degrading ecosystems that are very, very sick, that are missing huge pieces that they evolved with. But to us it's just normal because we don't remember. Right. We don't remember the megafauna or we don't remember whatever it is.  Mark: You know, I,  Yucca: don't yeah. Mark: you know, I can say though that in my own lifetime, I have seen the crash of the insects and I've seen a dramatic decline in the number of birds. Just just from the time when I was a child to now observationally, I can see it. when I was a kid, when you traveled your windshield got covered with insects and you had to clean it off every couple of hundred miles, and that's just not the case anymore. the sheer density of organisms of that sort is, has crashed.  Yucca: Yeah. And we're worth different ages, but even within my lifetime, I've recognized that in my area. Mark: Yeah, so. You know, one of, one of the problems that humanity has is that, in many ways we're not very grown up, but, I have a friend who's,a land conservation professional. Who's worked in various kinds of environmental protection for a long time. And she refers to, to humanity as a toddler with a gun. not really understanding the capacity of the damage that we can do, and just sort of staggering around and shooting,  Yucca: Yeah. Mark: but all that uplifting stuff said, are still pretty incredible and we are also many of us. Inclined to try to repair the damage and to reach new balance with the, the, the balance of the natural world that we are a part of. And that is very much to our credit because. It's entirely possible that we could be intelligent creatures that just didn't care and would just drive our way into extinction. And maybe we are that may, maybe, maybe that is going to happen, but I don't believe it. Yucca: I don't either. Mark: I think humans are far too adaptable And nature is tough. Yucca: And I, I understand the impulse to throw up one's hands and say, oh, humans were just to cancer where it's just terrible. And I'm going to, I'm just going to bury my head in my phone and look at my tick talk or whatever, and just ignore it and just hate on humans. But that, to me, that's not. Rewarding. Like, it might be easier in some ways, but,  Mark: Okay.  Yucca: but it's missing out on a lot. It is missing out on a lot on the one hand, particularly because misanthropy means that you're, you're throwing out all of the amazing stuff that humans do, that, you know, the art and the dance and the music and the architecture and the technology, and just all, all of The extraordinary, extraordinary things that we do that are really worthy of appreciation. The friendship with, with your dog? Mark: yeah, well, there's a 50,000 year relationship.  Yucca: Yeah, Mark: that's that one's been going on for a long time. people, well, wonder why there are so many different kinds of dogs? Well, it's because we've been breeding them for various particular purposes for a super long time and continue to do so for various appearance traits. yeah, Yucca: yeah. Corgi just means short dog. They are, Welsh and there's a lot of sheep and whales and they're hurting dogs and they got short so that they wouldn't get kicked in the head. Cause you know, you don't get to breed quite as much and have pups when keep getting kicked in the head. But if you're just underneath the height being kicked by sh by, some sheep, then you survive longer. Mark: That's funny,  Yucca: why we have, and now of course, people like the look, so they make them even shorter and longer and all of that. But originally short dogs were just because they were short, they didn't get kicked. Mark: Sure, sure. Yeah. and You know, you look at Huskies and Newfoundlands and stuff like that, or. Dragging dogs and you know, the various kinds of border terriers and border collies that are used for various sorts of. You know, hurting, and then you've got all the terriers and other sort of rat catchers and kind of pest control dogs. you know, none of that happened by accident. All of that happened because there were particular needs that humans had and dogs were able to fulfill that role in humans, worked to make the dogs as adapted to those particular needs as possible. I mean, you think about a doctor. DocSend means Badger hound and they were designed to dig into holes in the ground. Mark: So they're long and skinny and go in and get badgers. Yucca: You know, as we're talking about this, I wonder we were talking about it from this very human perspective of, you know, how did the dogs change to fit us? I wonder if anyone has ever looked into, how did we change to fit our canine companion? Mark: Well, there are certainly several, human traits that. Strongly lean towards attraction to animals that have, you know, big brown eyes and they're sort of, you know, positioned mostly on the front of their heads so that it looks more like a human face. you know, we, we have, we have this whole off factor that we, that we have when it comes to babies, puppies, kittens, baby seals, raccoons, there's all kinds of. All kinds of that. And I'm sure that some of that was strengthened as we built relationships with dogs over time.  Yucca: yeah. Which that, that attraction to the, I can tell you as a parent that exists so that we keep taking care of the, of our offspring, because. Sometimes they're really real tough to take  Mark: Oh yeah.  Yucca: right there. I mean, you're just like, oh my goodness, you will not stop screaming at me. Why am I risking my life? Because you're just so cute. I can't help it.  Mark: Right. Yeah. And there's this  Yucca: our ancestors who didn't have that, well, their offspring didn't make it.  Mark: right, right.  Yucca: That's gotta be way prehuman. Mark: Sure. And there's this cascade of, of hormones and neurotransmitters that reinforces that whole. Sense, which is why other people's kids can be infuriating, but your kids are the most wonderful thing in the world. Yeah. Well, you know, this is, this is the way of things and this of course gets us into trouble when you have mixed families, because you have, you know, the so-called evil stepmother phenomenon, right. Because. The one that is not an actual blood parent of this child, doesn't have that cascade of hormones and neurotransmitters, and doesn't feel the same way about the child that, that others do, some do some don't. And So that, you know, can create, a sense of abandoned mentor or a hard relationship. Yucca: So it's going to say that we went a little far afield from our topic, but we actually didn't. This is all talking nature. Yeah. Mark: it's, it's all it. Well that, that's the thing about talking about nature is that there's nothing you can talk about that isn't dead,  Yucca: Yeah, except for the fictitious or purely theoretical.  that's, what's one of the things just vocabulary. That's always bothered me about the supernatural. What, how could supernatural possibly exist if nature is everything that is  Mark: Right,  Yucca: right. That just means we don't understand. Or, you know, beyond the laws of physics. Okay. Well that just means that our laws are wrong. Mark: Yeah, or incomplete.  Yucca: Yeah. and this is actually an argument that's made by fists and, and so-called supernaturalist pagans within the pagan community is, oh, no, no, it's not supernatural. It's just stuff we don't understand yet. I always come back to Ockham's razor, which is that the simplest explanation is, the most likely one to be true. Mark: And so if you heard a God say something to you, the odds are much better than that generated inside your brain, then that an actual disembodied intelligence with magical powers said it to you. but that's an argument for another day. Yucca: that is, yes. Why don't we circle back and talk about some things that people can do too, to build or strengthen that relationship with Nick. Mark: Okay, that sounds great. I mean, we did an episode back in may called pay attention. And I think that that's really kind of the core principle of all of this. And in order to pay attention, you need to not only paying attention is it's actually a very well-crafted term because there's an expenditure of effort and the bandwidth of your consciousness. That's required in order to successfully pay attention. If you're just cruising along, looking at your phone or listening to the radio and driving, and you're not carving out, at least part of your sensorium to be paying attention to what's happening in nature around you, then. Yucca: Yeah. Mark: I mean, you're always going to miss some of it anyway, because a lot of it's microscopic a lot of it's happening at timescales that you can't really perceive, but Yucca: you're saying one thing, you might not be able to be seeing the other thing. Yeah. Mark: yes. So there are always choices, but the easiest way to be better at paying attention to nature is to make time for it. Don't try to split your time between doing, saying, well, I have a beautiful drive on my commute home, so that's my nature time. Well, that's great. And if you're really appreciating the aesthetics of nature as you drive home, that's a, that's a good thing. That's food for the soul, but that isn't the same thing as actually just sitting for five or 10 minutes and. Watching the sun go down or  Yucca: Yeah. Mark: observing one of those trees or an anthill or, raccoons nesting under your house, which happened to me once or, or whatever it happens to be pigeons, pigeons, wandering around on the sidewalk, interacting with one another and, you know, looking for, for food. There's a lot to be seen and you'll be surprised at how there's a, there's, there's a sense of joy that can come from that kind of observation, just, just from taking the time and paying attention for a little while.  Yucca: Yeah. And, and really making it about that. Taking out the headphones, leaving your phone either in your pocket or better yet in the house. You know, if you're not needing to be on call for an emergency or something like that. And, and really, really setting that time aside to, to be present. So not as, not as a moment. That's important too, right? Taking that time to close your eyes and go in yourself and really self-reflect. But, but to open your eyes and look around and maybe let that transition between what you're experiencing is self and outside. Let that start to blend in your mind a little bit in your awareness as you take it. What what's around you and reserve the judgment. If you're seeing the, the ants moving around on the driveway or whatever, it is, just, just hang out with that. and, and you were touching on this as well marked, but, but making it, That dedicated time, maybe even literally scheduling it in, makes it more part of the routine. So part of the routine to tune in, to opening our eyes, to pay attention, and this could take different forms we've shared on here before some of our own practices. I do a star time, and. So at least twice a day, going out and being present. and of course, sunset and sunrise, the time is always changing every day, but that's also really amazing if he can build that into your schedule and then you're, and then you're noticing those changes. If, when, you know, where's the sunsetting and rising from and the, how is the moon different each day? And, oh, look, you're seeing it. It's the middle of the day, because remember the moon's out in the daytime half of the time. It's not just at the night. Can you, when, can you see that? Or when did the birds start talking in the morning before the sun comes up for most of them, but not all of  Mark: it is.  Yucca: Right? Listen, who's talking. Before Dawn and who's talking after it. Mark: If you have. Like a bird feeder sitting and watching the bird feeder And watching the interactions of the birds at the bird feeder, is amazing. It's really cool. And, if you're interested, you can get, a guide and learn what the different species of birds are that are coming to your, to your bird feeder. but that isn't, that isn't obligate Tori. you can just appreciate them as birds. Without knowing the particular details of how they operate, which is a broad range of different sorts of behaviors. that, that bird species have, I mean, think about it. The difference between a hummingbird and an emo,  Yucca: yeah. Yeah. Completely. This wildly different. Mark: right? I like emos they're dinosaurs.  Yucca: Yeah. They're all dinosaurs.  Mark: Yeah.  we were looking at pictures of. Hummingbird nests and hummingbird hatchlings. So if you're looking for a little like emotional, pick me up at some time at some point, just look up how adorable this little, absolutely tiny little naked hummingbird chicks are.  Mark: Yeah.  Yucca: little ITI creatures. huh.  Yucca: Anyways, but yeah, and the different species have their different behaviors, but different individuals do too. And even though a lot of them look very similar, if you're coming back to the same spot with the same population of birds, with enough observation, you can start to. You can start to recognize individuals based on their behavior. How are they interacting with each other? Is there that one that is always just a little extra aggressive, you know, it was always pushing them off and the birds do that anyways, but you know, or is there the one that trusts you a little more, that doesn't care that you're nearby or all of those things. Mark: Yeah. Yeah. And, in some really interesting cases, you can, You can develop relationships with some of them. my friend Lexi, has crows. They kind of follow her around and they bring her tiny things. that's pretty cool. I mean, you've, you've, I need them for a while and they decide, well, all right. You're one of us. And a part of what we do amongst ourselves is we bring shiny things. So here have a piece of glass.  Yucca: Corvids are amazing.  Mark: They are.  Yucca: There, can be stinkers too.  Mark: Oh  Yucca: good memory. And if you piss them off they'll they'll remember.  Mark: Yes, they will.  Yucca: Yeah. Mark: So, I guess, to sort of wrap this episode up, the thing that we're encouraging is first of all, that you build a relationship with nature nature, as it actually is nature, as it encompasses the entirety of what we experience, because we are part of it. And our works are a part of it, as well as, all the extraordinary. Examples of what is not human that move through our lives all the time, even in the city. Yucca: Mm. and in order to do that, you have to make. You have to decide that as a part of your practice, you're going to carve out that five minutes a day or 10 minutes a day or whatever it is. And it is immensely rewarding to do so. Mark: Sometimes at first it seems like, well, nothing happened and I'm not sure why I'm going to keep going with this. some of that is because you haven't really learned to see. And some of it is because, you know, you may just not have had luck that day. There may not have been a lot going on. So if you keep a journal  Yucca: Okay. Mark: of what you've observed,what's the word for that? A phonology journal, I think, Yucca: Okay. Just to see what you've observed. Just jot down what you've observed. Okay. Mark: Three candidate geese flew across the sky. there's a trail of ants across the sidewalk. the grass is turning brown. even, even just those simple, simple kinds of things. You'll find that if you continue with this practice, the list will get lost. You'll be noticing a lot more things and over time you'll notice. Well, Okay. The grass, the grass got really, really brown, but then after the first rain, all this new grass started coming in  Yucca: Hmm. Mark: and you hear a part of that process. All of a sudden, you, you are an observer of, of this change. That's happening, the changing of the guard among the ground. Individuals, the individual, the individual organisms may have died, but they germinated in their new seeds. And now that there's some water to feed them, uh they're they're now replacing the ones that died. and that's a profound thing. When you think about it, the, the generational change of a whole set of organisms.  Yucca: And also how our small little actions that we might not think anything. Might influence that and be a part of that. Right. Did you leave a chair out and did the grass not die under that chair where it was a little bit shaded as to sun was the summer sun was beating down on it or all of these different things that, that are little, little actions to us that just help highlight our connection to the whole community. Mark: Right, right, exactly. Because feeling connected with everything is the root of the spiritual impulse, you know, having an understanding of what our place is in the universe, what we're doing here, what we're a part of. All of that is really all inspiring and it can come through little moments, not, it's not just, you know, the sort of earth shattering coming around the corner and seeing the grand canyon for the first time kind of experience. It's also the little things, the little changes over time. And being aware that we are a part of all of this, and we were evolving eater internally, as well as, you know, in the same way that everything external to us is going through its process and changing and dying and growing and reproducing and doing all that stuff.  Yucca: So we hope you have the opportunity to set that time aside. Mark: Yes, I think you'll find it really rewarding if you, if you give it a shot. and I know how it is. We're all very busy, but five minutes is five minutes, you know, it's, if we choose not to take five minutes, it's because we choose not to take five minutes. It's not that we don't actually.  Yucca: And if you're too busy for the five minutes, you probably really need those five minutes. Maybe take 10. Mark: Exactly. Exactly. If you don't have time for five minutes, take 10.  Yucca: Yeah. Mark: Cause you really, you get, you know, get off your feet and,  Yucca: Yeah. Mark: look around.  Yucca: Once again. Thank you, mark.  Mark: Thank you. Yucca wonderful conversation with you. Thank you so much. We'll see you next week on the wonder science-based paganism.

Matt Pohlson, co-founder and CEO of Omaze, has had one of the most death defying startup journeys ever. Time and time again, his company has been on the brink of death, only to be saved by Matt's persistence and never-quit attitude. While most involved nearly running out of funds, one experience involved his own near death experience as he flatlined on an ER bed with his family surrounding him. Persistence brought him back from the brink and eventually back to Omaze where he used an even stronger belief in their mission to lead a Series B fundraise in March of 2020 just as COVID began impacting the world.-----If you're looking for more fundraising content, grab my weekly newsletter packed full of strategies and insights around how to raise money: fundedpod.com/newsletter

Kameale Terry never wanted to be an entrepreneur, but eventually a problem she saw first hand in the electric vehicle industry drew her into starting ChargerHelp! From the beginning, she was less concerned with the hype cycle of startup trends and more focused on what she describes as “good business.” This allowed her to weather the storm of confusing and sometimes conflicting startup advice and the struggle to find a lead to eventually find herself in a super oversubscribed seed round.-----If you're looking for more fundraising content, grab my weekly newsletter packed full of strategies and insights around how to raise money: fundedpod.com/newsletter

For the three years between her graduation from Y-Combinator to her splashy $50MM Series A raise from Sequoia, Christina Cacioppo and her company Vanta kept a low profile. Back in 2018, they had been working in a space few people were talking about around Silicon Valley. SOC2 compliance for startups hardly got people excited. Then, almost out of nowhere, came the announcement that Vanta had raised $50MM from Sequoia Capital.  Christina shares how she got to this point and how much impact YC had on the process.-----If you're looking for more fundraising content, grab my weekly newsletter packed full of strategies and insights around how to raise money: fundedpod.com/newsletter

Zach Bruhnke, co-founder and CEO of HMBradley, had a shot at startup glory with his first fintech company Spout. After investor skepticism caused him to throw in the towel, he vowed not to have his own convictions be swayed in future companies. Zach shares how a crazy commitment to the vision with HMBradley as well as a natural approach to building relationships led to both company and fundraising success.-----If you're looking for more fundraising content, grab my weekly newsletter packed full of strategies and insights around how to raise money: fundedpod.com/newsletter

On today's episode, we connect with Renée Maquindang, who is a tech-sales enthusiast at DocSend. She's a real promoter, seller, and storyteller. We sit down and dive into the differences between listening to audio books vs. actual reading, fantasizing about getting into bar fights, and talking about life as a Salesperson. Tune in!

The team discusses the EU's chip ambitions, a huge attack on Microsoft Exchange, the use of CCTV to track social distancing and Dropbox's acquisition of DocSend. Our Hot Hardware candidate is the Elgato Stream Deck, a smart button bank that works with almost any application.

Russ Heddleston is the co-founder and CEO of DocSend, a SaaS platform that lets you securely share your documents with real-time control and insights. The SaaS Podcast is sponsored by: Gusto, an easy, online payroll and benefits service built for modern small businesses. In other words, a people platform — one place to pay and take care of your hardworking team. Exclusive Offer - Get 3 Months Free! Show Notes: https://saasclub.io/273 Learn More About SaaS Club https://saasclub.io Become a Premium Member: http://thesaaspodcast.com

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Ade Ajao, Managing Partner @ Base10 Partners to discuss Investing in Automation & AI tools for the real economy.Before starting Base10, Ade is best known for being the Co-Founder and CEO of the startup Tuenti, also known as the ‘Spanish Facebook” which he stared back in 2005 in college with some friends. The company eventually went on to be acquired by Telefonica for $100mm 5 years later.In his next act, Ade moved on to Co-Found Identified, a data and analytics company which started his obsession with machine learning and AI solutions. After 3 years of building Identified, the company was acquired by Workday. Ade joined Workday and helped launch workday ventures, the first Applied AI-focused fund. That is where Ade met his current Base10 partner TJ and after two years at Workday, TJ and Ade left to launch Base 10 Partners with over $400mm in assets across two funds.Today you will get to hear how Ade thinks about investing in Automation and AI Startups for the Real Economy and how his investments in Docsend, DollarShave Club, and Instacart among countless others as an angel investor started his passion for investing.Ade’s Book Recommendations:What is Life? - SchrodingerThe Ethics - Baruch SpinozaThe Power Broker - Robert A. CaroAde’s words of inspiration - “Anything is possible but not everything is possible. That is the definition of focus.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Today we're joined by Russ Heddleston, Co-Founder and CEO of DocSend. DocSend is an application that is increasingly used by the finance industry for sending documents securely like pitch decks. It can also create secure and tracked file sharing spaces, or data rooms. However, this episode is not about DocSend. Today, Russ will be sharing with us his very interesting Silicone Valley career. Some may even say that Russ has lived the tech dream, from Stanford and Harvard degrees, to selling his first company to Facebook, and now on to launching DocSend, he has been making all of the right moves. He makes the point that raising money is hard work, so don't let that fall short on you. This episode contains all you need to know on how winning pitch decks are composed, the time it takes to raise capital, and other nuances of what makes for a successful capital raise.

DocSend has become one of the most popular tools for sharing venture fundraise decks, not only because of the control it offers, but also because of the analytics it can provide founders on how VCs read decks and where they might get stuck as they are perusing from slide to slide. The company has been generous sharing its data with us on what times are best to fundraise and how to structure a slide deck for best performance.

This week's edition of The Operators features Whitney Sales, a general partner at Acceleprise, the leading enterprise SaaS accelerator, and Russ Heddleston, founder and CEO of DocSend, a fast rising document management and sharing product. Whitney brings sales experience from Loopnet, Meltwater, SpringAhead/Tallie, and People Data Labs, before starting her own sales consultancy aptly named “The Sales Method.” Russ brings experience from founding and selling his first company to Facebook, before becoming the first sales person of the second company he founded, DocSend. If you've ever had to convince anyone of anything, or are interested in a career in sales or starting a company where you will have to hire or manage sales people, you can't miss this episode. More at www.operators.co