Podcasts about foundry group

When Kristian Ranta reflects on his entrepreneurial journey, it's a story filled with grit, resilience, and a profound sense of purpose. From his roots in Finland to founding ventures that span continents, Kristian's experiences offer invaluable lessons for aspiring founders. His latest venture, Meru Health, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Bold Capital Partners, Foundry Group, Freestyle VC, and FMZ Ventures.

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com) and Fundingstack (www.fundingstack.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Amir Farha of COTU.vc, a VC fund that invests in early-stage startups in the Middle East / MENA region. In this episode, we talk about what he looks for in startup founders, how to find your "champion" LPs and secure an anchor investor, tips for getting to a first close, tips for pitching sovereign wealth funds, the startup scene in the UAE vs. Saudi Arabia vs. Egypt and much more. COTU most recently raised a $54 million inaugural fund to support startups in the Middle East from pre-seed to seed stages. The firm typically invests between $500,000 and $2 million. COTU Ventures' limited partners include Lunate, Mubadala, Dubai Future District Fund, Arab Bank, Bupa KSA, and GPs from VCs, including Foundry Group, Tribe Capital, Stride, and several family offices. Portfolio companies include Huspy and MoneyHash, among others. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $17 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com. If you are a VC or investment banker, check out our new platform, www.fundingstack.com

Brad Feld (@bfeld), VC at Foundry Group and co-author with Dave Jilk of The Entrepreneur's Weekly Nietzsche, joined Village Global co-founder and partner Ben Casnocha to discuss:- Common misconceptions about Nietzsche and why being misunderstood makes him an especially interesting philosopher. - What Nietzsche can teach entrepreneurs deciding whether to pivot or persevere. Brad says that founders should view their entrepreneurial journey not in terms of a single company, but as the next 30-50 years of their life.- Why Brad hates the term “passion” and says it's overused in entrepreneurial circles.- Why to focus more on whether someone's words and actions line up rather than the strength of their beliefs.- The lessons that Brad has for making decisions among groups today given Nietzsche's aphorism that “insanity in individuals is rare, but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.”Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We'll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Lots of news to discuss with John Ruffolo and Matt Cohen:(00:21) The significant downturn in venture capital, the early reset signs, and the impact of a conservative approach to business and fundraising in 2023, especially in Canada(02:09) The fate of companies that struggled to raise funds in 2023 and the shift towards supporting perceived winners and the inevitable challenges for "B" companies(05:29) Private equity's large market and diverse opportunities(06:48) Foundry Group's shutdown and the lack of structure for succession in VC(09:20) The effectiveness of CEO shakeups and the high-risk nature of founders returning to their companies, questioning such moves.(12:23) AI's explosive growth and why investing in foundational AI technologies is the best approach and the potential for major shifts in enterprise applications and cost reductionsFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.ai This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today's news round up, Alex, Mary Ann and Karyne are looking at:Deals of the Week: Rasa's $30 million Series C had our tongues wagging. The startup is building finservice-focused conversational AI tools. Karyne wanted to talk about the latest round at the intersection of AI and crypto, while Alex wanted to riff on Hippo Harvest's $21 million round for indoor robot farming.Venture capital's year of transition: After OpenView called it quits, and Countdown Capital returned funds to LPs it became clear that venture is evolving. New news that Foundry is not going to raise another fund after its current $500 million vehicle added another name to our roster of venture firms that are taking a different direction in the future.YC's new call for startups: Well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator has a new request for startup list. Given the weight that YC carries in startup-land, we had to dig into what it's proposing. Though we're a little skeptical of the near-term impact of spatial computing, the other updates made good sense to our minds.We'll be back on Monday!For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more! Credits: Equity is hosted by TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo. We are produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Merlin Namuth is our feature interview this week, interviewed by Debbi Blyth. News from Kingdom Wealth Exchange, Lightship Energy, Foundry Group, Coalfire, Ping Identity, Red Canary and a lot more. Support us on Patreon! Fun swag available - all proceeds will directly support the Colorado = Security infrastructure. Come join us on the new Colorado = Security Slack channel to meet old and new friends. Sign up for our mailing list on the main site to receive weekly updates - https://www.colorado-security.com/. If you have any questions or comments, or any organizations or events we should highlight, contact Alex and Robb at info@colorado-security.com This week's news: Join the Colorado = Security Slack channel Colorado Pastor Accused Of Multimillion Dollar Crypto Scheme Everything you need to know about navigating DIA's new security Electric RV maker lands $34M as it prepares to open its Denver-area factory Boulder VC firm Foundry to shutter, not raise additional fund Colorado software Startups to Watch in 2024 Space ISAC and National Cybersecurity Center Announce Next Stage in Relationship Mastering AI Risks: Navigating the NIST AI RMF Core with Coalfire What is Device Trust? How it Works in 2024 Kubernetes security: Safeguarding your container kingdom BSides Boulder 2024: Call for Speakers Job Openings: Pax8 - VP of GRC 1Password - Director, Security Operations Inspirato - Director, Cybersecurity Operations Sage Hospitality Group - Information Security, Manager Newmont - Senior Operational Technology Cybersecurity Analyst U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) - Information Technology Specialist (Information Security) Klaviyo - Senior Security Trust & Compliance Analyst - GRC Analyst Datadog - Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Governance Analyst Salesforce - Security Governance, Risk & Compliance Lead/Manager - Security IEM BofA - Manual Ethical Hacker Upcoming Events: This Week and Next: ISACA Denver - Technical Training: Alteryx Exploration (A Beginner Workshop) - 2/9 ISSA Denver - February Meetings - 2/14 Let's Talk Software Security - Are We Defending Against the Biggest Threats to Software? - 2/14 ISACA Denver - February Joint Chapter Meeting with IIA - 2/15 CSA Colorado - CI/CD Workload Security with Orca - 2/20 ISSA Denver - Privacy SIG - 2/22 ISSA COS - Mini Seminar - 2/24 Colorado = Security Gives Back - Homeless Shelter Service - 2/25 ISSA COS - February Meeting, An Introduction to Zero Trust With Enterprise Linux - 2/27 ISC2 Pikes Peak - February Meeting - 2/28 ISSA COS - Mentoring Mixer and LogWars - 2/29 View our events page for a full list of upcoming events * Thanks to CJ Adams for our intro and exit! If you need any voiceover work, you can contact him here at carrrladams@gmail.com. Check out his other voice work here. * Intro and exit song: "The Language of Blame" by The Agrarians is licensed under CC BY 2.0

In this episode of the Dealmakers' Podcast, we dive into the inspiring journey of a true visionary, Dan Shapiro. Raised by parents deeply rooted in academia, Dan's upbringing was steeped in the worlds of communications and computer science. His venture, Glowforge, has attracted funding top-tier investors like DFJ Growth, Foundry Group, Revolution Growth, and True Ventures.

Should you take venture money? "You really need to be up for growing a business, growing it relatively quickly, and finding an exit." — Seth LevineOn this episode of Authentically Successful, Carol interviews Seth, the managing director and co-founder of Foundry Group. The venture capital firm was formed in 2007 and has now grown to 75 employees. You'll hear about Seth's winding journey from majoring in psychology and thinking he would become a professor to working long hours at an investment bank to eventually leading a large company. He talks about the founding of Foundry Group and the world of venture capital. According to Seth, taking venture capital is not always the best course of action for entrepreneurs and they should do their research carefully before taking the plunge.They also discuss Seth's first book called “The New Builders: Face to Face With the True Future of Business” and the surprising facts about entrepreneurism today. BIOSeth Levine is a successful venture capitalist and co-founder of Foundry Group, a venture capital firm based in Boulder, Colorado. In 2007, Seth and his team faced numerous challenges while raising their first fund, and he even considered finding another job to support himself after investing his life savings in the company. However the fund finally came together, and Seth and his team have since experienced great success in the world of venture capitalism.Learn more about Seth Levine and Foundry Group.You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

When markets are volatile and times are turbulent, being a VC can be a nerve-wracking experience. How should a seasoned board member handle themselves when anxieties are high? In this podcast conversation, Jerry sits down with Aileen Lee from Cowboy Ventures and Brad Feld from Foundry Group to discuss how to be an effective board member in stormy times. This conversation offers much to think about if you're a board member, new VC, or CEO. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts! Follow our step by step guides: - How To: Leave a Review on Your Computer: - How To: Leave a Review on Your iPhone: Never miss an episode! Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on all our episode releases.

One of the hardest parts of telling any history, is which innovations are significant enough to warrant mention. Too much, and the history is so vast that it can't be told. Too few, and it's incomplete. Arguably, no history is ever complete. Yet there's a critical path of innovation to get where we are today, and hundreds of smaller innovations that get missed along the way, or are out of scope for this exact story. Children have probably been placing sand into buckets to make sandcastles since the beginning of time. Bricks have survived from round 7500BC in modern-day Turkey where humans made molds to allow clay to dry and bake in the sun until it formed bricks. Bricks that could be stacked. And it wasn't long before molds were used for more. Now we can just print a mold on a 3d printer.   A mold is simply a block with a hollow cavity that allows putting some material in there. People then allow it to set and pull out a shape. Humanity has known how to do this for more than 6,000 years, initially with lost wax casting with statues surviving from the Indus Valley Civilization, stretching between parts of modern day Pakistan and India. That evolved to allow casting in gold and silver and copper and then flourished in the Bronze Age when stone molds were used to cast axes around 3,000 BCE. The Egyptians used plaster to cast molds of the heads of rulers. So molds and then casting were known throughout the time of the earliest written works and so the beginning of civilization. The next few thousand years saw humanity learn to pack more into those molds, to replace objects from nature with those we made synthetically, and ultimately molding and casting did its part on the path to industrialization. As we came out of the industrial revolution, the impact of all these technologies gave us more and more options both in terms of free time as humans to think as well as new modes of thinking. And so in 1868 John Wesley Hyatt invented injection molding, patenting the machine in 1872. And we were able to mass produce not just with metal and glass and clay but with synthetics. And more options came but that whole idea of a mold to avoid manual carving and be able to produce replicas stretched back far into the history of humanity. So here we are on the precipice of yet another world-changing technology becoming ubiquitous. And yet not. 3d printing still feels like a hobbyists journey rather than a mature technology like we see in science fiction shows like Star Trek with their replicators or printing a gun in the Netflix show Lost In Space. In fact the initial idea of 3d printing came from a story called Things Pass By written all the way back in 1945! I have a love-hate relationship with 3D printing. Some jobs just work out great. Others feel very much like personal computers in the hobbyist era - just hacking away until things work. It's usually my fault when things go awry. Just as it was when I wanted to print things out on the dot matrix printer on the Apple II. Maybe I fed the paper crooked or didn't check that there was ink first or sent the print job using the wrong driver. One of the many things that could go wrong.  But those fast prints don't match with the reality of leveling and cleaning nozzles and waiting for them to heat up and pulling filament out of weird places (how did it get there, exactly)! Or printing 10 add-ons for a printer to make it work the way it probably should have out of the box.  Another area where 3d printing is similar to the early days of the personal computer revolution is that there are a few different types of technology in use today. These include color-jet printing (CJP), direct metal printing (DMP), fused deposition modeling (FDM), Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM, multi-jet printing (MJP), stereolithography (SLA), selective laser melting (SLM), and selective laser sintering (SLS). Each could be better for a given type of print job to be done. Some forms have flourished while others are either their infancy or have been abandoned like extinct languages. Language isolates are languages that don't fit into other families. Many are the last in a branch of a larger language family tree. Others come out of geographically isolated groups. Technology also has isolates. Konrad Zuse built computers in pre-World War II Germany and after that aren't considered to influence other computers. In other words, every technology seems to have a couple of false starts. Hideo Kodama filed the first patent to 3d print in 1980 - but his method of using UV lights to harden material doesn't get commercialized.  Another type of 3d printing includes printers that were inkjets that shot metal alloys onto surfaces. Inkjet printing was invented by Ichiro Endo at Canon in the 1950s, supposedly when he left a hot iron on a pen and ink bubbled out. Thus the “Bubble jet” printer. And Jon Vaught at HP was working on the same idea at about the same time. These were patented and used to print images from computers over the coming decades. Johannes Gottwald patented a printer like this in 1971. Experiments continued through the 1970s when companies like Exxon were trying to improve various prototyping processes. Some of their engineers joined an inventor Robert Howard in the early 1980s to found a company called Howtek and they produced the Pixelmaster, using hot-melt inks to increment the ink jet with solid inks, which then went on to be used by Sanders Prototype, which evolved into a company called Solidscape to market the Modelmaker. And some have been used to print solar cells, living cells, tissue, and even edible birthday cakes. That same technique is available with a number of different solutions but isn't the most widely marketable amongst the types of 3D printers available. SLA There's often a root from which most technology of the day is derived. Charles, or Chuck, Hull coined the term stereolithography, where he could lay down small layers of an object and then cure the object with UV light, much as the dentists do with fillings today. This is made possibly by photopolymers, or plastics that are easily cured by an ultraviolet light. He then invented the stereolithography apparatus, or SLA for short, a machine that printed from the bottom to the top by focusing a laser on photopolymer while in a liquid form to cure the plastic into place. He worked on it in 1983, filed the patent in 1984, and was granted the patent in 1986.  Hull also developed a file format for 3D printing called STL. STL files describe the surface of a three-dimensional object, geometrically using Cartesian coordinates. Describing coordinates and vectors means we can make objects bigger or smaller when we're ready to print them. 3D printers print using layers, or slices. Those can change based on the filament on the head of a modern printer, the size of the liquid being cured, and even the heat of a nozzle. So the STL file gets put into a slicer that then converts the coordinates on the outside to the polygons that are cured. These are polygons in layers, so they may appear striated rather than perfectly curved according to the size of the layers. However, more layers take more time and energy. Such is the evolution of 3D printing. Hull then founded a company called 3D Systems in Valencia California to take his innovation to market. They sold their first printer, the SLA-1 in 1988. New technologies start out big and expensive. And that was the case with 3D Systems. They initially sold to large engineering companies but when solid-state lasers came along in 1996 they were able to provide better systems for cheaper.  Languages also have other branches. Another branch in 3d printing came in 1987, just before the first SLA-1 was sold.  Carl Deckard  and his academic adviser Joe Beaman at the University of Texas worked on a DARPA grant to experiment with creating physical objects with lasers. They formed a company to take their solution to market called DTM and filed a patent for what they called selective laser sintering. This compacts and hardens a material with a heat source without having to liquify it. So a laser, guided by a computer, can move around a material and harden areas to produce a 3D model. Now in addition to SLA we had a second option, with the release of the Sinterstation 2500plus. Then 3D Systems then acquired DTM for $45 million in 2001. FDM After Hull published his findings for SLA and created the STL format, other standards we use today emerged. FDM is short for Fused Deposition Modeling and was created by Scott Crump in 1989. He then started a company with his wife Lisa to take the product to market, taking the company public in 1994. Crump's first patent expired in 2009.  In addition to FDM, there are other formats and techniques. AeroMat made the first 3D printer that could produce metal in 1997. These use a laser additive manufacturing process, where lasers fuse powdered titanium alloys. Some go the opposite direction and create out of bacteria or tissue. That began in 1999, when Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative medicine grew a 3D printed urinary bladder in a lab to be used as a transplant. We now call this bioprinting and can take tissue and lasers to rebuild damaged organs or even create a new organ. Organs are still in their infancy with success trials on smaller animals like rabbits. Another aspect is printing dinner using cell fibers from cows or other animals. There are a number of types of materials used in 3D printing. Most printers today use a continuous feed of one of these filaments, or small coiled fibers of thermoplastics that melt instead of burn when they're heated up. The most common in use today is PLA, or polylactic acid, is a plastic initially created by Wall Carothers of DuPont, the same person that brought us nylon, neoprene, and other plastic derivatives. It typically melts between 200 and 260 degrees Celsius. Printers can also take ABS filament, which is short for acrylonitrile-butadien-styerene. Other filament types include HIPS, PET, CPE, PVA, and their derivative forms.  Filament is fed into a heated extruder assembly that melts the plastic. Once melted, filament extrudes into place through a nozzle as a motor sends the nozzle on a x and y axis per layer.  Once a layer of plastic is finished being delivered to the areas required to make up the desired slice, the motor moves the extruder assembly up or down on a z axis between layers. Filament is just between 1.75 millimeters and 3 millimeters and comes in spools between half a kilogram and two kilograms. These thermoplastics cool very quickly. Once all of the slices are squirted into place, the print is removed from the bed and the nozzle cools off. Filament comes in a number of colors and styles. For example, wood fibers can be added to filament to get a wood-grained finish. Metal can be added to make prints appear metallic and be part metal.  Printing isn't foolproof, though. Filament often gets jammed or the spool gets stuck, usually when something goes wrong. Filament also needs to be stored in a temperature and moisture controlled location or it can cause jobs to fail. Sometimes the software used to slice the .stl file has an incorrect setting, like the wrong size of filament. But in general, 3D printing using the FDM format is pretty straight forward these days. Yet this is technology that should have moved faster in terms of adoption. The past 10 years have seen more progress than the previous ten though. Primarily due to the maker community. Enter the Makers The FDM patent expired in 2009. In 2005, a few years before the FDM patent expired, Dr. Adrian Bowyer started a project to bring inexpensive 3D printers to labs and homes around the world. That project evolved into what we now call the Replicating Rapid Prototyper, or RepRap for short.  RepRap evolved into an open source concept to create self-replicating 3D printers and by 2008, the Darwin printer was the first printer to use RepRap. As a community started to form, more collaborators designed more parts. Some were custom parts to improve the performance of the printer, or replicate the printer to become other printers. Others held the computing mechanisms in place. Some even wrote code to make the printer able to boot off a MicroSD card and then added a network interface so files could be uploaded to the printer wirelessly. There was a rising tide of printers. People were reading about what 3D printers were doing and wanted to get involved. There was also a movement in the maker space, so people wanted to make things themselves. There was a craft to it. Part of that was wanting to share. Whether that was at a maker space or share ideas and plans and code online. Like the RepRap team had done.  One of those maker spaces was NYC Resistor, founded in 2007. Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach Smith from there took some of the work from the RepRap project and had ideas for a few new projects they'd like to start. The first was a site that Zach Smith created called Thingiverse. Bre Pettis joined in and they allowed users to upload .stl files and trade them. It's now the largest site for trading hundreds of thousands of designs to print about anything imaginable. Well, everything except guns. Then comes 2009. The patent for FDM expires and a number of companies respond by launching printers and services. Almost overnight the price for a 3D printer fell from $10,000 to $1,000 and continued to drop. Shapeways had created a company the year before to take files and print them for people. Pettis, Mayer, and Smith from NYC Resistor also founded a company called MakerBot Industries. They'd already made a little bit of a name for themselves with the Thingiverse site. They knew the mind of a maker. And so they decided to make a kit to sell to people that wanted to build their own printers. They sold 3,500 kits in the first couple of years. They had a good brand and knew the people who bought these kinds of devices. So they took venture funding to grow the company. So they raised $10M in funding in 2011 in a round led by the Foundry Group, along with Bezos, RRE, 500 Startups and a few others. They hired and grew fast. Smith left in 2012 and they were getting closer and closer with Stratasys, who if we remember were the original creators of FDM. So Stratasys ended up buying out the company in 2013 for $403M. Sales were disappointing so there was a changeup in leadership, with Pettis leaving and they've become much more about additive manufacturing than a company built to appeal to makers. And yet the opportunity to own that market is still there. This was also an era of Kickstarter campaigns. Plenty of 3D printing companies launched through kickstarter including some to take PLA (a biodegradable filament) and ABS materials to the next level. The ExtrusionBot, the MagicBox, the ProtoPlant, the Protopasta, Mixture, Plybot, Robo3D, Mantis, and so many more.  Meanwhile, 3D printing was in the news. 2011 saw the University of Southhampton design a 3d printed aircraft. Ecologic printing cars, and practically every other car company following suit that they were fabricating prototypes with 3d printers, even full cars that ran. Some on their own, some accidentally when parts are published in .stl files online violating various patents.  Ultimaker was another RepRap company that came out of the early Darwin reviews. Martijn Elserman, Erik de Bruin, and Siert Wijnia who couldn't get the Darwin to work so they designed a new printer and took it to market. After a few iterations, they came up with the Ultimaker 2 and have since been growing and releasing new printers  A few years later, a team of Chinese makers, Jack Chen, Huilin Liu, Jingke Tang, Danjun Ao, and Dr. Shengui Chen took the RepRap designs and started a company to manufacturing (Do It Yourself) kits called Creality. They have maintained the open source manifesto of 3D printing that they inherited from RepRap and developed version after version, even raising over $33M to develop the Ender6 on Kickstarter in 2018, then building a new factory and now have the capacity to ship well over half a million printers a year. The future of 3D Printing We can now buy 3D printing pens, over 170 3D Printer manufacturers including 3D systems, Stratasys, and Ceality but also down-market solutions like Fusion3, Formlabs, Desktop Metal, Prusa, and Voxel8. There's also a RecycleBot concept and additional patents expiring every year.  There is little doubt that at some point, instead of driving to Home Depot to get screws or basic parts, we'll print them. Need a new auger for the snow blower? Just print it. Cover on the weed eater break?  Print it. Need a dracolich mini for the next Dungeons and Dragons game? Print it. Need a new pinky toe. OK, maybe that's a bit far. Or is it? In 2015, Swedish Cellink releases bio-ink made from seaweed and algae, which could be used to print cartilage and later released the INKREDIBLE 3D printer for bio printing. The market in 2020 was valued at $13.78 billion with 2.1 million printers shipped. That's expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21% for the next few years. But a lot of that is healthcare, automotive, aerospace, and prototyping still. Apple made the personal computer simple and elegant. But no Apple has emerged for 3D printing. Instead it still feels like the Apple II era, where there are 3D printers in a lot of schools and many offer classes on generating files and printing.  3D printers are certainly great for prototypers and additive manufacturing. They're great for hobbyists, which we call makers these days. But there will be a time when there is a printer in most homes, the way we have electricity, televisions, phones, and other critical technologies. But there are a few things that have to happen first, to make the printers easier to use. These include: Every printer needs to automatically level. This is one of the biggest reasons jobs fail and new users become frustrated. More consistent filament. Spools are still all just a little bit different. Printers need sensors in the extruder that detect if a job should be paused because the filament is jammed, humid, or caught. This adds the ability to potentially resume print jobs and waste less filament and time. Automated slicing in the printer microcode that senses the filament and slices. Better system boards (e.g. there's a tool called Klipper that moves the math from the system board on a Creality Ender 3 to a Raspberry Pi). Cameras on the printer should watch jobs and use TinyML to determine if they are going to fail as early as possible to halt printing so it can start over. Most of the consumer solutions don't have great support. Maybe users are limited to calling a place in a foreign country where support hours don't make sense for them or maybe the products are just too much of a hacker/maker/hobbyist solution. There needs to be an option for color printing. This could be a really expensive sprayer or ink like inkjet printers use at first We love to paint minis we make for Dungeons and Dragons but could get amazingly accurate resolutions to create amazing things with automated coloring.  For a real game changer, the RecycleBot concept needs to be merged with the printer. Imagine if we dropped our plastics into a recycling bin that 3D printers of the world used to create filament. This would help reduce the amount of plastics used in the world in general. And when combined with less moving around of cheap plastic goods that could be printed at home, this also means less energy consumed by transporting goods. The 3D printing technology is still a generation or two away from getting truly mass-marketed. Most hobbyists don't necessarily think of building an elegant, easy-to-use solution because they are so experienced it's hard to understand what the barriers of entry are for any old person. But the company who finally manages to crack that nut might just be the next Apple, Microsoft, or Google of the world.

This week Adam speaks with Greg Keller, the CSO and Co-Founder at JumpCloud. As Chief Strategy Officer, Greg was responsible for the inception and launch of the company's award-winning identity and access control platform. Over the course of his career, Greg has helped launch and operate several startups to globally scaling growth companies. In this episode, Greg details his experiences with the evolution of the Front Range startup ecosystem including the emergence of Techstars, Foundry Group, and Denver Startup Week. Plus, Greg shares his biggest lesson, with insight into how to have a clear vision to define your niche.Listen now on: Amazon Music (Alexa) | Spotify | Apple Podcasts JumpCloud - https://jumpcloud.com/Check out more about what we're up to at Range.vc Connect with hosts Adam and Chris and the Range VC team on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/range-ventures/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hunter Somerville is a Partner @ Stepstone, one of the largest secondary buyers, fund investors and players in our ecosystem with over $600BN in capital responsibility and over $100BN AUM. Additionally, Hunter serves on the LP Advisory Boards for Felix Capital, Foundry Group, Imaginary Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Boldstart Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, and more. Prior to StepStone, Hunter was a general partner with Greenspring Associates, a venture capital and growth equity investment firm that merged with StepStone in 2021. Before that, he worked as an associate for Camden Private Capital. In Todays Episode with Hunter Somerville We Discuss: 1. Three Types of Secondaries: What are the three different types of secondaries? What is the current situation with company secondary opportunities today? What is the current landscape for fund secondary opportunities today? What are GP-led restructuring or strip sales? How do they work? 2. LPs Today and Moving Forward Investing in Funds: Will we see a wave of LPs not commit to their existing managers? What is the denominator effect and how does that impact LP deployment into funds? What are the top 3 reasons why LPs will not re-commit to existing managers? Do LPs feel VCs have fairly marked down their venture books in the last 6 months? Does Hunter agree that if you have not returned cash to your LPs when you could have done ijn the last 5 years, then you are most in trouble? Why does Hunter believe we will see more international LPs entering venture than ever before? 3. Liquidity: When Does the Cash Hit: Why was liquidity so bad in 2022? How did that compare to 2021? How does Hunter forecast liquidity environments in 2023? What could drive them? How active were Stepstone in secondary buying over the last few years? Is now the time to be greedy when others are fearful in secondaries? What discount was Hunter seeing both on fund and company side secondaries in 20-22? What is the current level of discount being applied to both company and fund secondaries? 4. AMA with One of the Largest Secondary Buyers: Which LP class will be hurt the most from the last fund cycle? What would Hunter most like to change about the world of venture? What was Hunter's biggest mistake on a company investment? What are the biggest mistakes LPs make when they do direct investing? Why are big-name people entering firms as GPs not always a good sign?

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Dan Shapiro of Glowforge (www.glowforge.com), makers of a desktop 3-D laser printer. In this episode, we discuss his experience as a multi-startup founder, why it's a mistake to ask for intros, when to play the "CEO card" with your employees, tips for building investor relationships at events, and much more. Glowforge has raised a total of $70 million since its 2015 founding, including the most recent round, a $43 million Series E led by DFJ Growth. Co- and previous investors include Foundry Group, Revolution Growth, True Ventures, and others. The Company also raised a crowdfunding round of over $29 million. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $9.7 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

My next guest has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Feld Technologies. He is also a co-founder of Techstars is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital and entrepreneurship, and co-authored the second edition of Startup Boards. Please welcome Brad Feld. Key Timecodes (00:43) - Show intro and background history. (01:23) -His background investing history (06:41) - What are the red flags about leadership teams (10:34) - How people used to react to his philosophy about the corporate world (14:13) - Deep diving into his business psychology strategies (19:44) - How he scales a company board (26:45) - How he scales his own business (33:47) - What skills does he look for in founders? (37:44) - The importance of a broad skill set and open-minded personalities instead the traditional entrepreneur archetypes (39:53) - Don't be afraid to make mistakes; learn and grow with them! (50:10) - Guest contacts Payback Time Podcast Payback Time is a podcast for investors. The goal of this podcast is to help make investing approachable and easy to understand. We will interview beginner and experienced investors and ask them to share stories on how they got started, what challenges they faced, what mistakes they made, and what strategy works for them today. The overall objective is to provide you with a roadmap that helps you become a better investor.

Brad Feld of Foundry Group and Techstars joins Nate to discuss Stories, Advice, and Leveraging 35 Years of Startup Board Experience. In this episode we cover: How to Build and Leverage a Board from the Beginning Advice for Board Members Avoiding the Most-Common Mistakes And more!

Get ready to explore the ins and outs of scaling a business with our guest on The Shades of Entrepreneurship – none other than Brad Feld, the Co-Founder of Foundry Group. With a journey in entrepreneurship and early-stage investing dating back to 1987, Brad has been a driving force in the startup ecosystem. From venture capital to penning "Startup Boards," he's been instrumental in providing capital, resources, and connections to startups and high-growth companies. Tune in for an insightful conversation with this seasoned entrepreneur!Support The ShowMerch: https://www.theshadesofe.com/shopPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/theshadesofeSocial Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theshadesofeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theshadesofeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theshadesofe/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theshadesofeYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQotiAmRRUpcUBM6Joqa8XA

Seth Levine is a Co-author of "The New Builders", a book that brings you Face to Face with the true future of business. A long-time venture capitalist, Seth is a co-founder and Managing Director of Foundry Group, a Boulder, CO based venture firm. He's a passionate advocate for entrepreneurship, Seth also spends time as an advisor to venture funds and companies around the world. In this episode we talk about: -How Seth started Foundry? -Reverse Inflation in Venture Capital -All about his book The New Builders -Why e thinks entrepreneurship in the US is in a state of decline and a lot more.. Links mentioned: Get the book: https://thenewbuilders.com/ Seth's blog: https://sethlevine.com/ Foundry Website: https://foundry.vc/ Follow Seth on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sether Follow Seth on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethjlevine/ Full episode blog at https://vc10x.com/the-new-builders

Jaclyn Freeman Hester is a venture capitalist and partner at the Foundry Group. In this episode, Jaclyn talks about how she recruits and funds new talent, her “give first” philosophy, and what entrepreneurs should consider when it comes to VC funding.EPISODE QUOTES:On focusing on the journey (not the outcome)...[00:10:09] I think that's what really helps folks stand out, especially when you're younger, taking a lot of risk and being way more focused on the journey and the curiosity and the learning and who you meet and kind of collecting people along the way versus the lockstep career path.On taking risks…[00:16:57] There's a ton of learning that can be done by joining companies and joining funds, especially early. So, I think it's just important for folks to realize that there is no one way to do this.On being people focused…[00:23:39] I think values alignment, both for hiring and for investing is huge. Because it speaks to, I don't know every single decision that's gonna come up with this company, but if I understand your values and what motivates you and how you think about things and what your philosophy is on lots of different aspects of building a business, then I can have better trust and insight into when things come up, you know, that it's gonna play out in a way that I would like… And so I think having hard conversations around, big questions that you have, and being direct and trying to understand someone else's values and motivations is really important.SHOW LINKS: Guest's Profile: Jaclyn Hester on LinkedIn 

Brad Feld is a successful Veteran Capitalist and founding member of the Foundry Group.  Within the Colorado startup scene, Brad is a bit of a celebrity having been part of some well-known successful companies.   Brad really sees founders and start ups not just investments, but as a community that he supports, sees areas for improvements, mentors and loves.  In this very personal full-length interview, Brad shares his personal Board experiences, what he looks for in Board Director candidates and advice for first time Board members.  He also shares his experiences from his Colorado Trail 2021 days as well lessons learned from the first job he was fired from. 

Brad Feld is an American entrepreneur, author, blogger, and venture capitalist at Foundry Group in Boulder, Colorado. He began financing technology startups in the early 1990s, first as an angel and later as an institutional investor. He has written several books on entrepreneurship and in his latest book he focuses on the construction of effective startup boards.

MONTHLY INTIMATE MEETING FOR POWER COUPLES | Coach Antonio #couples #lifestyle #mindset If you want to be a power couple, steal this monthly relationship meeting that I picked up from Brad Feld, a multi-millionaire and venture capitalist at Foundry Group, on the Tim Ferriss Podcast (Episode #448). He reveals a powerful monthly relationship meeting he and his wife follow (also a badass). It's called the “Life Dinner” and it's been a game changer for my relationship with my wife. Let's go on a macro view of this Life Dinner that's so powerful for any sort of couple who want to take it to the next level. Book your FREE 1-on-1 coaching assessment session with me on my website antonioaguirrejr.com today! Follow me on my social media accounts: Instagram.com/AntonioAguirre.Jr Twitter.com/Antoni0aguirre Fb.com/antonioaguirre.jr1 TikTok.com/AntonioAguirre.Jr linkedin.com/in/antonioaguirrejr --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lifedeckshow/message

Connie & Alex go over this week in tech news, and then Connie talks to venture capitalist Brad Feld of Foundry Group about his new book, Startup Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors, and why startup boards are especially important when times are tough.Music: 1. "Inspired" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired)2. "Blippy Trance" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5759-blippy-trance)3. "Dream Catcher" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4650-dream-catcher)4. "Pamgaea" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4193-pamgaea)5. "EDM Detection Mode" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3687-edm-detection-mode)License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

In this episode, Mario and James share answers from three prominent venture capitalists (Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Elizabeth Yin, Hustle Fund VC, and Neal Sáles-Griffin, Techstars Rising Stars Fund) to the question of what they think is more important when making an investment, the team or the idea? And how important is the passion of the entrepreneur for their idea? Some of the answers are not what you think. If you like this episode, please subscribe and tell your ParentPreneur friends about us. Let's go!

In this special episode of our #OpenLP podcast miniseries, Sapphire Partners' Laura Thompson chats with Jaclyn Hester, Partner at Foundry Group, about how LPs pick funds, what good performance looks like and how everything is changing with the shift in today's markets.Laura Thompson invests in technology-focused venture funds domestically and internationally. She is passionate about partnering with established and emerging firms to advance the thinking in the limited partner space. Before joining Sapphire Partners in 2018, Laura worked as part of the investment team at Horsley Bridge Partners, where she helped the team make hundreds of millions of fund commitments.Jaclyn Hester joined Foundry in 2016 and is active across their portfolio of startup companies and venture funds. She helped launch Foundry's partner fund strategy and works closely with partner fund managers, while also spending time on direct investments. Prior to joining Foundry, Jaclyn practiced corporate law at Perkins Coie LLP and earned a JD/MBA from University of Colorado, Boulder.

Learn more about Estated and JoshWe offer quick and easy access to data on 150 million residential and commercial properties nationwide across the US. We've built a database which allows users to search properties across over 3,200 counties in real time. Hundreds of customers have integrated our property data into their businesses to gain deeper insights into their clients.  Estated graduated from Techstars Boulder in 2017, which led to capital partnerships with Foundry Group and Techstars Ventures. Follow Josh on Twitter Follow Estated on Twitter Follow Estated on LinkedIn Check out Estated

There’s a lot of hype around AI—both its capabilities and the extreme predictions of its utility and potential harm to society. Our guest today is using AI to help reduce harm by detecting fraud at scale in the financial sector. Ronan Burke is Co-Founder and CEO of Inscribe, a platform that has a mission to save billions of dollars lost to fraud by onboarding trusted customers faster and finding bad-faith users quicker using AI.About Ronan Burke:Ronan Burke is the Co-Founder of Inscribe.ai, which he founded after graduating from University College in Dublin. He participated in YCS18 and Inscribe is trusted by companies like BlueVine, Petal, Fair, and Ramp, and backed by Y Combinator, Uncork Capital, Crosslink Capital, and Foundry Group.In this episode we discuss:01:37 Ronan’s path to founding Inscribe with his twin brother03:02 How they viewed startups growing up in Ireland04:44 Growing the startup ecosystem in Dublin05:20 The launch of Inscribe08:06 Deciding which brother was CTO and which was CEO09:52 Ronan experience at YC12:54 What fraud means to Inscribe and how the pandemic made their service even more urgently needed16:09 The ROI of Inscribe to onboarding customers and detecting fraud from preexisting customers19:29 The three steps Inscribe uses to validate customers21:54 How Inscribe searches the dark web for templates and other fraudulent activities23:33 How the volume of data helps their ML24:00 What a typical fraud case looks like25:28 The market size for fraud detection26:55 Competition to Inscribe28:00 What the sales process looks like when selling to large FinTechs30:19 Case studies for Inscribe31:53 How their fundraising process went33:23 Plans for the next few years34:20 Plans for a hybrid model workplaceFast FavoritesPodcastTim Ferris ShowNewsletter BlogSimon Taylor FinTech Brain FoodTech GadgetLogiTech Stream CamNew TrendHybrid WorkingBookPrincipalsLife LessonIf you care about something, double down on it.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

You will be hard pressed to meet anyone more genuine and keen to help than Michael Da Gama Pinto, the CEO and Founder of The Foundry Group. When we talked about recording a podcast together, rather than wanting to focus on the two exceptional Australian brands he helped achieve international success in Aēsop and Swisse or the operational expertise he brings to his portfolio companies, helping management teams with the right capital structure and resourcing to take advantage of favourable industry conditions, he wanted to share a couple of very personal stories which he thinks really demonstrate essential learnings from his journey. He wanted to share not because they would cast him in the most favourable light, quite the opposite. But because Michael is always thinking of the most effective way to help founders truly absorb the learnings which will underpin their success. Michael is focused on the Health, Wellness and Beauty space, believing a passionate believer in the multiplier effect of taking care of body and mind, and leaving a positive mark on the world. The majority of profits made from the investments by Michael and his family are donated to charities supporting health, employment and education initiatives. But what Michael feels is his most important and proudest achievement, is being the father of three beautiful children. Contact Michael via LinkedIn Book – The Art of Stillness

With this episode, we continue our podcast series in celebration of Women's History Month. Meet co-authors of The New Builders - Elizabeth MacBride, business journalist and Founder of the Times of Entrepreneurship, and Seth Levine, a venture capitalist and Partner at Foundry Group. Together with Dr. Rebecca Corbin and podcast producer Nataliia Berezhna, they explore the changing nature of entrepreneurship in America today and define its future success. Learn more about how NACCE and Everyday Entrepreneur Venture Fund support local economies via entrepreneurship, and share your stories with us on Twitter @NACCE. 

On June 24th, 2021, Seth Levine joined High Alpha Partner Kristian Andersen for a conversation about his new book, The New Builders, and his career working with startups for 20+ years. Seth Levine is currently involved in venture capital investing as well as operational, transactional, and advisory roles at both public and private companies. He is a Partner and Co-Founder of the Foundry Group.  Seth Levine began his venture capital career at Mobius Venture Capital. Prior to Mobius Venture Capital, Seth Levine joined FirstWorld Communications, which is a restart of a data communications company. He then led the IPO process for FirstWorld's IPO in 2000 and negotiated simultaneous equity investments from Microsoft, SAIC, and Lucent Technologies. In this episode, we revisit Seth's Speaker Series where you'll learn: The catalyst for his latest book, The New Builders  Current and future state of entrepreneurship Stories about new builders making an impact in their local communities

Seth Levine is a founding partner of Foundry Group, one of the largest networks of entrepreneurs and early-stage investors in the country, and a co-founder of Pledge 1%, a global movement that encourages and empowers companies of all sizes and stages to donate 1% of their assets to charity. To purchase The New Builders, visit https://thenewbuilders.com/ Check out Foundry + Pledge 1%: https://www.foundrygroup.com/

On September 29, 2020, Brad Feld, Managing Partner at Foundry Group and High Alpha Managing Partner Scott Dorsey sat down for a discussion on building startup communities as part of High Alpha's monthly Speaker Series. Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He's written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. His latest book, “The Startup Community Way,” was released in July 2020. In this episode, we revisit Brad's Speaker Series where you'll learn: The startup ecosystem's growth How to build thriving startup communities The importance of reading and writing outside of your domain His internal commitment to amplifying the voices of the underrepresented

Today we're talking philosophy. And we know you may be thinking, somebody creating an app that entertains people or automates some routine office work can't be compared to the great philosophers or great artists. But there's more of an overlap than you may think. Brad Feld is a co-founder of the Foundry Group, Mobius VC, and Techstars, the famous accelerator. He is also known as the author of a bunch of books, including Venture Deals, Startup Communities, and the most recent, The Entrepreneur's Weekly Nietzsche: A Book For Disruptors.In this episode we'll hear all about Brad's early startup life, “authenticity and vulnerability,” his thoughts on certain entrepreneurship cliches, and mental health in the space.Episode Quotes:How Brad and his co-author got the idea for their latest book:There's so much depth in Nietzsche. And when you start to unwind pieces of it and think about them in whatever the context is, an awful lot of the things, the quotes, stimulate thinking about different aspects of entrepreneurship.And that was really what captured both of us. It's not that, you say, okay, well, Nietzsche's philosophy applies to entrepreneurship and therefore you should do these things. That's not it at all. It's almost the inverse of it. It's - here's a very provocative quote of his. Think about it, ponder it, play around with it. Apply it to your own experience. And there were so many of those that resonated against the backdrop of all the different things that happen in entrepreneurship.Mental health and entrepreneurship:The stigma associated with mental health is incredibly toxic. It is a huge burden on many leaders and significantly inhibits many people's ability to accomplish things and have really successful lives. It's not the mental health challenge, it's the stigma associated with it. Because the mental health challenge is a challenge. Diabetes is a health challenge. You break your arm, you break your arm. If you have bipolar disorder or you have borderline personality disorder, or you have obsessive compulsive disorder, you have chronic anxiety, these are things that you can work on. But if you're in a place where you're afraid to even acknowledge it. Because leaders don't acknowledge those things, leaders don't do that kind of work. It's not my problem, it's your problem. I think most people that think about it for more than a couple of minutes, know many very powerful people that have extraordinary mental health issues.Importance of sleep and self care:There's nothing wrong with working one hundred hours a week. If you work many hours, whatever that many hours is if you are not, then taking care of yourself in the hours you are not working (which by the way includes sleep) but also include what you put into your body, how you spend your time with other people, how you spend your time by yourself. It's not healthily sustainable over a long period of time. Show Links:Guest Profile:Brad Feld on LinkedinBrad Feld on TwitterFoundry Group WebsiteBrad Feld on TEDxBoulderHis work:The Entrepreneur's Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for DisruptorsThe Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial EcosystemStartup Opportunities: Know When to Quit Your Day JobStartup Boards: Getting the Most Out of Your Board of DirectorsStartup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your CityVenture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture CapitalistDo More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup

Jaclyn Hester is a Partner at Foundry Group, a venture firm that invests in tech companies and early stage venture funds. She helped launch Foundry's partner fund strategy in 2016 and works closely with Foundry's portfolio while also leading new fund investments. Prior to Foundry, Jaclyn was a practicing attorney, advising startups and private equity firms as well as M&A transactions. She also worked closely with her husband and his family on their SaaS startup, Fare Harbor which was acquired by Booking.com. On this episode, Jaclyn's biggest lesson speaks to exactly why Adam and Chris believe the Colorado tech ecosystem is so special and unique. Find out more about what we're up to at Range.vc Connect with Adam and Chris and the Range VC team on LinkedInSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Jim speaks with Brad Feld, author of the recently published The Entrepreneur's Weekly Nietzsche, as well as co-founder of Foundry Group, a tech-focused venture fund located in Boulder Colorado.  Brad and Jim discuss how Brad accidentally became a venture capitalist, gender and racial equity in the venture world, and setting aside bias as a leader.  They then move onto the advantages of Zoom meetings over old-school IPO roadshows (especially during the fundraising stage) and Brad's experience with philosophy and bringing stoicism to entrepreneurship.

Hi, I'm Investor Relations Strategist Stefanie Diaz. In this episode, I sit down with Brad Feld of Foundry Group during the Zane Venture Fund Access Program Cohort 1 Graduation. We cover so much ground in this conversation and particularly focus on Brad's personal journey to gain a deeper awareness around racial equity and the philosophies he's implementing as a result of that work. You won't want to miss it. Huge thanks to Shila Burney and Zane Venture Fund for allowing me to share this conversation with you! #SheConquersCapital #PoweredbyVerve #ZaneVentureFund #FoundryGroup If you enjoyed this video, subscribe to the channel and get more inspiration and guidance from female CEO's and investors on how YOU can conquer capital. Are you getting ready to raise capital or in the midst of a funding round? Schedule a time to talk to Stefanie Diaz about your investor readiness at https://poweredbyverve.com. Thanks for watching!   FOLLOW ME AT: Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thestefaniediaz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thestefan... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestefanie...   FIND BRAD AT: Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfeld Website: https://feld.com/   FIND SHILA AT: Twitter: https://twitter.com/rednieves LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shila-nie... Website: https://zane.vc/welcome/   OTHER VIDEOS: Series A's: https://youtu.be/-QY7iVtKKC0 https://youtu.be/QTtIs3IGzvw Debt Financing: https://youtu.be/AsfurEgD3Q8

That's Seth Levine - he co-founded Foundry Group with Brad Feld, the founder of Techstars. Seth went to school in Minnesota but left for New York after graduating & found himself working on wall street. He left after a few short years because the mountains were calling. Having spent many summers in Colorado, that's where he wanted to re-locate & build his life. One phone call to a friend & he was hired. A few career turns later & he found himself working with Brad Feld at Softbank-backed venture fund. They then left to start Foundry Group, which in their first fund included one of the first investments in Fitbit, Zynga & AdMob. He also co-founded pledge 1% with the likes of mark bennioff, the founder of salesforce. He has an incredible journey & is incredibly humble. The reoccurring theme is his desire to allow the next generation of entrepreneurs & builders to build a better future standing on his shoulders. You can read more about Seth on his website: https://sethlevine.com/ Check out foundry group here https://foundrygroup.com/ Or learn more about Pledge 1% https://pledge1percent.org/ Links to imbue Links to imbue: https://imbuefitness.com https://imbuefitness.com/l follow us on LinkedIn https://linkedin.com/company/imbueworld follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/imbueworld follow us on Instagram https://instagram.com/imbueworld follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/imbueworld Survival podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1WTXTSlDf1SCRuJFzPmBk9

Adam Sachs is the COO of Team Coco and a veteran podcast and digital media executive. Adam works with some of the biggest names in Hollywood like Conan O'Brien, and even Barack and Michelle Obama. We discuss his time as CEO of Midroll Media and its sale to E.W. Scripps, founding a group dating website that he sold to IAC, and the power of being foolishly confident. Full episode transcript is below.Subscribe to our newsletter. We explore the intersection of media, technology, and commerce: sign-up linkLearn more about our market research and executive advisory: RockWater websiteFollow The Come Up on Twitter: @TCUpodEmail us: tcupod@wearerockwater.com--EPISODE TRANSCRIPTChris Erwin:Hi, I'm Chris Erwin. Welcome to The Come Up. A podcast that interviews entrepreneurs and leaders. Adam Sachs:I think we were foolishly so confident. We just thought, "Oh, we have a great idea, so it's going to be successful. Let's just quit our jobs and start this business." And didn't really understand that so much has to go right in order for it to be successful. And not only does so much have to go right, but it takes so long. Chris Erwin:This week's episode features Adam Sachs. Adam is a true digital media OG. And today he works with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, like Conan O'Brien and even the Obamas. So we got a lot to talk about. We'll get into how he started a group dating website and then moved his family to India for it and sold that to Barry Diller. Then we'll talk about how Adam joined as the CEO of Midroll Media, and then orchestrated its sale to E.W. Scripps, one of the biggest deals in podcasting at the time. Chris Erwin:There's many other stories in between. Adam's a fantastic guy. This interview is a lot of fun. Let's get into it. Quick heads up that my interview with Adam was recorded back in January and prior to COVID. Where do you think your entertainment and comedy origins really starts? Adam Sachs:I don't know. I've always been obsessed with comedy from a very young age. I was obsessed with Adam Sandler and then Jerry Seinfeld, and Seinfeld the show was a really important part of my life. At one point, I think I could recite every word of every episode of Seinfeld. I would just watch the tapes over and over and over again. And the same for Adam Sandler movies before that. Yeah. I don't know. Adam Sachs:I just always loved it. And the idea of having a career in comedy, I didn't really know what that would be, but I always wanted to have a career in comedy. And at points I thought, "Well, maybe I'll be a comedian." I never really was I think, talented enough to do that. Chris Erwin:I always remember you as being kind of like a class clown and very funny and very witty and always, like you said, sightings really funny, like Seinfeld references and jokes for everything that we did. But it seemed like you started to take it more seriously when you're like, "Okay, I'm going to join the improv jam in Red Bank." When you started doing that, did that further solidify your like, "Yeah, there's going to be a future for me here." Or you're like, "Oh actually, maybe this is not for me. This is harder than I thought." Adam Sachs:I really enjoyed it. But I was also never one of those people who was super comfortable on stage. I think what I realized after I started doing these improv classes at the local internet cafe, but I did love it. And I thought that the people around me were really talented and I really enjoyed that. And so yeah, even going into college, I thought, "Oh, maybe being on stage isn't really for me, but maybe I'll be a comedy writer. Maybe I'll write TV shows like funny TV shows." Adam Sachs:And I did pursue that. I had a regular college education, and at one point thought maybe I'll end up going to law school and even studied for the LSAT. That was sort of like a hedge, I think, because in parallel I had like a writing partner who I went to college with, Ally Hord who still a good friend of mine and we would write comedy scripts together. And she was the more talented one. She went on to be successful. Chris Erwin:I think you guys are both incredibly talented with great success. Adam Sachs:No. She is really, really funny. And now she's a writer at Seth Meyers. Chris Erwin:I remember Ally Hord. I think I was working because Adam and I both share a Northwestern Wildcat blood. And I was working on a startup idea when I was in grad school there. And I think I had asked Ally who was at Funny Or Die at the time. I was like, "Oh, can you be a beta tester of my product?" And she was always very supportive, and she was like, "Oh yeah, we're using it. We're using it on set. It's super helpful." Chris Erwin:And I don't think they actually really did anything with it, but she was a great sport. All right. So you're at Northwestern, you decide that you're not going to go to law school. And so instead of doing that, you decide to teach English abroad as your first move right out of undergrad. And what was the reason for that? Adam Sachs:I had a friend Howie who's a year above me who he is now a lawyer, but he was also like not sure if he wanted to be a lawyer or what do you want it to do. And he went to Madrid and he and I were really close. We stayed in touch and it sounded really cool. And I didn't know what I wanted to do. I had taken the LSAT. I didn't know if I wanted to go to law school. In my gut felt like I didn't really want to go to law school, but I wasn't sure. And so I was just decided I'll just take a year and like go abroad and maybe I'll figure it out. Chris Erwin:It's almost like in a way a lot of kids now are taking a gap year before they go to school. But getting some free mental space to be like, what do I really want to do to reflect, be exposed to new experiences? And I think a lot of people should do that more often in their careers and more often in their life. And don't. And I remember that you were telling our group about that. I'm like, "Well, Adam has always such an ambitious focus person. Is he already falling off the wagon?" Adam Sachs:I felt like that, to be honest. First of all, going abroad is like, it was a huge privilege. I made a little money teaching English, but not everyone can do it. I don't think, but it was like, I look back on it and yeah, halfway through it, I was like, "My friends are already ... they already have jobs. I'm really falling behind. What's happening here? My college friends are like getting jobs at like JP Morgan or they're in law school or whatever it is." Adam Sachs:And I'm like, "What am I doing? I'm going to be so far behind all of my peers when I get back after this year." And that now looking back, like in retrospect, that was dumb. I shouldn't have been worrying about that because it was an enormously formative experience in my life because it was like I was able to see a lot of the world and meet a lot of people and just gain perspective that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. And I still have really close friends from that period that live in Madrid or live in Prague. Chris Erwin:No. And that's interesting to hear that you had doubts during that period. But at the end of your year of teaching English as a second language, were you starting to feel comfortable like, "No, this was actually the right decision. I've learned a lot." Adam Sachs:Maybe. Now I feel like it was a right decision. At the end of that year, I don't know. I still felt like I got to get back. I have to get home and like start doing something so that I'm not the bum. Chris Erwin:Yeah. And that's a theme throughout your career narrative is that you've made decisions where I've looked at them early on, was like, "Oh, Adam's going and teaching abroad. That's kind of a weird move right out of undergrad." And then, "Adams he's starting a tech company and is applying to Techstars. What is that? Startups aren't cool yet." And it was always kind of like this contrarian approach where there was probably like doubt within you, but doubt within the peer group. But it's clear that all of these buts have really paid off. Kudos to that. Adam Sachs:Maybe. You're giving me a lot of credit. We'll see where all this goes. Chris Erwin:Okay. So after abroad, you decided to go to Sony. How did that come to be? Adam Sachs:I knew people at Sony from my internship, so I reached out to them and I got a very kind of entry level job in Sony Pictures Television in New York. Chris Erwin:And did you feel that when you were doing that because your career took a big turn when you started your first company soon after, or maybe concurrently while you were at Sony. Did you look at Sony as, "Hey, this is something I want to invest material time into," or is this, "This is just a stepping stone. And I want to get maybe that traditional validation of working at a big company." Adam Sachs:To be honest, I think at first I thought I'll get my foot in the door of this like really great company. Everyone that was a radio TV, film major at Northwestern, if they didn't go into being a writer or director or pursuing that path, if they went into TV, the hot thing was like to go into development. And I was like, "I think I want to go into development." I didn't even know what it meant really. Adam Sachs:I was just like, "But it sounds cool to be a development executive." And I think I applied for those jobs and I didn't get them or whatever. So I got like a different job in the ad sales department at Sony. But I think my thinking was, I'll get in the door there and then I'll figure out how to have a development career. And hopefully along the way, I'll figure out what development means. So, that was my thinking. Chris Erwin:I think I want a development career. I don't know what it is, but it's sound has cache. Adam Sachs:But it sounds cool. And people who do it think it's cool. So I honestly think that was my thinking at the time. And there was also always a New York, LA kind of conflict in my mind. This was in New York, but I did feel like LA was an inevitability at some point if I wanted to pursue that sort of career. But at the same time, my good college friend and I, Dan Osit, we started to talk about this startup idea that we got, that we've got really obsessed with. Adam Sachs:And it was the idea of, we were in our early mid 20s living in New York City and going out with our group of friends and going out and meeting other friends. And we started to think, "Man, isn't it crazy that there's no dating site that were like, you go out with your friends and meet other people. And wouldn't it more fun and less awkward and even safer to have an experience where you went out with your friends and met another group of friends." Adam Sachs:And the more we talked about that idea, he was also in his first or second year of working in a finance job out of college. The more we talked about that idea, the more we thought like, this is a really good idea. And we talked to friends who thought it was a good idea. And I think I was planning to move to LA and move in with Matt and Rob and some of our buddies and just figure out like how to get a development job basically. Adam Sachs:But then I became obsessed with this business idea and this idea of starting a startup. And the more we talked to our friends, the more we got excited about it. And then we quit our jobs and we started pursuing it. Chris Erwin:So how'd you guys think about how to start actually building the company? Today feels like there's millions of guides for like how to build a business. But 15 years ago, there was a lot less resources out there. So what did you guys turn to? Adam Sachs:Here's how different the landscape was then. We sent an email, Dan and I sent an email to like all of our friends, like a blast email being like, "Does anyone know anyone who has ever started a company because we don't know where to start?" Chris Erwin:I may have been on that email. Adam Sachs:I'm sure you were. And we got like one response or two responses, and we ended up meeting the guys who started meetup.com, which was a really good connection for us. But today, if you ask that question, everyone knows someone who has started a startup. Chris Erwin:The Lean Startup, Four Steps to the Epiphany, like all of these books. Adam Sachs:Exactly. And that stuff didn't really exist. Or if it did, we were unaware of it. It was like, there was a less of established path at that point because we didn't know what to do. We said, "Okay, we want to start this thing." But what if we had literally just had to try to start taking people out to coffee to understand how do you do this? Chris Erwin:Yeah. So what was the point where you guys made that decision, we're leaving our jobs, we're getting off this path to become development execs, whatever that is, or financiers? That is a big decision to make at an early age. Also considering like what your peers are doing, your parents probably not understanding the opportunities within the startup space. What was that catalyst point? Adam Sachs:I think we were, and to be honest, like foolishly so confident that we had a great idea. And I think because we knew so little about starting a business, didn't realize how important execution is. And we just thought, "Oh, we have a great idea. So it's going to be successful of course, because our idea is great. And we've asked our friends and they think it's great too. So let's just quit our jobs and start this business." Adam Sachs:And didn't really understand that so much has to go right in order for it to be successful. And not only do so much have to go right, but it takes so long and it's going to take a lot of endurance. But it was not easy. Like my friends all continued on in their jobs in New York City. I had to move home. I didn't really have a paying job for a long time. So I had to move in back in with my parents in New Jersey. Chris Erwin:Yeah. I really like how you described that you had to be foolishly confident. I think when you do the math, the odds are totally stacked against you in starting a company. So you have to be delusional in a way and saying like, "I can do this." And so whether that's just like in your blood or in your nature, or at your point, you just didn't even know any better. Adam Sachs:No, I just didn't know any better. Chris Erwin:That's an asset. Adam Sachs:Exactly. I think it was truly in my ignorance helped in that way, because I just didn't know any better. Chris Erwin:I think I remember. So you used to host at your father's house in Little Silver, used to host a lot of basketball games. You play a lot of like three on three or five on five, what have you. I think we were over there one day and I think I had heard rumors that you're like, "Adam's starting this company and now he's applied to Techstars and he's getting into this program." Chris Erwin:And I was like, "Adam, I don't understand what you're doing. I'm confused. What is this?" Startups we're in cool yet. But you had a mission, you had a plan. And so then you applied to Techstars. What was that application process like? Adam Sachs:We realized that we had to raise money in order to build this thing. And so we ended up meeting through friends of friends some early stage VCs. They were rightfully for the most part, like, "You guys are not really investible at this point. You don't really know what you're doing." And we hadn't really built much at that point. But one of the VCs who really, I think believed in us was this guy, Jason Mendelson, and his partner, Seth Levine at the Foundry Group in Boulder. Adam Sachs:And we got connected with them and they were also like, "You guys are onto something here, but you're in New York, we're in Boulder." But I think they really liked us and believed in us. And so they encouraged us to apply to Techstars. And we had never heard of Techstars before, but they're intimately involved in starting Techstars and supporting Techstars. Adam Sachs:It was not an obvious thing for us to do because I had never heard of it. I didn't know what a incubator or accelerator was at that point. Again, this is a different time where now there's a million accelerators. Chris Erwin:That's great. And this was literally 12 years ago. So it's not we're talking about 35 years ago. This was like within generally past decade. Adam Sachs:Not that long ago, but it was a different world. And so yeah, we applied and I think through the help of those guys, we ended up getting in. But even then I think, again, points to our kind of foolish ignorance, we were like, maybe we're a little too far along for this Techstars thing is what we thought. We were like, we have some users on in our Facebook app. That's how we started. Chris Erwin:Okay. It's just also funny to hear, like this speaks to the delusional part of actually we're pretty advanced, like we have users, so we actually really needed to be a part of this program. Maybe we should just skip this. That's what you guys wanted. Adam Sachs:Again, pretty dumb, but it was really, really valuable experience. It's a mentorship driven experience. We needed mentorship. I studied history and film in college. Dan, I think studied communication or something. We didn't really know what we know. And also there's really not a great curriculum probably even to this day for starting a company. In my opinion, you have to talk to people who have done it. Learn from people who have done it. Adam Sachs:I think it's not something that you graduate, even if you, I know very few schools have an entrepreneurship program, but I think even if you graduated with a degree in entrepreneurship, you still don't really know what you're doing until you get in there and start doing it. Chris Erwin:Yeah. So you're at Techstars, clearly it was a positive experience. You graduate. Adam Sachs:Yes. Chris Erwin:And then did you raise money immediately upon graduation at demo day? Adam Sachs:Yeah, immediately. We had a really good presentation actually. We were working with our mentors and again, these guys, Jason and Seth at Foundry Group became our mentors. And the second half really of Techstars is like for preparing, at least at this point. It might've changed. Again, this is 2008, so this is a long time ago. But at that point, the first half is a lot of mentorship. The second half is really like preparing for demo day. Adam Sachs:And I remember we put together a presentation, a draft representation. We brought it over to Jason in his office and sat down with him and walked him through it. And he was just like, "Yeah, it's pretty good. I don't know. It's fine. But it's missing you guys," is what he said. And I think he'd gotten to know us and know our personalities or whatever. And we went back and I remember we locked ourselves in a room with our small team of four of us for like a weekend and came back to him on Monday. And it was a funny presentation. It was like a comedy driven presentation and he was just like, "This is it, this is it." Chris Erwin:Actually I never thought about that. But thinking about your roots in comedy, entertainment, improv, and then writing with Ally at Northwestern, pitching to investor is about telling an incredible story of excitement, why we are the best team to do this, really peaking their interests. And I was like, you have like the formula for that. And I guess that's what this guy wanted. And then he didn't know what you had in you. And you're like, "No, let us show you." Adam Sachs:Yeah. So the presentation went great. And I think for a lot of people, did a lot of the VC side of it. There's 300 VCs in the audience or something like that. I think for a lot of them, it was the first time they saw like an actual funny VC pitch or whatever, like startup pitch. And I don't think it was necessarily like the humor that attracted ... Any smart VC is not going to be like, "I'm going to invest in the funniest entrepreneur." Adam Sachs:On the surface, it was funny. But when you got beneath it, it was like, "These guys actually know, they have a good handle on what their vision for the business is." So yeah, we did raise money immediately. Chris Erwin:An interesting highlight from that point though, is I think when investors see for an early stage company is okay, do they have a product? Have they built something? Are they solving a real problem? But it's so early. Even if they have a little bit of users is likely pre-revenue. So there's just an incredible amount of risk. So they're really betting on the founders, on the ability of the founders to attract future capital, tell a good story, recruit a team, and build a team and motivate people. Chris Erwin:And so what they could have seen in you is like, "Okay, there's this magnetism of this team that's going to be able to attract people to their team and get them excited about this ridiculous mission that they're on." So it seems like you have this asset of your storytelling, was actually like checking a major box for these investors. If you think about it that way. Adam Sachs:Yeah. Maybe. We also rushed the fundraising because this was like August, September of 2008, and the financial world was starting to just collapse around us. And so, once we saw that happening, we were pushing our investors to like, get your checks and get your checks. Because that we knew that very shortly after that, we could feel like the economy was collapsing. Chris Erwin:Got it. So money comes in the bank. And how much did you raised initially? Adam Sachs:So funny. Again, only 12 years ago, but we raised a series A and it was like a $1.2 million, which today is like a pre seed amount of money. But at that point, that was our series A. Chris Erwin:Okay. And that was on top of a little bit of family and friends money that you raised. Adam Sachs:Yeah. Chris Erwin:Got it. So you have the money, your team is feeling excited. You move to New York City. I remember that you had offices in Union Square. I don't know if you moved immediately there. Adam Sachs:Yeah, we did. Chris Erwin:I was part of a beta test for a group date in the lower Eastside. Adam Sachs:I think like a Max Fish or something. Chris Erwin:Yeah. There's like six or seven guys. Six or seven girls. We're all competing and say who's getting them like the most amount of face time with the other side. It was a really funny experience. There was also a launch party that was associated with it. Adam Sachs:Yeah. At Barna, which no longer is on Park Avenue South. Chris Erwin:So I remember I was like, okay, I don't know what Adam's doing, but if I get invited to cool parties and get to go on like group dates and maybe meet women, I'll be supportive. All right. So tangent. You're in New York City, you have the company, and now you're there for the next six years. What do you remember as a major inflection point after raising that money and saying, "Okay, now we're scaling this company." What were some of those key milestones? Adam Sachs:One of them, the biggest one for sure is we were out there hustling having parties. We would literally like throw a party at a bar in the East Village, bring our digital cameras because that's how you took pictures then and computers and buy people drinks to like sign them up in exchange for having them have a profile on our site. So we'd be like, "Hey, do you want to try our site? We'll buy you a drink." Adam Sachs:And so, we would then take their picture at the bar and make a profile for them. Because it was a grind to get people to sign up. Chris Erwin:Were most people amenable to that? Or were some people turned off? Adam Sachs:Half and half I think. We had like maybe dozens of people signing up every day in New York, but we'd go home at night and look at our Google analytics and be like, "Hundreds of people signed up today in India." Or like thousands of people signed up today in India at one point. And so that was sort of the inflection point, which is like, we're pushing too hard for something that maybe there's not as much of a demand for here as there is for other places. Adam Sachs:And so at that point it was like, let's understand this, what is going on here? We didn't understand India or some of the other markets where we were seeing this natural, organic demand, and India was one of them, for sure. Also like Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia and other Asian countries. And at that point, it was like, that was a huge inflection point. And it was let's understand what's going on here so that we can decide, is this worth pursuing. Chris Erwin:We're back from a quick break and maybe unbeknownst to Adam, but I just actually we have a bunch of our high school friends on group text, and I just sent a crowdsource message of any questions that we should ask Adam on the podcast. So I might check this at the end when we get to the rapid fire, that has been seated within the group. Adam Sachs:Awesome. Chris Erwin:So we'll see what happens. Adam Sachs:Our friends are deviance. I don't want to see what their questions are. Chris Erwin:So we were just talking about you're now in New York City with funding, you're scaling Ignighter. You're hustling, you're grinding, you're going out to the bars, you're signing up people like on location. So then what you're just touching on, which is interesting is this theme of the unexpected. So you're building this business, you're looking at your metrics, and all of a sudden you're seeing user growth in India and in Singapore and these Asian countries, that's not what you're necessarily intending for, but it's happening. Chris Erwin:So as you start seeing this information, there's certain types of leaders and people that would say, "That's that's interesting, but we're not going to do something about it." What was the point where you're like, "This is meaningful. And now we're actually going to pursue this. This is opportunity." What was that decision making process? Adam Sachs:At first, it was like, this is interesting, but it's not our mission. So we ignored it. For I don't know how long, for maybe a few months. And then eventually it was like the discrepancy between how hard we were hustling and grinding to sign up users one at a time in New York versus literally I think at our peak, there were like 5,000 people a day signing up in India. And it was like, "What are we doing here? Let's figure this out. What is it that's making it click there?" Adam Sachs:And that's when we started to talk to people who knew the market way better than we did, talk to people who knew the culture better than we did. Chris Erwin:How do you do that? Who do you talk to? The same thing, like figuring out who do you talk to about Techstars? Did you call up your investors, did call friends? Adam Sachs:It was a little bit of both. Yeah. And we were able I think through our investors and through the Techstars network to meet people who are either entrepreneurs who were maybe of Indian descent and had family in India or who had family that were building companies in India. We actually shared an office with a company, coincidentally enough called exclusively.in. I don't know if they exist anymore, but they were a company that was building like fashion products in India. Adam Sachs:And they were really closely connected to the market. And so they started to like help us and connect us to angel investors in India and VCs in India. And those people help. Once we started to understand this, we went out and we raised more money from investors who were interested in that path in pursuing that in India story. Chris Erwin:Growth in Indian market. Adam Sachs:Yeah. Chris Erwin:Okay. And how much money did you raise at that point? Adam Sachs:I think maybe three or three and a half million, something like that. Chris Erwin:Okay. And at this point, are you feeling excited? Adam Sachs:Excited but scared too. We'd never even been there at that point. We still hadn't even been to India. It was hard enough I think building a company like in a market that we knew inside and out. And so the idea of building a company somewhere else felt like how's that going to work? Chris Erwin:I can understand the mix of emotions because maybe there was some frustration with the challenge in getting traction in the United States where you were focused. So this is in a way maybe a bit of a lifeline. Adam Sachs:It felt like a lifeline, but it also felt like we were riding blind a little bit too. Our first move was like, now that we know we have all the traction in India, let's put up a landing page so that only people in India see that shows people that look like they're in India and not people that look like they're in New York so that and you can kind of geo target in that way. But we didn't know the market well. Adam Sachs:So I remember our first landing page in India we're like, here, these are two beautiful looking Indian people. Let's put them on the landing page. And it turned out, we put a picture of like a bride, like a woman wearing a bride's outfit. And we were trying to be like the antithesis of like one of those like serious like marriage dating sites. And it was like literally a woman in bride garb. Adam Sachs:And then one of our investors who I guess knew the market was like, "What are you doing? That's not what you guys are." Chris Erwin:Not your brand. Adam Sachs:Yeah. That's so off brand. So it took us a while to figure it out. Chris Erwin:This all leads to a point where you end up moving to India. Adam Sachs:Yeah. Chris Erwin:And you moved there with your wife, Molly. Adam Sachs:Sort of. We had an apartment in New York where we lived and then I got a place in India and mostly it was me going over there. Molly did go. But it was mostly me going by myself. Chris Erwin:Is there one memorable moment of like you're in India and you're just in shock being like, "Wow, this is just feels so different." Adam Sachs:I think just in general, just the business norms were really hard. Like when we wanted to start processing payments, for example, I remember we had to get some kind of certification from like the Royal Bank of India or something like that. And then that took forever and we had to be compliant in a certain way that I didn't really understand. And at one point I was really an expert in all this stuff. Adam Sachs:And I've fortunately since forgotten, I think most of it. But it was like very hard. And then also people didn't really have credit cards or a lot of people didn't have credit cards. And so you have to figure out other ways to pay. And there were people that were paying with their mobile phone credits and it was very, very different and in that way, challenging. Chris Erwin:Got it. So then you eventually sale to Barry Diller's IAC. How did that come to be? Adam Sachs:Well, to be honest, and this is something that they don't really tell you when you start a dating site is that there's not that many buyers out there for dating sites. There's one universal behemoth in the dating world that wants to be the globally dominant business and that's IAC. So a typical sales process would have competitive nature attached to it where there's like a bunch of different companies bidding for your business. Adam Sachs:It was hard for us to drum up a competitive process when there's like really just one buyer out there. Chris Erwin:So you sell to IAC. And then at that point, I think that was a big milestone because you started a company, you ran it, build and scale the team, transitioned to an international market, and then you exited it. And I don't believe this was like a major liquidity event for you, but it was a sale. And that is a big stamp of approval. And so now it's kind of like you have this big entrepreneur stamp on your back. Chris Erwin:And so next, I think that you ended up going to Midroll Media, and this is another major inflection point in your career where you kind of lay the foundation for becoming this early and seasoned audio executive. And this now like fast growing industry. And what sold you on going into podcasts and audio and then moving to LA? Adam Sachs:First of all, all my time spent on planes going back and forth from New York to Mumbai and then being in Mumbai by myself, I had become obsessed with podcasts. I was listening to them all the time. They were my companion in India, basically. And as we have already established, always wanted a career in media. I've joked, like I've studied radio, TV, film. I never thought I would be doing something in the radio piece of it, or the RTVS, because that wasn't even really part of the curriculum. Adam Sachs:But I became obsessed with podcasts. I met a guy named Jeff Alrich who started Earwolf. And in fact, Ally Hord introduced us. And I met him when I was still at Ignighter or step out. And we just met us to like CEOs kind of commiserating as startup CEOs often do about like the various challenges. But I really loved his business. Even though it was still small at that point, it was bootstrapped. Adam Sachs:So he didn't have investors and it was profitable and it was growing and it was in an area of media that I loved and that I felt like was just kind of getting started. So yeah, we got to know each other. And then the timing worked out that after we sold to IAC, he reached out saying like, "I'm looking for someone to help me build this business, like a COO type. Do you have anyone in mind?" Adam Sachs:And I throw my hat in the ring. And then also the other piece of it was that we, at this point, had like a baby in New York City and we were feeling kind of done with New York. It was hard to have a kid in New York. I think the suburbs didn't really appeal to us. As I mentioned, LA always had some certain draw. We didn't necessarily know that we wanted to leave New York and go to LA, but this just felt like the right opportunity to try it. Chris Erwin:It's interesting. It feels like it's checking a few boxes for you. Because I know in talking to you at that time, I think you had a really great experience at Ignighter. You learned a lot, you've built a great investor network, but it was challenging. You had with investors, a lot of different stakeholders in your business, different points of view, weren't profitable and sustainable and a lot of the stage of the company. Chris Erwin:So Adam, you have a really exciting run at Midroll before you exit a couple of years later. You joined as COO and then in just nine months, you're promoted to CEO. So tell us about that journey. And what did you first focus on when you joined the team? Adam Sachs:It was a lot, we were building this new network called Midroll. The business started as Earwolf and that was continuing to grow, but the new- Chris Erwin:Earwolf was a network of comedy podcasts. Adam Sachs:Correct. Yeah. But the new thing that we were building, which we saw as our real growth opportunity was Midroll and Midroll is what connects podcasters to advertisers. They really hadn't been professionalized at that point in the industry. But as the industry was growing, it was like more and more podcasters wanted to make money, obviously. Adam Sachs:And advertisers were starting to realize that podcast listeners are passionate and they develop this intimate relationship with the podcaster. And so podcast ads could be very powerful in that way. And so that's where we saw a really big opportunity and started to invest a lot. It grew very quickly. Chris Erwin:It's interesting to hear the timing of that because it reminds me when I was at Big Frame, which was, we were creating short form, social content online and managing digitally native creators, people that were on ... YouTubers, people that were on Facebook, on Instagram, et cetera. And a big part of our growing business was connecting marketers and advertisers with our talent. Chris Erwin:And so that's a very similar dynamic to what was happening with you. Okay. So you're leaning into that. And then did you know that within like nine months that the CEO is in my orbit or it's going to happen or it was kind of just bestored upon you? Adam Sachs:No. That wasn't the case. We were growing quickly trying to add people quickly. The business started in a very ... it's credits Jeff, but in a very scrappy way adding more people and elevating the early people who had really done a great job. And I honestly think that the business got to a point where it was ready to go to a different level. There was a scrappy level. Adam Sachs:And I think once it was ready to go to that growth level, Jeff kind of felt like it was better handled if I were in the day to day of it all, and we didn't have a board, which was great. And another thing that really appealed to me and so like Jeff and I were the board, basically. Chris Erwin:Make fast decisions. Adam Sachs:We were able to make really fast decisions. And so, he was still involved in the business, but not really in the day to day. Chris Erwin:I just want to quickly pause here. I think there's a good takeaway for our listeners that explains your rapid rise at Midroll. So I've worked with you and known you for many years, and you've also developed an industry reputation with many others that you're very clear thinker and strategist, and that you have a point of view on market opportunity. You do a quick pros cons analysis, and then you make a swift decision to move forward. Chris Erwin:And then on top of that, you also have this great magnetism that allows you to build teams and rally smart people around you. I believe that this has caused success throughout your career and is really powering your growth now at Team Coco, which we'll get into in a little bit. So I just wanted to call that out quickly. Adam Sachs:I appreciate it. Chris Erwin:So now you're CEO and as we've talked about, because I was a COO at my last company and we used to joke that COO is like, you have a lot of responsibility. You're essentially running the company, running the team, but the buck doesn't stop with you. Like if there's a really tough decision to make like, that's the CEO or that's the founder. Like that's not me, that's them. So you get to be like everyone's best friend. Adam Sachs:Yeah. COO is secretly like the best job in the world. Chris Erwin:100%. So now that changes for you, now you're the CEO, the big decisions really fall on you. How did that transition feel? Adam Sachs:A little bit scary. And honestly, one of the reasons it was scary and I had experienced being a CEO because I was CEO of Ignighter. So I knew what it entailed, but one of the things that was a little bit scary about it was actually that we had so much momentum. We didn't make this transition because things weren't working and we needed to try something new, that wasn't really the impetus at all. It was really about growth and that almost put more pressure on me. Adam Sachs:It was like, don't fuck this up because we have a good thing going and we're growing quickly. So, that part felt scary. It was also challenging to be a part of the management team. If you think there's like the CEO and then below the CEO, there's like three or four C level executives. It was a little bit challenging at first or scary at first to be one of those three or four people on the management team who then became the CEO and had to manage the people who were my peers or on that same level as me. Adam Sachs:So that part is always intimidating at first. I think it certainly didn't come without any growing pains that would never happen, but it worked, it worked. Chris Erwin:That's a very interesting call out. When you started Ignighter and essentially it's nothing, so there's like nothing to lose. It's like you're at zero and there's all this upside potential and you're like, "All right, let's see where we can take it." But now, you go to this company that was founded by someone else that has some real momentum and traction and the rains are given over to you. Chris Erwin:That's a totally different responsibility set or feeling. Clearly great experience. So now you're the CEO and it's funny at this time, this is also people were calling this is Peak Podcast. This I think is around 2014. And so I think there's a chance for a liquidity event. There's a chance to sell the company. What was the impetus for that sale? Adam Sachs:It was a couple of things. It was the first thing that you said, which is like podcasting was having a moment. Serial came out and Gimlet launched and suddenly a bunch of media companies were saying like, "We have to figure out what's our podcast strategy?" And so we started to get a lot of inbound interest from both investors and potential acquirers and having, like you said, we've been so excited about not having investors and we were profitable and growing quickly. Adam Sachs:Personally, I didn't want to bring on investors. And I think that the team agreed. We didn't need it. So why bring in other people to just start having their own kind of agendas? But we did feel like if there was the right buyer, it should be something worth pursuing, at least having the conversations. It was like, because we were bootstrapped was owned by a few of us, the business. Adam Sachs:So, we could have a meaningful outcome potentially without the number having to be astronomical. And so, we thought who knows, maybe this is just the first wave and it goes away forever. And so, we didn't want to miss out on podcastings moment if something new came along. And then the other piece of it is that there was money flowing into the space competitively. Adam Sachs:And so it was like if we were determined to stay bootstrapped and we didn't want to raise money while people around us were raising money and what does that mean from a competitive landscape? So, that was like all the things we were thinking about at that time. Chris Erwin:It was a beautiful moment to sell. And I think the timing was great. And I remember when I was at Big Frame, this is just after we had sold the Awesomeness TV and I was in the offices at our offices at Burundian Olympic. I remember you calling me like late night, like six or 6:30 PM. And we spoke for like an hour, hour and a half of like the pros and cons of a sale. And how do you manage a sale process? Chris Erwin:Because there was a lot that you were thinking through and I could tell that this was a big decision you were taking very seriously and that you are excited, but also scared at the same time. Adam Sachs:That's totally true. I guess as they're six month process of going around and pitching the company. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Which can be brutal because the moments are, this is great. We're headed in a great direction, but this could also fall apart at any moment. There's an investor that's excited, but then in the middle of doing diligence, maybe it all goes away and we miss our moments. Adam Sachs:Yeah. Exactly. Chris Erwin:[crosstalk 00:37:11] on edge the whole time. Adam Sachs:For sure. And I think we were worried that if that were to happen, we did have such great business momentum, if that were to happen, would that kill our business momentum, would that kill everything? It felt a little risky at the time. Chris Erwin:Unique moment that happened where I think as you are talking to different prospective buyers, you had a conversation with Andy Redmond who was the president of Tornante and who we also knew who went through our high school year above us. And that there was a unique moment that happened at Spargo. Tell us that quick story. Adam Sachs:So Andy Redmond is the president of Tornante. Tornante is Michael Eisner, former Disney CEO, it's Michael Eisner's vehicle for investing and acquiring companies. And when I came out to LA, I reached out to Andy and we hadn't stayed in touch really. Our families kind of know each other. We knew each other a little bit growing up, but we hadn't really stayed in touch. But I just reached out to him because I thought he had such a cool job. Adam Sachs:Tornante acquires media companies and invest in media companies. They make content. They make really great stuff. They make BoJack Horseman, for example. They do that. And then they also like just bought a English premier league soccer team. So they do all this and, it all kind of rolls up to Andy. So I thought Andy had such a cool job. And so we met or we had lunch early on when I was out here and he immediately, I think, got interested in what we were doing, and we stayed in touch. Adam Sachs:And then during the sell process, we communicated and he started to get excited and brought us in for several meetings. And then one of them was a lunch at Spargo with Michael Eisner. I told you the story because it was one of my very just surreal, most surreal, I guess- Chris Erwin:LA, Hollywood. Adam Sachs:Exactly, where I was like at a table with Michael Eisner who by the way is from Red Bank. I don't know if you know that. His whole family's from there. So we had this whole conversation with Andy about we all grew up in the same area and- Chris Erwin:Improv jam. Adam Sachs:He was one of the funniest at improv jam. His guessing was incredible. And so we had this whole conversation and he was really excited about what we were doing. And at one point during the meal, Wolfgang puck came over and sat down with us at the table and started giving Michael Eisner a hard time in a playful way about building a house too big that it was obscuring his view and- Chris Erwin:You're just like, what is happening? Adam Sachs:Yeah. And then literally Sidney Poitier's at the next table. And that was all like catalyzed by Andy. It was a very funny thing because we grew up in this very small town that seemingly very disconnected from all things Hollywood and literally geographically, like on the other side of the country. Chris Erwin:There must be something in the water in Monmouth County. That's a really funny story. So you end up selling the company to E.W. Scripps. You end up going over there and helping the company transition for a bit over a year. At that point you had, we were talking about like you had the entrepreneurial stamp on your back from Ignighter, and now you have in the sale of Midroll to E.W. Scripps. Chris Erwin:You have a stamp on your back as you are a legitimate audio executive. Podcasting an audio, digital audio is a fast growing industry. And Adam is a leader that has incredible relationships, has built an incredible portfolio of audio content. While at Earwolf, you also were able to help build out the ad sales arm and build out this scalable profitable business with a successful sale and exit. Chris Erwin:So you have this brand as you're an audio executive. And I think that's really exciting. It's really great. I'm also curious to ask, I don't know if anyone has asked you this, is that the brain that you wanted one, and then two, do you feel that that could also pigeon hole you a bit where it's like, okay, I'm on this path, but maybe my career ambitions are a bit broader in entrepreneurship or in other areas of entertainment? What do you think about that? Adam Sachs:It's a good questions. I am sure I'm pigeonholed in some ways. I'm sure people look at me for better or worse as an audio guy. I think a couple of things. One is, I do think there are a lot of things I've learned in building companies. And certainly, probably more specifically in building Midroll Stitcher that are applicable outside of just audio here at Team Coco, we're building a digital media business. Audio is a really important part of it. Adam Sachs:But there are things I learned through that process that I think are applicable. But I still believe in audio in a way that I think if I were pigeonholed into something that I thought that I wasn't super bullish on or that I thought was kind of lame, then it might be more of a bummer. But I think audio is cool. It sounds dumb. But I don't mind that that's like my brand, if it is my brand. Adam Sachs:And I think it's allowed me to meet a lot of cool entrepreneurs and work with a lot of cool companies. And I still think that the industry is in its early days. And so, I don't mind that being like part of or all of my brand. Chris Erwin:When people look at your career story, just even if just listening to this podcast, that it's very multifaceted. And then in entertainment, I agree, audio is not pigeonholing you because audio is a medium to express yourself and to create story, to share ideas, and to create IP. And that can manifest in a variety of ways, whether it's a TV, film, or a theme park, or short form social content, and you look at all the others in the same. Chris Erwin:And so I think it's actually a really fun, medium to play in right now because it allows you to experiment in a very low cost and rapid yet efficient way. And then if you want to go premium as well, like Conan Needs a Friend, one of the best performing comedy podcasts on the planet right now, there's so much that you can do, but just one aspect of a business. Adam Sachs:Yeah. I agree. I love audio. So, I don't mind it. Chris Erwin:Adam Sachs tagline, I love audio. Awesome. You sell Midroll to E.W. Scripps and I believe the price point was somewhere in the range of if there was like an earn out maybe 55 to 65 million-ish in that range. Adam is nodding. So I think I'm in the right ballpark. So after the sale, Adam has a lot of options. It's after Midroll, you then go do a stint as an entrepreneur residence at Chernin, the Chernin Group. Chris Erwin:You work with some brilliant minds like Jason Bergman and Mike Hearns and the rest of the Austin team over there. Steve [Cosnio 00:43:18] and I'm going to blank on a bunch of other names. You even start advising higher ground audio, the production arm of Barack and Michelle Obama. There's a lot of different things that you can do. And I think some of the options include, you could start your own company, start another company. Chris Erwin:Or you could go work for a team, and you actually end up working for Conan and Team Coco and overseeing his entire digital business. In that moment, how do you decide what you're going to do? Adam Sachs:The way you describe it makes it sound like I had a lot of opportunity, and I did. It's true, but it wasn't obvious to me what to do which is part of the reason I went to Chernin and I was just like, I don't have a ton of conviction around a business that I want to start. I know what it takes to build a business from the ground up. And there's nothing that I'm obsessed over right now that I just know I have to go do this. Adam Sachs:The idea of joining something that was early and interesting appealed to me. So my thinking was like, let me just go where there's really, really, really smart people. And to your point, the Chernin Group, especially as it relates to media, has some of the smartest. And so spending a year with them, first of all, learning how to be an investor, which I had zero experience doing, really appealed to me because I wanted to just understand that world a little more. Adam Sachs:Meeting really smart both investors and entrepreneurs on the media side or in the media world was really appealing because I felt like it would help me just figure out what to do next. And with the Conan thing, and maybe it goes back to this theme of not overthinking it, but it was this opportunity of you can work with arguably the funniest person on the planet who has a reputation for also being a good guy and a team that really is filled with good people and that like each other, and that have been around here for many, many, many years as he explores. Adam Sachs:And they all explore launching something new, but with the added benefit of brand and this talent and this reach that's all here, it was kind of like, let me just see what happens. And as we've already established here, comedy's very important to me. And there was talk of maybe starting a podcast network and that was appealing to me for obvious reasons. So yeah, it literally just checked a lot of boxes. Chris Erwin:How were you first introduced to Conan and Team Coco? Adam Sachs:Through Chernin. It was like, there was a connection between some of the people that turned in and some of the people at Team Coco. And that's how I got to know them. And I did a little bit of consulting work to help think through this business plan, because what it is is Team Coco has existed since 2010, Will keep me honest, 2010. Yes. But it wasn't until a year and a half ago that there was this pivot into building it into a full on media business. Adam Sachs:It existed as a really successful marketing arm that marketed digitally the TV show, the linear show. And that became its own business in a way. The marketing of that, the distribution of those digital clips from the TV show and monetizing them across YouTube and social channels became a business. And then that ultimately became the foundation for what Team Coco is today. Chris Erwin:Just to be clear for the audience, the tent pole format that Conan has is his talk show with TBS. Adam Sachs:Correct. Chris Erwin:Got it. So you're like, okay, this is an amazing marketing arm, but you also had a point of view of like there's a lot more to do with this. Adam Sachs:Yeah. And a lot of that came from my experience at Midroll center, but the year I spent at Chernin, meeting a lot of what I thought were some of the best and most forward thinking media companies. Chris Erwin:And onboarding into Team Coco, it seems that one of your first early projects was getting Conan podcast network off the ground. Is that accurate? Adam Sachs:Yeah, that's true. They had tried a couple, maybe like pilots of a podcast. There was talk of doing a podcast. Conan was half interested, but pretty skeptical. Chris Erwin:On his podcast, Conan Needs a Friend sometimes he'll make references to you as the executive producer. He's like, "Yeah. I don't know what this podcast thing is. Is this even real? Supposedly we have downloads. I still don't know if there's money coming from it. I don't see it." Adam Sachs:Yeah. I think now he finally gets it, but yeah, for a while even after it launched and was successful, he was still like, is this thing real? I don't know. Am I sitting alone in this room talking into a microphone and no one's hearing it? But what's happened is now he gets stopped everywhere he goes, and people tell him, "I love the podcast." So he knows it's real. Or it's like some massive Truman Show scam where everyone is just faking it and coming up to him. But yeah, no, he knows it's real at this point, which is good. Chris Erwin:He has one of the best performing shows. That's probably important. I want to just jump back for a quick sec. Was it hard to get the teams buying or when you were getting recruited, was it like, "Look, this is what I want to do here. I want to build out a podcast network." And so when they brought you on, it was like, "All right, we know what Adam's plan is. So if we actually bring him on a COO, we're going to get things done." Or was it like an uphill battle? Adam Sachs:We put together a business plan that included a variety of verticals, audio being one of them. It was like the digital distribution business, which is the core business. It was live events, it was podcasts. It was stand up specials. And that was part of the whole business plan that I helped put together. And there was buying on the business plan holistically for sure. Adam Sachs:I think what we've seen over the past year is that audio has become a major investment area for us. And it helps that Conan's podcast has done so well. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Maybe you can also reference this like, look, if Obama is leaning into this, there's something. Adam Sachs:Exactly. Now that Conan is one of many A-listers or a plus listers, like the Obamas who are understanding this is a huge opportunity. Chris Erwin:So now you launched Conan Needs a Friend and there's a few other formats as well that you guys have launched. Remind me. Adam Sachs:Yeah, we have several podcasts. We have Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. We have the three questions with Andy Richter, Inside Conan, and Important Hollywood Podcast are all unscripted podcasts that we've launched. We've launched two scripted series so far as well, one called Frontier Tween and one called Smarter. And those are scripted narrative, audio podcasts. Chris Erwin:And are those exclusively on the Luminary platforms? Adam Sachs:Those are exclusively on Luminary. Exactly. Chris Erwin:Got it. Thinking about 2020, how do you want to build out the audio initiative for Team Coco? Where do you guys see as more opportunity? Adam Sachs:We want to continue doing both scripted and non-scripted. So far, all of our unscripted podcasts have been hosted by people literally within this building, Conan and Andy Richter and Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell who are both writers on the Conan Show. And so for us, and this is like a broader theme just for us to be successful as a business, we have to expand our talent network, both in podcasts and in the digital video that we develop and in the live shows. Adam Sachs:Everything, it can't rely as much as you have a huge competitive advantage when you have Conan being the center of a podcast. Because not only is he so famous, but he's so talented, but there's only so much scale you can get out of that. There's only so much you can squeeze out before he just like collapses or revolts. Chris Erwin:If he's listening to this, just like, "Adam's going to like squeeze more energy and time." Adam Sachs:He and I talk about it a lot. He talks about it a lot. He knows that we push him really far and it has an incredible amount of endurance more than most people. He does more than most people at that level, but there's only so far he can go. And so in order to be successful, we have to do more with other people. That's a big theme for us. Chris Erwin:Well, it's interesting to hear about the endurance. Because I think I was listening to a podcast with him and Jimmy Kimmel, where he was just talking about how hard they work. They're taping a show every day, their talk show. And then just all the other content that they're creating a short form format for socials, for marketing, for their podcast. It's just a lot of work. Chris Erwin:So it's not like nine to five, Monday through Friday. It's like they're on all weekend working and prepping and writing and all of that. Adam Sachs:Yeah. He works really hard. Chris Erwin:Along with a great team behind him that works really hard too. Okay. Last question on Team Coco before we get into the rapid fire round and then also maybe do some crowdsource questions from our high school friends, TBD. Does any other things about Team Coco that you're excited about in 2020? Adam Sachs:I think building upon the things we've already started is important for us, like doing more live events, building on our podcast network, doing specials. We're making comedy specials for HBO Max, and hopefully we'll be making more content for other platforms. All that is I think exciting. We also are doing a podcast exclusively on Stitcher premium podcast called The Best of Conan Standup. Adam Sachs:Where we're taking five standup sets from every year dating back to the first year that Conan was on TV each year and highlighting those. So you can listen to ... it's hosted by Laurie Kilmartin also here within our walls. She's a writer on Conan and a great standup herself. That show is every episode is a different season of stand ups from Conan. Think there's like opportunity for us in gaming potentially. I don't know. We're trying to expand. Chris Erwin:Awesome. I think you guys have an incredible path forward. We are massive supporters of your business as you know. Adam Sachs:You guys are really helpful. Chris Erwin:To close out the Team Coco narrative. I think one of the things that Adam brought up in the first part of the conversation was just what attracted him to Conan was his sensibility that he's some amazing talented comedy writer who's silly and funny and smart. But it also like Conan is a good person. He's got good values and he's built out a team that he really looks out for, that he really respects. Chris Erwin:And he's really set the tone at the organization. And I can say, I was fortunate enough to get invited to the Team Coco and Conan holiday party at Yamashiro in Hollywood. And it's funny as I spoke to Adam and then as I spoke to some of his peers, like Willy Nevara, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. Steve Breslow and some of your other business affairs executives, they all said, "Conan sets us really special tone from the top." Adam Sachs:He does. Chris Erwin:I was there with a friend of mine, Maya, and we felt that in the room, it just like we've gone to a lot of Hollywood parties and I don't get excited by most of them, but this one was like, it felt different. Everyone was so open and it was a really good vibe. And I think that really leads to a really compelling and special creative environment working environment. Chris Erwin:And what I also heard from talking to one of the final executives there was that Adam is also a big part of setting that tone with the leadership. She made it very clear that that tone comes down from Conan, but it is also very much embodied in Adam and how he runs the Team Coco organization. Adam Sachs:That's nice. It's Conan and Jeff Ross, for sure. They really take care of their people. Chris Erwin:All right. Before we get into the rapid fire, I'm just going to check the text thread. Joe Venti asks, is this the rebirth of Ask Adam? Ask him to rewrite what dreams may come? Adam Sachs:The Ask Adam was my column in the Tower Tribune in the high school. Chris Erwin:Got it. Okay. I think that's the one that we'll take away from this. We need to go into the other ones. All right. So rapid fire, Adam, these are questions that you could answer very quickly in a few amount of words, one or two sentences or less. Here we go. Proudest moment slash accomplishment of your career. Adam Sachs:Conan's Podcast. I'm really proud of it's reached so many people, it's brought joy to a lot of people. It's brought a lot of joy to Conan who says that he feels really fulfilled by it and it's become, I think, an important part of his, I don't want to speak for him, but I think he said stuff like this. When he looks back on what he's accomplished in his career, I know that this will be one of the more important, special things that he's done. Adam Sachs:And I think it's really good quality. I think it's a really great show and it's because of Conan and Sona and Matt and I'm proud of it. Chris Erwin:Awesome. What do you want to do less and more of in 2020? Adam Sachs:I am always pushing myself to think bigger and to do more bigger thinking and to do less in the weeds of micromanaging. I think I just have like a tendency to do that a little bit and it's not a great quality. And so, I think getting more balanced in that sense I think is something that's important. Chris Erwin:Entrepreneurial advice. What one to two personal characteristics primarily drive your success? Adam Sachs:I think getting shit done. I think a lot of entrepreneurs sit around saying that they want to do something or that they should do something. And I think that the ones who see success are determined to just get something done and also stick around. I think it takes a long time for a company to find success. And it's not always fun, but I think hanging in there is important. Chris Erwin:And a quick side anecdote, we talked about this yesterday, but also you are not petty. You're not political. And even you were telling a story about your wife, who's like, "Adam, I hear that you're taking a meeting with this man or woman. Don't you remember a few months ago that you had like a really bad encounter?" You're like, "I don't remember that." Adam Sachs:I think I have a bad memory. I think maybe it benefits me sometimes, but I'm not good at holding grudges because I literally forget if somebody wronged me. And Molly who was my biggest defender is always does like stick up for me and look out for me. And she's like, "What are you doing? We hate that person. Remember?" And I'm like, "Oh yeah. Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot. We hate that person." Chris Erwin:Last three, advice for media professionals going into 2020. Quick words of wisdom. Adam Sachs:Follow the money is one of them. I think a lot of media companies in the digital space have come and gone because deficit financing, digital video in a way that isn't really sustainable anymore today. I think there's a lot of paywalls popping up, which I think is like in some ways a good thing, but in some ways a bad thing. Really understand what you're asking people to pay for, because I think media consumers are willing to pay, but only for certain things. If you're going to build a company in media, try to latch on to the best talent or the best content. Chris Erwin:Smart advice. All right. Last couple. Any future startup ambitions? See yourself starting another company in the near future? Adam Sachs:Probably not. I don't know. Maybe. A lot of it comes back to convicti

Brad Feld has been an early stage investor & entrepreneur for 30 years. He co-founded Foundry Group, Mobius Venture Capital, Intensity Ventures & Techstars. Brad's also a published author & a long-distance runner who's completed dozens of marathons! We discussed: Brad's new book - "The StartUp Community Way" - and explored why the theory of complex systems is so crucial for startup & scaleup leaders The psychological challenges Brad has faced during his career as an entrepreneur and investor  The importance of regular emotional, physical and intellectual resets The steps Brad has taken to help his portfolio CEOs overcome the psychological/emotional challenges they've faced in 2020 Why Brad recently committed to getting at least one non-white board member - and preferably at least one female AND one non-white board member - on every board he serves, even if it means giving up his board seat The other actions Brad's encouraging to improve diversity within his portfolio For more insights into startup communities check out https://startupcw.com & for guidance on hiring & retaining stellar tech startup & scaleup leadership talent head over to https://alpinasearch.com                

My guest today is Brad Feld. He has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to cofounding Foundry Group—a Boulder, Colorado-based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in information technology companies all over the United States—he cofounded Mobius Venture Capital. Prior to that, he founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies. The topics are his books The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City. In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss: Software How to be an Entrepreneur The United States 2020 Computer Languages Commercial Internet Cryptocurrency COVID Crisis Jump in! --- I'm MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I'm proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show. To start? I'd like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/ You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/ Can't get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast My social media platforms: Twitter: @covel Facebook: @trendfollowing LinkedIn: @covel Instagram: @mikecovel Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!

Key Takeaways: 1. A great way to be a helpful ally is not to shift the burden and ask how you can help, but ask what programs and organizations they care about and donate your time and money to help those causes grow. 2. Warning systems fail because they don't tell us when they are no longer going to warn us. Whether within a company or out in society, all warning systems are only as reliant as the inputs they are built upon. 3. Never have "fake days"- leaders should stop spending time on things that don't bring positive emotional value to them or positive economic impact to their business.

This week we are joined by entrepreneur, author and venture capitalist, Brad Feld. Brad is a co-founder of Techstars, a platform for startups to access funding and entrepreneurial networking, and is also the co-founder of venture capital firm, Foundry Group. Brad is the author of several books on startups as well as an entrepreneurial advice blog. He sits on the board of several technology startups and was an early investor in Fitbit, Zynga, and Harmonix. What Was Covered How startup ecosystems have changed – and become more democratized – in the 30 years in which Brad has been active within them How digitization of production, distribution, customer relationships, etc., is making strategic “moats” much more penetrable than they were before How diversity of an ecosystem builds resilience but how our biases (both conscious and unconscious) make this difficult for us Key Takeaways and Learnings Those large organizations that are extracting greatest benefit from startup ecosystems are doing so not through control (typical of a hierarchy) but through engagement and feeding back learning into their own institution – creating high levels of “return on learning” This large company engagement with entrepreneurs also builds loyalty, so that as startups grow they can become a positive weapon rather than a threat Great innovation leaders combine continua practical skills development (getting good at your work) with endless and radical self-inquiry (embracing lifelong learning and exploration) Resources and Links Mentioned in this Podcast Brad's blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals Get in touch with Brad on Twitter, LinkedIn and via email The companies co-founded by Brad Feld: Foundry Group, Techstars, Mobius Venture Capital The companies Brad invested in: Uber, Fitbit, Zynga, Harmonix Other mentions: Kauffman Foundation, Cox Enterprises, Amazon, Target, Metro, Barclays, Cedars-Sinai, Rover, Reboot.io  Brad Feld's books The Ideal Financial Reporting Tempo for a VC-Backed Company, blog post published on Feld Thoughts (January 2017) Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, edited by Peter D. Kaufman Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, a book by Jim Collins

Brad Feld is a legend in the venture capital world. He is a co-founder of the Foundry Group and co-author of the seminal guide to venture capital, Venture Deals. Brad speaks with us about the book and weaves in examples and experiences from his career in venture capital.  We also go further to discuss his more personal relationship with art, meditation, and his journey with anxiety and depression. Venture Deals, in its fourth edition, is a must-read if you are raising venture capital.

Brad Feld is currently Managing Director and co-founder of Foundry Group, a venture capital firm that focuses on making early-stage tech investments, participating in select growth rounds, and identifying and supporting the next generation of venture capital fund managers.However, Brad has worn many hats in his more than 30 years of experience as an early-stage investor and entrepreneur. He has co-founded firms such as Mobius Venture Capital, Intensity Ventures, and the renowned global startup accelerator program TechStars. He also serves on the board of several nonprofits and is a prolific writer, known for his StartUp Revolution book series and his blog Feld Thoughts.In this episode, we talk to Brad about his experience investing in and founding companies since 1987. He reflects on his biggest successes and failures, including one of his earlier companies, Interliant. We also cover his views on how entrepreneurial ecosystems can thrive and how to push for diversity in founding teams. Brad also gives great advice to first-time fund managers and talks about his experience living through the internet bubble. Techstars' philosophy: give firstAs a founder, Brad is proudest of Techstars in terms of the global impact it has had on entrepreneurship around the world. A large part of this success has to do with the organization's mantra to ‘give first': putting energy into a system with an expected, but undefined commercial benefit. Brad sustains that this part of Techstars' philosophy has been important in doing business on a global scale where there are different cultures and approaches involved.Listen to this episode of the WeXchange podcast to learn more about Techstars' global expansion and success.Pushing the diversity agendaBrad explains that entrepreneurs vary in different dimensions, and gender is one of them. Diverse founding teams reflect much more creativity and flexibility than teams with a monoculture, which is why he believes introducing variations into teams can have a powerful effect. Many companies, especially in the US, are now measuring diversity using different variables such as gender and ethnicity. Check out this episode of the WeXchange podcast to find out how investors push for diversity in the companies they invest in.“It takes a long time to know if you're a good investor or not”In this episode, Brad gives some valuable advice for first-time fund managers. He stresses the importance of having a strategy and being deliberate with any modifications that are made to it. He also talks about investing time in one's professional development in addition to the relationships in the firm. Brad also knows that in most cases it will take 5 to 7 years before fund managers see a big outcome in their investments. Tune in to this episode of the WeXchange podcast to learn more about Brad's advice to first-time fund managers from his years of experience in the industry.With over 30 years of experience, Brad Feld has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and expertise in entrepreneurship. He continues to give back to the community as a great investor, entrepreneur, mentor, advisor, and writer.Show Notes:[1:46] - Biggest failure and successes[10:11] - Conditions for making an ecosystem thrive and foster innovation[16:55] - Investing in female versus male entrepreneurs[21:24] - The diversity agenda[23:14] - Advice for first-time fund managers[25:42] - Concerns about the possible valuation bubble[27:36] - Advice to Brad's younger self Resources Mentioned: Foundry GroupMobius Venture CapitalIntensity VenturesInterliant Feld TechnologiesTechstarsFeld Thoughts blogVenture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist - Brad FeldThe Startup Community Way: How to Build an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem That Thrives - Brad FeldStartup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City - Brad Feld

Home trade-in platform Knock has brought in a $400 million investment to accelerate a national expansion and double its 100-person headcount. Foundry Group has led the Series B funding round in New York-based Knock, with participation from Company Ventures and existing investors RRE Ventures, Corazon Capital, WTI and FJ Labs .Knock co-founder and chief executive officer Sean Black declined to disclose the startup's valuation.

This latest podcast on The Doers Network includes an interview with Jason Mendelson, founder and partner in The Foundry Group, a venture capital company like no other.  A native Detroiter, Jason has an investor philosophy of being a partner with companies he invests in, not just an investor throwing money at them.  Listen and find out more about Jason and his fascinating life story, right here on The Doers Network!! Learn more about The Foundry Group:  https://foundrygroup.com/ Visit our website:  https://www.bamboodetroit.com/

Jason Hartman talks with Brad Feld, Managing Director at Foundry Group and author of Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer & Venture Capitalist, about startup communities around the nation and what causes them to flourish and how long they can take to really get going. The two also look at how an entrepreneur with an idea can go about turning their vision into a reality, and a key habit Brad thinks most (if not all) entrepreneurs should have. Key Takeaways: [1:35] What other parts of the country are similar to Silicon Valley, and how you can launch a startup in your city [5:02] Is the startup community, mentality, and atmosphere just for the young? [8:36] How can you go about creating that startup environment in your community? [14:03] What should a person with an idea do to have their idea grow [16:13] Why entrepreneurs should write Websites: www.JasonHartmanUniversity.com www.Feld.com www.FoundryGroup.com www.TechStars.com www.Twitter.com/BFeld

The Total Tutor Neil Haley will interview Jeremy Bloom of CNBC's “Adventure Capitalists” . Jeremy Bloom is the only dual-sport athlete to ski in the Olympics and be drafted into the NFL. He is a three-time World Champion, two-time Olympian, eleven-time World Cup gold medalist and a member of the United States Skiing Hall of Fame. He won a record six straight World Cup events, the most in a single season in the sport's history. He's also an All-American football player at the University of Colorado and played in the NFL for the Eagles and Steelers. In 2008, Bloom founded Wish of a Lifetime, which grants lifelong wishes to seniors. The non-profit has granted over 1,000 wishes in 46 states. In 2010, Bloom co-founded the marketing software company Integrate. The company has raised capital from Comcast, Foundry Group and Liberty Global. Integrate was named as the "Best New Company" at the American Business Awards. Forbes Magazine called Bloom one of the 30 most influential people in technology under 30 and, in 2013, Bloom was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. He is also a College Football and Olympic Sports Television Analy

In today's episode, we're talking to Brad Feld and Dr. Sean Wise, co-authors of the bestselling business book, Startup Opportunities—which just released a second edition featuring a forward written by legendary investor Chris Sacca and commentary from The 4-Hour Workweek's Tim Ferriss. Brad and Sean however, are much more than just authors. Both have been in the world of startups and investing for a long time—and each started their first businesses while they were students. Brad went on to sell his first company, become an angel investor, co-found the startup accelerator TechStars, and is now a venture capitalist at his firm, Foundry Group based out of Boulder, Colorado. Sean, on the other hand… got his PhD in business, became a lawyer, university professor, venture capitalist, and talk show host… Now, they're both incredibly active mentors for young entrepreneurs who want to skip past as many failures as possible, and build businesses that tackle big ideas.

how to not pitch a VC? Question everything. Asking questions to world leaders in art, business, music, and technology. Brad's bio: Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over 20 years. He lives in Boulder, Colorado and Homer, Alaska with his wife and is on a quest to run a marathon in every state in the US. Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. In addition to his investing efforts, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations and currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and co-chair of Startup Colorado. Brad is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes the widely read blogs Feld Thoughts, Startup Revolution, and Ask the VC. Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 23 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states.

Brad Feld, an extremely successful early stage investor and serial entrepreneur, opens up to James about the struggles he has faced, both physical and mental. He has struggled with depression and being an introvert in an extroverts' world. And he has learned the best ways to deal with it. "Understanding yourself is extremely important." Today, physical interaction is not nearly as important as it used to be. Today, you can interact in a meaningful way without having to go to a prospect's location. As a venture capitalist, a partner at Foundry Group, and as someone having to deal with numerous businesses at the same time, Brad realized that just physically being somewhere does not solve the problem. He understands that he's not able to just fly in like a hero and solve a problem. That takes a team of people. James asks Brad what he looks for in an ideal entrepreneur and Brad tells him that he and his partners at Foundry Group have gone back to their original methods from the mid-'90s. They stay focused on the themes they know best and only invest in companies that answer all of these questions correctly. 1. Is the product interesting? 2. Are the entrepreneurs obsessed with their product? 3. Do these entrepreneurs want to be long-term partners with them and do they want to be long-term partners with the entrepreneurs.   They finish up today's conversation by talking about Foundry's new publishing company FG Press and why they decided to start it. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn