Podcasts about Lightbank

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Tom Loverro, General Partner at IVP is our guest as part of our Venture Unlocked Shorts series intended to go deep on a single topic.We revisit Tom's Twitter post from early 2023, which spoke to the market shift that was in motion and the difficulties start-ups would face in a capital-constrained market. Specifically, he spoke about 2024 as being a time of reckoning for many companies that were built with growth at all costs mentality. We went through that original post, and what's transpired since then, including why it's time for well-positioned startups to go on offense again. Tom brought a lot of interesting insights for founders and VCs alike, so we hope you enjoy the episode. About Tom Loverro:Tom Loverro is a General Partner at IVP in Menlo Park, California, where he focuses on investing in enterprise software and fintech companies. Since joining IVP in 2015, he has served as a Board Director or Observer for several companies, including Attentive, NerdWallet, Paper, Podium, Skydio, and TaxBit. He has also co-led investments in Amplitude, Datadog, GitHub, IEX, OnDeck, and Tanium.Prior to IVP, Tom was a Principal at RRE Ventures, focusing on early and mid-stage startups, and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Lightbank. He also served as Senior Director of Product Marketing at Drobo, Inc., and began his career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Goldman Sachs within the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Group.Tom holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, with concentrations in Finance, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship & Innovation. He earned a BA in Political Science and History from Stanford University.In this episode, we discuss:(01:37) - Discussion on Tom's Twitter post from January 2023 and its context(02:09) - Tom's insights on the shift from a zero interest rate environment(02:59) - The concept of a mass extinction event for startups in 2023-2024(03:31) - Comparison with the Great Financial Crisis and its impact on startups(04:01) - The role of venture excess in 2021 and its aftermath(05:00) - Discussion on venture fund deployment and its impact on startups(06:49) - Dry powder theory and its implications on startup funding(07:49) - Insights on current market conditions and startup valuations(09:14) - Strategies startups adopted in response to market conditions(10:27) - The three archetypes of startups in the post-2021 era(13:18) - Observations on fundraising challenges and potential outcomes for startups(14:48) - Impact of LP capital dynamics on venture funding(16:34) - The evolving role of private equity in acquiring tech startups(18:09) - Comparison of venture fund impacts on early and late-stage investors(21:30) - Discussion on the IPO market and its high bar for startups(24:19) - The broader ecosystem of liquidity options for startups today(25:41) - Tom's recent post on shifting from defensive to offensive strategies(28:47) - Characteristics of startups that should consider going on offense(30:00) - Importance of survival, product-market fit, and unit economics for startups(31:50) - Potential exogenous events and their impact on market predictions(34:00) - Tom's advice to founders on acting with convictionI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Tom. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Shay Howe is the Chief Marketing Officer at ActiveCampaign, a cloud-based email and CRM automation platform with 185,000 customers worldwide and secured $360 million in funding through three rounds.He's a product leader with a design and engineering background. Before ActiveCampaign, Shay served as Vice President of Product at Belly and Yello, overseeing product strategy and design. He led product teams at high-growth companies like Groupon and advised at Techstars, Lightbank, and Prota ventures. Additionally, he authored "Learn to Code HTML and CSS '' published by Pearson Education.In this episode we cover:00:00 - Intro01:27 - The Financial Growth Story of ActiveCampaign03:34 - Unveiling the Postmark Deal08:41 - Identifying Customer-Centric Integrations13:19 - Choosing the Right Pricing Model20:13 - Successful Strategies to Mitigate Single Platform Risks in 202322:46 - The Power of AI in ActiveCampaign's Automation and Marketing29:02 - Shay's Favorite Activity To Get Into a Flow State29:49 - Shay's Piece Of Advice For Your Younger Self31:19 - Shay's Biggest Challenges at ActiveCampaign32:43 - Instrumental Resources For Shay's Success35:35 - What Does Success Mean for Shay Today37:38 - Get In Touch With ShayGet In Touch With Shay:Shay's LinkedInActiveCampaign WebsiteMentions:PostmarkBooks:The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick LencioniThe Founder's Mentality by Chris Zook and James AllenNever Split the Difference by Chris VossMore About Akeel:TwitterLinkedInMore SaaS Podcast EpisodesSaaS Consulting ServicesHow To Value Your SaaS Company

Jason Lemkin is the Founder @ SaaStr one of the best-performing early-stage venture funds focused on SaaS. In the past, Jason has led investments in Algolia, Pipedrive, Salesloft, TalkDesk, and RevenueCat to name a few. Prior to SaaStr, Jason was an entrepreneur, selling EchoSign to Adobe for $100M where it is now a $250M ARR product. Rick Zullo is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Equal Ventures. Prior to co-founding Equal Ventures, Rick was an investor at Lightbank, Prior to Lightbank, Rick worked with investment firms Foundation Capital, Bowery Capital, and Lightview Capital. In Today's Episode We Discuss: 1. Why Venture Capital Needs It's Jerry Maguire Moment: Why does Rick believe that VC needs it's "Jerry Maguire" moment? What needs to change? What needs to stay the same? Why does Jason believe we will see even more mega funds in 2024 and 2025? 2. Unicorns are So 2019: Why does Jason believe that "unicorn investing is mostly dead for bigger funds and none of them are looking for a $1BN outcome anymore?" Why does Rick believe that multi-stage fund investing at seed simply does not make sense? What does Rick believe many founders need to know when they take multi-stage money at seed? Of the over 1,000 unicorns created over the last few years, how many of them do Rick and Jason feel are actually unicorns today? 3. Efficiency and Growth: We Need it All: Why does Jason believe, as a founder you should be embarrassed if you ever had a RIF (reduction in force)? Last year many founders got a pass on growth as they were more efficient. Is that pass over? Do they need to get back to growth? What is the single biggest reason that companies do not scale from seed to Series A? What happens to the many companies with years of runway but no product-market-fit? Are we entering a new age of efficient company building or will we go back to high burn environments and excessive spending? 4. Entering the World of LPs: If Jason and Rick were to advise LPs today on how much to discount the value of their venture books, what advice would they give? How have markups completely corrupted the venture ecosystem? How does LPs being incentivized by paper-marks make the industry even more screwed? What are the single biggest misalignments between GP and LP?

Todd Sullivan   I specialize in helping my fellow founders create the exits they deserve. My team and I at Exitwise.com help each business owner hire and manage the best team of M&A experts from our global network of industry specialized, investment bankers, M&A attorneys and tax accountants, to minimize the risk of a failed engagement and to maximize the outcome for every client. We serve our fellow founders and business owners in more than 200 middle and lower middle market industries including aerospace and defense, specialty manufacturing, business services, tech enabled services, FinTech, EdTech, HCM, Gaming, SaaS, Marketplaces, eCommerce, IoT, HealthTech, Ad/MarTech, Med Device, SportsTech, CloudTech and many more industries. I have been fortunate enough to have thoroughly enjoyed my entrepreneurial journey over last 20 years building and selling four businesses. I have learned how to launch, fund, grow and sell software and manufacturing businesses. Now I am eager to share my insights and experience with my fellow founders to ensure that each of you can create the exits you, your families and your employees deserve. As an entrepreneur, my ventures have been funded by Accel Partners, Lightbank, Great Oaks Ventures, New Enterprise Ventures, CSA Partners, Detroit Venture Partners and various angel groups. As a private investor and venture partner, I have been honored to invest in entrepreneurs who are developing solutions to improve how businesses and individuals work, connect, transact and perform.   Awards: "Top 20 Entrepreneur" - Zell-Lurie Institute @ UofM "Top Wireless Startup" - CTIA "Top 50 Award" - TechCrunch50 "Entrepreneur of the Year"​ - Ross School of Business   We talk about: When there is a timeline with a goal to get acquired, how does that impact the operations of a company? What is the best way for a founder to mentally prepare for an exit? How does the sale complexity  change with the dollar amount involved in the transaction? What areas do sellers seem to have the most confusion over in the sales process?     And much more     Connect with Todd https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddfsullivan/ todd@exitwise.com

Victor Pascucci III is a cofounder and Managing General Partner at Energy Capital Ventures and is a passionately devoted career venture capitalist and strategic investor. He received his BA in Communications from Bowling Green State University and his law degree from the University of Toledo. Pascucci has extensive career experience, ranging from vast board membership and advising experience to an almost decade-long career at USAA Financial Services. And before starting ECV, he was the Managing Director at Lightbank, a Chicago based tech venture fund founded by Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell. Vic and I are good friends and I am eager to share his story with our listeners. Vic, welcome to the podcast!

About JT Nguyen and Gameflip: Entrepreneurial executive with a passion for building, scaling and operating global businesses. Gameflip is an innovation focused technology company creating the commerce engine for the gaming Metaverse enabling all ecosystem participants including gamers, creators, brands, and developers to connect, safely conduct commerce and mutually share the benefits. Led by serial entrepreneurs and veterans in the technology and gaming industries, the team specializes in building safe, secure and highly scalable platforms for transacting digital assets, digital goods and services. Since launching in 2015, its 6 million loyal community members have safely transacted over $120M on the Gameflip Platform. By combining its simple and intuitive platform with blockchain technology that delivers transparent ownership and playable in-game items, Gameflip is making digital assets accessible and safe for the mainstream. The Gameflip Platform utilizes environmentally friendly and sustainable technology that captures the benefits of blockchain technology without all of its complexities. Transactions within the Gameflip Platform are fully secure using fiat or cryptocurrencies, do not require mining or gas fees and have built-in regulatory compliance. Gameflip is located in the Bay Area and is backed by savvy gaming investors including Bullpen Capital, GoAhead Ventures, Lightbank and PlayNext.

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Shruti Gandhi (@atShruti), founder and General Partner of Array Ventures, a venture capital firm that focuses on solving impactful problems in the world leveraging revolutionary technology. Often that means category-leading startups that take advantage of data, analytics, workflows, and new platforms to change the way an industry works. They invest in smart people with a bold mission who take big risks in large or new markets.Shruti brings a strong mix of operating and investing experience. She spent her early career as a developer on mainframe security, collaboration tools, and data analytics. Post engineering, she was an early stage venture capital investor at True Ventures, Samsung Electronics, Lightbank, HighBAR Partners, and the i2A Fund. She is also professor in the Computer Science department at Columbia University.Website: Array VenturesLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shrutigandhi/Twitter: @atShrutiShow Notes: Array Ventures' investment focus How a failed company led Shruti to found Array Ventures and determine their thesis Raising a fund as a solo female GP back in 2015 and her early pitch to investors Investing in solutions that solve agitating pain points in enterprise tech stacks What founders can expect with Array on their cap table How Shruti's extensive background impacts where she invests Signals that Shruti looks for to identify breakout companies at a very early stage, such as Placer.ai The complexities around being a solo GP How raising Fund III differed from the first two Growing the Array Ventures team after raising a $56M Fund III Array Ventures' portfolio construction and ownership targets The impact Shruti has personally felt with the increasing number of women in VC How Shruti views trends and evaluates innovation in enterprise software Shruti's unique view on remote work How Shruti manages her mental wellbeing Balancing the many stakeholders in VC More about the show:The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 400+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. More about us:Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.The Vitalize Team:Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVCCaroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

“Conflict is the hallmark of progress, success and happiness when you deal with it well.” — Gabe Karp    My guest this week is Gabe Karp, former trial attorney, venture capitalist, speaker, and author of Don't Get Mad at Penguins and Other Ways to Detox the Conflict in Your Life and Business. After ten years as a trial attorney, Gabe joined the startup ePrize, now Merkle, which became one of the leading companies in the digital promotions industry. He is an operating partner at Detroit Venture Partners, is a venture partner at Lightbank, a Chicago-based venture capital firm, and serves on the boards of multiple companies. Gabe draws on his 30 years of experience as a litigator and corporate executive to help companies and leaders better manage - and even embrace - conflict.    In our conversation, Gabe and I talk about making anger and conflict work for you. Gabe believes conflict is an opportunity to grow and drive transformation, both internally and within an organization. Rather than running away from it, Gabe has found that it's often better to instead stop and look at conflict as an opportunity. Having often found himself having to navigate conflicts that arose in the companies where he worked, he began to develop ways to address it. Addressing conflict in a healthy way takes some conscious effort because it means overcoming our natural survival instincts of fight or flight. Instead, Gabe teaches us to find a middle ground and to embrace conflict, explaining that navigating healthy conflict is when growth occurs. Managers and leaders can embrace conflict by learning tools to manage their anger - and others' anger - and by practicing ways to give feedback and encourage growth rather than add to toxic forms of conflict.    In this episode of Leading with Genuine Care, you'll also learn: The difference between healthy and toxic conflict  What the "shopping list voice" is and how to use it to help give feedback to reduce tension What happened on the movie set of Kill Bill 2 that illustrates the impact of bully-like behavior  How even a small lie can affect a relationship down the road   What toxic judgment is and how it can affect interpersonal relationships as well as inhibit progress  What humility looks like in a leader and why it's important  How avoidance just makes things worse Why how we respond is a choice we can make   How his attorney father, who worked in the civil rights movement in the South in the 1960s, demonstrated how to embrace conflict and difficult moments    Connect with Gabe Karp    Website www.gabekarp.com   Facebook www.facebook.com/gabekarp.79   Twitter @gabe_karp   LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabe-karp-1b772a1b/   Sign up for the 2022 Leading with Genuine Care Retreat! The Leading with Genuine Care Leadership Retreat is a mindfulness meditation retreat specifically designed for business leaders and entrepreneurs. Suitable for meditators at all levels, the retreat will enable you to cultivate a deeper, leadership-based mindfulness practice while in a peaceful and rejuvenating mountain location. Previous attendees have reported experiencing increased productivity, increased focus, and new perspective – among other benefits – as a result of what they learned.  https://www.shambhalamountain.org/program/lgc1022-leadership-retreat-leading-with-genuine-care/ At the retreat you'll: Unplug from your busy lives Immerse yourself in nature Learn from renowned guides and teachers Connect with other mindful leaders And so much more!    Get Rob's Weekly Newsletter Never miss an inspiring conversation about compassionate, positive leadership on the Leading with Genuine Care podcast plus other great articles and insights. Click below, and you'll also get a download of his favorite mindful resources.   https://www.donothingbook.com/resource-guide    Follow Rob Dube on Social Media  LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/robdube    Facebook:  www.facebook.com/rob.dube.1   Twitter:  twitter.com/robddube     Rob Dube's Website www.donothingbook.com   Buy Rob's book, donothing: The Most Rewarding Leadership Challenge You'll Ever Take amzn.to/2y9N1TK  

What does it take to disrupt an antiquated industry like commodities trading? View the full video interview here. Jesse Solomon is Co-Founder of Mickey, a commoditech company focused on modernizing global trade by making it easier for small to midsize suppliers to export products globally. He, along with co-founder Alex Rabens, set out to launch a platform with the goal of wiping out the global trade crisis. Today, Mickey is modernizing the way raw materials and commodities are sourced and exported out of the United States. In his role, Jesse oversees sales, hiring, and fundraising for the company. Since its founding in 2019, Jesse has been instrumental in helping to raise more than $10m in capital from top VC firms Lightbank and Lerer Hippeau. Prior to co-founding Mickey, Jesse led sales for Endeavor Content Live, a production house that struck licensing deals with film and entertainment companies such as Lionsgate, Warner Brothers and other Hollywood film studios. Here, Jesse booked and managed more than $65m in revenue globally within his first year.

Shay Howe is the Vice President of Platform Strategy at ActiveCampaign, where he leads platform experience and ecosystem, strategic partnerships, and product, front-end, and communication design. He works to make the customer a hero, helping them create ideal customer experiences through intuitive products, marketing, and integrations.Prior to ActiveCampaign, Shay was Vice President of Product at Belly and Yello, where he was responsible for product strategy and design. He has previously led product teams at multiple high-growth companies, including Groupon. He has held in-residence roles as an advisor with the Techstars, Lightbank, and Prota venture portfolios.Shay is the author of "Learn to Code HTML and CSS," published by Pearson Education.Episode Highlights:How did Shay get into design?Designer from being a musicianPassion Projects experiencePek and Shay talked about Apple, Ipad user interface and product designs projectsCareer experience at BellyDesign educationBeing a Co-founder at LeadhonestyCareer and role at ActiveCampaignAnd much MORE!Links:https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayhowe/https://twitter.com/shayhowehttps://www.activecampaign.com/https://leadhonestly.com/ItsnTG40RatCEvY9LXGt

Few people make the transition from being a Venture Capitalist to running an operating company. Even fewer do it successfully. I just met one of them. His name is David Wald, CEO & Co-Founder of Aclaimant. After years at Bain & Company and dough, he was a successful venture investor at Lightbank. Now, his fast-growing Chicago-based SaaS platform helps companies manage their risks. Specifically, tracking the processes around people who get hurt & property that gets damaged. With over 50 distributed employees, David & his team have weathered the pandemic with strength. Clearly, he's onto something big… Aclaimant investors include Royal Street Ventures, Mercury Fund, KEC Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Aspen Capital Group, RRE Ventures, EBSCO Capital, KEC Ventures, Moderne Ventures, SMW Capital In this 20-minute, David reveals how he puts a Rockstar in every seat of the business.

Randall Kaplan is joined by Brad Keywell to discuss what it takes to achieve excellence at the highest level as an entrepreneur.  In this episode, Brad shares with listeners how to out-work and out-hustle the competition, why he channels his entrepreneurial drive into disrupting industries, how he grew Groupon from 124 employees to 5,100 employees in a single calendar year, and much more. Topics Include:Brad's five keys to success.  Brad's early business ventures, including a greeting card business he started at age six.  The power of preparation.  Brad's mentorship under Sam Zell.  The lasting influence of loving, supportive parents.  Tangible versus intangible skills.  Fundamental truths about parenting.  Working with the energy of fear.  Choosing business ventures as an entrepreneur.  Overcoming early failures.  Focusing on what you can control.  Balancing individual needs and collective needs.  Mental health, self-care, philanthropy, and other topics.Brad Keywell is an incredible entrepreneur who has co-founded a variety of companies including Echo Global Logistics, Enterprise Transportation, Uptake, and most famously Groupon.  He is currently the CEO at Uptake, which reached the $2 billion valuation faster than any other tech company in history - and was a Co-Founder of Groupon, which at the time reached the $1 billion valuation faster than any other company in history.  In 2019, Brad received the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year Award, becoming one of only three American winners in the award's 21-year history.  He is the co-founder of Lightbank, a venture capital firm with $360 million under management that specializes in making venture capital investments in "disruptive" technology companies in the United States.  Brad is also the founder of Chicago Ideas Week, a week-long conference bringing together thought leaders and innovators from around the world to speak on a variety of topics - and he has also signed The Giving Pledge, promising to give away at least half of his wealth to charitable causes.Want to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website – https://insearchofexcellencepodcast.comInstagram – https://www.instagram.com/randallkaplan/LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/randall-kaplan-05858340/

In this episode, Shruti Gandhi (Founder & Managing Partner @Array Ventures), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to venture capital, the evolution of Array's enterprise tech thesis, how engaging with potential customers can help early stage startups to validate their product & help VCs to support their investment decision, what founders should focus on before thinking about going global, differentiating oneself as an emerging VC, staying ahead of the curve in enterprise tech & more. Array Ventures is an early stage VC fund that invests in enterprise tech startups solving problems using big data, AI & ML for large industries. Shruti has a strong mix of operating and investing experience. Prior to founding Array, Shruti was a tech investor at True Ventures, Samsung Electronics, Lightbank, HighBAR Partners, and the i2A Fund. Shruti started her career with IBM as a software engineer & later founded her own BigData company Penseev in 2010. She also has an MBA from the University of Chicago's Booth Business School and completed her engineering in CS from Columbia University. You can connect with her here on Linkedin/Twitter ---- Show notes: (01:44) Shruti's background & path leading up to Array Ventures (02:56) About Array Ventures; Evolution of Array's enterprise tech thesis (06:04) How engaging with potential customers can help a) early stage startups to validate their product & b) VCs to support their investment decision (09:40) Building a global enterprise - What should founders focus on before thinking about going global? (14:34) How can emerging VC funds differentiate themselves & build a strong brand? (16:44) Staying relevant & ahead of the curve as an enterprise tech VC (20:15) How has being a VC influenced Shruti's personality over the years ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

Recently we've had the great pleasure of chatting with Shay Howe, the VP of Platform Strategy at ActiveCampaign and we'd like to tell you about it. Main topics covered:

Shruti is an engineer and a data and ML enthusiast and is currently a general partner at Array VC. Previously she was an early stage venture capital investor at True Ventures, Samsung Electronics, Lightbank, HighBAR Partners, and the i2A Fund. While at IBM she worked on self learning algorithms that detected user location based on IP addresses, which she later incorporated into the Lotus Sametime product. Later, her company Penseev helped users make better connections with their friends based on social data. Shruti also has an MBA from the University of Chicago, where she polished her finance skills before making the switch from engineer/founder to investor. Shruti and Roshan spoke about investing in enterprise SaaS and the challenges in the space and more; Key highlights below: Advantages of being a techie in a world of venture capital Investing in the enterprise Challenges in enterprise SaaS space Balancing Build before market vs build with market How founders can Iterate to find Product Market Fit Navigating through changes in enterprise tech deployment 1 What makes great founders great? Connect with Shruti: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shrutigandhi/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/atShruti Connect with us: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator​ Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​ If you liked this conversation, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Eric Lefkofsky is one of Chicago's most successful technology entrepreneurs. His entrepreneurial ventures include Groupon, Echo Global Logistics, Lightbank and, most recently, Tempus.As the founder and CEO of Tempus, Eric has led the company — which uses machine learning and genomic sequencing to better understand cancer tumors — to become one of Chicago's most valuable technology startups. Tempus raised $300 million last year, bringing their total financing to more than $1 billion and their valuation to $8.1 billion.The most recent infusion of capital has allowed Tempus to expand beyond oncology to additional areas, including mental health, cardiology, diabetes and infectious disease — including COVID-19. Last November, Tempus announced a collaboration with the Yale School of Public Health to develop an at-home, saliva-based, COVID-19 diagnostic test. In a conversation moderated by Paragon Biosciences Founder, Chairman and CEO Jeff Aronin, Eric discuss his career-long entrepreneurial journey, lessons he's learned along the way and his vision for the future of Tempus.The Tales from the Trenches series invites seasoned healthcare entrepreneurs to the MATTER stage to share their journeys — from how they got started to what they're trying to accomplish and what they've learned along the way. Tales from the Trenches is sponsored by Paragon Biosciences.Learn more about MATTER events here.

Socially responsible investing is on the rise as investors seek to benefit the social good while still making money. Editor Cassandra West joins host Amy Guth to talk about this month’s Crain’s Forum on the future of capitalism. Plus: Madigan quits as state Democratic chair, Groupon co-founder Lefkofsky raises a second fund at Lightbank, CBRE acquires 35% of co-working firm Industrious and Chicago's lakefront to reopen after almost a year.

Brad Baum, venture capitalist with Lightbank, knows a good idea when he hears it, which is why he believes in the development and distribution of technology that supports mental health and access to its services. In this episode of Erasing the Stigma, Brad and Mark Yacano talk about various technological tools available to clinicians and their clients and how the digitization of therapy has lowered the barrier to access—and hopefully the stigma.

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Saurabh Sharma, General Partner at Jump Capital to discuss, “The Democratization of Data Analytics & Machine Learning”Saurabh has a diverse background in investing, operations & product management and leads Jump's efforts in Enterprise Software and IT Infrastructure.Prior to joining Jump, Saurabh led various roles at Groupon in product, marketing & operations. Previously, he was an early stage investor at Lightbank, an Investment Banker with Barclays Capital, an algo trader with Lehman Brothers, and was a founding team member of Benchprep (a venture-backed digital learning platform).On today's talk, we ask Saraubh his views on the Democratization of Machine Learning and Data Analytics. We discuss his investment thesis on Cloud & Data Infrastructure, CyberSecurity, and the industries he believes have been most affected by COVID and where AI and ML are needed most to uplift humanity.Saurabh’s Book RecommendationsMindset The New Psychology Of SuccessThe World Is FlatSaurabh’s words of inspiration - “There is no one shape or form that entrepreneurs come in. It's up to you to look inside yourself and determine what drives you and what's your passion and drive towards making that happen.”Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! 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 Tank Talk! We welcome our guest Saurabh Sharma, General Partner at Jump Capital to discuss, “The Democratization of Data Analytics & Machine Learning”Saurabh has a diverse background in investing, operations & product management and leads Jump's efforts in Enterprise Software and IT Infrastructure.Prior to joining Jump, Saurabh led various roles at Groupon in product, marketing & operations. Previously, he was an early stage investor at Lightbank, an Investment Banker with Barclays Capital, an algo trader with Lehman Brothers, and was a founding team member of Benchprep (a venture-backed digital learning platform).On today's talk, we ask Saraubh his views on the Democratization of Machine Learning and Data Analytics. We discuss his investment thesis on Cloud & Data Infrastructure, CyberSecurity, and the industries he believes have been most affected by COVID and where AI and ML are needed most to uplift humanity.Saurabh’s Book RecommendationsMindset The New Psychology Of SuccessThe World Is FlatSaurabh’s words of inspiration - “There is no one shape or form that entrepreneurs come in. It's up to you to look inside yourself and determine what drives you and what's your passion and drive towards making that happen.”Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!

You’ve heard from a number of exciting startups on this show, but today we’re diving into the other side of startup world: venture capital. Brad Baum joins us to talk about the inner workings of VC life, what his day to day as an investor at Lightbank looks like, what investors look for in startups, and much more. Lightbank is an early stage venture capital firm based in Chicago that has big names like Fiverr and Udemy in its portfolio. Tune in to hear more of Brad’s story from taking a gap year before college to work on his own startup in Los Angeles to starting his own venture capital firm while attending University of Michigan to getting a job at a notable venture capital firm right out of college -- and find out what he would do differently if he could go back in time. You can contact Brad by email at baum@lightbank.com or find him on LinkedIn (let him know you found him through the Startup Happy Hour podcast), and don’t forget to check out Lightbank at the link below! Lightbank: https://www.lightbank.com/ *** SUBSCRIBE to Startup Happy Hour to get episodes like this delivered to your device every Tuesday! WEBSITE: https://www.startuphappyhourpodcast.com/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/startuphappyhour/ CONNECT with Diana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianadchen/

In this episode, Hall welcomes back Vic Pascucci, Managing Partner of Energy Capital Ventures. Located in Chicago, Energy Capital Ventures is a strategic venture capital firm serving the needs of the power and utility industry. They invest at Series A through C in technologies that provide clean, intelligent, mobile and distributed solutions.  Vic has over 20 years of experience in venture capital and financial services and has been a part of over $750M in venture capital and M&A transactions. As Managing Partner, he is responsible for the day-to-day operations and strategic direction of the firm. Prior to Energy Capital Ventures, Vic was a Director/Partner at Munich Re Ventures, a Managing Partner for Lightbank, and prior to that, he built and led USAA’s $330 million corporate venture capital program where he led investments in fintech (insurtech, banking, investment management), consumer internet, enterprise technologies and digital capabilities.  Vic tells Hall what excites him and gives advice to both entrepreneurs and investors.Visit Energy Capital Ventures . Vic can be reached via LinkedIn at on Twitter @victorpascucci3 and via email at . 

About 18 months ago, Bill Pescatello returned to corporate venture after a stint in a traditional VC fund (Lightbank). Evolv is a $100 million firm created in partnership with Kraft Heinz. Bill already had CVC experience as he started his career post business school working at NBC’s Corporate Venture group. We talked on the episode about why Bill decided to return to CVC and how Evolv Ventures is set up.  Show Links: Bill's Twitter Bill's LinkedIn Evolv Ventures Homepage Evolv Ventures Medium

On the show today Scott is then joined with the Managing Partner of Lightbank, Victor Pascucci III to ride shotgun. Victor is a venture capitalist with 19+ years of broad professional experience. Top decile performing track record. Extensive fin-tech (insur-tech, banking & wealth management) investing and financial services track record. Diverse background with Fortune 130 and […]

On the show today Scott is then joined with the Managing Partner of Lightbank, Victor Pascucci III to ride shotgun. Victor is a venture capitalist with 19+ years of broad professional experience. Top decile performing track record. Extensive fin-tech (insur-tech, banking & wealth management) investing and financial services track record. Diverse background with Fortune 130 […]

Fred Lee serves as chief technology officer for Cars.com. In this position, Lee manages the technical and data engineering teams and is responsible for the product, data and operational platforms.   Prior to Cars.com, Lee was the vice president of digital architecture at Grainger and chief technology officer at Gamut, a fully-owned subsidiary of Grainger. Previously, Lee was the chief technology officer at Belly, a six-year-old Chicago startup with top-tier investors, such as Andreessen Horowitz and Lightbank.   Before his time at Belly, Lee was the chief information officer and chief technology officer of Enova International, Inc. (NYSE: ENVA). During his time at Enova, he helped launch eight businesses in six different countries while managing a team of 250 engineers, five data centers, and multiple systems.   Lee served as the director of web strategy at Vail Systems prior to joining Enova, where he was responsible for the creation and development of the company’s web-based services and products.    Lee received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University and a Juris Doctor from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

On the show, Scott kicks off the show by talking with our featured guest Katy Lynch, CMO of Codeverse and the Director of Learning Programs at the Lyric Opera, Todd Snead. Earth to Kenzie is a new opera written by Frances Pollock and Jessica Murphy Moo and directed by Jess McLeod. Featuring a cast of […]

Today, we would like to welcome Arum Kang to the AWIP Masters of Product Podcast Series! Arum is the Co-Founder and CEO of Coffee Meets Bagel, the leading female-focused dating application. They have raised over $31M from investors such as DCM, Lightbank, WI Harper Group, Atami Capital and Azure Capital Partners. Prior to founding Coffee Meets Bagel, Arum was a Product Manager at Amazon.

Britney Robbins is the founder and CEO of The Gray Matter Experience, a non-profit organization founded in 2016 to help Black high school students learn about and practice entrepreneurship. Britney hails from Quincy, IL but moved to Chicago in 2009 after graduating from The University of Illinois where she received her B.A. in Rhetoric with an English minor. Britney has worked within Chicago's entrepreneurship and tech community for the past four years working within some of Chicago's top venture capital firms and incubators including Sandbox Industries, Lightbank and 1871. She has been recognized as one of Ariel Investment, BMO Harris and WVON's 40 Under 40 Gamechangers, Essence Magazine's Woke 100, a finalist for Ebony Magazine's Power 100 People's Choice Award, featured on Fox32, Chicago Inno, BlackEntrepreneur.com, DNAInfo Chicago, Chicago Tribune, and Essence Magazine for her work through Gray Matter. She was also named as one of five investees for Goodcity Chicago's Women's Innovation Fund. Prior to starting The Gray Matter Experience, Robbins worked for Honda Financial Services for two years post graduation. Upon leaving HFS, Britney worked for Chicago-based startup, Doggyloot as an Account Executive. It was in this role, she realized her interest in entrepreneurship as the company was a portfolio company under Sandbox Industries, a local venture capital firm. After Doggyloot, she worked for three years as a Program Manager for Future Founders, a non-profit exposing youth to entrepreneurship. After helping low-income students across the city learn about entrepreneurship, Britney recognized a gap that needed to be filled, thus The Gray Matter Experience was created. Britney is passionate about the intersection of entrepreneurship, education and youth and believes in empowering others to use their passions and strengths to create opportunities for themselves. In 2015, she authored and published her first children's book, The Adventures of Buster & Duval, and is working to release the second in the series this fall. Britney is committed to inspiring youth to reach their full potential and and aims to continue to create channels for them to do so. Be sure to follow Britney at @graymatterexp on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Ashish Rangnekar is the CEO and Co-Founder of BenchPrep, a SaaS learning platform for education and training companies to create and deliver personalized digital learning programs across multiple devices. They have helped millions of people all around the world learn better and faster by leveraging the power of technology. The world’s leading education organizations, including ACT, Hobsons, McGraw Hill Education, HR Certification Institute, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Cliffsnotes use BenchPrep to help learners improve outcomes. The company has raised more than $22M in venture capital funding from industry leading investors including New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Jump Capital, Revolution Ventures and Lightbank. Ashish is interviewed by Paul Lee, Founder and General Partner of Builders VC, a $200M early stage venture fund, and formerly a General Partner at Lightbank, an early investor in BenchPrep.  

Lightbank Managing Partner Vic Pascucci joins Scott in-studio at WGN Radio to talk about what top VCs are looking to invest in; more particularly WHO they’re looking to invest in and why... A few epic truth bombs (as well as a lot of other sorts of bombs)

In this episode, Hall T. Martin conducts an interview with Vic Pascucci of Lightbank. Lightbank is a seed and series A venture capital firm known for its entrepreneurial DNA, proprietary investment opportunities and track record of outsized returns. Lightbank is sector agnostic and entrepreneur driven but I focus on fintech, insurtech, reg tech and enterprise technologies applicable to financial services. Jake talks a little about he got into early stage funding. Hall and Jake talk about what Lightbank looks for when investing. They also discuss what sectors excite Vic the most (fintech)  and where he expects to see the biggest industry changes.  

Vic Pascucci of Lightbank joins Nick to discuss New Founders, New Stages, New Offerings-- The Only Constant in Venture is Change. In this episode, we cover: Where'd you get your start in venture and how'd your path lead to Lightbank? Can you walk us through the Lightbank backstory... before you joined? What's the current thesis and investment focus for the firm? How active a role do you play with portfolio companies? What, if anything, do you think the team at Lightbank can do a better job of going forward? Do you think your approach is different than Eric and Brad's? Recently spoke w/ Semil Shah about the multiple stages, within seed... pre-seed, seed, inst seed, post seed, seed extension. WTF is going on with the seed round? There's been an explosion of seed funds... do you think this is a problem? Is there a bubble at seed or, w/ the way barriers to startup have come down, is the influx of capital warranted? I'm noticing entrepreneurs moving away from SAFEs and Convertibles... are you seeing the same? If so, why do you think that's the case? How have you seen startup capital raises change over time and do you think it's moving in the right direction? What should every founder be thinking about, during a fundraise, that most often they're not even considering? Are you seeing a difference in the makeup of founding teams and their capabilities? From personal experience, I certainly notice a difference in the style and approach of a early-20's tech founder vs. a mid-30s founder w/ domain knowledge. So, you're a blockchain guy... I see you on various blockchain boards and I know that you invested in Coinbase in 2015... and, on the record, you were very bullish on cryptocurrency's at the time, when many were not. But what's the deal w/ all these token offerings and ICOs? I'm a relative novice here... can you explain to me what's going on and where you see it going?   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Brad Keywell is the co-founder of Uptake Technologies, Lightbank, and Groupon, and has launched over a dozen companies. But don't call him a Silicon Valley darling -- he's committed to seeing Chicago rise as a tech hub. Produced by Haley Draznin, CNN.

John Roa is a serial tech entrepreneur and long time Chicagoan. He got his entrepreneurial start by creating a computer repair business at 14 and hasn't stopped since. Last year, he sold ÄKTA, his tech-consulting and design firm, to Salesforce.  Now John is planning to invest in other Chicago startups via Roa Ventures, a fund that focuses on "early-stage investments, projects and experiments". He has also created the non-profit, Digital Hope, and enjoys playing competitive poker and traveling extensively.  listen on iTunes listen on google play In This Episode You Will Learn: How John got started as an entrepreneur Why he started AKTA and where the name comes from What John attributes the success of AKTA to How John made the the decision to sell AKTA?  If he would take venture capital if he could do it again Problems he sees in taking venture capital Why he's investing instead of starting another startup John's criteria for his next startup What draws John to travel? He has been to 50+ countries.  How to build a brand as a new angel investor? Similarities between poker and startups What Chicago tech is good at & what we could improve on Why John doesn’t believe in giving advice Selected Links From The Episode: 6 Ways Playing Poker Can Help You in Business (and 2 Ways It Can't) by John Roa The Grand Voyage Robert Nand, Founder of The Grand Voyage  Favorite Book:  The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays by Albert Camus