Podcasts about First Round Capital

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2021. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant. Thejo Kote is the co-founder and CEO of Airbase, the leading spend management platform for small and midsize companies. Founded in 2017, Airbase raised over $30m from Bain Capital Ventures and First Round Capital. His first company, Automatic, was acquired by Sirius XM for over $100m. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. Identify problems that you are passionate about working on even if nobody is paying you. It makes it a lot easier. 2. Be in a position where you are objectively building a good business - where you don't need anybody else to fund you. 3. Sometimes you just have to observe. Keep your eyes and ears open to opportunities and pain points as they come. Spend management done right. Three products. One platform - Airbase Sponsor NetSuite Over 41,000 businesses have future-proofed their business with NetSuite, by Oracle - THE number one cloud E.R.P. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning for free at NetSuite.com/fire

Synopsis: Venture capital is evolving, and so is biotech. In this episode of Biotech 2050, host Alok Tayi, CEO and co-founder of VibeBio, sits down with Alex Bangash, Founder of Transpose, an investment firm backing both startups and funds. With over 20 years of experience in venture investing, Alex shares his unconventional journey from engineering to investing and how his unique perspective has shaped his approach to funding. He breaks down the shifting startup landscape, the critical role of LPs in biotech, and why AI is a game-changer for both tech and life sciences. Alex also offers sharp insights into what it takes to build a successful venture fund today and the structural shifts that are redefining the industry. Whether you're a founder, investor, or biotech enthusiast, this episode is packed with valuable lessons on navigating the future of venture capital. Biography: Alex Bangash is the Founder of Transpose Platform, an anchor fund for the most disruptive venture funds of this decade. He is also the co-founder and former CEO of Trusted Insight, a machine learning–driven platform that hosts the world's largest network of institutional investors. Prior to TI Platform, Alex managed capital for clients at premier endowments, foundations, family offices, insurance firms, sovereign wealth funds, and pension funds since 2003. He has helped invest over $2 billion in 50 funds with a track record of investing over $1 billion in 50+ funds for institutional investors with an IRR of 30%+ and a 2x NAV. He advised the first checks in Accel, First Round Capital, Founders Fund, Emergence, Y Combinator, Khosla, SaaStr, Initialized, Crystal Towers, and Baseline. Earlier in his career, Alex was an engineer and executive at AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs, and GE. Alex holds an MBA from the Wharton School (where he is a frequent guest lecturer); an M.Eng. in Operations Research from Cornell, and a BS in Computer Science, English, and Economics from Cornell.

Steve Blank is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University, where he co-created the "Hacking for Defense" curriculum for the Department of Defense. As a consultant to top defense and intelligence organizations, Steve brings cutting-edge strategies to the national security sector. Before entering academia, Steve built eight different startups. He helped launch the Lean Startup movement with his May 2013 Harvard Business Review cover story. Steve also authored the acclaimed business books "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" and "The Startup Owner's Manual.” This episode's is guest host is Meka Asonye, a Partner at First Round Capital. Before joining First Round as an investor, Meka led go-to-market teams at both Stripe and Mixpanel. – In today's episode we discuss: Commercial versus military market strategies Finding mission solution fit The hidden challenges most startups miss Building relationships in National Security The new generation of “defense founders” Much more – Referenced: Alexander Osterwalder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osterwalder/ Department of Defense: https://www.defense.gov/ Eric Ries: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ Hacking for Defense: https://hackingfordefense-prod.stanford.edu/ How Saboteurs Threaten Innovation: https://steveblank.com/2024/07/30/why-large-organizations-struggle-with-disruption-and-what-to-do-about-it/ How to find your customer in the Dept of Defense: https://steveblank.com/2024/09/17/the-directory-of-dod-program-executive-offices-and-officers-peos/ Mission Model Canvas: https://steveblank.com/2019/09/ Pete Newell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petenewell/ Special Operations Command: https://www.socom.mil/ The Frozen Middle: https://steveblank.com/2024/07/30/why-large-organizations-struggle-with-disruption-and-what-to-do-about-it/ The Hacking for Defense Manual: https://stanfordh4d.substack.com/p/the-hacking-for-defense-manual-a The Hacking for Defense Course: https://www.h4d.us/ The lean launchpad at Stanford: https://steveblank.com/2011/05/10/the-lean-launchpad-at-stanford-–-the-final-presentations/ The Secret History of Silicon Valley: https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ – Where to find Steve: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveblank/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/sgblank Website: https://steveblank.com/ – Where to find Meka: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mekaasonye/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/bigmekastyle – Where to find First Round Capital: Website: https://firstround.com/ First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/firstround YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast – Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (02:27) Validating ideas for defense products (03:57) Guide to military sales and procurement (07:15) Rethinking GTM strategies (10:13) Building a network in national security (15:07) The dual-use debate (18:35) Behind the rising number of “defense founders” (22:30) “Mission solution fit” (24:35) Breaking new ground in military tech (26:09) Essential resources for any defense founder (28:59) What's missing from Silicon Valley

Send us a textMiguel Armaza interviews Howard Morgan, Chair at B Capital, and also co-founder of Renaissance Technologies and First Round Capital.Howard and Miguel sat down live on stage at Barclays Rise in NYC for the Gilgamesh Ventures Summit, an annual meeting with over 150 Limited Partners, Founders, and Investors for a series of events and discussions about the future of tech and financial services.In this inspiring conversation, Howard discussed:How B Capital is using AI to improve their operationsLaunching Renaissance Technologies and their quantitative trading strategiesThe evolution of venture capital from local to global investingQualities of great founders and investors, Howard's work in philanthropy… and a lot more!Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today's global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join ~70,000+ readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

Season 5 of The Decision Education Podcast unveils decision-making tips from experts in neuroscience, cognitive biases, entrepreneurship, and social connection. Host Annie Duke engages our guests in interesting discussions where they unpack their decision toolkits and share how the world might look different if we practiced decision-making skills from a younger age. We're thrilled to announce that this season of The Decision Education Podcast is sponsored by First Round Capital.

This week we chat with Liz Wessel!Liz Wessel is a Partner at First Round Capital, a pre-seed and seed venture fund, based in San Francisco. Prior to joining First Round, she was a Visiting Group Partner at Y Combinator, where she worked directly with over 110 early-stage startups. Liz has also been investing as an angel since 2016, backing over 60 startups, including Ramp, ScaleAI, Ro, Artera (fka WELL Health), FreeWill, Snackpass and others.Before becoming a full-time investor, Liz was the co-founder and CEO of WayUp, an early-career recruitment platform used by over 7 million candidates and thousands of companies. She launched WayUp in 2014 and ran it for seven years — during which time she raised over $40 million in venture and was with the company as CEO through its M&A exit in 2021.Prior to WayUp, Liz worked at Google as a product marketing manager. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor's in Political Science, Mathematics and Japanese. Follow us!Liz Wessel: @lizwesselFirst Round Capital: @firstroundErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

Anthony Georgiades is co-founder of Pastel Network, a fully decentralized, developer-friendly layer-1 blockchain serving as the preeminent protocol standard for non-fungible tokens ("NFTs") and Web3 technology. While performing his duties as President, Anthony is also a General Partner at Innovating Capital, a technology fund focused on disruptive companies and digital assets that have incubated Pastel Network since day one. Anthony previously spent time on the investment team at First Round Capital and on the operations teams of various startups. He studied finance, management, and computer science at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton and engineering schools.In this conversation, we discuss:- The rise of AI and how Pastel has been in the AI space "before it was cool"- How Pastel is involved in the intersection of AI and Web3- Pastel's new AI product Inference- The fate of NFTs overall- How start-ups can weather the fluctuating trends in the industry- What Pastel has done to maintain its success amid the decline of interest in traditional NFTs- Current crypto market- Solana ecosystem & meme coins- Current factors that are driving the crypto market- The Spatial Web- How AI will drive crypto adoptionPastel NetworkWebsite: pastel.networkTwitter: @PastelNetworkTelegram: t.me/PastelOfficialAnthony GeorgiadesTwitter: @panthonylgLinkedIn: Anthony Georgiades ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.  PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.   PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions.  Code: CRYPTONEWS50  This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below:  PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50

In this episode of Content Briefly, we've interviewed Jessi Craige Shikman, Editor at First Round Capital, and discussed how the First Round Review operates, some of the best interview tips,  how she empowers writers with good editing and feed processes, and more.This episode is brought to you by our friends at Duckbill (https://www.getduckbill.com/). Use code SUPERPATH for 50% off for the first two months.************************Timestamps:00:00 Intro03:03 Who is Jessi Craige?03:25 Jessi's background.03:55 Editor's role at First Round Capital.05:01 Content's purpose at First Round Capital.06:36 Creating relevant expert-led content.09:28 Jessi's day-to-day and content calendar.10:29 Are there still available topics to cover?11:36 Has AI creeped into their workflow?13:09 Differences in creating content for SaaS companies and a VC firm.17:21 Content reporting at First Round Capital.18:14 Investing in owned channels.20:02 Are there technical SEO issues with a large library of content?21:04 The intersection of the Review and their podcast.22:22 Is there a significant video component to content in the First Round?23:21 Transitioning from a writing role to an editor role.24:47 Editorial tips to make writers better.26:07 How much time does the editorial work take?27:42 What to expect from the First Round.28:39 Learn more about Jessi and First Round Capital and get in touch.29:17 Outro************************Useful Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessi-craige-shikman-47650a75/https://review.firstround.com/https://every.to/https://lex.page/************************Stay Tuned:► Website: https://www.superpath.co/► YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@superpath► LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/superpath/► Twitter: https://twitter.com/superpathco************************Don't forget to leave us a five-star review and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Over twenty years ago, Heidi Roizen became the subject of a Harvard Business School case on how to build a successful business network. This episode is a culmination of Heidi's best answers and actionable advice on the best ways to build one's network — or, as Heidi likes to put it, how to build a relationship-driven life, as opposed to one that's transaction-driven.   More Information: https://threshold.vc/podcast/the-case-for-a-relationship-driven-life Further Reading: Here's another take on my favorite sentence in a negotiation: What problem are you trying to solve? https://www.tumblr.com/heidiroizen/92662870040/the-magic-question-that-turns-transactions-into?source=share Funny enough, First Round Capital covered me and my advice about relationship-driven living and more here: https://review.firstround.com/8-rare-gems-from-heidi-roizen-on-building-a-fulfilling-life-and-career/ And, if you want to actually read the Harvard Business School case, you can find it here: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=26880

Joseph Noor is the CTO of Ownwell, a company that uses technology to revolutionize property tax appeals. Inspired by his father's entrepreneurial spirit, who fled the Lebanese Civil War and built multiple businesses in the U.S., Joseph embodies the essence of entrepreneurial innovation and resilience. He is passionate about disrupting traditional industries with technology and creating equitable systems. Joseph and his team have raised $25 million from investors like First Round Capital, Long Journey Ventures, and Founder Collective. They currently have over 150,000 customers and are projecting $50 million in revenue this year. Joseph always approached life as an entrepreneur: flipping golf balls, building sneaker bots, creating private MMORPGs, saving money on property taxes. He was raised with the mentality of relentlessly chasing the hardest problems, pushing past what was initially thought possible, and leveling up in the process. In the unrelenting demand for academic excellence, he was enrolled in elementary two years early and was still pushed to skip grades. Enamored with the iPhone, he chose to study Computer Science to build software that can scale to the whole world. It wasn't until the PhD where he met his first real academic challenge – developing AI to self-optimize computer systems. What you will learn The role of AI in optimizing distributed systems and how it was applied in Joseph Noor's research. How technology, including AI, is revolutionizing property tax appeals through Joseph's company, Ownwell. The challenges of scaling a tech-driven business and how to overcome them. The importance of explainable AI models in industries like real estate, where transparency is crucial. Insights into the entrepreneurial mindset, including the value of persistence, adapting to challenges, and leveraging technology to solve traditional problems.

Annie Riley is a startup operator and advisor, executive coach, investor, and consultant, as well as the host of Who Got Me Here. Annie leads Fort Light, a group coaching program for people managers at startups, and consults on operations and go-to-market initiatives for various companies. Her clients include First Round Capital and Outschool. Previously, Annie was the ninth employee and VP of North America Local Operations at HotelTonight. Annie is an alum of Harvard and Stanford GSB, and recently moved back to New York after 10+ years in San Francisco. Annie loves piñatas, cold water plunges, and national parks. Todd Jason is an executive coach who's developed programs with some of the most sought after teachers in the world including Tony Robbins, Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra.  He's the founder and lead facilitator of ASCEND - a community that assists thousands of people in regaining their personal freedom and heightening mental clarity.  Visit Todd's website and community here! Explore the ASCEND Community Lauren Weinstein is an executive coach known for her expertise in powerful communication and life transformation. She taught one of the most popular courses at Stanford Business School, has coached hundreds of executives from Fortune 500 companies, and her TEDTalk “Don't Believe Everything You Think” on unlocking your true potential now has over 3 million views. Visit Resonate Coaching and learn more about her coaching and programs!    

Farhan Thawar, VP & Head of Engineering @ Shopify, was our first-ever ELC pod guest, so it's fitting that he's here to join us for this culmination of our series tackling the Top 10 challenges that engineering leaders face in a rapid-fire, high-energy format! Farhan shares insights into individual challenges, including motivating others after a reorg or period of uncertainty, why always being willing to learn & help is key for managing in any direction, strategies for creating buy-in, and best practices for coaching / mentoring. We cover team challenges, such as working cross-functionally to identify a shared truth and vision, using demos to measure dev productivity, and maintaining high velocity without losing quality. Farhan also dives into org-wide challenges, like understanding team topologies & building out your org's resources.ABOUT FARHAN THAWARFarhan Thawar (@fnthawar) is VP, and Head Engineering at Shopify via the acquisition of Helpful.com where he was co-founder and CTO. Previously he was the CTO, Mobile at Pivotal and VP, Engineering at Pivotal Labs via the acquisition of Xtreme Labs. Farhan is an avid investor and advisor to startups in Toronto and San Francisco, including being a mentor at yCombinator and First Round Capital. Previously, Farhan held senior technical positions at Achievers, Microsoft, and Trilogy. Farhan completed his MBA in Financial Engineering at Rotman and Computer Science/EE at Waterloo.Join us at ELC Annual 2024!ELC Annual is our 2 day conference bringing together engineering leaders from around the world for a unique experience help you expand your network and empower your leadership & career growth.Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to expand your network, gain actionable insights, ignite new ideas, recharge, and accelerate your leadership journey!Secure your ticket at sfelc.com/annual2024And use the exclusive discount code "podcast10" (all lowercase) for a 10% discountSHOW NOTES:Strategies for motivating your team after reorgs, rifts, or other uncertain times (2:37)Farhan's favorite quick wins & ways to re-engage with your team (4:48)Managing up & sideways by being transparent and always looking to help (7:31)Be dedicated to learning / bouncing ideas around with others (9:59)Frameworks for identifying the long-term, winning opportunities to pursue (12:13)How to influence & create buy-in around ideas (15:26)Navigating situations where your idea / perspective is facing resistance (18:18)Best practices for messaging a pitch when working cross-functionally (21:03)Utilizing individual frameworks when mentoring & coaching (23:10)Questions to ask when developing a personal career development framework (27:30)Approaching performance-related conversations (29:11)How to use demos to measure developer productivity (32:09)Methods for maintaining high velocity without losing quality (35:21)Insights on team topologies & identifying / building the needs of your org (37:14)This episode wouldn't have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan's also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Celine Halioua of Loyal (https://loyal.com/) a San Francisco startup developing drugs to extend the lifespan of dogs. In this episode, we discuss how to plot (and raise against) key company milestones, how to engineer scarcity with VCs, what terms are important and how to negotiate them, how to read an investor's body language for signals, the extensive pet collections we each had as kids and much more. Loyal most recently completed its Series B funding round, securing $45 million in investment. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures with support from Valor Equity Partners. Previous investors include Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Box Group, Collaborative Fund, Quiet Capital, and Todd & Rahul's Angel Fund. Loyal has cumulatively more than $125 million since its founding. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $17 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com. If you are a VC or investment banker, check out our new platform, www.fundingstack.com

In this episode, we talk with Meka Asonye, Partner at First Round Capital, about founder sales, navigating today's fundraising landscape, and the impact of AI and first-party data on the tech industry. For more from ZI Labs visit ⁠www.zoominfo.com/labs⁠ Ben on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensalzman Millie on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/milliebeetham

Note: This is a replay of one of our most popular episodesWhitnie Narcisse is an MBA Graduate from UNC Kenan-Flagler, and currently the SVP of Operations at First Round Capital. Whitnie spoke about her journey to UNC and her journey to venture capital. She also provided insight into the moves she made to land a career in VC, as well as practical advice on some important lessons when it comes to networking, and Whitnie's practical tips for building mentor and mentee relationships.LinksProving the Power of Mentoring with Whitnie NarcisseVenture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC)Adams ApprenticeshipFollow Whitnie on Twitter: @WhitniewLowHere's What Makes Mentorship Work

Join us at our first in-person conference on June 25 all about AI Quality: https://www.aiqualityconference.com/ David Nunez, based in Santa Barbara, CA, US, is currently a Co-Founder and Partner at Abstract Group, bringing experience from previous roles at First Round Capital, Stripe, and Slab. Just when we Started to Solve Software Docs, AI Blew Everything Up // MLOps Podcast #235 with Dave Nunez, Partner of Abstract Group co-hosted by Jakub Czakon. Huge thank you to Zilliz for sponsoring this episode. Zilliz - https://zilliz.com/. // Abstract Over the previous decade, the recipe for making excellent software docs mostly converged on a set of core goals: Create high-quality, consistent content Use different content types depending on the task Make the docs easy to find For AI-focused software and products, the entire developer education playbook needs to be rewritten. // Bio Dave lives in Santa Barbara, CA with his wife and four kids. He started his tech career at various startups in Santa Barbara before moving to San Francisco to work at Salesforce. After Salesforce, he spent 2+ years at Uber and 5+ years at Stripe leading internal and external developer documentation efforts. In 2021, he co-authored Docs for Developers to help engineers become better writers. He's now a consultant, advisor, and angel investor for fast-growing startups. He typically invests in early-stage startups focusing on developer tools, productivity, and AI. He's a reading nerd, Lakers fan, and golf masochist. // MLOps Jobs board https://mlops.pallet.xyz/jobs // MLOps Swag/Merch https://mlops-community.myshopify.com/ // Related Links Website: https://www.abstractgroup.co/ Book: docsfordevelopers.com About Dave: https://gamma.app/docs/Dave-Nunez-about-me-002doxb23qbblme?mode=doc https://review.firstround.com/investing-in-internal-documentation-a-brick-by-brick-guide-for-startups https://increment.com/documentation/why-investing-in-internal-docs-is-worth-it/ --------------- ✌️Connect With Us ✌️ ------------- Join our slack community: https://go.mlops.community/slack Follow us on Twitter: @mlopscommunity Sign up for the next meetup: https://go.mlops.community/register Catch all episodes, blogs, newsletters, and more: https://mlops.community/ Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpbrinkm/ Connect with Dave on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djnunez/ Connect with Kuba on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakub-czakon/?locale=en_US

Whitnie Narcisse, Operating Partner at First Round Capital Whitnie shares how you can work in venture capital without having an investing or finance background. We explore the world of venture capital platform and all the functions and professionals that make a venture capital firm successful for the firm and its portfolio companies. She also explains why venture capital firms hire their own engineers and how they build their recruitment networks and pipelines for their portfolio companies and the hottest startup jobs. We also explore how First Round Capital helps startup founders and their early employees succeed beyond the first check. Whitnie tells us how she developed and launched the First Round Expert Network, the firm's Fast Track mentorship program, the intensive product-market fit bootcamp PMF Method, and more. This episode of "The Blind Ambition with Jack Kelly" is brought to you by Hims, MobSquad and BetterHelp. Get access to affordable and discrete sexual health treatments with a free online visit at ⁠⁠hims.com/blind⁠⁠. If you were unsuccessful in the H-1B visa lottery, MobSquad can help. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠mobsquad.io/blindambition⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. BetterHelp offers affordable online therapy on a flexible schedule. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠betterhelp.com/teamblind⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for 20% off your first month. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/blindpodcast⁠

Howard Morgan's inimitable career began with his early and prescient interest in computers. In fact, Howard has been on email for 51 years! He is currently the Chair and General Partner of B Capital. He is considered one of the pioneers of early-stage investing, having co-founded First Round Capital alongside Josh Kopelman, which was the first professional seed stage fund and the first institutional investor in Uber.Prior to First Round, Howard helped found Idealab with Bill Gross, and served as President of Renaissance Technologies, which he co-founded with Jim Simons. Renaissance Technologies is the best performing investment firm of all time, and its mysterious and famous Medallion Fund is considered to be the most successful fund ever.Howard shares insights into the importance of being at the right place at the right time, choosing great partners, and his approach to investments, mentorship, health, and philanthropy. Listen in on Michael Sonnenfeldt's conversation with the globally recognized venture capitalist, visionary, and TIGER 21 Member Howard Morgan.Watch clips:Behind Howard Morgan's SuccessHow to accomplish almost anythingBirth of RenTecTopics:(0:41) Introducing Howard Morgan(4:29) Howard Morgan's Journey: From Academia to RenTec(7:15) Renaissance Technologies: Pioneering Quantitative Investing(12:53) VC Successes: First Round Capital to Uber(14:10) “You can accomplish anything if you don't care who gets the credit.”(16:01) Philosophy of Success: Mentors, Investments(22:30) Aging, Dr. Comite(24:25) Heliogen(27:50) Ideally, Blastoff, and Timing Matters(31:18) How Howard Morgan Evaluates an Investment(32:11) First Round Capital, B Capital Approach(34:54) Health: Biological Age 11 Years Younger(37:45) Philanthropy: Generational Wealth, Impact, Legacy(42:13) Tip JarAbout:TIGER 21 is the premier peer membership organization for ultra successful entrepreneurs, investors, and executives.Links:tiger21.comMichael Sonnenfeldt - LinkedIn | @mwsonnenfeldt@HLMorganRelated: Renaissance Technologies - Acquired“Why The F We're Still Doing This”The Discoverers - BoorstinThe Anxious Generation - HaidtFollow & Connect:Podcast | YouTube | X | LinkedIn | Blog Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Annie Duke is a former professional poker player, a decision-making expert, and a special partner at First Round Capital. She is the author of Thinking in Bets (a national bestseller) and Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away and the co-founder of the Alliance for Decision Education, a nonprofit whose mission is to improve lives by empowering students through decision skills education. In our conversation, we cover:• What Annie learned from the late Daniel Kahneman• The power of pre-mortems and “kill criteria”• The relationship between money and happiness• The power of “mental time travel”• The nominal group technique for better decision quality• How First Round Capital improved their decision-making process• Many tactical decision-making frameworks—Brought to you by:• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security.• UserTesting—Human understanding. Human experiences.• LinkedIn Ads—Reach professionals and drive results for your business—Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-better-decisions-annie-duke—Where to find Annie Duke:• X: https://twitter.com/AnnieDuke• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-duke/• Website: https://www.annieduke.com/• Substack: https://www.annieduke.com/substack/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Annie's background(03:53) Lessons from Daniel Kahneman: humility, curiosity, and open-mindedness(09:15) The importance of unconditional love in parenting(15:15) Mental time travel and “nevertheless”(20:06) The extent of improvement possible in decision-making (24:54) Independent brainstorming for better decisions(35:36) Making sure people feel heard(42:41) The “3Ds” framework to make better decisions(44:49) Decision quality(55:46) Improving decision-making at First Round Capital(01:05:05) Using pre-mortems and kill criteria(01:10:15) Making explicit what's implicit(01:10:55) The challenges of quitting and knowing when to walk away(01:19:23) Where to find Annie—Referenced:• Daniel Kahneman, Who Plumbed the Psychology of Economics, Dies at 90: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/business/daniel-kahneman-dead.html• Adversarial collaboration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adversarial_collaboration• Does more money correlate with greater happiness?: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/does-more-money-correlate-greater-happiness-Penn-Princeton-research#• Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36857342/• Strategic decisions: When can you trust your gut?: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/strategic-decisions-when-can-you-trust-your-gut• Cass Sunstein on X: https://twitter.com/CassSunstein• Dr. Becky on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drbeckyatgoodinside• A framework for finding product-market fit | Todd Jackson (First Round Capital): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-framework-for-finding-product-market• First Round Capital: https://firstround.com/• Brett Berson on X: https://twitter.com/brettberson• Renegade Partners: https://www.renegadepartners.com/• Renata Quintini on X: https://twitter.com/rquintini• Roseanne Wincek on X: https://twitter.com/imthemusic• Josh Kopelman on X: https://twitter.com/joshk• Bill Trenchard on X: https://twitter.com/btrenchard• Linnea Gandhi on X: https://twitter.com/linneagandhi• Maurice Schweitzer on X: https://twitter.com/me_schweitzer• Problems with premortems: https://sjdm.org/presentations/2021-Poster-Gandhi-Linnea-debiasing-premortem-selfserving~.pdf• Create a Solid Plan on How to Fail Big This Year: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2020/02/07/create-a-solid-plan-on-how-to-fail-big-this-year/• Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away: https://www.amazon.com/Quit-Power-Knowing-When-Walk/dp/0593422996/• Richard Thaler on X: https://twitter.com/R_Thaler• Stewart Butterfield on X: https://twitter.com/stewart• Glitch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch_(video_game)• How the Founder of Slack & Flickr Turned Colossal Failures into Billion-Dollar Companies: https://medium.com/swlh/how-the-founder-of-slack-flickr-turned-failures-into-million-and-billion-dollar-companies-7bcaf0d35d66• The Most Fascinating Profile You'll Ever Read About a Guy and His Boring Startup: https://www.wired.com/2014/08/the-most-fascinating-profile-youll-ever-read-about-a-guy-and-his-boring-startup/• The Alliance for Decision Education: https://alliancefordecisioneducation.org/• Make Better Decisions course on Maven: https://maven.com/annie-duke/make-better-decisions—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

My guests today are Rei Wang and Anita Hossain, Co-founders of coaching platform The Grand, which was seed funded by Alexis Ohanian's firm Seven Seven Six in 2023. Rei is the Chief Product Officer and Anita is the CEO. I met Rei ages ago, in her early days in NYC at General Assembly, where she worked as a Product Manager and Global Community Lead, developing educational opportunities for students. And I was excited to interview her about her work as the CEO of the Dorm Room fund at First Round Capital a few years back to get her perspectives around the intersection of community and product design…especially when the community IS the product. Check out that conversation here. Rei cultivated a vibrant startup ecosystem, mentoring over 250 entrepreneurs on various aspects of business management and fundraising. Their leadership garnered recognition, including the Forbes 30 under 30 award. Rei and Anita met during their time at First Round Capital, where Anita was the Head of Knowledge. While there, she helped hundreds of entrepreneurs connect deeply and vulnerably, to share their concerns and to learn from each other. Anita was also an executive coach with the renowned coaching firm, Reboot, and is a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner. Key Advice for Working Through Challenges Prevention is first and foremost! Speak early and often to reduce buildup, bottling up and boiling over of tensions Make feedback about actions and behaviors, not about the person or their personality Rei suggests that using a simple framework like SBIO is a great way to frame feedback. (Situation or data, the Behavior you see, the Impact it has on you, and the Opportunity for improvement or transformation) Make sure feedback conversations are two-sided, with both partners regularly asking for and offering feedback Anita underscores the importance of Co-Creation of resolutions to challenges instead of telling someone to be different. Working on these tensions with a sense of collaboration can lead to reduced defensiveness. Head over to theconversationfactory.com/listen for full episode transcripts, links, show notes  and more key quotes and ideas. You can also head over there and become a monthly supporter of the show for as little as $8 a month. You'll get complimentary access to exclusive workshops and resources that I only share with this circle of facilitators and leaders. Links The Grand My previous conversation with Rei Wang

Todd Jackson is a Partner at First Round Capital. Before moving into venture capital, he played a crucial role as VP of Product and Design at Dropbox, guiding the company until its IPO in 2018. Prior to Dropbox, Todd led product management for Twitter's Content and Discovery teams after selling his startup, Cover, to Twitter in 2014. Before Cover, Todd oversaw product development for Facebook's Newsfeed, Photos, and Groups. He kickstarted his career at Google as an associate product manager and eventually led product for Gmail, witnessing its growth from beta to 200 million users. In our conversation, we discuss:• Why product-market fit (PMF) matters• First Round Capital's four-part PMF framework• Level one: Nascent product-market fit• Level two: Developing product-market fit• Level three: Strong product-market fit• Level four: Extreme product-market fit• Examples of companies at each level• How to know if you're stuck at a level, and how to get unstuck• What to change if you're stuck: persona, problem, promise, and product• The goals and challenges at each stage—Brought to you by:• WorkOS—The modern API for auth and user identity• Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments• CommandBar—AI-powered user assistance for modern products and impatient users—Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/a-framework-for-finding-product-market—Where to find Todd Jackson:• X: https://twitter.com/tjack• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Todd's background(06:07) First Round Capital's PMF framework(09:07) Why product-market fit is so important(11:02) Who can benefit from this framework(12:55) The product-market fit method(16:54) Broad overview of the framework(21:35) Level one: nascent product-market fit(33:16) The four P's(39:13) Level two: developing product-market fit(49:13) Signs you're stuck at level two, and what to do(55:12) Level three: strong product-market fit(01:00:17) Signs you're stuck at level three, and what to do(01:02:22) Level four: extreme product-market fit(01:06:55) Rough timelines for each level(01:11:18) A quick recap of the framework(01:12:15) Diving deeper on the four P's: what to do if you're stuck(01:13:56) Dollar-driven discovery(01:25:11) Apply for the product-market-fit method program—Referenced:• First Round: https://firstround.com/• Twitter Acquires Cover: https://www.vox.com/2014/4/7/11625332/twitter-acquires-cover-an-android-mobile-startup• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/• Rahul Vohra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulvohra/• How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product Market Fit: https://review.firstround.com/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit/• How to validate your startup idea: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/validating-your-startup-idea• How the most successful B2B startups came up with their original idea: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-the-most-successful-b2b-startups• How to know if you've got product-market fit: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-know-if-youve-got-productmarket• A guide for finding product-market fit in B2B: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/finding-product-market-fit• Product-market fit method: http://pmf.firstround.com/• Stripe: https://stripe.com/• Plaid: https://plaid.com/• Paths to PMF: https://review.firstround.com/series/product-market-fit/• WeWork: https://www.wework.com/• Casper: https://casper.com/• Vanta: https://www.vanta.com/• Christina Cacioppo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ccacioppo/• Ramp: https://ramp.com/• Velocity over everything: How Ramp became the fastest-growing SaaS startup of all time | Geoff Charles (VP of Product): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/velocity-over-everything-how-ramp-became-the-fastest-growing-saas-startup-of-all-time-geoff-charl/• Jack Altman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackealtman/• Lattice: https://lattice.com/• Zachary Perret on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zperret/• Positioning: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/positioning• Retool: https://retool.com/• David Hsu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dvdhsu/• Persona: https://withpersona.com/• Rick Song on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-song-25198b24/• Lloyd Tabb on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloydtabb/• Looker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looker_(company)• Jason Boehmig on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jboehmig/• Ironclad: https://ironcladapp.com/• Lessons in leadership | Scaling an org and tactical management advice | Jack Altman (Lattice): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZzXqf61mrQ• Filip Kaliszan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaliszan/• Verkada: https://www.verkada.com/• Ali Ghodsi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alighodsi/• Databricks: https://www.databricks.com/• Stripe Radar: https://stripe.com/radar• Stripe Atlas: https://stripe.com/atlas• Square Stand: https://squareup.com/shop/hardware/us/en/products/ipad-pos-stand-integrated-card-reader• Cash App: https://cash.app/• Square Checking: https://squareup.com/us/en/campaign/banking/checking• Square Loan: https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5654-get-started-with-square-capital• Casey Winters on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseywinters/• How to sell your ideas and rise within your company | Casey Winters, Eventbrite: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-sell-your-ideas-and-rise-within-your-company-casey-winters-eventbrite/• Josh Kopelman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkopelman/• The art and science of pricing | Madhavan Ramanujam (Monetizing Innovation, Simon-Kucher): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/videos/the-art-and-science-of-pricing-madhavan-ramanujam-monetizing-innovation-simon-kucher/• Simon Kucher: https://www.simon-kucher.com/—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Meka Asonye, a Partner at First Round Capital, started angel investing in 2018 while working at Stripe and joined First Round in 2021. He has made dozens of Angel investments and 13 Venture investments, and he's just getting started! While he focuses on B2B SAAS, he has not shied away from investing in audacious founders, from modernizing 911 call centers to putting the biggest satellites in space. Meka shares his approach to finding true outliers, a practice he began while uncovering hidden talent for the Cleveland Guardians. Meka writes checks of $2M to $5M as the lead at pre-seed and seed.Highlights from the discussion:Meka's unconventional path to VC: from discovering high-potential baseball talent to leading sales at startups to VCMeka's first angel investment came from Craiglist!Exploring the frontiers: investing in Space and GovTechHow Meka supports founder friends, honestlyLeveling up in VC by learning from partners, retros, reviews, and reflection powered by process and dataThis is for information purposes only. This is not investment advice.

Bob Moore is the founder of Crossbeam, which is a platform-led ecosystem that helps companies build sales partnerships by understanding their overlapping accounts using a process called account mapping. There is a vast network effect as customers attract other partners to the network. The Company raised $117 million from notable investors such as Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from prior round lead investors Redpoint Ventures, FirstMark Capital, First Round Capital and Uncork Capital, along with Salesforce Ventures, HubSpot Ventures and Okta Ventures.So far that network has grown to 18,000 companies. If 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).

When it comes to financial health there is still much work to be done. While fintech has certainly made an impact here the average consumer is no more financially healthy than they were a decade ago. This is a problem that fascinates me and I love it when I talk to companies that are making a real difference in this area.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Ana Mahony, the CEO and founder of Addition Wealth. Their financial health platform is targeted at employers to offer as a benefit to their employees but what makes them unique is the human interaction. While they have a lot of digital tools for employees they also offer free one-on-one sessions with CPA and Certified Financial Planners. In this podcast you will learn:How the idea for Addition Wealth first germinated.How the program at First Round Capital really helped launch the company.The breadth of their product offerings to enhance financial health.Why the human interaction is such a differentiator for Addition.How they can scale with a human plus digital approach.How they vet these financial advisors and ensure they are providing quality advice.How Ana's experience at Uber has helped develop their platform.What is involved in implementing Addition Wealth with a new employer.Details of their go-to-market strategy.The scale they are at today.What people care about most when it comes to their financial health.The average percentage of employees that engage with their offering.Her vision for the future of Addition Wealth.Connect with Ana on LinkedInConnect with Addition Wealth on LinkedInConnect with Fintech One-on-One: Tweet me @PeterRenton Connect with me on LinkedIn Find previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

When it comes to financial health there is still much work to be done. While fintech has certainly made an impact here the average consumer is no more financially healthy than they were a decade ago. This is a problem that fascinates me and I love it when I talk to companies that are making a real difference in this area.My next guest on the Fintech One-on-One podcast is Ana Mahony, the CEO and founder of Addition Wealth. Their financial health platform is targeted at employers to offer as a benefit to their employees but what makes them unique is the human interaction. While they have a lot of digital tools for employees they also offer free one-on-one sessions with CPA and Certified Financial Planners. In this podcast you will learn:How the idea for Addition Wealth first germinated.How the program at First Round Capital really helped launch the company.The breadth of their product offerings to enhance financial health.Why the human interaction is such a differentiator for Addition.How they can scale with a human plus digital approach.How they vet these financial advisors and ensure they are providing quality advice.How Ana's experience at Uber has helped develop their platform.What is involved in implementing Addition Wealth with a new employer.Details of their go-to-market strategy.The scale they are at today.What people care about most when it comes to their financial health.The average percentage of employees that engage with their offering.Her vision for the future of Addition Wealth.Connect with Ana on LinkedInConnect with Addition Wealth on LinkedInConnect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes

Thejo Kote discussed the challenges and solutions in expense management for small and medium-sized companies. Thejo Kote, founder and CEO of Airbase, a spend management platform, explained the difficulties of bringing together disparate systems to properly understand expense management. He highlighted the benefits of consolidating all non-payroll expenses into one platform, which Airbase offers, and the positive impact this can have on various stakeholders such as employees, managers, budget owners, and finance and accounting professionals. Thejo Kote also shared an example of how Airbase has helped a public company, Proximity, streamline its expense management processes. Thejo Kote shared his personal hero, his grandfather, who despite facing significant challenges and poverty, became a leading scholar and author in India. He admired his grandfather's hard work and persistence, which have influenced his own life and career path. Thejo Kote also mentioned that he can be easily contacted through LinkedIn, and encouraged potential customers to explore the integration between Airbase and Sage. Thejo Kote is the Founder and CEO of Airbase, the leading spend management platform for small and midsize companies. Founded in 2017, Airbase is a venture backed company and has raised over $100M from Menlo Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and First Round Capital. Thejo's first company, Automatic, was acquired by SiriusXM.

Hiya! This episode is the 2nd in a 3-part series of episodes where I explore 3 topics: Positioning (last episode) Strategic Narrative (this one) Category Design (next time) I hear these concepts being thrown around all the time but not always fully understood. What are the key differences?  When should you use one method over another? What's my take on them? Which one do I think is actually the most helpful and WHY? Andy Raskin is the master of strategic narrative. He helps CEOs align their teams around a strategic narrative to power success in sales, marketing, fundraising, product and recruiting. Clients include VC-backed companies funded by top VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Google Ventures, and First Round Capital. Also in this episode: Quick review of strategic narrative; What's the best way to write it down; Strategic narrative is one story to rule it all, from the old way to the new way, but in many cases there are multiple new ways, so how do you convince someone that your way is the best new way; Investors and employees love old game vs. new game thinking and creating a movement but do prospects actually get it in a sales meeting; Should you position yourself as an expert and "teach" on a sales call; Why don't more companies adopt the Strategic Narrative mindset; What's the difference between Strategic Narrative and Category Design; Andy asks me his burning question. You can find Andy on LinkedIn: ⁠www.linkedin.com/in/andyraskin Andy's website: andyraskin.com Andy's podcast: ⁠andyraskin.com/podcast For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, and don't forget to leave a review if you're lovin' the show! And whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 1. fractional head of marketing for early stage startups >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 2. sponsor my Top 5% podcast and get startup founders, marketers and VCs hearing about your brand >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast.furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠ 3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sign up to get my monthly early stage startup marketing newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where I'm sharing playbooks and insights and cracking some jokes You can also find me hanging out on LinkedIn, definitely say hello and tell me what you're building >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anna-furmanov/message

This is episode #320 and today's guest is Mike Duda, Managing Partner at Bullish. Peloton, Harry's, Warby Parker, Casper, Birchbox… these are all iconic direct-to-consumer brands that have all disrupted various categories that were ripe for disruption. Take Warby Parker, the eyewear company that disrupted Luxottica's business which pretty much owned the whole market from eyewear brands to storefronts. Or Casper, the company that made the process of purchasing a mattress much more enjoyable. A common thread for all of these companies is Bullish. One-part consumer investment firm, one-part strategic agency, Bullish blends capital, consulting and creation to design the most remarkable businesses in the world. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion on the state of the state of the consumer market and a dive into Function of Beauty, a personalized shampoo DTC company. * Mike's background story and initial career through the ranks in the agency world. * A sincere nod of appreciation to First Round Capital for starting office hours for startups and how they were helpful to both of us starting our own businesses. * The story of Bullish and how they set out to build a different firm through its project based work and investments. * What it's like building a Super Bowl commercial for a brand. * The investment criteria for Bullish and what he means by a “chip on the shoulder” entrepreneur. * And so much more.

Today we're joined by Howard Morgan to dive into his illustrious career in venture. He discusses the firms he helped start, Renaissance Technologies, Idealab, First Round Capital, and now at B Capital. Morgan also highlights the importance of global investing and the challenges it presents. They also discuss frontier areas including genomics, bioinformatics, longevity, and space technology. Morgan reflects on lessons learned and mistakes made throughout his career and offers advice for emerging managers. If you're looking for an ERP platform, check out our sponsor, NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/turpentine --- Check out Erik's new show Request for Startups featuring a rotating cast of founders and investors (including Dan) sharing their requests for startups they want to exist in the world, and also their stories of navigating the idea maze in different sectors so founders don't have to reinvent the wheel anymore. The first episode is out now - we over better dating apps, references as a service, and WeWork for productivity Watch and Subscribe on Substack: https://requestforstartups.substack.com/p/receipt-based-dating-reference-checks Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/request-for-startups-with-erik-torenberg/id1728659822 Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/739L1LR32QI2XyoZlRh5nv --- We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com. --- SPONSOR: NETSUITE NetSuite has 25 years of providing financial software for all your business needs. More than 36,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, gaining visibility and control over their financials, inventory, HR, eCommerce, and more. If you're looking for an ERP platform head to NetSuite http://netsuite.com/turpentine and download your own customized KPI checklist. --- Join our free newsletter to get Erik's top 3 insights from each episode: https://turpentinevc.substack.com/ --- RELATED SHOWS: If you like Turpentine VC, check out our show The Limited Partner with David Weisburd, where David talks to the investors behind the investors: https://link.chtbl.com/thelimitedpartner --- RECOMMENDED PODCAST: Live Players https://link.chtbl.com/liveplayers Join host Samo Burja and Erik Torenberg as they analyze the mindsets of today's most intriguing business leaders, investors, and innovators through the lens of their bold actions and contrarian worldviews. Think: Elon, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, George Soros and more. You'll come away with a deeper understanding of the development of technology, business, political power, culture and more. LIsten and subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/liveplayers. --- X / TWITTER: @HLMorgan (Howard) @BCapitalGroup (B Capital) @eriktorenberg (Erik) @TurpentineVC --- TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (00:50) How Howard started his venture capital and investing career (13:45) On building a global firm (17:16) Angles of building a venture firm that Howard is excited about (19:43) Sponsor - Turpentine (20:46) AI is in everything (22:57) What Howard would have done differently (27:02) On not going multistage route (30:35) Asset class: Is now a good time to invest or not? (34:05) Venture capital in the next 5-10 years (37:26) On not going accelerator route (40:43) Starting small then going multistage (43:38) Howard's approach if he were to start over an emerging fund - would he go for the same verticals or no? (45:14) It's really tough to raise money right now (46:12) Howard's thoughts on accelerators and incubators (47:32) Trade offs between venture as it relates to the macro (49:55) What inspires Howard to keep investing and working? (51:08) Will venture change much in the next 30-40 years? (52:52) On picking the right partners - what's Howard's superpower there? (54:10) Wrap

In this episode of "Investing in Integrity", Ross Overline has an enlightening conversation with Howard Morgan, a formidable figure in the tech world and current chairman of B Capital.  Howard walks us through his exciting journey from academia to tech innovations, recalling his impactful roles at First Round Capital and Renaissance Technologies. Venturing deep into the world of investments, Howard reveals some of his successful bets and those he passed on. Interestingly, he sees a connection between academia and venture capital - both are about nurturing fresh talent. He also sheds light on the values that drive him: persistence, passion, and humility. Life outside of business is also bustling for Howard. He stresses the importance of human connection when choosing business partners and shares insights into his disciplined personal routine, which astonishingly includes reading 160 books a year and prioritizing fitness.  As the conversation draws to a close, Ross and Howard delve into a transformative concept: redefining the finance sector's role in fostering global betterment. They discuss the potential for future finance professionals to effect real change, striking a harmonious balance between achieving financial success and making a meaningful, positive impact. Ready to dive deeper into this riveting discussion? Tune in now and enrich your perspective!

Itai Turbahn is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Dynamic (https://www.dynamic.xyz). Backed by a16z Crypto, First Round Capital, Chapter One, & more, Dynamic is a web3-first authentication and authorization platform that lets developers harness the magic of wallet-based interactions in minutes. In this episode we discuss downstream possibilities from Dynamic for crypto at large, reaching early conviction on the authentication and authorization problems they're tackling, what crypto's getting right (and wrong) in 2023, & much more.Recorded Monday October 23rd, 2023.

Today we bring you a living legend. Miguel Armaza sits down with Howard Morgan, Chair and General Partner at B Capital, a global investment firm with $6.3 billion in AUM and 160+ portfolio companies.Howard is also a true technology pioneer. He was one of the first people in history to experience the web, and had computer #50 on the ARPANET. His research also contributed to the development of the modern internet.Howard is also a trailblazer of tech investing, having co-founded firms like Renaissance technologies with Jim Simons, and First Round Capital with Josh Kopelman.We discuss:Bringing the internet to Wharton and sending his first email in the early 70sBuilding Renaissance Technologies, the best-performing fund of all-timeLessons for founders and investors after 50 years of investing in tech companies, including the seed rounds of Uber, Square, and RobloxBuilding a truly global investment firm at B CapitalThe impact of GenAI and why every company should be leveraging enterprise AI tools today… and a lot more!  Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today's global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

Arielle picked up product marketing on the job at Google, where she helped grow Gmail in its early days. Then at Square, she was one of the first marketers who led the launch of new hardware products and distributed them to more than 30k retailers. Arielle's worked with hundreds of early stage companies — including Patreon, Loom, Front, Bowery, Eero, and Maven — on their foundational messaging as the Marketer in Residence at First Round Capital and through her own consulting practice.  --- We talk about: Developing a positioning strategy before building  Problem discovery and audience understanding  Focusing on the primary audience and making sacrifices on who not to target  What has worked and not worked   --- Where to find Arielle  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariellerjackson/ X: https://twitter.com/hiiamArielle --- We reference:  Positioning is Vital to your Startup Strategy: https://review.firstround.com/Positioning-Your-Startup-is-Vital-Heres-How-to-Do-It-Right Arielle's Brand Strategy Course on Maven: https://maven.com/arielle/startupbrandstrategy --- Where to find Patrick LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcmoran/ --- (2:49) Positioning strategy is just another name for your product strategy (5:29) Developing the positioning exercise before writing a line of code  (8:44) Sacrificing who you're not building for and being extremely focused on that   (13:30) Focusing 100% on the audience at first and uncovering competing alternatives (18:47) Naming trends and focusing less on timeless names, tones, and brand look and feel  (26:56) Pick one key benefit and double down. Using the bar test    (30:42) When word of mouth is generated and how messaging is a pre-requisite  (32:39) Positioning time horizons for start-ups and later stage companies  (36:34) Approaching a second product  (39:22) Some of the big positioning failures over time  (43:03) When positioning worked (44:34) Where to find Arielle!          

Phin Barnes is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of The General Partnership (TheGP), a venture capital firm that's redefining what partnership means for founders. Previously, Phin spent over a decade at First Round Capital, where he was responsible for over 60 investments including Blue Apron, Notion, Clover Health, Gauntlet and Persona. Before First Round, he created an independent video game company and before that was an early employee at AND 1 Basketball where he helped scale the brand from $15 to $225 million in revenue and served as the Creative Director for Footwear. In Today's Episode with Phin Barnes We Discuss: From Creative Director to Venture Capitalist: How did Phin make his way into the world of venture having been a Creative Director at a basketball brand? What does Phin know now that he wishes he could tell himself on his first day in venture? What are 1-2 of Phin's biggest lessons from his 10 years at First Round which shapes how he invests? 2. The Venture Capital Model is Broken: Why does Phin believe the current services model of venture is broken? Do the best founders need your help? What have been some of the biggest lessons in what the best founders want from their VCs? What happens to this generation of firms with massive support teams? Do VCs use these support teams merely to justify massive fund size scaling to LPs? 3. The Venture Landscape Today: How can we compete in a seed landscape of $5M on $25M against large multi-stage firms? What founders types are attracted to big brands? What founder profiles are taken in by large rounds and high prices? Is Phin more or less excited about seed-stage investing now than he has been before? 4. Investing Lessons 101: What is Phin's biggest hit? How did seeing their success impact his mindset? What is Phin's biggest loss? How did the loss impact how he views investing? Traction, team, market; how does Phin rank the three in prioritisation? What should all young people know when entering the venture landscape?  

My guest is Katy Trost! Katy Trost is an esteemed coach and advisor to tech CEOs in London and New York City, specializing in helping them become more effective leaders and cultivate healthy organizations, particularly during periods of growth like Series B and beyond. Her impressive client portfolio includes companies backed by prominent investors such as SoftBank, First Round Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Felix Capital, Octopus Ventures, Inflexion, Maven, and others. Katy serves as a coach and judge for renowned programs like Tech Nation Future Fifty, Upscale, Octopus Ventures, Techstars, Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, PwC Fintech, and the Mayor of London Mentoring Program, in addition to her advisory roles with various startups.  With a global perspective honed through years of travel and experience in the US tech ecosystem, she expanded her consultancy to the UK. Katy holds an Executive mini MBA from the London School of Business and Finance (LSBF), PCC accreditation from the International Coach Federation (ICF), and certifications in leadership methodologies, including iPEC, Workboard™ OKRs, and Gazelle's Scaling Up™ framework, which has propelled countless firms worldwide to successful scaling. She has also completed programs like the Financial Times Board Director Program and the Nedx Board Alliance Program.  Katy's impactful work has been featured in prestigious publications such as Forbes, Success Magazine, The Org, Thrive Global, and others, and she collaborates with organizations like WeWork, Soho House, Home Grown, and Quinnipiac University to deliver training on business, leadership, and high-performance psychology. Social and Website: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katytrost/ For more episodes and information, visit us at https://www.digitalnicheagency.com/media Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4zS5V79... Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=524781... Follow Digital Niche Agency on Socials for Up To Date Marketing Expertise and Insights Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/digitalniche... Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/digi... Instagram: DNA - Digital Niche Agency @digitalnicheagency • Instagram photos and videos. Twitter: https://twitter.com/DNAgency_CA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDlz…

Picture this: tens thousands of fans screaming from the top of their lungs for more content from you, the B2B marketer.It may sound more like how people react to superstars like Taylor Swift; there are tactics she uses in her branding that inspire intense fandom, like how Swifties can wear red lipstick, make beaded bracelets or decode hidden messages in her Instagram posts to own a bit of her brand for themselves. It's all a part of a culture that Taylor Swift and her team of amazing marketers have meticulously cultivated over time. But who's to say B2B marketers can't borrow a bit of that marketing magic? In this episode, we're turning to the artist with more #1 albums than any other woman in history: Taylor Swift, and seeing what new B2B marketing ideas we can learn from her. What about her brand has inspired such passion; the kind of passion that is expected to bring in more than $1 billion in ticket sales from her current tour? Joining us is Senior Director of Content Marketing at Lob, Kim Courvoisier. Together, we're talking about the marketing behind Taylor Swift's record-breaking tour, creating a shareable brand, and refreshing content to give your audience even more value. So layer on your Swifty bracelets and maybe a little something sparkly for this episode of Remarkable.About LobLob is the only direct mail automation platform for the digital age. Lob's platform automates the direct mail execution process for enterprises at any scale - from creation, printing, postage, delivery, and sustainability with end-to-end analytics and campaign attribution. Over 12,000 businesses trust Lob to transform their direct mail into intelligent mail. Founded in 2013 and based in San Francisco, Lob is venture-backed by Y Combinator, Polaris Partners, Floodgate, and First Round Capital.About Taylor Swift and The Eras TourTaylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter who has more #1 albums than any other woman in history after her album “Speak Now (Taylor's Version)” debuted at #1. The 33-year-old artist from Pennsylvania who was originally known for country music is known for her musical versatility and reinventing herself as an artist. As a cultural figure, she has had several high-profile news stories, including her dispute with Big Machine Records over ownership of the masters of her first 6 studio albums which led to her re-recording all of them, and another legal battle with Apple in 2015 over protecting artists' rights to fair compensation for their work. She currently has 10 albums, and has sold 114 million albums worldwide. She's won 12 Grammys, 19 Billboard Music Awards (the most of any woman), 40 American Music Awards, and more.  She has many trademarks, including hiding messages in her content, frequently using the number 13, wearing red lipstick, and going barefoot. Her fans call themselves Swifties.The Eras Tour is a journey through all of Taylor Swift's studio albums. It's 131 concerts across five continents, and is expected to be the highest grossing tour in history. Tickets bring in more than $13 million a night, for an expected $1 billion+ overall. The average ticket costs $254. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve even reported that the tour is boosting economic growth, specifically related to hotel revenue. Taylor Swift has a 44-song set list and the concert is 3-hours long. The tour started on March 17th in Glendale, Arizona which was officially renamed “Swift City” for two days. The tour will wrap up on November 23rd, 2024 in Toronto.About our guest, Kim CourvoisierKim Courvoisier is the Senior Director of Content Marketing at Lob, the only direct mail automation platform for the digital age. Kim is an experienced senior-level digital marketing leader with over 12 years of experience in SaaS marketing, specializing in B2B and B2C content marketing, social media, email marketing, customer lifecycle marketing, AI, and SEO. She is based in San Francisco, California.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Taylor Swift and The Eras Tour: Re-use, recycle, repurpose your classic content. Look back at your past marketing content that did really well and see if you can get more juice out of it. Kim says, “A lot of times, I'll write an ebook, and it's like, ‘Okay, that was great for that campaign. Moving on,' And I'm like, ‘No, no, no. That's all perfectly relevant content. We should reuse that, we should recycle it, we should repurpose that.' And that's exactly what Taylor Swift is doing when she is re-releasing these albums because she's now driving eyeballs or ears back to that content.” So make the most of the content you've invested time and effort in in the past, and refresh it to give your customers added value today.Create a shareable culture around your brand. For Swifties, it's making beaded bracelets, wearing the number 13, going barefoot, putting on red lipstick. And it inspires fans to create their own content or even make their own bracelets and sell them. Kim says, “It's helping this whole little generation become entrepreneurs, which I think is so incredible. I talk about marketing and [Taylor isn't] keeping it for herself. She's sharing it with everyone, and I think there's no greater power as a marketer than to empower others. And she's absolutely doing that.” So extend your brand to include free elements that fans can own, get added value from, and make their own.Quotes“If your content isn't adding value, then you're just creating more noise.” - Kim Courvoisier “When [Taylor Swift] re-releases an album, she actually adds new content to it. Like content from the vault that wasn't on the original edition. And so it's adding more value. So that would be like if I took an old ebook that I had written and then put on an extra bonus chapter and re-released it. So I think there's a ton of lessons we can learn as marketers to go back and refresh and repurpose our content. And I get a ton of inspiration from that.” - Kim CourvoisierTime Stamps[0:54] Meet Kim Courvoisier, Senior Director of Content Marketing at Lob[1:32] Why are we covering Taylor Swift?[4:04] Tell me more about Taylor Swift[10:32] Learn more about the record-breaking Eras Tour[16:54] How do you create a shareable culture?[22:39] What are marketing lessons we can learn from The Eras Tour?[24:58] How to repurpose classic content and give your audience added value[33:55] How to make content appeal to people who aren't currently in the “buying mode”[36:34] How does Kim think about the ROI of content?[42:57] What are Kim's favorite pieces of content she's made at Lob?[45:15] Tell me more about Lob's 2023 State of Direct Mail and Consumer Insights ReportsLinksListen to Taylor SwiftLearn more about The Eras TourConnect with Kim on LinkedInLearn more about LobAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios), Colin Stamps (Podcast Launch Manager), and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith O'Neil, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Join Nate Matherson as he sits down with Camille Ricketts for the fifteenth episode of the Optimize podcast. Camille is the Operating Partner focused on all things marketing, brand, and communications for Emergence Capital, the longest-standing venture firm focused on B2B software. She's also known for being Notion's 10th hire, joining Notion as the first marketer when the team was just 10 people, and running content and marketing for First Round Capital, where she founded and built First Round Review. In this episode, Camille and Nate discuss her extensive background from her time with First Round Capital to Notion's 10th employee to becoming a member of The White House's US Digital Service. Camille gets tactical, sharing strategies and tips for creating user onboarding and tutorial content, generating case studies, and leveraging cross-functional teams. As a special bonus, Camille and Nate dive deep into Notion's go-to-market approach, revealing insights into building successful creator marketing campaigns. Closing out the episode is our popular lightning round of questions! For more information please visit www.positional.com, or email us at podcast@positional.com.Resources:Join Positional's Private Beta Here: www.positional.comCheck in with Nate on LinkedIn & TwitterCheck in with Camille on LinkedIn & Twitter & Emergence CapitalWhat to Listen For:02:30 Camille's Background04:49 Experience being Notion's 10th employee05:54 Was content always a priority at Notion?09:00 How do we create and distribute tutorial content?11:34 Driving success with pre-built templates for users13:30 What is a Director of Community?15:15 Notion's GTM strategy: Influencer Marketing21:26 Where did SEO fit in Notion's GTM strategy?23:12 How do you get a customer to agree to do a case study?25:35 Cross-functional teams drive the best results for content marketing25:58 Camille's White House experience (US Digital Service)27:38 Should VCs be creating content?28:39 Lightning question round

In this episode, I am joined by Katy Trost, a highly sought-after coach and advisor specializing in guiding CEOs and executive teams through the intricacies of scaling up. With a client list that reads like a 'Who's Who' of the venture capital world, including firms like SoftBank, Octopus Ventures, and First Round Capital, Katy brings unparalleled experience to the table. The conversation starts with an insightful discussion on the challenges CEOs commonly face as their companies move through funding rounds and scaling stages. Katy delves into the psychological aspects of leadership, touching upon the role of imposter syndrome, the CEO's relationship with the board, and nuanced gender differences in how leaders seek and utilize support. As the episode progresses, Katy shares her perspective on the dynamism that exists within various departments of a scaling company—from the sales team to tech to finance. The chat sheds light on how CEOs can serve as the linchpin that connects different personalities and professional objectives into a coherent, effective leadership framework. One of the episode's highlights is a deep dive into company culture, a concept often misunderstood or underemphasized during rapid growth. We explore the necessity of maintaining a strong culture at scale and the challenges that can arise when implementing change across an organization. They also discuss the importance of measuring and setting Key Performance Indicators (KPI

In this episode we discuss:[00:00:00] Why Melody chose to stay in the US for startups and her hobbies growing up[00:07:00] What values Melody upholds as a VC when working with startup founders[00:12:00] The important lesson Melody learned in early-stage venture investing[00:13:00] Why Melody believes in investing in exceptional founders with high potential[00:18:00] Melody's hands-on approach as a VC and how she supports founders[00:21:00] The benefits of NextView Ventures' concentrated bets on startup founders[00:22:00] Why building trust is crucial in the VC-founder relationship[00:23:00] Melody's role as a VC and how she guides founders[00:25:00] How NextView faced challenges during COVID and supported a struggling portfolio company[00:28:00] The key trait that makes founders successful in the fast-changing startup world[00:30:00] Understand the mindset founders need to overcome obstacles and achieve their mission[00:32:00] Why startups should focus on problems in large, pervasive markets[00:35:00] NextView's investment thesis and the problems they aim to solve[00:37:00] How NextView supports concept-stage companies through their accelerator program[00:42:00] Meaning of different seed and pre-seed funding stages for startups and what matters most[00:53:00] Investors Melody would reach out to if she were starting a new startup todayAboutMelody is a Partner at NextView Ventures based in its New York office. She has spent her entire career working with technology and Internet startups as an entrepreneur, operator, and investor.Prior to joining NextView, Melody was Head of Product at Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN). Melody joined Blue Apron as the first product hire when the company was 18 months old with 20 HQ employees. She helped scale the business through hyper-growth (25x in 3.5 years) and to its IPO, building and leading a 35-person team across Product Management, Product Design, and Analytics/Data Science.Previously, Melody was a Product Manager at Fab.com leading marketing & analytics products and the founder/CEO of a seed-funded wine subscription e-commerce service. Melody was also a venture investor at Time Warner's strategic VC group and was a one of six inaugural members of First Round Capital's Product Co-op initiative. Melody began her career as a tech/media M&A investment banking analyst at Evercore Partners.Melody holds an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Commerce with Distinction from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and son. 

Adrian Aoun is the Founder and CEO of Forward Health, which is rebuilding healthcare as a product, not a service. Forward is supported by investors like Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Softbank, Expa, Marc Beinoff, Ashton Kutcher, The Weeknd, Lee Linden, Josh Kushner, First Round Capital, Eric Schmidt, DCVC, and more, Before starting Forward, Adrian worked with Larry Page at Google to setup and launch new companies inside of Alphabet. He joined Google through the acquisition of his AI startup Wavii, and spent his first year at Google helping create and build its AI division. Adrian was on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and is an angel investor in companies including Stripe, Uber, Anduril, and more. Brought to you by Secureframe, the automated compliance platform built by compliance experts: https://secureframe.com/request-demo-4?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=062023-thesplit In this episode, we discuss: Rad the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/making-healthcare-a-product-not-a - How the healthcare industry actually works - Why poor incentives make technology in the industry ROI-negative - The founding story of Forward - Why healthcare should be a product, not a service - Building doctor's offices like Tesla builds cars - Being Larry Page's right hand man at Google - Building a “healthcare operating system” like Apple builds the app store - Adrian's contrarian views on the food industry - Why animal farming is a bigger climate issue than you might think - Zuck: the man in the arena Where to find Turner: Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak Where to find Adrian: Twitter: https://twitter.com/adrianaoun LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianaoun Read the transcript: https://www.thespl.it/p/making-healthcare-a-product-not-a Production and distribution by: https://www.supermix.io For sponsorship inquiries: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebvhBlDDfHJyQdQWs8RwpFxWg-UbG0H-VFey05QSHvLxkZPQ/viewform

Jack Altman is the co-founder and CEO of Lattice, a people success platform for building engaged, high-performing teams. Lattice has raised over $330M, and was last valued at $3B. He is an expert in building company culture, and wrote a book on the topic, titled: “People Strategy”. In today's episode, we discuss: The importance of self-awareness and how to develop it The value of difficult conversations and advice for having them Common mistakes when scaling a company How to approach firing decisions and the associated internal optics How to think about low-performing but “well-liked” employees How to get drastically more out of your team members Adapting to the challenging new economic environment Referenced: Jack's book: https://www.amazon.com/People-Strategy-Culture-Competitive-Advantage/dp/1119717043 Jack's company, Lattice: https://lattice.com/ First Round Capital's Newsletter: https://review.firstround.com/newsletter Where to find Jack Altman: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackealtman Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaltma Where to find Brett Berson: Twitter: https://twitter.com/brettberson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ In this episode, we cover: (2:40) Founders must continually grow with their company (7:23) How to identify hiring errors vs management errors (9:46) Managing the tension of delegation vs control (11:51) How to cultivate self-awareness (14:59) The one thing founders should never give up (17:22) How to build a product org (19:06) Hot take on micro-management (21:05) The importance of context setting as CEO (22:09) What founder transparency actually means (23:43) Examples of “context setting” as a leader (26:09) The value of uncomfortable conversations (27:16) How to have uncomfortable conversations (28:30) Founders must own their most difficult decisions (31:48) Optimizing speed vs accuracy in decision-making (33:50) The hidden biases in group discussions (35:05) When Jack experimented with removing himself from all meetings (37:48) The most unusual element of Jack's leadership approach (38:34) 4 pieces of advice for CEOs (41:20) How to talk to customers (42:59) The many sources of learning for CEOs (46:45) Instructive framework for maximizing employee performance (49:56) When long-time employees don't scale with the company (55:07) How to think about low-performing but “well-liked” employees (58:19) Identifying team members that “aren't a fit” (59:57) Should you tell people why someone was let go? (62:42) Managing in the challenging new economic environment (68:18) Aligning an employee's career goals with company goals (74:27) You're probably underestimating your team's potential

Shawn Xu is a venture capitalist and current Chief of Staff at Lowercarbon Capital. Shawn believes in audacious founders and bold solutions to the climate crisis and we wanted to have him on CLIMB because he's not just an investor; he's also a relentless builder helping to expand Lowercarbon's platform and founder products. Shawn has personally partnered with ~50 companies to date and brings with him a wealth of knowledge on helping founders go zero to one, from ideation to product-market fit. As a Partner at On Deck's venture fund and accelerator, he successfully backed companies in over 20 countries, earning a perfect founder NPS of 100. Prior stints at Floodgate and First Round Capital's Dorm Room Fund propelled him into Forbes' 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital. Before his investing career, Shawn was a startup executive leading international expansion for companies like Square. His commitment to social impact led him to serve as a tech policy advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom. A Silicon Valley native, Shawn earned his MBA/MA in International Affairs from Wharton and the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania after completing his undergraduate studies at UC San Diego. About VSC Ventures: For 20 years, our award-winning ⁠PR agency VSC⁠ has worked with innovative startups on positioning, messaging, and awareness and we are bringing that same expertise to help climate startups with storytelling and narrative building. Last year, general partners Vijay Chattha and Jay Kapoor raised a $21M fund to co-invest in the most promising startups alongside leading climate funds. Through the conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share what we're doing at VSC and VSC Ventures on climate innovation with companies like ⁠Ample⁠, ⁠Actual⁠, ⁠Sesame Solar⁠, ⁠Synop⁠, ⁠Vibrant Planet⁠, and ⁠Zume⁠ among many others.

Anthony Georgiades is the Co-Founder of Pastel Network, a fully decentralized, developer-friendly layer-1 blockchain serving as the preeminent protocol standard for non-fungible tokens ("NFTs") and Web3 technology. While performing his duties as President, Anthony is also a General Partner at Innovating Capital, a technology fund focused on disruptive companies and digital assets that has incubated Pastel Network since day one. Anthony previously spent time on the investment team at First Round Capital and on the operations teams of various startups. He studied finance, management, and computer science at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton and engineering schools.In this conversation, we discuss:- Web3/NFT security- The importance of decentralized storage- Struggles creators face in the NFT space- NFT use cases beyond art, such as within DeFi- The current state of the NFT market and where we're headed- Loan collateralization- Fractionalized NFTs- On-chain storage solutions- Current state of the US economyPastel NetworkWebsite: pastel.networkTwitter: @PastelNetworkTelegram: t.me/PastelOfficialAnthony GeorgiadesTwitter: @panthonylgLinkedIn: Anthony Georgiades ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.  PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions.  Code: CRYPTONEWS50  This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below:  PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50 

Tara Seshan is the Head of Product at Watershed, a climate platform that companies use to measure, report, and reduce their carbon emissions. Before joining Watershed, Tara was Head of Product at Stripe throughout the launch of Stripe Billing and Stripe Treasury. As a Thiel Fellow and experienced multi-product builder, Tara brings a wealth of experience with 0-1 SaaS products. In today's episode, we discuss: The different types of multi-product strategies. Stories from Stripe's multi-product success. How to allocate resources across new and existing products. How to structure teams for launching new products. The best personas for building new products and the hiring tactics for finding those people. Common challenges when going from single to multi-product. How to assess and prioritize new product ideas. How to measure success when launching new products. The 12 questions Tara asks for better product reviews. Tactics for collecting and interpreting user feedback. Referenced: First Round Capital's Newsletter: https://review.firstround.com/newsletter The 'Wins Above Replacement' metaphor: https://en.as.com/mlb/wins-above-replacement-war-baseball-statistic-explained-n/ Zero to One by Peter Thiel & Blake Masters: https://www.amazon.com.au/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804139296 Companies Referenced: Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/ Cash App: https://cash.app/ Figma: https://www.figma.com/ First Round Capital: https://firstround.com/ Lattice: https://lattice.com/ Notion: https://www.notion.so/ Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/ Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Watershed: https://watershed.com/ People Referenced: Jack Dorsey: https://twitter.com/jack Patrick Collison: https://twitter.com/patrickc Shreyas Doshi: https://twitter.com/shreyas Where to find Tara Seshan: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarstarr/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/tarstarr Where to find Brett Berson: Twitter: https://twitter.com/brettberson?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-berson-9986094/ In this episode, we cover: (0:00) Intro (3:55) How Stripe navigated the path from single to multi-product (6:00) How to allocate resources across a primary product and secondary bets (7:46) How to launch products using small teams (12:25) What makes a great early-stage product thinker (13:08) Key indicators for spotting early-stage product talent (16:33) A common fail-case when hiring for potential over experience (18:32) 5 interview questions to unearth hidden talent among product candidates (20:35) What Stripe got wrong when it first launched Billing (26:00) How Stripe adapted to new buyer profiles (28:50) Why new product teams should be treated like a startup within a company (30:35) The importance of “definite optimism” (31:44) How Watershed prioritizes new products in an early market (33:53) The methodical versus analytical approach to picking new products (40:08) Setting goals and evaluating new product bets (41:55) How Tara runs new-product reviews (42:10) “The Enterprise Rent-A-Car Story” and why it matters (43:56) The 12 questions Tara asks in product reviews (46:17) How to use product review questions pre-meeting (46:34) The rationale behind Tara's 12 questions (48:13) How Tara re-focusses the questions when building products for net-new-customers (49:43) How to collect and leverage user feedback when building new products (51:58) Why product development must start with problem validation (53:52) Two people who had an outsized impact on how Tara thinks about product (54:50) Outro

Today, we're happy to welcome you to the second episode diving deep on the story of a Super Angel on EUVC! Say hi to Charley Ma, the man responsible for building and scaling multiple enterprise software startups and leading their marketing, sales, and customer success teams from $0 to $200m dollars as the first revenue hire for companies such as Plaid, Ramp, and Alloy. But Charley's career as an operator is definitely matched by his career as an angel having been an early investor in breakout companies such as Stytch, Unit, Codat, Moov, Finch, and many more which have gone to raise from giants like A16Z, Bain, Benchmark, Coatue, First Round Capital, Founder's Fund, Index and Sequoia.In this episode you'll learn:Charley's journey from JP Morgan to Plaid and into angel investing despite "not having that much money" at the time - in fact he decided to invest his B-school savings on building his angel career instead of academic rap sheet!How Charley thinks about building relationships in angel investing and the importance of being opinionated and selective at the same time as maintaining a broad networkHow Charley employs his experience from his angel investing to make him a better operator and how that allows him to navigate the current market betterHow Charley thinks about portfolio construction, ownership and how he has gone from being purely founder centric to now being more thematically focusedThis episode is sponsored by Vauban. Vauban makes it easy to launch your angel syndicate or VC Fund, check them out at www.vauban.io/euvc

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're joined by Stephanie Palmeri and Melody Koh, Partners at NextView Ventures. Nextview was founded in 2010 and recently raised $200MM for their new set of funds. Located in SF, NY, and Boston, the firm invests all across the US and has invested in over 170 companies at the seed-stage since its founding, including Devoted Health, Thread up, and Attentive. We had a great conversation about how NextView thinks about firm partnerships, what seed and pre-seed investing look like today, and what they believe it means to successfully work with founders. About Stephanie Palmeri:Stephanie is a Partner at NextView Ventures and is based in San Francisco. She focuses on the power of technology to positively transform how we live, work, learn, play, and care for our planet and each other. Her investments in the “Everyday Economy” have spanned many industries, including social commerce, circular retail, education, digital health, marketplaces, transportation, and finance. Previously, Stephanie was a partner at Uncork Capital, where she spent a decade investing in dozens of seed stage companies, including Poshmark ($POSH), Clever (aqu. by Kahoot!), Chariot (acq. by Ford), ClassDojo, Carrot Fertility, Hallow, Panorama Education, Phil, Wrapbook, and Wonderschool. Before venture investing, Stephanie worked as a technology consultant and marketer at Accenture, Estee Lauder, and several startups.Stephanie holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Marketing and Management Information Systems, magna cum laude, from Villanova University.About Melody Koh:Melody is a Partner at NextView Ventures, based in its New York office. Prior to joining NextView, Melody was Head of Product at Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN). Melody joined Blue Apron as the first product hire when the company was 18 months old with 20 HQ employees. She helped scale the business through hyper-growth (25x in 3.5 years) and to its IPO.Previously, Melody was a Product Manager at Fab.com leading marketing & analytics products and the founder/CEO of a seed-funded wine subscription e-commerce service. Melody was also a venture investor at Time Warner's strategic VC group and was one of six inaugural members of First Round Capital's Product Co-op initiative. Melody began her career as a tech/media M&A investment banking analyst at Evercore Partners.Melody holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and the University of Virginia.In this episode. we discuss:(01:54) Why NextView strives to not be a pack of lone wolves(03:35) How the carry economics of the firm drives a deeper partnership(06:57) Building firm culture with so many locations(11:21) How NextView uses strategic in-person time to remain connected(13:42) The benefits to founders by being more strategic in their investments(16:33) How the NextView model performed in the different market conditions over the last few years(21:04) What the moving goalposts of the market has meant to founders and investors(25:27) The advice they are giving founders to get through this difficult funding cycle(29:18) Why NextView sees themselves as invited guests and why that translates to happy founders(34:31) How they think about the growth and evolution of NextViewI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Stephanie and Melody. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Kurtis Lin has been involved with several successful startups that have had great exits. His latest venture aims to disrupt the way our credit and borrowing power is valued, by using more data. Pinwheel has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Indeed, Coatue, First Round Capital, Upfront Ventures, and Franklin Templeton Investments.

Howard Morgan is the Chairman and General Partner at B Capital and previously the co-founder of First Round Capital. Howard shares his perspective on building successful seed funds (he's an LP in 80), what is exciting him today in tech and how he has chosen such great partners throughout his life.  

Welcome to a brand new episode of the ¿Quién Tú Eres? podcast, where we explore the conflict we often face between "professionalism" & being our authentic selves. This week, we have the pleasure of speaking with Joshua Encarnacion. Joshua is a 1.5 generation Dominican-American, and a proud Afro-Latino…with his heart set on growing and helping people grow into their full potential. He's helped build 3 tech-industry startups and worked in training & recruiting roles for big tech companies Uber & Google. Born in Manhattan, NY, and raised in Lawrence & Springfield, MA, Joshua has nothing but love for his folks and the people he's met along his journey as a lifelong learner consisting of a lot of sports, math, reading, perreo, bachata, y cafe bustelo. Throughout his career, he's serviced the following organizations: Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, UBER, Airbnb, Netflix, Pandora, Slack, Twitter, Pinterest, Earnest, Gusto, Affirm, Abstract, Simply Business, Thumbtack, Yelp, Asana, Lyft, Atlassian, Tinder, First Round Capital, Kapor Center, General Assembly, Hackbright, Latinas in Tech, NextPlay, CODE2040, Hack The Hood, CODE Tenderloin, The Justice Collective, Change Catalyst, Techqueria, Big Nerd Ranch, and MANY more unlisted. He's coached people through various challenges by helping them grow the emotional intelligence and high-performance habits necessary to create their own professional success, which is a passion of his. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/quientueres/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/quientueres/support

Hila Qu is one of the leading growth execs of the last decade. Hila helped scale Acorns from 1 million to 5 million users as their VP of growth. Hila then joined GitLab, where she launched their PLG motion (on top of an established sales motion), and built their first-ever growth team. Today Hila is an advisor to amazing companies like Replit and funds like Mucker Capital, Openview and First Round Capital. In Today's Episode with Hila Qu We Discuss: 1.) From Biology and Explosions to Growth: How Hila made her way into the world of growth with growthhackers.com? What are 1-2 of the biggest takeaways from her time with Acorns and Gitlab? How do B2B growth orgs compare to B2C growth orgs? What is different? What is the same? 2.) WTF is Growth? When? How & Why: How does Hila define growth today? What is it not? When is the right time for early-stage founders to hire their first growth hire? Why does Hila always look for data analysts in this first growth hire? From a data standpoint, what should founders have ready and accessible for their first growth hire to have access to and learn from? Is Google Analytics enough? 3.) Hiring Your First Growth Hire: How should early-stage founders structure the hiring process for the first growth hire? What do the best growth job descriptions include? What do they not include? Once applications are in, how does Hila advise founders screen for the best candidates? How should founders structure the interview process post-screening? What are the must-ask questions? Who is involved in the interview process? What are some red flags? 4.) The Master of Onboarding: What should new growth hires want to achieve in the first week? What should they want to complete in the first month? In the first quarter, what do the best candidates have completed? What can founders do to set their growth hires up for success in the best way at this time? 5.) Growth Models, North Stars, Activation and Onboarding and Key KPIs: What really is a growth model? How do founders and growth teams create one? How does Hila advise founders on how to pick the right North Star Metric to focus on? Why are activation and conversion Hila's two favorite growth metrics? What are growth loops? What are growth funnels? How do they work together?