Podcasts about forum ventures

Featured Venture Capitalists : ​Jesse Middelton is a GP at Flybridge Capital, ​Olivia O'Sullivan is a Partner at Forum Ventures, Zehra Naqvi is an Investor at Headline Ventures, ​Victoria Kennedy is a GP a Seed to Harvest an early stage fund investing in software companies.  Supported by ⁠Fidelity Private Shares | Equity Management Solutions⁠ cap table/data room platform helping startups with incorporation, 409a valuations, equity management, and modeling tools for future fund raises. Mention ‘PrimeTimeVC' for 20% off! 

Renowned for his exceptional ability to inspire and uplift, Venture Builder Capitalist Terrance Orr shares profound insights on the transformative power of humility and the invaluable lessons of mentorship.   In this best-of-episode, we're revisiting one of our favourite guest interviews. Terrance delves into the depths of his personal odyssey — from conquering adversities to emerging as a trailblazer of innovation in the business realm. Explore the transformative landscape sculpted by AI, unravel the art of compelling narrative in fundraising endeavors, and delve into the pivotal significance of customer insights in propelling innovation forward.   Terrance openly discusses pivotal mistakes from his early career, highlighting the importance of humility and resilience in navigating setbacks. His perspective on mentorship as a catalyst for personal and professional growth is equally enlightening.   Explore the significance of fostering workplace environments that prioritize employee purpose and fulfillment for sustained organizational success. Terrance's dedication to creating opportunities and fostering change will leave you motivated and equipped with actionable insights.   Tune in to Hiring Matters with Terrance Orr for a journey filled with inspiration, wisdom, and practical advice.    About our Guest: Terrance Orr is a dynamic operator and startup coach with expertise in venture building, product management, fundraising, and business development across both startups and large corporations. Propelled by his passion for mentoring entrepreneurs, Terrance brings energy and focus to the teams he leads. He is an active advisor at multiple venture firms, studios, and accelerators, including Antler, Visible Hands, and High Alpha Innovation. He is also a member of Nex Cubed's Investor Advisory Board, a Startup Mentor at Forum Ventures and WEVE Acceleration, and an emerging leader in venture capital as recognized by HBCUvc. Prior to joining Mach49, Terrance spent time as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at SAP.iO — SAP's venture fund and studio — where he developed solutions for enterprise software pains related to supply chain and logistics. He also served as a Venture Partner at Republic, the full-stack investment platform spun out of AngelList, and advised early stage companies on business development and growth at seed accelerator Techstars Chicago. Before he worked with founders, Terrance was known as an intrapreneur at Dell Technologies, where he helped launch new business functions and conceptualize novel business models, and drove post-merger integration projects during the largest technology acquisition in history (between Dell and EMC). Terrance is a graduate of Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, Johnson & Wales University, and Claflin University.   About Your Host: Ken Schmitt is the CEO and founder of TurningPoint Executive Search. He is also the author of "The Practical Optimist: An Entrepreneur's Journey through Life's Turning Points". Ken was raised in an entrepreneurial family and brings a uniquely authentic voice to his podcast, blending life, family, and business together. Ken is a seasoned expert with almost three decades of experience in executive recruiting. In his podcast, he focuses on revealing the secrets of recruiting, retention, and real HR strategies. The podcast is not preachy, academic, or theoretical. It provides authentic perspectives on the challenges, triumphs, and quirks that make the hiring game both exhilarating and unpredictable. Twice a month, Ken offers tactical advice and industry insights to empower listeners to navigate the intricate world of executive recruiting confidently. "Hiring Matters" is your go-to resource for elevating your hiring game and equipping you with the tools to build, grow, and lead truly exceptional teams. Brace yourself for Ken's "Recruiter Rant" episodes, where he shares unfiltered insights and behind-the-scenes revelations about the industry's hidden secrets. Get ready to gain more than expected from this informative and engaging podcast. Follow Ken on LinkedIn Powered by TurningPoint Executive Search: Helping business hire right.

“Make the time for family to be there for the magic moments.” -Mike CardamoneIn this Deep Wealth Podcast episode, Jeffrey Feldberg interviews Michael Cardamone, CEO and Managing Partner at Forum Ventures. Michael shares his extensive experience working with B2B SaaS companies and discusses his investment strategy focused on aiding early-stage founders. He emphasizes the importance of understanding customer needs, market opportunities, and having a passionate entrepreneurial mindset. The episode also highlights testimonials for the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, which aims to optimize business growth and prepare for successful exits. Michael concludes with insights into the traits needed for successful founders and the importance of balancing work and family life.00:00 Introduction to Michael Cardamone and Forum00:35 Deep Wealth Mastery Program Testimonials03:24 Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast03:55 Mike's Entrepreneurial Journey09:07 Forum Ventures: Mission and Strategies10:07 Traits of Successful Founders16:45 Investment Criteria and Decision-Making33:13 Balancing Family and Business36:52 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsClick here to subscribe to The Deep Wealth Podcast to save time and effort.SELECTED LINKS FOR THIS EPISODEForum VenturesMichael Cardamone (@MGCardamone) / XMichael Cardamone - Forum Ventures (formerly Acceleprise) | LinkedInLearn More About Deep Wealth MasteryFREE Deep Wealth eBook on Why You Suck At Selling Your Business And What You Can Do About It (Today)Book Your FREE Deep Wealth Strategy CallResources To Have You Thrive And ProsperLooking to unlock your path to wealth and success? The Deep Wealth Podcast is your go-to source to extract your deepest wealth in business and life. Picture yourself mastering the foundational strategies that led our founders to a 9-figure exit. Ready to grow your profits, boost the value of your business, and optimize your life post-exit? Shoot us a quick email at insights[at]deepwealth.com with "Deep Wealth" in the subject line for more info. Click the links below to explore the resources, gear, and books that have paved the way for our guests and the high-achieving Deep Wealth team to reach remarkable success. Here's to helping you unlock the riches and success you deserve! https://www.deepwealth.com/thriveContact Deep Wealth: Client testimonials The Deep Wealth Strategy Map LinkedIn Instagram Subscribe to The Deep Wealth Podcast Help us pay it forward by leaving a review.May you continue to thrive and prosper while remaining healthy and safe!

Welcome to this new episode of Explore!

LEARN --> how they got started & how to impress them in a pitch 1. How does Forum Ventures define its focus? #accelerator #startup 2. Which investment strategies resonate with you at Forum Ventures? #accelerator #growthstrategy 3. In your experience, why is Founder-Market Fit crucial for startup success? #startup #venturecapital 4. What founder considerations have personally impacted you according to Michael Cardamone? #B2B #SaaS

Bocar Dia is a Partner at Forum Ventures sitting at the intersection of investing and working 1:1 with portfolio founders through the early stages of building, including go-to-market, founder-led sales, and fundraising. What business problem do you solve? In this episode, Bocar Dia discusses the challenges entrepreneurs face in the early stages of building their businesses, particularly the transition from the zero to one phase. He emphasizes the need for validating market pain points, understanding customer needs, and developing scalable business models for success.  Small Business Answer Man's Shownotes: At the start, Gary introduces Bocar Dia, a partner at Forum Ventures, who discussed the challenges entrepreneurs face in the early stages of building their businesses, particularly the transition from the zero to one phase.  Bocar emphasized the need for entrepreneurs to adapt their approach to sales based on the stage of their business.  He shared insights from his experience at Hootsuite and as a founder, highlighting the significance of focusing on customer validation and building a scalable business model.  He further discusses the essential skills entrepreneurs need to develop for effective go-to-market strategies, including prospecting, discovery, presentation, and customer success.  Bocar emphasized the importance of creating a systematic approach to sales and customer satisfaction to drive business growth and success.  Gary underscored the significance of implementing these strategies across different industries, emphasizing their universal applicability for entrepreneurs.  Bocar Dia's Small Business Tip: Focus on validating market pain points and understanding customer needs before developing and selling a product. Implement a systematic approach to sales and customer satisfaction to drive business growth and success. Connect with Bocar Dia: LinkedIn Twitter Company‘s LinkedIn Clarity Navigator Discovery Session – Sign Up HERE Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/the-mastermind-solution

Have you ever dreamed of not only starting a B2B SaaS company but building one that lasts and makes a lasting impact in the market? Imagine the satisfaction of seeing your venture not just survive, but thrive in the ever-changing business world. But first, it's important to understand that it's the core aspects that matter. It goes beyond the usual startup hype, diving into the essence of what makes a B2B SaaS company sustainable. Listen to this episode with Jonah Medanik, Partner & COO of Forum Ventures, as he talks about how to build successful B2B SaaS companies. Jonah shares his experiences and insights, providing valuable lessons on evaluating startup founders, entrepreneurship, and problem-solving. Learn about the importance of storytelling in pitches, challenges faced by SaaS startups, and the role of networking in finding investors and mentors for company growth. Resources Forum Ventures Website Jonah Midanik on LinkedIn

Regardless of company size and growth goals, your ability to make conscious choices about investing in the long-term versus getting to market, knowing what is a priority versus what is disguised as one, and your strengths and weaknesses will directly influence your success.    Growth is difficult. The more understanding and clarity you have about your situation, the more insights you will have to make the best decision for right now. Every decision will reinforce or update the way you do your work. Your ability to know what must be true for your company with its resources and mission is vital for growing the way you want to grow.   In this program, you will hear that investors and financial institutions look for efficient and quality growth, which comprises the first principles that are part of every company, focusing on development and frameworks to develop yourself as a founder and CEO. To use what you will hear, bring your tenacity and desire to stand out, even if it is just one degree from the norm.    Jess Dewell hosts Maia Benson, Managing Director at Forum Ventures and Bocar Dia, Partner at Forum Ventures, to discuss why it is BOLD to face the challenges of growth today. —----------------- If you want to identify business bottlenecks, the necessary skills, the initial actions to take, the expected milestones, and the priorities for achieving growth, try the "Growth Framework Reset" approach. This will help you keep learning and growing while working strategically on your business. -------------------- You can get in touch with Jess Dewell on Twitter,  LinkedIn or Red Direction website.

A reminder for new readers. That Was The Week collects the best writing on critical issues in tech, startups, and venture capital. I selected the articles because they are of interest. The selections often include things I entirely disagree with. But they express common opinions, or they provoke me to think. The articles are only snippets. Click on the headline to go to the original. I express my point of view in the editorial and the weekly video below.Thanks To This Week's Contributors: @TEDchris, @LilyWhitsitt, @RocketToLulu, @saeedtaji, @geneteare, @EricNewcomer, @jeffbeckervc, @jasonlk, @elonmusk, @benshapiro, @StevenLevy, @apple, @bheater, @bmw, @Growcoot, @illscience, @venturetwins, @omooretweets, @conniechanContents* Editorial: Civility and Civilization* Essays of the Week* US Seed Investment Actually Held Up Pretty Well For The Past 2 Years. Here's What That Means For 2024* Lower Valuations, Higher Bar: What It's Like To Raise A Seed Round In 2024 * Unicorns & Inevitabilities* Sequoia, Founders Fund, USV, Elad Gil & Benchmark Top Venture Manager Survey* Why 2024 May Be Tougher on Venture Capital Than 2023* Video of the Week* The Mac at 40* AI of the Week* BMW will deploy Figure's humanoid robot at South Carolina plant* Google's New AI Video Generator Looks Incredible* OpenAI's Sam Altman seeks funds for AI chip factories as demands surge* The Future of Prosumer: The Rise of “AI Native” Workflows* Andreessen Horowitz's Connie Chan to Leave as Consumer Focus Shifts to AI* OpenAI Is a (Relative) Steal* News Of the Week* Ted fellows resign from organisation after Bill Ackman named as speaker* Tesla's Slowdown Disqualifies It From ‘Magnificent Seven' Group* TikTok's Testing 30 Minute Uploads as It Looks To Expand Its Content Options* Instagram to scan under-18s' messages to protect against ‘inappropriate images'* Tiger Global Investor Relations Staff Depart After Fundraising Challenges* Worldcoin hints at new Orb for a friendlier iris-scanning experience* Startup of the Week* Loyalty Startup Bilt Rewards Hits $3.1B Valuation After $200M Round* X of the Week* Elon Musk visits Auschwitz with Ben ShapiroEditorialThere is a lot to digest in this week's newsletter. Gené Teare's two essays on Seed investing head up the Essays of the Week, along with Jeff Becker talking about unicorns and inevitabilities, Eric Newcomer on who are the top investors and Jason Lemkin on the reasons 2024 might be harder for Venture Capital than 2023.But my attention was distracted from venture capital by a Guardian article announcing (triumphantly, I might add) that several TED fellows had resigned from the organization due to an invite to Bill Ackman to speak at this year's TED event in Vancouver.“Lucianne Walkowicz and Saeed Taji Farouky accuse Ted of taking anti-Palestinian stand over controversial billionaire's inclusion”It seems Ackman is not alone. They also object to Bari Weiss being invited. The leavers are also not alone; up to 30 others have signed a “solidarity” letter.The accusations echo much of the discussion around the medieval assassination of Jews on 7 October and Israel's efforts to defeat Hamas in the aftermath. Because these speakers are against anti-Semitism and so supportive of Israel's war against Hamas, they are accused of the ridiculous claim of supporting “Genocide” against Palestinians.“We refuse for our work and identities to be exploited to promote the Ted brand while the organisation and its speakers generate income and advance their careers through dehumanising Palestinians and justifying their genocide,” the pair said.It probably will not surprise readers of this newsletter that I applaud TED curators Chris Anderson and Lily James Olds for not backing down on the invitations. Whatever one believes about the current conflict in Israel, it is clear that banning opponents of anti-Semitism because of their stance is not a solution to anything. I believe the cause of fighting anti-Semitism should be close to the heart of any progressive person. It is not anti-Palestinian to support Jews against being slaughtered in the street, to oppose anti-Semitism, or to condemn Hamas as anti-Jewish murderers. Supporting Jews against slaughter by Hamas is not incompatible with supporting Palestinians. The Guardian reported that Ackman responded to the resignations with a statement:“I stand unapologetically with Israel and against antisemitism and terrorism, while strongly supporting the Palestinian people. Attempts to cancel speech and eliminate the free and respectful exchange of ideas among people with differing views are driving much of the divisiveness that plagues our nation. Truth, wisdom and ultimately peace are the result of the free exchange of ideas and debate, precisely what Ted is all about. It is sad that this is not more widely understood,”Unsurprisingly, one of the resigners, Farouky, told the Guardian he did not regard the issue as freedom of speech. It clearly IS about freedom of speech. Speech only needs protecting when opinions are wide apart and strongly held.For example, here are my views on the actual issues:These are trying times. Over 25,000 deaths in Gaza are hard to comprehend. And I certainly cannot. But I can understand that Jews have to defend themselves. And I can understand that progressive thinkers MUST stand up to anti-Semitism, whatever form it takes.In case there is doubt about my support for Muslim victims of racism, my book Under Seige is about the attacks on Muslims in the UK between 1961 and 1981. It starts with recognizing that racism targets differences and that Jews and Muslims are both targets. Indeed, the very ghettoes that Pakistani and Bengali immigrants were being attacked in had earlier, in the 1930s, been inhabited by Jewish settlers fleeing pogroms. I am not Jewish, and I am not Muslim. But I will always be on both of their sides when they are attacked for their ethnic and racial origin.In Israel, Jews were killed for being Jews. Palestinians are being killed because Hamas is hiding in their cities and buildings. I do not consider Israel's response to be racist against Palestinians. I consider it reasonable in the context of 7 October. I consider that Hamas has done this to Palestinians and probably wanted that outcome. I am sad that Hamas has done this for the Palestinian victims. But I do not doubt that Hamas is to blame.My views may anger you. But do you want me banned or silenced?My title this week is Civility and Civilization. The TED events bring both to the fore. Like those I write here, opinions are there to be disagreed with, debated, and interrogated. Civilized behavior requires dialogue and civility within the dialogue. I certainly understand opinions I disagree with, and far from banning them or walking away so that I do not have to hear them, I want to hear them. We all should.This is a different editorial than usual. I hope the humanity of refusing to forget 7 October and the determination to preserve the view that fighting anti-Semitism is a non-negotiable minimum requirement of civilization are grasped. By the same token, Islamaphobia must be fought. But in Israel, there is no Islamophobia at work. Jews are simply reacting to an atrocity. They are right to blame Hamas.Essays of the WeekUS Seed Investment Actually Held Up Pretty Well For The Past 2 Years. Here's What That Means For 2024Gené Teare, January 24, 2024, @geneteareEditor's note: This is the first in a two-part series on the state of seed startup investing at the start of 2024. Check back tomorrow for Part 2.Despite a broad pullback in global startup investment over the past two years, investors say the U.S. seed funding environment was the most vibrant compared to other funding stages during the downturn.In fact, U.S. seed funding in 2022 grew by close to 10% in terms of dollars invested, in contrast to a downturn at all other funding stages. In 2023, U.S. seed funding fell 31% — a significant proportion — but still less than other funding stages year over year, an analysis of Crunchbase data shows. (It's also worth noting that those other stages had already experienced year-over-year declines in 2022.)In the current startup funding market, “we're seeing a lot more great talent excited about starting things,” said Renata Quintini, co-founder of Renegade Partners, a Bay Area-based investment firm that focuses on Series A companies and is therefore close to the seed ecosystem.Other investors share that enthusiasm. “Valuations are coming down, more talent is available in the market,” said Michael Cardamone of New York-based seed investor Forum Ventures. “A lot of these companies at seed and Series A are going to scale into what will likely be the next bull market.”Seed trends over the decadeSeed as an asset class, not surprisingly, has grown in the U.S. over the past decade. In 2014 less than $5 billion was invested at seed. At the market peak in 2022, seed investment was more than $16 billion, although it fell to $11.5 billion in 2023.Despite the downturn, seed funding in 2023 was still $2 billion to $3 billion higher in the U.S. than in the pre-pandemic years of 2019 and 2020.Higher bar, pricier rounds, better valuedBut in a tougher market, seed investors are being more selective about which companies they fund.“We're being far more disciplined and patient knowing how hard it is for these companies to get to Series A and beyond,” said Jenny Lefcourt, a general partner at Bay Area-based seed investor Freestyle Capital. “Our bar for conviction is higher than it had been in the heyday where everything was getting funded.”In the slower funding environment, the firm has been investing later at the seed stage, “gravitating toward ‘seed plus' or ‘A minus' — pick your favorite term for it — because I feel like I get to see more risk mitigated. I get to see more data,” she said.Freestyle seeks to have ownership of around 12% to 15% in the companies it backs. “The reason is because of our model,” Lefcourt said. “We are low-volume, high-conviction investors.”And because the firm invests in companies that are pre-Series A, “our reality has been that our valuations have actually been higher in this market, which is not what we would have predicted.“But the data we've seen is, we're not alone in that,” she said.…MoreLower Valuations, Higher Bar: What It's Like To Raise A Seed Round In 2024 Gené Teare, January 25, 2024, @geneteareEditor's note: This is the second in a two-part series on the state of seed startup investing at the start of 2024. Read Part 1, which looked at seed funding trends over the past decade and the median time period between seed and Series A funding, here.Seed funding to startups has grown into its own asset class over the past decade, with round sizes trending larger, and a bigger pool of investors backing these nascent startups. But in the aftermath of 2021's venture funding heyday and subsequent pullback, investors say that while seed funding has held up better than other startup investment stages, these very young startups will see lower valuations and must now clear a much higher bar to get backing.More companies raised seed funding above $1 million in 2021. Those companies — which raised during a record-smashing year for venture funding — are saddled with valuations that could be too high for this current market — even at seed. Many of those startups have been forced to cut costs to extend their runways, and face a tougher sales environment.“You could then be sacrificing growth, which is one of the main levers that Series A investors are looking for,” said Michael Cardamone of New York-based seed investor Forum Ventures.2021 after effectsIn 2021 it was “grow, grow, grow, grow,” said Jenny Lefcourt, a general partner at Bay Area-based seed investor Freestyle Capital. “It's embarrassing to look back on, but that was the game being played.”Investors got sloppy during the boom times, she said. “I think a lot of VCs were thrilled to back you, and then say, ‘we'll figure it out.' ”“The reality is that almost anything that was done then — call it 2021 — was the wrong price,” she said.This led to down rounds, even at seed, though those are generally not viewed negatively like they were in the past, she said.In fact, “when our companies get their down rounds done, it's a sign of it's a good business. It just had the wrong price on it,” she said.While the bar is higher to raise funding these days, “I think it's so much better for a company who gets to start in this environment,” Lefcourt said.Down rounds can actually be a sign of conviction, she said. “None of us would do all the heavy lifting to not only give the company more capital, but recap it, which takes a lot. It's a heavy lift — none of us would do that if we weren't super jazzed about the company. The lazier approach, the easier approach, is to just put it on the note, keep it flat, and be done,” she said.Renata Quintini, co-founder of Renegade Partners, a Bay Area-based investment firm that focuses on Series A companies, is hearing of “more ‘pay-to-play' these days and it's starting to get ugly.” This happens when new investors wipe out the prior investors, and anyone seeking equity needs to pony up into the new funding round.Median and averages climbNonetheless, “seed round valuations haven't dropped a ton from even the peak,” according to Forum Ventures' Cardamone. But, “the bar to raise a seed [round] is a lot higher.”“Most first-time founders especially, and the vast majority of founders generally — they have to get significant traction to be able to raise that same round they used to be able to raise. And a lot fewer of those rounds are happening,” he said.“A priced seed round of $3 million at $15 million [pre-money] is still happening, but you might have to be at $500,000 ARR, to raise that round now. Whereas in 2021, it was the norm to raise that round pre-revenue,” he said.Series A fundings have gotten harder as “companies are going out and raising three seed rounds,” said Cardamone.Based on an analysis of Crunchbase data, median and average seed round sizes in the U.S. have climbed through the past decade.In 2023, median and average raises are not far from the peak of 2022, Crunchbase data shows, and were well above pre-pandemic levels. (However, this will shift downward somewhat as the long tail of seed fundings are retroactively added to the Crunchbase database.)Seed rounds got larger“If I have conviction, we may need them to have more money, cause we know it's going to take them longer to reach the milestones that are now higher,” said Lefcourt.Per an analysis of Crunchbase data, larger seed rounds — those $1 million and above — have increased through the decade.The amount of funding to seed-stage companies below $1 million hasn't budged much, and is a fraction of what it was earlier in the decade.Seed below $1 million in 2014 represented around 25% of all seed funding.That has come down as a proportion every year since then.And as of 2021 that proportion has dipped below 10% for the first time, ranging from 5% to 7% of all seed dollars invested in the U.S. since then.Earlier in the past decade, the number of seed deals in rounds below $1 million outpaced those rounds at $1 million and above significantly.But 2021 was once again a pivotal year. That's when $1 million and above seed rounds outpaced smaller seed for the first time.In 2023, they are neck and neck in count. (That might shift as the long tail of seed rounds are added to the Crunchbase database long after they close.)What this all shows is that seed has become an increasingly significant and elongated phase in a company's early life cycle, where companies are raising multiple million-dollar seed rounds. And as of late, more companies than ever before are wading in the seed pool.What does this mean for the seed funding market in 2024?…MoreUnicorns & InevitabilitiesUp and to the right, or not so much?JEFF BECKER, JAN 22, 2024TLDR: Go read Aileen Lee's update to the Unicorn Club… and a few inevitabilities.Did anyone catch Aileen Lee & Allegra Simon's Welcome Back to the Unicorn Club, 10 Years Later?If not, go read it. That's your MMM.If you did read it, you can't help but wonder if the tech sector isn't going to resemble the public markets over time. Ups and downs, but consistently up and to the right over a long enough period.After all, we are creating leverage in ways we've never seen before.And for unicorns, that meant 14X growth over a 10-year period.Could you imagine another 14 or even 10X from here? That would be stratospheric, from ~500 to ~5,000 unicorns? What if the exit sizes did too? $5B, $10B, $50B?Crazy to think, but hardly impossible. After all, we've already seen near-centicorns like Uber's IPO at $75B in 2019.The interesting part about that thought exercise though is not the crazy zero interest rate IPO's, but the fact that entry valuations didn't and don't move nearly as fast as top end outcomes because of the time horizon to realizing them.For example, Airbnb raised $20K from Y Combinator for 6%, then they took another $600K for 20% in their seed.That was 2009. The idea of an IPO for $47B just 11 years later in 2020 probably wasn't even a consideration. Paul Graham and the YC team would've had to believe Airbnb's IPO could compete with AT&T, General Motors, and Visa.Insane.Fast forward, that $333,333 valuation at YC has moved to $1.78m (125K for 7%), and they'll stack another 2.6% ownership on average from their $375K MFN with the average YC company raising seed at a $14.4m cap instead of Airbnb's $3m.That's a ~5X increase in valuation at pre-seed & seed for a 47X increase in IPO size if you were modeling $1B outcomes into your VC fund model in 2009.I'm not saying that will continue. There are counterforces of course.* Margins are way too high. The fact that software margins have persisted at 80% or more is just craziness. Companies will start to use price more aggressively to compete for market share as cheap AI tools enter the market and try to unseat them. This compression will change the value of discounted cash flow models.* Pricing models need to change. One way to reduce sticker price and maintain some semblance of healthy long-term margins is to pay a smaller implementation fee, but incur ongoing services & upgrade costs. This is a more traditional pricing model, and creative economics that leverage this kind of thinking run rampant in the titans of tech. It's a game of deeper roots, higher switching costs, and long-term contracts. With API calls and data usage more prevalent, we'll also see more pay-per-use models, the same way we buy copiers. We'll also see more pay-for-performance models with attributable ROI, akin to Amazon's ACoS model or Rakuten's affiliate marketing model. Customers will prefer it too, placing a higher emphasis customer value. This will also drive margins to condense.* AI, AI, AI. AI will cut OpEx costs dramatically. SDR teams, gone. Copywriters at agencies, you don't need as many. Data scientists? Just run a query against your data lakes. The list goes on. Costs of running these companies is going to get shellacked. Good for margins for sure, but also a compelling opportunity for newcomers to undercut and unseat incumbents too.* More hardware. With software margins condensing, hardware margins will start to feel more attractive too, the maintenance and upgrade fees will resemble what we see in SaaS, and the software that powers these machines will be incredible. Skynet for autonomous off-road vehicles, absolutely.* Less dilution, earlier exits, and stratification. We already see it in the S&P 500 with the top end accounting for an outsized share of total value. With that kind of cash on balance sheets, bigger companies will just buy the smaller ones. Think about how Broadcom rolls up companies. If you've built the business more efficiently, you've also raised less, incurred less dilution, and that $100m exit when you still own 50% is looking pretty prett-ty good compared to the same outcome 5-10 grueling years later to own 5% of $1B.* Massive founder salaries, less emphasis on growth. If you've built a company that's profitable from day one, and you have complete control of your board, what's your incentive to keep the pedal down on growth, or stay on the VC treadmill? World domination? Why not pay yourself 10X, stop fundraising, and continue to tighten the core business until someone acquires you? It's better for the founding team and employees for sure, and it's probably better for customers in most instances too.These are just some of things I think we'll see over the next five years until we approach ZIRPy-dirpy times again and massive growth becomes irresistible.But there are also a whole slew of things I think are inevitabilities that will benefit from these dynamics because we will not only have new technologies, with more attractive pricing, but we will be tackling new opportunities that were created by the prior evolutions across adjacent industries.For example…* Cost of energy is going to zero with nuclear fusion* Longevity is starting to work; check out Loyal for Dogs* Batteries & cameras continue to improve; medical devices, for one, will be more personal & affordable* Disintermediation of big ad networks with new global distribution channels; check out Benjamin* Massive cost reductions driven by AI* Software will be built by software* An aging population is retiring (10,000 per day); wealth transfer & SMB's with no exit paths* Climate change* …and so on and so on and so onThe list is long. Much longer than this. If you want the rest, just reply or comment so that I know, and I'll go deeper next week.Net of all of it, I think we're going to see a tale of two cities. Stronger, more profitable businesses, with smaller, but better founder founder exits in the near term, and a continued growth both in number of total unicorns, and what that top-end outcomes look like in the longer-term.And like I said, go read Aileen's post.Sequoia, Founders Fund, USV, Elad Gil & Benchmark Top Venture Manager SurveyI got my hands on a VC scorecard circulating among top founders & VCsERIC NEWCOMERJAN 25, 2024Before we get started, I want to be clear — this isn't the end-all, be-all list of the top venture capital firms or the most promising startups.But I got my hands on a survey of 91 people at 69 different venture capital firms conducted by a well-respected investor in venture capital firms.The survey results are spreading hand-to-hand in Silicon Valley. The results of the survey rank the most desirable venture capital firms and companies, according to VCs themselves. When I was out in San Francisco last week for The Information's 10th anniversary gala, sources kept bringing it up.My sources tell me that the survey was conducted by Ed Hutchinson, managing partner at Golden Bell Partners. Hutchinson is ignoring my emails.Which firms and companies would top VCs themselves put their money into? It's a question everyone wants to know the answer to.I've got my hands on their list of favorites:Firms* (1) Sequoia* (2) Founders Fund* (3) Union Square* (4) Elad Gil* (5) Benchmark…Much More (but only for subscribers)Why 2024 May Be Tougher on Venture Capital Than 2023by Jason Lemkin | Blog Posts, Fundraising, ScaleSo I thought the toughest times for venture would be behind us now.  In 2022, we were in free fall, with public market caps falling like a knife, and the IPO markets frozen.  And 2023 was the year of the Work Out in venture.  Bridge rounds slowed down, and VCs acknowledged a lot of portfolio companies just weren't going to make it.  It got real in 2023, and that realness got normalized.  The drama mostly was behind us.  And public SaaS stocks in many cases did really, really well in 2023.  So shouldn't 2024 at least be better for venture?So I thought.But the reality is I'm a bit more worried the venture drama in 2024 will be bigger than 2023.  Why?  Four core reasons:#1:  Now We Have to Deal With the Reality of the Stumbling Unicorns.The ones that are doing $100m+ ARR, still growing, but there just isn't going to be any more money coming.  This is going to burn up a ton of energy in VC funds.  Even tougher, the reality is while many VC funds marked down their unicorns to lower valuations in 2023, they often didn't mark them down enough.#2.  The Chase for AI Unicorns and Decacorns is All-consuming.  It's Still 2021 There.The one place where paper money seems easy to come by is Hot AI Startups.   And that's probably not you.  It's just consuming all the oxygen in venture, trying to get into the next Imaging AI startup worth $1B in 10 months.  In AI, 2021 never went away.  In AI, it's still 2021.#3.  A Lot of Seasoned VCs are Discouraged. This Doesn't Help Founders.A lot of VCs who have been around for a while are quietly discouraged.  They just don't see a great path to making a ton of money in venture these days.  We're in Year 3 of a venture downturn, and that weighs of most of us.  At a practical level, for founders, it makes it harder to lean it.#4.  More Valuation Markdowns Are Still to ComeRelated to the first point, but more markdowns are like mutliple rounds of layoffs.  They're just tough.  LPs lose confidence.  Coworkers lose confidence.  We should have gotten through a lot of this in 2023, but we didn't.  Personally, I've got several investments for example that I marked down. 70%-80% or more — that my co-investors didn't mark down at all.#5.  VCs Have Run out of ReservesVCs used what extra “reserve” capital they had for bridge rounds in 2022 and 2023.  Now it's gone.  That's adds to the stress as companies struggle.  You don't have a play anymore.The bottom line is there likely is at least another full year of working through the excesses of 2021.  That will weigh across venture.  No matter what some AI headlines suggest.Video of the WeekThe Mac at 40Apple Shares the Secret of Why the 40-Year-Old Mac Still RulesThe pioneering PC revolutionized how people interact with computers. As the Mac enters its fifth decade, Apple says it will continue to evolve.STEVEN LEVY, Jan 19, 2024 10:00 AMON JANUARY 24, Apple's Macintosh computer turns 40. Normally that number is an inexorable milestone of middle age. Indeed, in the last reported sales year, Macintosh sales dipped below $30 billion, more than a 25 percent drop from the previous year's $40 billion. But unlike an aging person, Macs now are slimmer, faster, and last much longer before having to recharge.My own relationship with the computer dates back to its beginnings, when I got a prelaunch peek some weeks before its January 1984 launch. I even wrote a book about the Mac—Insanely Great—in which I described it as “the computer that changed everything.” Unlike every other nonfiction subtitle, the hyperbole was justified. The Mac introduced the way all computers would one day work, and the break from controlling a machine with typed commands ushered us into an era that extends to our mobile interactions. It also heralded a focus on design that transformed our devices.That legacy has been long-lasting. For the first half of its existence, the Mac occupied only a slice of the market, even as it inspired so many rivals; now it's a substantial chunk of PC sales. Even within the Apple juggernaut, $30 billion isn't chicken feed! What's more, when people think of PCs these days, many will envision a Macintosh. More often than not, the open laptops populating coffee shops and tech company workstations beam out glowing Apples from their covers. Apple claims that its Macbook Air is the world's best-selling computer model. One 2019 survey reported that more than two-thirds of all college students prefer a Mac. And Apple has relentlessly improved the product, whether with the increasingly slim profile of the iMac or the 22-hour battery life of the Macbook Pro. Moreover, the Mac is still a thing. Chromebooks and Surface PCs come and go, but Apple's creation remains the pinnacle of PC-dom. “It's not a story of nostalgia, or history passing us by,” says Greg “Joz” Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, in a rare on-the-record interview with five Apple executives involved in its Macintosh operation. “The fact we did this for 40 years is unbelievable.”…Much MoreAI of the WeekBMW will deploy Figure's humanoid robot at South Carolina plantBrian Heater @bheater / 3:00 AM PST•January 18, 2024Image Credits: FigureFigure today announced a “commercial agreement” that will bring its first humanoid robot to a BMW manufacturing facility in South Carolina. The Spartanburg plant is BMW's only in the United States. As of 2019, the 8 million-square-foot campus boasted the highest yield among the German manufacturer's factories anywhere in the world.BMW has not disclosed how many Figure 01 models it will deploy initially. Nor do we know precisely what jobs the robot will be tasked with when it starts work. Figure did, however, confirm with TechCrunch that it is beginning with an initial five tasks, which will be rolled out one at a time.While folks in the space have been cavalierly tossing out the term “general purpose” to describe these sorts of systems, it's important to temper expectations and point out that they will all arrive as single- or multi-purpose systems, growing their skillset over time. Figure CEO Brett Adcock likens the approach to an app store — something that Boston Dynamics currently offers with its Spot robot via SDK.Likely initial applications include standard manufacturing tasks such as box moving, pick and place and pallet unloading and loading — basically the sort of repetitive tasks for which factory owners claim to have difficulty retaining human workers. Adcock says that Figure expects to ship its first commercial robot within a year, an ambitious timeline even for a company that prides itself on quick turnaround times.The initial batch of applications will be largely determined by Figure's early partners like BMW. The system will, for instance, likely be working with sheet metal to start. Adcock adds that the company has signed up additional clients, but declined to disclose their names. It seems likely Figure will instead opt to announce each individually to keep the news cycle spinning in the intervening 12 months.Unlike some other humanoid designers (including Agility), Figure is focused on creating a dexterous, human like hand for manipulation. The thinking behind such an end effector is the same that's driving many toward the humanoid form factor in the first place: Namely, we've designed our workspaces with us in mind. Adcock alludes to Figure 01 being tasked with an initial set of jobs that require high dexterity.As for the importance of legs, the executive suggests that their importance for maneuvering during certain tasks is as — or more — important than things like walking up stairs and over uneven terrain, which tend to get most of the love during these conversations.…MoreGoogle's New AI Video Generator Looks IncredibleJAN 25, 2024MATT GROWCOOTGoogle has announced Lumiere: an AI video generator that looks to be one of the most advanced text-to-video models yet.The name Lumiere is seemingly a nod to the Lumiere brothers who are credited with putting on the first ever cinema showing in 1895. Just as motion picture was cutting-edge technology at the end of the 19th century, the Lumiere name is once more being associated with something new and original.The demo of Lumiere that Google put out focuses firmly on animals. The model can generate a scene using just text; much the same way AI image generators work, the user can dream up any scenario they would like to see a short video clip of.However, the user can also use an image as a prompt. Google provided multiple examples: including some that are real photos such as Joe Rosenthal's iconic Raising the Flag photo; “Soldiers raising the united states flag on a windy day” saw one of the 20th-centuries most recognizable photos suddently come to life as the soliders struggle with the flag that's being affected by gusts.Also in Lumiere is a “Video Stylization” setting which allows users to upload a source video and then ask the generative AI model for various element changes. For example, a person running may be suddenly turned into a toy made of colorful bricks.Another feature Google showed off is “Cinemagraphs”, where just a section of an image is animated while the rest stays still. “Video Inpainting” is included too which involves masking part of the image so that section can be changed to the user's desire.Space-Time Diffusion ModelLumiere is powered by “Space-Time U-Net architecture that generates the entire temporal duration of the video at once, through a single pass in the model.”This difficult-to-understand concept is apparently in contrast to existing video models which “synthesize distant keyframes followed by temporal super-resolution — an approach that inherently makes global temporal consistency difficult to achieve.”…Much MoreOpenAI's Sam Altman seeks funds for AI chip factories as demands surgeOpenAI CEO Sam Altman has opened discussions with global investors over the possibility of funding a network of artificial intelligence (AI) chip factories to keep pace with soaring demand.Altman is seeking around $8 billion to $10 billion worth of funds to set up several AI chip fabrication plants around the globe, an endeavor that will require synergy between leading chip manufacturers backed by investment giants.Altman is reportedly in talks with Japanese-based financial giant SoftBank Group (NASDAQ: SFTBF) and Abu Dhabi's G42 over funding plans, but details remain sparse. The discussions with G42 have been underway since 2023, with Altman describing a potential chip partnership as laying the foundation “for equitable advancements in generative AI across the globe.”Aside from SoftBank and G42, insiders say that Altman is still pursuing collaborations with other industry players to set up a network of chip fabrication plants. Although exact entities were not namechecked, industry experts are noting Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), Samsung Electronics, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NASDAQ: TSM) as potential partners.Altman's approach to raising funds hinges on concerns that the chip supply will not be able to meet global demands for AI offerings by 2030. The OpenAI's CEO argues that the ideal solution will be a collaborative effort to set up chip manufacturing plants rather than build in silos.OpenAI has had its fair share of chip scarcity, rolling back a number of its offerings over a steady chip supply. To meet the rising demand, the company is reportedly mulling several options, including the prospect of building its chips from scratch and joining ranks with Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to explore an in-house solution.Given the costs associated with an in-house approach, OpenAI may pursue the acquisition of a chip manufacturer as a short-term solution or expand its collaboration with existing partners. However, a potential acquisition opens its own can of worms, including an inquiry by antitrust regulators.Governments are also involvedIn 2023, Altman urged the South Korean government to double their investments in AI chip manufacturing as a veritable strategy to play a leading role in the nascent ecosystem. Currently, South Korea ranks behind the U.S., China, and Japan in chip manufacturing, but a concerted government involvement could see the country climb up the charts.The OpenAI boss disclosed during his visit to South Korea that his firm will back local entities building chips for AI and other emerging technologies, with Samsung rumored to be in top position.“We are exploring how to increase our investment in Korean startups,” said Altman. “We are excited to meet as many as we can here today. I think this type of collaboration is essential to our work.”..MoreThe Future of Prosumer: The Rise of “AI Native” WorkflowsAnish Acharya, Justine Moore, and Olivia MoorePosted January 25, 2024Few people love the software they use to get things done. And it's no surprise why. Whether it's a slide deck builder, a video editor, or a photo enhancer, today's work tools were conceived decades ago — and it shows! Even best-in-class products often feel either too inflexible and unsophisticated to do real work, or have steep, inaccessible learning curves (we're looking at you, Adobe InDesign). Generative AI offers founders an opportunity to completely reinvent workflows — and will spawn a new cohort of companies that are not just AI-augmented, but fully AI-native. These companies will start from scratch with the technology we have now, and build new products around the generation, editing, and composition capabilities that are uniquely possible due to AI. On the most surface level, we believe AI will help users do their existing work more efficiently. AI-native platforms will “up level” user interactions with software, allowing them to delegate lower skill tasks to an AI assistant and spend their time on higher-level thinking. This applies not only to traditional office workers, but to small business owners, freelancers, creators, and artists — who arguably have even more complex demands on their time. But AI will also help users unlock completely new skill sets, on both a technical and an aesthetic level. We've already seen this with products like Midjourney and ChatGPT's Code Interpreter. Everyone can now be a programmer, a producer, a designer, or a musician, shrinking the gap between creativity and craft. With access to professional-grade yet consumer-friendly products with AI-powered workflows, everyone can be a part of a new generation of “prosumers.”In this piece, we aim to highlight the features of today's — and tomorrow's — most successful Gen AI-native workflows, as well as hypothesize about how we see these products evolving.What Will GenAI Native Prosumer Products Look Like?All products with Gen AI-native workflows will share one crucial trait: translating cutting-edge models into an accessible, effective UI.Users of workflow tools typically don't care what infrastructure is behind a product; they care about how it helps them! While the technological leaps we've made with Generative AI are amazing, successful products will importantly still start from a deep understanding of the user and their pain points. What can be abstracted away with AI? Where are the key “decision points” that need approval, if any? And where are the highest points of leverage? There are a few key features we believe products in this category will have: * Generation tools that kill the “blank page” problem. The earliest and most obvious consumer AI use cases have come from translating a natural language prompt into a media output — e.g., image, video, and text generators. The same will be true in prosumer. These tools might help transform true “blank pages” (e.g., a text prompt to slide deck), or take incremental assets (e.g., a sketch or an outline) and turn them into a more fleshed-out product.Some companies will do this via a proprietary model, while others may mix or stitch together multiple models (open source, proprietary, or via API) behind the scenes. One example here is Vizcom's rendering tool. Users can input a text prompt, sketch, or 3D model, and instantly get a photorealistic rendering to further iterate on.Another example is Durable's website builder product, which the company says has been used to generate more than 6 million sites so far. Users input their company name, segment, and location, and Durable will spit out a site for them to customize. As LLMs get more powerful, we expect to see products like Durable pull real information about your business from elsewhere on the internet and social media — the history, team, reviews, logos, etc. — and generate an even more sophisticated output from just one generation. * Multimodal (and multimedia!) combinations. Many creative projects require more than one type of content. For example, you may want to combine an image with text, music with video, or an animation with a voiceover. As of now, there isn't one model that can generate all of these asset types. This creates an opportunity for workflow products which allow users to generate, refine, and stitch different content types in one place.…MoreAndreessen Horowitz's Connie Chan to Leave as Consumer Focus Shifts to AIBy Kate Clark, Erin Woo and Cory WeinbergJan 23, 2024, 7:22am PSTFor years, partners at Andreessen Horowitz proclaimed they would scour the startup world for the next big consumer marketplace like Airbnb or the next hit consumer app out of China, areas in which the firm had unique expertise. Now, it's shifting toward an area more en vogue across venture capital: consumer apps powered by artificial intelligence.Those changes are happening amid an overhaul of its consumer team. Connie Chan, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz who formerly led a team of consumer investors and was known for spotting internet trends coming from China, said she is leaving the firm.  She may raise her own fund, a person familiar with the matter said. Anish Acharya, a general partner at the firm who invested in enterprise-focused and financial technology businesses, now leads the consumer team, said people familiar with the change.Chan's move also follows a distancing by U.S. VC firms from investments in China tech, once a hotbed for U.S.  investors. In recent months, Chan has privately said it's becoming more difficult for her to work at Andreessen Horowitz because the partners have been increasingly disinterested in anything China related, another person said.The Takeaway• Fintech-focused GP Anish Acharya leading consumer deals• Consumer GP Connie Chan is leaving the firm• Consumer partner Anne Lee Skates left to start own fundThe changes are part of a broader personnel shakeup, including the decision by senior consumer investor and Airbnb board member Jeff Jordan to step back from making new investments last year. Of the four general partners that led the firm through a consumer deal blitz, none remain on the consumer team.Meanwhile, Anne Lee Skates, a consumer partner who worked on the firm's investment in live shopping app WhatNot, left in the fall to raise her own fund, according to two people familiar with the matter. Axios first reported that Chan was leaving the firm.The Andreessen Horowitz changes are emblematic of a broader VC industry gravitation toward AI and away from once-hot sectors like consumer marketplaces and financial technology, as a spike in interest rates undercut the growth aspirations of startups trying to elbow out incumbent social platforms and banking institutions.“We've gotten into this cycle now where, generally speaking, investors are less interested in consumer,” said Ben Lerer, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau. Known for its consumer investments in Warby Parker and Allbirds, the firm has invested 70% of its latest fund in enterprise companies, he said. “And AI feels like this very hopeful, very exciting, fresh thing.”Founders of some consumer startups have noticed the shift at Andreessen Horowitz. One founder of a consumer startup in the firm's portfolio said they had heard little from investment partners over the last year, a contrast to a steady drumbeat of emails the founder got in prior years from Andreessen staff who support portfolio companies with marketing and operations advice.Andreessen Horowitz's consumer investing team has been perhaps most well known for its focus on backing digital marketplaces, from peer-to-peer self-storage to real estate investment marketplaces, that could turn into the next Airbnb. Every year, it releases a ranking of top marketplace startups. “We are obsessed with marketplaces and have been since our inception,” Chan, who led investments in  social fashion startup Cider for the firm in 2021.But some of those startups backed by the firm, such as self-storage startup Neighbor, have struggled to take off in recent years. And like other venture firms, Andreessen Horowitz has also stepped back from investing in Chinese startups, an area of focus for Chan. She had championed the idea that the next wave of breakout U.S. consumer startups will model themselves after China's internet success stories, like all-in-one app WeChat.With $53 billion in assets under management, Andreessen Horowitz is one of the largest of traditional Silicon Valley firms and closely watched among other VC firms as a trend setter. And its track record of sniffing out hitmakers primed its partners to find the next trendy consumer app.The number of consumer deals Andreessen Horowitz has led dropped to 13 last year from 30 in 2021, a record for the firm, according to PitchBook data. It's possible the firm completed more consumer deals and that those investments haven't been announced. Its investments in AI companies have jumped to 23 from nine over the same years, including leading a $415 million investment in Mistral, the French developer of an open-source large language model.The firm has beefed up this team of investors primarily focused on enterprise, software infrastructure and AI startups. Led by Martin Casado, a close confidante to the firm's founders Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, it is raising its first standalone fund and has brought on two new general partners, Anjney Midha and Zane Lackey, since 2022, as well as a number of junior partners.As the infrastructure team gained power, the consumer team's profile shrank. The firm in 2023 combined its consumer and fintech teams and created a new group, called apps, led by general partner Alex Rampell, who previously co-founded installment lender Affirm, The Information reported last year. Under Rampell's leadership, the newly formed apps team will also soon launch a dedicated apps fund, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The consolidated team has been encouraged to pursue AI deals.Within Rampell's apps group, Acharya now leads the consumer sub-group. His portfolio of companies includes payroll company Deel and Silo, a provider of supply chain automation software. He's also an investor in Titan, a consumer investment application.Fueling the firm's shift away from consumer apps are likely disappointing returns. The startups that captivated consumers during the pandemic shutdowns have failed to retain their attention. Growth at companies the consumer team bet on, like Clubhouse, which Andreessen Horowitz backed three times in one year, and photo-sharing app BeReal, which it backed in 2021, has stalled.…MoreOpenAI Is a (Relative) StealBy Stephanie PalazzoloJan 22, 2024, 7:35am PSTOver the past year, we've seen billions in funding thrown at AI startups at eye-popping valuations. More important than the absolute valuation figures, though, is how they stack up to those startups' revenue numbers.In the chart above, we've tracked the valuations of eight AI startups that have recently raised funding, calculated against their projected revenue. On average, these companies raised money at a price that is 83 times their projected sales for the next twelve months. That's a big multiple by any measure, reflecting the rocket ship nature of these startups. But what makes the comparison noteworthy is that OpenAI has one of the lowest multiples, even though its business has the most traction.Venture capitalists tend to value early-stage startups at a premium based on their growth rates. OpenAI's business is far bigger and more mature—if we can use that word for a company growing as fast as OpenAI—than other generative AI companies. So, as fast as its revenue pace is growing—more than 20% in just two months most recently—newer firms are growing even faster.For instance, AI-powered search engine Perplexity AI doubled its annual recurring revenue from $3 million to $6 million from October to January. VCs were likely taking that expected growth into account at the time of investment, as the company would have garnered a much lower 75-times forward revenue multiple if it had raised at the same price just a few months later. Similarly, even though OpenAI rival Anthropic was likely generating around $200 million in annualized revenue at the end of last year (according to its October estimates), its projection that it would reach $850 million in annualized revenue by the end of this year surely made its mind-boggling valuation more palatable to investors.When you see the details of these AI startup funding rounds, it can sometimes feel like investors are throwing darts at nine-figure numbers on a wall. The chart suggests there's a method to the madness. Typically, startups selling to companies are valued based on the sector in which they operate. The lowest valuation multiples are accorded to startups offering industry-specific applications, while those offering more generalized applications draw a premium. The most highly valued firms are often infrastructure startups, which create the tools that developers use to build these apps. This order stems from how big the target market of these startups are, ranging from a specific industry (like healthcare or education) to all developers. We can see that general order reflected in burgeoning AI startups. For instance, Harvey, which sells an AI application for lawyers, has one of the lower multiples, while broader-reaching companies like Glean and VAST Data land higher multiples.It seems like investors aren't quite sure yet where model developers like OpenAI and Anthropic fall on this spectrum. Their costs are very different from a typical software startup due to how much computing power they need, and many investors are still worried that closed-source model developers may be overtaken by their cheaper, open-source counterparts.…MoreNews Of the WeekTed fellows resign from organisation after Bill Ackman named as speakerLucianne Walkowicz and Saeed Taji Farouky accuse Ted of taking anti-Palestinian stand over controversial billionaire's inclusionChris McGrealThe Ted organisation has been hit with resignations and criticisms after naming the controversial activist billionaire Bill Ackman, who was instrumental in forcing out Harvard's president over antisemitism allegations, among its main speakers at this year's conference.Four Ted fellows, led by the astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz and the filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky, resigned from the group on Wednesday, accusing it of taking an anti-Palestinian stand and aligning itself “with enablers and supporters of genocide” in Gaza.“2024 main stage speaker Bill Ackman has defended Israel's genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and has cynically weaponised antisemitism in his programme to purge American universities of Pro-Palestinian freedom of speech,” the pair wrote to Chris Anderson, who leads Ted, and Lily James Olds, director of the fellows programme.“We've become increasingly concerned about the fundamental values and moral compass of the organisation over the years, but with this year's speaker selection, it is clear Ted has crossed a red line.”The conference will be held in Vancouver, Canada, in April, under the banner The Brave and the Brilliant”. The theme of Ackman's talk has not been revealed but his selection was announced last week after he was accused of using his money and influence to help force Claudine Gay's resignation as Harvard's president following her disastrous appearance before Congress in December when she was questioned about on-campus antisemitism during the Israel-Gaza war.Ackman has taken stridently pro-Israel positions, including justifying the scale of the attacks on Gaza in which more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians, and the forced removal of about 2 million Palestinians from their homes. He has described criticism of Israel as antisemitism and called for the blacklisting from employment of American students who signed petitions denouncing the offensive in Gaza in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.Farouky and Walkowicz's resignation letter noted that other speakers announced by Ted include the journalist Bari Weiss, who they describe as having “a long, sordid, and well-documented history of anti-Palestinian speech”, but that there are no Palestinians in the line-up.“We refuse for our work and identities to be exploited to promote the Ted brand while the organisation and its speakers generate income and advance their careers through dehumanising Palestinians and justifying their genocide,” the pair said.After the resignation letter was published, two other fellows – the entrepreneur Ayah Bdeir and cosmologist Renée Hlozek – also quit. Nearly 30 others added their names “in solidarity” without leaving Ted.…MoreTesla's Slowdown Disqualifies It From ‘Magnificent Seven' GroupBy Martin Peers, Jan 24, 2024, 5:00pm PSTStock market pundits may want to come up with a new name for the big tech stocks driving the overall market. The “magnificent seven” descriptor—referring to Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Nvidia and Tesla—no longer seems to make much sense. I'd like to suggest that's because none of the company CEOs look like cowboy gunslingers from the 1960 movie that made the phrase famous. It's hard to imagine Steve McQueen playing Tim Cook or Andy Jassy, for instance (although Yul Brynner admittedly could have filled the role of horseback-riding Jeff Bezos).The real reason the moniker no longer works, however, is that at least one member of the group, Tesla, has had anything but a magnificent 2024 so far, and its fourth-quarter earnings report, released Wednesday, only made things worse. Before Tesla reported earnings tonight, its stock had fallen 16% so far this year, and it tumbled another 3% after hours to around $200 a share. This isn't a reaction to CEO Elon Musk's antics, which include asking for a bunch more stock, although that surely doesn't help. The stock decline reflects the slowdown in sales suffered by Tesla, which observers attribute to increased competition and a loss of government incentives. Automotive revenues, which make up the bulk of Tesla's top line, grew just 1% in the fourth quarter—down from 18% in the first quarter.In its outlook for this year issued today, the company said its growth in the volume of car sales would be lower than in 2023, and noted that its team is working on its “next-generation vehicle.” Meantime, expenses have been skyrocketing, eroding its profit margin. But our less-than-rigorous takedown of the magnificent seven branding isn't just about Tesla. If you look at the year-to-date performance of big tech stocks, or even their 2023 performance, you can see that just two tech stocks have roared this year. One is Nvidia, which is in a class of its own: up 27% since Jan. 1, thanks to its stranglehold on the specialized chips used in artificial intelligence. The other is Meta Platforms, which is up nearly 13%, reflecting confidence in its ad business.  In comparison, Microsoft and Alphabet are each up around 8%, likely thanks to expectations that AI will lift their businesses, while Apple and Amazon lag behind with year-to-date stock price rises of less than 5% each. Instead of the magnificent seven, it might be more appropriate to refer to the group as Nvidia, Meta and the humble five.… MoreTikTok's Testing 30 Minute Uploads as It Looks To Expand Its Content OptionsBy Andrew Hutchinson Content and Social Media ManagerThe next stage of TikTok is coming, with some users now seeing the option to upload 30 minute long videos in the app.As you can see in this example, shared by social media expert Matt Navarra, TikTok's currently testing the new 30 minute upload option in the beta version of the app.Which, if you've been paying attention, is not really any big surprise.TikTok has been steadily increasing its maximum post limit for years, with the platform originally starting at 15 seconds per clip, which was then extended to 60 seconds, then 3 minutes, then 5 minutes, before rising to 10 minutes in 2022.Last October, TikTok began experimenting with 15 minute uploads, so the trend towards longer clips isn't new.Though 30 minutes is likely the upper limit, based on the Chinese version of the app. Douyin, which is TikTok in China, expanded its upload limit to 30 minutes per clip in 2022, and it hasn't gone any further as yet.And presumably, Douyin has also seen good response to this longer time limit, which is why TikTok is now looking to implement the same, though it does seem like a long time to be watching a TikTok clip in-stream.Will users really warm to TV show length clips in the app?…MoreInstagram to scan under-18s' messages to protect against ‘inappropriate images'Feature will work even on encrypted messages, suggesting platform plans to implement client-side scanningAlex Hern and Dan MilmoInstagram will begin scanning messages sent to and from under-18s to protect them from “inappropriate images”, Meta has announced.The feature, being kept under wraps until later this year, would work even on encrypted messages, a spokesperson said, suggesting the company intends to implement a so-called client-side scanning service for the first time.But the update will not meet controversial demands for inappropriate messages to be reported back to Instagram servers.Instead, only a user's personal device will ever know whether or not a message has been filtered out, leading to criticism of the promise as another example of the company “grading its own homework”.“We're planning to launch a new feature designed to help protect teens from seeing unwanted and potentially inappropriate images in their messages from people they're already connected to,” the company said in a blogpost, “and to discourage them from sending these types of images themselves. We'll have more to share on this feature, which will also work in encrypted chats, later this year.”…Much MoreTiger Global Investor Relations Staff Depart After Fundraising ChallengesBy Francesca Friday and Maria HeeterJan 24, 2024, 4:46pm PSTSeveral Tiger Global Management employees focused on raising capital for the New York firm's venture funds have taken buyout offers, according to a person familiar with the matter. The departures of the staff, who worked with prospective investors, come as the firm has struggled to raise money for its latest venture capital fund after a collapse in startup valuations soured its paper returns for earlier funds.As of the second quarter of 2023, a $12.7 billion fund that Tiger started making investments from in October 2021 had a paper loss of 18%, calculated as an annualized return net of management fees, according to internal data distributed to investors in the fund. That's a slight improvement from six months earlier, when the 2021 fund showed a loss of 20%. The fund's performance is in the bottom quartile of funds started that year, the document said, and has also lagged the S&P 500's annualized net return in the same period.The Takeaway• Tiger employee buyouts are the latest example of VC cost-cutting• Tiger's $12.7 billion had lost 18% on paper as of June* Tiger could soon show a $350 million gain from OpenAI stakeAs of June 30, 2023, the $12.7 billion fund hadn't returned any cash to investors, which isn't unusual for such a young fund. But the paper losses are closely guarded secrets that reflect the kind of write-downs other venture firms have been making over the past two years as tech valuations have fallen.It isn't clear how big Tiger's investor relations team is, but the departures are the latest example of belt-tightening across the venture industry. Firms are raising smaller funds and striking fewer deals, reducing the need for sprawling support staff—including those who help firms raise money from pension funds and endowments...MoreWorldcoin hints at new Orb for a friendlier iris-scanning experienceby Vivian NguyenThe next-gen device will feature various colors and shapes to enhance its visual appeal.Worldcoin, an iris biometric crypto project, is set to launch a new Orb that aims to offer a more user-friendly iris-scanning experience, said Alex Blania, CEO and co-founder of Tools for Humanity, the developer behind the project, in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch today.“The next Orb will roll out in the first half of this year and will feature alternative colors and form factors in an effort to look ‘much more friendly,'” Blania explained. “Overall, it is going to look way more tuned down and similar to an Apple product.”Blania acknowledges that the initial design of the Orb predated his time at the company. “The new orb is coming and the next iterations will look quite different,” he remarked during a fireside chat at a recent StrictlyVC event, signaling a departure from the current, more controversial design.The goal of Worldcoin, as described by Blania, is to reach billions of users as fast as possible.“The thesis is very simple. We race toward billions of users as fast as we possibly can,” said Blania.Founded by Blania, Sam Altman, and Max Novendstern, Tools for Humanity has raised around $250 million from prominent investors like a16z and Bain Capital Crypto, among others. The project is famous for its unique Orb device designed to scan people's irises and assign them a “World ID,” granting access to Worldcoin's application and a digital passport. Worldcoin's vision is to authenticate individual identities and prevent the creation of multiple accounts.The current design of the Orb has been a topic of much debate due to its intimidating look, similar to a prop from a sci-fi movie, according to Blania. The company has also faced criticism for its beta testing approaches in developing economies and concerns over privacy and data security.Despite some skepticism, the Orb has seen practical use. At the StrictlyVC event in downtown San Francisco, a Tools for Humanity employee reported that a “couple dozen” attendees scanned their iris to receive a World ID. There has also been “field testing” of the new Orb design.…MoreStartup of the WeekLoyalty Startup Bilt Rewards Hits $3.1B Valuation After $200M RoundChris MetinkoJanuary 24, 2024Bilt Rewards, a loyalty rewards startup, raised a $200 million round led by General Catalyst at a $3.1 billion valuation — more than double the number after its last fundraising in 2022.The round also included participation from Eldridge Industries, Left Lane Capital, Camber Creek and Prosus Ventures.The New York-based startup allows consumers to earn rewards on the rent they pay. Bilt plans to use some of the proceeds to expand its network to include local dining, grocery stores, ridesharing and other retail purchases.“We're not just building a loyalty program; we're creating a community-centric ecosystem that benefits everyone from renters to local businesses,” said founder and CEO Ankur Jain.The company also appointed some big names to roles in the company. Bilt named Ken Chenault, former chairman and CEO of American Express, as its chairman, and Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, as an independent director.Big moneyThe company reported its annualized member spend is nearing $20 billion. It also became profitable on an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization basis last year.Those metrics must have impressed investors, as Bilt has seen its valuation shoot up after raising a $150 million Series B at a pre-money valuation of $1.4 billion in October 2022. Founded in 2021, the company has raised a total of $413 million, per Crunchbase.Last year was a slow go for loyalty startups. Such companies raised only $74 million, per Crunchbase data. However in 2022, loyalty startups raised more than a half-billion dollars thanks to big raises that included Bilt's Series B and Madison, Wisconsin-based Fetch's $240 million Series E.With this fundraise, things are looking up for loyalty startups again.X of the Week This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thatwastheweek.substack.com/subscribe

When we meet a prospect who ‘gets' us, what we sell, and immediately see how it could benefit them, sales happen on their own. Unfortunately, most of the folks we're selling to are inundated with offers and don't have the time to figure out how your unique product or service can help them. That's where validating your value becomes critical, and to learn how to build it into every sales conversation, we sat down with Bocar Dia, a partner at Forum Ventures. His job is to be pitched to, so he understands how to ensure each of us are clearly communicating value in every conversation. It's all in this week's episode of Bulletproof Selling!

Maia Benson and Joe Lynch discuss A SaaS Gal in VC Land. Maia is a SaaS gal in VC land and a Managing Director at Forum Ventures where she works with SaaS founders from inception to scale.  About Maia Benson Maia Benson is a Managing Director at Forum where she works with SaaS founders from inception to scale.  She has spent over 20 years founding, building and scaling award-winning SaaS products for Entrepreneurs and SMBs at places like LexisNexis, Pitney Bowes and most recently at Shopify, where she helped found, launch and scale their Shipping and Fulfillment products from inception to 60%+ merchant adoption and $Bs of transportation spend. About Forum Ventures Forum Ventures is the leading early-stage fund, program and community for B2B SaaS startups. Founded in 2014 as Acceleprise, we're on a mission to make the B2B SaaS journey easier, more accessible and successful for early-stage founders, through pre-seed and seed-stage funding, high touch programming, corporate perks and introductions, and an active SaaS community. Forum For Founders, our pre-seed program, provides founders with $100k in funding and 15 intense weeks of talks, events, mentorship and 1:1 guidance focused on go to market and fundraising. Forum Seed, our seed fund, backs exceptional SaaS startups at the seed-stage both from within and outside of our pre-seed program. With over 250 portfolio companies, Forum founders have gone on to raise from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Uncork Capital, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Canaan, Bowery Capital, Susa Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, SV Angel, True Ventures and many more. Our private peer community for Innovation executives -- The Innovation Forum -- brings together like-minded intrapreneurs from all backgrounds to share best practices, insights, and advice, and support one another. In addition to our incredible peer community, members get access to industry trend reports, collaborative events, emerging technology, and startup introductions. Key Takeaways: A SaaS Gal in VC Land Forum Ventures is the top choice for early-stage B2B SaaS companies looking for funding. Forum Ventures is different and better for the following reasons: Founder-focused: Their team consists of former SaaS founders, offering deep understanding of the early-stage journey and expertise in GTM, sales, and fundraising. Pre-seed and seed investments: They empower early-stage B2B SaaS companies with pre-seed and seed funding, ranging from $100k to $2 million. High-touch programs: Beyond funding, they provide high-touch programs like "Forum For Founders" (15 weeks of talks, mentorship, and guidance) and a dedicated fundraising track. Thriving community: They foster an active SaaS community with over 450 founders, mentors, and experts, offering connections, support, and valuable insights. Accessibility champions: Committed to diversity and inclusion, they strive to make the B2B SaaS ecosystem more accessible to underrepresented founders. Proven success: With over 250 successful pre-seed and seed investments, their track record speaks for itself. Fractional co-founder approach: They act as a "fractional co-founder" with world-class expertise, helping startups navigate crucial steps like product development, go-to-market strategy, and fundraising. Mission-driven: Driven by a genuine passion for aiding founders, they prioritize their success and strive to make the B2B SaaS journey easier and more impactful. Learn More About A SaaS Gal in VC Maia Benson | LinkedIn Forum Ventures | LinkedIn Forum Ventures | Homepage The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube

Hosts Dirk Hoerig and Kelly Goetsch welcome Maia Benson, Managing Director of Forum Ventures. The discussion traces Maia's e-commerce and logistics journey, spotlighting her pivotal role at Shopify and the challenges of building the self-embedded shipping network. They cover the Flexport acquisition, challenges in fulfillment systems, and the industry's dynamic nature amid Gen AI impacts. Maia also leads us through funding landscape trends and the startup thresholds needed to be fundable. Timestamps: Personal background / career to date 0:47, 01:10, 10:54 Explain the Shopify / Flexport debacle 04:33, 09:17 What is the Shop app? 06:06 Define fulfillment and order management. Common use cases, features required by software, etc 12:40 When does it make sense to have a standalone OMS vs one combined with your commerce platform? 14:36, 20:24 How does an eCommerce-only OMS differ from a retail OMS, or some other industry? 14:36 Should best in breed exist as a separate category? 19:17 How have Order Management Systems changed over the last 20 years? How have customer expectations changed and what are today's use cases? 17:35 Tell us more about Forum Ventures and what types of companies you're looking to invest in 22:40 What are the thresholds that companies have to meet to be fundable? 23:31 Wrap / Where can people follow you? 28:20, 30:20 FYI - watch the MACH Alliance OMS CEO panel that Maia led 30:45

In this episode you will learn:00:00 Introduction and Overview01:37 Debate on Investing in YC Startups04:43 The Role of Accelerators in Startup Success06:34 Benefits of Joining an Accelerator08:31 The Challenges of Being a Startup Founder15:01 Choosing the Right Accelerator18:12 What Accelerators Look for in Startups22:46 Investment Deal Terms for Accelerators25:26 Reasons a Startup Might Not Join an Accelerator25:37 Understanding the Role and Value of Accelerators26:25 The Business Model of Accelerators27:37 The Importance of Providing an Excellent Founder Experience29:15 The Challenges of Running an Accelerator30:53 Exploring Different Models: Venture Studios and Incubators38:05 The Evolution and Future of Accelerators42:35 The Competitive Landscape for Accelerators47:02 The Impact of Tech Advancements on Accelerator Models50:25 Why Choose Forum VC for B2B SaaS StartupsAbout:Michael Cardamone is the CEO and Managing Partner at Forum Ventures. Prior to Forum Ventures, Michael was one of the first 30 employees at Box in a BD role and then led partnerships at AcademixDirect. He is also an angel investor in a dozen companies, including in the seed round of Flexport. 

Bocar Dia is a thought leader within the Go to Market (GTM) landscape, being a Sales Coach at the Harvard Business School, revenue.fyi, and scalingto100.com. He was an early employee at Hootsuite, starting as a sales rep, pre-revenue, leading multiple Go to Market (GTM) teams throughout its growth to $150M+ Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), 1500+ employees, and ~$300M in funding.As Managing Director at Forum Ventures, Bocar supports 30+ early-stage founders each year on a 1:1 basis to establish their target customers, gain rapid traction, and establish sales motion in the early days of a startup.Connect with Bocar on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bocardia/?originalSubdomain=caVisit the website at https://www.forumvc.com/"All businesses start with a vision and an idea. Knowing that you have a market for your vision is crucial. Thank you, Bocar for providing us with the steps needed before going to market." IdaBrought to you by Just Minding My Business Media™ LLC, visit us at https://jmmbmediallc.com/ to learn how you can “Go Beyond The Interview.”

In episode 18,  Jonah Midanik shares his journey and experience in a growth mindset of recognizing that ‘what got you here won't get you there. He has been lucky enough to have seen the startup journey from a variety of perspectives: as a successful bootstrapped founder/CEO, having helped launch new corporate divisions at BigCo, and as the founder/CEO of Limelight, a Venture backed company.  Jonah currently spends his time helping companies grow with Forum Ventures as the COO and General Partner. Jonah shares a crucial tip in the discussion around ‘what got you here won't get you there'. The tip for every founder or leader involves 3 key steps:Conduct an honest self-assessment. Asking yourself what you're struggling with, what does the company need from you right now,  where I need to go? Identify the gaps in the stage. Approach your peers, mentors, founders, etc. Ask what they think you are really good at vs not great at. Write all this down.Finally, review your notes and ask if you can do this, or if you event want to do this. If it's absolutely yes, then you will find the resources that will get you there. 

Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Dallas Price, a true standout in the North American tech and startup ecosystem. Dallas has spent his entire professional career working with and building over 100 startups from ideation to growth phase, including taking on the co-founder role at Leo Prestte where his team develops brand strategy, content, & identity systems for startups globally. Currently, he's on the Growth Team at Forum Ventures in their new Venture Studio, where his team is working to launch 8 seed-stage startups annually.If that all wasn't enough, Dallas is also  currently leading the digital nomad life, serving entrepreneurs on the road and getting a taste for the different startup communities across the US and Canada. We'll discuss all of it and let Dallas get into the nitty gritty about his path as an entrepreneur, his strategies for building successful startups, and his take on the current state of venture funding and building a scaleup in 2023. Boast AI accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence. Visit Boast.ai, sign up for our Blog newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn for weekly #InnovatorsLive sessions and the latest news to fuel your growth. Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Michael Cardamone, CEO and General Partner at Forum Ventures. Located in New York, NY, USA, Forum Ventures is the leading early-stage fund, program, and community for B2B SaaS startups. Founded in 2014 as Acceleprise, they are on a mission to make the B2B SaaS journey easier, more accessible, and successful for early-stage founders, through pre-seed and seed-stage funding, high-touch programming, corporate perks and introductions, and an active SaaS community.  With over 250 portfolio companies, Forum founders have gone on to raise from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Uncork Capital, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Canaan, Bowery Capital, Susa Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, SV Angel, True Ventures and many more. Michael Cardamone focuses on developing our investment strategy with the mission to make the B2B SaaS journey easier, more accessible, and more successful for early-stage founders. As one of the first 30 employees at Box, as well as leading partnerships at AcedemixDirect, Michael has had direct experience growing SaaS companies from small startups to large-scale enterprises. He is also an angel investor in a dozen companies including a seed investment in Flexport. Michael shares insights about his background in tech, the evolution of Foreign Ventures, and their unique approach to investing in startups. He discusses the challenges of raising pre-seed capital in the current market and outlines the criteria they look for in founders and startups. Michael also explains the differences between Foreign Ventures and other venture funds, emphasizing their hands-on approach and extensive resources.  Visit Forum Ventures at , and on . Reach out to Michael at , and on . _______________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at:    Check out our other podcasts here:   For Investors check out:   For Startups check out:   For eGuides check out:   For upcoming Events, check out    For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group    Please , share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of .

E49: THIS WEEK'S GUEST - JONAH MIDANIKIn this episode, Jonah discusses: The value of putting an entrepreneurial win on the board Deciding to step down from the CEO role to prepare his company for its next stage of growth Advice for fellow founders thinking about fundraising and the M&A process GUEST BIO:Jonah has been fortunate to see the startup journey from many different perspectives. First, as a successful bootstrapped founder of Casino Media Group, an advertising agency focused on the online gaming sector (becoming the agency of record for PokerStars and Bet365). After selling to Immersion Media in 2008, Jonah used his advertising, gaming and technical talents to help the UFC develop the first legal online betting platform in the United States (ultimately powering the first legal hand of online poker live in the U.S.).Jonah then went on to found Limelight, a venture backed company focused on live events. After finding significant success, Jonah stepped away from the CEO role to sit on the board of Limelight and spend his time helping companies grow at a different kind of venture capital firm called Forum Ventures. WHERE TO FIND JONAH MIDANIK:Limelight Platform - https://www.limelightplatform.com/Forum Ventures - https://lp.forumvc.com/pitch-us-formLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonahmidanik/Twitter - https://twitter.com/midanik_jonah

Hi everyone. Did you know that several trends have put us at the doorstep of opportunities for people who work with, start businesses, or invest in SAAS products and services? That's SAAS, as in "software as a service." My guest expert, Maia Benson, Managing Director at Forum Ventures, speaks about these opportunities and much more on this episode. Among other things, Maia speaks about (1) the origins of SaaS, (2) some of the biggest trends affecting SaaS these days, (3) global differences in SaaS, and (4) the exciting future waiting just around the corner for us, both personally and professionally, due to major developments in the SaaS space. This includes, of course, AI's expanding presence. Most importantly for you, our opportunity seekers, Maia identifies SPECIFIC jobs and careers that will be in demand. And, as a venture capitalist in the SaaS world (as well as in other areas), she names industry categories and "pain points" where investors and entrepreneurs may find great opportunities to leverage their assets. Now a little bit about Maia. Maia Benson is a partner and Managing Director at Forum Ventures where she invests in and works with early stage B2B SaaS founders from inception to scale. She has spent over 20 years founding, building, and scaling award-winning SaaS products and platforms for entrepreneurs and SMBs at places like LexisNexis, Pitney Bowes (SendPro platform/apps), and most recently at Shopify, where over 5 years, she helped found, launch and scale their Shipping and Fulfillment products from inception to 60%+ merchant adoption and $Bs of transportation spend. In addition to her venture work at Forum Ventures, Maia continues to angel invest and advise next gen eCommerce and Logistics tech founders.Now a word about a special deal you can get just by being a Looking Forward® listener!Do you make podcasts, video courses, or other content? Well that means you need your own engaging website and mobile app for everything you make… and SupaPass can help. Turn your followers into super fans and paid customers. Elevate your brand with your own stunning website and mobile app. And with SupaPass it's never been easier. SupaPass is the most powerful content app maker on the market and NOW you can try it for free. Or like me, you can be on one of their other plans. In fact, enter code LOOKINGFORWARD and get a 10% lifetime discount on any of their plans. Go to SupaPass.com I invite you to LISTEN, ENJOY, LEARN, LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE this episode! NOTE: We may include your comment with attribution, of course, on our website. And please subscribe to Looking Forward®: Opportunities for Job, Career, Business, and Investment Seekers, too! If you are interested in sponsoring 3 episodes of Looking Forward-- or distributing our content-- please let us know. (Give a listen to what I have to say about SupaPass. We can do something like that to promote your organization or upcoming major event!) **You'll find more information about me and my business, Jeff Ostroff & Associates, LLC, in the middle of this episode and by visiting https://www.jeff-ostroff.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-ostroff-8142647/On the website, you can also contact us about the various marketing and communications services we offer, such as (1) podcast hosting, creation, consulting, and column writing, (2) professional voice overs, (3) B2B/B2C interviewing for individuals and businesses looking to promote themselves or better

On today's episode we are talking about how to drive growth in your organization. Bocar Dia resides at the crossroads of investing and hands-on guidance for portfolio founders during the initial stages of development, encompassing go-to-market strategies, founder-driven sales, and fundraising. As a founding member of Hootsuite's Enterprise product team, he was instrumental in propelling the business to surpass $150M+ in revenue and establish a workforce of 2,000+ within a swift seven years.Episode Highlights:Gradual Market Penetration: Hootsuite's growth journey from unique verticals to broader markets. Started by targeting sectors with social media needs, like media, building a core foundation.Core Vertical Strategy: Develop a focused playbook for growth. Predictably build pipeline, convert prospects, ensure customer success. Clear ICP, persona, value prop for consistent growth.Scaling New Verticals: Meticulous approach to new markets. Form "target team" to validate pain points, build solutions. Focus solely on understanding challenges.Market Validation: Validate demand before scaling. Refine product for vertical needs. Expand after $1M in sales, integrate into core sales.Iterative Customer Development: Understand new markets through customer development. Validate pain points, gather feedback, partner with lighthouse accounts for solution refinement. Ask for feedback, not sell.Partnership Approach: Form early partnerships with potential clients. Engage lighthouse accounts for product development, validation. Build early customer relationships.Balancing Launch: Controlled launch post refining. Avoid wide launch until sales optimized, predictable process established. Use waitlists for sales strategy tuning.Metrics and Unit Economics: Product viability via unit economics. LTV to CAC ratio for venture-scale. Analyze feedback, demand, economics for pivot, refine, or scale decisions.Strategic Differentiation: Unique entry in saturated markets. Technical or distribution edge. Clear, tangible advantage, backed by data.Quantifiable Value Proposition: Stand out with quantifiable value. Show clear ROI (2X, 3X, 10X) in crowded markets. Compelling ROI sought by executives before product commitment. Top 3 Takeaways:Check out the book series from Winning by Design. Lots of good topics related to different roles. If you're building a company, look at the work of Mark Roberge who teaches at the Harvard Business School. His book, The Sales Acceleration Formula is a good place to start. If you're leading an organization that is more self-serve motion on the customer side, check out the guides from OpenView Ventures.How to get in touch with Bocar:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bocardia/ To find out more about Forum Ventures: https://www.forumvc.com

Venture Capitalism helps companies with nothing develop the products of tomorrow. Shark Bite Biz's David Strausser chats with Maia Benson of Forum Ventures to discuss how she helps startups grow and change lives. Check out Maia Benson's company: http://forumvc.com Watch us on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/c/SharkBiteBiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our Sponsor SEIDOR USA: https://seidor.com Visit our NEW Merch store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://store.sharkbitebiz.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Connect with David Strausser on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.linkedin.com/in/DavidStrausser⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Reddit Community: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.reddit.com/r/SharkBiteBiz/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate to our Patreon to SUPPORT this channel and get some BENEFITS and PERKS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/sharkbitebiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the audio podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.SharkBiteBiz.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find out more about the host, David Strausser: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.davidstrausser.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow David Strausser on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/dstrausser83/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.facebook.com/SharkBiteBiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.twitter.com/SharkBiteBiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow David Strausser on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/dstrausser83⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Apple iTunes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shark-bite-biz/id1522304651⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Google Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2hhcmtiaXRlYml6LmNvbS9mZWVkLnhtbA⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1CZh0QdNr5Nn8CD8kInMAJ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Listen Notes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/shark-bite-biz-business-growth-podcast-AMt-rRP2DXl/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Stitcher: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/shark-bite-biz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on iHeartRADIO: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shark-bite-biz-68819872/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Produced by: Francisco Strausser: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC82qlvfm4mXg3⁠ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shark-bite-biz/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shark-bite-biz/support

Michael Cardamone is CEO and Managing Partner at Forum Ventures, which helps founders grow and scale their businesses. Forum is designed to give founders capital, personalized guidance, and support from a growing SaaS community to get your company to the next level. Forum writes 75+ checks per year to trailblazing early-stage B2B SaaS founders.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).

In this podcast, Michael Cardamone, founder of Forum Ventures, shares his valuable insights on the startup world and his journey in founding and running a leading seed-stage SaaS venture VC firm. He talks about the importance of building relationships and being transparent about your track record when raising funds. He also provides insights on investing in startups, moving upmarket into enterprise, and building channel partnerships. Additionally, he discusses the topic of diversity in venture capital and the future of the venture capital landscape, and much more!TimestampsHow Michael got into startups [00:00:22] Michael talks about his transition from working for a family business to getting into tech and venture startups.Partnerships and KPIs at Box [00:02:01] Michael discusses the partnership goals and KPIs at Box, including building credibility in certain industries and driving more sales.Founding Forum Ventures [00:04:59] Michael talks about founding Forum Ventures, including his idea for a differentiated accelerator and how he raised his first $1 million.Fundraising Challenges [00:08:15] Michael talks about the challenges of fundraising for his accelerator and seed funds, including finding early believers and building top of funnel.Founder Characteristics [00:11:23] Michael discusses the qualities and characteristics he looks for in founders and companies, including founder-market fit, ability to recruit, and obsession with the business.Investment Strategies [00:14:05] Michael explains the three different ways Forum Ventures engages with founders, including the accelerator, studio, and seed fund, and the ticket sizes and follow-up strategies for each.Investing in SaaS Startups [00:16:43] Michael talks about investing in a SaaS startup and the importance of building relationships with founders.Moving Upmarket into Enterprise [00:17:37] Michael discusses when it's the right time for a startup to move upmarket into enterprise and how to navigate the transition.Building Channel Partnerships [00:19:20] Michael shares his experience with building channel partnerships and advises startups to be thoughtful and build real relationships with partners.Analyzing Competition [00:25:17] Michael discusses the mistakes investors make when analyzing competition, including overindexing on competition and not considering market dynamics.Total Addressable Market [00:27:13] Michael talks about the mistakes founders make when presenting the total addressable market, including taking a generic approach instead of a nuanced, bottoms-up approach.Venture Capital Landscape [00:31:11] Michael discusses the changes he sees coming in the venture capital landscape in the next 5 to 10 years, including a decline in the number of small funds and a potential shift towards more emerging manager funds.Building a brand [00:34:43] Michael talks about how he underinvested in building a brand for Forum Ventures and how he focused on founder experience instead. He shares how he rebranded and invested more in building the brand over the last couple of years.Favorite online tools [00:35:49] Michael shares his favorite online tools, including Gmail, Slack, and a product from a company he invested in called Hyper. Key LinksForum Ventures - https://www.forumvc.com/LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcardamone/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/MGCardamone

Got an excellent product or solution but struggling with a stellar go-to-market plan? Shark Bite Biz's David Strausser chats with Bocar Dia, a Go to Market expert for startups at Forum Ventures. Check out Bocar Dia's company, Forum Ventures here: ⁠https://forumvc.com⁠ Check out our sponsor, SAP Platinum Partner SEIDOR here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.seidor.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch us on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/c/SharkBiteBiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our NEW Merch store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://store.sharkbitebiz.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Connect with David Strausser on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.linkedin.com/in/DavidStrausser⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Reddit Community: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.reddit.com/r/SharkBiteBiz/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate to our Patreon to SUPPORT this channel and get some BENEFITS and PERKS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/sharkbitebiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the audio podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.SharkBiteBiz.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find out more about the host, David Strausser: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.davidstrausser.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow David Strausser on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/dstrausser83/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.facebook.com/SharkBiteBiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.twitter.com/SharkBiteBiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow David Strausser on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/dstrausser83⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Apple iTunes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shark-bite-biz/id1522304651⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Google Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2hhcmtiaXRlYml6LmNvbS9mZWVkLnhtbA⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1CZh0QdNr5Nn8CD8kInMAJ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Listen Notes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/shark-bite-biz-business-growth-podcast-AMt-rRP2DXl/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Stitcher: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/shark-bite-biz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on iHeartRADIO: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shark-bite-biz-68819872/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Produced by: Francisco Strausser: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC82qlvfm4mXg3C3AzqPHthw --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shark-bite-biz/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shark-bite-biz/support

Got an excellent product or solution but struggling with a stellar go-to-market plan? Shark Bite Biz's David Strausser chats with Bocar Dia, a Go to Market expert for startups at Forum Ventures. Check out Bocar Dia's company, Forum Ventures here: https://forumvc.com Check out our sponsor, SAP Platinum Partner SEIDOR here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.seidor.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch us on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/c/SharkBiteBiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our NEW Merch store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://store.sharkbitebiz.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Connect with David Strausser on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.linkedin.com/in/DavidStrausser⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Reddit Community: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.reddit.com/r/SharkBiteBiz/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Donate to our Patreon to SUPPORT this channel and get some BENEFITS and PERKS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/sharkbitebiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the audio podcast on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.SharkBiteBiz.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find out more about the host, David Strausser: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.davidstrausser.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow David Strausser on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/dstrausser83/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.facebook.com/SharkBiteBiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.twitter.com/SharkBiteBiz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow David Strausser on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/dstrausser83⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Apple iTunes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shark-bite-biz/id1522304651⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Google Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2hhcmtiaXRlYml6LmNvbS9mZWVkLnhtbA⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1CZh0QdNr5Nn8CD8kInMAJ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Listen Notes: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/shark-bite-biz-business-growth-podcast-AMt-rRP2DXl/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on Stitcher: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/shark-bite-biz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen on iHeartRADIO: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shark-bite-biz-68819872/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Produced by: Francisco Strausser: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC82qlvfm4mXg3C3AzqPHthw --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shark-bite-biz/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/shark-bite-biz/support

Michael Cardamone is the Founder & CEO at Forum Ventures. Michael was one of the first 30 employees at Box in a BD role. After 6 years in operating roles, he launched Forum Ventures. He is also an angel investor in a dozen companies, including in the seed round of Flexport. Forum Ventures now runs an accelerator, a VC fund, and a Venture Studio. In this episode, we talk about: -The story of how Forum Ventures got started - Operating an accelerator, a VC fund, and a venture studio in tandem - What goes into running an accelerator and a venture studio? - His biggest learning investing in startups over the years and lots more.. Links mentioned: Forum Ventures website - https://forumvc.com Follow Michael on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcardamone/ Follow Michael on Twitter - https://twitter.com/MGCardamone Full episode video at https://vc10x.com/forum-ventures

Bocar is a thought leader within the GTM landscape, being a Sales Coach at the Harvard Business School, revenue.fyi, and scalingto100.com. He was an early employee at Hootsuite, starting as a sales rep, pre-revenue, leading multiple GTM teams throughout its growth to $150M+ ARR, 1500+ employees and ~$300M in funding. Since then, his roles have been to consistently build out new revenue growth engines from the ground up. As Managing Director at Forum Ventures, Bocar supports early-stage founders in establishing their target customers, gaining rapid traction, and establishing sales motion in the early days of a startup.   Some of the topics that we covered are:   How to build a successful Go-To-Market Motion. Launch Partners and Design Partnes  How to reach your funding goal. Importance of Founder-Led selling for early startups  Importance of building an MVB (Minimal Viable Business) Motion   Thanks so much for listening! Tell a friend or ten about The Startup Selling Show, and please leave a review wherever you're listening to the show.   Links & Resources:    Website: https://www.forumvc.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bocardia/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrbocs Blog: https://scalingto100.com/about/   Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:   BluBrry | Deezer | Amazon | Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia   Thanks so much for listening! Tell a friend or ten about The Startup Selling Show, and please leave a review wherever you're listening to the show.  

On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sit down with Maisha Leek, Managing Director of Forum Venture Studios. Maisha has had an amazing career in corporate innovation, company building and venture capital, and we talk about the new Venture studio model and some of the things that she's seeing in the world of venture. Let's get started.Inside Outside Innovation is podcast to help new innovators navigate what's next. Each week we'll give you a front row seat into what it takes to learn, grow, and thrive in today's world of accelerating change and uncertainty. Join us as we explore, engage and experiment with the best and the brightest, innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneering businesses. It's time to get started. Interview Transcription with Maisha Leek, Managing Director of Forum Venture StudiosBrian Ardinger: Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger, and as always, we have another amazing guest. Today we have Maisha Leek. She's the managing director of Forum Venture Studios. Welcome to the show, Maisha. Maisha Leek: Thank you Brian. I'm excited to be here.Brian Ardinger: I'm excited to have you because you've spent a lot of time in all the different cross sections of innovation. So corporate innovation, company building, venture capital. Can you tell us about your path and journey in this innovation space? Maisha Leek: Sure. I'd love to say it was all brilliantly planned. There's a lot of trial error, error, error, error, and then trial again. I actually got into this world in the interesting route. I was for a long time in Washington DC. I was a policymaker and a fundraiser. And in DC we had oversight of most of the science and innovation agencies. So, everything from NASA to Noah to National Science Foundation, which is about the $54 billion proposition, which is a lot of responsibility. And we work with your tax dollars, placing the best bets we could to jumpstart the economy or to just position the United States to be competitive. And so that turned in everything from investing in commercial space flight. You see that now with SpaceX and Virgin Galactic and other companies. Those aren't the only ones. And investing in the advancement of batteries, which leads to all of the electric vehicles that we have now and, and sort of their ability to compete with their combustible counter parts.I knew I was far from all the action that everybody was in, in Silicon Valley and wanted to get closer to it, but by happenstance, met the founder of United Masters. Which was a music and tech company. And did not know what I was doing, except that I was an operator. I knew how to build out teams and build out a company and spent my time doing that. And we had the right as Silicon Valley goes investors. So had Ben Horowitz on our board. And David Drummond on our board. And was really active in managing those relationships. And when I was thinking about what to do next after spent some time at that startup, I had an executive coach and friends, they were like, you got to get into venture.And I'm like, that sounds really boring. And their suggestion I think is really apt for folks who are thinking about it. They suggested I would be good in the space because I had experience to do this on Capitol Hill, operating across a range of subject matters. And knowing to be sort of a generalist that can go deep in certain areas and analyze information and make quick judgements.My first experience was at Adventure Studio at Human Ventures. And that really influenced what I decided to do after that. And most of my time in the venture space, outside of being an angel investor or participating SPVs has really been in the venture studio space. I love it because of the close connection you can have with the founder and the founding team. It's not sort of like write a check. I'll call you once a month kind of thing. We're in it with them. But it also leans into the place where I'm strong. Which is I'm a really great operator and being able to do that with founders and helping them not make the same mistakes I've made in other companies that I've built or independent of that, also gives me great joy.So, I've done four Venture Studios - Nike Valiant Labs, Human Ventures, New Lab, which are across the series of categories. New Lab is Frontier Technology. Nike is really best to describe with CPG. Human Ventures, which is in large part direct to consumer. And Forum, which is B2B SaaS. And they all have their challenges. But again, I love the model. I'm an evangelist for the model. Brian Ardinger: Let's talk about that model. You know, people who've followed the show and that have heard more and more about Venture Studios, and if you've been in the space, you're hearing different flavors of what Venture Studios are. So can you talk about what is a venture studio from your definition and what were the differences between the different ones that you've started and where you're at currently with Forum. Maisha Leek: The term studio, when it's combined with venture, actually originates from Hollywood, which I did not know. Essentially, like the idea that the studio from ideation to putting it into theaters would be responsible for the build. Like they collaborate with some folks, but they wanted to sort of own the vertical of the product that went out to market. And Venture Studios do just that in a venture context. We are building small businesses as fast as possible.You do different things depending on the category, and there are few ways the model sort of shows up. On one extreme, they're starting with just the idea and there's no founder. On the other extreme, you've built out a business and you're hiring in a CEO. Most of the venture studios I've worked with sort of lean to the front end where we really are interested in and get really excited about the founder. And really help them determine what to build.And that's really a question of what the problem is that they want to solve. It's not really starting with a solution. And then we take them through a process to de-risk it, diligence it, figure out who the real customers are. What needs to be true for the MVP, and then bring it out to market. Most venture studios do that.I think that where we get variation is the degree to which the idea is evolved before the team that's going to live with the problem goes out into the world. I think that's where folks tend to have differing points of view about what's most important. And a lot of it's logical. Venture Studios exist because we have a better risk profile than a founder doing it on their own.I can get into why that is, but you can imagine it's just our expertise. And depending on the Venture Studio and their point of view about what they have to offer in terms of the early ideation, you have some organizations or groups who really want to use every insight that they have and stand up a company. And others who believe that the founder who's taking the risk should do most of that work. That's how folks are making those choices from what I've seen. Brian Ardinger: Yeah, that seems to be some of the key differentiation. It's how much additional resources perhaps are put towards it. So, some venture studios are very much hands-on. They have a team of developers that the founder can work with to build out, you know, early-stage prototypes and things along those lines. All the way to, obviously capital's involved.But it, it's interesting to see even the last three or four years, how that model has evolved. You know, some of the earlier venture models, you know, High Alpha out of Indianapolis or Highland Beta Toronto, they're looking at different models. You've got Nobody's Studios out in New York and the Philippines. And then you've got, obviously some of these, what were more traditional startup accelerator programs, whether it's Techstars or others that are, are looking at kind of a venture model where again, it seems to be how do we find the early founder with some magic sauce. And then put the magic sauce together to create companies together. Rather than looking for a company out there, which would be more, I guess, a traditional venture model in general.Maisha Leek: It's interesting. I love how you put that last point. The debate, I think, amongst people who are in the venture studio space is like, well, what matters more, the idea or the founder. I think that the way they're setting up venture studios is really an answer to that individual group's point of view on that question. I personally believe that the founder is the one thing you cannot de-risk. Human beings are human. And you know, you can pivot a company, you can pivot a strategy, you can change who is sitting where. But when it comes to the founder, you really wanna have conviction before you build. And I think a ton of folks are seeing that as the whole game. In large part, because early-stage investors are only looking at the team, right? So, it stands to reason that where venture studios can really play the game super, super well is making sure they've got that really, really tight, and then getting into the idea and the problem space from there.Brian Ardinger: And that makes perfect sense. You know, at the earliest stages, most ideas are crap, and they have to be worked through. And so the uncertainty itself, you're looking for somebody who can work through that uncertainty and adapt to the changing things that they learn along the way. Maisha Leek: A hundred percent. And somebody also who has a game plan for themself, which I find doesn't come up as much. But you know, I was talking to a founder this morning that was having a rough day, early on a Monday. And essentially, am I making the right choice for my life? How do I do that? Having a plan for all of those rough moments, it's like one of the most important things an investor or even a studio or a founder can put together before they even dig into the idea, because it's your right. The way a business shows up today. Fifteen years from now, it's going to be completely different. And really having a game plan for how to address the uncertainty, the significant amount of volatility that you'll face and keep your head is probably some of the most important details about being a founder that I don't think get enough of your time.Brian Ardinger: So obviously a founder's a core component to creating any new company. What are some of the ways that you both source founders and what do you look for. Maisha Leek: This is the best question. It's also the hardest. There are a range of approaches. I think that over time you start to build a network of founders that trust and know you.And when you say that you're standing up the studio and that you want to build, they tend to refer people that they're really excited about. Just starting from scratch. I mean, you really do want to spend time doing what we're doing right now. Demonstrating your capabilities in conversations and writing. Really posting a ton. Trying to draw people in.Being a judge at competitions. Talking to your network of other investors. There are a ton of folks that are further down the line and they meet founders who are too early for them to consider for their deals. I've talked to my entire network about getting folks to refer those folks to us. And then also not being afraid to look in places that you don't suspect. And so at the studios that I've worked with, we always have a complete open door. We do not require a warm intro for you to engage us. That's intentional. You're a needle in a haystack. I don't want to have the door closed. And when I have talked to every and anyone about the studio model, about what we can offer, about how to think about joining us.From a profile perspective, there's what I'm looking for and then there's like where those people are. I have the same challenge any startup has. Who is your customer? Right? I went to the first one. There are about like three types of people, right, that are very stages of availability. There are folks that are experienced founders who seek out venture studios because they've had to do it alone before. And they know that doing it alone is not worth it. it's not efficient. They want to move quickly, understand if there's real meat to their idea, and dig into that fast. They tend to come to venture studios actively, actively always talking to founders despite how deep they are into their build. It's just going to be top of mind for them. There's a ton of people who don't see themselves as founders but have all the experience. These are my favorite to cajole and to taking the risk. They tend to be a human, we used to call them the person behind the person, right? These are folks that have COO roles or Head of Biz ops or revenue, or chief of staff roles. They spent a significant amount of time learning how to build a business by being the number one, number two, or the sidekick to the person that's doing it.They've got to learn the category really well. They have a ton of insights, and they might be thinking, well, my next role is to sort of be the number two. Invariably though, based on that experience, they have strong points of view about what's missing from the market. They just had to do it. And they have all the experience of an experience founder, and I'd like to almost always pull those people in and have them think about what it might look like if they were in a leadership chair.Brian Ardinger: In that particular environment, are founders coming to you with an idea or a series of ideas that they want to explore? Or are they coming to you saying, hey, what do you know out there? What are you seeing from an opportunity perspective? And I'll sift through that and pick one that might resonate with me. Or what's that, I guess, spectrum of coming in with an idea versus coming in with a blank slate.Maisha Leek: it's a mix of both. The last like profile of somebody who might come to us as like an entrepreneur, someone who's been inside a big company, and they're always the first task with standing up the new thing. And so, you're hearing the mechanics like that folks have internalized. To your point about ideas, it depends on the studio, right? But I've seen folks come in with a strong point of view. I know exactly what I want to build. I know exactly the problem I want to address. Sometimes that's exciting. Sometimes that's problematic. Our process in the early days is designed to tear your idea apart. And so, if you're wedded to it, it can be a bit challenging.And then folks that don't have an idea, I've spent time with a number of business designers helping them think through the problem that they're really excited about and pulling out the thread that might be the one that we want to dig into. The trick of all of that in terms of founders is like, you should have a strong point of view about a problem space. You don't have to have the idea fully formed. So, you should know I'm fired up about logistics. I've spent 10 years as like the head of business development here and I really want to pull this apart. I have less experience than that, but I have actively been tinkering. Because I think that this problem that I've experienced is really a challenge. Those are the best people. They're ready to go. They've got a chip on their shoulder and something that they want to address. And Venture studios a really great place for them. Brian Ardinger: Yeah. I often talk to founders and that, and like you want to find those founders that want to spend time with that problem and or customer segment because not necessarily having a solution around it, but you know, they know they're going to be spending 5, 7, 10 years of their lives. You want to get up every day focused on that and really digging into it versus, I'm just chasing the next greatest trend because it sounds like the next thing to do. Maisha Leek: Fastest way to burn yourself out or to get frustrated really quickly. Because we're talking about years and years of your life. You got to love the problem or the customer.Brian Ardinger: You mentioned on the corporate entrepreneur side of things, and have you seen different flavors of this Venture Studio model being deployed, I guess within a company versus externally Forum Ventures? Maisha Leek: I have, yeah. I have a ton of friends that are leading innovation teams inside big companies, and they frequently connect up with Venture Studios primarily because we can help them move faster. Internally for the corporates, what can be an amazing opportunity can also be your challenge. The innovate team, is a great opportunity to build against the problems either facing the business internally, like so you're building for inefficiencies within the business, and you want to build tools, services, platforms, whatever.And then some who are only thinking externally around mark, market cap or market share. It's like, all right, we are really tight with these customers. We want to expand to these others. Let's build out small brands that can go help us expand our reach, essentially. And the challenge for folks inside a highly matrixed organization that are building a studio or building an innovation team is really like who amongst your colleagues can actually play in that sandbox?It's not always what you think. They are of the generals. The guys and gals who've been around the company forever. They know where all the bodies are buried. The new sandbox has switched on. They're like, great. I want to jump in there and play. They're the deal maker inside the company. Not always. They're great, right? But not always the profile, the founder you want to look for. You're really looking for folks that really are ambitious about standing up something new. Are great storytellers inside the company but aren't wedded to company culture in a way that will slow them down. There are a ton of tricks for leaders of innovation teams that are internal on how to draw those people in and protect yourself from the rest. That's a story for another time. Brian Ardinger: The other topic I want to dig into, obviously venture studios require money or capital and, and they differ than a traditional, I guess, fund investment and that. Can you talk about the Venture Studio model from the investor side. And why that particular path versus, I guess, a traditional fund. And what's different and, and what's good or bad about the different approaches?Maisha Leek: Like I've heard people describe it a few ways. Some LPs describe it as like investing into an index fund. When you get a batch of companies at a cheaper rate. That's fine. Feels a little off brand. I think that for investors in large part, the value is that you get a de-risk asset faster and equity in that de-risk asset cheaper than you would finding a company on your own.And so, I find that LP is into venture studios have been brought along on that narrative journey. They can see the numbers. I mean, Venture Studios at this point have so much track record. I mean, we're perhaps like maybe 20 years in in terms of Venture Studios being around. Don't quote me on that. And essentially the track record, you know, suggests right that companies that come out of venture studios have like a 30% higher success rate than the ones that are stood up on their own.They return to fund faster, they have a 72% chance of raising their subsequent rounds C day and CB that, you know, all of the conditions are really right to make it something that's super, attractive as an investment. And investors into studios I think are, are dialed into that. And more and more now that more and more venture students are coming online across a series of categories.Brian Ardinger: Talk a little bit about how you see the Venture Studio, the life cycle of a company. So, if it's one thing, if you build it yourself and you go out and raise venture capital, you're building all your teams yourself, you're scaling it. Where in the Venture Studio model, obviously kickstart it and stand it up, does the company itself, when does it go on its own or does it continue with the studio or talk about those inflection points. Maisha Leek: Yeah, I think it's a, that's actually a strategic question for the studio, and also a good opportunity to provide advice to founders that might be listening in. Essentially, the best studios in my experience, have a time boxed plan for your journey. Doesn't have to be rigid. There's less likelihood of success when it's a sort of a meandering X metric that we'll move you through. I mean, really strong venture studios have a plan for after your company is built, the MVP, the number of people that you need on your team, how we're going to prepare you to go into the market to raise money, the number of customers we want you to have, and then move you through.Your question was about like what's the long tail of support? Really great Studios show up in the way that great funds would. Once you're a portfolio company, our interests are aligned with yours. We are a hundred percent dialed into your success. If you need something. Phone home kind of approach. And I think that having the staffing or the plan for that is really helpful for a founder to hear when they're evaluating venture studios that they might engage with.Right after I have my set of customers, after I've done my raise, what is our relationship going to be is the right question to ask there. But I've seen a range of folks on how they navigate that. Sometimes it's ad hoc, the GP is the only person interacting and sometimes it's, there's a real plan with a platform team that folks are tapping into as they're on their growth journey.Brian Ardinger: What are you excited about? Are the particular trends or the particular things that you're really digging into in 2023 and beyond? Maisha Leek: Yeah. I am personally super excited about logistics and transportation. I think that personally that it's an exciting moment for a few reasons. One, the technology allows us to do this more efficiently than we ever had. The migratory patterns that we saw post covid are pretty fascinating. We once had Class A, class B, class C cities. It's sort of turned that entire dynamic on its head. It's sending people your way, Brian. Brian Ardinger: Exactly. Maisha Leek: Yeah, and I love that. I don't know what that means, but I love it. I'm very excited about it. From a macro perspective, you know. I'm a millennial, right? So, this is like, I guess the fourth or fifth global crisis that I've lived through. What's really exciting about that, to the degree that can be exciting, is I think that folks are in a very salt of the earth, meat and potatoes way, rethinking their relationship with work and their responsibility for their own careers and lives.And I think it's going to lead not surprisingly to a surge of people starting their own businesses because they want to be, they want to take ownership right for their futures. And I'm really excited about that. I also think that the conversations that younger generations, gen Z, for example, are having around work, will lead to hopefully the resurgence of labor unions.I think that there is a period of time where we sort of walked away from that because you know, the worker and the employer were really at a better eye to eye level sense. I think that we're seeing a lot of the convulsions out of the tech sector teach us that that's not the case. And we do need a fair arbiter to make that work.I come from a long line of union workers. And so, in the venture world, I'm excited that venture studios are no longer taboo. I was mentioning earlier when I first told people I worked at Venture Studios, they were like, oh, it's not a fund. And now all, every day I hear somebody talking about getting into the space. I think that's great. I think Venture Studios will be the really strong gateway to capture those other three trends that I mentioned. You know, people are reconsidering their relationship with work, their expectations of what good company stewardship have changed, and just our needs from an infrastructure perspective have shifted because our behavior and venture studios are going to be best suited to dig into those problems and questions for us. So that's what I'm really excited about. We'll see, I'll watch this back in five years and see if I was right about anything. For More InformationBrian Ardinger: I'm excited about it because anybody who can help move ideas faster into the ether and create value along that way, that's what we're all about. So, I'm excited to hear your journey in the future. And in the interim, if people want to find out more about yourself or about Forum Ventures, what's the best way to do that? Maisha Leek: I am hyperactive on LinkedIn and getting more and more active every day. Definitely DM me. Definitely reach out. I'm also an angel investor. I'm standing up a syndicate in the next little bit here. I'm really, really, really obsessed with small businesses and founders. I mean, my family has come from five generations of entrepreneurs. It's really game changing work, and I'd love to be a part of that. So hit me up there. Brian Ardinger: Excellent. Well, Maisha, thank you again for being on Inside Outside Innovation. Looking forward to continuing the conversation and best of luck. Maisha Leek: Thank you, Brian.Brian Ardinger: That's it for another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. If you want to learn more about our team, our content, our services, check out InsideOutside.io or follow us on Twitter @theIOpodcast or @Ardinger. Until next time, go out and innovate.FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER & TOOLSGet the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HEREYou can also search every Inside Outside Innovation Podcast by Topic and Company.  For more innovations resources, check out IO's Innovation Article Database, Innovation Tools Database, Innovation Book Database, and Innovation Video Database.  

For this episode of the eCom Logistics Podcast, we welcome Maia Benson, Partner and Managing Director at Forum Ventures. Today, she shares her journey as an entrepreneur and the different levels of investment Forum offers to founders.She discusses her insights on how Shopify became the catalyst for reaching new markets in fast-growing segments, as well as the prospect of new tech helping create a new and affordable delivery promise that drives conversion. Maia also digs into the unit economics of parcels and the challenges of bringing them down.Maia then discusses Amazon's unique DNA, the obstacles that software-only solutions encounter today, and how focusing on creating a great product should be every SaaS company's first principle, especially with the recent double-digit layoffs in the tech world. ABOUT MAIAMaia Benson is a Partner and Managing Director at Forum Ventures where she invests in and works with early-stage B2B SaaS founders from inception to scale. She has spent over 20 years founding, building, and scaling award-winning SaaS products and platforms for entrepreneurs and SMBs at places like LexisNexis, Pitney Bowes (SendPro platform/apps) and most recently at Shopify.For over 5 years, she helped found, launch, and scale their shipping and fulfillment products from inception to 60%+ merchant adoption and $Bs of transportation spend. In addition to her venture work at Forum Ventures, Maia continues to angel invest and advise next-gen ecommerce and logistics tech founders. HIGHLIGHTS04:01 Starting entrepreneurship in SEO and eventually joining Forum Ventures08:46 Providing a spectrum of funding options and partnering with friends for success17:11 Shopify drove demand for tools that integrate legacy pieces in an evolving market22:25 Tech innovations challenge the idea that owned infrastructure is better31:49 With recent layoffs, companies should focus on building great product for and with customers QUOTES15:30 Asking for help and partnering are especially important in the logistics space - Maia: "I think founders with a DNA of asking for help are naturally outsize winners, period hard stop. And the advisors they can attract to support them in the journey and to unlock opportunities faster for them is really a reflection of them fundamentally understanding that DNA."24:40 Today's environment is characterized by innovation and creating optionality - Maia: "We are in a state of innovation and fragmentation right now that is making the what, so the what strategy of I need a great, affordable delivery promise, that's what I need, I need a delivery promise that drives conversion that I can afford at a unit economic level, period hard stop." "Does that mean it's a space race to 1 or 2 day for everyone? No, that's not what it means. But that is the end state and there has been so much exciting innovation and then the birth of so many different companies to empower that, that we're now looking at a how that has optionality." Find out more about Maia in the links below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maiabenson/Website: https://www.forumvc.com/

Based on our write-up with Forum Ventures, Adam and Tom discuss next year's outlook. We also cover the latest from The Information, including their USV coverage and why Holiday Parties are not in-season this year. 

Olivia dives into what this new tech is and what roles local government practitioners can play in these emerging spaces.Episode Guests: Dani Pico, Director of Community at ForumDani is a long time start-up operator focused on the education and innovation sectors. Currently, Dani is the Director of Community at Forum Ventures, an early stage fund and accelerator program focused on B2B SaaS.Zachary HabayebReal Estate Tokenization in the UKVisit govlaunch.com for more stories and examples of local government innovation. 

"Pivots are very important because it shows that you're learning. It shows that you're validating, or invalidating, a hypothesis."This is just one of the many lessons Elias learned as he and his co-founder, David Cancel, built Drift from the ground up. Drift now has over 600 employees and has reached unicorn status, but that doesn't mean it's always been (or is) easy. On this episode of the American Dream podcast, we're bringing back a talk Elias did with Forum Ventures - an early-stage fund, program, and community for B2B SaaS startups - where he shared his journey with Drift.In the episode, you'll hear the original idea for Drift, why he and David decided to pivot, and what experiencing three economic downturns has taught Elias.Be sure to hit the subscribe button to get new episodes when they drop every other Tuesday.In the meantime, be sure to leave a ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ review and share the pod with your friends. You can connect with Elias on Twitter at @eliast and @DriftPodcasts.

Chris Hicken is a successful business leader with an emphasis on B2B software. He is the CEO and Co-founder of Nuffsaid, which uses AI technology to sift through hundreds of everyday tasks to promote the ones that move businesses forward. He spent eight years as the President and COO of UserTesting where he developed his expertise in user experience. He also serves as an advisor and board member for multiple prestigious businesses such as Peer Collective, UserGems, Forum Ventures, and The/Studio. In this episode… SaaS and B2B companies are uniquely incentivized to create a quality customer experience. With an ongoing business model, it's important to get customers in the door and keep them satisfied in the long run. The difficulty comes in walking the tightrope, balancing priorities both within your own company and with your customers. So how do you create the right experience that will in turn grow your business? Chris Hicken has more than 15 years of experience in the B2B software field. He has learned how to scale companies while curating the customer's experience. Chris utilizes customer-led growth as a reliable model that appeals to investors. It's worked for his latest business, so what exactly does it look like in practice? In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz interviews Chris Hicken, CEO and Co-founder of Nuffsaid, to discuss how to grow your business by perfecting the customer experience. They discuss customer-led growth and how it appeals to investors, the three stages of the customer journey, how to ensure satisfaction, and the rule of 40. Finally, Chris touches on mentorship and why you need different kinds of mentors in your career.

Michael Cardamone, CEO and managing partner at Forum Ventures (formerly Acceleprise), demystifies the effects of public market volatility on startups. Michael gives his perspectives on the recent market downturn, and his advice for founders building B2B SaaS companies on how to manage market volatility. He also gives more details about how he looks at opportunities when he invests in startups.In this episode, you'll learn:4:15 What benefits does a founder gain from working with a sector-dedicated accelerator over a generalist accelerator?11:50 Key things for startup founders to do to weather market downturn21:48 How can innovative startups harness the power of community?Non-profit organization that Michael is passionate about: Big Brothers Big SistersAbout Guest SpeakerMichael Cardamone is the CEO and managing partner at Forum Ventures (formerly Acceleprise). In addition, he is an angel investor in the pre-seed or seed rounds of Flexport, Naturebox, and Station; among others. Michael hustles hard for his portfolio companies, providing hands-on support and mentorship every day in person or on Slack while making key connections to dozens of customers, investors, and key partners.About Forum VenturesForum Ventures (formerly Acceleprise) is a B2B SaaS-focused seed fund, pre-seed accelerator program, and community with offices in San Francisco, NYC and Toronto. Forum for Founders, the accelerator program, is a flagship 15-week pre-seed program designed to give founders personalized guidance, support from a growing SaaS community, plus the capital to get their companies to the next level. Companies in Forum's portfolio include: FirstBase, Fireflies.ai, Indio, Oncue, Courier, People Data Labs, Roots Automation, Inscribe, Sote, Silq, VendorPM and CoProcure.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode that will drop next Tuesday. Follow Us:  Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook

You'll know after a pitch who really wants to invest, and playing games with them won't help. Making your pitch easy to digest, with all needed information on it, will help VCs think when they're reflecting on your pitch. Don't sell yourself short. Aim for an addressable market over $10 billion.

I interview Michael Cardamone and we will discuss fundraising tips for founders. Michael Cardamone is the CEO/Managing Partner at Forum Ventures (formerly Accleprise) which is a B2B SaaS focused seed fund & pre-seed accelerator with locations in SF, NYC & Toronto We discuss: - The types of companies that will benefit from raising rounds - How to come up with the amount to raise - How to raise funds at a faster rate - Fundraising mistakes most founders make and how to avoid them Connect with Natalie here: https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/ Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss

This episode's guest on the SaaS Revolution Show is Michael Cardamone, CEO & Managing Partner of Forum Ventures. Michael discusses some of his top learnings for early stage SaaS startups with Alexander Theuma, CEO of SaaStock. This episode is sponsored by Capchase: capchase.com/saastock Become a SaaStock Founder Member - join a private community of ambitious SaaS founders scaling to $10M ARR. Apply now: https://cutt.ly/2ECKuDW

Michael Cardamone, CEO of Forum Ventures, talks about what he considers in potential SaaS investments and his lessons from the industry. Get more insights from the podcast. Form Ventures is a leading B2B SaaS focus accelerator that helps early-stage businesses grow and scale. They have invested 50 million USD in over 250 companies, with their portfolio hitting an approximate valuation of 3 billion USD. Join the podcast and listen to Michael as he tells Geordie about his journey.  What You'll Learn How the Forum Ventures seed fund works How to know a great founder What companies need to succeed during the accelerator program The framework that Forum Ventures use to help companies track KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) Why do companies join accelerator programs Which is the ideal place to source a SaaS company? In this Episode: Forum Ventures was recently rebranded from Acceleprise, an accelerator B2B SaaS which has been in existence for close to seven years. Michael says they come in at the early stage of a business and run a four-month associate-based program acting as a continuation of the founding team. Forum Ventures helps companies devise the right market strategy to identify their ideal customers and edge closer to getting funding. Forum also has a seed fund where they invest in institutional seed rounds. Listen to the podcast to understand how the seed fund works. The core part of the business is to invest $100,000 to each company that joins the accelerator program. While they may not have enough capital to invest in every company that sets up a seed round from the accelerator program, they strive to invest in companies outside the accelerator. Michael and his team consider various factors when deciding who to recruit in the accelerator program. First, they look for companies that are in the earliest stages of their operations. To understand a company's product and vision, Forum works closely with the founders whose product may be in the early stages but not fully developed. Some of them may have customers while others may not. Michael defines that stage in detail, and you can learn all about it from the podcast. Much of what Forum Ventures does is focus on the team and the market opportunity. When looking for a team, Forum considers their founder market fit and tries to understand what they know about the problem they are solving or their target market. They also seek to determine how great the founders are; a term Michael says he detests. Find out his reasons from the podcast. According to Michael, you do not know a good founder. Instead, he says they determine the characteristics that a great founder and leader would have. Listen to Michael as he gives an in-depth explanation of these traits. How big or small should a team be to qualify for the Forum Ventures accelerator program? Michael says they do not have complicated rules regarding the team's size as long as they have an excellent market fit and understand their products extensively. Michael mentions some common traits that make companies successful during the accelerator program in this podcast. Forum Ventures has a structure that helps companies track their KPIs, which Michael says is different for each company. Get details of how the structure works from the podcast. To acquire the $100,000 funding, companies give up 7.5% equity to Forum Ventures. This arrangement may not make much sense to all companies, but it works for a significant number of companies, according to Michael. Forum has carved a niche in the industry as a reliable provider capable of acquiring more funding for the companies after the accelerator program. Michael gives some practical examples in the podcast. Michael says the $100,000 capital that companies joining the accelerator program get should last for the entire four-month program. He also mentions what a company should achieve at the end of the program in terms of performance. Get all the details from the podcast. The SaaS industry is fast becoming overly competitive. What criteria does Forum Ventures use to determine a company's potential for success? Michael says they focus on five things: vertical SaaS, the future of work, supply chain logistics, and FinTech, insurance, and tech-based stuff. Michael explains these concepts in detail, complete with illustrations. He concludes the podcast by mentioning that while angel investing can be great, it's one industry where being connected to the ecosystem is critical. Investors should also know that some of the companies may not work. If you are new to angel investing, consider doing it in angel groups where you can learn and gain experience before risking your money, he says. Resources   Forum Ventures Michael Cardamone LinkedIn Michael Cardamone Twitter  

Think you have something to learn from the leaders of a B2B SaaS Accelerator and Fund that has worked and invested with over 200+ early stage SaaS companies that have gone on to raise $300M+ in follow on funding and counting?Come to the B2B Community Builder Podcast's special fireside chat with Michael Cardamone and Jeff Becker.Host of the show, Pablo Gonzalez, will ask Michael and Jeff about: - the most effective Go To Market motions Michael & Jeff see in B2B SaaS today- the why and how Acceleprise is betting big on the value of community- what opportunities they see in B2B that are currently underserved- and much more (including whatever questions YOU may have)!Come and let their perspective on the 200+ data points of successes and failures inform YOUR playbook for the rest of the year!ABOUT OUR GUESTS:Michael CardamoneMichael was one of the first 30 employees at Box in a BD role and then led partnerships at AcademixDirect. After 6 years in operating roles, he launched Acceleprise (https://acceleprise.vc/) in San Francisco, a B2B SaaS focused accelerator and fund with locations in San Francisco, NYC & Toronto. In addition to Acceleprise, he's an angel investor in 12 companies, including Flexport, Curated.com, Vemo and more. He graduated with an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Columbia Business School, and holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Syracuse University.Specialties: Developing and managing partnerships, strategy, SaaS, business development, digital marketing, early stage investing, early go to market, salesJeff BeckerJeff is an experienced leader, entrepreneur, and sales executive with a Proven track record of building world-class teams, and delivering exceptional results. He's creative, focused, and a believer in the impossible that is always looking to help incredible people set incredible ideas in motion.Prior to joining Acceleprise, he spent 9 years in sales and sales leadership roles at Linkedin, is an experienced GTM advisor to startups, and an angel investor.Support the show (https://connectwithpablo.com)

If you are a Founder of a SaaS company then this is an episode you do not want to miss. Today's guest works directly with SaaS companies and knows the inner workings of how to raise the capital you need in your business. Michael Cardamone was one of the first 30 employees at Box in a BD role and then later led partnerships at AcademixDirect. After six years of being in operating roles, Michael launched Forum Ventures, a BSB SaaS-Focused Accelerator and Fund based in NYC and Toronto. Michael is seven years into his company and he's already on his fourth fund for the accelerator and has worked with over 200 companies. Some of Michael's entrepreneurs have never even stepped into Silicon Valley and have raised several millions of dollars. The VC landscape is rapidly changing to find companies outside of California and New York. Michael sees the benefits, too. You want more diversity? Take advantage of the global landscape and hire team members from all over the world to get a different cultural perspective. Countless studies have shown that when a company has more diversity, they are adaptable and more empathic to all different types of users. One thing that founders don't think about enough is how will investors value your business? What is their process and how do you fare in that process? A great way to make yourself stand out is to bring data points and market research to the fold to showcase how you're thinking about your target market differently and the types of risks you foresee in your industry. Investors love to see a bit of legwork being done, even if the memo isn't all roses and positive.   Interview Links: Sponsored by: Bit.ly/clariontech Forumvc.com Michael on Twitter   Resources: Scaling Up Workshop: Interested in attending one of our workshops? We have a few $100 discounts for our loyal podcast listeners!Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshop: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.) Bill on YouTube   Did you enjoy today's episode? If so, then head over to iTunes and leave a review. Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.   Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Gazelles Coaching, on how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading Gazelles Coach. Gazelles is the term we use for fast-growing companies.   We help leadership teams with 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Scaling Up for Gazelles companies is based on the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from Verne's original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).  

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.Danny, Natasha, and Alex were on-deck this week, with Grace on the recording and edit. But, if you want to hear more about Robinhood, this is not the episode for you. If you want to learn more about the consumer fintech company's IPO filing this is the episode you want. Basically, Robinhood filed after we had wrapped taping, so we had to do a special pod for the news.So, this is the everything-but-Robinhood episode. And here's what's inside of it:Startup and investor tensions at Bessemer and Hinge Health. Natasha has the latest.Didi's IPO, and what's going on with Chinese IPOs more generally. Also SentinelOne's expensive and notable debut.And then all things Duolingo, including TechCrunch's overview and more in-depth look.From the venture capital side of things, Zipline raised $250 million, Daylight raised $5 million, Articulate raised $1.5 billion, Acceleprise rebranded to Forum Ventures, and Peanut put together a micro-fund.We closed with Neeva, Brave, and other alternative search tools. Alex has a piece coming on the subject, once he gets around to finishing it.A four-episode week! With only Grace handling production! She's amazing.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.Danny, Natasha, and Alex were on-deck this week, with Grace on the recording and edit. But, if you want to hear more about Robinhood, this is not the episode for you. If you want to learn more about the consumer fintech company's IPO filing this is the episode you want. Basically, Robinhood filed after we had wrapped taping, so we had to do a special pod for the news.So, this is the everything-but-Robinhood episode. And here's what's inside of it:Startup and investor tensions at Bessemer and Hinge Health. Natasha has the latest.Didi's IPO, and what's going on with Chinese IPOs more generally. Also SentinelOne's expensive and notable debut.And then all things Duolingo, including TechCrunch's overview and more in-depth look.From the venture capital side of things, Zipline raised $250 million, Daylight raised $5 million, Articulate raised $1.5 billion, Acceleprise rebranded to Forum Ventures, and Peanut put together a micro-fund.We closed with Neeva, Brave, and other alternative search tools. Alex has a piece coming on the subject, once he gets around to finishing it.A four-episode week! With only Grace handling production! She's amazing.

Communications platform Zoom has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire real-time machine translations (MT) solutions developer Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions – Kites. The terms of the transactions remain undisclosed.Cloud-based multi-channel commerce platform Shopify has brought down app store commission rates to zero for developers making their first $1M in revenue. Commission rates are cut for other developers (earning over $1M/year) as well, from 20 to 15 percent. This new revenue share model is extended to Theme Store developers as well.Sequoia Capital India has welcomed 23 startups for the fifth cohort of Surge, its scale-up accelerator program for Indian and Southeast Asian startups. Surge 05, as the VC firm calls it, comprises 40 percent of SaaS and DevTools companies that have been building products for global markets ever since their inception.Visier, a cloud-based analytics platform, has secured $125 million in a Series E investment round, valuing the company at $1 billion and has turned unicorn. Visier is a Canadian company that has created a big-data engine that can consume and analyze data from various HR and related apps. It offers a big-data engine it developed that can connect to any of those apps, absorb the data they contain, and match it up to provide current-state representations and increasingly predictive insights.Peak, a venture capital firm located in Amsterdam, has joined the German market. It has announced the launch of its fourth €66 million fund (approx. USD 78.5M). Peak's initial investments vary from €250K (about USD 0.2 million) to €4 million (approx. USD 4.7 million ). A large portion of the VC's new fund has been set aside for follow-on rounds, which will assist portfolio entrepreneurs from pre-seed to Series B and beyond.Nansen, a blockchain analytics platform, has raised $12M in Series A funding from a16z. The company was launched in 2020 and has shared details of its revenue figures, team size alongside the announcement. The proceeds from this funding would be used to build its data platform, enhance user experience, among others.JFrog, a DevOps platform, paid $300 million for Vdoo. The purchase will be made using a mix of cash and stock. Vdoo will remain a distinct SaaS offering for the time being, according to JFrog. New updates will aid in support of the JFrog platform, and by 2022, the two businesses will have a completely integrated solution.Forum Brands, a platform for growing and acquiring consumer brands, has announced its raise of $27 million equity funding in a round led by Norwest Venture Partners. Existing investors NFX and Concrete Rose participated in the financing round. ShipBob, a global logistics company, has raised $200 million in a Series E funding round, making it a unicorn. The company then provides its clients with a merchant application that allows them to keep track of inventory and connect with warehouses to choose which goods to pick and ship to fulfill orders. It works with several shipping companies to deliver products to customers. It claims to work with over 40 firms, including Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Square, and Squarespace.The assets of edX have been acquired by 2U, Inc., a global leader in education technology. Through one of the most comprehensive free-to-degree online education systems, 2U and edX will reach over 50 million learners worldwide. Combining 2U's industry-leading marketing capabilities and edX.org's burgeoning marketplace, which saw over 120 million visitors in 2020, is expected to provide a scalable and sustainable marketing advantage. Virti, an interactive and immersive training platform, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by IQ Capital with participation from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Descenture Capital, reports indicate. Virti, founded in 2018, provides a platform to help companies train their employees via virtual training modules and simulations. With Virti, companies could build their own training modules and simulations without the need for coding and use AI, natural language processing to analyze a user's performance and provide feedback. In 2020, it was included on TIME magazine's annual best innovation list.GitHub and Open AI have collaborated to launch GitHub Copilot, which leverages artificial intelligence to help one write code efficiently, reports state. The product is currently available for limited technical preview, available on its website.San Francisco-based co-op, announced its close of seed funding round, where it raised $5.8 million led by Sugar Capital. Shopify, Bessemer Venture Partners, Indicator Ventures and RiverPark Ventures participated in the round.Gympass, the $2.2 billion corporate health unicorn, has received $220 million in a Series E investment. Gympass exclusively works with companies who pay a one-time charge for a platform (app) that lets their employees pick from a choice of wellness programs.  10club, an Indian startup similar to Thrasio, has raised $40 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by Fireside Ventures and an unnamed investor. In India, 10club is one of a few dozen companies aiming to duplicate what is known as the Thrasio-model. Several companies, like Thrasio, are attempting to buy brands that offer midrange to high-end items in markets with little competition.In a seed round, Jetstream, an African supply chain network, received $3M. Jetstream was founded by Miishe Addy and Solomon Torgbor to monitor and regulate their own cross-border supply chains. Jetstream's business model is straightforward. It charges for all of its services, including freight, clearing, and banking. Customs clearance is charged at a set rate that changes depending on the tax type and location of the shipment.Acceleprise has officially rebranded itself as Forum Ventures, a name more fitting to its aspirations and activities, it states. Simultaneously, it has announced the launch of its $13.2M seed and $17.2M fourth fund for pre-seed B2B SaaS startups respectively.Ramco Systems' software would be used by Aden Ports Development Company. Its ERP software for APDC's container terminal aims to reduce the manual tasks involved in its HR and finance operations via digitization. The software comes with a set of new, upgraded features and technologies.Wonderflow, an AI-based customer feedback data startup, has announced that it has raised €16.5 million (approx. USD 19.6 million) in a Series B funding round led by Klass Capital. Other participants include P101, ITALIA 500, and Dutch top manager Jan Bennink. Los Angeles-based Arrows, a software provider helping companies onboard customers, has announced its raise of $2.75 million seed funding from Google's AI-focused venture fund, Gradient Ventures, and 47 other angel investors. The company has listed the investors on its website.Boundless, a remote employment platform, has raised €2.5 million (USD 2.9 million) in a seed funding round led by Ada Ventures and FYRFLY. This platform enables businesses to compliantly hire people globally while providing their employees with perks and opportunities in the nation where they work.