Podcasts about Maveron

Here's the latest CPG news happening right now on April 3rd, 2025 including Trump Tariffs Goes Into Effect, Huge Series A with Lucky Energy, Acquisitions Galore with Lesser Evil and Mela, and More Investment ActionOn April 2nd, (yesterday) Trump has announced reciprocal tariffs on essentially all goods, unless otherwise noted. Some details will emerge on what is exempt. For food and beverage people, this will deeply impact cost of goods sold for bottles, caps, labels, cans, and just about every type of packaging that is manufactured outside of the United States, typically in Asia. Also, companies sourcing raw materials and ingredients will be subject to tariffs. This will undoubtedly affect brands and their margins, forcing them to raise their wholesale pricing to retailers and distributors. And ultimately will affect the everyday consumer, paying more for goods, even more than the inflationary costs right now. We will watch this closely, but our opinion is this will disrupt the market, cause margin compression, and force manufacturers to re-think how they source their product.Lucky Energy, a simpler, better-for-you energy drink, announced today that it has successfully closed a $14.2 million oversubscribed Series A1 round, bringing its total funding to over $40 million. The round is led by Maveron, with backing from DMG Ventures, Second Sight Ventures, and existing investors: Imaginary Ventures, Brand Foundry Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and Sugar Capital. The capital secured will fuel the brand's growth, enabling it to accelerate distribution, introduce new products, support strategic partnerships, and recruit in key business areas. Additionally, the company welcomed Dan Ginsberg, former Chief Executive Officer of Red Bull NA and CEO of Dermalogica®, to its Board of Directors.Lucky Energy has experienced explosive growth, entering 10,000 new doors with plans to expand to an additional 15,000 before the end of the year. The brand has also surpassed 400,000 followers across its social channels. The product is designed for individuals seeking to enhance performance with a natural, functional drink. It is currently available in six flavors: Son of a Peach, Orange Drizzle, Red Ryder Punch, OG Luck, Tropical Thrill, and Bodacious Berry. It has zero sugar and zero calories, ensuring a healthier choice for consumers. Nixie, the better for your sparkling water and now has a soda line that debuted in 2024, has secured $27M in fresh funding to help expand their product nationwide. Wet hydration has also raised $4.5M and brought on the former EVP from CelsiusHershey has agreed to buy the organic popcorn giant LesserEvil for about $750 million, a figure that could increase if the brand meets certain performance benchmarks, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing anonymous sources. The deal accelerates Hershey's expansion into salty snacks, and aligns with a broader rush by food giants to snap up smaller, more nimble competitors to reach new customers.Last but not least, Mela has been acquired by the beverage company Calypso. Which is under the umbrella company King Juice Holdings - a platform company backed by Mason Wells - a $2B PE firm out of Milwaukee that owns businesses across the CPG value chain

Austin is CEO of Pacaso and co-founded the company with Spencer Rascoff (co-founder and former CEO of Zillow) to make the dream of second home ownership a reality for more people after experiencing the profound effect it had on his own life. Pacaso is Austin's second startup. In 2009, he founded dotloop in his hometown of Cincinnati, a company that created software to seamlessly manage real estate transactions. Zillow acquired dotloop in 2015, and Austin continued to run dotloop as a Zillow executive until 2018. Austin started selling real estate at the age of 18 and worked in residential and commercial real estate for a decade.(01:38) - Housing market update(05:26) - Rise of fractional investing & ownership(9:06) - Feature: Pacaso - Luxury vacation home ownership, elevated. Join Pacaso's growth and become an investor of a venture-backed company at Pacaso.com/invest(13:52) - Pacaso's Reg-A offering(16:16) - Pacaso vs. timeshares vs. shares of Hotel companies(21:38) - Property management & owner benefits(26:27) - Community impact & housing affordability(29:39) - Pacaso's Business Model(35:22) - Feature: Blueprint - The Future of Real Estate 2025(36:12) - Reg A investments, transparency & compliance(53:41) - Collaboration Superpower: Steve Jobs

Ben Black, co-founder and managing director of Akkadian Ventures, shares insights into the venture capital secondary market. He highlights the distinct approach Akkadian Ventures takes, focusing on businesses with proven customer economics and strong technology moats. Ben elaborates on their strategy of gradually increasing positions and leveraging discounts from secondary investments. He also discusses the evolution and growing importance of secondary markets as startups stay private longer and new liquidity models develop. Ben also talks about Raise Global, a platform he founded to support emerging venture managers.In this episode, you'll learn:[1:39] Silicon Valley thrives on meritocracy, where anyone with ambition, talent, and hard work can quickly connect and succeed regardless of their background.[4:41] To succeed, emerging managers must proactively create their own opportunities, rather than waiting for them to be given.[6:46] What is the venture capital secondary market? How is it developing, and what impact does it have on the broader VC ecosystem? What does the future hold for secondary investments?[12:27] Key strategies for investing in the secondaries market[22:00] The evolution and impact of Raise since its inception.The non-profit organizations that Ben is passionate about: Mind The GapAbout Ben BlackBen Black is a co-founder and managing director at Akkadian Ventures. He has extensive venture capital experience, having previously worked as an investor at Maveron, Rosewood Capital, New Cycle Capital. As an entrepreneur, Black served as vice president of corporate development at Harris Interactive, driving its transformation into a leading internet-based market research firm and leading to a successful IPO. He also co-founded Raise Global to facilitate connections between emerging fund managers and capital partners, enhancing investment opportunities in the venture space.About Akkadian VenturesAkkadian Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based direct secondary investment firm that offers liquidity to early employees and investors of venture-backed businesses. For more than a decade, Akkadian has pioneered secondary and opportunistic investments in growth-stage technology companies.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode.

What if receiving a medical diagnosis was as simple as shopping online? The growing home diagnostics industry says it can be. At-home testing was widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic, but more health tech companies also offer DIY kits that test for food allergies, fertility and thyroid function, among other things. Some medical experts are wary of this on-demand model, but health tech investors say it can make health care more accessible. Marketplace's Lily Jamali spoke to Chrissy Farr, author of the Second Opinion newsletter, and Anarghya Vardhana, a partner at the Maveron venture firm, about the prospects of the industry and how it affects relationships between patients and doctors.

What if receiving a medical diagnosis was as simple as shopping online? The growing home diagnostics industry says it can be. At-home testing was widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic, but more health tech companies also offer DIY kits that test for food allergies, fertility and thyroid function, among other things. Some medical experts are wary of this on-demand model, but health tech investors say it can make health care more accessible. Marketplace's Lily Jamali spoke to Chrissy Farr, author of the Second Opinion newsletter, and Anarghya Vardhana, a partner at the Maveron venture firm, about the prospects of the industry and how it affects relationships between patients and doctors.

What if receiving a medical diagnosis was as simple as shopping online? The growing home diagnostics industry says it can be. At-home testing was widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic, but more health tech companies also offer DIY kits that test for food allergies, fertility and thyroid function, among other things. Some medical experts are wary of this on-demand model, but health tech investors say it can make health care more accessible. Marketplace's Lily Jamali spoke to Chrissy Farr, author of the Second Opinion newsletter, and Anarghya Vardhana, a partner at the Maveron venture firm, about the prospects of the industry and how it affects relationships between patients and doctors.

This is a condensed version of Shauna Swerland's 2019 interview with Dan Levitan, the co-founder of the venture capital firm Maveron.  Dan started the firm with Howard Schultz in 1998 after helping the Starbucks team accomplish its IPO. Under Dan's guidance, Maveron focused on “creating a cauldron of consumer passion” by forming partnerships with non-normal entrepreneurs. These partnerships have included brands like Allbirds, Ebay, Lovevery, and Zulily. To learn more about Maveron and the team behind their consumer-focused culture, visit maveron.com. In this recap episode, Dan explains the importance of investing in consumers and relationships, the significance of seeing the opportunity, and how to elevate your aspirations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bonnie Siegler (born 1963) is a New York-based graphic designer. She is the founder of the design studio Eight and a Half and, before that, co-founded the design studio Number Seventeen. Her clients include Participant Media, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Saturday Night Live, HBO, Brooklyn Public Library, Maveron, Random House, The Criterion Collection,[2] The New York Times, Nickelodeon, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

Clayton Lewis has over three decades of experience launching and scaling early-stage companies. His impressive track record includes leading two companies, Onvia and HouseValues, to public offerings and serving as a general partner at Maveron. He co-founded Arivale in 2014, and served as its CEO. He currently advises CEOs and is a member of the Board of Trustees for Harborview Medical Center. Clayton is recognized for his expertise guiding purpose-driven leaders toward creating audacious economic value while staying true to their purpose.  You'll hear Lindsay and Clayton discuss: Clayton's focus shifted from passion-driven pursuits in his 20s, to prioritizing financial success imid career. Launching Arivale allowed him to reconnect with his passion for health and wellness, marking a transformative stage in his career. Use joy as a filter to evaluate your daily activities and interactions. This shift allowed Clayton to find balance and fulfillment in both his personal and professional life. Passion can be both an asset and a liability. While passion fueled Arivale's vision, it also led to challenges, such as losing perspective and overlooking critical business considerations. Leaders need to balance passion with objectivity to maintain a holistic perspective, especially in assessing product-market fit and strategic direction. Clayton outlines the practicality of a North Star in guiding day-to-day decisions. He emphasizes the importance of aligning the team with a shared vision, defining success at various intervals, fostering a learning culture, and integrating the North Star into the company's values. Clayton shares how Arivale brought its North Star to life culturally. This includes storytelling sessions about impactful client experiences, recognizing team members living company values, and creating a culture of continuous learning and improvement. As an advisor to CEOs, Clayton encourages setting audacious goals, fostering relationships, and maintaining a positive attitude. He emphasizes the role of a North Star in guiding business decisions and aligning teams toward a common purpose. Clayton uses his North Star as a filter when selecting companies to work with or invest in. He listens for passion, clarity of purpose, and the willingness of entrepreneurs to articulate and refine their goals. Various terms can be used to describe the guiding purpose, such as mission, vision, values, and brand strategy. Clayton remains flexible with the language, focusing on the essence of a clear and motivating direction. Sustaining leadership energy involves setting audacious goals, building strong relationships, and maintaining a positive outlook. Resources Clayton Lewis on LinkedIn

Bill Carr is the co-author of Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. With a background at Amazon of over 15 years, Bill played a pivotal role in shaping the company's global digital music and video ventures, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive in Residence with Maveron, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. He later served as the chief operating officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today he's the co-founder of Working Backwards LLC, where he helps companies implement Amazon's time-tested management strategies. In this episode, we discuss:• What exactly “working backwards” is, and how you do it• Why having “single-threaded leaders” is so effective• Inside Amazon's intense product review process• How to actually follow the “disagree and commit” principle• The thinking behind the principle “Leaders are right, a lot”• Input vs. output metrics• Fostering a culture of risk-taking and innovation• The role and responsibilities of a “bar raiser” in your hiring, and how it significantly improves the success rate of new hires—Brought to you by AssemblyAI—Production-ready AI models to transcribe and understand speech | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies—Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/unpacking-amazons-unique-ways-of-working-bill-carr-author-of-working-backwards/—Where to find Bill Carr:• X: https://twitter.com/BillCarr89• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-carr/• Website: https://www.workingbackwards.com/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Bill's background(04:26) Amazon's workplace evolution(09:54) Amazon's “fitness function”(11:44) Single-threaded leadership(18:07) Implementing a program orientation with single-threaded leadership(20:16) The GM model vs. single-threaded leadership(21:31) Functional countermeasures needed for single-threaded leadership(25:22) Embracing the “disagree and commit” principle(30:22) Understanding disagreements(32:41) Deciphering Amazon's “Leaders are right, a lot” principle(35:25) An explanation of the working backwards framework(41:16) PR FAQ process: Amazon's innovation engine(44:47) Deconstructing the PR FAQ structure(43:49) The concentric circle model for sharing PR FAQs(44:55) The customer problem-solution statement(47:52) Create a product funnel, not a product tunnel(51:19) How Amazon promotes action vs. talk(54:35) Amazon's flywheel and input metrics(1:00:51) Signs you've got a good input metric(1:04:23) How mistakes can still be made with working backwards(1:06:54) Why disagreements aren't necessarily signs products will fail(1:08:02) Examples of failed Amazon projects(1:09:55) Cultivating risk-taking and accepting failure(1:13:57) Amazon's “bar-raiser” practice for hiring(1:18:21) Selecting Amazon's bar raisers(1:20:41) Advice on implementing practices from Working Backwards(1:23:10) Bill's work as an advisor(1:26:05) Lightning round—Referenced:• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595• Jeff Bezos on X: https://twitter.com/jeffbezos• D.E. Shaw: https://www.deshaw.com/• Eric Ries's website: https://theleanstartup.com/• GM business model: https://fourweekmba.com/general-motors-business-model/• Rick Dalzell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richarddalzell/• The Effective Decision by Peter F. Drucker: https://hbr.org/1967/01/the-effective-decision• Template: Working Backwards PR FAQ: https://www.workingbackwards.com/resources/working-backwards-pr-faq• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996• The Amazon flywheel: https://feedvisor.com/resources/amazon-trends/amazon-flywheel-explained/• Sixsigma: https://www.6sigma.us/• Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries: https://www.amazon.com/Loonshots-Nurture-Diseases-Transform-Industries/dp/1250185963• Andy Jassy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-jassy-8b1615/• Implementing Amazon's Bar Raiser Process in Hiring: A Quick Guide: https://www.barraiser.com/blogs/implementing-amazons-bar-raiser-process-in-hiring• Microspeak: The As-Appropriate (AA) interviewer: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20231017-00/?p=108897• The Practice of Management: https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Management-Peter-F-Drucker/dp/0060878975• The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done: https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Executive-Definitive-Harperbusiness-Essentials/dp/0060833459• Steve Jobs: https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537• Seveneves: https://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062334514• A Gentleman in Moscow: https://www.amazon.com/A-Gentleman-in-Moscow/dp/0143110438• Dune on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Dune-Timoth%C3%A9e-Chalamet/dp/B09LJXY4PH• A Spy Among Friends: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15565872/• Zipp 303 Firecrest tubeless disc brake: https://www.sram.com/en/zipp/models/wh-303-ftld-a1• The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization: https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Organization/dp/0385517254—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Amy Errett founded Madison Reed with 30+ years of experience as an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and social-mission visionary. She's the CEO of Madison Reed, an omnichannel beauty brand challenging industry titans in hair color. Amy is also a Partner at True Ventures, focusing on consumer and ecommerce investments.Before Madison Reed, Amy was a general partner at Maveron, a VC firm co-founded by Howard Schultz. She served as Chief Asset Gathering Officer at E*TRADE and has been featured on Fast Company's Queer 50 and Inc. Magazine's Female Founders 100 lists.Amy noticed the need for at-home hair color with salon-quality results using clean ingredients. Inspired by her daughter, she created Madison Reed, empowering colorists to earn more. Amy believes in empowering women in their lives, not just their hair color.In our episode, Amy shares her journey to Madison Reed, validating the idea, and what she looks for in entrepreneurs as a Venture Capitalist. She discusses finding your superpower, balancing head and heart, managing fear and anxiety when starting a business, and more.In this episode, we'll talk to Amy about:* Amy's advice on finding passion. [02:52]* Amy's pivotal moment shaping her into a businesswoman.[05:57]* Escaping the victim mindset.[10:20]* Amy's career journey and decision to leave finance. [15:12]* Amy's "Aha!" moment leading to leaving finance. [21:28]* Reflecting on regrettable decisions. [28:34]* Traits Amy looks for in founders. [33:40]* Acknowledging anger and fear. [38:52]* Why Amy didn't invest in Dollar Shave Club. [40:35]* Testing the idea before launching Madison Reed. [47:48]* Understanding customer values. [51:32]This episode is brought to you by Beeya:* If you or anyone you know have been struggling with hormonal imbalances and bad periods, go to https://beeyawellness.com/free to download the free guide to tackling hormonal imbalances and to learn more about Beeya's seed cycling bundle.* Plus, get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIRE10.Follow Yasmin:* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/* Website: https://www.behindherempire.com/Follow Amy: * Website: https://www.madison-reed.com/* Madison Reed Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madisonreed/* Amy's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyerrett/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0:00 -- Intro.1:30 -- Start of interview.2:12 -- Barrett's "origin story".6:11 -- His start in finance. First in Stone & Youngberg then in Lehman Brothers in SF. His first secondary market transactions in private company stock (Facebook) in 2007.8:54-- His experience working at SVB (internship with wine finance team) and Lehman Brothers (business development).12:10 -- The early days of secondary market transactions for private company stock with SecondMarket, later acquired by Nasdaq in 2015 (now Nasdaq Private Market).14:25 -- His entrepreneurial stint as CEO of Juno Company, a children's educational media company.15:56 -- His VC stint as an advisor with Maveron.17:20 -- On the founding of his firm Scenic Advisement in 2013.18:12 -- History of investment banks in SF helping founders to get liquidity (the Four Horsemen of Silicon Valley's financial community: Alex.Brown, Hambrecht & Quist, Robertson Stephens & Co. and Montgomery Securities underwrote a large number of IPO offerings, both before and during the dotcom boom.)20:36 -- The ethos and vision behind Scenic Advisement. "The opportunity was to build a bank that really was the standard bearer, establishing best practices so that [institutional investors] had a counter-party or a middleman who could speak their language and conversely, the people building great companies had a partner who they could trust, because that partner had empathy: they were ex founders, ex VCs or from the community, not some transactional banker who lives 3,000 miles away and knows nothing of the company but knows that there is a big fee to be had and a league table to be on." "Our plan was to drive hard empathy."24:17 -- On the current state of private markets. "It's been a boom marked by irrational exuberance, and then a correction, as markets do." "But I can tell you, and I do so with great thanks, that the market is thawing and we are starting to see investors come back." "I could have taken all of 2022 off, and from a stress perspective, it would have probably been beneficial, but I just didn't have a crystal ball."27:42 -- On the regulation of unicorns and private markets generally. Going dark speech by SEC Commissioner Lee (Oct 2021).33:08 -- On the Stay Private for Longer ("SPL") advice in Silicon Valley ["The worst advice" per Gurley and Rabois]. "Companies now stay private long. That's it. This is not a trend, it is a market reality at this point." "It's also totally business dependent."37:52 -- The opportunities and challenges for founders, investors and employees in private markets. "The Sequoia move to an evergreen fund structure is a brilliant idea." "The Stripe multi-billion financing was the company being really proactive to options expiry, to ensure that the most important asset at Stripe, the people, are made whole or don't loose the benefit of the bargain (that would be awful for everyone and for morale)." "We are going to see more and more of that." 39:39 -- How companies treat employees vs ex-employees on stock options: "It varies from company to company and from founder to founder. My advice typically is to be egalitarian."41:21 -- On regional differences in tech ecosystems in the US.43:47 -- The impact of the collapse of SVB and First Republic in the SF/Bay Area tech ecosytem. "I believe in diversification. I believe in selling early and often. I want to implore founders and investors to take chips off the table when you can, because you can't always and things go away. People forget that."47:40 -- Thoughts on crypto and digital assets market.49:17 -- Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence (AI) market. "It's the next major wave. Unlike crypto and digital assets, this is not a fad."51:05 --  The books that have greatly influenced his life: Everything by Philip Roth.Exodus, by Leon Uris (1958)Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer (2002)51:38 -- His mentors, and what he learned from them: the most impactful mentor for him has been his mother.52:58 --  Quotes he thinks of often or lives his life by: "Have hard conversations early and often." "Empathy is a very important tool even when delivering difficult messages."53:25 --   An unusual habit or an absurd thing that he loves: sneaker collection and tequila ("it's like love in a bottle").58:14 --   The person he most admires: entrepreneurs.Barrett Cohn is the CEO and co-founder of Scenic Advisement, a San Francisco based investment bank specializing in servicing the liquidity needs of high growth, late-stage technology companies, their investors, and founders. __ You can follow Evan on social media at:Twitter: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

Cat Lee grew up with the intention of following in her father's footsteps, and she did, for a while. After graduating from Stanford she immediately began work at Lockheed Martin where her father had made his career for 40 years. However, it wasn't long until she realized that working in the defense industry was not kindling her passion for life. After pursuing an MBA, Cat graced the halls of Google, Facebook, and then Pinterest before realizing that what really gets her excited is angel investing and variations thereof. Now a partner at Maveron, an investment company that funds startups, Cat gets to do what she does best, breaking down barriers to entrepreneurship and helping to fund the next big rocketship! Thanks for listening!  Don't forget to order Rebecca's new book, ⁠Fearless: The New Rules for Unlocking Creativity, Courage, and Success.⁠ Follow Superwomen on ⁠Instagram⁠. Big Ideas The cultural implications of not following your parents' vision for your life. How to choose the right investment for you.  The importance of periodically checking in with yourself to make sure you're staying true to who you are and what you want your life to be about.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/superwomen/support

Amy Errett is the founder & CEO of Madison Reed, a hair color brand that sells direct-to-consumer and offline through third-party retail stores like Ulta and through over 50 of their own hair color bars around the U.S. They have raised over $200M in venture capital including most recently from Sandbridge and Marcy Venture Partners, Jay Z's venture firm. Amy Errett is a partner at True Ventures and prior to founding Madison Reed was a general partner at Maveron, a consumer fund founded by Dan Levitan and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in 1998.

“Do one thing everyday that scares you.” This quote is a driving force behind everything our next guest does, from traveling to investing and everything in between. Anarghya Vardhana is a Partner at Maveron finding the next big direct to consumer business to invest and nurture. After years of working at Google and fintech startups, she entered into the VC space. In 2017, Anarghya was included in Forbes “30 under 30” list in venture capital.In today's episode, Anarghya talks about her lifelong love for STEM and her passion for diversifying this space. She shares why she loves finding new leaders through healthcare startups, and how doing one challenging thing every year positively impacts her self-confidence. Press play to hear Anarghya's thoughts on…Her Investment Philosophy “If you invest in one company, it may inch towards something else. So you may be solving the dietary side of things by investing in the women's health business, because sometimes those things can go hand in hand. But I think the best way to think about it is every year there's going to be one to two phenomenal entrepreneurs working in consumer healthcare, building in consumer healthcare. My job is to try and meet them and to get to know them and see if there's an opportunity to partner and be a part of their journey for whatever they're gonna build.”Doing Hard Things to Instill Confidence“Some people are just born with confidence. They just walk into the room and they're confident, and it's not that natural or innate for me. I have to work to be confident…Confidence comes from practice and hard work and knowing that I've done something that might be even harder than the thing I'm just about to do. And so that got me into the psyche of, ‘Well, if I just do hard things, then it'll help me be confident.'”

Change starts with an idea and accelerates with leadership.    It takes more than innovative tools to move toward a better future. Through collaboration and leadership, we can bring to life the unique ideas that will change our trajectory and move humanity forward.   In this episode of Fifth Dimensional Leadership, our guest is Will Weisman, a leader passionate about people and ideas who is focused on bringing them together to help unlock great opportunities and make a positive impact on the world.  He is the Founder and Managing Director of KittyHawk Ventures. In our conversation, Will talks about moving humanity forward by leveraging technology to accelerate change.   Previously Will Weisman served as an Executive Director at Singularity University, which “helps leaders adapt to a world of accelerating change and empower them to leverage tech to improve the lives of one billion people over the next five years.” Will spent seven years at Singularity and continues to work with Singularity co-founder Peter Diamandis.   Will's experience managing, investing in and advising technology and consumer product companies has given him a unique combination of investment, operational and entrepreneurial experience. He was a venture capitalist at Foundation Capital and Maveron and an operator at Intuit and World Wrapps.   Will holds an MBA from Stanford and a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He speaks regularly around the world on exponential technology trends, as well as venture investing and entrepreneurship. Will is an avid kiteboarder and ocean swimmer, and resides in Santa Monica, California. Things you will also learn in this episode: Understanding psychedelics from scientific, medical and investment perspectives. What “Longevity Escape Velocity” is and its implications on life as we know it How technology is unlocking unique ideas and life-changing opportunities Which leadership competencies  are needed in the technology sector Why storytelling is key to attracting strong talent and raising investment capital Quotes:   “How we look at ourselves and the world is our reality.” - Will Weisman   “The world is built on growth, and when you've got a shrinking populace, that creates other challenges for the economy and how the world functions.” - Will Weisman   “To  be successful, you have to be able to tell your and your company's story in a way that resonates with people.” - Will Weisman   “With the right people around us, we can do much more than we give ourselves credit for.” - Will Weisman   “Sometimes you have to put yourself in harder situations to get to a place where it starts to feel natural for you.” - Will Weisman   “Surround yourself with smart people who are doers and are open and adaptive to change because those are the people you want to be in business with.” - Will Weisman   “Control what you can control, and let the rest go.” - Will Weisman “We are our own limiting factor, so if you start to dream bigger and look at yourself and see the world in a more positive way, the world reacts to you in a more positive way.” - Will Weisman

Amy Errett is the founder and CEO of the fast-scaling Madison Reed hair color company and a partner of True Ventures. Featured in Forbes 50 over 50 last year, Amy has raised almost $200 million for Madison Reed, now on track to hit the $1bn revenue mark. Today we dig deep into what it takes for women founders to raise venture capital, why it's vital to trust your own gut instinct in business with a mix of “resilience and gratitude”, and her own journey scaling Madison Reed, as well as Olivia, Spectrem, and E*TRADE and investing in startups. Download Podopolo to get the video of this podcast, live streamed from Napa at Feast it Forward during the BottleRock music festival. Follow Wings of Inspired Business on Podopolo to keep the conversation going in the episode comments section and invite your friends to connect around podcasts recommended to you by what interests and inspires you.

Amy Errett is the founder and CEO of the fast-scaling Madison Reed hair color company and a partner of True Ventures. Featured in Forbes 50 over 50 last year, Amy has raised almost $200 million for Madison Reed, now on track to hit the $1bn revenue mark. Today we dig deep into what it takes for women founders to raise venture capital, why it's vital to trust your own gut instinct in business with a mix of “resilience and gratitude”, and her own journey scaling Madison Reed, as well as Olivia, Spectrem, and E*TRADE and investing in startups. Download Podopolo here to get the video of this podcast, livestreamed from Napa at Feast it Forward during the BottleRock music festival, and keep the conversation going in the Wings comments section and invite your friends to connect around podcasts recommended to you by what interests and inspires you.

Kirin Sinha is the Founder and CEO of Illumix, an AR technology and media platform.Kirin started Illumix in 2017 with the mission to push boundaries and elevate the quality of augmented reality in the fields of fashion, game design, and film. Today, Illumix powers some of the world's most popular mobile games and is helping companies and brands bridge the 2D & 3D world so consumers can interact with products & experiences in a more personalized way.With a degree in electrical engineering, computer science, and mathematics from MIT and advanced degrees in mathematics, statistics, and business from the University of Cambridge, LSE, and Stanford, Kirin is one of Silicon Valley's few minority leaders with a technical background. She's also raised $13 million from top-tier investors like Lightspeed and Maveron ventures.However, Kirin never envisioned herself as an entrepreneur as her initial aspirations were to become a professor. It wasn't until she had her first foray into building something from scratch with her nonprofit SHINE for Girls, which empowered middle school girls to learn math, that she realized she wanted to build a business and make an even larger impact.In this episode, we talk to Kirin about what it takes to rediscover your purpose after a major life pivot, how to work on your self-belief when you're feeling like you're not good enough, and why it's so important to have boundaries when it comes to protecting your energy & going after big dreams in life. We also cover how Kirin's time management, mindset, and self-care rituals have been a huge part of her success, both personally and professionally, and so much more!In this episode, we'll talk to Kirin about:* Kirin's advice for building confidence by leaning into failure. [2:20]* How her mother and her grandmother have influenced who she is today. [4:18]* Hear how Kirin incorporates positive affirmations into her daily life. [6:38]* Lessons and skills that came from her exposure to both math and dance. [10:27]* What led her to pursue a career in entrepreneurship after studying math at MIT. [18:44]* Learn more about Shine for Girls and what it taught Kirin about entrepreneurship and the impact she could have through business. [22:10]* Insight into the early days of Illumix and the value of building a strong team. [29:40]* Kirin's experience of participating in the Disney Accelerator Program. [32:03]* Practical ways that brands and consumers can incorporate AR into the real world. [33:54]* Kirin's approach to fundraising and her advice for woman entrepreneurs: think big! [36:37]* The kinds of questions Kirin asks herself while she is on her daily walk. [42:23]* Where Kirin draws inspiration from, from newsletters and podcasts to books. [44:36]* Self-care rituals (including time management) that help her combat overwhelm. [47:55]* The benefits of building a strong network of mentors, advisors, and supporters. [53:39]* Tips for cold emailing and connecting with those who have the expertise you need. [55:33]Follow Kirin:* Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirinsinha/* Company Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/illumixofficial/* Website: http://illumix.com/This episode is brought to you by beeya: * Learn more about beeya's seed cycling bundle at https://beeyawellness.com/free to find out how to tackle hormonal imbalances. * Get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIREFollow Yasmin:* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/* Stay updated & subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.behindherempire.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hello my beautiful Woman Inc. listeners! My guest this week Amy Errett, Founder and CEO of Madison Reed, an at-home and in-salon hair-dye company with over 50 locations and 55+ color shades, free of Parabens, Ammonia, Phthalates, and more.  Amy has over 30 years of business and operating expertise as a four-time entrepreneur, venture capitalist and social-mission visionary. Amy is a Venture Partner at True Ventures, focusing on investments in consumer and e-commerce startups.  Prior to founding Madison Reed, Amy was a general partner at Maveron, a leading venture capital firm co-founded by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz - focused on investments in consumer facing companies. She also previously served as Chief Asset Gathering Officer at E*TRADE, where she ran a $200 million business. She was also featured on Fast Company's first ever Queer 50 list of LGBTQ women and nonbinary innovators in business and tech in 2020. 

Brad is Founder and CEO of Common, one of the fastest growing residential brands in the US.  Before founding Common in early 2015, Brad was the co-founder of General Assembly, a global education institution with campuses in more than 15 cities worldwide. As part of the General Assembly founding team, Brad led the growth of the company's education business from its launch in 2011 into a global institution with over a dozen campuses. Most recently, he was a Venture Partner at Maveron, General Assembly's lead investor. Brad has been shortlisted for Ernst and Young's 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year award; Vanity Fair's The Next Establishment; Business Insider's Silicon Alley 100; and Crain's 2017 40 Under Forty. About Common Founded in 2015, Common is a residential property manager with more than 7,500 residents in over 12 markets across the US, and over 20,000 units signed and under development. Having raised over $110 million in venture capital investment, Common is now expanding into 22 cities across the world. What sets the business apart is its focus on innovation across design, technology and operations. The Common platform also includes Noah, a workforce housing management brand, and Mily, a family-first operator. For more information visit www.common.com   In this episode Brad shares: How he experienced first hand the need for more flexible and affordable housing whilst at General assembly. Why he chose to raise institutional investment to fund Common's growth. His insights into scaling an operationally complex property management business. Why he's a unit economics fundametalist, and what that means. The challenge of navigating hyper rent growth in the US. Why The Collective, a leading light of the micro/co-living sector, ultimately failed. Why developing tech to enable back office processes is key to scaling. Why it's important when developing tech not to make it a goal to eliminate humans from all processes. What opportunities he sees for tech entrepreneurs eying the residential market.

Kirin Sinha is the founder and CEO of Illumix, a lightspeed and Maveron backed AR gaming and technology company. She holds Masters degrees from University of Cambridge, LSE and has a degree from MIT and MBA from Stanford. And she has also featured in the likes of Variety, Fast Company, Technews to name a few! Kirin talks to Meera about how she created Illumix, and gives plenty of mindset related tips. In this week's motivational segment Meera talks about scripting the life of your dreams! Visit theschoolofsass.com for more life wisdom.

In this week's episode of the Propcast, Louisa speaks with Brad Hargreaves, CEO and Founder of Common, a residential brand creating a better kind of multifamily property manager through innovations in technology, design, and operations. This episode covers the differences between the UK and US rental markets, and how co-living has taken off in US markets and what this might mean for the market in the UK and Europe. Companies Mentioned:   Common https://www.common.com/ General Assembly https://generalassemb.ly/  Kinnevik https://www.kinnevik.com/ Greystar https://www.greystar.com/  Quarters https://quarters.com/ Student Hotel https://www.thestudenthotel.com/  Noah https://www.noahapartments.com/     Shout Outs   Brian Lee https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianlee860/?originalSubdomain=uk     Key Insights From This Episode Our thoughts around value proposition for the customer have always been for co-living for micros in particular, have always been really centered on affordability. Community is important. It's a great value add. The experiences is key. But if you're not offering real value it's going to be very difficult to scale. - Brad Hargreaves   There are certainly ways where Europe is ahead of the US I would say, in terms of liberalising zoning and, allowing more innovative, mixed operations and mixed uses. - Brad Hargreaves   I read this the other day and I think it maps perfectly to the real estate industry, is that you generally overestimate what you can do in a year, but underestimate what you can do in 10 years. And I think that speaks incredibly true to the real estate industry, which is not fast moving. But when it moves, it can do tremendous things. - Brad Hargreaves I would encourage anyone getting into real estate to really take the long view of it. It is an industry that rewards the long view. - Brad Hargreaves Keywords: co-living, capital, affordable housing, shared housing, multi family, build to rent About Our Guests Brad Hargreaves  https://www.linkedin.com/in/bharg/ Brad Hargreaves is the Founder and CEO of Common, the nation's leading residential brand that designs and manages multifamily apartments with more than 6,000 residents in over 10 markets across the country. Before founding Common in early 2015, Brad was the co-founder of General Assembly, a global education institution with campuses in more than 15 cities worldwide. As part of the General Assembly founding team, Brad led the growth of the company's education business from its launch in 2011 into a global institution with over a dozen campuses. Most recently, he was a Venture Partner at Maveron, General Assembly's lead investor. Brad has been named to Ernst and Young's 2020 “Entrepreneur of the Year” award; Vanity Fair's “The Next Establishment”; Business Insider's “Silicon Alley 100”; and Crain's 2017 “40 Under Forty.” Common is a residential brand creating a better kind of multifamily property manager through innovations in technology, design, and operations. Common delivers exceptional experiences for renters across twelve cities and nearly 7,000 units in coliving, microunit, and traditional apartments. They are the preferred choice for both residents looking for a stress-free and all-inclusive living environment from a trusted brand, and for real estate owners seeking reliable, above-market returns. The Common platform also includes workforce housing management brand Noah and family-first operator Mily. With over 20,000 units signed and under development and over $110 million in venture capital investment, Common is expanding into 22 cities across the world. To work with us, visit our partners page or follow us on instagram at @common.living. About Our Host Louisa Dickins https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisa-dickins-ab065392/?originalSubdomain=uk Louisa started her career in property working at a well-known estate agency in London. Realising her people skills, she moved over to Lloyd May to pursue a career in recruitment. She now is a Director at LMRE, who are a specialist recruitment firm driven by PropTech and recruitment professionals, and Louisa oversees their 5 core areas. Louisa co-founded LMRE and provides a constructive recruitment platform to the new disruptors in real estate. Louisa is also on the board of Directors at UK PropTech Association (UKPA). About LMRE www.lmre.tech LMRE believe there is a better way to recruit. LMRE focus on a more comprehensive, client led focus delivering exceptional talent to the place at the time. They are passionate about the industry and passionate about people's careers. LMRE spend time with each client to become and an extension of the business, and their transparency and core values help them grow with the sector. LMRE simplify recruitment and innovate with our clients and evolve the people driven, PropTech community.

Our guest today is Rebecca Kaden. Rebecca is a Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures. She has a particular interest in education and an extremely deep understanding of the evolving EdTech landscape. Rebecca began her career as a journalist and prior to USV was a General Partner at Maveron, a consumer focused early stage fund.In this episode, we talk about how new technology can decentralize many aspects of what school is today, so that the learning experience can really feel individual for each student.Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:Our first episode with Sora Schools - https://blog.enrollhand.com/have-you-heard-of-sora-schools/Our second episode with Sora Schools - https://blog.enrollhand.com/roadmap-club/Venture Stories episode: Redesigning School for Students To Thrive with Rebecca Kaden of USV and Garrett Smiley of Sora Schools - https://soundcloud.com/venturestories/redesigning-school-forOur episode: 420 Learning Guides Coach Learners Towards Mastery, with Kelly Smith, CEO at Prenda - https://blog.enrollhand.com/420-learning-guides/Our pisode: Will the Consumerization of Education Continue, with Jennifer Carolan - https://blog.enrollhand.com/consumerization-k12-education/John Danner on Twitter about Web3 & Education - https://twitter.com/jwdanner/status/1442539746358530056Where to learn more about Rebecca:Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-kaden/Twitter - https://twitter.com/rebeccakadenWebsite - https://www.usv.com/Where to learn more about Enrollhand: Website - www.enrollhand.comWebinar - https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.comOur free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolgrowth/

Amy Errett's multifaceted career has ranged from founding and operating companies to investing in startups to volunteer nonprofit leadership. But then she left it all to create Madison Reed, an omnichannel beauty brand that is challenging industry titans in the hair color space. Noticing that women only had two options when coloring their hair - Purchase a low-quality, cheap box from a drugstore or go to an expensive salon, Amy aimed to create an innovative option. But where Amy is truly innovating is in the way she leads her company. With the mantra that employees can bring their whole selves to work and a policy of openness and sharing where the entire company has lunch with Amy and coffee with Amy weekly, she's building a culture that's more like a family than anything else. Not to mention she's paying her colorists as salaried employees who don't have to rent their chairs like the rest of the hair color industry and also receive full benefits. When her stores closed during the pandemic, she continued to pay them, moved them all over to the call center, and taught them new skills. Prior to founding Madison Reed, Amy was a General Partner responsible for the Bay Area office of Maveron; a leading venture capital firm co-founded by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz - focused on investments in consumer facing companies. Before Maveron, Amy was CEO of Olivia, where she repositioned the travel business as a complete lifestyle company and also where she was delivered her biggest career blow. Amy is the proof that women belong at the top. Amy founded Madison Reed with over 30 years of business and operating expertise as a four-time entrepreneur, venture capitalist and social-mission visionary. In 2015 and 2018, Amy was named one of the "Bay Area's Most Influential Women in Business" by the San Francisco Business Times. She was also a finalist for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2018 Award in the Northern California region, which she won in 2006 for the consumer category. She was also featured on Fast Company's first ever Queer 50 list of LGBTQ women and nonbinary innovators in business and tech in 2020. In this episode, Amy shares her truths in both her failures and successes. If you want a tutorial on how to be a leader and inspire greatness, this is the episode for you. *** This episode of LEAVE YOUR MARK is brought to you by Madison Reed, the hair color company revolutionizing the way women color their hair. This fast-growing disruptor brand offers luxurious, Smart-8 Free hair-color formula (that's free of harsh ingredients like PPD, ammonia, and parabens), that makes your hair look and feel fabulous. Madison Reed is truly your one-stop-shop for all things hair color. Whether you're at a Hair Color Bar or coloring at home with a Radiant Hair Color kit, you get the same amazing results every time. Madison Reed's proprietary color-matching technology coupled with a team of on-call colorists help women choose their perfect shade of hair color. With over 40 Hair Color Bars in 17 markets and many more to come, Madison Reed is fast becoming the leader in hair color. The full line of products can be found online at madison-reed.com and in Madison Reed Hair Color Bars, in addition to Ulta Beauty and Ulta Beauty at Target. First time customers can use ALIZA20 20% off + free shipping on Madison-Reed.com and local Hair Color Bar services.

Jason Stofferwas still early in his career at venture capital firm Maveron in 2012 when he declined an opportunity to invest in Remitly, then a fledgling Seattle startup with ambitions to challenge Western Union by bringing a tech mindset to the business of international money transfers. He was impressed by Remitly co-founders Matt Oppenheimer and Josh Hug but knew they faced a huge challenge in getting the state-by-state regulatory approval required to make monetary remittances to what was then their initial international market, the Philippines. "It felt like the end vision was powerful — if they can get there," Stoffer recalled. "But two guys in a room in Seattle saying they were going to navigate an incredibly complex regulatory environment and figure out how to market in a country a continent away, it felt like too big a hill to climb. And they proved me wrong." Ten years later, Remitly is poised to go public in an initial public offering that values the company at $6.5 billion, as we reported this week. Stoffer, whose successful exits as an investor include Flywire, Course Hero, General Assembly and Zulily, analyzed Remitly's financialsrecently on his new blog, Ringing the Bell, displaying an admirable humility in his assessment of a company that could have been part of the Maveron portfolio. He joins my colleague John Cook and me on the GeekWire Podcast to talk more about Remitly, lessons learned, the current market for tech investing, and his approach to reading S-1 regulatory filings. In the final segment, we discuss Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's first television appearance since assuming the top role from founder Jeff Bezos. Stoffer is an investor in Cap Hill Brands, an aggregator of third-party Amazon sellers. Audio editing and production by Curt Milton; Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we interview Michelle Carnahan, President of Thirty Madison. We discuss Michelle's pivot from pharmaceutical executive to leader of a health tech unicorn and what that means for Thirty Madison going forward. Thirty Madison's mission is to be a human-first healthcare company delivering specialized care and treatment to everyone. They recently completed a $140M Series C raise led by HealthQuest Capital. They join Maveron and Polaris Partners as lead investors in Thirty Madison.

Dan Levitan is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Maveron, a consumer focused venture capital firm based in Seattle. Dan founded Maveron in 1998 together with Howard Schultz, the former Chairman & CEO of Starbucks when they noticed a gap in the VC market for high growth consumer businesses. Now on his 7th fund, Maveron manages $1.3 billion in assets under management. In this episode Dan shares personal thoughts on the evolution of venture capital and fund sizes, how the dynamics of VC and networks are transforming, and why capitalism as it has been practiced needs to be changed and refined. He walks through the thought process of how Maveron's partnership asked important and tough questions as to how they were going to fulfill the commitment of the Diversity Rider, knowing that it was the “right thing to do'' because the moment for redefining “access” in VC had truly arrived.

This reunion pod was recorded back on March 22 - and among other things, Jerry shared his thoughts around broader tech/consumer trends, what makes a great founder or investor and why he wants to open a sushi restaurant (Co-hosted by Truman Sacks). For more on the podcast, visit WestwoodWestwood.com

Brad Hargreaves is the founder and CEO of Common, the leading residential brand and operator that designs, leases, and manages multifamily properties that appeal to modern renters. Through smart design and tech-enabled property management, Common delivers exceptional experiences across 11 cities and 6,000 units in co-living, microunit, and traditional apartments. Brad co-founded General Assembly, a global education institution with campuses in more than 15 cities worldwide, and most recently, he was a Venture Partner at Maveron, General Assembly's lead investor.   Brad joins us on the Mogul Insights podcast to share how Common creates consistency of experience given their desire to create a residential brand that was both affordable and had an upscale design aesthetic. He discusses Common's pre-COVID-19 decision to expand the firm from only managing co-living, into also managing traditional multifamily, describes what drove that strategic decision and outlines Common's direction for the future. Brad also details how Common is differentiating itself from traditional property management firms in the multifamily space.   "The biggest misunderstanding that people have about co-living that we try to dispel, is that co-living is an extension of student housing. We think about it as an earlier entry into Class A Multifamily in a great neighborhood." - Brad Hargreaves   This week on The Reality Mogul Podcast: Brad's atypical background and how he moved from General Assembly to end up in real estate The profile of Common's typical renter in a co-living community The markets where Brad sees co-living working best and why Common's experiences during COVID-19 - financially, operationally, and psychologically for their tenants Who is the right kind of operating partner for Common, in terms of size of units or specific markets Where Common sees the opportunities to use technology to improve on existing solutions in co-living Common's new remote work hub product and how the current pilot is progressing   Connect with Brad Hargreaves: Common Website Common on Facebook Brad Hargreaves on LinkedIn   Connect with Realty Mogul: Realty Mogul Website Realty Mogul on Instagram Realty Mogul on Facebook Realty Mogul on Twitter          

In this episode, we interview Afton Vechery, CEO and Co-Founder of Modern Fertility, a reproductive health company making personalized fertility information more accessible. We discuss Modern Fertility’s founding story from getting to the first 100 users to finding the best GTM strategy and building the proactive fertility category from scratch. Founded in 2016, Modern Fertility is the women’s health company making personalized, proactive fertility information more accessible to women everywhere, whether they are trying for kids or not. Modern Fertility raised their Series A in 2019 from Forerunner Ventures, First Round Capital, Maveron, and many other leading investors.

Amy Errett, Madison Reed moderated by Joel PetersonOur topic is “Creating a Resilient Corporate Culture,” with guest Amy Errett, Founder and CEO of Madison Reed.  The omnichannel beauty brand uses proprietary color-matching technology along with a team of professional on-call colorists to help customers choose the perfect shade of hair color delivered to their door for under $25. The seven-year-old company recorded over $100 m in revenue in 2020. Prior to founding Madison Reed, Amy was a General Partner of Maveron, a leading venture capital firm, CEO of Olivia, a lifestyle travel business, and served on the senior management team at E*TRADE. This followed 10 years as Founder and CEO of The Spectrem Group, a worldwide strategic consulting firm. Amy sold Spectrem to NFO, an IPG subsidiary.In 2015 and 2018, Amy was named one of the “Bay Area's Most Influential Women in Business” by the San Francisco Business Times. She was also a finalist for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2018 Award in the Northern California region, which she won in 2006 for the consumer category.The portfolio companies identified and described herein do not represent all of the portfolio companies purchased, sold, or recommended for funds advised by Peterson Partners. The reader should not assume that an investment in the portfolio companies identified was or will be profitable. Any opinions, projections, forecasts, and estimates contained in this production are necessarily speculative in nature, are based upon certain assumptions, and subject to change without notice. It can be expected that some or all of such assumptions will not materialize or will vary significantly from actual results. This production is not an offer to buy or sell any investments. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Welcome to More Equity. Today, we're bringing you a special Moms in VC episode featuring Aileen Lee, Founder & Managing Partner, Cowboy Ventures, Anarghya Vardhana, Partner, Maveron, and Deena Shakir, Partner, Lux Capital. Harlem Capital Principal, Kelly Goldstein leads the conversation with these power house VCs to learn from their experiences, perspective, and advice on VC and motherhood. Listen in to discover what it's like to be a mom in vc and how the broader investing and entrepreneurial ecosystem can foster a supportive and empowering workplace culture.

In this episode, we meet Julia Bernstein, General Manager of Platform at Thirty Madison. Thirty Madison provides virtual specialty care through a mix of direct-to-consumer and reimbursable models that includes doctor consults, treatment delivery, and ongoing care. They're on a mission to make specialized care and treatment accessible to everyone. First with Keeps, a men's hair loss solution, then with Cove, which focuses on migraine, followed by Evens which treats GI symptoms, and most recently, Picnic for allergies, Thirty Madison is continuously expanding their offerings to find answers to chronic conditions. With a patient-first approach that provides care and support from diagnosis to treatment and tracking, they work to improve how millions of people manage their chronic conditions. Thirty Madison has raised over $70 million from Polaris Partners, Johnson and Johnson Innovation, Northzone, and Maveron, to name a few. Prior to Thirty Madison, Julia was COO of Tempest and held strategy, operations, and sales leadership roles at Beacon Health Options, Institute on Aging, and Ginger. Julia spent her early career serving healthcare companies on new business innovation at McKinsey and Company. Julia is also a Board Member of PharmaCCX and an advisor to Care + Wear. She holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a bachelor's from Dartmouth College. In this episode, Julia and I chat about: The trends and changes in healthcare consumer behavior that have led to the rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) healthcare businesses How Thirty Madison delivers personalized specialty care for patients with chronic conditions at half the price of local pharmacies Approach to partnerships with payers and pharma who share Thirty Madison's commitment to access for all The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and what's in store for Thirty Madison in 2021

General Partner at Maveron Anarghya Vardhana is long on inclusion and the demographic shifts reshaping culture. Listen to this passionate conversation with Valor General Partner Lisa Calhoun on how she broke into VC as an immigrant from South India and how she now leads investments for one of the top venture capital firms in the country. Anarghya invests in Seed and Series A and works actively across the Southeast, including leading Maveron's investment in Atlanta's Black-female-founded Capway.

Colin Bryar started at Amazon in 1998; Bill Carr joined in 1999. With twenty-seven years of Amazon experience between them, much of it in the early aughts—a period that brought products and services including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Studios, and Amazon Web Services to life—Bryar and Carr joined us, in conversation with Chris Devore, to offer unprecedented access to the Amazon way as it was refined, articulated, and proven to be repeatable, scalable, and adaptable. Bringing recollections from their book Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon, these two long-serving former Amazon executives shared how Amazon’s fourteen leadership principles inform decision-making at all levels and reveal how the company’s culture has been defined by four characteristics: customer obsession, long-term thinking, eagerness to invent, and operational excellence. Bryar and Carr explained the set of ground-level practices that ensure these are translated into action and flow through all aspects of the business, and offered replicable steps for applying it at your own company. Join Bryar and Carr as they presented a practical guidebook for finding corporate success. Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998 — four years after its founding — and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon’s senior leadership team. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Bryar served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999 and spent more than 15 years with the company. As Vice President of Digital Media, Carr launched and managed the company’s global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Carr was an Executive In Residence with Maveron, LLC, and, later, the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp. Today Carr is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Chris DeVore is Managing Partner of Founders’ Co-op and the former Managing Director of Techstars Seattle. As a community volunteer, Chris co-chaired the City of Seattle’s Economic Development Commission, partnered with the University of Washington to create Startup Hall (a commercial innovation space located on the UW Campus). Buy the Book: https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781250267597  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation online click here. 

Bill Smith is the founder and CEO of Landing which develops a membership-based network of fully-finished urban apartment homes. The company has raised over $145 million from top-tier investors which include Greycroft, Foundry Group, Maveron, and Abstract Ventures. Prior to this Bill Smith founded Shipt which he sold to Target for $500 million.

Bill Smith is the founder and CEO of Landing which develops a membership-based network of fully-finished urban apartment homes. The company has raised over $145 million from top-tier investors which include Greycroft, Foundry Group, Maveron, and Abstract Ventures. Prior to this Bill Smith founded Shipt which he sold to Target for $500 million.

In their new book “WORKING BACKWARDS: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon” (St. Martin’s Press, February 9, 2021.) Bill Carr and Colin Bryar share Amazon’s secrets.   They had a front row seat for most of Amazon's history, and they are sharing what they learned in their new book. Not only is Amazon one of the most valuable companies in the world, it has succeeded across a stunning array of categories from web services to movies.  So it’s hyperbolic, but possible to make the case that this is the most important business book….ever. “Like being in the room with Jeff Bezos” Working Backwards is a practical guidebook and a corporate narrative, filled with the authors’ in-the-room recollections of what “Being Amazonian” is like and how it has affected their personal and professional lives. They demonstrate that success on Amazon’s scale is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously-executed principles and practices—shared here for the very first time.   The authors you’ll spend some time with on this episode:   Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999 and spent more than 15 years with the company. As Vice President of Digital Media, Bill launched and managed the company's global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive In Residence with Maveron, LLC, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. Bill later served as the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today Bill is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon.     Colin Bryar joined Amazon in 1998 — four years after its founding —  and spent the next 12 years as part of Amazon's senior leadership team as Amazon grew from a domestic (US-only) seller of books to a global, multi-dimensional powerhouse and innovator. Colin served as a Vice President at Amazon, and for two of his years was "Chief of Staff" to Jeff Bezos, AKA "Jeff's shadow", during which he spent each day attending meetings, traveling with, and discussing business and life with Jeff. After Amazon, he and his family relocated to Singapore for two years where Colin served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce company RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. Colin is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon. Working Backwards https://workingbackwards.com/ Something Ventured https://somethingventured.us/

Bill Carr - entrepreneur, executive coach, author, and former Vice President of Digital Media at Amazon - discusses practical, proven methodologies that Amazon invented to bring products and business to market successfully (including the Narrative-based approach to communication, the PR/FAQ document to guide product development, and the Bar Raiser program for hiring). In this conversation, Bill shares insights and perspectives gleaned from both successes and failures during his 15 years at Amazon. He talks about his reasons for writing Working Backwards (with co-author and former Amazon executive Colin Bryar), the creation of the digital media business at Amazon, the role that Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos played as the “Chief Slowdown Officer,” Amazon's use of time as a competitive advantage, the way the company puts into practice its 14 Leadership Principles, and the exemplar organizations Amazon itself looks to in order to improve its own processes and operations. Bill punctuates the narrative with candid and honest stories of his own intrapreneurial experiences as a leader who played key roles in developing Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. How do you make decisions as an executive? What does it really mean to start with the customer and work backwards? What can you learn about the applicability to your organization of Amazon's successes across so many different categories of GDP? How do you design products and services to ensure success?Guest Bio:Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999, where he spent more than 15 years. As Vice President of Digital Media, Bill launched and managed the company's global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive In Residence with Maveron, LLC, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. Bill later served as the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today Bill is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon.  Building Blocks:Think about what kind of mechanism your organization could employ to slow down now to move fast later. Maybe it is the written narrative or the PR/FAQ. Maybe there's a piece around how you evaluate talent, which Bill hit on today in which he talks about in his book. But maybe those things inspire you to think of something different that you want to go build. It could be a tool or a process or a way to help your teams get more of a competitive advantage out of their time, like we talked about with Bill today.Helpful Links:Colin Bryar & Bill Carr's book, Working Backwards: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595/Working Backwards LLC: https://www.workingbackwards.com/Additional advice on applying Amazon's Working Backwards PR FAQ process: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/applying-amazons-working-backwards-process-leaders-ian-mcallisterForbes article about how Amazon encourages intrapreneurship: https://www.forbes.com/sites/innovatorsdna/2017/08/08/how-does-amazon-stay-at-day-one/?sh=44e97d0b7e4dA16Z's podcast featuring Colin Bryar and Bill Carr: https://a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/working-backwards-amazon-bezos-memos-releases-narratives-innovationTomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Harvard Business Review, on the value of being an intrapreneur: https://hbr.org/2020/03/why-you-should-become-an-intrapreneurAmazon Leadership Principles: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/principlesAbout the Andon Cord: https://kanbanzone.com/resources/lean/toyota-production-system/andon/

Bill Carr joined Amazon in 1999 and spent more than 15 years with the company.  As Vice President of Digital Media, Bill launched and managed the company's global digital music and video businesses, including Amazon Music, Prime Video, and Amazon Studios. After Amazon, Bill was an Executive In Residence with Maveron, LLC, an early-stage, consumer-only venture capital firm. Bill later served as the Chief Operating Officer of OfferUp, the largest mobile marketplace for local buyers and sellers in the U.S. Today Bill is co-founder of Working Backwards LLC where he coaches executives at both large and early-stage companies on how to implement the management practices developed at Amazon.Kim Scott is the author of Just Work: Get Sh*t Done Fast and Fair and Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity and co-founder of the company Radical Candor. Kim was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies. She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google. Kim managed a pediatric clinic in Kosovo and started a diamond-cutting factory in Moscow. She lives with her family in Silicon Valley.Gurdeep Pall leads the Business AI Group at Microsoft, a team comprising Research Scientists, Engineers and Business Leaders bringing digital transformation to business tasks through the power of AI, including a recent effort to train Autonomous Systems with Reinforcement Learning efficiently. He is also responsible for Microsoft Garage and Hackathon, a hyperscale grass-roots innovation program. Prior to this, Gurdeep was responsible for Skype, Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams efforts, including starting Lync (now Skype for Business) and developing it into a multi-billion-dollar business. Gurdeep's favorite technology moment was demonstrating the world's first live real-time spoken language translation within a Skype call at the Code Conference in 2014. Gurdeep joined Microsoft in January 1990 as a software design engineer after graduate school at University of Oregon. He has worked on many breakthrough products in his tenure. Pall was part of the Windows NT development team, working on the first version of Windows NT 3.1 in 1993 as a software design engineer, all the way through Windows XP in 2001 as general manager of Windows Networking. During his work on Windows, he led design and implementation of core networking technologies such as PPP, TCP/IP, VPNs, Internet Routing, and Wi-Fi, and parts of the operating system. Pall co-authored the first VPN protocol in the industry - Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) - which received the prestigious Innovation of the Year award from PC Magazine in 1996. He also authored several documents and standards in the networking area in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards body in the mid-1990s. Since then, amongst other things, Gurdeep has led Conversation-as-a-Platform, Microsoft Speech, Tellme, and Bing Maps initiatives. Gurdeep Pall has been a keynote speaker at many industry conferences over the years. He was named one of the "15 Innovators & Influencers Who Will Make A Difference" in 2008 by Information Week. He co-authored "Institutional Memory Goes Digital," which was published by Harvard Business Review as part of "Breakthrough Ideas for 2009" and subsequently presented at the World Economic Forum 2009 in Davos. Pall holds 25+ patents in networking, VoIP and collaboration areas. He has served on the board of trustees of Ashesi University, Ghana.

Welcome to the future. In the premier episode of 2025: Tomorrow, Today we explore the future of brick-and-mortar retail and how shopping centers will evolve in the coming years. Our podcast guests include: Jason Stoffer: A partner at Maveron, a leading consumer-based venture capital firm that's backed brands such as Zulily, Allbirds, Everlane and more Nadia Shouraboura: A former Amazon executive, retail pioneer and futurist. Julie Averill: Chief Technology Officer with leading athletic apparel retailer Lululemon Marie Driscoll: A veteran retail analyst and managing director of luxury and fashion with New York-based Coresight Research 2025: Tomorrow, Today is hosted by GeekWire co-founder John Cook and Jordon Voss, senior vice president at wealth management firm Northern Trust. The show is produced and edited by Josh Kerns for GeekWire Studios. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cat Lee is one of the most experienced consumer tech growth execs of the last decade. She had early leadership positions at Facebook and Pinterest and had a lot of visibility and agency over how those two companies made strategic decisions around growing their user bases. Cat is now a Partner at Maveron, focused on consumer tech. @catleecatlee www.maveron.com

Tej Singh interviews Leslie Voorhees Means, the Co-founder & CEO of Anomalie, a direct-to-consumer startup that makes custom wedding gowns. It has raised over $18 million from top VCs like Lerer Hippeau and Maveron.

In this episode, Tej Singh interviews Brad Hargreaves, the Founder and CEO of Common Living, a company that is dedicated to making housing better by providing convenient, community-minded shared homes. Since opening its first home in 2015, Common has grown to over 650 members in five cities. It has raised over $63M from investors like 8VC and Norwest. Before starting Common, Brad founded General Assembly, a global education institution, and was a Venture Partner at Maveron, General Assembly's lead investor.

We had the chance to chat with Anarghya Vardhana, a recently minted partner at Maveron Ventures, a consumer facing VC. In this episode, Anarghya talks about her upbringing, her values, challenges she's faced, what it's like working with Dan Levitan, and her excitement for the future of consumer tech. Signup for our newsletter to get notified of the latest release and to receive the latest insights in VC and startups http://eepurl.com/dzVE5j

We are absolutely thrilled to announce the launch of our new podcast series, The Arena. Owing its name and vision to Teddy Roosevelt's storied 1910 speech, “Man in the Arena,” this new podcast provides a glimpse into the lives and narratives of the Kauffman Fellows who are “actually in the arena,” transforming the startup and venture capital universe. This podcast is hosted by Jeff Harbach, CEO of Kauffman Fellows, and produced by Nihar Neelakanti. This podcast airs a new episode once a week and can be notified of the latest release on our Kauffman Fellows Journal Newsletter which you can signup for here. The starting lineup includes guests from fabled firms like Emergence Capital, Maveron, Defy VC and more. In addition, The Arena aims to bring a wide collection of voices and experiences to the forefront of venture capital, from first-time fund managers, to series A founders, to managers from the far corners of the world including Singapore and Palestine. For more on Kauffman Fellows and The Arena, visit www.kauffmanfellows.org

My guest today is Cat Lee. Cat Lee is the newest partner at Maveron, a $160MM consumer-tech fund, primarily focused on funding hyper-growth startups at the series A and seed rounds. Cat has had a long history of working on some groundbreaking growth projects - and taking huge leaps in her own career. She worked on the Facebook platform team starting in 2008, and helped drive the adoption of Open Graph, which drove some breakout growth for Facebook outside of its own platform. She then joined Pinterest in 2012 as the Head of Growth, and helped drive 3x growth in MAUs for the then fledgling platform - and set it on the path to scale & sustainability. After working on growth & marketing at Pinterest for over 4 years, she transitioned to being the Head of Culture at Pinterest, in which capacity she did some very interesting & tremendously impactful work, before she moved to being a VC at Maveron Partners earlier this year. In this fascinating & wide-ranging conversation, we talk not only about Cat's unconventional career choices but also explore the elements that made Facebook and Pinterest's growth machines as powerful as they were. We talk about the gender diversity problem in venture capital - and how Maveron's approach has yielded dramatic results. Cat has had so many dimensions to her work and career - and all of these make this a fascinating conversation.KEY HIGHLIGHTSWhat inspired Facebook's Open Graph. How Facebook's teams approached pitching Open Graph to publishers at a point when they didn't have a lot of leverage or clout.What inspired Cat to join Pinterest - and why Pinterest was invite only at first even when it had millions of users. How Pinterest's network effect was driven by content more than social interactions between users.How mobile traffic overtook web traffic in 24 hours of the launch of Pinterest's mobile apps. What inspired Cat to move to a head of culture role, even though this was a role whose success wasn't as objectively measurable as that of growth roles. How Cat assessed the possible impact she could have heading up culture - and how she approached changing the elements of the culture that she felt needed changing.What inspired Cat to move to the VC space - and her very elaborate research & learning process before making the move.Why the % of VC money going to women is so low(at about 2.2%). How the lack of diversity in the VC space impacts this. Why Maveron's leadership team's composition unusual in terms of diversity - and how this has changed their results compared to most VC firms(even though these results weren't something they tracked actively). What inspired Cat to go on a sabbatical after working on two high growth startups - and what her personal goals were during this sabbatical.Check out the full transcript and show notes here:https://howthingsgrow.co/facebook-pinterest-growth-cat-lee-maveron-vc-diversity/ **Get more goodies here:http://MobileUserAcquisitionShow.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.comhttp://RocketShipHQ.com/blog

Rebecca joins 33founders to share her work investing at Maveron, the traits that distinguish A+ entrepreneurs and the one thing she would change about the venture capital industry.

By combining the might of Facebook with the narrative element of experiential computer games like Oregon Trail or The Sims social gaming developer Zynga was able to become one of the fastest-growing companies on the Internet. Andrew Trader was a member of Zynga's founding team in 2007 and until last year served as executive vice president of sales and business development. Now an entrepreneur-in-residence at Maveron a venture capital firm Trader recently talked to Knowledge at Wharton about Zynga's success and the rise of social gaming. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.