Podcasts about felicis ventures

Eric Flaningam, Investor & Researcher at Felicis Ventures and author of Generative Value Substack blog, joins in this episode to discuss the current state of AI markets, from semiconductors and inference providers to monetization models and regulation. Eric shares his investment philosophy, lessons from historical innovation cycles, and what excites him most about the next decade of AI. If you are interested in how tech trends translate to real-world investing strategies, this conversation is a must-listen! Now you can also watch on youtube!Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericflaningam/Blog: https://www.generativevalue.com/Company: https://www.felicis.com/team/eric-flaningamYou can support this podcast on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠creators page⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Make sure to subscribe and follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alexa's Input Twitter account⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get notified when a new podcast episode comes out.

Today on Turpentine VC, we're releasing one of our most popular episodes: Erik's interview with Aydin Senkut, founder and managing partner of Felicis Ventures. Aydin discusses the evolution and distinct strategies of Felicis Ventures, their focus on mental health, and insights on successful generalist investing in venture capital. — 

Harley Finkelstein didn't set out to be an entrepreneur. He had no choice. With his father out of the picture, he had to pay for university and support his mother and sisters. So, he turned to his go-to problem-solving tool: entrepreneurship. Starting a t-shirt business changed his life, eventually leading him to Shopify, where he became one of their first merchants and later, its president. In this episode, Harley shares his incredible journey, highlighting key lessons on how entrepreneurship can solve real-life problems and the power of adapting quickly in a fast-changing world. Harley Finkelstein is the President of Shopify. He is also an entrepreneur, lawyer, and investor. He is one of the “Dragons” on CBC's Next Gen Den and has been recognized among Canada's Top 40 Under 40 and Fortune's 40 Under 40. In this episode, Ilana and Harley will discuss: - His early roots in entrepreneurship - The t-shirt business that changed his life - How he set himself apart by overdelivering - Entrepreneurship as a tool for problem-solving​ - Why you must thrive in rapid change to stay relevant - Embracing ‘founder mode' by focusing on the details - Why the future of entrepreneurship is limitless - How he became one of the first Shopify users - How Shopify built a mission-aligned culture - Finding your life's work - And other topics…   Harley Finkelstein is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and President of Shopify. He is an advisor to Felicis Ventures and a notable investor. He has been recognized as Canadian Angel Investor of the Year and among Canada's Top 40 Under 40. As one of the "Dragons" on CBC's Next Gen Den, Harley brings his wealth of knowledge and experience to the forefront. His leadership extends beyond Shopify, having been on the Board of Directors for the C100 and the CBC. He's also a proud member of the Order of Ottawa and currently serves on the board of Operation Hope, focusing on financial literacy empowerment. Connect with Harley: Harley's Website: http://harleyf.com/about/ Harley's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harleyf/?originalSubdomain=ca Harley's Twitter: https://twitter.com/harleyF Leap Academy: Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW way for professionals to Advance Their Careers & Make 5-6 figures of EXTRA INCOME in Record Time. Check out our free training today at leapacademy.com/training

In this episode, host Sean Falconer sits down with Eric Flaningam, a researcher at Felicis Ventures, to explore the fascinating world of data warehouses. They dive into the history, evolution, and future trends of data warehousing, shedding light on its importance. Key topics discussed include an overview of the article "A Primer on Data Warehouses," and the definition and key characteristics of data warehouses. They also cover the historical evolution and major milestones in data warehousing, the shift from batch processing to real-time data, and the convergence of data warehouses and SQL. Eric and Sean discuss the impact of unstructured and complex data, advancements in technology and their effect on data warehouses, and the technical architecture and components of a typical data warehouse. They share real-world benefits and use cases of data warehouses, common challenges in implementing and maintaining data warehouses, and future trends and the influence of AI and machine learning on data warehouses. For further reading, check out Eric Flaningam's article, A Primer on Data Warehouses: https://www.generativevalue.com/p/a-primer-on-data-warehouses

In this episode of Screaming In The Cloud, we're joined by Nancy Wang, Venture Partner at Felicis Ventures, who discusses her exciting career shift from AWS to venture capital. Nancy shares the role of a venture partner and her focus on investing in infrastructure, platforms, and security from an operational perspective. Corey and Nancy talk about primary investment and the impact of market trend cycles on venture capital. Nancy's work with the U.S. State Department is also highlighted in this episode, which promotes global entrepreneurship, especially for women in challenging environments.Show Highlights (00:00) - Introduction (02:00) - What a venture partner does (03:42) - Nancy shares how she differentiates herself in her role and experience (07:07) - Insights on selecting companies to invest In (09:18) - The differences between working at Amazon vs. the VC and startup world(12:09) - Investing in infrastructure and security startups(17:09) - The balance between supporting established services and investing In new  (19:18) - Exploring how different sectors influence venture capital investments (23:50) - AI and current investment trends in shaping venture capital decisions(26:06) - Timing of investments, and the concept of 'entry points' for success(27:22) - Nancy shares her work with the state department (30:44) - Closing thoughts and where to find Nancy About Nancy: Nancy is a product & engineering executive, advisor, and investor with significant experience in cloud computing, cybersecurity, and SaaS. Nancy advises Fortune 10 companies on accelerating revenue growth, and she advises startups on attracting their first 100K enterprise customers. She is a Venture Partner with Felicis Ventures, where she invests in early-stage startups in cybersecurity, enterprise infrastructure, and B2B SaaS. Previously, Nancy was the Director of Product & Engineering and General Manager at Amazon Web Services, where she leads P&L, product, engineering, and design for its data protection and security businesses - and currently serves as the technical advisor to Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT) on its Cyber Resilience Council. Prior to Amazon, she led SaaS product development at Rubrik, the fastest-growing enterprise software unicorn, and built healthdata.gov for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Excited to advance more women into technical roles, Nancy is the founder & board chair of Advancing Women in Tech, a global 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has already informed and educated 35,000 Coursera learners worldwide on how to get their first, or next, tech leadership role and partners with the U.S. State Department.Links referenced: Nancy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wangnancy/Felicis Venture's Website: https://www.felicis.com/Sponsor:Panoptica Academy: https://panoptica.app/lastweekinaws

Noosheen Hashemi is the Founder and CEO of January, who has developed a platform that predicts diabetic patients' responses to certain foods. January has raised $40 million to date from notable investors such as Felicis Ventures, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, and former Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer.“One out of three people in America has pre-diabetes, and 90% of them don't know it,” said Hashemi. “And one out of nine people has diabetes, and 20% of those people don't know it. So blood sugar is something we should all be managing, but we just don't know that we should.”While other companies have made headway in understanding biometric sensor data—from heart rate and glucose monitors, for example—January AI has made progress in analyzing and predicting the effects of food consumption itself.Where to find Noosheen Hashemi:• Website: Blood Sugar Monitoring Without A CGM | AI Health App | January AI• LinkedIn(18) Noosheen Hashemi | LinkedIn Where to find Hadi Radwan:• Newsletter: Principles Friday | Hadi Radwan | Substack• LinkedIn: Hadi Radwan | LinkedInIf you like our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe and support us on your favorite podcast players. We also would appreciate your feedback and rating to reach more people.We recently launched our new newsletter, Principles Friday, where I share one principle that can help you in your life or business, one thought-provoking question, and one call to action toward that principle. Please subscribe Here.It is Free and Short (2min).

Matt Watson is the founder and CEO of Origin, a comprehensive employee financial wellness platform. Its integrated solution helps employees simultaneously manage compensation, benefits, and personal finances with financial professionals. Origin is the first platform that combines human financial planners with cutting-edge financial technology that educates employees and allows them to create, execute, and track their personalized financial plans. Origin has now raised $72 million since its inception and is backed by leading VC firms and investors like 01A, Founders Fund, Felicis Ventures, General Catalyst and Lachy Groom.Where to find Matt Watson:• Website: Origin - Let's Talk Money (useorigin.com)• LinkedIn (1) Matt Watson | LinkedInWhere to find Hadi Radwan:• Newsletter: Principles Friday | Hadi Radwan | Substack• LinkedIn: Hadi Radwan | LinkedInIf you like our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe and support us on your favorite podcast players. We also would appreciate your feedback and rating to reach more people.We recently launched our new newsletter, Principles Friday, where I share one principle that can help you in your life or business, one thought-provoking question, and one call to action toward that principle. Please subscribe Here.It is Free and Short (2min).

Before you dive into our archives or the next episode, learn about First Funders and its hosts, Shaherose Charania and Aamir Virani.  You'll hear about Shaherose's background as a startup builder turned VC who started as a product marketer and how she started Women 2.0, a startup ecosystem, and Founder Labs, a tech incubator.  She also reviews her time at Nike, where she built their first incubator, and her role as an angel investor and now Venture Partner at Cake Ventures.Aamir then shares his experience as an engineer turned product management leader at Dropcam, which was acquired by Google/Nest, and then his turn as a venture capitalist at Felicis Ventures.  Why did he end up back as an angel investor and operator?  What types of investments does he look for now?This is for information purposes only. This is not investment advice.Topics(00:00) - About the Hosts and their Angel and Seed Investing backgrounds (01:13) - How Shaherose went from operating to building Women 2.0 to funding startups (03:26) - Aamir's Journey from Founder to VC to Angel Investor (06:06) - Outro Connect with UsFollow the First Funders PodcastNewsletter with behind-the-scenes access and key takeawaysTwitter/X @shaheroseTwitter/X @aviraniEmail us with feedback and suggestions on topics and guests

This week's guest, Nancy Wang, is a technology product and engineering executive, advisor, and investor. A former Amazon Web Services general manager and former Google lead product manager, she is a venture partner at Felicis Ventures, where she invests in early-stage startups in cybersecurity, enterprise infrastructure, and business-to-business software as a service. She is also founder and board chair of Advancing Women in Tech, and a contributor to Forbes. With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Growing up, Harley Finkelstein had a passion for entrepreneurship. He became one of the first vendors on Shopify, and his T-shirt company became a survival tool for him in college. He realized that he could never see himself working for anyone else. Harley is now the President of Shopify and a respected entrepreneur. In this episode, Harley unpacks his lifelong journey as a serial entrepreneur. He will explain why we are currently in an entrepreneurial renaissance and how to thrive in the new “connect to consumer” world.   Harley Finkelstein is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the President of Shopify. Harley is an Advisor to Felicis Ventures and one of the “Dragons” on CBC's Next Gen Den. He received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year Award, Canada's Top 40 Under 40 Award, Fortune's 40 Under 40, and was inducted into the Order of Ottawa. Harley starred on Discovery Channel's I Quit, and recently co-founded Firebelly, a modern high-end tea brand.  In this episode, Hala and Harley will discuss:  - How Harley came from “forced entrepreneurs” - Becoming one of the first vendors on Shopify - How Shopify revolutionized online business - The Entrepreneurial Renaissance - Why more women are becoming entrepreneurs - Reverse engineering your business momentum - Why Harley co-created Firebelly Tea - The Connect to Consumer Era - Why 2023 is the year of the entrepreneur - And other topics… Harley Finkelstein is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the President of Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill University. Harley completed his law degree as well as his MBA at the University of Ottawa, where he co-founded the JD/MBA Student Society and the Canadian MBA Oath. Harley is an Advisor to Felicis Ventures and one of the “Dragons” on CBC's Next Gen Den. He received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year Award, Canada's Top 40 Under 40 Award, Fortune's 40 Under 40, and was inducted into the Order of Ottawa. From 2014 to 2017 Harley was on the Board of Directors of the C100, and from 2017 to 2020 he was on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He is currently on the Board of Operation Hope, a nonprofit providing financial literacy empowerment and economic education. Harley starred on Discovery Channel's “I Quit,” and recently co-founded Firebelly, a modern high-end tea brand. Resources Mentioned: Harley's Website: http://harleyf.com/about/ Harley's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harleyf/?originalSubdomain=ca Harley's Twitter: https://twitter.com/harleyF Harley's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harley/ Harley's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HarleyF Harley's Podcast “Big Shot”: https://www.bigshot.show/ Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/ Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast' for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course. Sponsored By:  Zbiotics - Head to ZBiotics.com/PROFITING and use the code PROFITING at checkout for 15% off. Pipedrive - Go to youngandprofiting.co/pipedrive and get 20% off Pipedrive for 1 year! Relay - Sign up for FREE! Go to relayfi.com/profiting Indeed - Claim your $75 credit now at indeed.com/profiting Rakuten - Start shopping at rakuten.com  **Disclaimer: Cash back rates on Rakuten change daily. More About Young and Profiting Download Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com   Get Sponsorship Deals - youngandprofiting.com/sponsorships Leave a Review - ratethispodcast.com/yap Watch Videos - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Follow Hala Taha LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ TikTok - tiktok.com/@yapwithhala Twitter - twitter.com/yapwithhala Learn more about YAP Media Agency Services - yapmedia.io/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jon is the CEO of Topkey, the financial operating system for hospitality management companies. They're a Y Combinator Winter 2021 company. They've raised a $5.2M seed round led by Felicis Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Y Combinator. There are several other great investors participated in that round, including Assurant Ventures, Derive Ventures, and yours truly, Wil Slickers.  In this episode, Jon & Wil talk through what it's like to build a startup within our industry especially as Jon came from Starwood Hotels and even HotelTonight (Acquired by Airbnb) to now as he builds his own company, Topkey. Connect with Jon: Company Website http://www.topkey.io Jon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathansukhia/ Topkey: https://www.linkedin.com/company/topkey If you reach out to Jon or anyone at Topkey and mention this podcast (Slick Talk) you can get 3 months free of the their platform! This episode is brought to you by our sponsors at: Minut – Minut has more than just security features! They monitor noise, movement, and occupancy all within one device and all Slick Talk listeners get 2 months FREE when they sign up with this link! Vintory - Scaling your property management company? Vintory is giving Slick Talk listeners a free digital copy of their book "From 0 to 500 Properties In 5 Years" and a $50 Amazon Gift Card for those who sign-up to do a demo! Safely.com – The best STR insurance that covers guests, owners, and managers! Making Safely a no brainer! Hostfully – Use code SLICKTALK for 3 months free of their digital guidebook or $100 off their property management platform! ——– Thank you for tuning into our podcast! Slick Talk is a Hospitality.FM production and you can find more of our shows at Hospitality.FM or anywhere else you listen to your podcasts! Listen to more episodes on our website and take a look at our amazing podcast and network sponsors that make this all possible! You can also listen to our Monday morning podcast, Good Morning Hospitality, where we dive into the industry as a whole in a more casual setting! If you ever want to contact us for guest suggestions or anything else related to the podcast, please fill out our contact form and we will be in touch! Last but not least, we love to connect on LinkedIn! Let's connect there so you can see the daily content we post beyond the podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yanda Erlich has now cofounder four venture backed startups. He's been an angel investor, and a partner at a venture capital firm. Now he's going at it again with a company that provides the best development tools for creating the next generation of software. His startup, Weights & Biases, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like NVIDIA, Insight Partners, Felicis Ventures, and Coatue.

Infosys expects to achieve its revenue growth target of 4-7 percent in constant currency terms for the financial year 2024, company executives told investors in a conference with Morgan Stanley yesterday in Mumbai, CNBC TV18 reports. Also in this report, Germany's Thyssenkrupp is close to a multi-billion-dollar deal to build six submarines for the Indian Navy, offering the engineering and tech knowhow for India's Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders to execute the construction; Meta Verified comes to India; And US based Digibee, a low-code software integration platform provider, has raised $60 million Notes Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has launched its verification program, Meta Verified, in India, replacing its earlier verified badge system on Facebook and Instagram, TechCrunch reports. Meta Verified aims to provide a mark of authenticity and credibility to prominent individuals, ensuring that users can trust their accounts.   The program will allow eligible users to apply for verification, which will be evaluated based on various criteria such as account completeness, adherence to community guidelines, and authenticity.   Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced on June 6 in New Delhi that the German company Thyssenkrupp AG is likely to bid for a project to supply six submarines to the Indian Navy, Reuters reports. The move comes as India seeks to bolster its domestic defence manufacturing to counter China's increasing presence in the Indian Ocean, Reuters notes.   In a separate report, Bloomberg pegged the value of the deal – seen as a move by Germany to help India reduce its dependence on Russia – at $5.2 billion.   Thyssenkrupp's marine arm is expected to sign the deal with India's Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, with the agreement's value estimated at around 7 billion euros. India's navy, which currently has 16 conventional submarines, approved a budget of $6.8 billion in March to replace its aging fleet.   Infosys expects to achieve its revenue growth target of 4-7 percent in constant currency terms for the financial year 2024, company executives told investors in a conference with Morgan Stanley yesterday in Mumbai, CNBC TV18 reports.   However, reaching the upper end of the range will depend on closing mega deals at a faster pace. Improving margins would be a tall task, company executives said in the conference. The external environment has remained unchanged since Infosys' last earnings announcement, and the lower end of the revenue growth guidance has already accounted for macro uncertainty, they said.   Meanwhile, Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy's investment firm, Catamaran Ventures, is reportedly in advanced discussions to invest between $100 million and $150 million in Ola Electric, the electric vehicle arm of ride-hailing services provider Ola, Economic Times reports.   The potential investment is part of Ola Electric's ongoing funding round, which aims to raise $300-500 million to support its expansion plans. Ola Electric has emerged as the top electric scooter seller in India, selling 35,000 units in May, Business Standard reported on June 4.   Digibee, a low code software application integration platform provider, has raised $60 million in a recent funding round, TechCrunch reports. The investment was led by VC firm Felicis Ventures, with participation from existing investors including Wing Venture Capital and GFC.

Connie & Alex go over this week's most interesting tech news stories, and then Connie talks to Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures about his firm's investments in companies such as Canva and Adyen and what he thinks about the potential of AI, fintech, and more.

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we are excited to have Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures, which since its founding in 2005 has become of the most successful early-stage funds in the world, having invested in companies such as Shopify, Canva, Opendoor, Guild, Flexport, Notion, and Plaid,  The Felicis portfolio has 45 Unicorns since it started in 2006 and Aydin is a 9-time Forbes Midas list investor. Outside of the outstanding track record, Aydin brings such an interesting point of view on venture investing. We went deep on the history of Felicis, his investment philosophy, and his overall perspectives on running a venture firm.A word from our sponsor:Aumni is an investment analytics company dedicated to improving private capital markets. Aumni's technology digitizes hard to track unstructured data from private transaction agreements and organizes it in a structured database through an intuitive dashboard. For investors across the board, the insights provided by this data improve the managers ability to build strategy and make better decisions. Today, Aumni tracks data from over 250 thousand private market transactions to provide anonymous, aggregated market benchmarks.As someone that works deeply in the private fund space, I'm incredibly excited that Aumni's solution helps fund managers provide more insightful accurate reporting to their investors.  Check them out at Aumni.fund.Subscribers of Venture Unlocked can sign up for 20% off when you mention Venture Unlocked.About Aydin Senkut:Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felicis. An original super angel turned multi-stage investor, he has been named on the Forbes Midas List for the past nine years (2014-2022) as well as the New York Times Top 20 Venture Capitalists list for four consecutive years (2016-2019). His recent focus areas include infrastructure, security, and future of health.He is well-known as an early backer of a number of iconic companies including Adyen, Credit Karma (Acquired by Intuit), Fitbit, Guardant Health, Guideline, Notion, Opendoor, Pluralsight, Rovio, Shopify, and Soundhound.Prior to starting Felicis, Aydin joined Google in 1999 as its first Product Manager to launch Google's first 10 international sites, its first online search licensing products, and its first Safe Search. He then became the first International Sales Manager at Google, responsible for worldwide licensing deals. Before joining Google, Aydin was the Product Manager for Data Visualization and Data Mining software MineSet at SGI.He received a bachelor's degree in Business Administration with Honors from Boston University. He also earned an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School and a master's degree in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.In this episode we discuss:02:12 What led to starting Felicis05:52 Why he decided to start something new instead of staying with Google08:40 Moving from angel to “super angel”12:19 The first fund raise16:10 Takeaways from early rejections and how he kept refining his pitch20:09 What was Aydin's initial vision and how it has evolved over the years24:59 Teambuilding and early hires at Felicis29:02 How Felicis wins competitive deals through strategy35:11 When to bend a rule when it comes to unorthodox investments39:13 Commonalities of founders who create outlier opportunities42:24 How to be anti-fragile as an investor46:40 Trends in today's market that gets Aydin excited50:16 The advice he would have given himself in 2005I'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Aydin. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Wes Chan is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at FPV Ventures, a $450M early-stage fund, launched earlier this year. Wes is an investor in five $10B+ "decacorns," his most notable being Canva where he is a member of the board of directors and led the Series A and C rounds. Wes also wrote the first or very early check into Plaid, Flexport, Gusto, Lucid, and RobinHood. Before FPV Wes was a Managing Director at Felicis Ventures and before Felicis Wes founded GV's seed investing program. If that was not enough, as an operator, Wes co-founded Google Analytics and Google Voice and holds 18 US patents for his work in creating Google AdWords. In Today's Episode with Wes Chan 1.) From Founding Google Analytics to Venture: How did Wes make his way from founding Google Voice and Google Analytics to starting GV's seed investing program? What are 1-2 of the single biggest product takeaways from working closely with Larry and Sergey @ Google? How did Wes make his way from Google to Felicis and scaling the firm with Aydin Senkut? 2.) Market vs Founder: Why Market Sizing is BS: Why does Wes believe that the market always wins over the founder? That said, what does Wes mean when he says "the best founders have 100 year plans?" How does Wes question and analyse 100 year plans? What makes the best? What makes the worst? Why does Wes not do market sizing? Why does Wes not do outcome scenario planning? What does Wes believe is the biggest fallacy of outcome scenario planning? 3.) The Venture Landscape: Does Wes believe that now is really the best time to be investing? Why does Wes believe there are some treacherous deals being done now? What are the signs that these deals are challenging? What advice does Wes give founders fundraising in these markets? What does Wes believe are elements that traditional VCs decide to do, which prevents founders from choosing to work with them? Does Wes believe VCs on board truly provide value? If so, which ones and why them? 4.) FPV: Firm Building and Portfolio Construction: With the new $450M fund, what is the portfolio construction that Wes chose? Why does Wes prefer to have more lines in the portfolio than a concentrated portfolio? Does Wes believe you can increase your ownership in your best companies over time? How does Wes think about capital concentration on a per company basis? What have been Wes' biggest lessons from his biggest hits and misses? Items Mentioned in Todays Episode: Wes' Favourite Book: Liar's Poker

After selling her first startup, Roxanne Bras has raised $50M for her most recent venture. The company, Ethena has attracted financing from top-tier investors like Felicis Ventures, Lachy Groom, GSV, and Homebrew.

Hiring is one of the toughest challenges startups face in today’s global economy. They are competing for talent not only against “name brand” companies, but also the incredibly rich and robust startups from around the world. Our guest today has seen that struggle both as an operator and now as an investor, Michele Delcambre, is the operations partner at Felicis Ventures, one of the greatest venture firms to form in the last decade. Prior to Felicis, she led HR and Talent divisions at some of the fastest-growing technology companies like Atlassian, Okta, Databricks, and Stripe.This is a great conversation with a ton of insight for founders at all levels.About Michelle Delcambre:Michelle is an Operating Partner at Felicis and leads Talent and People focused initiatives. In this role, Michelle leverages over a decade of experience in high-growth companies to advise and assist companies across the portfolio on their People and Talent best practices.Prior to joining Felicis, Michelle led Talent and People Operations functions for a number of successful technology companies building and scaling hiring practices, People strategy, and People technology solutions during incredible growth periods. Michelle has seen various stages of scale, as the first US-based recruiting leader for Atlassian scaling from a few dozen to a few hundred employees, and growing organizations from 500-2,000 as the Head of Talent at Okta through their IPO. Additionally, she helped Stripe to operationalize the People and Recruiting functions as they scaled from >2,000 to over 5,000 employees. Michelle is a native of Louisiana and attended Michigan State University.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:41 Michelle’s journey into Talent/HR04:20 How Michelle’s view on talent was shaped by her time at Atlassian06:22 Lessons she learned from her time at Zenefits09:56 How she helped Stripe transition to remote work during the pandemic12:16 What resources needed to shift when Stripe went remote12:59 How Stripe’s culture survived and thrived during the pandemic14:31 Why remote work has increased the available talent pool and how startups can win the war for talent18:40 Why good employees leave companies and how remote-only or in-office only is more complicated20:31 Policies that founders should consider to attract talent24:44 Why Gen Z wants in office to find mentorship26:50 How DEI efforts help companies become stronger29:25 The use of data in recruiting and HR30:48 Tools Michelle recommends to track HR data31:30 How to build a talent pipeline33:18 Common mistakes that hiring managers make36:15 Balancing moving candidates through the pipeline versus rushing bad candidates into a role38:37 Michelle’s role at Felicis and how she helps its portfolioFast Favorites:🎙- Favorite Podcast: The Trojan Horse Affair, Things You’re Wrong About 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: The Tedium📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Apple Watch📈-  Favorite New Trend: Tiny library rooms📚- Favorite Book: To Kill A Mockingbird, The Changing World Order🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: All people have more in common than you think 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

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.I’m excited to bring my conversation with Wesley Chan, founder and managing partner of his new fund FPV Ventures, which recently closed an oversubscribed $450M Fund 1. Wes brings a very unique lens to investing as he closely worked with the founders of Google (where founded Google Voice and Google Analytics), and went on to co-found GV before he joined Felicis Ventures. During his 13 year venture career, he has backed 20 unicorns and 5 decacorns, including Canva, Flexport, Guild Education, RobinHood, AngelList, Plaid, and Ring.During our discussion, we spoke about how he’s been able to have such a hit rate in his investing career, what being founder-friendly really means, and his time working with people like Sergey and Larry at Google as well as what he learned from Bill Campell. I really hope you enjoy our chat.About Wesley Chan:Wesley Chan is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at FPV Ventures, a $450M early-stage fund that backs and serves mission-driven founders. He is an investor in five $10B+ "decacorns," his most notable being Canva where he is a member of the board of directors, led the Series A and C rounds, and is worth north of $40B. He founded Google Analytics and Google Voice and holds 17 US patents for his work in creating Google AdWords.Among Wesley's 20+ unicorn investments, he wrote the first or very early check into fintech API decacorn Plaid, logistics powerhouse Flexport, SMB payroll leader Gusto, enterprise software unicorn Lucid, and stock trading platform RobinHood (NASDAQ: HOOD)—and led investments in Canva, AngelList, Carta, Guild Education, Sourcegraph, Dialpad, RocketLawyer, Orca Bio, Checkr, CultureAmp, HyperScience, Zipline, Astranis, TrialSpark, and Ring (exit to AMZN). Business Insider named Wesley to their Top 100 Seed Investors list for two consecutive years in 2022 & 2021.He was formerly a Managing Director at Felicis Ventures and one of the first General Partners at GV (Google Ventures). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT and completed his Master’s degree at the MIT Media Lab.In this episode we discuss:01:22 Wesley’s path to becoming a VC05:03 The start of GV, and the early days05:59 How we got to current market conditions06:57 Why Wesley doesn’t have a thesis driven approach09:12 What he saw in the founders of Canva to give him conviction even when other investors would not invest12:46 How FOMO and being incremental are so detrimental in being a VC17:01 What is it about Wesley’s mindset that allows him to consistently be non-consensus20:48 Why $450M was the right fund size for FPV23:26 The ethos for FPV and how Wesley and his partner in FPV, Pegah Ebrahimi, decided to work together26:40 Why you don’t always need to be on a board to be helpful27:28 What founders really need from investors28:43 How FPV thinks about differentiating itself from bigger firms31:40 The impact of Bill Campbell on Google and also how he impacted Wesley’s style as an investor34:36 Where the market is right now and what the next few years look like I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Wesley. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Finding the Next Unicorn w. Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures

Supabase, the open-source database-as-a-service company, raised $80 million in Series B funding in a round led by Felicis Ventures. In case you were wondering: YYes, the company is named for the Nicki Minaj song!.Today in tech recs: Cassidy recommends budgeting app Lunch Money for everything from crypto to cash. Matt recommends Magnet for window management.Today's Lifeboat badge goes to user dfrib for their answer to Error "nil requires a contextual type" using Swift.

Harley Finkelstein is the President of Shopify, the platform modern commerce is built on. Over the last 12 years, Harley has partnered with Tobi to the tune of building Shopify's revenue to over $4.6BN in 2021 and the team to over 10,000 employees. On the side, Harley is an Advisor to Felicis Ventures and in the past has held board seats at CBC, Omers Ventures and The C100. If that was not enough, you can see Harley on a screen near you as one of the “Dragons” on CBC's Next Gen Den. In Today's Episode with Harley Finkelstein You Will Learn: 1.) The Founding Story: What was Harley's first entrepreneurial endeavour? How did seeing his family lose everything impact Harley's mindset and ambition? How did Harley first meet Tobi @ Shopify? How did the Shopify journey begin? 2.) Leadership Lessons: How has Harley changed as a leader over the 13 years with Shopify? How does Harley embrace vulnerability and authenticity in his communication with the team? What is Harley most insecure about when he looks at leadership today? What have been some of the biggest lessons Harley has learned from his board on what great leadership is? 3.) The Art of Marriage: What does Harley believe makes the most successful marriage? Why have Harley and his wife been seeing a marriage therapist from the early days? What is the biggest mistake people make when communicating with partners? How has Harley changed as a husband over the years? 4.) The Joy of Fatherhood: Does Harley always believe he has been a good father? What was his realisation moment that he was not being the father he wanted to be? What core elements of his behaviour did he change? How did that impact his relationship with his kids? How does Harley ensure he performs at the highest level while also being there and being present for his family? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Harley Finkelstein Harley's Favourite Book: The Book of Ichigo Ichie: The Art of Making the Most of Every Moment, the Japanese Way

Gabriela Ariana Campoverde sits down with Ram Palaniappan, Founder and CEO of Earnin, which gives people access to their pay directly from their smartphones. No hidden fees, no penalties, no waiting—just access to your hard-earned cash right when you need it. With each transaction users are given the opportunity to pay what they believe is fair. In this episode, you will learn all about how: - Ram started Earnin by lending his own money to his colleagues - Earnin addresses the Earned Wage Access gap - 66% of users see an increase in their ability to pay bills with Earnin' - The lending landscape is changing - And so much more! About Ram Palaniappan Ram Palaniappan, is the Founder and CEO of Earnin. He is passionate about building a financial system for the people, by the people. He is a graduate of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, where he earned his MMS, and Purdue University Krannert School of Management, where he earned his MBA. About Earnin Earnin gives people access to their pay directly from their smartphones, whenever they need it. Launched in 2014, Earnin is driving consumer-empowered finance through mobile technology by breaking open more than $1 trillion held up in America's pay cycle. Current funding partners include Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Partners, Ribbit Capital, Felicis Ventures, March Capital Partners, Trinity Ventures, Thrive Capital, and Camp One Ventures. To learn more about Earnin, visit earnin.com. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Gabriela's Twitter: twitter.com/byGabyC Gabriela's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gcampoverde

Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felicis Ventures, a $2 billion early stage venture firm that invests in founders building iconic companies that transcend geographic and industry boundaries. Its success has placed Aydin on the Forbes Midas List for the past 8 years. Our conversation covers Aydin's early exposure to entrepreneurship and international business, experience as the first international product manager at Google, and transition into angel investing and founding Felicis. We discuss his investment philosophy, proactive sourcing, and doing whatever it takes to join the cap table and support founders. We close with Aydin's perspective on competition in the venture capital industry.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

About NancyNancy Wang is a global product and technical leader at Amazon Web Services, where she leads P&L, product, engineering, and design for its data protection and governance businesses. Prior to Amazon, she led SaaS product development at Rubrik, the fastest-growing enterprise software unicorn and built healthdata.gov for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Passionate about advancing more women into technical roles, Nancy is the founder & CEO of Advancing Women in Tech, a global 501(c)(3) nonprofit with 16,000+ members worldwide.Nancy is an angel investor in data security and compliance companies, and an LP with several seed- and growth-stage funds such as Operator Collective and IVP. She earned a degree in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania.Links: https://coursera.org/awit Advancing Women in Technology: https://www.advancingwomenintech.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wangnancy/ Advancing Women in Technology LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/advancingwomenintech/ TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by our friends at Sysdig. Sysdig is the solution for securing DevOps. They have a blog post that went up recently about how an insecure AWS Lambda function could be used as a pivot point to get access into your environment. They've also gone deep in-depth with a bunch of other approaches to how DevOps and security are inextricably linked. To learn more, visit sysdig.com and tell them I sent you. That's S-Y-S-D-I-G dot com. My thanks to them for their continued support of this ridiculous nonsense.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by our friends at Rising Cloud, which I hadn't heard of before, but they're doing something vaguely interesting here. They are using AI, which is usually where my eyes glaze over and I lose attention, but they're using it to help developers be more efficient by reducing repetitive tasks. So, the idea being that you can run stateless things without having to worry about scaling, placement, et cetera, and the rest. They claim significant cost savings, and they're able to wind up taking what you're running as it is, in AWS, with no changes, and run it inside of their data centers that span multiple regions. I'm somewhat skeptical, but their customers seem to really like them, so that's one of those areas where I really have a hard time being too snarky about it because when you solve a customer's problem, and they get out there in public and say, “We're solving a problem,” it's very hard to snark about that. Multus Medical, Construx.ai, and Stax have seen significant results by using them, and it's worth exploring. So, if you're looking for a smarter, faster, cheaper alternative to EC2, Lambda, or batch, consider checking them out. Visit risingcloud.com/benefits. That's risingcloud.com/benefits, and be sure to tell them that I said you because watching people wince when you mention my name is one of the guilty pleasures of listening to this podcast.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. I've said repeatedly on this show—and I stand by it—that absolutely nobody cares about backups. Because they don't. They do care tremendously about restores, usually right after they really should have been caring about backups.My guest today has more informed opinions on these things than I do, just because I'm bad at computers. But Nancy Wang is someone else entirely. She is AWS's general manager of the AWS Backup service, and heads the Data Protection Team. Nancy, thank you for tolerating me, I appreciate it.Nancy: Hey, no worries because you know, when I heard you say I don't care about backups, I knew I had to come on the show and correct you. [laugh].Corey: It's the sort of thing where there's no one is fanatical as a convert. And every grumpy old sysadmin that is in my cohort either cares a lot about backups or just doesn't even think about it at all. And the question is—the only thing that separates those two groups is have you lost data yet? And once you've lost data and you feel like a heel, you realize, “Wow, this was eminently preventable. What can I do differently to fix this?”And that's when people start preaching the virtues of backups, and you know, this novel ridiculous idea of testing the backups you've made to make sure that it isn't just—yeah, it says it's completing correctly, but if you haven't restored it, you don't really know.Nancy: Yeah. I mean, that's so true, right? And that's why when we're thinking about our holistic data protection strategy, it's less so about, “Hey, make sure that you take backups”—which is albeit a very important part of the data protection hygiene—but is making sure that you can regularly test the things that you're backing up to make sure that, frankly, when you happen to be in a disaster scenario, or someone fat fingers a restore process, that you have good known bits to restore from.Corey: So, people will be forgiven for not, potentially, understanding what AWS Backup is, where it starts and where it stops. I mean, let's be clear, this is sort of the price you as a company get to pay for having 300-some-odd services; not everyone is conversant with every single one of them. I know, I'm as offended as anyone at that fact, but apparently other people have lives. So, what is AWS Backup?Nancy: So, on that note, Corey, I do have to say that I'm probably at a more of an advantage in terms of my name being very descriptive and what it does versus, maybe, Athena or Redshift where it's very clear, hey, we do backups. But actually, if you parse apart the product—and this is why the team itself is called data protection—there are various axes to think about what we do, right? So, to help illustrate, perhaps if you think about axes one as in, what are the different types of application data that we protect, right? There's obviously database data, there's going to be file system data, there's various storage platform data, right? And those are comprised by AWS services that I'm sure you all are very familiar with, love dearly, like RDS, EBS, with EC2, VMs, et cetera, but also, more recently, we added S3, which we'll get to that in just a bit, but because I'd love to talk about, you know, how folks think about S3 and why you might want to back it up, right? So, that's axis number one.Now, if we turn to axis number two, it's about the different platforms where these application data might reside. So there's, of course, in-cloud, and that's the place where most people are familiar with and why they might choose to seek out a first party native data protection provider like AWS Backup. And by the way, we just extended our support to on-premises as well, starting with VMware, which is a thing that a lot of backup admins were super excited to hear about, and all those vExperts out there.And of course, the final axis is we think about how we make sure that we not just protect your data, but we are also able to give you tools like compliance reporting, which we announced in August at re:Inforce, via our CISO, Stephen Schmidt, about, “Hey, once you take your backups, are you monitoring continuously the resource configurations of the application data that you're protecting?” Are your backup plans architected to meet RPO requirements that your organization needs to meet? Are they being, for example, retained for the right amount of times? Is it seven years or is it a month? Many different organizations have widely varying RPO requirements, so making sure that all of that is captured, monitored, and also reportable so when, hey, those, that auditor decides to knock on your door, you have a report ready to say, “Hey, I'm in compliance. And by the way, I'm proactively thinking about how my organization can meet evolving regulations.”Corey: Please tell me you're familiar with AWS Audit Manager, which is, to my understanding, aimed at solving exactly this problem. If the answer is no, this would admittedly not be the first time there I found, “Oh, wow. We have a complete service duplicate hanging out somewhere at AWS.” “Oh, good. How do we make it run in containers?” Being the next obvious question there.Nancy: Sure. Which is actually a great lead-in to, again, another descriptive name of an AWS service, which is AWS Backup Audit Manager. So, if you recall from the re:Inforce keynote, it was one of the slides that was highlighted. The reason being, I'm a firm believer of a managed solution. Because look, we all know that AWS is great at building, I would say, tools or building blocks, or primitives to design end-to-end solutions.Corey: It's the Lego approach to cloud services. “What can I build with this?” “You're only constrained by your imagination.” “Okay, but what can I build?” “Here to talk about that is someone from Netflix.”Great. I want to build Twitter for Pets, which I guess now has to stream video? Yeah, it becomes a very different story. The higher-level service offerings are generally not a common area that AWS has excelled in, but this seems to be a notable exception.Nancy: That's actually where my background is, right? So, previous to AWS, I worked at a not-so-small startup anymore, called Rubrik, down in Silicon Valley, where we spent a lot of time thinking about what is the end-to-end solution for customers. How can customers simply deploy with one click, make sure that they can create policies that are repeatable, that are automated, and go off when you want them to, and make sure that you have reporting, at the end of the day. So, that's really what we focused on, right?But I digress, Corey. To your question about AWS Audit Manager, the name of the service within AWS Backup that handles compliance reporting, and auditing is called AWS Audit Manager, and we certainly didn't pick that name by fluke. The reason being, we wanted AWS Backup, from that managed solution point of view, to be the single central platform where customers come to create data protection policies, where they come to execute those data protection policies, in backup plans, store their backups in encrypted backup vaults, and have the ability to restore them when they want, and finally, report on them. So, it is that single platform.Now, with that said, if, for example, you wanted that reporting to come from AWS Audit Manager, which is a service that does a lot of reporting across many AWS services, you also have that ability. So, depending on what user persona you might be, whether you're from the central compliance office or you're a member of the data protection team within an organization, you might choose to use that functionality separately. And that's the flexibility that my team strived to provide.Corey: One of the most interesting things about AWS Backup is that I did not affirmatively go out of my way to use your service. I did not—to my recollection—wind up saying, “Oh, time to learn about this new thing, and set it up, and be very diligent about it.” But sure enough, I find it showing up on the AWS inventory—which is of course, the bill. And I look at this in a random account I use for various, you know, shitposting extravaganzas, and sure enough, it's last—so far, this month, it is—I'm recording this near the end of the month—it charged me $3.40 to backup 70 gigs of data.Which is first, like on the one hand, there is an argument of, “Now, wait a minute. I didn't opt into this. What gives?” The other side of it though, is how dare you make sure that my data isn't going to be lost, not through your negligence, but through my own, when I get sloppy with an rm -rf. And because I've been using ZFS a fair bit, and it is integrated extraordinarily tightly with that service. It goes super well.It works out when setting this up, unless you go out of your way to disable it, it will set up a backup plan. And first, that is not generally aligned with how AWS thinks about things, which you across the board, generally the philosophy I've gotten is, “Oh, you want to do this thing? That's a different service team. Do it yourself.” But also, it's one of those areas that is the least controversial. If you have to make a decision one way or another, yeah, it's opt people into backups. Was that as hard to get approved as I would suspect it would be, or was that sort of a no-brainer?Nancy: Hopefully you can let me know what your account number is, Corey, so I can make sure it doesn't get marked for fraud—A—but B, going into, you know, our philosophy on protecting data: So, EFS actually was one of our first AWS services that was supported by the AWS Backup service, which is actually quite a fascinating story in itself because the service [AWS Backup] only launched in 2019. Now, AWS has been around for much, much longer than that—Corey: And it feels even three times longer than that. But yes.Nancy: [laugh]. Exactly, right. So, as a central data protection platform for the AWS overall cloud platform, it's quite interesting that from a managed solution perspective, the service is not yet, you know, four years old. We're barely embarking on our third year together. So, with that said, why we started with EFS and a few other services is we wanted to cover the most commonly used stateful data stores for AWS Cloud, EFS being one of them, as the first cloud-native—as Wayne Duso would say—Elastic File System in the cloud.And so what we did is a deeper level integration, what we call our “data plane integration.” So, what does that mean? Customers protecting EFS file systems have the ability to not just restore their entire file system as a file system volume, but also have the ability to specify individual files, folders, that they want to restore from. And so, file level recovery, super, super important. And it's something that we also want to bring for other file systems down the road as well.And so, to your question, Corey, a common design principle that we think about is, how do we make sure that customers are protected? Obviously, in a world where we cannot yet use AI to transcribe every part of a customer's intent when they're looking to protect their data, the closest that we can get is, “Hey, you create a file system. We assume that you want it protected, unless you tell us you don't want to.” And so for certain resources, like EFS, where we have a deeper level integration to our own data plane, we can then say, “Once you create a file system will opt you automatically into AWS Backup protection until you tell us to stop.” And from there, you have all the goodness that comes with AWS Backup, such as file-level restore, such as for example now, WORM [write-once-read-many] lock, which disables the ability to mutate backups from anyone, even someone with admin access.Corey: So, a big announcement in your area at re:Invent, was AWS Backup support for S3. Allow me to set up an intentionally insulting straw man argument here. S3 has vaunted 11 nines of durability, which I think exceeds the likelihood the gravity is going to continue to function. So, are they lying by having AWS Backups supporting it now, or are you just basically selling us something we don't need? Which is it?Nancy: Well, you know, Corey, judging by the hundreds of customers who have been filling up my inbox—and that's why I actually ended up creating a special email alias for the S3 preview—so what we launched at re:Invent was a public preview of the ability to start baking in S3 backup protection—or bucket protection—into their existing data protection workflows, right? And so judging by the hundreds of customers, many of them in highly regulated industries, and FinServ, in healthcare, as well as in the US government, I would say that I think they find it pretty important, and we're not just peddling things they don't need. So, I'm getting ahead of myself. We're actually—we should probably start the conversation—is a deeper dive into how we think about data protection on AWS.And so there's two really core schools of thought, right? One is, you know, focused on data durability, which in itself is a function of technology. So, to your point of 11 nines, right? That is very much true, and that's why S3 increasingly becomes the platform of choice, now, for all of customer's, you know, analytics information, and other stateful stores that they want to keep an S3 buckets for applications, right? But second of all—and this is a part where AWS Backup wants to focus on—is that concept of data resiliency, which itself is a function of external factors. Because, for example, human errors, such as fat-fingering, or miscellaneous entries, could impact for example, how you can access information that's stored in your S3 bucket, or unfortunately, sometimes what we've heard is accidentally deleting an S3 bucket or certain objects in your S3 bucket.Corey: This speaks to the idea of that RAID is not a backup. Sure, you want to make sure a drive failure doesn't lose your data, but you also want to make sure that you overwriting a file that was super important doesn't happen either and RAID, nor data durability and S3, are going to save you from that.Nancy: Yeah. Because for example, we have built in—and this is actually very core to not just AWS Backup, but really how we think about data protection on AWS—is again, that separation of control. So, I encourage you to try to delete, let's say, an EBS volume that is protected by AWS Backup, from the EBS console. You'll likely find a very glaring error in your face that says, “You do not have sufficient privileges to do so.” And the reason we actually make such a separation of control, or our role-based access control—RBAC—so core to our product design is so that, for example, whoever creates that primary volume should not be the same person that deletes it, unless they do happen to be the same person with two different roles.And that prevents, for example, unintended mutations. That also enables the data protection administrator to have the ability to, let's say, do cross-region copies: Having your S3 bucket or objects stored in another region, in another account, that can be completely locked down to anyone, even those with administrator access, right? So, like I said, before, all the platform goodness, AWS Backup, such as version control, WORM locks, having multiple copies of those backups, as well as different protection domains, that's what customers look for when they come to this service.And to your point, especially even with highly durable platforms like S3, there's still external factors that you simply can't control for all the time, right? And having that peace of mind, having that protection that you know is on 24/7, hey, that keeps businesses up, right? And that keeps consumers like you and me able to enjoy all the goodness that those businesses offer.Corey: This episode is sponsored by our friends at Oracle HeatWave is a new high-performance query accelerator for the Oracle MySQL Database Service, although I insist on calling it “my squirrel.” While MySQL has long been the worlds most popular open source database, shifting from transacting to analytics required way too much overhead and, ya know, work. With HeatWave you can run your OLAP and OLTP—don't ask me to pronounce those acronyms again—workloads directly from your MySQL database and eliminate the time-consuming data movement and integration work, while also performing 1100X faster than Amazon Aurora and 2.5X faster than Amazon Redshift, at a third of the cost. My thanks again to Oracle Cloud for sponsoring this ridiculous nonsense.Corey: I agree wholeheartedly with everything that you're saying. I had a consulting client where it's coming in optimize the AWS bill, and, “Wow, that sure is a lot of petabytes over in that S3 infrequent access bucket. How about you change the Infrequent Access-One Zone?” “Oh, no, no, no. We lose this data, it basically ends a division of the company.” “Cool. Do you have multi-factor delete turned on?” “No.” “Do you have versioning turned on?” “No.” “Okay. This is why I call it cost optimization, not cost cutting. You should be backing that up somewhere because there is far likelier—by several orders of magnitude—that you or someone on your team intentionally—unlikely—or by accident—very likely, as someone who's extremely accident prone with computers, from my own perspective because I am—is going to accidentally cause data loss there. So yeah, spend more money and back that up.”And they started doing that. So, it's always nice when your recommendations get accepted. But yeah, if data is that important, you absolutely need to have a strategy around that. What I love so far about what I've seen from AWS Backup is—and please don't take this in any way as criticism on it—is that it's so brainless. It just works. Because people don't think about backups until it's too late to have thought about backups.Nancy: Yeah, don't worry, I don't take that as offense, Corey, otherwise I wouldn't be on the show. Absolutely, right? My motto is set it and forget it, right? Just as I want to make it super simple for our mission, for customers to understand our mission, as well as, frankly, the engineers who build the service to understand our mission, it is, “We protect our customers' data on AWS. How? With set-it-and-forget-it data protection policies.”And we try to configure these policies to be fairly comprehensive. You can set everything from, like I mentioned, warm lock, where you want your backup copies created to: Which regions? Which accounts, for example? Which user role do you want to use with these data protection policies? Which services do you want to protect?And even recently, we created the selection ability—or as we call it, AWS Backup Select—so you can include, exclude different resources, even when you have the common union of tags specified on your backup plan. So, the reason we went this comprehensive is so that once you configure a data protection policy, you can really rest assured that, hey, I've done everything in my power to make sure that these resources, this application data that is so critical to my business, is being protected. And oh, by the way, I can see these backups—or as we call in our lexicon, Recovery Points—directly in my console, in my account.Corey: And there's tremendous value to doing that. That is the sort of thing that customers like to see. This is—if you have to move up the stack somewhere, this feels like the place to begin doing it, just because it's so critical to the rest of it. We all have side projects as well. Like, for example, I wind up making insulting parody music videos for people's birthdays when they're not expecting it. You have 80 hours of training content on Coursera. What is that about? Because I don't think it's all about backups.Nancy: No. Although at some point, we should probably get AWS Backup as one of the modules in AWS certification. But I digress. The reason why training is so important to me is one of the ways, actually, that folks find me online is through my presence in the nonprofit world. So, I'm the founder and CEO of a 501(c)(3) organization that's called Advancing Women in Technology, or AWIT, or A-W-I-T for short.The mission of AWIT is really to get more women leaders into visible, into senior tech leadership roles, so frankly and from a selfish perspective, I'm not the only woman in a room many of the times when decisions are being made, right? And that's not just, you know, I'm talking about my current role, but in various roles that I've had throughout the tech industry. So, where does that start? And there's a lot of different amazing organizations that focus on the early career, beginning in the pipeline, which is super important because it is important to get women, underrepresented groups in the door so that they can advance and they can accelerate their careers to becoming leaders, but the areas where AWIT focus is actually in that mid-career.Because once folks, and especially women and underrepresented groups are in the door 10 to 15 years, they're maybe in their first managerial role, or they're in their first leadership role, that's the core time when you want to retain that population, where you want to advance that population, so that in the next, I would say, generation—or hopefully it doesn't even take that long; next 5, 10 years—we see a much more representative leadership room, or board table, right? So, that's really where that goal starts. And so, why do we have 80 hours of training content because part of advancing your career and accelerating your career is having the right skills. Of course having a right network is also very important, and that's something else that we preach, but upskilling yourself, constantly learning about new technologies—I mean, the tech world changes by the minute, right, and so being familiar with new technologies, new frameworks, new ways of thinking about product problems, is really what we focus on. So, we were the first to create the Real-World Product Management Specialization, which you can check out on Coursera. You'll see my mug shot in a lot of those videos.But actually, also of those of some of the best and brightest underrepresented leaders in the industry, such as Sandy Carter, Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec, Sabrina Farmer, I mean, the list goes on and on. Including, you know, personal friend who created Coffee Meets Bagel. So hey, for all those connections made out there on that platform, you know, she's also a woman CEO, and used to be a product manager at Amazon.Corey: A dear friend met his partner on Coffee Meets Bagel. I hear good things.Nancy: Oh, awesome.Corey: Fortunately, I was married before it launched, so I've never used the service myself. If I were a reference customer now, that would raise questions.Nancy: [laugh]. Well, let's just say I'm not on the platform, either, so I can't verify or deny that you have a profile. Yeah. So, just having those underrepresented groups and individuals, really stellar rock stars, role models that we would all consider to be super inspirational, as speakers, as instructors on the courses have given so many folks the inspiration, the encouragement that they need to upskill themselves. And so yes, now educated over 20,000 learners worldwide using those courses.And I still receive just amazing notes from them on a daily basis, all over LinkedIn about how they've managed to get promotions from taking these courses, or how they've managed to get jobs in FAANG tech companies as a result of taking these courses. And really, that's the impact that I want to make is one to n, being able to impact a global audience, upskilling a global audience. And so again, in the future, and not so distant future, the leadership room gets so much more representative.Corey: And to complete the trifecta of interesting things you do, you are also an early angel investor and a limited partner in a number of startups. Tell me a little bit about that. It's odd to—at least in my experience—to see folks who are heavily involved in the nonprofit space, the corporate space at a giant tech company, and doing investment all at the same time. It seems like that is not a particularly common combination, at least in the circles in which I travel.Nancy: You could also probably blame it on my extreme ADHD. That's probably very true. Don't worry, I try to control it, most of the time.Corey: I've been struggling to control my own my entire life, which probably explains a lot about why I do the things that I do. I hear you.Nancy: It makes sense, right? From one to another. It honestly makes me better at my job. And I'll explain why. So, if you look at some of the new or joint marketing campaigns that AWS Backup or data protection team has done this past year with various startups—namely Open Raven; there'll be others we're working with in the new year—being able to just get some of that inspiration from founders, so thinking about how can we have a better together story?You specialize in, let's say with the case of Open Raven, in data visibility and let's say scanning S3 buckets for vulnerabilities, for different content. And hey, we specialize in data recovery process, or then that data protection policy creation process. How do we come together to form a really awesome solution for our highly regulated customers, or compliance-minded customers? That's the story that I love to tell, and frankly, I just get so inspired from talking to startup founders. The reason why I have also advised a few venture capitalists—namely Felicis Ventures—on, for example, their investment thesis is I just see so much potential in this environment, right?And there's really that adage, where it's big enough sandbox for a lot of players. Just like, for example, how Snowflake and Redshift have managed to coexist together on the AWS platform, there's a lot of just goodness, too, that exists between the data security world, how they customers think about securing their data, to the data protection world because, hey, you can't protect what you can't see, so you need to be make sure that you have that data visibility angle, along with that protection angle, along with that recovery angle. And hey, all of this needs to be within your data perimeter, within a secure zone, right? How do you securitize your data? So, all of that really comes together in this melding world.And of course, there's also adjacent themes such as, well, once you protect your data, how can you also make sure that the quality of your data is high? And that's where pretty interesting startups in the data observability space, such as Monte Carlo, have come up. Which is, “Hey, I need to rely on my business data to make important decisions that affect my customers, so how can I make sure that what's ever coming out of my data lake or data warehouse is correct, it truly reflects the state of the business?” So, all of that is converging, and that's why, you know, it's just super exciting to be a part of this space, to not only create net new, I would say greenfield opportunities on the AWS platform, but also use this as an opportunity to partner with startup CEOs and various startups in the data space, data infrastructure space, to create more use cases, more solutions for customers who otherwise we'd have to rely on either custom scripts, or simply not having any solutions in this space at all.Corey: There's something to be said for doing the—how do I frame this?—the boring work that's always behind the scenes, that is never top of mind. People don't get excited about things like data protection, about compliance, about cost optimization, about making sure that the fire insurance is paid up on the building before you wind up insulting execs at big companies, et cetera, et cetera. And that—but it is incredibly important—in my case, especially that last one—just because if you don't get that done, there's massive risk, and managing that risk is important. It's nice to see that it's not just the shiny features that are getting the attention. It's the stuff of, “Okay, how do we do this safely and securely?” That is the area that I think is not being particularly well served these days, so it's honestly refreshing to see someone focusing on that as an area of active investment.Nancy: I mean, absolutely. Perhaps one data point I should also share, because I do get questions asked of, “What gets you so excited about compliance, about audit?” Well, I used to work for the US government. So, if that tells you anything—and I used to hold an active secret clearance—that hopefully explains some things about why I'm passionate about the areas I am. But, that's really where, you know, back to your comment that you made on the core tenet or the ethos of the AWS Backup service, which is, “Set it, forget it, make it super simple,” is I want to design systems or solutions that enable customers to focus on developing applications, working on building business logic, whereas we will create the comprehensive data protection policies that protect your data.And especially in the world of ever evolving cyber attacks where the attackers are getting more and more sophisticated, they have more backdoor methods that go undetected for many months, as was the case in attacks over the past recent years, or in the case of pesky ransomware attacks, where certain insurance companies have even stopped paying ransoms, right, and you're wondering, “Well, how do I get my data back?” This is the world that we live in. And so, you know, yes, there might be ever-evolving more, I would say, sophisticated ways to detect vulnerabilities, or attacks, or do pattern matching between known attack patterns, but really what remains core and should be core to a lot of companies' recovery strategies, as per the NIST cybersecurity framework, is actually having a good way to restore. And that goes back to something that you mentioned at the beginning of this recording, Corey, which is making sure that you're regularly testing your backups because as you said, no one cares that you're taking backups, but people do care about the ability to restore. So, having known good bits that exist in a secure vault, that exists maybe in some air gap account or region, where you know that it's going to be there for you, that it's restorable is going to be super key.And we're already seeing that trend in a lot of customers that I speak with. And by the way, these aren't just customers in highly regulated industries. They're really customers that now are increasingly relying on data to make business decisions. Just like, for example, there's that adage that says, you know, “Software is eating the world,” well, now most businesses are data-driven businesses, and so data is core to their business mission. And so protecting that, it should also be core to their business mission.Corey: I really wish that were the case a bit more than it is.Nancy: True that. So, I would have to say, “Hear, hear.” And this is actually what makes my job so, just, fun frankly, is that I get to have these conversations with thought leaders at various different companies, who are my clients or customers of AWS. And these are different, I would say, leaders, ranging from IT leaders, to compliance leaders, to CISOs who I have these conversations with. And oftentimes it does start with this very, I would say, innocuous question, which is, “Well, why should I think about protecting my data?” And then we're able to go into, “Well, this is how you think about tiering your data, this is how you think about different SLAs that you might have for your data, and then finally, this is how you would think about architecting a data protection solution into your environment.”Corey: Nancy, I want to thank you for taking some time out of your day to speak with me. If people want to learn more about what you're up to and how you're viewing these things, where can they find you?Nancy: Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, whether you have a service that you desperately want AWS Backup to protect—yes, I get a lot of those tweets or LinkedIn posts—absolutely happy to consider them and to prioritize them on the future roadmap. Or if you want to give me a feedback about your experience, more than happy to take those as well. Also, if you're a startup founder and you have a brilliant new idea, and data infrastructure, always happy to grab coffee or drinks and hear about those ideas.And lastly, if you're looking to upskill yourself either product management or cloud tech skills, find us on Coursera at https://www.coursera.org/awit, or on LinkedIn as Advancing Women in Technology. Either way, whether you fit into one or more or all of these buckets, I'd love to hear from you.Corey: And we will, of course, put links to that in the [show notes 00:32:36]. Thank you so much for speaking with me today. I really appreciate it.Nancy: Well, thank you, Corey. It's always a pleasure, and I'll see you very soon in person in SF.Corey: I look forward to it. Nancy Wang, General Manager of AWS Backup and AWS Data Protection. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice along with an insulting comment that I will then delete because it wasn't backed up.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.Announcer: This has been a HumblePod production. Stay humble.

Last month, Ben sat down with Wesley Chan at Web Summit for a quick, 18-minute interview. The conversation was supposed to be about global investing in 2021 as an early-stage VC, but the conversation turned mostly into the origin story of Wesley's (unbelievably good) seed investment in Canva. Wesley's firm Felicis Ventures invested pre-revenue, leading the seed round, and Canva is valued at $40 billion today. Wesley dives into the details (and why he invested in the first place!) in this interview.

O Man in the Arena é um videocast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio (#102​) Um bate-papo com Eduardo Lima, CEO e co-fundador da eduK, a maior startup de educação da América Latina. Eduardo é formado em Engenharia de Controle e Automação pela PUC Minas e tem especialização em Engenharia de Software pela UVV. Após uma longa carreira como Engenheiro de Software nas indústrias de mineração e siderurgia, em 2007 se lançou como empreendedor em negócios de tecnologia e internet. Em 2013 co-fundou a eduK com Robson Catalan. A eduK é uma instituição de ensino online que reúne renomados experts para ensinar suas habilidades e ajudar seus alunos a transformarem suas paixões em negócios. Através de cursos online de curta duração, baseados em videoaulas de alta qualidade, a eduK é pioneira no conceito da edutainment no Brasil, oferecendo cursos de profissionalização nas áreas de gastronomia, artesanato, fotografia, moda, beleza, entre outros. Os cursos são transmitidos ao vivo e gratuitamente e, em seguida, são incorporados ao catálogo com mais de 600 opções, podendo ser acessados através de planos de assinatura, a partir de R$19,90 por mês. Com investimento da Accel Partners, Monashees Capital e Felicis Ventures, a eduK tem como principais sócios, Eduardo Lima, Robson Catalan e Bernardo Rezende (Bernardinho). O Man in the Arena tem apoio da Livraria Cultura. Para saber mais: eduK: http://www.eduk.com.br/​ Eduardo Lima: https://br.linkedin.com/in/eduardosou...​ Acompanhe e participe nos canais do Man in the Arena: YouTube: http://youtube.com/maninthearenatv​ Facebook: http://facebook.com/maninthearenatv​ iTunes (Audio): https://itunes.apple.com/br/podcast/m...

O Man in the Arena é um videocast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio (#102​) Um bate-papo com Eduardo Lima, CEO e co-fundador da eduK, a maior startup de educação da América Latina. Eduardo é formado em Engenharia de Controle e Automação pela PUC Minas e tem especialização em Engenharia de Software pela UVV. Após uma longa carreira como Engenheiro de Software nas indústrias de mineração e siderurgia, em 2007 se lançou como empreendedor em negócios de tecnologia e internet. Em 2013 co-fundou a eduK com Robson Catalan. A eduK é uma instituição de ensino online que reúne renomados experts para ensinar suas habilidades e ajudar seus alunos a transformarem suas paixões em negócios. Através de cursos online de curta duração, baseados em videoaulas de alta qualidade, a eduK é pioneira no conceito da edutainment no Brasil, oferecendo cursos de profissionalização nas áreas de gastronomia, artesanato, fotografia, moda, beleza, entre outros. Os cursos são transmitidos ao vivo e gratuitamente e, em seguida, são incorporados ao catálogo com mais de 600 opções, podendo ser acessados através de planos de assinatura, a partir de R$19,90 por mês. Com investimento da Accel Partners, Monashees Capital e Felicis Ventures, a eduK tem como principais sócios, Eduardo Lima, Robson Catalan e Bernardo Rezende (Bernardinho). O Man in the Arena tem apoio da Livraria Cultura. Para saber mais: eduK: http://www.eduk.com.br/​ Eduardo Lima: https://br.linkedin.com/in/eduardosou...​ Acompanhe e participe nos canais do Man in the Arena: YouTube: http://youtube.com/maninthearenatv​ Facebook: http://facebook.com/maninthearenatv​ iTunes (Audio): https://itunes.apple.com/br/podcast/m...

Those working in financial markets see what's coming, it's the democratization of private investing.  Higher return opportunities in private equity are currently only available to sophisticated institutional and quasi-institutional investors, but that's changing. Alex Robinson founded Juniper Square in 2014, to transform private equity with innovative software and solutions.  Today, the company is trusted by over 1,200 GPs to manage more than 200,000 investors and $1.5 trillion in assets.  Juniper Square has quickly become the leading provider of investment management solutions for commercial real estate, the company's entry point into private equity. Alex shares with us his insights on real estate private equity and how his company offers an elegant solution to a once complicated problem.  Juniper Square has raised over $100 million and is backed by Redpoint, Ribbit Capital and Felicis Ventures. We hope you enjoy the show.

Aydin was an unlikely candidate to build one of the fastest growing venture funds of the last decade. Almost entirely a product person at iconic companies like Google, Aydin has parlayed a $4M angel investing start into a platform that just raised an impressive $900M fund. His conversation with Next Play Partner Hunter Hillenmeyer takes a deep dive into their path to success.    He names empathy for founders as a bedrock conviction that has allowed Felicis to invest an some of today's most iconic tech companies. Their formula: risk taking & conviction while playing to their unique strengths as a firm. Aydin is also the first guest on the pod to recommend a book written by an athlete. Listen now to see whose book he “can't wait to read for a third time" with his kids.

The Big Ones Canva, an Australia-based graphic design software provider backed by advertising agency VaynerMedia, raised $200m at a $40bn valuation. Investment manager T Rowe Price led the round, which included Franklin Templeton, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), Greenoaks Capital, Dragoneer Investments, Blackbird, Felicis Ventures and AirTree Ventures. Canva has built a … Continue reading "20 September 2021 – Investors help Canva paint $200m picture at $40bn valuation" The post 20 September 2021 – Investors help Canva paint $200m picture at $40bn valuation appeared first on Global Venturing Review.

Dan O'Connell, former founder and CEO of TalkIQ which was acquired by Dialpad, discusses the future of cloud communications. Dan's vision for helping teams sell more with less churn led to Dialpad becoming a unicorn last year having raised $100M at a $1.2B pre-money valuation.  Exceptional investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures are betting on Dialpad's ability to convert legacy telephony infrastructure into cloud-native, SaaS systems using AI to analyze voice transcripts.Listen and learn...Dan's entrepreneurial journey from incubator to launch to fundraising to acquisition.Why TalkIQ was really three startups in one... and how Dan navigated his team through the process of finding one big customer problem to fix.Why voice will soon be the primary computing interface.The challenges of developing NLP technology for voice transcription and AI-based analytics.What Dan learned from nearly a decade at Google... and, more important, what he learned not to do.References in the episode...AI and the Future of Work with Rory O'DriscollDialpad raises $100M at a $1.2B valuationWesley Chan from Felicis Ventures

Just had a chance to interview Jon Stross. He's President & Co-Founder of Greenhouse Software, the smart recruiting SaaS platform used by over 4,000 companies including Cisco, Airbnb, and Time Inc. He's also Co-author of the new bestselling book Talent Makers, which reveals how talent-savvy companies find, land, and keep the best talent. Prior, Jon was GM International at BabyCenter (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), the leading destination on the Internet for new & expectant parents. Jon also led Product at enterprise performance management software company Merced Systems (acquired by NICE for $170MM.) Clearly, Greenhouse are onto something big. He's raised over $100M in VC from Frontline Ventures, Riverwood Capital, Benchmark, Lumia Capital, Thrive Capital, Social Capital, Resolute Ventures, Felicis Ventures. In this 20-minute conversation, Jon reveals how a company that helps companies hire hires (very meta!) We also talk thru the Hiring Maturity curve, and how to propel your business to the next phase.

A renegade is someone who renounces conventions.It is through this innovation mindset that Renata Quintini runs Renegade Partners, an early-stage deep technology investment firm which she co-founded and is currently a Managing Partner at.Renata has been working in venture for over 15 years, having also been a Partner at Lux Capital and Felicis Ventures. Prior to becoming a VC, she was an investment manager at Stanford University's endowment, which invests in dozens of private equity and venture capital funds.In this episode, Renata shares:The thesis behind Renegade and their investmentsWhat is a founder's “supercritical” stagePotential red flags founders should be aware ofThe importance of diversity in the entrepreneurial ecosystemStarting something new?Visit latitud.com to learn about the Latitud Fellowship program.

Outbrain, a recommendation platform connecting advertisers with open web consumers, has announced its raise of $200 million in a private equity round from The Baupost Group at an undisclosed valuation. The fundraising comes a week after it filed a proposal for the IPO of its common stock with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.Lidya, a digital financial services platform, has raised $8.3 million in a pre-Series B funding round led by Alitheia Capital with participation from Bamboo Capital Partners, Accion Venture Lab and Flourish Ventures, reports state.Localyze, a Y-Combinator-backed startup aiding cross-border employee relocation, has raised €10M ($12M) from Blossom Capital in Series A. Its previous round (Seed) was closed in 2020, and with this funding, Localyze plans to accelerate expanding into other markets besides its base, Germany.Juni, an e-commerce platform, has announced the raise of $21.5M in a Series A funding round, co-led by DST Global and Felix Capital. The company had only launched in 2020 and raised its seed round funding around November last year. The proceeds from this funding would be used in product development and hiring across teams.San Francisco's mmhmm has announced the raise of $100 million in its Series B funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, exactly a year after its private beta launch. Since its launch in 2020, mmhmm has raised about $136 million in four funding rounds in less than a year, with the most recent Series A and debt financing round in October 2020, where it raised $35 million collectively, as per Crunchbase. Sequoia Capital, Mubadala Capital, Human Capital, World Innovation Lab (WiL), and many earlier investors participated in the round.Dataminr has bought WatchKeeper, a situational awareness platform, for an unknown sum. With the purchase of WatchKeeper and its integration with Dataminr Pulse, Dataminr will grow its global corporate customer base. As part of an early access program, business customers will be able to utilize the integrated version of Dataminr Pulse later this year. The broader release is slated for early 2022.ZeroFox, external threat intelligence and security firm, has bought Vigilante, a dark web threat intelligence firm. Vigilante will be incorporated into ZeroFox right away, giving customers a one-of-a-kind Dark Ops solution. Vigilante will provide clients with information and security resources, allowing them to make better decisions.Hopin, a platform for event management, has announced the purchase of Attendify to strengthen and expand its event marketing capabilities. Hopin will soon provide Campaign Manager with Attendify, allowing event marketers to leverage a strong email engine. Attendify's products, such as Audience CRM, a complete attendance data platform, will enhance Hopin's portfolio in various ways.Unit21, a no-code risk, fraud, and compliance software, received a $34 million Series B investment round led by Tiger Global Management. The money will be utilized to expand the engineering, R&D, and go-to-market teams within the firm. Unit21 was formed because the current method of fraud prevention and detection, which relied on “black box” machine learning, was flawed.Opaque, a company that helps businesses analyze encrypted cloud data, has received $9.5 million in a seed round sponsored by Intel Capital. With Opaque, clients can work with secure data on the cloud while guaranteeing that the data isn't exposed. Secure hardware enclaves and cryptographic fortification are part of Opaque, which is a mix of two essential technologies built on top of state-of-the-art cloud security.  Repeat has secured $6 million in a Series A round of funding led by Battery Capital. The funds will be used to grow the company's operations. Client purchasing patterns are tracked by the platform, which alerts them when it's time to repurchase. It then builds a personalized shopping basket for each, which makes replenishing a breeze.Cloverly has raised $2.1 million from TechSquare Ventures in a seed round. Customers may purchase carbon offsets from public markets to offset their carbon footprints while also utilizing technology to develop solutions. Cloverly monitors the offset market to ensure that the providers are trustworthy and continuously looking for new ones.Fountain9, an AI-driven company that focuses on predictive inventory planning, has raised $1.9 million in a seed round. The money will be used to improve the intelligence of the startup's demand sensing engine, increase its product offerings, and expand into new areas.San Francisco's r2C, a software security startup, has announced the raise of $27 million in a Series B funding led by Felicis Ventures with participation from existing investors Redpoint Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Alongside the funding, it announced on its official blog that its open-source product, Semgrep, would now integrate with GitLab.Seattle's WellSaid Labs has announced the raise of $10 million Series A funding led by FUSE, with participation from Voyager, Qualcomm Ventures LLC and GoodFriends. The company would use the fresh capital to enhance its AI-generated synthetic voice business.San Francisco's Renegade Partners has announced the close of its first fund, $100 million, to partner with companies going through a critical inflection point, which it cites as a supercritical stage, in their venture and help them become outliers. The VC firm made its announcement in a series of tweets.

Ryan Haynes is the Co-Founder and CTO of Osmosis ( https://www.osmosis.org/ ) a company whose mission is to empower the world's clinicians and caregivers with the best learning experience possible.They have a comprehensive library of 1,800+ videos, 2 million subscribers on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNI0qOojpkhsUtaQ4_2NUhQ ) and are backed by Greycroft, Felicis Ventures, and other incredible VCs. More about us:Vitalize was formed in 2017 as a pre-seed and seed-stage venture fund investing in the future of work + learning. Vitalize is headquartered in Chicago with additional locations in San Francisco and Los Angeles.The Vitalize Team:Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC​Caroline - https://twitter.com/caroline_yeager​Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212​Pitch us:https://www.vitalize.vc/​ 

Thiruvananthapuram-based cloud dental software startup CareStack  raises $22.5 Mn from Steadview Capital, Delta Dental of California, Accel Partners, Eight Roads and F-Prime Capital. CareStack's single all-in-one SaaS platform on the cloud combines dental practice management, patient engagement, practice marketing, and data analytics. The company claims to have doubled its revenue last year and has stated that its workforce has grown from 200 employees at the beginning of the year to 370 employees at present. In 2019, the company had raised $28 Mn from the same investors. With the recent funding, CareStack's total funding raised is over $60 Mn.Ivorian startup Afrikrea partners with DHL and Visa to launch SaaS e-commerce platform ANKA. Ivorian  e-commerce startup Afrikrea started as a marketplace for African-based and inspired clothing, accessories, arts, and crafts. Over the past five years, Afrikrea has been serving more than 7,000 sellers from 47 African countries and buyers from 170 countries. Last year, Afrikrea began testing an all-in-one SaaS e-commerce platform for these merchants. With it's launch, the platform called ANKA will allow users to sell from Africa, ship products to anywhere in the world and get paid through local and international African payment methods.BoostUp.ai, provider of a software-as-a-service  platform for managing revenue operations infused with AI capabilities raises $6 million in series A funding, bringing its total raised to $14 million, after an initial seed round last year.The company is part of a growing cadre of startups attempting to unify sales, marketing, and customer service processes in a way that enables organizations to boost sales and increase overall profitability. BoostUp claims its revenue has increased by more than 1,000% in fiscal 2020, with an active contribution to its revenue through customers such as Udemy, Degreed, Plume, and Windstream.Opsera, a startup that's building an orchestration platform for DevOps teams raises  $15 million Series A funding round led by Felicis Ventures. New investor HMG Ventures, as well as existing investors Clear Ventures, Trinity Partners and Firebolt Ventures also participated in this round, which brings the company's total funding to $19.3 million. Founded in January 2020, Opsera lets developers provision their CI/CD tools through a single framework. Opsera plans to use the new funding to grow its engineering team and accelerate its go-to-market efforts

Full Description Harley Finkelstein joined Shopify in 2010. Originally as a merchant selling t-shirts on the platform.  Today he serves as President of the company and his passion for entrepreneurship is as alive as ever.  As president of Shopify, Harley's life mission is to empower as many entrepreneurs as he can and remove every barrier to entrepreneurship possible. What exactly does Harley do on an average day at the office? What are the big challenges Shopify is working on now, and what's in store for Shopify in the future? In this episode we dive into all that, and more!    Some of the topics we discuss are: What does a day at Shopify look like for Harley?  What is Harley most passionate about right now.  What does it mean to requalify for your job every year? What is Harley so passionate about entrepreneurship?  The difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur.  What does mentorship mean to Harley, and what he recommends for you.  What are the ecommerce trends, and challenges Shopify is tackling?  What chapters of Shopify are written, and what's left to write?  What are some of the most unknown advantages and benefits of Shopify? Oh, and what did Harley eat for breakfast! Guest Bio Harley Finkelstein is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the President of Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill. Harley completed his law degree as well as his MBA at the University of Ottawa, where he co-founded the JD/MBA Student Society and the Canadian MBA Oath. Harley is an Advisor to Felicis Ventures, and one of the “Dragons” on CBC’s Next Gen Den. Recently, he received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year Award, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, and was inducted into the Order of Ottawa. From 2014 to 2017 Harley was on the Board of the C100, and from 2017 to 2020 he was on to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Harley is currently starring on Discovery Channel’s I Quit, a television series about hopeful entrepreneurs who decide to quit their 9-5 jobs to focus full-time on their side hustles.  Links / Resources  Shopify  Shopify Plus  Moustache Bikes - (the bike Harley rides)  Allbirds - Shopify Brand referenced. GymShark - Shopify Brand referenced.  https://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies  La Bottega - Harley's favourite grocery shop  DavidsTea - Brand of tea Harley likes

Berlin based n8n raises $12M in Series A for its ‘fair code' approach to low-code workflow automation. The startup plans to use the money to continue expanding its team, which now numbers 60 people, and to expand its platform and the services it provides to users. Currently, n8n  helps link up and integrate data and functions between more than 200 established applications, as well as any custom apps or services that is specific to an organization. The round is being led by Felicis Ventures, with Sequoia Capital, firstminute Capital and Harpoon Ventures.  The startup has now raised around $14 million and is not disclosing valuation. Mighty Networks, a platform designed to give creators and brands a dedicated place to start and grow communities, has closed on $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Owl Ventures. The company's flagship Business Plan product is aimed at new creators with the goal of giving them an easy way to get started with digital subscriptions. Established brands, organizations and successful creators use the company's Mighty Pro plan to get everything Mighty Networks offers on their own branded iOS, iPad and Android apps. Netskope, the leading security cloud, announces the continued expansion of the Netskope NewEdge network across the Asia-Pacific region. Upgrades in Singapore and Australia have already been completed with additional data centers now coming online for new and expanded coverage in Australia, New Zealand, and The Philippines,with more data centers planned for deployment later this year to expand service in China. Netskope's strong presence in Asia-Pacific continues to grow as it addresses remote offices and branch needs for some of the world's largest F100 businesses, as well as locally-headquartered firms like Yamaha in Japan, Virtual Gaming Worlds in Australia, and Ather in India.  

Harley Finkelstein is a Canadian businessperson, entrepreneur and public speaker. He is best known as the President of Shopify. He is a board member of CBC, and an advisor to both OMERS Ventures and Felicis Ventures. He is also a Dragon on CBC Dragons' Den, Next Gen Den. 

In this episode, we meet Natasha Prasad, Chief Customer Officer of Cleo. Cleo is a family benefits platform and support system for working families. With its integrated family benefits platform, Cleo combines proactive, expert guidance with an intuitive engagement hub to help connect families with the support they need to be their best at home and at work. Representing over 55 countries and 100+ enterprise clients — Cleo is reinventing how forward-thinking employers support families that work around the world. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Cleo has raised $44M and is backed by NEA, Greylock Partners, Felicis Ventures, and Forerunner Ventures. Cleo was recently honored by Fierce Healthcare as a 2021 Fierce 15 company. Prior to Cleo, Natasha served as country manager for ClassPass in Australia, where she built and oversaw regional operations, including sales, success and marketing. Previously, she was the founder and CEO of a fitness technology startup that was acquired by ClassPass, and held product management roles at enterprise and consumer technology companies (Rent the Runway, Paperless Post), most recently Atlassian in Sydney. Natasha spent her early career as an investor in the private equity group at Goldman Sachs in London and New York. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and degrees in economics and mathematics from Cambridge University and Delhi University. In this episode, Natasha shares her insights into: Recent trends in the $60B employee benefits market and the acceleration of healthcare benefits to fill in areas where the traditional healthcare system has fallen short (e.g., mental health, chronic care management, holistic family support) Cleo's unique guide-based care approach to providing continuity of care, trusted expert guidance, and evidence-based clinical programs that drive improved healthcare outcomes for working families. How Cleo creates value for employers and employees through preventative care, early interventions, childcare/parenting and return-to-work support Cleo's most recent 2020 product launches: Cleo Care for childcare support in partnership with UrbanSitter, and Cleo Marketplace, an expanded ecosystem of vetted partnerships The rise of healthcare technology more broadly and opportunities for those passionate about making a difference in healthcare

Today on the show, we have Harley Finkelstein, the President of Shopify. Shopify is a leading global e-commerce company, providing trusted tools to start, grow, market and manage a retail business of any size. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify powers over 1 million businesses and more than 175 countries and is trusted by brands such as AllBirds, GymSharks, PepsiCo, Staples, and many more. Harley has been with the company since 2010. Prior to his current role, Harley founded numerous startups and ecommerce companies. He is currently an advisor to Felicis Ventures. Harley holds a Bachelor degree in Economics from Concordia University and a J.D./M.B.A. joint degree in Law and Business from the University of Ottawa. This episode is co-hosted by GGV colleague Robin Li. Based in New York, Robin invests in eCommerce, social, consumer internet, and digital economy. For the full transcript of the show, go to nextbn.ggvc.com Join our listeners' community, go to nextbn.ggvc.com/community Disclaimer: This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or assets are for illustrative purposes only; such references do not constitute any recommendation to either buy or sell such securities or assets and are not intended to serve as the basis for any investment decision, nor do they constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services. Any information provided by third parties in this content does not reflect the views of GGV Capital and its subsidiaries or affiliates. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon, when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by GGV Capital. Any investment or portfolio company mentioned, referred to, or described is not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by GGV Capital, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results.

Today on the show, we have Harley Finkelstein, the President of Shopify. Shopify is a leading global e-commerce company, providing trusted tools to start, grow, market and manage a retail business of any size. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify powers over 1 million businesses and more than 175 countries and is trusted by brands such as AllBirds, GymSharks, PepsiCo, Staples, and many more. Harley has been with the company since 2010. Prior to his current role, Harley founded numerous startups and ecommerce companies. He is currently an advisor to Felicis Ventures. Harley holds a Bachelor degree in Economics from Concordia University and a J.D./M.B.A. joint degree in Law and Business from the University of Ottawa. This episode is co-hosted by GGV colleague Robin Li. Based in New York, Robin invests in eCommerce, social, consumer internet, and digital economy. For the full transcript of the show, go to nextbn.ggvc.com Join our listeners' community, go to nextbn.ggvc.com/community Disclaimer: This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or assets are for illustrative purposes only; such references do not constitute any recommendation to either buy or sell such securities or assets and are not intended to serve as the basis for any investment decision, nor do they constitute an offer to provide investment advisory services. Any information provided by third parties in this content does not reflect the views of GGV Capital and its subsidiaries or affiliates. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon, when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by GGV Capital. Any investment or portfolio company mentioned, referred to, or described is not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by GGV Capital, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results.

O Man in the Arena é um videocast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti. Neste episódio (#102​) Um bate-papo com Eduardo Lima, CEO e co-fundador da eduK, a maior startup de educação da América Latina. Eduardo é formado em Engenharia de Controle e Automação pela PUC Minas e tem especialização em Engenharia de Software pela UVV. Após uma longa carreira como Engenheiro de Software nas indústrias de mineração e siderurgia, em 2007 se lançou como empreendedor em negócios de tecnologia e internet. Em 2013 co-fundou a eduK com Robson Catalan. A eduK é uma instituição de ensino online que reúne renomados experts para ensinar suas habilidades e ajudar seus alunos a transformarem suas paixões em negócios. Através de cursos online de curta duração, baseados em videoaulas de alta qualidade, a eduK é pioneira no conceito da edutainment no Brasil, oferecendo cursos de profissionalização nas áreas de gastronomia, artesanato, fotografia, moda, beleza, entre outros. Os cursos são transmitidos ao vivo e gratuitamente e, em seguida, são incorporados ao catálogo com mais de 600 opções, podendo ser acessados através de planos de assinatura, a partir de R$19,90 por mês. Com investimento da Accel Partners, Monashees Capital e Felicis Ventures, a eduK tem como principais sócios, Eduardo Lima, Robson Catalan e Bernardo Rezende (Bernardinho). O Man in the Arena tem apoio da Livraria Cultura. Para saber mais: eduK: http://www.eduk.com.br/​ Eduardo Lima: https://br.linkedin.com/in/eduardosou...​ Acompanhe e participe nos canais do Man in the Arena: YouTube: http://youtube.com/maninthearenatv​ Facebook: http://facebook.com/maninthearenatv​ iTunes (Audio): https://itunes.apple.com/br/podcast/m...

On The Operators, we talk a lot about aligning passion and strategy. Alyson Friedensohn Watson embodies this alignment. Alyson knew that she cared deeply about de-stigmatizing mental health and increasing access to it, but she found a way to turn this passion into a multi-million dollar company: she founded Modern Health, which today announced their Series C funding of $51M dollars led by Battery Ventues with other investors including Felicis Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Founders Fund. By implementing mental health resources as a health benefit and preventative measure in corporate settings, Alyson's work has revolutionized the way folks talk about these issues and the way they access this kind of care. Modern Health's clients already include the likes of Pixar, Gusto, Cliff Bar, Lyft, SoFi, and Nextdoor, as they continue their quest to improve access to care and attitudes around mental health for all Americans. Take a listen to hear how she and her team have built Modern Health, one connection at a time.

Renata Quintini and Roseanne Wincek are general partners and co-founders of Renegade Partners, a new venture capital firm investing at the "supercritical" stage. Supercritical stage companies have raised institutional financing, have a product in market, and the budding signs of customer love, but are early, young organizations who are still writing their stories.Before Renegade, Renata was a partner at Lux Capital and Felicis Ventures, and before that an LP at the Stanford University endowment investing in private markets and venture capital. Roseanne was trained as a biochemist before joining Caanan and then IVP, investing in companies primarily at the growth stage.This was a fantastic deep dive into their decision to start Renegade Partners together, how they got the firm off the ground and raised their first fund, the unique opportunity they now see in the market at the supercritical stage, and how they plan to build a lasting firm.

Tim Ferriss Show Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Harley sees Shopify as the world’s first retail operating system“We enable anyone who wants to sell a product to do so – Harley FinkelsteinLaw school taught Harley how to think on his feet and write better:“It taught me how very quickly reply and quickly think on my feet or my toes. But it also taught me how to write really, really well. And for those things alone, I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.” – Harley FinkelsteinHarley found his law degree much more valuable for business than his MBA. His MBA consistent of doing a lot of unrealistic case studies.“I did not find that to be at all valuable relative to my law degree to run a company like Shopify today”When Harley first joined Shopify in 2010, e-commerce was about 5% of retailLast year it was around 15% Today it’s about 25%Even when people are allowed to go back into retail stores, expect online retail sales to stay around 25%The pandemic has created two types of entrepreneurs:Those who pivoted and adapted to online retail and the new worldThose who haven’t made any changes to their business strategy and are suffering or closing downData shows that consumer preferences are shifting to buying products from independent brands from actual entrepreneurs if they canShopify helps enable this by providing any brand to sell direct-to-consumerThe future of retail will be about retail everywhere:Your physical location will serve as a showroom for your website and your website will serve as a showroom for your retail store  If you want to connect with a successful individual, don’t ask to pick their brain over coffee. Instead, figure out a problem they’re having and provide a solution. You need to provide value before you can ask for something from them.Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgHarley Finkelstein — Tactics and Strategies from Shopify, The Future of Retail, and More | Brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 700M+ users, LMNT electrolyte supplement, and ExpressVPN virtual private network service. More on all three below.Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the President of Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill. Harley is an advisor to Felicis Ventures, and he is one of the “dragons” on CBC’s Next Gen Den. In 2017, he received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year award and Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 award, and in 2016 he was inducted into the Order of Ottawa. From 2014 to 2017 Harley was on the board of the C100, and from 2017 to 2020 he was on to the board of directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).Please enjoy!This episode is brought to you by LMNT! What is LMNT? It’s a delicious, sugar-free electrolyte drink-mix. I’ve stocked up on boxes and boxes of this and usually use it 1–2 times per day. LMNT is formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs and perfectly suited to folks following a keto, low-carb, or Paleo diet. If you are on a low-carb diet or fasting, electrolytes play a key role in relieving hunger, cramps, headaches, tiredness, and dizziness.LMNT came up with a very special offer for you, my dear listeners. They’ve created Tim’s Club: Simply go to DrinkLMNT.com/Tim, select “Subscribe and Save,” and use promo code TIMSCLUB to get the 30-count box of LMNT for only $36. This will be valid for the lifetime of the subscription, and you can pause it anytime.*This episode is also brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer.Using LinkedIn’s active community of more than 722 million professionals worldwide, LinkedIn Jobs can help you find and hire the right person faster. When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. You can pay what you want and get $50 off your first job. Just visit LinkedIn.com/Tim.*This episode is also brought to you by ExpressVPN. I’ve been using ExpressVPN to make sure that my data is secure and encrypted, without slowing my Internet speed. If you ever use public Wi-Fi at, say, a hotel or a coffee shop, where I often work and as many of my listeners do, you’re often sending data over an open network, meaning no encryption at all.A great way to ensure that all of your data is encrypted and can’t be easily read by hackers is by using ExpressVPN. All you need to do is download the ExpressVPN app on your computer or smartphone and then use the Internet just as you normally would. You click one button in the ExpressVPN app to secure 100% of your network data. Use my link ExpressVPN.com/Tim today and get an extra three months free on a one-year package!*If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss*DISCLAIMER: I own stock in Shopify. I was not compensated in any way to have Shopify represented on the program or to talk about my reasons for investing in Shopify. I may financially benefit if Shopify’s stock goes up in value. I am not an investment adviser. All opinions are mine alone. There are risks involved in placing an investment in any company. None of the information presented today is intended to form the basis for any offer or recommendation, or have any regard to the investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any specific person.

Tim Ferriss Show Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Harley sees Shopify as the world’s first retail operating system“We enable anyone who wants to sell a product to do so – Harley FinkelsteinLaw school taught Harley how to think on his feet and write better:“It taught me how very quickly reply and quickly think on my feet or my toes. But it also taught me how to write really, really well. And for those things alone, I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.” – Harley FinkelsteinHarley found his law degree much more valuable for business than his MBA. His MBA consistent of doing a lot of unrealistic case studies.“I did not find that to be at all valuable relative to my law degree to run a company like Shopify today”When Harley first joined Shopify in 2010, e-commerce was about 5% of retailLast year it was around 15% Today it’s about 25%Even when people are allowed to go back into retail stores, expect online retail sales to stay around 25%The pandemic has created two types of entrepreneurs:Those who pivoted and adapted to online retail and the new worldThose who haven’t made any changes to their business strategy and are suffering or closing downData shows that consumer preferences are shifting to buying products from independent brands from actual entrepreneurs if they canShopify helps enable this by providing any brand to sell direct-to-consumerThe future of retail will be about retail everywhere:Your physical location will serve as a showroom for your website and your website will serve as a showroom for your retail store  If you want to connect with a successful individual, don’t ask to pick their brain over coffee. Instead, figure out a problem they’re having and provide a solution. You need to provide value before you can ask for something from them.Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgHarley Finkelstein — Tactics and Strategies from Shopify, The Future of Retail, and More | Brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 700M+ users, LMNT electrolyte supplement, and ExpressVPN virtual private network service. More on all three below.Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the President of Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill. Harley is an advisor to Felicis Ventures, and he is one of the “dragons” on CBC’s Next Gen Den. In 2017, he received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year award and Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 award, and in 2016 he was inducted into the Order of Ottawa. From 2014 to 2017 Harley was on the board of the C100, and from 2017 to 2020 he was on to the board of directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).Please enjoy!This episode is brought to you by LMNT! What is LMNT? It’s a delicious, sugar-free electrolyte drink-mix. I’ve stocked up on boxes and boxes of this and usually use it 1–2 times per day. LMNT is formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs and perfectly suited to folks following a keto, low-carb, or Paleo diet. If you are on a low-carb diet or fasting, electrolytes play a key role in relieving hunger, cramps, headaches, tiredness, and dizziness.LMNT came up with a very special offer for you, my dear listeners. They’ve created Tim’s Club: Simply go to DrinkLMNT.com/Tim, select “Subscribe and Save,” and use promo code TIMSCLUB to get the 30-count box of LMNT for only $36. This will be valid for the lifetime of the subscription, and you can pause it anytime.*This episode is also brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer.Using LinkedIn’s active community of more than 722 million professionals worldwide, LinkedIn Jobs can help you find and hire the right person faster. When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. You can pay what you want and get $50 off your first job. Just visit LinkedIn.com/Tim.*This episode is also brought to you by ExpressVPN. I’ve been using ExpressVPN to make sure that my data is secure and encrypted, without slowing my Internet speed. If you ever use public Wi-Fi at, say, a hotel or a coffee shop, where I often work and as many of my listeners do, you’re often sending data over an open network, meaning no encryption at all.A great way to ensure that all of your data is encrypted and can’t be easily read by hackers is by using ExpressVPN. All you need to do is download the ExpressVPN app on your computer or smartphone and then use the Internet just as you normally would. You click one button in the ExpressVPN app to secure 100% of your network data. Use my link ExpressVPN.com/Tim today and get an extra three months free on a one-year package!*If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss*DISCLAIMER: I own stock in Shopify. I was not compensated in any way to have Shopify represented on the program or to talk about my reasons for investing in Shopify. I may financially benefit if Shopify’s stock goes up in value. I am not an investment adviser. All opinions are mine alone. There are risks involved in placing an investment in any company. None of the information presented today is intended to form the basis for any offer or recommendation, or have any regard to the investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any specific person.

Harley Finkelstein — Tactics and Strategies from Shopify, The Future of Retail, and More | Brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 700M+ users, LMNT electrolyte supplement, and ExpressVPN virtual private network service. More on all three below.Harley Finkelstein (@harleyf) is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the President of Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill. Harley is an advisor to Felicis Ventures, and he is one of the “dragons” on CBC’s Next Gen Den. In 2017, he received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year award and Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 award, and in 2016 he was inducted into the Order of Ottawa. From 2014 to 2017 Harley was on the board of the C100, and from 2017 to 2020 he was on to the board of directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).Please enjoy!This episode is brought to you by LMNT! What is LMNT? It’s a delicious, sugar-free electrolyte drink-mix. I’ve stocked up on boxes and boxes of this and usually use it 1–2 times per day. LMNT is formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs and perfectly suited to folks following a keto, low-carb, or Paleo diet. If you are on a low-carb diet or fasting, electrolytes play a key role in relieving hunger, cramps, headaches, tiredness, and dizziness.LMNT came up with a very special offer for you, my dear listeners. They’ve created Tim’s Club: Simply go to DrinkLMNT.com/Tim, select “Subscribe and Save,” and use promo code TIMSCLUB to get the 30-count box of LMNT for only $36. This will be valid for the lifetime of the subscription, and you can pause it anytime.*This episode is also brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Whether you are looking to hire now for a critical role or thinking about needs that you may have in the future, LinkedIn Jobs can help. LinkedIn screens candidates for the hard and soft skills you’re looking for and puts your job in front of candidates looking for job opportunities that match what you have to offer.Using LinkedIn’s active community of more than 722 million professionals worldwide, LinkedIn Jobs can help you find and hire the right person faster. When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. You can pay what you want and get $50 off your first job. Just visit LinkedIn.com/Tim.*This episode is also brought to you by ExpressVPN. I’ve been using ExpressVPN to make sure that my data is secure and encrypted, without slowing my Internet speed. If you ever use public Wi-Fi at, say, a hotel or a coffee shop, where I often work and as many of my listeners do, you’re often sending data over an open network, meaning no encryption at all.A great way to ensure that all of your data is encrypted and can’t be easily read by hackers is by using ExpressVPN. All you need to do is download the ExpressVPN app on your computer or smartphone and then use the Internet just as you normally would. You click one button in the ExpressVPN app to secure 100% of your network data. Use my link ExpressVPN.com/Tim today and get an extra three months free on a one-year package!*If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss*DISCLAIMER: I own stock in Shopify. I was not compensated in any way to have Shopify represented on the program or to talk about my reasons for investing in Shopify. I may financially benefit if Shopify’s stock goes up in value. I am not an investment adviser. All opinions are mine alone. There are risks involved in placing an investment in any company. None of the information presented today is intended to form the basis for any offer or recommendation, or have any regard to the investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any specific person.

When Joshua Motta’s dentist was attacked by ransomware, demanding $200K to open the files, he found it was cheaper to just shut his practice & retire. Sad. So Joshua’s doing something about it. He’s CEO & Co-Founder of Coalition. Based in SF, his fast-growing company now has 130 employees. It provides Cyber & Technology Insurance (up to $15 million of coverage) with reinsurance partners Lloyd’s of London and Swiss Re Group. And he’s onto something big. Coalition’s investors include Felicis Ventures, Hillhouse Capital Group, Ribbit Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Sam Altman, and Greyhound Capital Prior, Joshua worked at Francisco Partners & IGNIA Partners. So he understands the perspectives of both a sophisticated investor, and an entrepreneur. And in this 20 minute conversation, Joshua shares how he’s scaled the team that may save you from Ransomware.  

Alex Robinson is the co-founder and CEO of Juniper Square which operates an investment management platform for commercial real estate. The company has raised over $100 million from investors such as Redpoint, Felicis Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Red Swan Ventures, LeFrak, Maiden Lane Ventures, OVO Fund, and Zigg Capital to name a few.

Alex Robinson is the co-founder and CEO of Juniper Square which operates an investment management platform for commercial real estate. The company has raised over $100 million from investors such as Redpoint, Felicis Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Red Swan Ventures, LeFrak, Maiden Lane Ventures, OVO Fund, and Zigg Capital to name a few.

Tomás Bercovich: Global66 raises $4.3M to expand its remittance services, Ep 12 In this week’s Espresso, we invited Tomás Bercovich, co-founder and CEO of Global66 to talk about the fintech’s latest investment round. We also cover other investment updates from startups like Yalochat, Fondeadora, Finsocial, Origin, Cyberlabs, among others.   Outline of this episode: [0:28] -    Resources & people mentioned: Tomás Bercovich, Global66 Startups: Yalochat, Finsocial, Origin, Cyberlabs, Pontte, Pagseguro, Wirecard, Zygo Tecnologia, Fondeadora VC: B Capital Group, Gradient Ventures, Symbiotics, Felicis Ventures, Redpoint eventures

Harley Finkelstein is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the Chief Operating Officer of Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill. Harley completed his law degree and MBA at the University of Ottawa, where he co-founded the JD/MBA Student Society and the Canadian MBA Oath. Harley is an Advisor to Felicis Ventures and one of the "Dragons" on CBC's Next Gen Den. He recently received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year Award, Canada's Top 40 Under 40 Award, and was inducted into the Order of Ottawa. From 2014 to 2017, Harley was on the Board of the C100; from 2017 to 2020, he was on to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Niki Pezeshki of Felicis Ventures joins Nick to discuss Finding Markets with Long-Term Tailwinds; Macro Impacts on Venture; and Robust vs. Fragile Data. In this episode, we cover: Background and path to venture. Thesis at Felicis and your focus there? How has the pandemic affected your approach to investment? You've mentioned that you look for market tailwinds, especially tailwinds that will be lasting. Right now, we're seeing a number of shifts that will have lasting effects -- which are you watching most closely? Why do you think the public markets have, largely, stayed high during a very large health and economic crisis? Can you give us an overview on your three-part investing framework for making investment decisions? Where do you look for these large shifts, creating opportunity -- aside from Mary Meeker's report? How do you make sure you are current on-trend instead of getting anchored on data that's old or fragile? What are you looking for in the business model that indicates to you that it is not only the correct approach but can lead to transformational changes in the industry? In which types of businesses do you like to see product-focused founders versus marketing-focused founders, is there a heuristic or systematic way that you think about this? You mentioned that business is a formula and that it's clear early on whether it's going to work or not -- can you give us an example of the formula? What's your approach to coaching and advising founders?  There's this fine line between being overbearing w/ advice and not providing enough insight in an area that could derail a company.  How do you strike the balance? What keeps you up at night... the ones you invested in that you shouldn't have or the ones you didn't invest in that you wished you had? 3 Data points: Let's say that you have a consumer SaaS company that is doing 300K in ARR, growing 20%  MoM and that's all you currently know about the company. Which 3 data points do you ask for and why? To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

As hard as it might be to believe, the pandemic we’re experiencing brings opportunities with it, not just tough times - but you’re going to need some inside expertise to make your new ecommerce venture thrive. Harley Finkelstein is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill and went on to complete his law degree and MBA at the University of Ottawa, where he co-founded the JD/MBA Student Society and the Canadian MBA Oath. Harley is an Advisor to Felicis Ventures, and one of the "Dragons" on CBC's Next Gen Den. Recently, he received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year Award, Canada's Top 40 Under 40 Award, and was inducted into the Order of Ottawa. From 2014 to 2017, Harley was on the Board of the C100, and in December 2017 he was appointed for a 5-year term to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). On this episode of the Perfectly Mentored podcast, Jason and Harley dive deep on putting the necessary tools and power to succeed in retail in the hands of small businesses, how to understand and effectively reach your ideal customers, and keeping your customers around with a dose of qualitative insight. Tune in for actionable advice at every level, from a true legend in his industry. Topics Covered: Who is Harley Finkelstein? [00:15] How did the entrepreneurial journey start for Harley? [02:24] Where does luck figure into business? [09:00] How does discomfort promote growth? [11:01] Why is it important to level the retail playing field? [13:10] Is it wrong to want to build an empire? [16:59] What’s the low-down on the Shopify fulfillment network? [19:18] How vital is it for customers to get that they need to own their brand? [23:31] Is multichannel the way to go right now? [26:17] How can I best communicate with my customers? [30:39] With more Shopify stores open now, how many become successful? [32:19] Where are the opportunities in the ecomm space at the moment? [37:29] What’s the difference between “scrappy” and “sloppy”? [41:25] Where is ecomm now, and where is it going? [47:31] How will travel and tourism change going forward? [48:29] What are stores using to track and understand their ideal demographic? [50:01] How do you scale what you cannot measure? [51:24] Which apps are must-haves for the beginner Shopify store? [53:26] How can I get more involved? [55:09] Connect with Harley Finkelstein Harleyf.com Twitter LinkedIn Connect with Jason Portnoy jportnoy.com LinkedIn Like the episode? Come visit us on Apple Podcasts - don't forget to subscribe and leave a review! We appreciate your feedback and would love for you to help spread the word!

Harley Finkelstein is a Canadian businessperson, entrepreneur and public speaker. He is best known as the Chief Operating Officer of Shopify. He is a board member of CBC, and an advisor to both OMERS Ventures and Felicis Ventures. He is also a Dragon on CBC Dragons' Den, Next Gen Den. After completing his JD and MBA, Finkelstein worked at a law firm in Toronto for a year. In 2009, Finkelstein met with Tobias Lütke, the co-founder and CEO of Shopify, to discuss opportunities for the company. Finkelstein was hired soon after and was named Shopify's Chief Platform Officer. In December 2014, Finkelstein was appointed a member of the C100 board. The C100 is an organization that supports the Canadian technology community and is a bridge between Canada and Silicon Valley. Finkelstein serves as a mentor and advisor to various organizations and incubators including Felicis Ventures, FounderFuel, Invest Ottawa and CIPPIC. In January 2016, Finkelstein was named COO of Shopify. That same year, he was inducted into the Order of Ottawa by Mayor Jim Watson. Follow Harley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harley/?hl=en Learn more about Shopify today: https://www.shopify.com/

Welcome to episode #720 of Six Pixels of Separation. Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation - Episode #720 - Host: Mitch Joel. The official bio of Harley Finkelstein is beyond impressive. In 2009, Harley went from being one of Shopify's first merchants (selling t-shirts) to become their Chief Platform Officer. Now, he is the Chief Operating Officer of Shopify. He is on the board on of the CBC and advisor to Omers Ventures and Felicis Ventures. He is also a Dragon on CBC's Dragon's Den - Next Gen Den. He was inducted into the Order of Ottawa in 2016. Shopify is now a beast. What Amazon is to retail, Shopify is to entrepreneurship. To put the magnitude of Shopify into perspective, their stock has shot up over 190% since last year, with over one millions merchants using their commerce platform (selling over $160 billion in goods). Even during this pandemic, Shopify's stock continues to soar (it now has a market cap of over $100 billion - that is double that of eBay's, and has the third largest market cap out of all public Canadian companies). The unofficial bio of Harley is a personal one. We have been friends for close to fifteen years, and watching his ascent has been of the most special moments of my life. I have always wanted to have him as a guest on this show, but didn't want to bother him with it. Well, we finally made it happen. Shopify, commerce and the future of business. Enjoy the conversation... Running time: 1:01:19. Hello from beautiful Montreal. Subscribe over at iTunes. Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Six Pixels of Separation. Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook. or you can connect on LinkedIn. ...or on Twitter. Here is my conversation with Harley Finkelstein. Shopify. Follow Harley on Instagram. Follow Harley on Twitter. This week's music: David Usher 'St. Lawrence River'.

On today's show, we have Melanie Perkins. She is the CEO and co-founder of Canva, an online design and publishing tool which makes graphic design simple for everyone. Since launching in 2013, Canva has grown to over 15 million users across 190 countries, with more than 1 billion designs created, at 36 designs per second. Today, Canva is growing with over 600 team members across 3 offices in Sydney, Manila and Beijing, working together on a mission to empower everyone to create beautiful design. After hundreds of revisions to the Canva pitch deck, Melanie has now raised more than $140 million from investors including Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen, Yahoo! CFO Ken Goldman, and funds such as Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures. Today, Canva is valued at US$2.5 billion, making Canva the second Australian startup to achieve Unicorn status.   In this episode, you'll learn: What was the strategy to enter China and have there been any pivots along the way? Who could disrupt Canva and its massive growth?    What is the implication of the acquisition of Pexel and Pixabay and Canva's expansion through partnering or acquiring other companies? What is the future of graphic design and what can people anticipate in the next 2-3 years?     Please take a few seconds and leave us a positive review as it helps the show grow and motivates us to create content. Thank you for helping and giving back to the show!   Connect with Shawn by following this link for most updated and complete social media platforms” https://linktr.ee/ShawnflynnSV BOOKS AND RESOURCES Website for Canva CONNECT WITH SHAWN: Shawn Flynn's Twitter Account Shawn Flynn's LinkedIn Account Silicon Valley LinkedIn Group Account Shawn Flynn's Facebook Account Email Shawn@thesiliconvalleypodcast.com Summary On today's show we chat with Melanie Perkins, the CEO and co-founder of Canva, an online design and publishing tool which makes graphic design simple for everyone.

Dave and Evan chat with Craig Walker, the CEO of Dialpad.Craig Walker is the co-founder and CEO of Dialpad, a born-in-the-cloud UCaaS provider. Previously he led Dialpad Communications Inc., (acquired by Yahoo! for $50 million), a pioneer in VoIP services, and later co-founded GrandCentral (acquired by Google for $100 million). Dialpad has raised $120 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Felicis Ventures, SoftBank, and Iconiq Capital. Craig was a technology venture investor at Sterling Payot Capital and TeleSoft Partners and was also a corporate attorney at top tier law firms in Silicon Valley, where he represented companies ranging from early stage start-ups to Cisco Systems. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley (BA), Georgetown University (MBA) and Boalt Hall School of Law (JD). Member of the Telecommunications and E-Commerce Committee for the US Chamber of Commerce.In this podcast we discuss how Switch.co got Dialpad back as its name. How Craig can't escape Telecom, and why the restaurant business needs more disruption.

Beezer Clarkson (@beezer232) of Sapphire Ventures and Aydin Senkut (@asenkut) of Felicis Ventures join Erik on this episode.They discuss:- Their perspectives on the operator-angel and nano-fund trends.- How to think about scouts.- Moats in venture capital and whether they really exist.- Whether we need more venture capital or more venture capitalists.- How the LP and GP ecosystems will evolve over the next five to ten years.- How to figure out what the right fund size is for a firm.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Beezer Clarkson (@beezer232) of Sapphire Ventures and Aydin Senkut (@asenkut) of Felicis Ventures join Erik on this episode.They discuss:- Their perspectives on the operator-angel and nano-fund trends.- How to think about scouts.- Moats in venture capital and whether they really exist.- Whether we need more venture capital or more venture capitalists.- How the LP and GP ecosystems will evolve over the next five to ten years.- How to figure out what the right fund size is for a firm.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Ever wonder how an idea for a healthcare start up becomes a reality? In this episode we talk to Trusted Health's Co-Founder Matt Pierce. There's a nursing shortage in the U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently forecast the need for an additional 203,700 registered nurses each year through 2026 to fill newly created positions and replace retirees. Matt Pierce and Lennie Sliwinski teamed up with nurses, software engineers, and marketers hailing from Google, LinkedIn, IBM, and other heavy-hitting tech companies to found Trusted Health, a hiring platform that matches nurse candidates with vetted temporary, travel, and staff positions. It has ramped up quickly in the two years since its formal launch; 1,000 new nurses join the company's platform weekly, and in the first quarter alone users viewed 246,000 nursing positions.Trusted Health has secured $20 million in series A funding led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Felicis Ventures and Founder Collective. This episode is sponsored by Trusted Health and we are joined by Co-Host Sarah Gray, who is the Founding Clinician at San Francisco healthcare startup, Trusted Health. She graduated from Penn Nursing in 2013 and began her nursing career at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. Prior to moving away from the bedside four years later, she was a Clinical Nurse III, Evidence Based Practice Fellow, and served on hospital-wide committee boards. At Trusted, she works alongside clinicians and entrepreneurs and leverages her clinical insight and passion for innovation to change how nurses manage their careers and solve for inefficiencies within healthcare staffing. Special Thanks To Our Sponsor And Co-Collaborator Trusted Health Checkout Trusted Health's Free 2019 Travel Nurse Compensation Report https://www.trustedhealth.com/travel-nurse-compensation-report-2019 For more information on Trusted Health and how you can join their team click on http://www.trustedhealth.com/hypo Throw us some bucks, and help support our cause! Venmo: @Nurses-Hypo Need consulting or have questions: nursesandhypochondriacs@gmail.com Give us a 5 star rating on itunes!

Hear about Adyen’s journey from a Dutch payments startup to a global public company with more than 15 offices around the world working with large global companies like Facebook, Spotify, Uber, and Microsoft. CCO Roelant Prins shares lessons from the company’s own global growth path and will be giving practical tips for companies who are thinking about expanding their business globally. Roelant is joined by Felicis Ventures Founder, Aydin Senkut, who shares the commonalities he sees in successful companies...starting with culture. Find the video and full transcript on our blog.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Aydin Mirzaee, CEO of Fellow.app a software platform that helps managers and their teams have more effective 1-on-1s and team meetings, exchange feedback, and track goals. In this episode, Aydin goes through a WEALTH of advice -- 14 tips in all -- covering a wide variety of fundraising tactics... everything from picking the right partner, designing the pitch deck and the importance of "story." building credibility, valuation, negotiating terms, and more. The Company raised raised $6.5 million of seed funding in a deal led by Inovia Capital. Felicis Ventures, Garage Capital and others also participated in the round. This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite users have raised over $1.5 Billion since 2016. Learn more at www.foundersuite.com.

Melanie Perkins is an Australian technology entrepreneur. She is known as the CEO and co-founder of Canva, an online design and publishing tool which makes graphic design simple for everyone.Melanie is one of the youngest female CEO to be leading a tech start-up valued at over a billion dollars. Melanie has raised more than $166 million from investors including Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen, Yahoo! CFO Ken Goldman, and funds such as Bond, General Catalyst, Felicis Ventures and Blackbird. 

On today’s show, we have Melanie Perkins. She is the CEO and co-founder of Canva, an online design and publishing tool which makes graphic design simple for everyone. Since launching in 2013, Canva has grown to over 15 million users across 190 countries, with more than 1 billion designs created, at 36 designs per second. Today, Canva is growing with over 600 team members across 3 offices in Sydney, Manila and Beijing, working together on a mission to empower everyone to create beautiful design.After hundreds of revisions to the Canva pitch deck, Melanie has now raised more than $140 million from investors including Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen, Yahoo! CFO Ken Goldman, and funds such as Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures. Today, Canva is valued at US$2.5 billion, making Canva the second Australian startup to achieve Unicorn status.In this episode, you’ll learn:What was the strategy to enter China and have there been any pivots along the way?Who could disrupt Canva and its massive growth? What is the implication of the acquisition of Pexel and Pixabay and Canva’s expansion through partnering or acquiring other companies?What is the future of graphic design and what can people anticipate in the next 2-3 years? Tweet your comments about this episode directly to Shawn Flynn and the rest of The Investor’s Podcast Community using #TIPSiliconValleyBOOKS AND RESOURCESWebsite for CanvaDownload your free audio book at Audible.Find the best job candidate at Ziprecruiter.CONNECT WITH SHAWN:Shawn Flynn’s Twitter AccountShawn Flynn’s LinkedIn AccountSilicon Valley LinkedIn Group AccountShawn Flynn’s Facebook AccountEmail Shawn@TheInvestorsPodcast.com

Vijay Balasubramaniyan is the co-founder and CEO of Pindrop which is a pioneer in voice security and authentication. The company has raised to date over $200 million from top tier investors such as Andresseen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Redpoint, Felicis Ventures, Sigma Partners, and IVP.

Vijay Balasubramaniyan is the co-founder and CEO of Pindrop which is a pioneer in voice security and authentication. The company has raised to date over $200 million from top tier investors such as Andresseen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Redpoint, Felicis Ventures, Sigma Partners, and IVP.

Hiten Shah is the Co-Founder @ FYI, the startup that allows you to find your documents in 3 clicks or less. Before FYI, Hiten co-founded QuickSprout alongside Neil Patel, together they scaled the platform to over 500,000 readers every month. Before QuickSprout, Hiten was the Co-Founder and CEO of KISSmetrics, raising over $19m in the process for the company from the likes of True Ventures, Uncork Capital and Felicis Ventures just to name a few. Finally, Hiten is also the Co-Founder @ Crazy Egg, the heat mapping tool used by thousands to improve the effectiveness of their websites. Finally, Hiten is also an angel investor with a portfolio including Buffer, Clearbit, Front, Gusto and more incredible companies. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Hiten made his way into the world of startups, growth market and SaaS and how that led to his co-founding FYI today? Having founded multiple startups, does Hiten agree with Joe Fernandez @ JoyMode that "serial entrepreneurship is overrated"? Why does Hiten believe that fundamentally, nobody knows what they are doing? 2.) How does Hiten feel about the compression of fundraising timelines today? How does Hiten advise founders on building authentic relationships with investors? What is it crucial that founders understand about the investing class? How does Chetan advise founders on building hype and urgency within their fundraising? What works? What does not? 3.) Why does Hiten believe that we have seen the eradication of the friends and family round? What other large trends has Hiten observed in the early stage over the last few years? How does Hiten advise founders on how to approach which seed investors they take on board? Does Hiten think founders and investors can be friends? 4.) How has Hiten seen himself change and evolve as a leader over the last decade? What have been the biggest learnings on what great leadership really means? What are the 5 core elements that all great leaders must focus on? How does he split his time across these 5 disciplines? Where do founders often not spend adequate time among the 5? 5.) How does Hiten think about the element of "burnout" and depression today? Has Hiten ever felt burned out himself? How does this stress manifest itself? How does Hiten think that burnout and control are correlated? What can one do to change their relationship to control? What has worked for Hiten? What has not? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Hiten’s Fave Book: The Courage To Be Disliked  As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Hiten on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

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

Craig Walker is the co-founder and CEO of Dialpad which offers a cloud-based business phone solution simplified for every business. The company has raised $120 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Felicis Ventures, SoftBank, and Iconiq Capital. Previously he led Dialpad Communications Inc., (acquired by Yahoo! for $50 million), a provider of VOIP services, and cofounded GrandCentral (acquired by Google for $100 million), communications services.

Craig Walker is the co-founder and CEO of Dialpad which offers a cloud-based business phone solution simplified for every business. The company has raised $120 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Felicis Ventures, SoftBank, and Iconiq Capital. Previously he led Dialpad Communications Inc., (acquired by Yahoo! for $50 million), a provider of VOIP services, and cofounded GrandCentral (acquired by Google for $100 million), communications services.

Yello, a leading talent acquisition software provider, today debuted the findings from its fourth annual Yello Recruiting Study at STRIVE 2019, the company’s talent acquisition conference. According to the Pew Research Center, the oldest members of Generation Z are turning 22-years-old this year and many will be entering the workforce as they prepare to graduate college. Top themes and findings from The 2019 Yello Recruiting Study include: Gen Z is confident in the current job market and their job prospects post-graduation. Likely thanks to today’s tight labor market, about two-thirds of Gen Z students are confident they’ll receive a job offer – and 35% expect to receive more than one offer. Similarly, members of Gen Z are clearly setting themselves up to succeed in the candidate-driven environment by starting the job search early. Gen Z still values face-to-face communication ... Fifty-one percent of Gen Z respondents said they prefer to communicate in-person, while a quarter said they prefer to communicate digitally. Unlike millennials, Gen Z says working with recruiters that are “trusted advisors” is crucial. Recruiters should know that their approach can have a significant impact on Gen Z’s decision to accept a job – 44% of this group said the recruiter they spoke with has the biggest impact on their decision to accept a job while only 29% of millennials agreed. Recruiters should also be sure to treat Gen Z fairly during the hiring process as three-quarters of this group cite being treated unfairly as the top cause of a negative experience while only half of millennials said the same. Employers shouldn’t forget about HR tech to create a seamless, quick experience for Gen Z and other generations. Though Gen Z places emphasis on in-person communication, they still expect their employers to use technology – especially when it comes to making the application mobile-friendly. 26% of Gen Z candidates say that a lack of technology throughout the hiring process would prevent them from accepting a job with the company. This is notable considering only 15% of employed millennials and 13% of Gen X candidates cited this sentiment. https://recruitingheadlines.com/yello-gen-z-recruiting-study/ PHILADELPHIA – MAY 02, 2019 ISABLED, an online recruiting platform connects workers that identify as having a disability, with recruiters from leading companies who value inclusion and diversity in their workforce. The ISABLED platform allows job seekers and recruiters to connect and chat in real-time, from anywhere, and from the comfort and convenience of their home or office. ” The ISABLED Virtual Career Fairs are a fun and easy way to connect recruiters and job seekers with disabilities. Instead of asking both sides to attend a job fair at a physical location, we bring the career fair to them. The ISABLED platform allows our employer partners to recruit nationwide in just a few hours, and job seekers have instant access to the very recruiters who are seeking to fill the open positions” Stated Kevin O’Brien, Managing Partner, ISABLED. The ISABLED website will include content to connect workers with disabilities to job opportunities from a wide range of companies and industries. The website will include a job board and a virtual career fair platform. ISABLED will host 4 virtual career fairs each year, and companies can host standalone virtual career fairs for their company as often as they like. The first ISABLED.com virtual career fair is set for July 25, 2019, and open now for registration.   https://recruitingheadlines.com/online-recruitment-platform-to-connect-workers-with-disabilities-to-employers/ Skill Based Recruiting Platform Gets Seed Round The startup has closed on $650K in pre-seed funding led by Atlanta-area investor Jon Hallett, a previous backer of Nexza’s co-founder, Rob Patten. Nexza is entirely free for both employers and candidates to create and host their profile. The employer simply enters their description and company-wide benefits. Then, each individual team — software development, QA, product managers, etc. — can create their own profile specifying their tech stack, individual details and more.   On the candidate side, the individual inputs education, citizenship status, tech and non-tech skills, LinkedIn, Github or personal website. They also clarify what they might be looking for: preferred geography (or remote work), whether they’d like to work from home at all, their ideal company size and role. Learn more at https://www.nexza.com/   https://recruitingheadlines.com/skill-based-recruiting-platform-gets-seed-round/ SAN FRANCISCO, May 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Trusted Health, the career platform for modern nurses to work, connect and grow, today announced that it has closed $20 million in Series A funding, led by Craft Ventures and joined by previous investors Felicis Ventures and Founder Collective. The company also has officially launched support for flexible nursing opportunities nationwide and added permanent staff openings for nurses seeking more traditional employment. Nurses can receive support from Trusted Health’s nurse advocates during their employment journey and take advantage of full W2 benefits. Trusted Health combines a state-of-the-art digital employment platform, personalized support and a unique hiring structure that eliminates the hassles and controversy of 1099 contracting, by offering W2 employment, as well as perks similar to those available in the high-tech industry. With Trusted Health, nurses now have a single, go-to resource where they can grow professionally, explore new opportunities and find answers to their questions.   Through its marketplace, Trusted Health operates as a fully automated online employment agency, simplifying job searches by providing candidates visibility into the latest openings. The platform also streamlines the application process by digitizing, saving and managing resumes, credentials, certifications and other key employee information. An advanced, automated matching system alerts nurses in real-time of new opportunities that correspond with their credentials, experience and preferences, and provides all job and compensation details upfront so candidates can make informed decisions. https://recruitingheadlines.com/nursing-careers-platform-secures-20-million-in-funding/   PHILADELPHIA, May 06, 2019 — GR8 People, architects of a breakthrough one-experience talent platform for the enterprise, announced today the release of EUREKA!™, the industry’s first Autonomous Talent Delivery (ATD) component native to its platform. Native to GR8 People, EUREKA!™ was built to identify, match, screen, supply and engage talent at an unprecedented degree of precision and speed for better, faster hires. The new built-in component enables recruiters to eliminate time-consuming tasks associated with candidate sourcing, assessment and communications, while delivering a continuous pipeline of qualified, interested and available talent. As soon as a job is created, AI and machine learning technology automatically produce matched and scored candidates. Personalized communications are immediately activated through automation to start the recruiting process and continuously engage candidates. Recruiters instantly rediscover candidates and colleagues they already have, and talent pipelines are kept fresh and full. Time and focus are (finally) given back to talent acquisition to hire the best talent faster than humanly possible. https://recruitingheadlines.com/gr8-people-launches-ai-powered-autonomous-talent-delivery-component/

Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures joins Nick to discuss Iconic Companies, Frontier Markets & a Truly Founder Centric Approach. In this episode, we cover: Backstory / Path to tech in SF? Prior to founding Felicis Ventures, you were a Product Manager at Google, launching their first 10 international sites, its first online search licensing products, and its first Safe Search…talk about what lead to your transition to investing. What's the story behind founding Felicis Ventures? Talk about the investment focus and approach of your firm. It states on the firms website that you back founders looking to open up frontier markets, such as longevity and engineered foods, and reinvent critical markets such as mental health and insurance….what are some of the success factors you've observed in startups trying to create or reinvent markets. You've invested in many iconic companies that have revolutionized their industry such as Shopify, Fitbit and CreditKarma, when investing at early stages, how do you differentiate between the ideas or trends that are going to have this long term affect from the ones that may not be so successful? Felicis states on the site that "The difference between a good product and a great product is one incalculably better than the current alternative. Successful founders have laser sharp focus on true product differentiation, intelligent time and capital allocation" Help us understand what seperates good product from great product. Differences in investing in domestic vs. international startups? You do this survey every year of your portfolio companies... can you talk about the key insights you've learned from doing that?   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Niki went straight to the buyside after college at Vista Equity Partners. Wanted to get his hands dirty outside of finance, saw that the grass is not necessarily always greener, got back into private equity and is now a VC.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Roger Dickey, CEO of Untitled Labs, a "search lab" that is creating and incubating multiple startup concepts. Untitled Labs raised a $2.8 million Seed Round from Founders Fund, Felicis Ventures and Caffeinated Capital. Ashton Kutcher, Nikita Bier, Justin Waldron, Liquid Ventures and other investors also participated. Roger previously founded Gigster and Curiosoft, and is an active angel investor with stakes in 32 startups including Scripted, Unsplash, ClassDojo and many others. In this episode, Roger explains what a "search lab" is and how it compares to the "search fund" or "startup studio" models, how to foster both competition and collaboration amongst the teams, the process of productizing side products and "intentional experimentation" and much more. Note: Roger is hiring for engineers in SF. Visit www.untitled-labs.com This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Learn more at www.foundersuite.com.

Dan Reich is the Founder & CEO @ Troops.ai, the startup that is the ultimate slackbot for sales teams. To date, Dan has raised over $17m in VC funding with Troops from many friends of the show including Felicis Ventures, Founder Collective, First Round, Nextview, Susa Ventures and even Slack. As for Dan, he is also the Co-Founder and President of TULA, a private equity backed health and beauty business that has developed the world's first line of probiotic skincare products. Before that, Dan was a Co-Founder of Spinback (acquired by Buddy Media in May 2011, then acquired by Salesforce in June 2012). In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Dan made his way into the world of SaaS with the founding of Spinback? How that led to his founding of the ultimate slackbot for sales teams in Troops? What does Dan really mean when he says “account based collaboration”? What is this a transition from? In terms of tracking and analysis, how does this change when making the move from tracking individual performance to team performance around an account? What can one do to actively implement this? What is key to a successful transition to this style of selling? What does Dan mean when he says, “sales teams are not working together the way we think they are”? What can sales leaders do to actively ensure their sales team is acting in unison? Where do many sales leaders go wrong here? How does Dan think about post mortems when an account is lost or won? How does Dan prevent dips in morale when sharing the loss of a sale? With scaling orgs, siloes are often created, why does Dan think many silos come into existence? At what stage does Dan really see them become a problem and cracks in the org begin to show? What can leaders do to instantly reduce the effect of silos? How does Dan think about controlling the noise to action ratio with the firehose of data at our disposal today? Dan’s 60 Second SaaStr: What does Dan know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? What is the right time to train your sales team? The right way to structure sales comp plans? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Dan Reich

Assaf Wand is the Founder & CEO @ Hippo, a new kind of insurance company that provides smart coverage for homeowners with a quote in just 60 seconds. To date, Assaf has raised over $109m in funding for Hippo from some dear friends of the show in the form of Felicis Ventures, GGV Capital, Fifth Wall, Zeev Ventures and Lennar just to name a few. Prior to re-imagining the world of insurance, Assaf founded Sabi, creating products that improve everyday life with superior functionality and design. Sabi was acquired by Urbio in 2015. Before that Assaf held numerous different roles including as a consultant at McKinsey and Investment Associate at Intel Capital. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Assaf being the worst employee in the world lead to his entrance into the world of early-stage startups and the founding of Hippo? 2.) How does Assaf analyse the current sentiment and approach to fundraising in the valley today? Why does Assaf believe that every company looks one round earlier than it should be for the VCs? How does Assaf think about investor selection? What is the single biggest value a VC partner can provide? Does Assaf agree that founders should "always be raising"? Why does Assaf believe that top funds should not get significant discounts? 3.) What does Assaf believe are the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when building their board? On boards, why does Assaf believe there is a danger that partners from top funds have their ideas overweighted due to the prestige of their fund? What can be done to prevent this? What does Assaf believe is the right screening process for new board members? 4.) What does Assaf believe separates the good from the great when it comes to board members? How does Assaf really look to building meaninful relationships with his board members? What has worked well? On the flip side, why does Assaf believe the No 1 element of a board is "do no harm"? Where can board members actually be damaging? 5.) Hippo is growing 30% MoM and will be in 80% of the US in the next 12 months, how does Assaf think about when is the right time to put the pedal to the metal? What are those leading indicators? Where do many founders go wrong here? Is it simply a case of whenunit economics work, one is ready to scale? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Assaf’s Fave Book: The Fountainhead, The Pillars of The Earth As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Are you thinking about life insurance in the new year? Ladder. Is the smart and easy way to get term life insurance online. With Ladder there are no commissioned agents and no policy fees — you can be done in minutes. Even better, coverage can start today, if you qualify, and you can cancel anytime. Ladder is licensed and backed by trusted partners, with billions in coverage. Visit ladderlife.com to apply and get an instant decision on fully underwritten term life insurance, and check life insurance off your list TODAY. Ready for tax season? Wishing you’d kept a closer eye on your books this year? Set yourself up for success in 2019 with Pilot. Pilot is a bookkeeping company focused on the needs of startups. Their team of SF-based bookkeepers are assisted by engineers to automate the most error-prone parts of bookkeeping, so you know you’re getting an accurate report every month. Plus, Pilot does accrual basis bookkeeping in Quickbooks Online, so you’re never locked into a proprietary platform. Learn more and sign up here. Don’t wait – the first 100 members of the Twenty Minute VC community get 20% off Pilot Core for six months.

Felicis Ventures, girişimlere yatırdıkları miktarın %1'ini Girişimcilerin psikolojik destek ve coaching hizmeti almaları için harcayacak.

Felicis Ventures, girişimlere yatırdıkları miktarın %1'ini Girişimcilerin psikolojik destek ve coaching hizmeti almaları için harcayacak.

Dan Reich is the Founder & CEO @ Troops.ai, the startup that is the ultimate slackbot for sales teams. To date, Dan has raised over $17m in VC funding with Troops from many friends of the show including Felicis Ventures, Founder Collective, First Round, Nextview, Susa Ventures and even Slack. As for Dan, he is also the Co-Founder and President of TULA, a private equity backed health and beauty business that has developed the world's first line of probiotic skincare products. Before that, Dan was a Co-Founder of Spinback (acquired by Buddy Media in May 2011, then acquired by Salesforce in June 2012). In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Dan made his way into the world of SaaS with the founding of Spinback? How that led to his founding of the ultimate slackbot for sales teams in Troops? How the experience with Spinback affected his operating mindset with Troops today? Why does Dan believe that the current modelling of org charts is fundamentally upside down? How does Dan think about when is the right time to insert the first level of managers? What should one look for in those managers? Does Dan believe you have to hire “logo players” from big firms at some point in the journey? Why does Dan believe that your customer success has to be obsessed with asking why? Taking a step back, how does Dan think about when the right time is to hire your first CS rep? How has Dan seen the best companies do post mortem analysis on churn? What can be done to ensure seamless communications between product and customer success teams? Dan has a knack for knowing where the puck is going with large enterprises before anyone else. How? What does this ideation process look like? Once the idea has been created, what does Dan believe is crucial to the success of partnering with the behemoths of Salesforce and Slack? How can startups navigate the internal politics of these mega enterprises? How can they use this exercise to not only understand the politics themselves but also build credibility and trust with the organisations once inside? Where does Dan see most founders going wrong both in introductions to enterprise and then building trust once inside? Dan’s 60 Second SaaStr: What does Dan know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? What is Dan’s favourite story of hustle? Why that one? Who does Dan believe is killing it in the world of SaaS today? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Dan Reich  

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Chetan Rane and Akshay Ramaswamy of Alma Campus. Alma is a college-exclusive social network that enables students to discover and connect with peers on their campus. The Company recently raised from Marissa Mayer, Norwest Venture Partners, Sergio Monsalve, Felicis Ventures, and others. The Company has also raised capital from Lightspeed Ventures, Index Ventures, Pear Startup Garage, Cardinal Ventures. In this episode, Akshay and Chetan talk about building a startup while in college, growth hacks and getting early adopters, choosing investors on an oversubscribed round, and much more.

Renata Quintini is a Partner @ Lux Capital, one of the leaders in the rise of deep tech investing supporting scientists and entrepreneurs providing solutions to the most vexing puzzles of our time, the more ambitious the project, the better. Before Lux, Renata was a partner at Felicis Ventures, where she worked with the likes of Cruise, Dollar Shave Club, Rigetti Computing and Bonobos, just to name a few. Prior to VC, Renata was an investment manager at Stanford University’s endowment, which invests in dozens of private equity and venture capital funds.   In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Renata made her way from LP in venture with Stanford University to dominating seed VC with Felicis to now leading the deep tech investing charge with Lux Capital? 2.) How does the mentality shift from making the move of LP with Stanford to VC with Felicis and Lux? How does Renata believe being an LP made her a better VC? How has what it takes to be a successful emerging manager changed over the last 5-10 years? 3.) What are the 7 rules that Renata gives to all startups at the start of their journey to ensure they do not implode? Where do startups most often falter, from Renata's perspective? How have the requirements and demands of founders changed recently? 4.) How does Renata look to approach every investment opportunity, mentality wise? Why does Renata believe this stance is optimal over the alternative? What are the caveats that must be placed on this to ensure for realism also? 5.) What makes Renata believe that we are seeing the humanisation of technology? How does this affect how deep tech will be designed moving forward? How does this affect how technology truly interacts and integrates with consumer behaviour? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Renata’s Fave Book: Daring Greatly  Renata’s Most Recent Investment: Common Networks As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Renata on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. WePay helps online platforms increase revenue through integrated payments processing, helping platforms offer ROI-positive integrated payments to their users – within their UX and without taking on fraud & regulatory exposure. WePay also offers award-winning support and can even work with your team thru Slack or Zendesk. Get the payments revenue you want, without getting bogged down every time a user has a payments question. Simply visit wepay.com/harry PipeDrive is the Sales CRM and pipeline management software to use, with the primary view being the pipeline a clear visual interface that prompts you to take action, remain organized and stay in control of a complex sales process. This is why sales pros and deal makers love it (my words, not Pipedrive’s). Plus it easily lets you find the stats you need and is fully customizable. Even better, you can signup for free on here it really is a must.

Alex Mittal is the Founder & CEO @ Funders Club, the company that uses software and networks to provide investors with access to the world's most promising startups. Their portfolio includes the likes of Slack, Greenhouse, Shippo and Flexport just to name a few. They are backed by some of the world's leading investors themselves with the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Felicis Ventures and First Round Capital. Prior to starting FundersClub, Alex was the founding CEO of Innova Dynamics, a VC-backed touchscreen hardware company, leading the company from university laboratory to securing design-in collaborations with today's major consumer electronics companies. Previously, he was the founding CTO of Crederity, a VC-backed identity and credential verification enterprise software company.  In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Alex made his way from YC founder to revolutionizing seed stage investing with Funders Club? 2.) Why is Alex still so bullish on the on-demand space? How does Alex evaluate on-demand startups? What metrics are attractive in the space? What do good unit economics look like for on-demand startups? 3.) Does Alex agree that we are experiencing a AI bubble? Where are the shortcomings in the current state of AI and machine learning? How does Alex expect the space to play out and what does Alex advise entrepreneurs in the space? 4.) What does Alex make of the rise of investing in hard science startups? Why does he get concerned to see traditional software VCs investing in the space? How should VCs view the rise of nontech businesses both in hard science and consumer? 5.) You have said before that 'the API is not in the past but is still to come'. Why are you so bullish on the continued expansion of APIs? Where do the inherent oportuities and use cases remain? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Alex's Fave Book: The Art of War by Sun Tsu Alex's Fave Blog: Eric Newcomer, Mattermark Daily As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Alex on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. X.ai is AI-powered personal assistant for scheduling meetings bringing you Amy or Andrew. The assistant you interact with like you would to any other person and it allows you to avoid the tedious hours of email ping pong in order to schedule one meeting. Even better, there is no sign in, no password, no download, all you do is cc amy@x.ai beautiful! And you can check it out now on x.ai it really is a must! Workable is the all-in-one recruiting software for ambitious companies. From posting a job to tracking and managing candidates, Workable provides everything you need to hire better. Transparent communication, organized candidate profiles, structured interviews and a full reporting suite gives hiring teams the information they need to make the best choice. Workable is available for desktop and mobile and you can find out more on workable.com where you can try it for free.  

Didier Elzinga is the Founder & CEO @ CultureAmp, the world’s most powerful employee feedback and analytics platform. They have raised funding from some of the best in the business including the likes of Index Ventures, our friends at Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures. As for Didier, he previously co-founded technical academy award winning Rising Sun Research and is non-executive director at Tourism Australia, the Atlassian Foundation and Slingsby Theatre. I also have to say a huge thank you to Ilya @ Index and Niki @ Blackbird for the intro, without which the show would not have been possible. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How did Didier make his way into the world of SaaS? What was the a-ha moment for him with CultureAmp? What were Didier’s biggest takeaways from watching Scott and Mike build Atlassian? How did that affect and alter how he structured CultureAmp? How does Didier evaluate product market fit? What are the signs? What metrics determine whether you have it or you do not? Why did Didier decide to bootstrap until $1m ARR? Why does Didier believe there is so little innovation in the go to market strategies of today? What would he like to see change and where does he see opportunity? Why does Didier not believe in paying sales teams commission? How does this affect his ability to hire? How does this affect the internal compensation structure of the firm? 60 Second SaaStr Didier’s Fave SaaS resource? What does Didier know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? What has been the most challenging element of the CultureAmp journey? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Didier Elzinga

Fayez Mohamood is the Founder and CEO @ Bluecore, the company that is transforming the way eCommerce marketers use data and automation to communicate with customers. They have raised nearly $30m in funding from some of the best in the business and past guests of the show including the teams from FirstMark Capital and Felicis Ventures just to name a few. As a result they have enjoyed some rapid scaling having seen the team grow from 50 to over 100 in just 10 months. As for Fayez, prior to Bluecore he was Head of Product at BigDoor and before that he founded, Gameday Tycoon, a fantasy sports game that runs on Facebook. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How did Fayez make his way from fantasy sports game to successful SaaS founder with Bluecore? To what extent does Fayez consider B2B marketing an art or a science with the rise of data? How can SaaS startups use data to drive conversion and upsell? What metrics does Fayez hone in on? What 2 methods does Fayez use to harmonise the sales and marketing team? How can these teams be structured to ensure for a clear communication channel and culture of transparency? With the team growing from 30 to over 100, what does the hiring process look like for Fayez? How has this altered and developed over time? What have been the big lessons in the rapid scaling of the team? How does Fayez view efficiency within organisational structures? What must founders watch out for in the scaling process of their companies? 60 Second SaaStr Advantages and disadvantages of being a SaaS firm in the US? Fayez’s fave SaaS reading material? What does Fayez know now that he wishes he had known when he started? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Fayez Mohamood

Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Director of Felicis Ventures. An original “super-angel” investor, he was named to Forbes’ 2014 and 2015 Midas List and previously appeared as one of the top 15 tech angels by Businessweek. Aydin is well-known as an early backer of a number of iconic companies including Shopify (NYSE:SHOP), Fitbit (NYSE:FIT), Adyen, Clearslide, Credit Karma, and Rovio. More than 55 Felicis companies such as Brightroll, Climate Corp, Dropcam, Twitch, and Meraki, have been acquired by industry leaders such as Google, Amazon, Cisco, Apple, Microsoft, AT&T, Disney, Yahoo and Ebay.   In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Aydin made his way into the world of VC from being a Senior Manager @ Google? 2.) What does Aydin suggest to all those looking to make the move into VC who have potentially, an unconventional background?? 3.) What caused Aylin's shift from angel investor to VC ? What was Aydin's investment strategy look like at the beginning and how has that evolved over time? How does Aydin look to differentiate Felicis from the plethora of seed funds? 4.) How does Felicis' stage agnosticity work in practicality for Aydin and the fund itself? How much of a role does valuation play in Felicis' investment decision making? 5.) Question from Rob Hayes @ First Round: How did the Rovio investment come about? Why do you say you are most proud if it? 6.) Question From Hiten Shah: How do you approach the topic of growing the organisation, whilst still supporting founders with the same time and quality? Items Mentioned In Today's Episode: Aydin's Fave Book: Anti-Fragile Aylin's Most Recent Investment: Diffbot As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Aydin on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!   The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com/VC and enter the promo code VC75 to get $75 off!  

Joining us today, I am delighted to have Daniel Chait, Founder & CEO @ Greenhouse - software that gives people the power to build great companies. Greenhouse automates and simplifies the best practices for recruiting top talent, continuously monitors your recruiting activity, and automatically suggests improvements. They have backing from the likes of Social Capital, Benchmark and Felicis Ventures and in today's show with Daniel we discuss: How Daniel views the hiring funnel and how you can get a consistent stream of high quality incoming candidates? How can individuals breach the knowledge gap of not knowing what to look for in a iOS developer, for example? How important is a strong company culture when interviewing candidates? How can recruiters test candidates to ensure that their culture and skills align with the company? When did Daniel hire his first Head of Sales and what was the catalyst for causing this hire? In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear: The Candidate Experience: How Can We Optimise It? Who Does Daniel Most Respect & Admire With Regards To Their Recruitment? What Is Daniel's Fave Hiring Blog Resource or Newsletter? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings Saastr Daniel Chait

O Man in the Arena é um videocast sobre empreendedorismo e cultura digital apresentado por Leo Kuba e Miguel Cavalcanti.Neste episódio (#102):Um bate-papo com Eduardo Lima, CEO e co-fundador da eduK, a maior startup de educação da América Latina.Eduardo é formado em Engenharia de Controle e Automação pela PUC Minas e tem especialização em Engenharia de Software pela UVV. Após uma longa carreira como Engenheiro de Software nas indústrias de mineração e siderurgia, em 2007 se lançou como empreendedor em negócios de tecnologia e internet. Em 2013 co-fundou a eduK com Robson Catalan.A eduK é uma instituição de ensino online que reúne renomados experts para ensinar suas habilidades e ajudar seus alunos a transformarem suas paixões em negócios. Através de cursos online de curta duração, baseados em videoaulas de alta qualidade, a eduK é pioneira no conceito da edutainment no Brasil, oferecendo cursos de profissionalização nas áreas de gastronomia, artesanato, fotografia, moda, beleza, entre outros. Os cursos são transmitidos ao vivo e gratuitamente e, em seguida, são incorporados ao catálogo com mais de 600 opções, podendo ser acessados através de planos de assinatura, a partir de R$19,90 por mês.Com investimento da Accel Partners, Monashees Capital e Felicis Ventures, a eduK tem como principais sócios, Eduardo Lima, Robson Catalan e Bernardo Rezende (Bernardinho).O Man in the Arena tem apoio da Livraria Cultura.Para saber mais:- eduK: http://www.eduk.com.br/- Eduardo Lima: https://br.linkedin.com/in/eduardosou...Acompanhe e participe nos canais do Man in the Arena:- YouTube: http://youtube.com/maninthearenatv- Facebook: http://facebook.com/maninthearenatv- iTunes (Audio): https://itunes.apple.com/br/podcast/m...

Panel members: David Krane, General Partner, Google Ventures Jeff Clavier, Founder and Managing Partner , SoftTech VC Ann Miura-Ko, Managing Partner, Floodgate Aydin Senkut, Founder & Managing Director, Felicis Ventures Dave McClure, Founding Partner, 500 Startups Source: http://podfm.ru/goto/b811dbb

In this episode, host Joe Beninato and guest Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures answer listener questions including: - What strategies do you consider when a big established company (Apple/Facebook/Google) moves into your space and encroaches very closely on your niche market? - What would you do if you met with the perfect team, fantastic recommendations, great experience, super smart... and you really want to work with them, but their product idea isn’t quite right?  Would you pass?  - Do you attend demo days (like YC or TechStars) and if so, how do you decide which companies to focus on after 2.5 minutes? - If I'm the founder of a YC company, what's the best way to get your attention at or after Demo Day? - When you receive a company intro via email, what is the one critical thing that makes you say "I want to talk to this founder" vs. ignoring it?