Podcasts about mobius venture capital

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

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Brad Feld. Brad has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and is a co-founder of Techstars. Brad is also an author of a number of books including — Startup Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors. More About Brad Feld: His book – Startup Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors Feld.com Take The Marketing Assessment: Take the Assessment This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network and Semrush.

In this episode of China Money Podcast, guest Gary Rieschel speaks to Nina Xiang about US-China competition, venture investment in China under the current geopolitical environment, and more. Gary Rieschel Founding Managing Partner, Board Member Qiming Venture Partners Shanghai, China Rieschel has more than 25 years of operating and investing experience. He is widely recognized as a leading venture capitalist in both the U.S. and China and is Founding Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, a firm with over $6.2B USD under management focused on early stage investments in China. Prior to Qiming, Rieschel was the founder or lead investor in several major venture capital firms in the U.S. and China including SOFTBANK Venture Capital, Mobius Venture Capital, SAIF Partners (China), and Ignition Partners (U.S.). Rieschel served on Softbank Corporation's Board of Directors for seven years. Prior to being a venture capitalist, he held senior executive positions at Cisco Systems, Sequent Computer Systems, and Intel. Be sure to subscribe to China Money Podcast for free in the iTunes store, or subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

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

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

In this episode of the Startup Visa Series, I speak withBrad Feld, Foundry Group Partner and Co-Founder of Techstars. Brad has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He's written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blog Feld Thoughts. Hope you enjoy listening to this interview as much as I enjoyed interviewing him!The Startup Visa Series is a series of interviews of thought leaders on startups, entrepreneurship, and immigration from around the world. Hear more about why they argue for the need for a startup visa. Guests include startup founders, venture capitalists, investors, policymakers and others. This interview series coincides with the launch of the 2nd Edition of my book, The Startup Visa which is now available for order here!The Startup Visa series is produced and edited by Cambria Judd Babbitt. Be sure to follow me on my Amazon Author page, my author website www.tahminawatson.com as well as my usual blog at www.watsonimmigrationlaw.com.Find us on social media:LinkedIn - Watson Immigration Law and Tahmina WatsonTwitter - @TahminaTalksInstagram - @TahminaTalksFacebook - Watson Immigration LawSpecial thanks to our series sponsor, Joorney Business Plans for making these episodes possible. Learn more about their services here https://www.joorney.com/ Also thanks to our episode sponsor, Park Evaluations https://www.parkeval.com/ Find us at watsonimmigrationlaw.com

This episode is brought to you by hirerunner.co and Arlan going ham on Covid vaccines for 15mins:) Special thanks to Arlan's peer mentor, Brad Feld, who has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yfm/message

Jon talks with David Secunda, Founder/CEO of WorkBright, about using technology to automate and complete systematic tasks so that companies and HR leaders can focus on their most important asset – their people! David Secunda is the Founder and CEO of WorkBright: an HR tech startup that moves traditional employee onboarding to a 100% remote process that workers complete before they arrive. He has led numerous organizations including Avid4 Adventure (Founder & Chairman, outdoor adventure camps), PlanetOutdoors (Founder & CEO, online outdoor retailer), and the Outdoor Industry Association (President). He has also worked as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Mobius Venture Capital and Sequel Venture Partners. He is an active mentor in the business community at Techstars, MergeLane, and the CU Leeds School of Business, and has served on the boards of Entrepreneur's Organization Colorado, RMC Health, The SCA, and was a founding board member of Leave No Trace. Additionally, he was the Governor appointed Chairman of the Colorado Department of Human Services Licensing Advisory Committee.   Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience/ Website: https://jondwoskin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon's Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big!   Connect with David Secunda: Website: https://workbright.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/workbrightHR Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workbrighthr/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsecunda Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/workbright/

Brad Feld's latest book (with David Jilk) is “Entrepreneur's Weekly Nietzsche (A Book for Disruptors)”. Those familiar with Brad's “Feld Thoughts” blog, will find the unexpected title – unsurprising. While reading Nietzsche (um, yes) Brad noted that his favorite personality was a “free spirit: An obsessed individual with a vision of the future and the will to make it so, a rebel who creates the future with childlike enthusiasm.”  That, thought Brad, sounded a lot like…an entrepreneur. The book is “a modern Art of War, connecting the dots to our high-tech business environment”. Each short chapter takes a quote from Nietzsche and applies it to an area of entrepreneurship. Brad Feld has been a famous venture capitalist for a long time.  He has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. He currently runs Foundry group, which he co-founded. Before that Brad co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He's written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs “Feld Thoughts” and “Venture Deals”. https://somethingventured.us/ https://feld.com/

The Startup Visa Series is a series of interviews of thought leaders on startups, entrepreneurship, and immigration from around the world. Hear more about why they argue for the need for a startup visa. Guests include startup founders, venture capitalists, investors, policymakers, and others. This interview series coincides with the launch of the 2nd Edition of my book, The Startup Visa,  now available for purchase here! In this episode of the Startup Visa Series, I speak with Brad Feld, Foundry Group Partner and Co-Founder of Techstars. Brad has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He's written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blog Feld Thoughts. Hope you enjoy listening to this interview as much as I enjoyed interviewing him! After you listen to this interview, look out for the 2nd edition of The Startup Series book to learn more about this issue and the need for change! The Startup Visa series is produced and edited by Cambria Judd Babbitt. Be sure to follow me on my Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Tahmina-Watson/e/B00ZUXW8LG%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share and, my author website www.tahminawatson.com as well as my usual blog at www.watsonimmigrationlaw.com. Follow us on social media for updates. Instagram: @tahminatalks Twitter @tahminatalksSpecial thanks to our series sponsor, Joorney Business Plans for making these episodes possible. Learn more about their services here https://www.joorney.com/ Also thanks to our episode sponsor, Park Evaluations https://www.parkeval.com/ 

Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson Ever thought about getting investments for your startup? Ever thought about investing in a startup? Whether you are an entrepreneur, an investor, a lawyer or just a stakeholder in the venture capital market, this book is for you! In it, renowned investor Brad Feld addresses some topics within the Venture Capital ecosystem, explaining in a practical and didactic way how things work. You'll understand a bit more about raising money, how to get away from some legal issues, who are the top players in VC deals, and how to deal with investors. The entire book is laid out into chapters that can be read independent of each other. The Players How to Raise Money Overview of the Term Sheet Economic Terms of the Term Sheet Control Terms of the Term Sheet Other Terms of the Term Sheet The Cap Table How Venture Capital Funds Work Negotiation Tactics Raising Money the Right Way Issues at Different Financing Stages Letters of Intent- The other Term Sheet Legal Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know Takeaways Don't get intoxicated by fundraising Don't make the mistake of thinking investment is success Remember that revenue is the goal of your business and it's the best form of capital. The book is filled with lots of other amazing advice. Go pick up a copy (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Venture-Deals-Smarter-Lawyer-Capitalist/dp/1119594820/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=venture+deals&qid=1620851655&sr=8-1). About the author Brad Feld and Jason Mendelsom are venture capitalists BRAD FELD has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over thirty years. Prior to cofounding Foundry Group, he cofounded Mobius Venture Capital and Intensity Ventures. He is also a cofounder of Techstars. JASON MENDELSON has over twenty years experience in the venture capital and technology industries in a multitude of investing, legal, and operational roles. Prior to cofounding Foundry Group, Jason was a Managing Director and General Counsel for Mobius Venture Capital. He is also a cofounder of SRS/Acquiom. Host rating for 'Hooked' Nico Rating: 3/10 Sam Rating: 9/10 Jack Rating: 9/10 Subscribe! If you enjoyed the podcast please subscribe and rate it. And of course, share with your friends! Special Guest: Jack Hughes.

Brad Feld lives in Boulder, Colorado and Homer, Alaska with his wife and is on a quest to run a marathon in every state in the US.Brad has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of TechStars. In addition to his investing efforts, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations and currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, co-chair of Startup Colorado, and on the board of UP Global. Brad is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes the widely read blogs Feld Thoughts, Startup Revolution, and Ask the VC. Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 23 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states. Learn more about Oracle for Startups(Interviewed by StartupGrind's Chris Joannou).

Starting a new job is exciting and a little bit of a leap of faith this year for new employees. They aren't able to walk through the building and get a sense of the people, work environment, and culture in the same way. They sort of have to go on faith that the culture is as advertised. If your company went remote this year, then you've been scrambling to reimagine onboarding.So that's what we're going to talk about today. What can we do to jazz up remote onboarding? Does it need more seasoning, onions, a little cheese? I had the pleasure of chatting about this (sans seasoning, onions, and cheese) with David Secunda of WorkBright. WorkBright is an HR tech startup that helps companies move traditional employee onboarding to 100% remote.In this episode, we cover:How to make onboarding more exciting and engagingHow to help new employees build personal connectionsHow to handle that pesky I9 requirement (a pandemic pro-tip)Guest: David SecundaDavid Secunda is the Founder and CEO of WorkBright, an HR tech startup that moves traditional employee onboarding to a 100% remote process that workers complete before they arrive. He has led numerous organizations including Avid4 Adventure (Founder & Chairman, outdoor adventure camps), PlanetOutdoors (Founder & CEO, online outdoor retailer), and the Outdoor Industry Association (President). He also worked as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Mobius Venture Capital and Sequel Venture Partners. He is an active mentor in the business community at Techstars, MergeLane and the CU Leeds School of Business, and has served on the boards of Entrepreneur’s Organization Colorado, RMC Health, The SCA, and was a founding board member of Leave No Trace. Additionally, he was the Governor appointed Chairman of the Colorado Department of Human Services Licensing Advisory Committee.About the PodcastThe Lead with Levity podcast is a show for leaders who care deeply about what makes/breaks the employee experience. Our guests are dynamic researchers, practitioners, consultants, and business leaders. We cover foundational elements that are needed to avoid forcing the fun. We also invite lively managers who lead with levity to show us how it’s done. Thanks for joining us on this journey.

Remote Onboarding a Modern Workforce with David Secunda #29Nick Day is joined on The HR L&D Podcast sofa by David Secunda, The Founder and CEO of WorkBright, an HR tech startup that moves traditional employee onboarding to a 100% remote process that workers complete before they arrive.In this episode, we tackle the issue of remote onboarding. Clearly a relevant HR topic with the world experiencing repeated lockdowns in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, David takes the opportunity to demonstrate how a modern workforce can be onboarded remotely, helping businesses to build and support established remote or decentralized teamsDavid has led numerous organizations including Avid4 Adventure (Founder & Chairman, outdoor adventure camps), PlanetOutdoors (Founder & CEO, online outdoor retailer), and the Outdoor Industry Association (President). He also worked as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Mobius Venture Capital and Sequel Venture Partners. He is an active mentor in the business community at Techstars, MergeLane and the CU Leeds School of Business, and has served on the boards of Entrepreneur's Organization Colorado, RMC Health, The SCA, and was a founding board member of Leave No Trace. Additionally, he was the Governor appointed Chairman of the Colorado Department of Human Services Licensing Advisory CommitteeIn this “Remote Onboarding a Modern Workforce” episode with David Secunda on The HR L&D Podcast, we also explore: * What is remote onboarding and why will it still be a best-practice after COVID? * What challenges inspired you to create WorkBright? * What trends are changing the current HR landscape? * How is the gig economy reshaping the modern workforce? * How are security and privacy evolving in human resources? * How can organizations build and support a successful remote/decentralized team? * How can organizations increase retention and job satisfaction for younger workforce members?Links highlighted in this “Remote Onboarding a Modern Workforce” episode are included below: * Website: workbright.com * Contact David Secunda Direct: david@workbright.com * LinkedIn Profile: David Secunda * The host of The HR L&D Podcast - LinkedIn Profile: Nick Day * Leading HR Recruiters: JGA HR RecruitmentOf course, if you are an HR or L&D Leader listening to this podcast and you have an HR-related vacancy that you would love some specialist human resources recruitment support with – please also get in touch with me! I would love to help show you what a great HR recruitment experience feels like! You can reach out to me directly at nick@jgarecruitment.com or give me a call – 01727800377www.jgarecruitment.comThanks for listening folks – I look forward to bringing you the next episode of the HR L&D Podcast real soon

“Every city with at least 100,000 people is capable of building a healthy and vibrant startup community. I’ve evolved that belief to make the assertion that every city with at least 100,000 people needs a healthy startup community as part of the infrastructure of the city. It’s not the only thing that keeps a city healthy, but it’s an important part of the continual renewal, growth, development and evolution of the city.” - Brad Feld Regardless of where you live in the world, having a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem in your city is crucial, in so many ways. Today’s Brave By Design expert guest is an entrepreneur, investor and author who focuses on building strong and healthy entrepreneurial ecosystems in your city, and he has so many great insights about this subject to share in this episode. Brad Feld has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars.Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blog Feld Thoughts.Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states.Connect with Brad: https://feld.com/Connect with Laura Khalil online:instagram.com/iambravebydesignlinkedIn.com/in/LauraKhalilLearn the five habits that help women rise:http://bravebydesign.net/fivehabits Invite Laura to speak at your live or virtual event http://bravebydesign.netWhat You’ll Hear In This Episode: The way that Brad got his start on the journey in entrepreneurship and investing [4:50] What a healthy startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem will look like [9:37] The role that the city itself must play in order to foster a working ecosystem [13:44]How we can create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive environment when trying to build a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem [21:28]The steps that Brad himself has taken to inform himself, and take action on gender equity [24:42]Why cities, and individuals, need to be looking forward decades when planning for a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem [31:24]Additional Links & Resources:All of Brad’s Books National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)United Way’s 21-Day Equity Challenge Eric Ries (The Lean Startup) & Steve BlankSupport the show (https://www.paypal.me/bravebydesign)

We talk to a true rockstar of the technology and entrepreneurial world -- Brad Feld, CoFounder of Techstars. Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He's written a number of books as part of the "Startup Revolution" series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals.  He will talk about his new book "The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem." It explores what makes startup communities thrive and how to improve collaboration in these rapidly evolving, complex environments. It also offers practical advice for entrepreneurs, community builders, government officials, and other stakeholders who want to harness the power of entrepreneurship in their city. 

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

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

On Business as Usual, we will welcome a true rockstar of the technology and entrepreneurial world -- Brad Feld, CoFounder of Techstars. Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He's written a number of books as part of the "Startup Revolution" series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. Today he will talk about his new book "The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem." It explores what makes startup communities thrive and how to improve collaboration in these rapidly evolving, complex environments. It also offers practical advice for entrepreneurs, community builders, government officials, and other stakeholders who want to harness the power of entrepreneurship in their city. Don't miss this opportunity to get in front of one of tech's most influential leaders.

In this episode, my co-host Alex Patel and I talk to Heidi Roizen of Threshold Ventures about the dot-com bubble. We delve into topics like the irrational exuberance, evangelism, the history of innovation, entrepreneurship, and much more! Check out the episode to learn about the dot-com bubble in a simplified way! Heidi Roizen is a veteran venture capitalist and partner at Threshold Ventures as well as a corporate director. She is on the boards of directors of Zoox, Planet, Polarr, Memphis Meats, DMGT, and Invitation Homes. She co-founded T/Maker, where she served as CEO for over a decade through its acquisition by Deluxe Corporate in 1994. Next, she joined Apple as VP of Worldwide Developer Relations, and from there, Mobius Venture Capital. She's been named to the Corporate Board Member's "Top 50 Women in Tech" list and Hot Topics' Top 100 Women in Tech. In 2018, Heidi was named the Financial Woman of the Year by the Financial Women of San Francisco. She has also earned the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives Annual Achievement Award, among other accolades. Heidi currently holds two leadership positions at Stanford University. She co-leads the Threshold Venture Fellows in the Management Science and Engineering department at Stanford. Additionally, she is also a member of the advisory council of Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. She earned both her undergraduate degree and MBA from Stanford University. Follow Heidi Roizen on Twitter here! Follow StreetFins on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook here, and follow me on Twitter @rohaninvest! Find and subscribe to Finance Simplified on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.fm! Want to learn more? Check out some StreetFins articles and videos relating to topics mentioned in the episode: Intro to Earnings The Difference Between Investing and Trading Basics of Stocks Valuation: Discounted Cash Flow The Dot-com Bubble Explained

40. Brad Feld - Being a Human is Hard, Work-Life Balance Is Nonsensical, & Why Entrepreneurship Is Foundational to Society, host William Glass sits down with renowned Venture capitalist Brad Feld. Brad shares his insights across a number of areas including leadership during a pandemic, advocating for social justice, and accessing mental health care when you have limited resources. "Being a human is hard." - Brad Feld "You know... I think I'm done striving." - Brad Feld Brad Feld (@bfeld) is the author of two new books: The Startup Community Way and the second edition of Startup Communities. He has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars the global startup accelerator community. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. Brad holds a bachelor of science and master of science degrees in management science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states. Brad answers audience questions - LINK COMING SOON ___ Visit SiliconAlleyPodcast.com - Instagram: https://instagram.com/siliconalleypodcast - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/siliconalleypodcast - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSF39MO5e4z1SX9tYZEhNgA Theme music is Million Voices by Brett Miller - www.brettmillerofficial.com Ostrich is a personal finance app that uses the power of positive social accountability to help you define, set, & achieve your financial goals. Sign Up for Ostrich at https://www.getostrich.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theostrichapp LinkedIn: https://LinkedIn.com/company/theostrichapp Silicon Alley is a Financial Glass Production --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/silicon-alley/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/silicon-alley/support

speaks here for @KGNU #ItsTheEconomy with Brad Feld @bfeld. He has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding , he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of . Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the  series and writes the blogs  and . Boulder, CO, he says is important as an example right now, not not only exemplifying his , but laying out a blueprint that other communities can follow.   

In this episode, we talk to Brad Feld (Early Stage Investor & Entrepreneur) & Ian Hathaway (Early Stage Advisor & Mentor) about their latest books, why investors are more than a blank check, and so much more. Purchase The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (Techstars) Purchase Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City 2nd Edition **More On Brad** Brad has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. Brad holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states. **More On Ian** I serve founders as an early-stage advisor, mentor, and investor; build products and services in areas ranging from digital media to ecosystems; advise companies, non-profits, and governments on strategy, analytics, innovation, and public policy; research and write about entrepreneurship and venture capital, and help organizations solve complex problems and tell compelling stories through data. Follow The Startup Life Podcast Facebook Page Want gear from The Startup Life? Check out our gear! Check out other great podcasts from The Binge Podcast Network. Written by: Dominic Lawson Executive Producers: Dominic Lawson and Kenda Lawson Music Credits: **Show Theme** Behind Closed Doors - Otis McDonald **Break Theme** Cielo - Huma-Huma Sponsors/Partners Purchase a Flexio Series sprayer from Wagner Use code BETTEREVERYDAY for 30% everything sitewide at ladder.sport. That’s “BETTEREVERYDAY” for 30% off at ladder.sport.

In this episode, we talk to Brad Feld (Early Stage Investor & Entrepreneur) & Ian Hathaway (Early Stage Advisor & Mentor) about their latest books, why investors are more than a blank check, and so much more.  Purchase The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (Techstars)  Purchase Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City 2nd Edition **More On Brad** Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He's written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. Brad holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states.  **More On Ian** I serve founders as an early-stage advisor, mentor, and investor; build products and services in areas ranging from digital media to ecosystems; advise companies, non-profits, and governments on strategy, analytics, innovation, and public policy; research and write about entrepreneurship and venture capital, and help organizations solve complex problems and tell compelling stories through data. Follow The Startup Life Podcast Facebook Page Want gear from The Startup Life? Check out our gear! Check out other great podcasts from The Binge Podcast Network. Written by: Dominic Lawson  Executive Producers: Dominic Lawson and Kenda Lawson Music Credits: **Show Theme**  Behind Closed Doors - Otis McDonald  **Break Theme** Cielo - Huma-Huma  Sponsors/Partners Purchase a Flexio Series sprayer from Wagner Use code BETTEREVERYDAY for 30% everything sitewide at ladder.sport. That's “BETTEREVERYDAY” for 30% off at ladder.sport.

The Episode in 60 Seconds Everybody knows that Brad Feld "wrote the book" on start-ups. But what does he have to say to growth-stage companies or mature companies? A lot. Brad takes us into the stories of companies he helped start that have grown and learned tough lessons along the way. The core of the interview explores: The call to always experiment and innovate. What tasks to keep doing so that you can keep learning. How to build communities with other businesses. You can't scale your company alone. Our Guest Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. A writer and speaker on venture capital investing and entrepreneurship, Brad has written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series, and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from MIT. An art collector and long-distance runner, he has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 U.S. states. He lives in Boulder, Colorado. Show Notes John urges Brad to reflect on his career and contributions with this question, "If you were to sum up what others should know about you in a paragraph, what do you want others to know about you?" (2:04 and following) Your company is an endless series of small experiments. - Brad Feld We explore other questions including: How does a CMO of an established or growth-stage company learn from a successful startup in 2020? What has hindsight taught you about coaching and leading other companies? What was one thing you concept you got wrong in the first edition Venture Deals? What did you learn from your work with Uber? How does a company change when stagnant? How do you keep growing, or more importantly, scale (or scale again)? How would you advice a marketing leader to play an active role in growth? Regularly learn from the things that fail. - Brad Feld I think the best marketing leaders spend much more time with customers around the selling process and the product process than they do internally with their teams. - Brad Feld Brad's Latest Book: The Startup Community Way Many cities fail to nurture startup communities because governments, large corporations and universities are not effectively collaborating with entrepreneurs or with each other. A critical disconnect remains between the entrepreneurial mindset and those of many other organizations who wish to engage with and support entrepreneurship. There are structural reasons for this, but these obstacles can be overcome with appropriate focus, specific behaviors, and sustained practice. An explanatory guide for startup communities, The Startup Community Way is rooted in the theory of complex systems. The book establishes the systemic properties of entrepreneurial ecosystems and reveals why their complex nature leads people to make predictable mistakes. As complex systems, value creation occurs in startup communities primarily through the interaction of the parts - the people, organizations, resources, and conditions involved - not the parts themselves. This continual process of bottom-up interactions unfolds autonomously, producing value in novel and unexpected ways. Through these complex, emergent processes, the whole becomes greater and substantially different than what the parts alone could produce.

Today, we continue our run on top venture capitalists with none other than the legend, Brad Feld. He's the co-founder of Foundry Group and Tech Stars. He's on the Forbes Midas List and a Top Five Investor. He has a new book called The Startup Community Way.  We have wide-ranging conversations from C19, making sense of this time of hyper change complex adaptive systems, the future of startups Silicon Valley and work, and why Brad is not leaving his house. Pay special attention to Brad's thoughts on how to deal with an unpredicted situation and where it can feel like we have a lot less control. The Three Crises Brad shares what’s on his mind at the moment, how he has stepped forward to help the governor of Colorado without leaving the confines of his home, and how he has pondered upon the three crises of the world today. “I referred to the health crisis, which is COVID, which generated an economic crisis, which we wouldn't have had otherwise, our economy was very strong, which has generated a mental health crisis and which is subsequently generated. racial equity crisis. All of these things are interacting with each other.” - Brad Feld Complex Adaptive Systems Brad shares how he realized that all of these crises were complex systems. In fact, in his book, The Startup Community Way, he bases the entire framework of how startup communities develop and evolve on complexity theory and the notion of complex adaptive systems.  “I've really been soaked in that intellectually, not just in the COVID crisis, not just in the book, not just in all the dynamics around the businesses that I'm involved in, and I'm an investor in, but just sort of thinking about how as humans, we do such a bad job of understanding how to interact with complex systems. We want everything to become deterministic, linear or well defined and the vast majority of stuff we interact with isn't.” - Brad Feld Simple and Complex Systems  Simple is making a coffee drink, complicated is designing a Boeing airplane, or conducting a business audit, and complex is raising a child. “I think a lot of people have been operating against the backdrop of believing that a lot of things are deterministic and predictive, and trying to function in a way where that is not natural. As humans, we want to control stuff. You want to understand what it is you want to do, fix things so that you're not fighting against them and you want to get to an outcome and you want to set a goal and make a goal.” - Brad Feld To know more about Brad Feld, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Brad Feld is co-founder of the Foundry Group and has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987.  Brad previously co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and Techstars, and prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures.  Feld was an early investor in Harmonix, Zynga, MakerBot, and Fitbit.  A writer and speaker on venture capital investing and entrepreneurship, Brad has written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series, and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals.  He currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and on the boards of Path Forward, the Kauffman Fellows, and Defy Ventures.  Brad holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from MIT.  An art collector and long-distance runner, he has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 U.S. states. He lives in Boulder, Colorado. Links: The Foundry Group Team - Brad Feld The Startup Community Way Twitter: @bfeld Linkedin: Brad Feld We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

Today, we continue our run on top venture capitalists with none other than the legend, Brad Feld. He's the co-founder of Foundry Group and Tech Stars. He's on the Forbes Midas List and a Top Five Investor. He has a new book called The Startup Community Way.  We have wide-ranging conversations from C19, making sense of this time of hyper change complex adaptive systems, the future of startups Silicon Valley and work, and why Brad is not leaving his house. Pay special attention to Brad's thoughts on how to deal with an unpredicted situation and where it can feel like we have a lot less control. The Three Crises Brad shares what’s on his mind at the moment, how he has stepped forward to help the governor of Colorado without leaving the confines of his home, and how he has pondered upon the three crises of the world today. “I referred to the health crisis, which is COVID, which generated an economic crisis, which we wouldn't have had otherwise, our economy was very strong, which has generated a mental health crisis and which is subsequently generated. racial equity crisis. All of these things are interacting with each other.” - Brad Feld Complex Adaptive Systems Brad shares how he realized that all of these crises were complex systems. In fact, in his book, The Startup Community Way, he bases the entire framework of how startup communities develop and evolve on complexity theory and the notion of complex adaptive systems.  “I've really been soaked in that intellectually, not just in the COVID crisis, not just in the book, not just in all the dynamics around the businesses that I'm involved in, and I'm an investor in, but just sort of thinking about how as humans, we do such a bad job of understanding how to interact with complex systems. We want everything to become deterministic, linear or well defined and the vast majority of stuff we interact with isn't.” - Brad Feld Simple and Complex Systems  Simple is making a coffee drink, complicated is designing a Boeing airplane, or conducting a business audit, and complex is raising a child. “I think a lot of people have been operating against the backdrop of believing that a lot of things are deterministic and predictive, and trying to function in a way where that is not natural. As humans, we want to control stuff. You want to understand what it is you want to do, fix things so that you're not fighting against them and you want to get to an outcome and you want to set a goal and make a goal.” - Brad Feld To know more about Brad Feld, download and listen to this episode.  Bio: Brad Feld is co-founder of the Foundry Group and has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987.  Brad previously co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and Techstars, and prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures.  Feld was an early investor in Harmonix, Zynga, MakerBot, and Fitbit.  A writer and speaker on venture capital investing and entrepreneurship, Brad has written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series, and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals.  He currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and on the boards of Path Forward, the Kauffman Fellows, and Defy Ventures.  Brad holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from MIT.  An art collector and long-distance runner, he has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 U.S. states. He lives in Boulder, Colorado. Links: The Foundry Group Team - Brad Feld The Startup Community Way Twitter: @bfeld Linkedin: Brad Feld We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!

Brad Feld is a Co-Founder and Managing Director @ Foundry Group, one of the most successful venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Zynga, Fitbit and Sendgrid to name a few. Brad is also a co-founder @ Techstars and prior to Foundry, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital.  Tracy Lawrence spent the last 8 years as Founder & CEO @ Chewse, the startup that it effortless for office managers to order delicious food for their teams.  Tracy grew the team to 300 people across 4 markets, raised millions in venture capital, and ultimately sold the business to Foodee. Jerry Colonna is the CEO of Reboot.io where he is now the professional coach to some of the world's leading founders. Prior to his work with Reboot, Jerry was an early-stage VC co-founding Flatiron alongside Fred Wilson in 1996. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Brad, Jerry and Tracy all experience their first forms of depression? At what stage did it become a more prominent part of their life? Why do they think then was the catalyst? 2.) Why does Jerry believe that despite what people say, no one is crushing it? How can founders present their vulnerability as a strength? At what point did Tracy realise this? How did she convey her vulnerability to her team? Who is to blame for the lack of vulnerability and fear of opening up? 3.) How does Brad think about tying happiness to milestones? What are the biggest dangers of doing so? Does this mean one does not have goals? How does one balance between ambition and appreciating the present? How did Brad learn this when Amy asked for a divorce? How did he respond? 4.) Why does Brad believe fear, guilt and anxiety are useless emotions? What was the result of Tracy tying her mental state to her revenue line? How does Tracy think about the loneliness of being a founder? What does Brad believe is some of the biggest BS in the industry? As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Brad Feld has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to cofounding Foundry Group--a Boulder, Colorado-based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in information technology companies all over the United States--he cofounded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies. Feld is also a cofounder of TechStars and has been active with several nonprofit organizations. He is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brad Feld — The Art of Unplugging, Carving Your Own Path, and Riding the Entrepreneurial Rollercoaster | Brought to you by Laird Superfood, Theragun, and Thrive Market."Brad, they can’t kill you and they can’t eat you. Suit up." — Len FasslerBrad Feld (@bfeld) is the author of two new books: The Startup Community Way and the second edition of Startup Communities. He has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals.Brad holds bachelor of science and master of science degrees in management science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states.Please enjoy!This episode is brought to you by Laird Superfood. Founded by big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton and volleyball champion Gabby Reece, Laird Superfood promises to deliver high-impact fuel to help you get through your busiest days. Laird Superfood offers a line of plant-based products designed to optimize your daily rituals, from sunrise to sunset.My favorite two products are their Turmeric Superfood Creamer and Unsweetened Superfood Creamer. I put one of them in practically everything. Both can really optimize your daily coffee or tea ritual, and a $10 bag will last you a long time. For a limited time, Laird Superfood is offering you guys 20% off your order when you use code TIM at checkout. Check out lairdsuperfood.com/tim to see my favorite products and learn more.*This episode is also brought to you by Theragun! Theragun is my go-to solution for recovery and restoration. It’s a famous, handheld percussive therapy device that releases your deepest muscle tension. I own two Theraguns, and my girlfriend and I use them every day after workouts and before bed. The all-new Gen 4 Theragun has a proprietary brushless motor that’s surprisingly quiet. It’s easy to use and about as quiet as an electric toothbrush.Go to Theragun.com/TIM right now and get your Gen 4 Theragun today, starting at only $199.*This episode is also brought to you by Thrive Market, which saves me a ton of money and is perfect for these crazy times. Thrive Market is a membership-based site on a mission to make healthy living easy and affordable for everyone. You can find all types of food, supplements, nontoxic home products, clean wine, dog food—just about anything. Members earn wholesale prices every day and save an average of $30 on each order. I personally saved $39 on my most recent order. Go to ThriveMarket.com/tim to give Thrive Market a try! You can choose the membership model that best fits your lifestyle.They have affordable one-month and 12-month options. When you go to ThriveMarket.com/tim, you can receive up to $20 in shopping credit. Start a risk-free membership today, as you can cancel for any reason within your first 30 days for a full refund.***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests.For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Please fill out the form at tim.blog/sponsor.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss

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

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

Today’s guest is none other than Silicon Valley Legend, Heidi Roizen. She is an accomplished, Entrepreneur, former head of developer relations at Apple and now, a legendary VC. She shares with us why today is the Golden Era for entrepreneurship, how any company is literally a tech company and more about VC-backed company, Memphis Meats. Silicon Valley's Greatest Connector The Financial Women of San Francisco honored Heidi as Financial Woman of the Year in 2018. She is also dubbed as “Silicon Valley's Greatest Connector.” She is currently sits on the board of companies such as Zoox, Planet, Memphis Meats, HelixRE and DMGT. “I talk about the fact that there should be more women entrepreneurs and there should be more women venture capitalists and diversity. Not just gender diversity but other diversity and I try to support that through my actions. I think it’s appropriate given my role in Silicon Valley. If I have an opinion about that, I should be vocal about that.” - Heidi Roizen Other than these achievements, Heidi is a self-proclaimed animal lover. She adopted several dogs from the shelter, which she fondly shares in her social media. Golden Era of Entrepreneurship Heidi describes the market as a seller's market when it comes to early-stage equity. There are a lot of sources of capital in the market, its very competitive. She enumerates all the positive assets entrepreneurs have in today’s world. “There's just so many different avenues for funding. There are so many tech breakthroughs that can be built upon, whether that is networking or processing power, sensors, devices, GPS, next-gen VR technologies, ubiquitous platforms. When you think about the kinds of businesses you can start today for pennies, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past.” - Heidi Roizen The only negative she can mention is about competition, as she believes everyone else can also solve many big, interesting problems. Additionally, she mentions why companies nowadays are considered tech companies. “I do think it’s interesting today is, every company is a technology company, right? For the most part, how they interact with the customers, how they distribute their products, how they garner feedback, how they handle customer service, tech support, logistics, supply chain, internally, HR systems—every company is deep in technology now.” - Heidi Roizen Memphis Meats. Cell-based Meat Heidi shares more about Memphis Meats and why she believes there is a huge growth potential for cell-based meat. First, she discusses how meat is inefficient to produce: from breeding to feeding to slaughtering and distribution to markets. Not only does it requires more resources, such as land and water use, it is also highly prone to contamination. “The great thing about being a venture capitalist is, we don’t have to actually invent this stuff. There are really awesome entrepreneurs that are way smarter than we are who come up with these ideas. We just have to make sure they want to come to talk to us, and that we can validate sufficiently what they are doing through our own research learning.” - Heidi Roizen To hear more about legendary Silicon Valley stories of Heidi Roizen, download and listen to the episode. Bio: Heidi represents the voice of the entrepreneur, having been one herself. But she also represents the voice of the user, as those are the roots that led her to start a company in the first place. She is on the boards of directors of Zoox, Planet, Memphis Meats, HelixRE and DMGT (LSE:DMGT.) After Heidi earned her undergraduate and MBA degrees from Stanford, she co-founded T/Maker, where she served as CEO for over a decade through its acquisition by Deluxe Corporate in 1994. Next, she joined Apple as VP of Worldwide Developer Relations, and from there, Mobius Venture Capital. She's been named to the Corporate Board Member's "Top 50 Women in Tech" list and Hot Topics' Top 100 Women in Tech. In 2018, Heidi was named the Financial Woman of the Year ...

Today’s guest is none other than Silicon Valley Legend, Heidi Roizen. She is an accomplished, Entrepreneur, former head of developer relations at Apple and now, a legendary VC. She shares with us why today is the Golden Era for entrepreneurship, how any company is literally a tech company and more about VC-backed company, Memphis Meats. Silicon Valley's Greatest Connector The Financial Women of San Francisco honored Heidi as Financial Woman of the Year in 2018. She is also dubbed as “Silicon Valley's Greatest Connector.” She is currently sits on the board of companies such as Zoox, Planet, Memphis Meats, HelixRE and DMGT. “I talk about the fact that there should be more women entrepreneurs and there should be more women venture capitalists and diversity. Not just gender diversity but other diversity and I try to support that through my actions. I think it’s appropriate given my role in Silicon Valley. If I have an opinion about that, I should be vocal about that.” - Heidi Roizen Other than these achievements, Heidi is a self-proclaimed animal lover. She adopted several dogs from the shelter, which she fondly shares in her social media. Golden Era of Entrepreneurship Heidi describes the market as a seller's market when it comes to early-stage equity. There are a lot of sources of capital in the market, its very competitive. She enumerates all the positive assets entrepreneurs have in today’s world. “There's just so many different avenues for funding. There are so many tech breakthroughs that can be built upon, whether that is networking or processing power, sensors, devices, GPS, next-gen VR technologies, ubiquitous platforms. When you think about the kinds of businesses you can start today for pennies, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past.” - Heidi Roizen The only negative she can mention is about competition, as she believes everyone else can also solve many big, interesting problems. Additionally, she mentions why companies nowadays are considered tech companies. “I do think it’s interesting today is, every company is a technology company, right? For the most part, how they interact with the customers, how they distribute their products, how they garner feedback, how they handle customer service, tech support, logistics, supply chain, internally, HR systems—every company is deep in technology now.” - Heidi Roizen Memphis Meats. Cell-based Meat Heidi shares more about Memphis Meats and why she believes there is a huge growth potential for cell-based meat. First, she discusses how meat is inefficient to produce: from breeding to feeding to slaughtering and distribution to markets. Not only does it requires more resources, such as land and water use, it is also highly prone to contamination. “The great thing about being a venture capitalist is, we don’t have to actually invent this stuff. There are really awesome entrepreneurs that are way smarter than we are who come up with these ideas. We just have to make sure they want to come to talk to us, and that we can validate sufficiently what they are doing through our own research learning.” - Heidi Roizen To hear more about legendary Silicon Valley stories of Heidi Roizen, download and listen to the episode. Bio: Heidi represents the voice of the entrepreneur, having been one herself. But she also represents the voice of the user, as those are the roots that led her to start a company in the first place. She is on the boards of directors of Zoox, Planet, Memphis Meats, HelixRE and DMGT (LSE:DMGT.) After Heidi earned her undergraduate and MBA degrees from Stanford, she co-founded T/Maker, where she served as CEO for over a decade through its acquisition by Deluxe Corporate in 1994. Next, she joined Apple as VP of Worldwide Developer Relations, and from there, Mobius Venture Capital. She's been named to the Corporate Board Member's "Top 50 Women in Tech" list and Hot Topics' Top 100 Women in Tech. In 2018, Heidi was named the Financial Woman of the Year ...

Brad Feld is Managing Director @ Foundry Group, one of the most successful venture firms of the last decade with a portfolio that includes the likes of Zynga, Fitbit, SendGrid and many more incredible companies. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars, the worldwide network of entrepreneurs in 150 countries and 300,000 alumni. Brad is also the co-author of the incredible, Venture Deals, for your chance to win a signed copy email venturedeals@foundrygroup.com with the code "First Episode". In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Brad made his way into the world of venture following 40 angel checks and how that led to his co-founding Foundry Group? Why did Brad find the transition from angel to VC in the early days such a challenge? What 2 core things did he focus on when writing angel checks? How has that changed now as a VC? 2.) How did seeing the boom and bust of the dot com impact Brad’s investing mindset today? How does Brad think about investing through market cycles and the right way to think about investment cadence? Why does Brad believe that to be successful as a VC you have to be fundamentally optimistic? 3.) Where does Brad believe we are today in the cycle? Does he agree with Bill Gurley on the biggest challenge being the "oversupply of capital"? What must entrepreneurs understand with regards to market cycle dynamics and how they can and need to future-proof their business? 4.) From analysing his best investments, why has Brad come to the conclusion that TAM in the early days is really not helpful? What are the commonalities in how Brad's most successful companies approach experimentation? 5.) What does Brad mean when he says, "don't have fake CEO or fake VC days"? What does he mean when he often says, "run your fucking business"? What in Brad's mind would constitute a "fake day" vs moving the needle for your business? What does Brad think is the best way for VCs to truly get to know one another? Why is, "hey let's do a deal together one of the most hollow and fake statements in venture?" 6.) Brad has sat on some of the most meaningful boards of the last 2 decades, what have been Brad's biggest learnings on what it takes to be a great board member? How does that change with the progression of your career? What advice would Brad give to me, having just gained my first board seat? If the VC does not support the CEO, what is the right process? Why does Brad believe the VC should work for the CEO? 7.) What is Brad's biggest advice when it comes to learning how to say no? What advice does Brad hear most often that he commonly disagrees with? Why does Brad feel we are in a moment of peak noise in the ecosystem today? To be a great leader, what 2 skills does Brad believe you need to have? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Brad’s Fave Book: Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up by Jerry Colonna, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates Brad’s Most Recent Investment: Boundless As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Brad on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.  

In this Fund81 podcast episode, I invited Brad Feld, founding partner of Foundry Group, to share his thoughts on maintaining mental health in the fast-paced venture capital world and supporting portfolio companies, colleagues, friends and family wrestling with mental health issues. Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. Brad has openly and authentically written about his own mental health issues and supports a wide range of mental health efforts. His transparency has sparked a dramatic shift in mental health consciousness and conversation in the startup ecosystem.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Can you build a durable company & a successful relationship at the same time?  Some days, it seems like an unlikely balancing act. One of the nation’s leading venture capitalists, and my dear friend Brad Feld, knows that you can. And in this bonus V-Day episode of Strong Suit Podcast, Brad shows us the way.  Brad has been an early stage investor & entrepreneur for 30 years. Prior to co-founding Boulder-based Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. Brad’s a writer and speaker on the topics of VC investing & entrepreneurship. He’s written some outstanding books as including “Venture Deals” and “Startup Boards” If that wasn’t enough, he’s also an art collector & long-distance runner. He’s completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states. In this 20-min episode, Brad shares the secrets of being in love while loving your business. It CAN be done.  

David Secunda is the founder and CEO of WorkBright, an HR tech startup that serves employers with large contingent workforces. The company was founded in 2014 and has over 350 customers. David is also the founder and Visionary of Avid4 Adventure, an outdoor education company that serves kids from age 3 up. The company was founded in 2003, has 600 seasonal and 25 full time employees, served 14,000 campers this summer, and is #25 on Outside’s Best Places to Work in the US. David has lead numerous organizations including the Outdoor Education Program at CU, PlanetOutdoors, and the Outdoor Industry Association. He also worked as an entrepreneur in residence at Mobius Venture Capital and Sequel Venture Partners. He is an active mentor in the business community at Techstars, MergeLane, and the CU Leeds School of Business, and has served on the boards of Entrepreneur’s Organization Colorado, RMC Health, the Department of Human Services Licensing Advisory Committee, the American Camp Association and was a founding board member of Leave No Trace. Links to things we talk about: David Secunda on LinkedIn WorkBright Avid4 Adventure Outside Magazine 2017 IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR, PLEASE: Subscribe to our list Connect with us on Twitter Email us and tell us what you think! Colorado TechCast brings you interviews with entrepreneurs, thought leaders and technology pioneers from around the state. We provide a behind the scenes look at who’s doing what, why, and how you can get involved. Join us each episode to hear the exciting stories of technology happenings in our state. I want this show to be relevant to you, so please send me your thoughts and suggestions. My email address is Trapper@ColoradoTechCast.com. You can also hit me up on Twitter @CoTechCast. I read and respond to all messages so drop me a line and tell me what you think. I am always on the lookout for future guests, so if you know anyone with an interesting story to tell, or you yourself would like to come on and talk about what you’re building, then send me an email. Thanks for tuning in, and join us next time when we bring you the story of another digital pioneer from Colorado!

Brad Feld, early stage investor and entrepreneur, co-founded Foundry group, Techstars, Mobius Venture Capital, and Intensity Ventures. Today on the Wonder podcast, Brad discusses how to execute your business better, how to properly raise money, and why radical self-inquiry is critical if you truly want to be successful. Tune-in to learn how Brad’s businesses are supporting women in IT, why hiring a “culture fit” is actually a bad idea, and how he is breaking the stigma around mental health issues.   Time Stamped Show Notes:   00:52 – In his book “Startup Opportunities” he discusses the difference between a startup and a small business; what’s the difference? 01:07 – The definition of entrepreneurship in government and the discussion of “mainstream business” and “startups” 01:50 – 2 categories: local business and startups (high-growth entrepreneurial businesses with an aspiration to grow very large and aren’t geographically bound) 03:04 – “Know When to Quit Your Day Job” 03:15 – Sean, his coauthor, had a book that talked about 100 or so characteristics of successful companies 03:30 – There are lots of good books on entrepreneurship, but the challenge with those is that people don’t know if the actual idea is any good 04:10 – “Startup Opportunities” is a book that says the execution is what’s important and gives advice on what to think about to increase your chances of starting a good business 04:36 – Brad’s biggest takeaway from the book is the notion that your idea needs to be 10x better than the existing ideas; not just incrementally better 04:50 – Local businesses are different, as they are geographically-based and don’t have to be 10x better 05:08 – It gets you out of incrementalist thinking 05:20 – How can people execute better? 05:26 – Founders can surround themselves with people who have been successful; build a mentor network of people who will put energy into what you are doing 05:45 – Mentorship doesn’t have to be hierarchal; mentors can be successful peers, too 06:06 – Its difficult to be a solo founder; most successful businesses have multiple founders or people that were there and instrumental at the beginning 06:56 – Don’t do it all yourself; get others to help you execute better 07:14 – Radical self-inquiry: Constantly try to learn more about yourself as you develop your practical skills 08:19 – Brad’s experience with radical self-inquiry 08:24 – Brad was president of a company for 7 years; he didn’t like the job and reflected on it after they sold the business and he had a staff role with the company that acquired them 08:56 – He was an angel investor and an active VC; it made him realize that he didn’t like being a CEO and that he couldn’t do both effectively 09:38 – Another example of radical self-inquiry was the decision to move based upon where they wanted to live instead of moving based on work 10:50 – Boston was never home; they wanted to choose a place, not be forced into a place 11:30 – Techstars has accelerator programs and activity all over the world and Foundry Group is based out of Boulder; it all came out of his own sense of self and importance 12:00 – What are the realities of capital raising that entrepreneurs need to understand and accept to be successful at it? 12:10 – Do or do not, there is no “try” 12:27 – Envision that you’ll be successful, but accept that you may not be successful 12:40 – Understand what you’re raising, why, and from whom; define your own next level 13:50 – Focus on investors that are appropriate based on your amount and your “why” 14:23 – View your fundraising as a key milestone; use the money to build something useful and don’t put too much weight on just the fact that you raised the money 14:56 – Brad’s latest investment: Looking Glass Factory 15:10 – They make a 3D holographic image display that you can interact with spatially; HoloPlayer One and SuperPepper (experimental) are a couple of their products 16:11 – Computer-human interaction creates an immersion collaboration experience 17:12 – Why do women entrepreneurs only get 2-3% of the funding, and how can that change? 17:18 – Brad’s been a part of the National Center for Women Information Technology for a long time where the discussion has been prevalent 17:29 – The alliance tried to get more women and girls in IT; there weren’t visible heroes for women in IT to look up to 18:10 – They found women that worked in IT and had successful businesses to interview and showcase 18:22 – Misogyny and bias (conscious and unconscious) create a power dynamic between men and women that inhibits the growth of women 19:00 – Men tend to select men; the venture business tends to be an apprenticeship business 19:38 – Brad hopes that we are in a societal shift that eliminates the frame of reference around power to have a gender link 19:53 – He read Susan Brownmiller’s Book “Against our Will” to understand the objectification of women in war and sports; he feels like we are going through a shift 20:40 – He’s hoping the Trump presidency has caused a tipping point, but it is still a long-term process 21:34 – Does the Foundry Group or Techstars have an effort to improve the odds for women needing investors? 21:36 – Techstars has a number of female managing directors, an aggressive diversity and inclusion initiative, and is working towards changing the behavior around all sorts of things so there isn’t gender conflict 22:38 – The Techstars Foundation’s mission is to improve diversity in entrepreneurship; this goes beyond gender to include people that are incarcerated 23:38 – Foundry as a firm didn’t have the goal to grow, the partners that are there have been there since the beginning and the pool of female VC’s is small 24:44 – With Foundry they focus on other things like advocacy activities and support of female GPs 25:10 – They constantly look for opportunities to invest in women; women in their portfolio has grown over the years 26:03 – They are taking action to participate and behave in a way that is consistent and supportive 25:25 – He is learning and wants to increase his understanding of the issues 27:30 – Brad’s thoughts on business-led apprenticeships 27:50 – The notion of apprenticeships is powerful; you want people to learn and grow despite whether you’d actually hire them 28:03 – The phrase “culture fit:” Hiring for “culture fit” is wrong, you should hire for “culture add” 28:20 – Find people that subscribe to your cultural norms but extend it with new thoughts, ideas, and perspectives; cultural fits decreases diversity characteristics 29:08 – Ask what you can invest in that will add to your experience and perspective instead of simply reinforce it; this can be at any level in your business that you see fit 29:52 – Example: Return Path company that he invested in 30:05 – The CTO’s wife had been out of the workforce for 10-15 years and when she tried to return, it was very difficult due to the “resume gap” 30:40 – Things in the workforce had changed so much as well (skills, technology, etc) 31:00 – Return Ships program: An internship program where they get back into the workforce, get paid, have a role, and hopefully get hired after the program 31:30 – Path Forward nonprofit does “Return Ships” and is doing well 32:00 – Change your culture by bringing in a different kind of person; they can add a new dimension to your organization and change the way it functions 32:24 – Brad’s view on the importance of community and the role of the entrepreneur in their community 33:46 – In EO from early 90s to late 90s, community wasn’t a category 34:00 – Entrepreneurs often feel too maxed out to invest time in their community 34:20 – Some entrepreneurs don’t have a frame of reference to understand what would give them joy in this context: His book coming out that discusses this is called “Give First” 34:55 – When you give first you don’t know what you are going to get back; get a bunch of people to give first so they can get back a significant amount 35:27 – Most successful communities of people have the giving characteristic; entrepreneurs can more clearly define the benefit to themselves 36:04 – Example: An entrepreneurial friend said he didn’t have time to give first and his biggest problem in business was that he couldn’t find any iOS developers 36:35 – He suggested a monthly iOS development meet-up where he could serve pizza, drinks, and beer to his iOS guy and his friends and connections 37:03 – After a year, he was doing well, was giving back to the community, the meet-up was successful and had grown, and his company was known as the one doing “cool iOS stuff” 27:30 – He didn’t know this would happen on day one, but it definitely benefited the business and community 37:46 – Most entrepreneurs spend 20-40% wasting their time; figure out how to spend 10% of your time doing something in the community 38:50 – The contribution to your community shouldn’t take away from you, it should feed your soul and give you joy 39:35 – Are there ways that people give that isn’t “correct”? 39:55 – On a personal level, Brad believes in Adam’s take in his book “Give and Take”: The people in life that are givers are happier and more successful 40:20 – If you are giving out of obligation rather than through radical self-inquiry, it won’t work for you or your success 41:25 – External reasons and justifications are not good or sustainable reasons; success in the absence of joy is pointless 42:31 – What is Brad’s view on depression? 42:37 – He talks openly about it because he believes it should be destigmatized 42:44 – Most entrepreneurs that he’s worked with have depression, anxiety, or simply low mental health 43:10 – The challenges of human society are nontrivial; he has clinical obsessive compulsive disorder and was very ashamed of it when he was diagnosed 43:45 – The shame is unhealthy and a societal norm that has been created; people have trouble accepting it and realizing that they can be successful and still manage these issues 44:25 – For Brad, he destigmatizes it by being open about it and discussing it with other entrepreneurs and their teenagers 45:18 – He helps entrepreneur parents understand their children 45:40 – This goes back to diversity; he can’t speak for women or people of color, but he can speak about his own diversities like his OCD and Jewish background 46:30 – He tries to learn, teach, and get rid of stigma and bias how he can 47:31 – Brad has had one suicidal ideation that he wrote about in his book “Startup Life” 47:40 – He and his wife made a rule that he would always tell her if he had suicidal thoughts 48:00 – The one time he had that thought, he told her and felt supported and safe 48:25 – His great-grandfather committed suicide during the Great Depression; he was an entrepreneur 49:00 – Processing this information helped him understand his own psychology, identify with it, and soften the relationship with it 49:58 – Speaking openly about mental health is important during the journey; EO groups have helped create the space for support in that realm 52:15 – He started the Boston and Colorado EO chapters; he was also very active in YEO   Key Points: Surround yourself with people who have been successful; work directly with others to help you execute better, and always participate in “radical self-inquiry.” When trying to raise capital, understand what you’re raising, why, and from whom; you must define your own next level. Contribute to your community in a way that feeds your soul and gives you joy.   Resources Mentioned: Entrepreneur's Organization – The EO Network Susan Brownmiller’s book - “Against our Will” Adam Grant’s book – “Give and Take” Brad’s book – “Startup Life”

Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding venture capital firm Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars, the global startup accelerator program that has incubated over 1,000 startups since inception that have collectively raised US$3.3B. In addition to his investing efforts, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations. He currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and on the boards of Path Forward, the Kauffman Fellows, and Defy Ventures. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He's written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals. Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from MIT. Brad is also an art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 24 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states. Brad provided a wealth of knowledge in the 50 or so minutes of time he was gracious enough to invest, but there were so many more questions I wanted to ask him on a number of topics so I’ll try and tee up a follow up interview in a few months time. In the interim, please enjoy what I hope will be part 1 of my interview with Brad Feld, recorded between 1 and 2am Melbourne time, so if I didn’t sound like I was 100% on top of my game, despite cranking out 100 pushups and downing an espresso before this interview, you now know why. Nonetheless, Brad brought the value bombs so please enjoy, the one and only, Brad Feld! ---- Topics Covered: Techstars Adelaide The Australian startup ecosystem What makes for a successful corporate accelerator The trend of large organisations paying massive premiums for startups to offset their corporate innovation woes Why being “the next Silicon Valley” does a disservice to Silicon Valley and the city making such bold proclamations Brad’s book, Venture Deals The #GiveFirst philosophy Depression in the startup ecosystem The digital Sabbath Show Notes: Feld Thoughts: Feld.com Foundrygroup.com Techstars.com Twitter: @bfeld Brad’s books on Amazon: Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist - https://amzn.to/2pdEESF   Startup Boards: Getting the Most Out of Your Board of Directors - https://amzn.to/2xkAoV9   Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City - https://amzn.to/2Mw1NJu   Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup - https://amzn.to/2p8HqZw   Startup Opportunities: Know When to Quit Your Day Job - https://amzn.to/2xlBhwZ   Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur - https://amzn.to/2p9yEdF   Brad Feld's Burning Entrepreneur - How to Launch, Fund, and Set Your Start-Up On Fire! - https://amzn.to/2OoiTup --- Join the conversation on Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/futuresquared/where you can discuss episodes, request guests, propose questions for forthcoming guests and access exclusive content and special offers! Listen on iTunes @ goo.gl/sMnEa0 Listen on Spotify @ spoti.fi/2G2QsxV Listen on Stitcher @ www.stitcher.com/podcast/future Listen on Google Play @ bit.ly/FSGoog ‍ If you've got any questions on this podcast feel free to send an email to steve@collectivecamp.us or tweet me on Twitter @steveglaveski or @future_squared Follow me on Instagram: @thesteveglaveski Like us? ‍ It'd make our day if you took 1 minute to show some love on iTunes, Stitcher or Soundcloud by subscribing, sharing and giving us a 5 star rating. ‍ To sign up to our mailing list head to www.futuresquared.xyz For more information on Collective Campus, our innovation hub, school and consultancy based in Australia and Singapore check out www.collectivecampus.io

BEST OF THE GAME CHANGER Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist Get the inside scoop on what venture capitalists want to see in your startup. Venture Deals provides entrepreneurs and startup owners with a definitive reference for understanding venture capital funding. More than an overview of the process, this book delves into the details of the term sheet, the players, the negotiations, the legalities, and more, including what not to do. This new third edition has been updated to reflect the new realities of today's intricate startup environment: you'll learn how the decisions are made, what every item on the term sheet means, what's up for negotiation, and what's not. You'll discover the secrets to expanding your prospects, negotiating the right deal for your company, and figuring out the right balance of funding versus control. You'll see the process through the eyes of the venture capitalist, the angel investor, the syndicate, and the lawyer, and develop a strategy that makes funding your company a win for all parties involved. Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. The Game Changer is featured on C-Suite Network. Chicke is a philanthropreneur • she zigs where others zag, creating value, growth and bringing to life crazy good ideas that will leave a legacy

Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld Get the inside scoop on what venture capitalists want to see in your startup. This on demand audio is a part of the The Game Changer Network Series. Chicke Fitzgerald interviews Brad Feld. The original live interview was 4/14/17. Venture Deals provides entrepreneurs and startup owners with a definitive reference for understanding venture capital funding. More than an overview of the process, this book delves into the details of the term sheet, the players, the negotiations, the legalities, and more, including what not to do. This new third edition has been updated to reflect the new realities of today's intricate startup environment: you'll learn how the decisions are made, what every item on the term sheet means, what's up for negotiation, and what's not. You'll see the process through the eyes of the venture capitalist, the angel investor, the syndicate, and the lawyer, and develop a strategy that makes funding your company a win for all parties involved. Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars. To order the book click HERE Brad's websites are http://www.feld.com/ and http://www.foundrygroup.com/team/brad-feld/

Ryan McIntyre is a Co-Founder @ Foundry Group, one of the leading VC funds of the last decade with investments in the likes of Fitbit, SendGrid and Makerbot. Prior to Foundry, Ryan started his career in VC at Mobius Venture Capital in January 2000.  While at Mobius Venture Capital, Ryan led the firm’s investments in Postini (acq. GOOG) and Sling Media (acq. DISH). Prior to Mobius, Ryan co-founded Excite in 1993, which went public in 1996 and later became Excite@Home following the $6.7 billion merger of Excite and @Home in 1999. At the time this acquisition was the largest internet transaction to date and created a company that achieved peak revenues of $616 million in 2000. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Ryan made his way into the wonderful world of VC and came to co-found Foundry? 2.) At what moment did Ryan realise that he wanted to be a VC rather than his previous life of an entrepreneur? What was the catalyst moment for Ryan? 3.) What does the investment decision making process look like @ Foundry Group? What are the benefits and challenges of implementing such a model? 4.) What are the fundamentals to creating a successful venture partnership? How important is differing skill sets and contrarian thinking? 5.) What makes the great board members to Ryan? How has Ryan seen his style of being a board member alter over the time he has been on boards? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Ryan’s Fave Book: Dune by Frank Herbert Investment Ryan Is Most Excited By: Sendgrid As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Ryan on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Intercom is the first to bring messaging products for marketing and customer support together on one integrated platform. With Intercom, businesses can chat directly with prospective customers on their website, engage current users with targeted messages based on their behavior, and provide personal support at scale with an integrated help desk and knowledge base. This is perfect for Businesses that want to help people visiting their website become customers. Marketing and growth teams that want to onboard and retain users by sending the right messages at the right time and Support teams that want to move beyond email to provide personalized, scalable support so simply head over to Intercom.com/20MVC Cooley are the global law firm built around startups and venture capital.  Since forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley, Cooley has formed more venture capital funds than any other law firm in the world, with 50+ years working with VCs. They help VCs form and manage funds, make investments and handle the myriad issues that arise through a fund’s lifetime. So to learn more about the #1 most active law firm representing VC-backed companies going public. Head over to cooley.com and also at cooleygo.com.

Jason Mendelson is Co-Founder @ Foundry Group, one of the leading VC funds of the past decade with investments in the likes of Fitbit, SendGrid and Makerbot just to name a few. Prior to Foundry Jason co-founded SRS Acquiom, the largest merger and acquisition closing platform that completed over $200Bn in merger transactions. Prior to co-founding SRS, Jason was a Managing Director and General Counsel for Mobius Venture Capital, where he also acted as its chief administrative partner overseeing all operations of the firm. If this was not enough Jason is also the Co-Author, alongside Brad Feld, of the best-selling book, Venture Deals: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer, a must read for all.   In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Jason made his way into the wonderful world of VC having been a lawyer? 2.) Why does Jason believe there is too much BS in VC? What does Jason think causes this opaqueness? How does he look to build a relationship of trust and clarity with his entrepreneurs? 3.) How has the rise of social media affected the transparency and BS element in VC and startups? How can entrepreneurs know when a VC is lying to them? What are the tells? 4.) Jason has previously said that some VC behaviour is 'rather narcissistic'. What does he mean by this? How would he like to see this change in the future? 5.) How does Jason look to optimise board meetings? What are the expectations of both founders and VCs prior to board meetings when it comes to preparation? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Jason’s Fave Book: Atlas Shrugged Jason’s Most Recent Investment: Borrowed and Blue As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Jason on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Intercom is the first to bring messaging products for marketing and customer support together on one integrated platform. With Intercom, businesses can chat directly with prospective customers on their website, engage current users with targeted messages based on their behavior, and provide personal support at scale with an integrated help desk and knowledge base. This is perfect for Businesses that want to help people visiting their website become customers. Marketing and growth teams that want to onboard and retain users by sending the right messages at the right time and Support teams that want to move beyond email to provide personalized, scalable support so simply head over to Intercom.com/20MVC Cooley are the global law firm built around startups and venture capital.  Since forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley, Cooley has formed more venture capital funds than any other law firm in the world, with 50+ years working with VCs. They help VCs form and manage funds, make investments and handle the myriad issues that arise through a fund’s lifetime. So to learn more about the #1 most active law firm representing VC-backed companies going public. Head over to cooley.com and also at cooleygo.com.

We’re very excited to have Brad Feld to help us kick off season two. In addition to co-founding Foundry Group and Techstars, Brad also co-founded Mobius Venture Capital in 1996. So he’s as qualified as anyone in the world to discuss starting venture firms, and that’s exactly what we did in this episode. Brad has already spoken at length about starting companies and angel investing, so we dug into getting a first fund off the ground, building a firm that’s consistent with one’s belief system, and investing as a personal LP into dozens of funds including Lowercase, SoftTech, Techstars, USV, and now institutionalizing that endeavor with Foundry Next.

Brad Feld is a true serial-entrepreneur. He’s co-founded the Foundry Group, Mobius Venture Capital, Intensity Ventures, and TechStars. He’s also a marathoner, and active writer with three very popular blogs:: Feld Thoughts, Startup Revolution, and Ask the VC. In his very … Continue reading → The post Control This – Brad Feld (Co-Founder Foundry Group, TechStars & more) appeared first on Paper Napkin Wisdom - Blog and Podcast For Entrepreneurs, Leaders, and Difference-Makers.

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

We had a chance to chat with Heidi Roizen of DFJ and hear her story and what she looks for in founders as well as how to manage key stages in a company's life. Heidi Roizen is the operating partner at DFJ. She has spent her life immersed in the Silicon Valley ecosystem as an entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, educator, and member of the boards of directors of private and public companies, trade associations and nonprofit institutions. After receiving her undergraduate and MBA degrees from Stanford University, Heidi co-founded T/Maker Company (an early personal computer software company) in 1983, where she served as CEO from inception through its acquisition by Deluxe Corporation in 1994. In 1996, Heidi joined Apple as vice president of worldwide developer relations. From there, Heidi entered the venture capital world, serving as a managing director of Mobius Venture Capital from 1999 to 2007. Heidi is also a Fenwick and West Entrepreneurship Educator in the Department of Engineering at Stanford University, where she teaches the course Spirit of Entrepreneurship. Heidi is a member of the boards of directors DMGT (LSE:DMGT), ShareThis, and Technorati, and serves on the advisory boards of Springboard Enterprises and the National Center for Women in Information Technology.

6/10/13 interview 1 Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of TechStars. He authored ''Start up Communities'' that focuses on building a start-up eco-system in your community and now owns a three-bedroom house in the Start Up Village in Kansas City and rents it free to a start up as a step in building the startup community.

Brad Feld sold his Boston startup and moved to Boulder Colo. in 1995. The city already had a bustling entrepreneurial community and Feld was soon in the thick of things. He co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and earlier Intensity Ventures a company that helped launch software companies. More recently he co-founded two early-stage venture capital firms -- the Foundry Group and TechStars -- which provide seed funding and angel investors. A startup community has to tap its ”natural resources ” he says in this Knowledge at Wharton interview. Feld is also the author of several books including Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City. (Podcast with transcript) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brad Feld is the co-founder of Foundry Group and Mobius Venture Capital. He reflects on key moments from his twenty-year history as an early stage investor and entrepreneur, most actively in the internet software space. Yale Entrepreneurial Institute Summer Fellowship Speaker Series: Brad Feld, co-founder of Foundry Group and Mobius Venture Capital.

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: An Interview with Heidi Roizen Managing Director, Mobius Venture Capital Date: August 15, 2007 NCWIT Interview with Heidi Roizen BIO: Heidi Roizen has spent her entire life in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Silicon Valley, first as an entrepreneur and ultimately as a venture capitalist helping other entrepreneurs build the great companies of tomorrow. She is currently a Managing Director of Mobius Venture Capital, a venture fund with over $2 billion under management. In that capacity, Heidi serves on the Boards of Directors of Reactrix, Ecast, Perpetual Entertainment and AuctionDrop. Heidi began her career in 1983 by co-founding T/Maker Company, a software publisher and developer for early personal computers including the IBM PC and the original Macintosh. As CEO, Heidi led the company for over a decade, raised two rounds of venture capital and ultimately consummated a successful acquisition of T/Maker by Deluxe Corporation. In 1996, she joined Apple Computer as VP of Worldwide Developer Relations. After one year at Apple, Heidi decided to return to her entrepreneurial roots, this time as a Mentor Capitalist and ultimately a Venture Capitalist. Heidi has also been actively involved in the trade associations critical to the Valley. She is a past president of the Software Publishers Association and served on its board from 1987 to 1994. She also represented the venture industry as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association from 2003 to 2007. She also served on the board of Great Plains Software from 1997 until its acquisition by Microsoft in 2001, and is a past Public Governor of the Pacific Exchange. She is also a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford as well as a speaker at conferences for technologists, entrepreneurs, or women executives. Heidi holds a BA and an MBA from Stanford University. She is married to orthopedic surgeon David Mohler and has two daughters. Lee Kennedy: Hi. This is Lee Kennedy, board member of the National Center for Women and Information Technology, or NCWIT. And this is part of a series of interviews that we're having with fabulous entrepreneurs, women who have started IT companies in a variety of sectors, all of whom had insightful stories to tell us about being entrepreneurs. With me, I have Larry Nelson, from w3w3.com. Hi, Larry. How are you doing? Larry Nelson: Oh, great. It's wonderful to be here again. And one of the things that is so exciting for us at w3w3.com is that we are helping support, I think, the most fabulous program that we've experienced since we got in the radio business in '98, and the idea that we're helping inspire young women, girls, getting into IT, looking into that, as well as being an entrepreneur. But now, we're also getting phone calls from business leaders, people in schools, who say, "This is such a great program. We'd like to help promote it, too." Lee: Well, that's wonderful. Larry: One of the interesting things that we have here that's a little bit of a twist is that we're interviewing an entrepreneur who became a venture capitalist, and also, of course, then, therefore works and helps support entrepreneurs. And we're very pleased that we're interviewing Heidi Roizen, who is a managing director of Mobius Venture Capital. And we've got a little bit of a twist here. Lee and I are here in Colorado, and Lucy Sanders, the CEO and founder of NCWIT, is in California, at Heidi's home base. So, Lucy, let's get started. Lucy Sanders: All right. Hi, everyone. I'm sitting here with Heidi in her beautiful home in Atherton. I've been here a few times, and I just think it's so much fun to be here and interview you here in your office. Heidi Roizen: Well, thank you. I hope the dogs don't participate. Lucy: Or they might. They might have something profound to say. Heidi: They often do. Lucy: One of the things that makes it so exciting to interview you is that when I think, about Silicon Valley, I think, about you. And I think that you're synonymous with Silicon Valley. You've done a lot, as Larry mentioned. You've started companies. You're in venture capital. You were educated here at Stanford. You're a part of the community... Heidi: I was actually born at the Stanford Hospital, which I think, I'm probably the only one in Silicon Valley... Lucy: And why don't you spend a minute or two bringing us up to speed about what you've been doing lately? Heidi: Well, I am currently serving on four boards. They keep me very busy. They are all companies that are definitely not in their "two guys and a dog and a laptop" stage any longer, but they're all still companies that aren't through to the end of the road yet. So, lots of interesting challenges in terms of recruiting, customer acquisition, strategic business development, and all the normal things one goes through in startup land. So, I'm working on those companies, and then I'm working on a few entrepreneurial ventures on the side, helping out some friends. I always love having my fingers in the very, very early stages, and so I like having a few of those to work on as well. Lucy: Well, and I happen to know you're very generous with your time for nonprofits and for Stanford students. Heidi: Yeah. Lucy: The last time I was here, we had a great dinner, where you brought them back to your home. And I think, you're going to have some great advice for us, so why don't we just get right to the interview? Heidi: OK. Lee: Well, Heidi, I'll jump in and ask our first question, and that's: how did you first get into technology? Was it when you were a child or in college? And then, what technologies do you think are really cool today? Heidi: OK. Well, the first question is one that I think, if you're born and raised in Silicon Valley, at this time ‑ born in 1958, graduated from Stanford, undergrad in 1980 ‑ you couldn't help but apply for a job and end up at a tech company. So, even though I was not a technologist ‑ in fact, my undergraduate degree is in creative writing ‑ I ended up as the editor of the company newsletter for a little startup called Tandem Computers. Lee: Wow. Heidi: And that's really where I got my first inkling that there was something really exciting about the computer industry. What I realized, at that time, was I kind of looked around, and everybody getting ahead either had an engineering degree or an MBA. And it was a little late for me to go get an engineering degree, I thought, but I figured the MBA thing looked like a pretty good idea. So, I went back to Stanford and got that, and really fell in love with personal computing at the time. It's hard for people... I mean, I sound like such an old geezer when I say this. But, I was the class of 1983, and there were only three people ‑ I was one of them ‑ who owned their own personal computer at school. And now, can you imagine being a graduate student and not having a personal computer? You'd be hopeless. So, started my company right out of school and just never looked back. I had the good fortune to have a brilliant programmer as a brother, who really didn't like the business side, and I loved the business side. And the thing I like to tell people, often, who are non‑technologists, who wonder about being in the technology field, I tell them, "You know, need a mix of people." I don't have to know how to build a car to drive one. And in fact, I'd say, particularly in my early times working with my brother, who was the genius programmer, sometimes he'd build features that were so genius that only he could use them, and they weren't very practical. So, I think, sometimes it's good to be the petunia in the onion patch, as I used to call it in the development hall. Lucy: Tell us a little bit about the technology that you're thinking about as being the next wave of technical, cool gadgets. Heidi: I think, gadgets is always a slippery slope, because there are gadgets that I just love. I mean, we're investors in Sidekick and Sling, so we definitely have some gadgets companies out there. If any of you have seen a Reatrix system in the malls and in the theaters, and the Reactive television systems, or an Ecast jukebox ‑ we've got tons of portfolio companies I can tell you about that all have exciting gadgets and technologies. To me, where I'm focused right now is I've been thinking a lot about the demographic that is me ‑ the woman who still wants to look good and feel good, who has more free time, who has more money, who, however, still has family obligations, has a career. We're hitting 50, and when our parents hit 50, we thought they were pretty much close to death... Heidi: Now, we are shocked to find that we are 50. And I think, what's interesting is that the Silicon Valley ‑ and it's a little bit like Hollywood ‑ get so focused on youth and the youth culture and the spending money that youths have and advertising to youths. And while I've got nothing against young people, I think that the people my age and women my age have been an underserved demographic, when it comes to utilizing the web as a medium for exchange, as a community, as an outlet for all sorts of things and a place to go learn about things. And I'm seeing more and more activities around that, and I can't tell you how many times... this is probably hitting all of my same‑age brethren entrepreneurs, but we're all sort of getting up and saying, "I don't really want to start the next teen cell phone. I really want to start something that my friends and I could use." And so I'm seeing a lot of really interesting companies come about, a lot that combine community with some of the really innovative things that can be done online. Lucy: Give it some time. Heidi: Yeah. Lucy: Give it some time. Larry: Yeah, you bet. I'm not that old yet. But, anyhow... Lee: That's right, Larry. Larry: They're laughing... Heidi: Somebody once asked me to predict the future of venture investing, and I said, "Just about the time we finally invest in the ultimate weight‑loss pill and the instant‑tan pill, culture will change so that it's not cool to be thin and it's not cool to be tan, and we'll lose again." Larry: Oh, boy. My personal friend, Mark Twain, said, "Youth is wasted on the young." Heidi: That's right. Larry: Anyhow. I can't help but ask this, Heidi. Many people don't look at venture capitalists as entrepreneurs, but anybody who is a managing director, believe me, they are entrepreneur. But, of course, Heidi has the background and experience of being an entrepreneur. She's now continuing to support and work with entrepreneurs. What is it about you that makes this all happen? And what makes it tick, in terms of an entrepreneur? Heidi: Well, there are so many answers. And I've had the pleasure to listen to many of your wonderful speakers on this series before myself, and I think, a lot of things have been mentioned about tenacity and creativity and mission and a passion about what you're doing. There are so many things that I can think of. And of course, if you look me up on LinkedIn, I refer to myself as a "recovering entrepreneur," which is a little bit of an inside joke at Mobius. We're recovering entrepreneurs. Heidi: I think, what I had to learn, going from being an entrepreneur to being a venture capitalist, is it's like being the quarterback and then being the coach. When you're a venture capitalist, you do work behind the scene, you do help a lot. But, they're sort of not your losses, and they're not your victories. And if you're doing your job right, the entrepreneur is on the cover of "Time" magazine, not you. When you're an entrepreneur, the buck stops here. It's funny. I just went on a walk with a fellow entrepreneur of mine, and he was talking about a friend who used to be a vice president of a big company and is now the CEO of a small company, and one of the things he was saying to her is, "Now you understand how the buck really stops here." Heidi: And I think, for me, what really defines an entrepreneur is something that somebody said to me once. When I was running T/Maker, we had this product line called ClickArt, which is still around today, and it's basically electronic clip art. But, you have to remember, when we did that product in 1984, there were no scanners; there was no PostScript; there was no anything. We were literally sitting artists down, at 128K max. We didn't even have a stylus. They were drawing with the mouse in 72 DPI to create electronic clip art. I mean, that's as basic as it was. And when we shipped that product, I remember staying at a trade show, and I can't remember how many people came up to me and said, "Wow! You know, I thought of that, too." Right? And in the back of my mind, I thought, "Yeah, you thought of it. But, we did it." Heidi: And I think, for most of these things, it's that "one percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration." There are so many ideas that just die on the vine because a person doesn't go out and try to actually do them. They think they're a cool idea, but other things get in the way and they don't really work hard at it. And not only do they not work hard at the creative process, but the process I'll loosely call is the destructive process. With entrepreneurs, one of the things I respect the most is, when you come up with an idea, that instead of working on it for the first five days about how you're going to accomplish it, you spend five days trying to prove that it's already been done or it's not doable ‑ not because you're being pessimistic, but before you engage in the creative process, sometimes you have to go and say, "What else is already out there?" And one of my pet peeves as a venture capitalist is when somebody comes and pitches me an idea, and I say, "Have you ever heard about blahblah.com?" And they go, "What's that?" And I get on and I show them, and it's the exact company they were talking about building, but it already exists. My feeling is, today, particularly with Google and other search engines and the Internet, you can find a lot of this stuff out there, and you need to go out and look. But, I do think, ultimately, a long and winding answer, but the short answer is it's like Nike, man. It's "just do it." If you just do it, that's the only way to be an entrepreneur. If you're not willing to just do it, you're never going to be an entrepreneur. Lee: That is such great advice, Heidi, because so many people, even when they just go out and do it, it's not that first idea that they even end up doing sometimes. It's just having the guts to get out there and start the business and get in that industry and figure out what it is. Heidi: That's right. And ask a lot of questions and meet a lot of people and kiss a lot of frogs. Larry: Yeah. Heidi: It's always easy, in retrospect, to say, "Why did I take that meeting with that person?" But you don't know because, just as likely, you could take a meeting with another person. And I just had something happen this weekend, where I was helping someone on a music project. And we were talking to someone who was totally unrelated, and they just said, "Oh, what are you up to?" Totally unrelated to the music industry. And we told him what we were doing, and he said, "Hey, I'm good friends with..." And I won't name the names because it's all proprietary, but let's just say one of the most Grammy‑winning artists in the world. And he said, "I'll give him a call tomorrow and see if he's interested in helping you with this." So, it's like one of those random, like that's not what we were even there to talk about. But, that's how the conversation ended up going, and it could take us in a really exciting direction. You just never know when that kind of serendipitous stuff is going to occur. Lucy: Your remark about 1984, when you were doing T/Maker and you had to have the ClickArt, I just have to go back to that for a moment and say, in 1984, we were trying to draw things in P‑Roth inside... Lucy: That's not revolutionary. Heidi: Yeah, yeah. I remember the first time I showed my husband QuickTime, whenever it came out ‑ 1989, whatever. And I'd bring home my file, because we were under nondisclosure with Apple. And I'd show him this postage‑sized, grainy thing, and he goes, "Wow. I am really underwhelmed." Heidi: For me, as a computer geek, it was so exciting to see television on a computer. And for him, he was like, "Uh, honey? Have you looked at our TV set? It's like a lot better than this." Lucy: Because I know you, I think that one of the things that makes you a great entrepreneur is, in fact, you see potential, and you're willing to take the risk to develop the potential. Heidi: Yeah. It does make one quite dangerous. It's that joke about the person who buys houses because they see the good in every house. And I tend to be a person who sees the upside in things. Which I think, again, in order to be an entrepreneur, you have to be an optimist. You have to believe things are going to work out your way. But, you have to be realistic. And that's where I, again, for lack of a better word, call it the destructive process ‑ testing your idea, going out and thinking about the boundary cases: "What's the worse that could happen here? What's the worse that could happen here? How am I going to prepare for it?" And also going out and really combing the markets to make sure that what you're doing is unique, or, if not unique, that you're going to be the best somehow. Lucy: Well, along the way ‑ you've been here in Silicon Valley. You were born here. Heidi: Yeah. Lucy: And you've got a great network. And we are really curious to also understand who helped you the most. Who would you look to as being your mentor? Heidi: I was very fortunate to be born into a family where entrepreneurship was not a bad thing. I think, it's one of the things that makes California such a great place and will play a continuing role in the world economy is because we are just a culture, for 150‑plus years, of people striking out and doing something on their own, and failure not meaning social failure. You can be a business failure and still hold your head up and go to your kids' school and not be embarrassed about it. Lucy: "I failed today." Heidi: "I failed today." It's part of the process. I think that, for me, my father was a great role model for me because he was an entrepreneur. He was always thinking. He would say things to me like, "Today is the best day of my life because I have every day before today that I can draw on what I learned to apply to today." So, he was just that kind of person. And he wasn't like Mr. Rogers. I mean, he was just a great role model about how one could look for the opportunity in everything. And he was a very poor immigrant. I think, he graduated from high school. I'm not really sure. His dad died when he was 12, and he had to make money for the family to make ends meet. I mean, he had one of those really hard upbringings that made him very grateful and thankful, and very creative and resourceful. And he treated me like one of the boys. He never said to me, "Oh, you're a girl. You shouldn't do this," or "You can't go to graduate school," or "You can't do anything." In fact, if I said I couldn't do something because of being a woman, he would scoff at me. And my brothers joke that I'm the most like him... Heidi: So, he actually made me in his image, not my brothers. But, I was very lucky about that. I was very lucky, also, just to be in the computer industry in the late '70s and early '80s, because I really did get to grow up with the people who are the leaders in the industry. And so somebody said to me, "Wow! How did you get to be friends with Bill Gates?" And it's like, "Well, started 25 years ago." [laughs] Heidi: He was easier to get to then. But, it's things like that, that I think, I just had the great fortune to have a front‑row seat and be a participant in an industry that I really believe has changed the world. So, it gave me a lot of opportunities to learn from other people and have mentors and role models. Lee: So, Heidi, when you think about all you've done in your career ‑ building your own companies, being an investor ‑ what has been the toughest thing you've had to do in your career? Heidi: You know, you face so many tough challenges when you are the CEO and "the buck stops here." Someone once said to me, "Gosh, you're so lucky. You're the CEO. You have so much freedom." And I laughed, and I said, "You don't understand that when you're the CEO, you have the least freedom, because you can't just quit." I raised that money. I hired every one of these people. I gave those venture capitalists my commitment that I was going to bring it home for them. I'm not just going to walk out the door. I remember walking into my company every day. We had about 100 employees. And I would count the cars in the parking lot, and I would think about the car payments and the mortgage payments... Heidi: Everything that was dependent on this company. And so I would say, still, to this day, that the hardest thing you have to do is lay people off. I mean, the hardest thing you have to do is downsize your firm. It's not as hard to fire someone. This is an interesting thing. I would much rather terminate somebody for cause than lay people off because we can't afford it. When you terminate someone for cause ‑ and "for cause" is a real legal term. I don't want to use the legal definition of that. But, what I really mean is, when somebody's not a good fit for the job they're in, I find that it's really in their best interest to tell them and get them to move on to something else. And while that is sometimes hard, I think, it's the right thing to do, and I think, it's the right thing to do for the person. And I've often found that you check in with them a couple years later, they're better off where they are, even though this can be very difficult. I do think, going through the dot‑com bust and having to lay people off, knowing that there wasn't going to be another job they could just waltz into, was a really, really hard thing to do. To me, those were the hardest things I ever had to do. In fact, my T/Maker employees still joke about this time where we had our first loss ever and we had to lay off some people, and it was Christmas. I was about four‑months pregnant. I said to my husband, "I've got to do it myself. I hired all these people. I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to give each one of them the news." So I'm in my office, and they're coming in, or I'm going to their offices. And I'm pregnant, and so the hormones coursing through my veins. So, I am sobbing through these terminations, and they are comforting me. Heidi: They feel sorry for me. But, I have to lay them off. Sobbing, sobbing, sobbing. And I say to my husband, "This is the worst business day of my life, where I'm terminating some people who've been with me five, six years, and I just feel terrible. And it's Christmas, and I had to tell them, 'No bonuses for you guys, and you're getting laid off.'" I said, "Please go to Blockbuster and rent a funny movie so that when I get home, I can take my mind off of it." So, I come home, and what had he rented, but Chevy Chase's "Christmas Vacation." Heidi: And I don't know if you guys have seen this, but of course, the whole story is about a guy who believes he's getting a Christmas bonus and builds a swimming pool or something, and then he doesn't get the bonus, and he ends up kidnapping his boss. Heidi: It was just one of those moments: I just didn't know whether to laugh. I'll never forget that moment. I still cry when I see that show. It was on TV last Christmas, and I'm like crying through it. My kids are looking at me. They're like, "Mom, it's a comedy." Not for me. Lucy: Not for me. In fact, my answer to this question is the same. I think that laying people off is clearly one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do. Heidi: Absolutely. Lucy: We've heard a lot of great advice so far in this interview from you about entrepreneurship, and the Nike "just do it," and who cares if you've thought about it? Just get it done. Heidi: Yeah. Lucy: And other types of advice around doing your homework and seeing the potential. If you were sitting right here with a young person and you were giving them advice about entrepreneurship, what else would you tell them? And one of the things that comes to mind is a conversation we had sometime about networking. Heidi: Yeah. Lucy: And I thought you had some of the best advice about networking that I've ever heard. Heidi: Well, I have a ton of advice about networking. I'm a little typecast as a networking speaker because Harvard did a case on me a number of years ago that really is about my philosophy of networking. And when they approached me to do the case, I said, "Why would anyone want a case on this? It's all just common sense." It's kind of like that book: "Everything I needed to know about networking, I learned in the second grade." But, it's just commonsense and practical and courtesy. And so, they did do this case, and I do speak on the case a lot. And my fundamental belief is that it's very rare that anything happens as a singular effort. Yeah, you can go climb ‑ well, even climbing Mount Everest, it's a team, right? And entrepreneurship is a team sport with very many lonely moments. So, you have to be the one. I'm working on this project with someone. I got up at four o'clock in the morning a couple of days ago because I thought of something, and I knew if I waited till morning, it wasn't going to be the same. So, I had to get up and come down here and sit at the computer for an hour and write up my thoughts while they were fresh. I think, there are a lot of times when you're just singularly approaching something, but I think, you have to know how to ask for help, and how to give help. Students say this to me all the time, they say, "Well, I don't have anything to give." You always have something to give, everyone has something to give. Good lord, you can come and talk to me and baby‑sit my children while you're talking me. I had one guy who traded me, I would talk to him about his business and he was a personal trainer, so he would train me while I was talking to him about his business. Heidi: And I think that one of the errors that people make in networking is they try to hard to gather business cards, and they don't think about "What is my connection with this other person, and what do I have to give them? What in return am I going to ask them for?" Again, I will bring it back to this other comment, a lot of times you don't know how the other person is going to help you, and you're not quite sure always how you're going to help them. Sometimes, it's quite surprising, but if you put yourself open to that, and you use some of the modern tools ‑ like I've become a real LinkedIn convert, because I love being able to get on LinkedIn and see who my friends know that I might want to talk to about industries completely foreign to me and vice versa. If somebody has a good friend from college who now wants to do something in the out of home advertising market and sees I'm on the board of Aventure and would like to talk to me. I don't mind doing that stuff because I sort of feel like there's this great, you know, we all help each other in this community and I'm a little bit of a believer in that kind of pay it forward. It's interesting right now because in Aventure I'm working closely on, I have to reach out and ask for a lot of favors, and I've been very aware that for a lot of my current roles in life I'm the one that asks for the favors than asked. Now that I'm doing the asking it's interesting, I'm uncomfortable. I'd much rather do a favor for someone else than ask somebody for a favor. It's my nature, and it's the nature of many people. But, I think that you have to get good at understanding "What am I asking for? Is it appropriate for me to ask it? Is the person capable of delivering it? Is it an appropriate amount of time for them to send and do something for me? And what could I possibly do for them?" I always try to make sure that people know I'm quite open to doing something for you in exchange, and by the way, no is a perfectly good answer, too. If I ask you a favor and the answer is no, just tell me no. I'm very comfortable with that. Lucy: That's great advice because so many people they really are either afraid to network, or don't know how to network, and that just makes it really clear. Heidi: Networking is also very awkward; somebody from Stanford called me up once and said, "Can I network with you?" What is that is that like my pen pal or something? Lucy: Just network. Heidi: Let's say you want to meet someone, and I guess, with the powers of Google and the Internet and all that, you might want to meet some important person. If you have no context, it's going to be a very fruitless conversation. But, every one of them, their kids go to school, they are on a charitable board, they may enjoy a certain kind of athletic activity. I'm not saying become a stalker, but generally, for example, if you want to get to know a person and they happen to be on the board of a charitable organization go find out what the annual fundraiser is on that charitable organization and volunteer to work at it. Chances are you're going to be able to meet that person over time if you get involved in something like that. And, by the way, you're doing something good too. That's again, one of the powers of Silicon Valley ‑ both good and bad ‑ you've got to be careful, you've got to find out if other moms and dads on the soccer sidelines have MBAs because everybody's kind of in this business. Heidi: It is interesting that you have so many different places where you meet and run into people, and so many people I do business with are friends of mine in other context. Lucy: So Heidi, you had talked earlier in the interview about different characteristics that you thought were really important to help entrepreneurs grow and build companies, but when you think about yourself, what are some of your personal characteristics that you have that have helped you to be successful as an entrepreneur? Heidi: Certainly tenacity. I mean, I'm very tenacious about... you put me on something I'm on a mission and I'm not going to let it go. I like to learn new things, so I like to push myself and try to learn something new. I think, when you're constantly learning it helps you get a better job, [laughs] and in so many areas. I'm definitely a people person, I love talking with people, I love meeting people. I'm very comfortable asking people for their opinions and I think, I'm a pretty good listener. So, I think that that also helps me be an entrepreneur, because you learn from other people, you gather opinions, you mold what you're doing. Frankly, it helps you in terms of going back to asking for favors, giving favors, recruiting people. People generally want to work with people they like and people they respect, which is another thing. My belief is that I'm going to be in this world for, I hope, a pretty long time. One thing I've learned being almost 50 and being in the Valley all this time is that you run into the same people over and over and over again. So, don't burn a bridge unless you've decided that's the best course of action. I like to sleep at night. I don't like to do bad deals, and I don't like to squeeze the last nickel out of somebody just because I have the upper hand. I like to live that way. While there's always different opinions about anything you do, I try to test everything. Does this match my ethics? Can I sleep at night? If my husband or my kids knew I did this, would they think less of me as a person? I like to live that way. I think, an entrepreneurship is not a zero sum game. Your gain doesn't have to come out of somebody else's loss. Larry: Boy, I'll say. You know, Heidi, one thing I've learned to do is that I'm going to call you "Coach" from now on. I just want to clarify one little thing. You said something earlier about kissing the frogs, or was it kissing your dogs? Heidi: Yeah, kissing frogs. Although frogs wish it was kissing dogs. Larry: Yeah. And you also just mentioned that you should ask for help. Do you want to introduce me to Bill Gates? Heidi: No. Larry: No. OK. Heidi: That's a good one you bring up, because it is one of those, how do you manage a relationship towards a person who's very important or famous? One thing I had to decide early on is, I just set certain rules. And I've gotten very comfortable saying "No" to people. So, people will say to me, "Can you introduce me to Bill Gates?" And the answer is, "No, I can't," because if I did that for everybody, they would.... And the hardest part is people thinking, "I have the best charity in the world. I have something that would be so interesting to the Foundation. Please help me get to the right person. Can you please send this to Bill and Melinda?" And I say no. One of the things that gives me comfort in saying no is that I say, "Look my own husband runs a charitable organization called Refugee Relief that does medical assistance in countries under conflict. He'd be a perfect candidate, and he hasn't even asked Bill and Melinda for money." One of the things I try to do is live by my own rules. The other thing I try to do is, for example, when I sold a company from my portfolio to Microsoft I didn't even talk to Bill about it. I'm not going to mention, "Hey, I'm selling one of my portfolio companies" to him. It's not relevant. I really try to respect that, particularly people who are in positions like Bill where everyone's approaching you all of the time, you need to be respectful of the pressures on that person's time. I think, that's one of the reasons why Bill and Melinda and I have a good and long‑standing relationship. They know that I respect that there needs to be boundaries there, because they don't have the luxury of living normal lives. Larry: Yeah, that's fact. By the way, of course, you know I was just saying that to.... Heidi: Oh, I know. Larry: However, last week we interviewed Brad Feld and he did say, "Hi to Heidi." Heidi: Oh, that's so sweet. I adore Brad. Larry: All right. Let me ask you this question. In your approach to your professional life, you do so many things. How do you bring about balance? Heidi: That's an excellent question. If you'd like I can bring my 12 and 14 year olds in here right now to continue the counterpoint to that. Larry: oh. Heidi: I do try to set limits. In my house, although we have wireless access, I'm not the person who walks around with my laptop and uses it everywhere. We certainly have a "no laptop in the bedroom" rule. I don't tend to watch TV and do email at the same time. I have a home office that I come in to do my work and then I try to leave it. I also try to have a commitment with my kids. If I say, "I'm going to stop working at seven," then I'm going to stop working at seven. I mix business and pleasure a lot. I have a lot of social engagements with people. I have a lot of people over for dinner. I try to engage my kids in some of that, because luckily at their ages they find some of that very interesting. In one of the projects I'm working on right now, I ask them for advice a lot. I've been able to pick their brains a lot about it. And they've been really great. I tell them, you know, if I'm having a bad day, you know I had a bad day about a legal contract I was working on. And because it didn't get done I missed a window of production for something. And I said to them, they said you know, "Why are you in such a bad mood?" And instead of saying something like, "Well, I had a bad day at work." I said, "Well, let me explain to you. This company needs a piece of paperwork before we can contract this production facility. We didn't get the piece of paperwork. Now because this production facility can only do things in, you know, they have another client the next three weeks that pushed me out a month. So, here's a one day delay on a contract that's going to cost me a three week delay on the production. And that's why I'm so mad about this today." And so that what is the thing? A teachable moment right? You know, I try to bring them in to the things that I'm doing. But, it is important sometimes to just close the door and say, "I'm sorry I'm not going to do this." I try very hard not to schedule meetings on the weekends. I try very hard not to schedule meetings at night. I try to really limit my travel because it is very disruptive to my family when I travel. And so, I try to make accommodations. Lucy: Well, and your daughters are wonderful. And having seen them at a couple of dinners. I mean the integration works really well. Heidi: They're pretty cute. Yeah. Lucy: They're pretty cute. It works really well because they get to see a lot of different people over here. Heidi: Yes they do. Lucy: That they wouldn't ordinarily see. They lead unusual lives. Heidi: We had a nice conversation about Norwegian and other things this morning. So, it was very good. Lucy: They were very funny. Heidi: And they do provide very funny moments. One time actually, Bill and Melinda were coming over for dinner. And Nicky was playing on her Xbox. And she knew Bill was coming over and said like "Can I have him sign my Xbox?" "Oh, I guess, you can ask him to sign your Xbox." Which she didn't ultimately do when he came over because she was too embarrassed. But, she said to me, "Microsoft, yeah, they make the Xbox. Do they make any other products?" And I just had to laugh. Heidi: You know, the eyes of a thirteen year old is like all they make is the Xbox. Lucy: Well you really have achieved a lot. And you have front row seats to a lot. And I have no doubt, fifty or not, that you are going to be on the front row for many, many years. Heidi: Not done yet. Lucy: Not done yet. So, tell us what's next for you. Heidi: Oh, I'm so excited about what I'm doing. But, I can't tell you. Sorry. Lucy: I'm going to jump across the desk and strangle her. Heidi: I know. I know. I am. You know I'm continuing to do my work with Mobee and then a company that we work on. And Brad and Jake my partners there. I mean, you know, we have a great relationship and I'm enjoying that. But, I am definitely an entrepreneur at heart. In fact I've been thinking, at some point on my link and profile. Right now, it says venture capitalist and recovering entrepreneur. And someday soon it's going to say "Relapsed entrepreneur and venture capitalist" because I just can't help myself. Heidi: So, I just started a little company. I actually funded it yesterday. I'm fortunate enough to have provided my own seed capital. I joke to my husband. I said, "It's very important tonight because we're having cocktails with my lead investor," which of course was me. [laughter] So, we laughed about that. So, I have a little start up that I'm working on, which I will hope to tell you all about really soon. But, it's not quite baked enough yet. So, you'll just have to wait. Lucy: I just hope it's about fifty year old women. Heidi: You will, you will buy one of these products. Well, I'm going to give you one. And Lucy. Larry Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Heidi RoizenInterview Summary: Born and raised in Silicon Valley, Heidi spent the first part of her career founding and growing tech companies. Now she enjoys helping entrepreneurs build companies as a coach instead of a player. Release Date: August 15, 2007Interview Subject: Heidi RoizenInterviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry Nelson, Lee KennedyDuration: 34:33

Some venture capitalists keep a low profile, preciously guard their e-mail addresses from needy entrepreneurs and put on a jacket for publicity photos. Not Brad Feld. Brad started his career building his own technology consulting company with nothing but $10 and a 19-year-old’s ambition.…

Download the MP3. Some venture capitalists keep a low profile, preciously guard their e-mail addresses from needy entrepreneurs and put on a jacket for publicity photos. Not Brad Feld. Brad started his career building his own technology consulting company with nothing but $10 and a 19-year-old's ambition. He grew his business to the level that it was an appetizing acquisition target, worked a bit for the company that acquired his firm doing acquisitions for them, did some angel investing, and is now a managing director at Mobius Venture Capital. All along, he's been vigorously growing businesses -- and sharing his know-how through his popular blog -- and now on this show. Show notes: