Podcasts about flybridge

Episode 373 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Jeff Bussgang, General Partner at Flybridge. Jeff has accomplished so much throughout his career. I'm sure lots of people probably know him best as a Venture Capitalist and Professor at Harvard Business School. But... you might not know the details about his startup career prior to Flybridge which I was really excited to dig into because he played a key role at two incredibly successful companies in the Boston tech scene. The first being OpenMarket, which pretty much invented eCommerce with its shopping cart technology that was licensed by companies like Amazon when they were just getting started. The company went public at a billion dollar valuation back in 1996 which was a very big deal. The second company is Upromise, where he was a Co-Founder along with Michael Bronner, who was also the Founder of Digitas and really helped establish the world of direct & loyalty marketing and David Fialkow, who you might also recognize as one of the founders of General Catalyst. Upromise allowed consumers, including myself, to save for their kids' college education through a loyalty rewards program. The company was very successful and it was later acquired by Sallie Mae. In addition to being an entrepreneur, investor, and professor, Jeff is also an author of three books and his latest book is called The Experimentation Machine - Finding Product-Market Fit in the Age of AI. Plus we talk about his Dad (Julian Bussgang), a scientist and entrepreneur who developed the Bussgang Theorem, Jeff educational background in AI, Flybridge's history of investments in AI, Hack.Diversity and so much more! Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:05 Jeff's New Book - The Experimentation Engine 04:47 Jeff's Background and Early Influences 08:47 The Story of OpenMarket & Shopping Cart Tech 17:21 The Creation of Upromise 25:06 Transition to Venture Capital & Flybridge 26:37 Flybridge's History & Focus on AI 32:50 Flybridge's Investment Process 34:13 Advice on Go-to-Market Strategy 35:36 Getting Pitched by Curt Schilling 38:03 Teaching at Harvard Business School 39:48 Career Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs 42:22 Must-Have Versus Nice-to-Have Products 44:00 Hack.Diversity 46:46 The Boston Tech Ecosystem & AI 52:55 Recommendations - Apps & Podcasts Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

What are the ways founders are using AI to experiment and optimize their start-ups faster than ever before? How does this shift affect the various makeups of different companies and industries, and who will be the winners and losers in the new age of AI?Jeff Bussgang is the GP and Founder of Flybridge Capital, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, and also the author of the new book The Experimentation Machine: Finding Product-Market Fit in the Age of AI. Greg and Jeff discuss timeless methods and timely tools for startups. Jeff elaborates on the scientific approach to entrepreneurship and the importance of combining timeless principles with modern AI tools. He shares insights on how generative AI can enhance every aspect of a startup, from ideation to customer engagement, and discusses the evolving roles of founders, venture capitalists, and even employees in this new landscape. Their conversation includes practical advice for founders on prioritizing experiments, scaling, building customer value propositions, and leveraging AI to become more efficient and effective.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Show Links:Recommended Resources:Chris DixonThe Idea MazeScott BradyReid HoffmanEric RiesSam AltmanOpenAIAileen LeeSteve BallmerGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at Harvard Business SchoolLinkedIn ProfileWikipedia ProfileJeffBussgang.comFlybridge.com ProfileSocial Profile on InstagramSocial Profile on XHis Work:Amazon Author PageAdditional Amazon Author PageThe Experimentation Machine: Finding Product-Market Fit in the Age of AIMastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your TermsEntering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right JobHBS online | Launching Tech Ventures classEpisode Quotes:The startup path is unpredictable but patterns exist03:08: Startups are highly nondeterministic, and so there's really no single playbook or single formula. And yet, there are timeless methods that you can apply to improve your odds of success. Now, you're never going to guarantee success. It's not an engineering formula where certain inputs result in certain outputs. There's just too much randomness. And as I said, nondeterminism is out there, and every age, era, context, startup, and individual are so radically different. So it's highly unpredictable. Yet, as I said, timeless methods. And then, as you noted—and I write in the book—timely tools. I mean, the tools, they're not just getting better every year, every month, every week, every day. Strategy in startups is all about test selection10:36: This question of test selection being strategy is the essence of what founders need to think through because, anytime you have an organization with limited bandwidth and a limited envelope of resources and capital, you need to make prioritization decisions. You need to focus, and so what I advise founders, both that I teach and also through my Flybridge investment activities, is that they should select the tests that are going to uncover the most controversial part of their business model and have the highest likelihood of leading to a valuation inflection point if the test is successful.Why judgment, strategy, and creativity are timeless values for founders51:26: The notion that founders need to leverage their strategic thinking, creativity, and human judgment—and apply that again and again to prioritize these scarce resources—even if the resources can be stretched more fully—is still a competitive market, and everybody is stretching the resources and being more productive. I still think that that judgment is going to be very valuable.AI won't replace founders—but founders who don't use AI will be replaced47:41: AI is not going to replace founders anytime soon; but founders who don't use AI are going to replace founders who don't. I also believe that joiners who use AI are going to replace joiners who don't, that our portfolio companies are looking for AI-native employees, and that we may see a world where employees and candidates come to companies instead of with a team of engineers, marketers, or salespeople, as we have seen in the past—as the HubSpot mafia travels from company to company. [48:32] So I think there's going to be just a really rich set of opportunities for native joiners, and there's going to be a high bar that will be tested by employers about whether their individuals are native and facile with the AI tools.

1848 Ventures, a venture studio developing AI-powered solutions that drive growth for small and medium businesses, announced the launch of Propel People.  Propel People is an AI-powered recruiting platform purpose-built for the construction industry, designed to help HR teams hire skilled tradespeople faster and more efficiently. https://hrtechfeed.com/construction-focused-ats-platform-launches/ Paylocity announces new enhancements to its Recruiting platform that enable hiring teams to not only streamline and accelerate hiring processes but also improve the quality of candidate searches. https://hrtechfeed.com/paylocity-unveils-new-recruiting-innovations-to-meet-the-demands-of-high-volume-hiring-and-elevate-the-candidate-experience/ Teal, the AI-powered career platform, announced it raised $7.5 million in Series A funding, bringing the company's total capital to $19 million. The new financing, co-led by CityLight Capital and Flybridge, with participation from Rethink Capital Partners and Lerer Hippeau, will support product development to expand the Teal platform and its growing portfolio of advanced AI capabilities to help consumers navigate the increasingly complex job landscape. https://hrtechfeed.com/career-platform-teal-lands-huge-funding-round/ PALO ALTO, Calif. — Workera, the AI-powered skills intelligence platform, announced a strategic investment from Accenture marking a significant milestone in their strategic alliance. This multi-faceted alliance includes a strategic investment by Accenture, a reseller collaboration enabling Accenture to deliver Workera's solutions to clients globally, and a technology integration establishing Workera as the official skills intelligence layer within Accenture's LearnVantage platform https://hrtechfeed.com/workera-announces-strategic-investment-from-accenture/ DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) has announced that its Board of Directors authorized a new stock repurchase program that permits the repurchase of up to $5 million of the Company's common stock. It is currently trading just above $2 per share. https://hrtechfeed.com/dhi-group-announces-5-million-stock-repurchase-program/  

Conversé con Santiago Molina, cofundador y CEO de Finkargo, una plataforma de financiamiento para comercio exterior de PYMEs en Latinoamérica. Actualmente, tiene una base de 450 clientes en Colombia y México y ha facilitado más de 4,000 operaciones de importación. Recientemente, levantaron un total de $95M. en una Serie A liderada por QED Investors y CIM, con la participación de Quona, Flybridge y Nazca.Este episodio es presentado por: Hubspot para Startups:Crece tu startup sin perder tiempo ni dinero. Acelera tus ventas y marketing con automatizaciones y herramientas de IA. Empieza con hasta un 50% de descuento y $80,000 en beneficios para founders.

Chip Hazard, Co-Founder and General Partner of Flybridge Chip shares how he became a venture capitalist, including how he convinced Greylock to hire him when they hadn't added anyone to their team in 10 years. He explains what the day-to-day work is like as an investor and even what it's like to be a member of a company's board of directors. Finally, Chip shares how he gained the insights and confidence to advise the countless executives and startup founders he works with. Chip also gives us a sneak peek into how he makes his investments and what qualities he looks for in a startup founder. We explore how to apply his methodology to finding the next job or choosing the next startup to bet a career on. ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/blind-podcast

On this episode of the Somewhat Frank Podcast, Frank Gruber (X and IG: @FrankGruber), John Guidos (IG: @jgoodtimes83), and Simon Kahan (IG: @simonkahan) and joined special guest Jesse Middleton from FlyBridge, who is focused on investing in early-stage AI companies.   The group discussed all things AI and FlyBridge's new AI Index: https://www.flybridge.com/ai-index which monitors the largest AI players in the space. Jesse also talked about what he looks for when investing in AI companies and mentioned some of the AI companies he has been working with, including Splice (https://splice.com/innovation), Talktastic (https://talktastic.com), MelodyArc (https://melodyarc.com), Arcee AI (https://www.arcee.ai), and more.    The guys also talked about Apple's huge jump into the AI game. Read the article here: It's Official Apple Is Jumping AI at its WWDC event this week.   Lastly, Frank leaves listeners with a final thought related to Roger Feder's “Tennis Lessons” at his commencement address at Dartmouth College. His lessons were as follows:  Effortless is a myth; It's only a point, let me explain; and  Life is bigger than the court.    We also upload our episodes to YouTube in video format so you can see us now. Check it out on Established YouTube, where you can subscribe to get updates when we drop a new episode. https://soty.link/ESTYouTube    As always, thank you for listening, and feel free to reach out and let us know what you think at: somewhatfrank@est.us

It goes without saying, but we need more capital going towards female founded companies. While we still have a long way to go, there has been some progress in this regard with dedicated funds like XFactor Ventures. The fund, which is focused on pre-seed and seed investments, was launched in 2017 by Flybridge with Anna as a Co-Founder with a strategy of having women founders invest in other women founders. Fast forward, XFactor now has a portfolio that consists of over 70 companies that are all founded by women and an investment team of successful female founders who have started companies like Away, Figs, and others. After two startups, which were both acquired, Anna transitioned to a role as a fulltime venture capitalist by joining the Flybridge team in 2020 as a General Partner. She is focused on making investments in sectors such as commerce 3.0, marketplaces, mobile, consumer and eCommerce. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Examples of community driven companies like Chief and how they are leveraging this model as a strategic advantage, plus the details of the laptop sticker test at Flybridge. * Anna's background story and her transition from law to entrepreneurship. * All the details on Fashion Project, an online designer clothing donation company and a great story of how a pitch contest saved the company. * How Anna made the transition to investing fulltime and the process for making an investment. * Various reasons why a VC might not fund your company. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

In today's episode of WorkParty, Jaclyn is joined by Emma Bates, founder & CEO of Diem and former global marketing lead at Away. If you attended Create & Cultivate's Austin Pop-Up event earlier this year, you might've already heard from Emma on one of our panels where she spoke about women paving the way with blockchain technology.       If you're not familiar with Diem, it's a community-powered search engine designed for women. Diem is a Techstars NYC portfolio brand backed by leading investors like Flybridge, Acrew, & Sellation. By trade, Emma is a marketer and a community builder. Her entry into marketing was somewhat untraditional–in that she started out by growing her personal blog to 100K+ readers at age 19, and later transitioned into corporate marketing roles at some of the fastest-growing consumer brands in NYC and the UK. Prior to founding Diem, she worked as the Head of Global Marketing at the direct-to-consumer luggage brand, Away, where she found her passion for connecting with consumers through brand partnerships.        When she's not sidestepping her way into another entrepreneurial endeavor, she works to create social change as a lifelong advocate for gender equality. Emma has also been featured in Forbes, HuffPost, Entrepreneur, and The Cut for her unique approach to marketing, community building, and partnerships.     In this episode, we're talking about the importance of designing tech products from a human lens, the power of female communication, and how she's working to bring inclusive, reliable information to people of all different backgrounds.     Resources: • To join the WorkParty click here • To connect with Jaclyn Johnson click here • To connect with Emma Bates click here • To learn more about Diem click here • To download the Diem app click here • To sign up for the Diem newsletter click here • To follow along with Create & Cultivate click here • To submit your questions call the WorkParty Hotline: 1-(833)-57-PARTY (577-2789)   Sponsors: • Printfresh | Head to printfresh.com/WORKPARTY or use code PARTY at checkout for 15% off your first order. Produced by Dear Media This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.

In this episode, Julia shares her experience working in business development at WeWork before joining VC funds for the last 3+ years. She further talks about professional growth within a firm and how to tackle conversations around promotions. She concludes with her very candid recommendation to think about why you see yourself succeeding in and enjoying venture capital before diving in. 

In this episode of the Startup of the Year Podcast, we hear a conversation between Jesse Middleton, who is the General Partner at Flybridge and Co-Founder at The Community Fund and Matt Hunckler of Powderkeg, which is a long time partner of Established and Startup of the Year. Flybridge is a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on supporting ambitious founders leveraging the power of community. They have over $700M under management across five funds and five pre-seed funds…so Jesse definitely knows a thing or two about investing and supporting their portfolio companies. The Community Fund is a $5 million early-stage fund that invests in community-driven companies through an investment partner team. They believe that companies with community at the center of all that they do will become unicorns and produce outsized returns. We live streamed our Summit, so if you were not able to attend in-person, make sure to watch it on our Youtube channel at: soty.link/ESTYouTube Lastly, we invite you all to join our community today to access the support, expert advice, and resources you need to elevate your startup by going to: est.us/join  Thank you for listening, and as always, please check out the Established website and subscribe to the newsletter at www.est.us Checkout Startup of the Year at www.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Startup of the Year Daily Deal Flow: www.startupofyear.com/daily-dealflow Subscribe to the Startup of the Year podcast: www.podcast.startupofyear.com Subscribe to the Established YouTube Channel: soty.link/ESTYouTube *** Startup of the Year helps diverse, emerging startups, founding teams, and entrepreneurs push their company to the next level. We are a competition, a global community, and a resource. Startup of the Year is also a year-long program that searches the country for a geographically diverse set of startups from all backgrounds and pulls them together to compete for the title of Startup of the Year. The program includes a number of in-person and virtual events, including our annual South By Southwest startup pitch event and competition. All of which culminate at our annual Startup of the Year Summit, where the Startup of the Year winner is announced, along with an opportunity at a potential investment. Established is a consultancy focused on helping organizations with innovation, startup, and communication strategies. It is the power behind Startup of the Year. Created by the talent responsible for building the Tech.Co brand (acquired by an international publishing company), we are leveraging decades of experience to help our collaborators best further (or create) their brand & accomplish their most important goals. Connect with us on Twitter - @EstablishedUs and Facebook - facebook.com/established.us/.

On this episode of Just Raised, Joe Sweeny interviews Jacob Peters, Founder of Launch House. We talk about how Launch House started life as a meme, how to build great community, and how Launch House evolved into a combination of Soho House, Y Combinator, and executive coaching. Launch House just raised $3M from Flybridge. You can follow Launch House and what they're building on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/launch_house ( @launch_house) To stay up-to-date on all things Just Raised, visit https://workweek.com/brand/just-raised/ or follow Joe Sweeny on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/JoeySweeny ( @JoeySweeny)

Join MarineMax as we talk all-things Azimut Yachts and Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show! Follow us as YachtWorld's Ryan McVinney tours the Azimut booth to give you an inside look at the all-new Trideck, 53 Flybridge and Verve 42. We hope to see you at the show and our exclusive Online Showcase!Check Out the MarineMax Online Showcase: https://bit.ly/3Gqm6Ft The Online Showcase will take place from October 27-31 with exclusive models from some of our most popular brands. This will take place during the same time as the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in Florida. However, you can get the same exciting experience from the comfort of your home! MarineMax is the nation's leading boat and yacht retailer! We are ready to help you find your next boat and get you out on the water. Stop by one of our many nationwide locations or visit us online to search our vast selection of new and pre-owned boats. Find Your Boat: https://bit.ly/3tnbSPbFind Your Yacht: https://bit.ly/32hA7lRMarineMax gives you more ways to enjoy the boating life to the fullest. With classes, events, Getaways!® to amazing places and more, you're part of an entire family who is United by Water.

Anna Palmer of Flybridge and XFactor Ventures says the pandemic could spark a new generation of female led garage startups.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kate Talbot is Senior Forbes contributor and Marketing strategist for great VC firms such as Plexo Capital, Community Fund and Flybridge. Kate has a background from working directly with none other than the famed Richard Branson, in startups backed by revered firms such as Andreesen-Horowitz and has now started her own consultancy where she works with VCs on developing and executing their marketing strategy.** In this episode you will learn **• The importance of saying "Yes!".• The strength of a well-crafted content marketing strategy & how to build it.• Why marketing needs to be top of mind of any VC firm.• How to humanize VC & make it leverage the power of community.

Your first impression of HMY Yachts', Lexie Creary may seem a bit deceiving. On the outside she holds herself with the highest level of class and sophistication. Get down beneath the surface and she's as down home as they come. It's no mistake, because she's truly the total package rolled up into one amazing person. Once you get talking to her you'll find out quickly that living a life that's Connected By Water isn't something she just learned, it's how she was raised. Whether it's the most hardcore of hunts, or the highest level of world-class bill fishing, this conchy-tonk outdoorsman doesn't just hang with the best of them – she draws the line in the sand. Now, she's launched a podcast of her own in concert with HMY Yachts called “From the Flybridge” and we hope you check it out. Oh and… she's kinda the one to call if you're looking to get outfitted with a new Viking sportfish or Princess yacht. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, Michael here

In this episode of the Agents of Innovation Podcast, David Knies breaks the news that guest Anna Palmer has joined Boston's Flybridge Capital Partners as its first-ever female General Partner. Anna is a Harvard Law graduate who chose to follow her passion for entrepreneurial adventures instead of a law career. She has been the co-founder of luxury reseller Fashion Project, women-owned business marketplace Dough, and X-Factor Ventures, a fund focused exclusively on female founders. They discuss Anna's infinite curiosity, encouraged by her parents, her reasons for choosing a different path, her approach to investing at Flybridge will be, and how to close the gap in venture funding for female founders.

Jeff Bussgang, General Partner at Flybridge, speaks about evaluating startups both as an investor and an employee.

On this week's episode of the Great Loop Radio podcast, Susan Costa, the woman behind the new "Ladies on the Loop" e-book, joins us to talk about how to book came to fruition and what readers can expect.  Also with us is Gold Looper Jodi Symes who shares the details of her chapter titled "There's No Crying on the Flybridge".  Jodi shares the things she put in her "toolbox" to make the Loop more enjoyable.  This is part one of a two-parter.  Next week we'll hear from the authors of two more chapters of "Ladies on the Loop".

In episode two, host Chris Fenwick and Nash co-founder Fabio talk with co-founder of Flybridge Capital and Harvard Business School faculty member Jeff Bussgang about product/market fit and the importance of community in startups. Flybridge Capital provides seed-stage venture capital for founders by leveraging the power of community. A few of their recent success stories come from MongoDB, Codecademy and Chief.

David Politis is the Founder & CEO @ BetterCloud, the company that helps IT discover, manage and secure the digital workplace. To date, David has raised over $186M in funding with BetterCloud from the likes of Accel, Warburg Pincus, Greycroft, Flybridge and Dropbox to name a few. Before founding BetterCloud, David was an early employee of Cloud Sherpas (acquired by Accenture), where he led the company to become the leading cloud services partner to SMB worldwide. Prior to Cloud Sherpas, David was a founding employee and General Manager of Vocalocity (acquired by Vonage), which he grew into one of the top providers of cloud PBX technology.  In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How David made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found BetterCloud? How has David seen the rate of cloud adoption within enterprise over the last 5 years? Has it been faster or slower than he thought?  People often suggest operators are suited to certain stages of a company lifecycle, does David agree with this? What are the leading indicators an individual is struggling to scale? How does one communicate that to them effectively? How does David think about the decision to move an individual to another role vs release them?  What does radical transparency really mean to David? How does the ability to have radical transparency within your org change when the org is 10 people vs 100 people? What are the biggest challenges of scaling transparency? From a meeting structure view, what can leaders do to encourage transparency?  How does David feel about the method of OKR setting? How has his mindset changed towards OKRs? What does the decision-making process look like for deciding which OKRs to focus on? What OKRs do they focus on at BetterCloud? How does one know when they need to change their OKRs? David’s 60 Second SaaStr: What would David most like to change in the world of SaaS? How has David seen himself emerge and develop as a leader? What is the biggest challenge of David’s role within BetterCloud today? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr David Politis

Chip Hazard, Partner Flybridge Capital Chip's investment interests and experience broadly cover companies and technologies in the information technology sector. He is also an investment partner in XFactor Ventures, a Flybridge community fund focused on investing in female founders. Before co-founding the firm in 2002, Chip was a General Partner with Greylock Partners, a leading venture capital firm he joined in 1994. While at Greylock, Chip led or participated in numerous successful investments in the enterprise information technology field. Prior to Greylock, he was with Company Assistance Limited, an investment and consulting firm in Warsaw Poland; and Bain and Company, an international management consulting firm. Chip received a BA with honors from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.

Jesse Middleton is a startup founder and one of the early executives at WeWork who tackled a bunch of growth and operations challenges before launching WeWork Labs, their own global startup incubator, investment fund, business and digital product development lab. But before jumping into the world of venture capital, Jesse launched and sold a few companies of his own and then spent 5 years as part of the early team at WeWork, growing the company from a few buildings to a worldwide network and pioneer of the coworking and remote work industries. Jesse joins us to share his story, what it was like building WeWork and WeWork Labs, what it was like transitioning into venture capital, his two investment rules at Flybridge, and much more.

Co founder of Wework Labs and Investor. Jesse’s investment interests includes mobile, SaaS, big data, consumer and e-commerce. Prior to joining Flybridge in 2016, Jesse was an early executive at WeWork, one of the fastest growing and most valuable startups in history. He co-founded WeWork Labs in 2011, which became WeWork’s global startup incubator, and ran WeWork X, M&A, startup investments, business and digital product development as well as inside sales during his five-year tenure at the company. Prior to WeWork, Jesse was the co-founder and CEO of Backstory, a venture backed startup. Jesse began his career traveling across the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Israel and China as a network security engineer based in Philadelphia. He moved to New York City where he became the head of information technology at LivePerson in 2010.

Over the years WeWork has grown to become a $16 billion empire of co-working office spaces that are disrupting the traditional real estate markets all over the world. Our guest today, Jesse Middleton, joined the team as the founder of WeWork Labs, the company’s startup focused community. Since then he has helped the company grow into the giant it is today. Recently he has just joined the venture capital firm Flybridge as a General Partner. Early on with entrepreneurial parents, Jesse learned that he did not have to take the traditional path in life and that he could forge his own future. He started to do just that, as he founded his first company before even going to college. Fast forward to Fast Company magazine once comparing Jesse to Jack Dorsey, then onto his time building WeWork Labs, and now his time as a VC at Flybridge. Jesse has a great story full of many lessons, such as: + Recognizing at an early age the ability to create your own path in life. + The importance of keeping a clear focus at the early stages of a new company. + How Jesse founded WeWork Labs. + Just get started and go. + The lessons from actively helping grow a $16 billion company. + Why long term vision is so important for the founders of companies. + What is next for WeWork Labs. + The intersection of community building and being an investor. + The future of Venture Capital. Ambition Today Question of the Day™: “What does Ambition mean to you and how has it driven you?” ========== Follow Kevin Siskar on Twitter: twitter.com/TheSiskar Follow Kevin Siskar on Instagram: instagram.com/thesiskar Follow Kevin Siskar on Facebook: facebook.com/kevin.siskar Add Kevin Siskar on Snapchat: snapchat.com/add/krsiskar Visit Ambition Today on the Web: www.siskar.co/ambitiontoday Kevin Siskar brings you ambitious entrepreneurs inspired by Tim Ferriss, Entrepreneur on Fire, NPR, HBR, TED Radio Hour, the StartUp podcast, Pat Flynn, Tony Robbins, The Uncertain Hour, Bigger Pockets, Art of Charm, Dave Ramsey, Planet Money, Jocko Podcast, EntreLeadership, Zigler, APM Marketplace, Mixergy, Seth Godin, #AskGaryVee, Monocle 24 and The $100 MBA Show with Omar Zenhom, and Casey Neistat. Be sure to listen and subscribe to Ambition Today in the iTunes Store for iOS (apple.co/1NRRPzL), on Google Play Music (goo.gl/LmmciJ), or on Stitcher for Android (bit.ly/1Rn01dy).

The venture capital world is growing by leaps and bounds and companies like Flybridge Capital Partners are fueling the tech and innovation behind many of the things that are transforming the world. In this conversation, I talk with Jeff Bussgang, general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners about a variety of things surrounding the venture capital space, including how he got started, what his company looks for in a startup company, and how they assess the leadership and team to make a wise early stage investment. What IS an early stage investment company? Early stage investments are nothing more than the money provided to promising companies that are not yet producing their products or services but have made significant headway toward the development or distribution of it. The money they receive is often referred to as “seed money” - the money used to enable the development, marketing, and progress of the company to move it toward profitability and sustainability. On this episode, Jeff Bussgang shares how his interest in the entrepreneurial world led him to become general partner of an early stage venture capital firm, and why startup funding is so exciting. What is a venture capital investment firm looking for in a startup? When I asked Jeff Bussgang what the team at Flybridge Capital Partners is looking for in an early stage company he gave me a number of criteria they look at to show them there is promise in the company: Innovative potential, leadership and team, the Pied Piper effect, and more. If those sound a bit vague, don’t worry. As you listen to this episode you’ll get a very clear understanding of what each of those things is and why Jeff and his team consider them vital to discerning a good investment from a bad one. It’s all on this episode of the Capital Gains podcast. The Pied Piper effect is something startup founders need - at least in this case. If the team at Flybridge Capital Partners is going to get behind a startup financially they want to see that the primary leader of the startup company possesses what they call a “pied piper” quality. That means he/she is a person who is a natural leader and attracts the interest of people to the projects they are working on. Jeff Bussgang points to the fact that we all know people whose ventures and projects are naturally of interest to us - and it’s because of who the person is and how they are wired that we are attracted. You can almost smell the excitement and potential because they are a person who tends to make things happen. Find out more about this elusive but tangible leadership quality, on this episode. If you can’t connect with me through a mutual connection, I’m not that interested. Jeff Bussgang understands that networking and connections are a huge advantage when it comes to making a company or cause successful. So much so that he’s generally unwilling to have serious conversations about funding a startup if their team did not approach him through some kind of mutual connection. He’s convinced that people who know how to make and utilize connections are also the people who will be able to build the relationships that will equip their company for future success. You can hear Jeff make the case himself on this episode. Outline of This Episode [1:04] Introduction of this week’s guest, Jeff Buskin. [1:54] The types of companies Jeff’s group invests in and what they look for in a winner. [6:50] The “winnowing” process Flybridge uses when evaluating potential companies. [10:50] Signals that a founder or leader is a “Pied Piper” who can build the company. [13:18] What does it mean to be an “early stage” investor? [18:54] Niches Flybridge tends to invest in. [21:58] Sectors on the horizon that Jeff and his team are watching carefully. [24:00] Why Flybridge has a geographic bias toward Boston and New York. [25:23] Why relationships matter so much to Flybridge. [31:23] Jeff’s path to Flybridge. [36:58] The tendency toward entrepreneurism: Is it innate? [39:03] Successes the company has had and what they have learned. Resources Mentioned Flybridge Capital Partners - Jeff’s investment company. On LinkedIn On Facebook On Twitter On Pinterest Code Academy Bitsight DataXu MongoDB Jibo Robotics Zest Finance Omni Physical Storage Upromise http://TwoBridgesMgmt.com www.TheMortarBlog.com   Connect With Capitalism.com Website: http://capitalism.com/ On Youtube On Facebook On Twitter On LinkedIn

Jesse Middleton is a General Partner @ Flybridge Capital Partners. Prior to joining Flybridge, Jesse was an early executive at WeWork, one of the fastest growing and most valuable startups in history. He co-founded WeWork Labs in 2011, and ran WeWork X, M&A, startup investments, business and digital product development as well as inside sales during his five-year tenure at the company. Prior to WeWork, Jesse was the co-founder and CEO of Backstory, a venture backed startup. Jesse also has experience as a prolific angel investor having invested in the like of Fitmob (acq by ClassPass) YourTrove acq by LiveNation and inDinero, who you might remember we had Jessica Mah, Founder @ inDinero on the show.   In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Jesse made the transition from operator with WeWork to General Partner @ Flybridge? 2.) At what stage does founder vision transition to become stubbornness? How does Jesse approach the situation of telling a founder when it is not working? 3.) How does Jesse's investment mindset shift from making the move from angel to VC with fiduciary responsibility? 4.) How does Jesse look to develop pattern recognition as a new entrant to VC? How important a role does mentorship play for Jesse? 5.) What are the characteristics Jesse looks for in a founder that suggest an innate problem solver? How does Jesse deal with problems when the 'shit hits the fan?' Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Jesse’s Fave Blog and Newsletter: Purple, The Skimm Jesse’s Fave Book: Leadership & The Challenge of Self Deception Jesse’s Most Recent Investment: Squire As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Jesse on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Eve make 1 perfect mattress – made with 3 layer technology and next generation memory foam. It comes packaged in a beautiful box and arrives the day after you order. You get 100 nights to try it with free return pick-up – it really is the perfect mattress for everyone. Just go online to evemattress.co.ukand enter the code 20VC for £50 off. Everybody deserves the perfect start with Eve.

Jeff Bussgang is a Co-Founder and General partner @ Flybridge Capital, where has made investments in numerous incredible companies including 2 former guests of the show, Jeff Seibert @ Crashlytics (sold to Twitter) and Josh Udashkin @ Raden. Jeff is also a Senior Lecturer @ Harvard Business School where he has co-authored no less than 15 cases. He is also an author having written the renowned, Mastering The VC Game to the acclaim of The Financial Times, TechCrunch, BusinessWeek and more. Jeff also has an incredible blog, Seeing Both Sides, which you can find here. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Jeff made his way into VC? How did he come to co-found Flybridge? 2.) To what extent does Jeff believe there is a glass ceiling for people without operations experience to progress up the VC ladder? 3.) How can companies establish cultures and processes when they have to change and reinvent every 6-12 months? 4.) What are venture returns? What metrics does Jeff use to determine his success? 5.) Is a focus on unit economics now one of the only ways to achieve equity value creation? How can consumer adoption drive equity value creation? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Jeff’s Fave Book: Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl Jeff's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Mattermark Daily Jeff’s Most Recent Investment: Sentenai As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Jeff on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Snapchat here!   This episode was brought to you by DesignCrowd, the online marketplace for custom graphic, logo and web design that helps startups, entrepreneurs, web developers and agencies outsource design projects to designers from around the world.   How Does It Work? Once you have launched your brief, designers will begin submitting quality designs for you to review. With some constructive feedback, you can quickly generate a large gallery of designs that really do fit your needs. You can have exactly what you need within just three days. Once you have selected your favourite design, you will be sent all the files you require to update your branding. If you don’t like any of the submitted designs, then DesignCrowd offers a money back guarantee. So checkout designcrowd.com/VC and enter the promo code VC100 to get an astonishing $100 off your next project.  

PODCAST RECOPILADO, EMITIDO ORIGINALMENTE POR: radio Bertoldo EN: http://www.spreaker.com/user/radiobertoldo/interpodcast2015-masqueteclasOs presento aquí y ahora uno de los capítulos que he hecho para el interpodcast2015.Ya sabeis, esa actividad podcastera donde los que nos apuntamos nos intercambiamos entre nosotros los podcast, unos hacemos los podcast de los otros, va a sorteo. A mi me ha tocado realizar el podcast de masqueteclas, el podcast que tan bien hace Jose Manuel Ramirez, consultor informático, acercándonos día a día con programas cortos en su masqueteclas lite (el azul) y con su programa largo por temporadas (el naranja, el long edition), los mejores consejos, la mejor actualidad informática, tanto del mundo windows, macquintosh, etc.En este podcast hablo del Flybridge. Una piecica de plástico que me dejó maravillado ya hace un par de años cuando cambié mi iphone 4, ya viejo y ajado, por un flamante iphone 5s.Espero que lo disfruteis. En breve el programa largo. En estas vuestras ondas: Masquetecleros.Escucha Masqueteclas en: http://www.ivoox.com/escuchar-masqueteclas_nq_92274_1.html

We had a chance to sit down with Jeff, author of Mastering the VC Game to get his insights on company development and what he looks for in a founder. Jeff is a former entrepreneur (Upromise, Open Market) who joined Flybridge in 2002 and focuses on the consumer, marketing services, e-commerce, software and mobile start-up markets. On the side, he serves as a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School where he teaches a class on entrepreneurship and lean start-ups called Launching Technology Ventures and has co-authored ten HBS cases. Jeff also currently sits on the board of MITX, the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange and is a Founding Executive Committee Member of First Growth Venture Network, a network of venture and angel investors supporting entrepreneurs building companies in the New York area. Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.