Podcasts about national venture capital association

Episode Info Debbie Brackeen leads CSAA Insurance Group in strategy, partnerships, innovation and venture investing. She has more than 25 years of experience and leadership at innovative high-tech companies, including Apple, Sun, HP, and eBay, and, most recently, serving as the global head of innovation at Citigroup. She has served as an adviser to the Astia Technology Committee since 2008, and was an adviser on the corporate board of the National Venture Capital Association. Ms. Brackeen earned a degree in American Studies from Stanford University and has completed executive programs at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, INSEAD and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.   Highlights from the Show The video features a discussion with David, who has over 35 years of experience in the insurance industry, focusing on casualty underwriting and management. He currently serves as the Head of Casualty at Argo Group, where he oversees various liability lines, including primary and excess casualty, environmental liabilities, construction liabilities, and workers' compensation. The conversation highlights Argo's niche focus on the U.S. market, with some operations in Bermuda, and its recent acquisition by Brookfield Wealth Solutions. David shares insights into the challenges faced by the Casualty insurance sector, such as social inflation, litigiousness in the U.S., and the economic viability of Casualty lines. He discusses the importance of capacity management and the need for insurance carriers to be nimble in managing their portfolios. The conversation also touches on the impact of distracted driving on auto insurance claims and the necessity for the industry to adapt to changing conditions. The video concludes with a discussion on the future of the insurance industry, emphasizing the need for innovation and the importance of attracting new talent to sustain the industry. David expresses optimism about the industry's ability to adapt and continue providing necessary coverage despite current challenges. Episode Summary The video features a discussion on the strategic implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within a corporate setting, specifically focusing on the insurance industry. The conversation is led by Debbie Brackeen, who heads innovation and corporate development at CSAA Insurance Group, a part of the AAA insurance companies in the US.  Key Points AI Strategy and Implementation: The focus is on harnessing the power of Generative AI (Gen AI) to transform business operations and create sustainable business value. The strategy involves embedding AI as a strategic capability within the company to gain a competitive advantage. AI in Insurance: The conversation highlights the potential of AI to revolutionize the insurance industry by improving efficiency and accuracy in claims processing and underwriting. The use of AI is seen as a way to manage both structured and unstructured data more effectively. Challenges and Opportunities: There is an acknowledgment of the challenges posed by AI, such as the need for governance, controls, and regulatory compliance. However, the potential benefits, such as faster claims processing and better customer service, are emphasized. Future Outlook: The discussion reflects optimism about the future impact of AI, comparing its transformative potential to that of the Internet. There is a belief that AI will lead to new job roles and opportunities, rather than just eliminating existing ones. Overall, the video provides insights into how AI is being strategically integrated into business processes to enhance efficiency and create new opportunities within the insurance sector. This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

The U.S. Congress and the executive branch have an extraordinary level of influence over all aspects of business. Yet, as businesses have become ever more complex, the gap in knowledge between legislators and regulators has dramatically increased. That pattern is even more evident when it comes to high-scale startups and the venture capital industry, a weird niche of the investment world that even other financiers often struggle to grok. So what do you do to help DC understand our little world?That's where Bobby Franklin and his team come in. Franklin is the president of the National Venture Capital Association, the trade body that represents the VC industry in DC. He's helmed the organization for more than a decade, and has experienced the constant treadmill of presidents, members of Congress and staffers as he advocates for the VC model of entrepreneurship.Joining host Danny Crichton and Riskgaming director of programming Laurence Pevsner, the three of us discuss the Trump Administration's first one hundred days as well as the prospective legislative slate for Congress, including tax hikes and cuts, R&D spending, antitrust, SEC rules and more. We also talk about the rise of new organizations like the Foundation for American Innovation and the Little Tech Competition Summit and how they play a role in the policy process.

Just like Godzilla and Frankenstein were misunderstood, so is the case with tax breaks on carried interest, according to those who benefit from it. Some would characterize venture capital as a high-risk business, and the economic incentives of carried interest make it worthwhile.Congress has attempted to kill the carried interest tax loophole, but Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of the National Venture Capital Association, has used his role to interrupt those measures. Sand Hill Road Host Scott McGrew spoke with Franklin to learn more about the state of the industry and why carried interest tax breaks are so important to venture capital. Sand Hill Road is hosted by Scott McGrew and produced and edited by Andrew Mendez. Sara Bueno manages NBC Bay Area's digital platforms. Stephanie Adrouny is the station's news director. If you'd like to get in touch, email us at sandhillroad@nbcuni.com or on any social media platform at @nbcbayarea.

The state of venture capital appears to be rocky at the moment.  A report from PitchBook Data and the National Venture Capital Association highlights potential weakness ahead in the venture industry. The Pitchbook/NVCA Venture Monitor First Look report showed fewer active investors and high deal counts but repeat investing.  What does that mean for the Bay Area?  Sand Hill Road Host Scott McGrew spoke with Kyle Stanford, the Lead venture capital Analyst at PitchBook, to learn more about the report and its local impacts.Sand Hill Road is hosted by Scott McGrew and produced and edited by Andrew Mendez. Sara Bueno manages NBC Bay Area's digital platforms. Stephanie Adrouny is the station's news director. If you'd like to get in touch, email us at sandhillroad@nbcuni.com or on any social media platform at @nbcbayarea.

On todays episode, Brenda speaks with Marcia Dawood. Marcia is a passionate advocate for positive change in empowering and educating everyone on how to invest. Her book "Do Good While Doing Well – Invest For Change, Reap Financial Rewards and Increase Your Happiness", is due out in September 2024 and this episode provides previews to our listeners.  Brenda and Marcia speak about Purpose: Doing Good While Doing Well. How Marcia lives her purpose is as an author, host of the podcast The Angel Next Door, Chair Emeritus of (ACA)Angel Capital Association, the global professional society for angel investors, and on the board of Stella, a non-profit that supports female entrepreneurs. She is also a Venture partner at Mindshift Capital, and she currently serves on the SEC Securities and Exchange Commission's Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee.  You can find out more about Marcia at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marciadawood/ marcia@marciadawood.com Watch her Tedx Talk here Order her Book here Interview with Catherine Gray host of She Angels Series- Invest in Her: You can subscribe to Next Act Advisors at https://nextactadvisors.com/product/subscriptions/ and be sure to use the special discount code "sandbox25" for friends of The Founder's Sandbox for 25% off your subscription.   Transcript: 00:04 We're standing on the edge of something big. We're going to make some changes. Hi, I'm pleased to announce something very special to me, a new subscription-based service through Next Act Advisors that allows members exclusive access to personal industry insights and bespoke 00:32 corporate governance knowledge. This comes in the form of blogs, personal book recommendations, and early access to the founder's sandbox podcast episodes before they released to the public. If you want more white glove information on building your startup with information like what was in today's episode, sign up with the link in the show notes to enjoy being a special member of Next Act Advisors. 01:01 As a thank you to Founders Sandbox listeners, you can use code SANDBOX25 at checkout to enjoy 25% off your membership costs. Thank you. 01:18 So welcome back to the Founder's Sandbox. I am Brenda McCabe, host of this monthly podcast now in its third season. This monthly podcast that reaches entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs and business owners who learn about building resilience, scalable and sustainable businesses with great corporate governance. I want to assist entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in building those scalable, well-governed and resilient businesses. And by way of 01:47 inviting guests to the podcast who are themselves founders, business owners, corporate directors, investors, and professional service providers who also share my mission, which is using the power of the private enterprise, be that small meeting at large to create change for a better world. Through storytelling with my guests on topics that are going to include resilience, purpose-driven, and sustainable growth, 02:16 My goal through this podcast is to provide a fun sandbox environment where we can equip one startup founder at a time to build a better world through great corporate governance. I'm absolutely delighted today. My guest is Marsha Dalwood. She's joining the podcast. She checks a lot of boxes, but she's today joining as a passionate advocate for positive change by empowering and educating 02:45 everyone on how to invest. So when I met Marcia back in February through one of our events with Ty So Kow, she had launched or was speaking about launching her book that's coming out on September 10th, Do Good While Doing Well, Invest for Change, Reap Financial Rewards, and Increase Your Happiness. I couldn't help but ask her to be a guest because she also has 03:14 passion or a mission, and that is for positive change. And one of many things she's done is authoring this book, which we'll get into a sneak preview of the contents of this book before its launch on September 10th, 2024. I like to choose a title with my guests that are around purpose or sustainability or resilience. And we chose a title for this episode 03:43 which is purpose, do good while doing well. So thank you today for joining me, Marcia. So happy to have you here in the Founder Sandbox. Oh, I'm so happy to be here. Excellent. So, you know, our paths crossed, I mentioned it earlier at the Thai SoCal chapter, the Indus Entrepreneurs SoCal chapter, where you spoke recently on some of the data coming out 04:13 the Angel Capital Association, as well as your role with the SEC. Before I get into my first question, I did want to give my listeners your entire background, your biography. It's very impressive and very extensive. You live your purpose as a multifaceted professional, your author of the book that I just mentioned, Do Good While Doing Well. 04:43 You are also a host of a podcast, The Angel Next Door. You are chair emeritus of Angel Capital Association, ACA. It's a global professional society for angel investors. And you're on the board of Stella, a nonprofit that supports female entrepreneurs. You're also a venture partner at MindShift Capital, and you currently serve on the SEC. 05:10 Securities and Exchange Commission's Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee. So thank you for bringing your expertise here into this podcast today. Well, thank you for having me. So can you share for my listeners some of the highlights you walked us through in February while distinguishing the role of an angel investor, a range of fund groups versus VC? 05:37 I mean, some of the trends you're seeing in the markets. Sure. Well, to put it very basically, an angel investor is somebody who writes checks out of their own checkbook. A venture capitalist will pool funds from other people, so they're using other people's money. And therefore, they're held to certain standards, and they're held to certain financial returns that their investors are expecting. 06:06 So angels, while we also of course would love and expect a financial return, we invest in the things that we really care about and are very passionate about. And we don't necessarily have the same time horizons and the same guidelines that venture capitalists do, which makes us a little bit more plausible for being immutable for being able to do certain things and invest in the way that we want to. So, 06:34 Over the last two years, especially maybe even going on two and a half now, the market has been very challenging for entrepreneurs to fundraise at any stage. The market has been very challenging for exits and liquidity. So angel investing or investing in early stage private companies means that you're investing in a company that is not. 07:01 publicly traded on the stock market, like you would see a stock like Apple or something like that. Got it. In order for the investor to have any type of liquidity, there has to be an event. Either the company is sold, or in rare instances, the company would go onto a public stock market, or an IPO, as we call it. So in those particular instances, when there is liquidity, then that money can in a way 07:30 can oftentimes be put back into the startup scene, the entrepreneurial ecosystem, as we call it. And a lot of times, investors will take any money that they do get as a gain from a previous investment and put it into other startup companies so that that capital can keep flowing. That's kind of the whole idea behind as people are getting returns. So that's really the biggest difference between an angel investor and a venture capitalist. 08:00 But right now it's been challenging for everyone because of this lack of liquidity that we've been seeing in the marketplace for the last two and a half years. Now we do think that there's been some talk that that market is gonna start to open up a little bit more. We will see more M&A activity. And if that's the case, then hopefully we will start to see more liquidity and then there will be more capital for investing. And 08:26 as an asset class, right? Angel investing. And with your role as chair emeritus and while you were also chair of ACA, what spurred you to write about angel investing, right? Is this the culmination of your years of experience? Walk my listeners through what made you take the time to actually write a book, do good while doing well. 08:52 Yeah, I think it was out of frustration more than anything. I would talk to people, even neighbors, friends, people I would meet at an event. And I would say, yeah, I'm an angel investor. I help early stage companies. And they were like, wow, that seems really interesting. And I would say, well, you could be an angel investor too. And they would be like, me? I could be an angel investor? I thought that was only for the rich and well-connected. 09:22 that isn't something I could do. I don't know anything about that. I don't have a degree in finance. I don't really think that's for me. So it wasn't that they didn't want to do it. They really just didn't believe that it was something that they were able to do in a way, either from a wealth or income standpoint or from a knowledge standpoint. So I thought, wait a minute, I think there's an awareness problem here because we have all these amazing entrepreneurs. They're building incredible innovations that the world needs. 09:52 But they're really struggling. I mean, struggling with fundraising. And it's one of the hardest things that they end up doing. And it's like a full-time job on top of the full-time job of them trying to build this company. So wait a minute, how can we fix this problem? Well, we could fix the problem if more people got involved and became investors, but that seems daunting. 10:17 So I thought, well, how can I help people realize that that doesn't really have to be quite so daunting? And you can kind of nowadays because of a lot of the regulatory changes that have happened in the last eight to 10 years, you can maybe step your way into it and really start to learn with basically putting less money at risk and you're gaining knowledge at the same time. You can also be a mentor to startup companies. That's become very popular and needed in the last several years. 10:46 All of these things that people don't really know about, that was what I was trying to do, demystify it. Right. And if you had to provide a sneak preview on the gut of your book, what would that be? Set takeaway. And who should be your target audience? Is it just the, is it actually entrepreneurs or is it those people that are just kind of wanting to become more informed around the asset class? Yeah, great question. 11:16 So I wrote the book for people who want to make a difference, but they just don't know how one person alone can do that. Okay. I think you feel that charity is a great way to give back, which of course it is, but they have no idea that this asset class also exists in a way that you can give back and potentially get a financial return at the same time. So that's really who I wrote the book for. As far as a sneak peek as to what's in the book, it is a Y2 book. 11:45 about angel investing. So I saw that there were several books out there and some of them are really amazing on how to angel invest. And most, if not all of them, have the words angel investing in the title. I thought to myself, wait a minute, if somebody really wants to learn about this, but they don't even know that it exists or that it's accessible to them, why would they ever pick up a book on how to be an angel investor? Because this has never even crossed their radar. So how can I attract them? 12:14 to think about things in a different way, to think about how they might use some of their capital in a different way. And when I say capital, I don't just mean money. It can be their human capital, their time. They could be helping an entrepreneur through mentorship. How can they start to look at the resources that they have in order to help grow innovative companies? How can they think about that differently so that they will want to then go and help either people in their local community and in their local area? 12:44 or maybe even startups nationwide or globally. I did watch your TEDx talk and I really do like how you have positioned the asset class or why is angel investing important if you want to make a difference versus charitable giving. And in your TEDx talk that will be in the show notes, you illustrated that extremely well. 13:13 That's very unique. Yes, thank you. And I really want people to donate to charity, help charities, that's fantastic. But we've put such a burden on them and they don't have the resources. They don't have the ability to actually take some of these innovations forward. We need those for-profit companies too. And when you look at the amount of charitable giving that happens in the U.S. annually, it's about 475. 13:41 billion, which is a lot of money. And that's wonderful. But that is equivalent to only about 1% of the value of the US stock market. So when we put things into perspective, it's really not doing any of these nonprofits of good service to say that we're going to put the burden all on you. And what is the size currently of the asset class as angel investing per ACA? Well, pretty much, if you look at the SEC data, 14:10 The most recent data has around $30 billion is where the angel asset class kind of lands. And then from there, we can look at that as far as there's angel groups, there's angel funds, and then there are individual angels. I tend to be a pretty big proponent and fan of angel funds. It allows somebody to put in a certain amount of money and nowadays it does not have to be 14:39 a quarter of a million dollars or any crazy big amount, they could put in a couple thousand dollars and get access to a diversified portfolio, which would allow them to spread their risk and not necessarily put all their eggs in one basket, as you would say. Right, right. Let's kind of switch gears here. While not entirely leaving your experience behind from ACA, you're currently, so you, 15:09 are you've had many women leadership roles, right? Now, whether you got there as a woman, I don't believe so, but what you've had many women leadership roles, most recent, well, maybe the most, I think, relevant for this podcast is you are currently an advisor to the SEC's... 15:34 Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee. Now getting there, and it really ties in well with corporate governance and how to do things, well informed with data so as to provide our regulatory structures or financial or legal with guidance and you're representing the small business world. Are you the only woman on the advisory committee? Talk to me through some of the women leadership roles you have had and 16:04 how you've obtained them and how you are opening opportunities for other women leaders. Yeah. So I have been on the investment committee of several funds. Okay. We were specifically focused on helping to get capital to female founders. If you look at the data over the last several years, although in angel world, it is improving in the venture capital world. And when you for the bigger dollars that companies really need to scale. 16:34 The statistics show it's been, you know, two to 3% of the funding goes to women and the rest goes to male led companies. So I've really been trying to help change that. And one of the ways to change that is to get the check writers or the people making the decisions about where the money goes to be more diverse. So to me, it was important to serve on some of these different investment committees for various funds, help with angel groups. 17:03 member of Golden Seeds, which invests only in women-led companies. I'm also a venture partner for MindShift Capital, where we invest in women-led companies globally. So those were things that were important to me. At the Angel Capital Association, I also started with a couple of my peers. We started a group called Growing Women's Capital. It's a peer group within the Angel Capital Association, where we help bring focus and attention to the female founders who are fundraising at the time. 17:33 And so those were all things that were important to me. As far as getting to be able to participate on the SEC's advisory committee, that's been great. And it is an extremely diverse committee, which I absolutely love. There's really representation there from men, women, racial disabilities, I mean, everything so that every group, I feel has a voice at the table because we're trying to represent 18:03 small businesses across the country. And that doesn't necessarily always mean startups, startups are scale businesses that people would want to invest in. But we also have people on the committee who are representing your Main Street businesses as well, coffee shops, things like that. Excellent. And the, can you talk a little bit about Stella? It's also. 18:30 a nonprofit group in which you've been involved, I think, since its inception. I have definitely been a champion and a supporter for Stella since its inception. I've only been on the board for a very short period of time. But the organization is really wonderful. They have done a lot as far as entrepreneurial education for women. They have an archive on their website of different. 18:58 different educational materials. They have an accelerator. They're always promoting ways that more female founders can get in front of investors. So they're doing some really good work over there. Can you get into a bit what is your role on the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee? How often do you guys meet? What is the agenda? And what is the term? Because this is just one of many. 19:28 advisory committees under the auspices of the SEC? I'm just fascinated on what is the actual governance around that. Sure. So it's a four-year term, and I'm one year in as of now. We meet quarterly, usually in person at the offices in Washington, DC. Sometimes we meet virtually. It just kind of depends on the situation, but usually we meet in person. Meetings are all recorded. 19:56 and broadcast live over the SEC's website. So anyone who wanted to go back and watch any of the meetings, or if you wanted to watch any of the future meetings live, that is absolutely doable. They're always listed on sec.gov, the website. So the role is really for us to be able to help the commission get a better sense of what's happening, kind of boots on the ground. 20:26 So each of us has a little bit of a different angle for how we represent small businesses. I of course come with the angel investing lens. There's another person on the committee who has a debt crowdfunding platform that he founded. And that's a very interesting perspective since that's something that's kind of newer to the state of how entrepreneurs can fundraise. So we're all. 20:54 trying to have basically a conversation about some of the challenges that entrepreneurs face when it comes to fundraising. And one of the things that we tackled quite heavily, at least for the first few meetings that I was involved in was the accredited investor definition. Got it. As it stands right now, to be an accredited investor means you have to have a certain level of wealth or income, $200,000 by yourself, 300,000 with a partner. 21:23 or a million dollars in net worth minus your home. And there was talk or has been talk that that could be indexed or changed or raised. And we did some rough calculations at the Angel Capital Association. There were also calculations done, then I don't remember the exact numbers, but you could go even go back and watch our meeting on sec.gov and you'd be able to see that, but it would eliminate. 21:47 a lot of the people who were already angel investors. And we only have about 300,000 angel investors in the country. And remember, there's about 330 million of us here that live in the US. So, there's a lot of opportunity, let's just say that. And if we started to eliminate the ability for people to participate based on an income or wealth level, that would be challenging. And it would make fundraising for entrepreneurs even that much harder. 22:14 So what we suggested in one of the, and you can actually see the recommendation that we made on the SEC's website, but we made a recommendation to say, hey, how about we don't actually focus so much on income and wealth and we focus more on education. And we'd like to see there be an education component that would allow for more people to be able to participate in this asset class. And the Angel Capital Association has put in 22:43 And I think there were some others as well who have put in some proposals to say, hey, we could help with this. So that's kind of where we are right now. Right. And as emeritus chair of the ACA, can you talk about some of the innovations that have come out recently? You've talked about angel funds. I'd like you to talk. You've talked a little bit now about credit investor and the definition of your work at the SEC. 23:13 But the recent publication, I'm a member of ACA, attended the annual summit this year. I found the work that you've done on the actual convertible note form for the angel investment is fascinating. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Sure. So there are documents that were put out by the National Venture Capital Association years ago 23:42 companies who want to fundraise to use those documents for a priced round. Of course, that would be for actual equity, you're selling shares of your company, that kind of thing. And those are great. And very, very helpful to entrepreneurs, because I think in some cases, it can save them a lot of time and money in legal costs. However, there wasn't really anything out there that could be used for convertible notes. 24:09 Safes, yes, there is a kind of a standard safe note that people view and that has also saved entrepreneurs time and money, but the Angel Capital Association was interested in putting something out that was like that, but in the convertible note form that was more, quote unquote standard or something that, at least a starting point for entrepreneurs so they didn't have to start from scratch or have to go to an attorney and have them draw up all kinds of paperwork. So yeah, and that's available on the ACA's website. 24:40 So this which gears back to one of your other facets. You are associate producer of a film called Show Her the Money. I first heard of it through, I guess meeting in February and the Thai SoCal chapter on September 19th will be actually screening this film. 25:09 in conjunction with a global competition for women led company. So I'm, when I, um, learned that you would join me as a guest, um, of the podcast, I was delighted to get kind of a scoop also about show her the money, how you got involved as associate producer and what can we expect? Yeah, it turned out to be a tremendous film. 25:35 Catherine Gray and Kai Dickens, who put it all together, Kai Dickens, the director, it was Catherine Gray's idea, have really done a tremendous job of showcasing through storytelling the problem and bringing more awareness to this problem. So Catherine Gray and I met after somebody saw my TED Talk and saw hers and said, hey, do you guys know you're talking about almost exactly the same thing? 26:02 know each other. And this was at the time right before the film came out that Katherine was still looking for a few investors. And so I myself and a couple other angels that I know we, we kind of helped fill that round up so that she could move the move the film forward. And we've been on a 50 city tour that's now turning into probably close to 100 cities. Katherine's been such a trooper. She has really gone to a lot. 26:30 a lot of the screenings. I've gone to several, but it's a lot to kind of go city to city almost, I mean, there's nowadays, there's a showing almost every day in different places around the country. So there, we try to have at least someone from the film or an associate producer there at each of the screenings, but it's really been fun to showcase it. 26:54 We always have a panel afterward and we get questions from the audience. We let the audience kind of, you know, give their comments and what they're thinking about it. And the, I mean, the feedback has just been tremendous. And will there be a sequel? That's a good question. There's a lot of talk about a lot of different types of things, so you never know. Right, excellent. So you heard it here on the Founder's Sandbox. Marsha Dawood is actually. 27:22 Associate producer of a film, Show Her the Money. The Thai SoCal chapter will be screening the film on September 19th at Noah House here in Hollywood, Los Angeles, so very exciting. Well, Marcia, I like to have a part of my podcast where my listeners can learn about how to contact you. They will be, you have many touch points, but what would you... 27:51 suggest as some of the best ways to get in contact with you? Well, I would just say go to my website, which is simply marshadalwood.com. You can learn about all kinds of things. I have lots of free resources there. Currently, you can even download a free chapter of the book as a preview. Oh, to do that, they can do that. And of course, I have everything, I linked everything on there, including the TEDx talk in Charlotte. I did do a rap battle. I don't 28:20 Did you do a rap battle? I did a rap battle called Angel Investor versus Venture Capitalist. Because I was watching YouTube with my step sons one day and we saw a rap battle between Snow White and Elsa. I thought, well, that's clever. And that's a cute way to like kind of get a message across. 28:44 maybe I could do a rap battle about an angel investor versus a venture capitalist just so that people would kind of have a better understanding of what the differences are. So one day I just sat there, this was before chat GPT, and kind of wrote it out, you know, like what it would be. And, and of course, I'm cracking myself up the whole time. And because I was like, Oh, that's funny, you know, how can we make that, you know, more clever? So anyway, 29:13 I debuted it at one of the ACA summits a couple of years ago, but that's all I can say to you. Excellent. So in the show notes, you will have access to the TED Talk, the order online of Marsha Doudwood's new book, and you have your podcast, the Angel Next Door podcast. And who do you invite there? Well, I saw a need about three years ago. That's when I started it. 29:42 that there really wasn't anybody talking about how do you become an angel? Or how would you help a company with either mentoring or helping them with investing? There's a lot of podcasts out there about entrepreneurship, lots of things about pitching, raising money, how did you build your business? And they were great, I like all of them. But I was really seeing a need for how can we showcase this, an angel. 30:08 that can be anybody, it can be your next door neighbor. So that's kind of how the title came about. And on the podcast, I have people who are angel investors who are just telling their story about why and how they became an angel investor, how they learned about it. But from there, it's kind of spun into other things. I've had four Congress people on talking about small business in their community and why it's important and what they're doing in Congress in order to help to... 30:38 spur economic development. I've also had two of the SEC commissioners on, which is fun to go through what they're thinking about and the changes that could potentially also help entrepreneurs. And then I've had several people come on who were experts in areas like equity crowdfunding, debt crowdfunding, revenue-based financing. 31:00 And then of course, one of the things that angels always wanna know about are tax benefits, even though taxes sometimes seems like a boring topic, taxes are something that everybody really needs to know about and there are several tax advantages that angels can partake in, but many are not known. Exactly. Excellent. So before we finish, I actually go back to 31:29 the founder sandbox and kind of the three cornerstones that I am working on as my mission and building resilient, purpose-driven and scalable companies. So I always like to ask my guests and not one guest has the same definition or I guess the meaning to each of these terms. So I'd like each of you to tell me what does resilience mean to you, Marsha? 31:56 So when I think of resilience, it makes me think of how hard it is for an entrepreneur to build a company, just anyone to build a company. So resilience is that tenacity that you need in order to keep going on the hard days and the days that you just wanna throw your hands up in the air and say, why am I doing this? So that is really so important because building a company is such a... 32:22 hard work and it's so much harder than I think anybody ever realizes when they go into it. And I've talked to so many entrepreneurs who've said, oh my gosh, this is like, this is way, way, way harder than I thought it was going to be. But it also takes a village. So that resiliency needs to have a community around it. And so that's why I really am such a proponent of angel investing because we really can form that community and help build the resilience with the entrepreneur. Thank you. Purpose driven. 32:51 I think you have a purpose, right? Which is educating on the asset class and how to become an investor. So what is purpose driven for you? Well, I think that goes back to do good while doing well. I mean, I wasn't necessarily going to title my book that. It was the title of my TEDx talk. However, I went through... 33:16 as you do as an author, you go through many, many, many iterations of what the title is gonna be, because it's one of the most important things. And I did several focus groups where I gave people options about titles and do good while doing well, kept coming back and people were like, that resonates with me. So then I just think, purpose driven, that's what people really, that was the thing that really, it just stuck with them. And so, 33:45 I think aligning your values with your money, with your goals, you know, all of those things are a great way to be purpose driven. To make a difference. Right. Sustainable growth. What's the meaning for you sustainable? So sustainable means like long term, we need to be able to do something that's hard and be able to. 34:12 continue to do it. And if we come up against roadblocks, how do we pivot? We tell entrepreneurs all the time, it's okay to pivot. It's okay if you come up against something in your company and you're like, wait a minute, this doesn't fit or it doesn't work and maybe I need to change something, that's okay. I mean, everything that happened in 2020 with COVID. Oh my goodness. Lots of pivoting, right? So to me. 34:37 sustainable growth is like, how can we do that? How can we be in the right mindset so that no matter what happens, we can keep going and we can keep building what we really wanna see in the world. Very nice, thank you. Last and final question, Marcia. Did you have fun today in the sandbox? Oh, love playing in the sandbox. And had I known that you were also a rapper, I would have had a question in there, but thank you for sharing the fun side. 35:07 angel investing, right? So to my listeners, if you like this episode with Marsha Dawood, sign up for the monthly release of founders, business owners, corporate directors, and professional services go-to podcast to learn about how to build resilient, purpose-driven, and scalable companies while doing good. Thank you very much for joining me and Marsha Dawood signing off for today. Thank you.  

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) is joined by Charles Hudson (Managing Partner and Founder, Precursor Ventures and writer of the Venture Reflections Substack - chudson.substack.com) for a deep discussion about pre-seed deals, the differences between multi-stage and small funds, and the types of investing that work in this AI dominated market. They also cover SAFEs, how pre-seed investing has changed, Charles' time in the National Venture Capital Association, and how what happens in Washington can affect emerging managers nationwide.Subscribe to Carta's weekly Data Minute newsletter: https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/Explore interactive startup and VC data, with Carta's Data Desk: https://carta.com/data-desk/Chapters:00:00 Welcome1:42 Intro to Precursor Ventures7:06 The changes in pre-seed syndication13:38 Setting aside reserves in funding15:23 Competing with multi-stage funds19:12 Distinctions in AI funding 23:09 Making the case for small funds30:51 SAFEs and priced rounds37:47 Handling LP concerns39:34 Secondary selling and liquidity 43:24 Speed round questions43:29 Most interesting sector or subsector for investment?44:12 Most unique way that a GP has brought value to a portco?45:45 The one question more founders should ask in fundraising?48:16 The National Venture Capital AssociationThis presentation contains general information only and eShares, Inc. dba Carta, Inc. (“Carta”) is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services, and is for informational purposes only.  This presentation is not a substitute for such professional advice or services nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business or interests. © 2024 eShares, Inc., dba Carta, Inc. All rights reserved.

To determine if you should pursue VC dollars to fund your company, you first need to understand how the venture capital model works. Heidi covers the type of businesses and growth potential required for a VC to make an investment, along with the high risk involved in venture capital and an explanation of the power law. More Information: https://threshold.vc/podcast/how-to-think-about-venture-capital Further Reading: I promised a lot of additional reading – so here goes. First off, understanding the VC power law is fundamental to understanding the VC business model. Here's a post about it:  https://x.com/speechu/status/1083921878786310144   And a whole book abot it: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Law-Venture-Capital-Disruption/dp/0241356520 The topic of whether venture capital is the right way to fund your business is critically important. Here's a post by VC Erik Berg that nicely captures many of the key points to consider: https://abergseyeview.com/is-venture-capital-funding-right-for-my-busines  Here's a fantastic article by the New York Times about why some entrepreneurs didn't take VC:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/technology/start-ups-rejecting-venture-capital.html And here's a post by entrepreneur Anthony Collias about the pros and cons of taking that venture investment given his experience as an entrepreneur: https://blog.joinodin.com/p/vc-steroids A bit dramatic, but the gist of it isn't wrong – The warning label that should come with VC money: https://hackernoon.com/the-warning-label-that-should-come-with-venture-capital-9432500b7195 And for those of you who like stats: Here are some interesting stats on startup financing from Fundera: https://www.fundera.com/resources/startup-funding-statistics A great infographic by Entreprener on where startup financing comes from:  https://www.entrepreneur.com/money-finance/where-startup-funding-really-comes-from-infographic/230011 And venture investing data from Crunchbas: https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/global-funding-data-analysis-ai-eoy-2023/  And more data from the National Venture Capital Association: https://nvca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-NVCA-Yearbook.pdf As for startup failure rate,  there's this piece from Harvard Law School: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2023/09/29/startup-failure/ Here's the story about the Wordle creator and his sale to the New York Times: https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2023/09/29/startup-failure/ The Benchmark/eBay story is summarized here:  https://medium.com/venture-capital-research/8-vc-insights-from-the-genesis-of-benchmark-capital-8915d4fe6f39 And last but not least, my Alec Baldwin quote comes from this famous scene in Glengarry Glen Ross:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4PE2hSqVnk

In the first Origins episode of the year, ⁠Nick Chirls⁠ (Notation Capital) and ⁠Beezer Clarkson⁠ (Sapphire Partners) host Scott Kupor, a Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. In his role as managing partner, Scott invests in growth-stage companies building in the bio and healthcare industries, manages the firm's investor relations team, and is responsible for the firm's growth initiatives.  Scott was the first employee at Andreessen Horowitz and managed the firm's growth from $300 million in AUM to more than $30 billion. Prior to joining the firm, Scott worked as vice president and general manager of software-as-a-service at Hewlett Packard. Before that, he held numerous executive management positions at Opsware, including senior vice president of global field operations, vice president of financial planning and vice president of corporate development. Scott is also the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, and serves on the boards of Cedar, Headway, Foursquare, Labster, Ultima, and SnapLogic. He also served as chairman of the board for the National Venture Capital Association. In this episode we discuss:  - The evolution of Andreessen Horowitz as the firm approaches its 15th anniversary - Reflections on how Scott's role has changed since becoming the first hire at a16z - The state of venture today with AI as an inflection point + valuation corrections - Managing LP/GP expectations in the current environment (e.g. markdowns) - a16z's decentralized business model and keeping important cultural values - How to think about (and debate) fund size and what is the TAM today …and much more Follow us: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/nchirls⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/beezer232⁠⁠ https://twitter.com/skupor

Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner at Precursor Ventures, a classic seed-stage investment firm focusing on B2B software applications, B2C software and services, and connected hardware. Charles also serves as the Board Chair at the National Venture Capital Association and is a lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Before launching Precursor, Charles was a Partner at SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Internet and mobile startups. He was also the Co-Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, an Android-focused mobile games startup. He spent several years working at In-Q-Tel, the strategic venture capital group for the Central Intelligence Agency. You can learn more about: 1. How to start a VC fund 2. How to craft a compelling pitch to LPs and cultivate an influential investor network 3. How to create a unique fund strategy    ===================== YouTube: @GraceGongCEO Newsletter: @SmartVenture LinkedIn: @GraceGong TikTok: @GraceGongCEO IG: @GraceGongCEO Twitter: @GraceGongGG =====================

The Truth About Gen Z At Work. Meagan Loyst is a former venture capitalist who was previously worked at Lerer Hippeau, where she was the youngest person on her team by a decade. In October 2022 Meagan embarked on her own entrepreneurial journey, launching the community ‘Gen Z VCs'.A global collective of 25,000+ Gen Z VCs, founders, angel investors, operators and aspiring VCs She was recently honored with a spot on the Forbes 30U30 list in Venture Capital for 2022 and was celebrated as the National Venture Capital Association's 2022 "Rising Star" Award Winner. Timestamps Sponsor Check out our sponsor, Free Agency (https://www.freeagency.com/) Socials Host: https://twitter.com/calum_johnson9 Guest: https://twitter.com/meaganloyst

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week we're joined by Scott Kupor, Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Scott was the first employee of the firm alongside Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. He has been instrumental in the firm's growth to now having north of $35B in AUM. Scott also authored a Wall Street Journal bestselling book called Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, and previously also served as chairman of the board of the NVCA. Scott goes through the history of a16z and the learnings along the way in building the multi-product investment company it is today.Frank, Rimerman + Co.'s history is closely intertwined with that of Silicon Valley. With humble beginnings similar to so many start-ups, Frank, Rimerman was formed with a desire to serve the entrepreneurial and venture communities of the Valley and the determination to think outside-the-box.When it comes to venture funds, we work with almost 500 VC groups from over 20 states across the USA. We have worked with over 400 fund groups during their first year of operations, making us one of the leading providers in the country to emerging managers.No one wants to be bored at work. That's why we chose to work with some of the most innovative and creative people – people who are changing the world around us every day. Their excitement fuels our passion and determination to grow and serve this special community.Frank, Rimerman + Co, Passion Works Here.www.frankrimerman.comAbout Scott Kupor:Scott Kupor is Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, focused on growth-stage companies building in the bio and healthcare industries, manages the firm's investor relations team, and is responsible for the firm's growth initiatives. Scott was the first employee at Andreessen Horowitz and managed the firm's growth from $300 million in AUM to more than $30 billion. Prior to joining the firm, Scott worked Hewlett Packard, Opsware, and represented startups through M&A processes. Scott is the author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, and serves on the boards of Cedar, Headway, Foursquare, Labster, Ultima, and SnapLogic. He also served as chairman of the board for the National Venture Capital Association.Scott earned a bachelor's degree and a JD from Stanford University.In this episode, we discuss:(02:24) Scott's journey to a16z(04:52) Lessons from the dotcom bubble (08:29) Why the original thesis for a16z was so different(12:33) How Mike Ovitz and CAA inspired them(16:44) Early days building the firm and recruiting the team(20:26) Running the firm like a startup(25:58) Challenges of building and maintaining a culture(30:01) Building cohesion with a global workforce and work from home(33:18) What “founder-friendly” means at a16z(36:34) Advice for new managers(40:49) Where we are in the current market cycle(44:59) The advice Scott would give e himself as a new graduate.I'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Scott. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

In 1973, the venture capital industry was emerging and growing, and it needed a national voice to represent it in Washington. That need resulted in the founding of the National Venture Capital Association. In this episode, we celebrate NVCA's 50th anniversary and look back on the history of the association and its role in guiding the VC industry through legislative challenges and successes.Featured in this episode is Skip Heizer son of Ned Heizer, the founder of NVCA. Ned believed everyone should have the opportunity to build a successful business. Skip shares through his father's eyes, the status of the industry in 1973, the issues that motivated Ned to found NVCA, and the future of venture capital. Chris Brody was the Board Chair of NVCA in 1985 and spent over a decade serving on the Board. Chris shares the moment when VCs realized that for the industry to survive and grow, they needed to present data and explain their value to policymakers. He also tells us about the most influential meetings in the early days of advocating for the industry in Washington.To register for our events, or to learn more about the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), visit our website.

In this episode, a16z Bio+Health general partner Vineeta Agarwala spoke with Bobby Franklin, the president and CEO of the National Venture Capital Association, about whether healthcare can be a bipartisan topic, how regulation can potentially enable care models at scale, and the opportunities for collaboration between DC and startups.

0:00 -- Intro.1:30 -- Start of interview.2:27-- Claudia's "origin story". She was born in Taiwan and grew up in Brazil. She came to the US after college. She studied CS and later went to work for IBM, where she had a 30 year career including founding the firm's Venture Capital Group. Post IBM, she joined NEA as a venture advisor, and has served on several corporate boards.8:31 -- On the evolution of corporate venture capital (CVC) at IBM, and the industry generally. In 2012, she was the first CVC partner to join the board of the NVCA.11:54 -- How CVC investors fit in the boardroom of venture-backed companies ("usually via board observer seats").15:40 -- How should boards approach the current downturn.19:15  -- On Silicon Valley's "growth at all costs" mantra.  "It's a phenomena of too much money in the market."23:32  -- On supermajority voing stock and founder control. "VCs don't build companies, founders do." 29:25 -- The role of the board in strategy and innovation. "The strategy is owned by management, the board's role is to continuously help calibrate that strategy."33:22 -- The oversight duties of directors relating to cybersecurity. "We can't throw enough money at it."36:31 -- On the evolution of ESG. "It started with very positive tones where everyone was supporting it." "Good companies can do both: good financial results and good corporate social responsibility." ("this is not a new phenomenon").39:40 -- On stakeholder governance. "I don't know who influenced who" in connection with Hubert Joly, former Chair and CEO of BestBuy (where she serves as a board member.) [Check out this interview that I did with Hubert Joly for the Sciences Po American Foundation in 2021]. "Great companies like IBM have held up its cultural values consistently for a very long time."41:38 -- On the evolution of boardroom diversity. "The board's role is to ask questions to really challenge management to think outside of the box." "Diversity of gender, life experience, expertise or age [is critical for this purpose]." "The California boardroom diversity policies set up momentum that have helped improve people's ability to think outside of the box in terms of board composition. Hopefully this continues to happen without the need to have these laws in place."44:26 -- How directors should think about geopolitical risks in the current environment. "You have to have a very strong local team." "The risk is considerably higher."45:52 -- What are the 1-3 books that have greatly influenced your life: Crossing the Chasm, by Geoffrey Moore (1991) (and others by this author).47:07 -- Who were your mentors, and what did you learn from them? "People who care enough about me to give me very honest feedback." (difference between mentors and sponsors).48:20 -- Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by? "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you do, but people will never forget how you made them feel."49:46 --  An unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love: she loves cleaning.50:30 --  The living person she most admires: Hillary Clinton.Claudia Fan Munce is a venture advisor at NEA, and serves as a board member at Best Buy, CoreLogic, the Bank of the West/BNP Paribas, the Energy Impact Acquisition (SPAC) and the National Association of Corporate Directors/Northern California. She's also a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.__ You can follow Evan on social media at:Twitter: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License 

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Bobby Franklin, the President and CEO of the National Venture Capital Association (@nvca) and Board Chair of Venture Forward. Since 2013, Bobby Franklin has led the venture community's preeminent trade association focused on empowering the next generation of transformative American companies. As president and CEO of NVCA, he champions public policy that supports the American entrepreneurial ecosystem, making NVCA the dominant voice of the U.S startup ecosystem.In 2020, Franklin led the launch of Venture Forward, NVCA's connected organization which drives the industry's human capital by promoting a strong, diverse, and inclusive venture community that will fuel the economy of tomorrow. Through its VC University program, Venture Forward has educated more than 1500 aspiring and early career VCs, many from historically underrepresented communities.In 2022, he started hosting NVCA's first-ever podcast called Venture Capitol. The show provides listeners a unique look at public policy through the eyes of America's venture capitalists who are investing in the high growth companies of tomorrow. The podcast brings together VCs, policymakers, and policy influencers to discuss and debate issues that impact our nation's economic future.Prior to joining NVCA, Franklin spent ten years at CTIA, representing the entire wireless industry. Before CTIA, he served as Vice President, Federal Government Affairs and head of Alltel's Washington, D.C. office. Franklin began his professional career with eight years of experience on Capitol Hill working for Senator David Pryor (D-AR). Franklin earned his B.S.B.A. in Finance and Banking from the University of Arkansas. He and his wife, Julia, have three young adults and reside in Arlington, VA. Websites: NVCA & Venture ForwardNVCA's Podcast hosted by Bobby: Venture CapitolLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bfranklindc/Twitter: @nvca  Show Notes: NVCA: lobbyists for the entrepreneurial ecosystem Recent policy trends and updates affecting the VC/startup ecosystem and the potential impact they'll have NVCA membership as a resource for keeping up with VC policy changes How NVCA determines which policies to prioritize and the balance between playing offensively and defensively in policymaking Where NVCA is currently focusing their energy and what changes Bobby wants to see in the industry How Venture Forward is diversifying the industry by democratizing access to information and education about being a VC The 2022 VC Human Capital Survey as the definitive resource on VC demographics Bobby's thoughts on the LP-GP dynamic and the long game nature of the industry The challenge of policy-makers' disconnect from the VC industry Bobby's observations from a decade in VC policy What can be done to advance the industry beyond the JOBS Act Industry trends Bobby is excited about Why you need to pay attention to and engage with VC policy-making More about the show:The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 400+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. More about us:Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.The Vitalize Team:Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVCCaroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

0:00 -- Intro.1:23 -- Start of interview.3:32 -- Adam's "origin story". He grew up in southern California where he attended UCSD and graduated from UCLA. In college he became an activist focusing on the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, and developed a "targeted divestment" model. After college he became a social entrepreneur based in Washington, DC.4:06 -- His decision to pursue a JD/MBA from UC Berkeley. While in grad school "he fell in love with the startup tech scene" and during business school he tried to start his own startup but that's where he learned that "it doesn't matter how good your idea is when you don't have a good team and good execution." He then joined Gunderson Dettmer as a corporate associate supporting tech founders.7:14 -- Adam's new role as Assistant Dean for Executive Education and Revenue Generation at UC Berkeley's School of Law. How his initial work with 500 Startups with the BCLB sparked more executive education programs. 9:24 -- On the origin and mission of The Independent Director Initiative.12:20  -- What makes corporate governance in private venture-backed companies different to public companies. Explaining VC University (a partnership between Berkeley Law, NVCA and Venture Forward).15:42 -- The Academic Partners of the Independent Director Initiative: Berkeley Law Executive Education; Berkeley Law Center for Law and Business; Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School; UC Davis School of Law; UC Hastings Law Center for Business Law; Institute for Law & Economics at the University of Pennsylvania; Silicon Valley Executive Center at Santa Clara University; Rowling Center at SMU Dedman School of Law; Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University; Stanford Center for Racial Justice at Stanford Law School; and Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law & Policy at UCLA School of Law.University of Washington School of LawThe Organizational Partners of the Independent Director Initiative: Ascend; BLCK VC; BoardList;Bolster;Corporate Directors Forum;The Fourth Floor;HBCUvc; Him for Her; LCDA;National Black MBA Association; National Venture Capital Association; NxtWorkVenture Forward.18:07 -- On the interest and number of applicants to the program (~500 applications, 80 got selected in first cohort).19:21 -- On fiduciary duties of directors in venture-backed companies (including dual-fiduciary conflicts). Role of independent directors, and boardroom diversity in private venture-backed companies. The Trados case (2013).38:43 -- The evolution of private markets and how its regulation may impact corporate governance.40:06 -- Take-aways from the program: 1) more education is needed for directors of venture-backed companies generally (beyond just independent directors), and 2) it was refreshing to see such a diverse and qualified group of executives that could serve on corporate boards.41:56 -- Where can people learn more and/or apply for the next cohort of the Independent Director Initiative: independent.venturecapitaluniversity.com42:57 -- Benefits for participants beyond just the two days of the program. Placements. 45:27 - Some of the books that have greatly influenced his venture career: Venture Deals, by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson (2011)Secrets of Sand HIll Road, by Scott Kupor (2019)45:51 - Who were your mentors, and what did you learn from them (regarding this program)Evan Epstein (!)Afra Afsharipour, UC Davis Law School46:26 - Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by? "You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." Martin Luther King, Jr.46:26 - An unusual habit or an absurd thing that he loves: walking 40min for his commute. "Owning your downtime."48:55 - The living person he most admires: his wife.Adam Sterling is the Assistant Dean for Executive Education and Revenue Generation at UC Berkeley's School of Law and the Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business. __ You can follow Adam on social media at:Twitter: @adambsterlingLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adambsterling/__ You can follow Evan on social media at:Twitter: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

In this episode Neil and Will sit down with Maryam Haque, the Executive Director of Venture Forward.  Venture Forward is poised to "drive the human capital, culture, values and narrative of venture capital to promote a strong and inclusive community that will fuel the economy of tomorrow."  As a follow to the conversation with 3 Roots Capital, they dive a little deeper into the significance of venture capital and advancing a more diverse, equitable and inclusive (DEI) ecosystem.  Take a listen as Maryam describes what Venture Forward is doing in the DEI space and how that correlates with the rural landscape of Appalachia.  The guys ultimately think it's equally important to think about geographical underserved areas when thinking about DEI in venture capital.  You might even hear Neil's secret ingredient for pancakes and how once a year he tries to "light the woods on fire."  Don't forget the #AppBiz of the week: The Sequoyah Fund!  Venture Forward: www.ventureforward.org/  National Venture Capital Association: www.nvca.org  Invest Appalachia: www.investappalachia.org/  Example VC Firms focusing on DEI The Sequoyah Fund (#AppBiz):  www.sequoyahfund.org/ Cross Culture Ventures: www.macventurecapital.com/ DiverseCity Ventures: www.diversecityv.com/ Kapor Capital: www.kaporcapital.com/ Backstage Capital: www.backstagecapital.com/ Pride Fund 1: www.pride.vc/ Chattanooga Renaissance Fund: www.chattanoogarenaissancefund.com/ Hatteras Ventures (Pisgah Fund): www.pisgahfund.com/fund/  Redhawk VC: www.redhawkvc.com/ OTHER SHOW NOTES The Daily Yonder - "How Appalachia is Growing its Outdoor Economy through Collaborations and Capacity Building": www.dailyyonder.com/how-appalachia-is-growing-its-outdoor-economy-through-collaborations-and-capacity-building/2022/06/29/  State Small Business Credit Initiative: www.home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/small-business-programs/state-small-business-credit-initiative-ssbci BACON GREASE PANCAKES! www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/bacon-fat-pancakes-9368888              

The venture capital sector had two bumper years in a row in 2020 and 2021, with record levels of fundraising, investment and exits. However, like the rest of the investing world, the market has cooled in the 2022 economy. Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of the National Venture Capital Association, talks with us about how the current economic climate is affecting the VC-startup ecosystem, and how startup leaders and investors are looking at their prospects. Bobby also talks with us about how VCs are approaching their ESG goals, which cities and regions are seeing more VC investment activity, the JOBS Act 4.0 and the push to establish a US startup visa.Key talking points:How the market conditions of 2022 have affected venture capital investment activity (0:26)Where the rising hubs for VC activity are (2:35)What sectors are likely to show strong growth going forward (4:26)How startups and VCs are looking at their prospects for going public as the IPO and SPAC markets slow to a crawl (5:58)Why VCs strongly support the establishment of a US startup visa (8:11)How the Jobs Act 4.0 would affect the VC sector (11:24)How VCs are approaching their ESG goals (13:40)The potential upside of tough times (21:11)Further listening:If you'd like to learn more about what policy initiatives are of high importance to the venture capital industry, check out NVCA's Venture Capitol podcast, hosted by Bobby. 

Michigan Venture Capital Association (MVCA) Executive Director spoke with Jeff Farrah, General Counsel of National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). Jeff discusses NVCA's policy priorities for 2022 as well as provide additional legislative updates. More information on MVCA can be found at michiganvca.org This podcast is sponsored by Michigan Rise.

In this episode of the Startup Visa Series, I speak with Jeff Farrah who serves as General Counsel at the National Venture Capital Association, https://nvca.org/ where he advocates before Congress, the White House, and agencies for pro-entrepreneurship policies and leads in-house legal matters for the association, including management of the NVCA Model Legal Documents. Prior to joining NVCA, Jeff was Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation where he advised Chairman John Thune and members of the committee on technology, telecommunications, and Internet policy. 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, policy makers 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/ Find us at watsonimmigrationlaw.com

This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Jeff Farrah, General Counsel at the National Venture Capital Association, a D.C.-based group that advocates for public policy supportive of American entrepreneurship. They discuss why we should adopt reforms such as a “start-up visa,” allowing immigrant entrepreneurs to stay here in America so we can benefit from the potential job creation... Source

This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Jeff Farrah, General Counsel at the National Venture Capital Association, a D.C.-based group that advocates for public policy supportive of American entrepreneurship. They discuss why we should adopt reforms such as a “start-up visa,” allowing immigrant entrepreneurs to stay here in America so we can benefit from the potential job creation... Source

This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Jeff Farrah, General Counsel at the National Venture Capital Association, a D.C.-based group that advocates for public policy supportive of American entrepreneurship. They discuss why we should adopt reforms such as a “start-up visa,” allowing immigrant entrepreneurs to stay here in America so we can benefit […]

Jan Garfinkle founded Arboretum Ventures on the premise that innovation is key to delivering value in healthcare, a principle she developed working in the medical device industry for over two decades. Her investments focus on promising medical technologies that enable meaningful healthcare system savings while maintain great clinical outcomes. Jan has led and held board seats in more than a dozen investments across five funds. Ara and Jan touch on a variety of topics including her background, the work she has accomplishment working with the National Venture Capital Association and how she started Arboretum Ventures.

In this week's Immigration Law for Tech Startups podcast, we're celebrating National Immigrants Day here in the United States. I have so much respect and admiration for our country's immigrants who have shown grit, determination, vision, and perseverance that these global legal processes can demand from them.   This country's history is all about immigration. No matter how we look at it, we can't get away from the fact that this is a nation of immigrants. And so today, I wanted to take some time to look at the contributions of immigrants in Silicon Valley and celebrate those individuals who live, learn, work, build families, start companies, and build their dreams in the United States, making such a significant contribution to the fabric of this nation – culturally and economically.   Please share this episode with companies, HR and recruiting professionals, startup founders, international talent, or anyone who can benefit from it. Sign up for the Alcorn monthly newsletter to receive the latest immigration news and issues. Reach out to us if we can help you determine the best immigration options for yourself, your company, your employees or prospective employees, or your family whether in the U.S. or abroad. In this episode, you'll hear about: Why people are attracted to immigration The historical background of National Immigrants Day The value of immigrants to society The contribution of immigrants in Silicon Valley A fun list of startups that are public and with at least one immigrant founder   Don't miss my upcoming conversations with top Silicon Valley venture capitalists, startup founders, professors, futurists, and thought leaders on Immigration Law for Tech Startups. Subscribe to this podcast here or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or whatever your favorite platform is. As always, we welcome your rating and review of this podcast. We appreciate your feedback! Resources: New American Economy's 2020 Report   Alcorn Immigration Law: Subscribe to the monthly Alcorn newsletter   Immigration Law for Tech Startups podcast: Episode 63: Immigration, Global Mobility, Working from Home, and the Future of Work Episode 77: Immigration for Children and Dependentsand Mexican Citizens Episode 89: Advocating for International Startup Founders with Jeff Farrah of National Venture Capital Association   Immigration Options for Talent, Investors, and Founders Immigration Law for Tech Startups eBook Extraordinary Ability Bootcamp course for best practices for securing the O-1A visa, EB-1A green card, or the EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) green card—the top options for startup founders. Use promotion code ILTS for 20% off the enrollment fee.

We discussed a number of things including: 1. State of the entrepreneurial community in the region and worldwide 2. Investment outlook in various sectors in short and medium term 3. Advice for entrepreneurs as we look to the other side of the pandemic Steve has been a technology investor for over twenty years. Steve's interests are in enterprise software (particularly applications of AI/ML), infrastructure required to collect, store, and process data, internet of things, wireless, and environmental and materials technologies. He is currently on the board of ChoiceWORX, Data Inventions, Kintra Fibers, SunRay Scientific, and Vydia. He was recently a director of Airclic (sold to Descartes Systems), Alverix (sold to BD), Everspin Technologies (NASDAQ: MRAM), Neohapsis (sold to Cisco), Silicon Hive (sold to Intel), Sychip (sold to Murata), and an observer of Flarion Technologies (sold to Qualcomm). Steve has also been a leader in the corporate venture community and was Chair of the Corporate Venture Group within the National Venture Capital Association and on the Advisory Board of Global Corporate Venturing. Prior to Tech Council Ventures, he created a venture incubator for Lucent's Bell Laboratories for 5 years and then formed and ran New Venture Partners for 15 years investing in commercialization of technologies spun out of corporate labs. Steve received an MBA from The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College where he is currently on the board of the Center for the Study of VC & PE. He received degrees in economics and mathematical sciences from Stanford University. ---- Daniella has been building life sciences businesses, developing and commercializing life sciences products for 20 years. Having co-founded Wave Biotech LLC from her dormitory room, she and a partner drove the start-up, growth and commercialization of a highly disruptive technology. As Vice President of the organization, Daniella established a high growth company with significant brand recognition, and led the group to a successful exit and acquisition by GE Healthcare in 2007. At GE Healthcare, Daniella held a variety of strategic, M&A and business development roles. One of her most notable achievements is the success in an entrepreneurial group within the broader GE Healthcare, where a focus on integrating the acquired Xcellerex business enabled global commercialization of a several hundred million dollar enterprise solutions business. Her extensive business development, negotiations and deal-making experience with multinational biopharma and governments in developed and emerging markets provides Dynamk with a broad network of colleagues, customers, innovators and key opinion leaders. She holds a B.E. in Chemical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and an Executive MBA from New York University Stern School of Business and has attended Harvard Business School Executive Education Courses in Private Equity & Venture Capital.

In this week's Immigration Law for Tech Startups podcast, Jeff Farrah joins me as we discuss the International Entrepreneur Parole, how Jeff's efforts directly supported this new immigration pathway to exist for all of you to apply for, as well as about the startup visa and other things that venture capitalists care about when it comes to immigrant startup founders.   Jeff is the General Counsel at the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). A Southern Californian native, Jeff is an attorney who has worked in Washington for many years in the Department of Commerce, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Jeff continues to advocate for Congress and the White House and different agencies for pro-entrepreneurship policies.   Jeff believes immigrant entrepreneurs are part of the fabric of the American startup ecosystem and we would not be where we are as a country in terms of job creation and innovation.    Please share this episode with companies, HR and recruiting professionals, startup founders, international talent, or anyone who can benefit from it. Sign up for the Alcorn monthly newsletter to receive the latest immigration news and issues. Reach out to us if we can help you determine the best immigration options for yourself, your company, your employees or prospective employees, or your family whether in the U.S. or abroad. In this episode, you'll hear about: Why the NVCA cares about immigration How the policy is a huge source of economic stimulation and job creation Recognizing the role of immigrant entrepreneurs in becoming the global powerhouse for startups The startup visa legislation Are folks in other countries allowed to write letters to Congress? The discussion on budget reconciliation and immigration measures   Don't miss my upcoming conversations with top Silicon Valley venture capitalists, startup founders, professors, futurists, and thought leaders on Immigration Law for Tech Startups. Subscribe to this podcast here or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or whatever your favorite platform is. As always, we welcome your rating and review of this podcast. We appreciate your feedback!   Resources: National Venture Capital Association https://nvca.org/    Alcorn Immigration Law: Subscribe to the monthly Alcorn newsletter   Immigration Law for Tech Startups podcast: Episode 73: International Entrepreneur Parole is Back!ees Episode 78: Parole Entry Process Episode 82: What Type of Investments Qualify Under IEP?   Path to E-2 visa for citizens of non-treaty countries Immigration Options for Talent, Investors, and Founders Immigration Law for Tech Startups eBook Extraordinary Ability Bootcamp course for best practices for securing the O-1A visa, EB-1A green card, or the EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) green card—the top options for startup founders. Use promotion code ILTS for 20% off the enrollment fee.

Jay Onda, Corporate Venture Capital Advisory Board member for the National Venture Capital Association, Jay has been at the forefront of innovation, technology, and design for nearly two decades. - working with corporations and governments globally to inspire, teach, and coach organizations looking to embrace innovation-best practices.

Many lawmakers seem eager to rein in the power of big tech and there seems to be a wide-spread agreement across the political aisle that something needs to be done. Among the proposed remedies is to restrict mergers and acquisitions. In this episode, Jeff Farrah, General Counsel at the National Venture Capital Association, is sharing his perspective on the intricacies of what antitrust means in the context of the innovation and the startup ecosystem.

Venture capital has been the way the world's most promising tech companies get funded. But it's a notoriously white industry. A survey last year by the National Venture Capital Association found that just 4% of U.S. workers in the industry are Black. HBCUvc is a nonprofit trying to change that by connecting VC firms with historically Black colleges and universities, like Morgan State. Marketplace’s Amy Scott spoke to HBUvc leadership, students and Black entrepreneurs to find out more about how the group might bring about change.

Venture capital has been the way the world's most promising tech companies get funded. But it's a notoriously white industry. A survey last year by the National Venture Capital Association found that just 4% of U.S. workers in the industry are Black. HBCUvc is a nonprofit trying to change that by connecting VC firms with historically Black colleges and universities, like Morgan State. Marketplace’s Amy Scott spoke to HBUvc leadership, students and Black entrepreneurs to find out more about how the group might bring about change.

Venture capital has been the way the world's most promising tech companies get funded. But it's a notoriously white industry. A survey last year by the National Venture Capital Association found that just 4% of U.S. workers in the industry are Black. HBCUvc is a nonprofit trying to change that by connecting VC firms with historically Black colleges and universities, like Morgan State. Marketplace’s Amy Scott spoke to HBUvc leadership, students and Black entrepreneurs to find out more about how the group might bring about change.

Venture capital has been the way the world's most promising tech companies get funded. But it's a notoriously white industry. A survey last year by the National Venture Capital Association found that just 4% of U.S. workers in the industry are Black. HBCUvc is a nonprofit trying to change that by connecting VC firms with historically Black colleges and universities, like Morgan State. Marketplace’s Amy Scott spoke to HBUvc leadership, students and Black entrepreneurs to find out more about how the group might bring about change.

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, policy makers and others. This interview series coincides with the launch of the 2nd Edition of my book, The Startup Visa  which is set to launch July 13, 2021! In this episode of the Startup Visa Series, I speak with Jeff Farrah who serves as General Counsel at the National Venture Capital Association, https://nvca.org/ where he advocates before Congress, the White House, and agencies for pro-entrepreneurship policies and leads in-house legal matters for the association, including management of the NVCA Model Legal Documents. Prior to joining NVCA, Jeff was Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation where he advised Chairman John Thune and members of the committee on technology, telecommunications, and Internet policy. 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/s?k=Tahmina+Watson&i=audible&ref=dp_byline_sr_audible_1 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 @tahminatalks  Special thanks to our series sponsor, Joorney Business Plans for making these episodes possible. Learn more about their services here https://www.joorney.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, policy makers and others. This interview series coincides with the launch of the 2nd Edition of my book, The Startup Visa  which is set to launch July 6, 2021! In this episode of the Startup Visa Series, I speak with Jeff Farrah who serves as General Counsel at the National Venture Capital Association, where he advocates before Congress, the White House, and agencies for pro-entrepreneurship policies and leads in-house legal matters for the association, including management of the NVCA Model Legal Documents. Prior to joining NVCA, Jeff was Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation where he advised Chairman John Thune and members of the committee on technology, telecommunications, and Internet policy. 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/s?k=Tahmina+Watson&i=audible&ref=dp_byline_sr_audible_1 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 @tahminatalks Special 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/ 

Jeff Farrah is the general counsel of the National Venture Capital Association.  He’s tracking this policy debate closely because he believes it could have a significant impact on the startups and venture capitalists he represents.  He came on the podcast to discuss the evolving debate about merger and acquisition policy, how the recent proposals in Congress could affect startups, and what he’s doing to make his case in DC.  Listen in. 

Hoje nossa convidada especial é Renata Quintini, Co-Founder e Manging Director da Renegade Partners, fundo de Venture Capital sediada na capital mundial de Venture Capital: Menlo Park, na Califórnia.Renata também é conselheira na Concrete Rose Capital: uma plataforma de investimentos “early stage” com foco em oportunidades de diversidade, investindo em startup de founders sub-representados. Renata também é Membro do Conselho da National Venture Capital Association: associação focada em promover políticas públicas que empoderam e apoiam o Ecossistema empreendedor Americano.Renata começou sua jornada estudando Direito na Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), e logo seguiu para Califórnia onde conquistou seu LLM e MBA da Stanford University.Depois de sua formação em Stanford seguiu carreira em empresas e fundos de pedigree altíssimo incluindo o escritório de direito Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom; JP Morgan; Stanford Management Company, Felicis Venture e Lux Capital. 

Bobby Franklin is the president and CEO of National Venture Capital Association, which advocates for public policy that supports the American entrepreneurial ecosystem. During his talk with host Matt Waller, he explains what venture capital is and the difference between terms like seed funding, angel funding, and VC funding. He also discusses the history of the venture capital industry in the U.S., the misconceptions some have about the industry, and how important it is to the U.S. economy. Learn more about National Venture Capital Association: https://nvca.org/

064 Jeff Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), one of the original seed VC firms in the Silicon Valley, and has closed 200+ investments since 2004. His portfolio includes Postmates, Poshmark, Fitbit, SendGrid, Mint and many others. He was also a board member of the National Venture Capital Association and was featured on the Forbes Midas List among top venture capitalists in the world.  https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/Twitter/FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are going to have conversations with some of the top investors, super star founders, as well as well known tech executives in the silicon valley. We will have a coffee chat with them to learn their ways of thinking and actionable tips on how to build or invest in a successful company.

Joanna Rees is an investor, entrepreneur, advisor, educator and mentor with deep expertise in helping companies and organizations define their market and build powerful brands.  Currently, she is a Managing Partner at West, a venture studio that specializes in the end-to-end process of designing, building, and launching purpose-driven brands including Twitter, Square, Eventbrite, Impossible Foods and more.  Throughout her career, she has served on the board of more than 25 venture-backed companies as well as the board of the National Venture Capital Association. If that wasn’t enough Joanna was named a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum and a Henry Crown Fellow by the Aspen Institute, where she is a seminar moderator. Joanna was also a candidate for Mayor of San Francisco in November 2011.  On this episode Joanna shares many of the life lessons she’s learned on her incredible journey.  Episode Notes Watch on YouTube Subscribe to my Newsletter Connect with us! Whatgotyouthere Looking for a job? Checkout Culture Finders today to be matched with your dream company.  MCTco Collagen Protein Bars www.mctco.com 20% off with code “WGYT” https://drinksupercoffee.com/

This week's podcast features our recent discussion about race and the evolving role of investors addressing racial inequality. We're resurfacing this conversation because even as Black History Month comes to an end, the hard work to increase diversity in the markets continues.We brought together four professionals to share their expertise on the topic: Lisa Lambert, head of National Grid Partners and former head of the Intel Diversity Fund; Barry Eggers, a founding partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and current chairman of the National Venture Capital Association; Angela Matheny, director of the diverse asset-manager program at Crewcial Partners; and Cynthia Muller, head of mission-driven investment with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.Our guests discussed why it's so important from business and equality perspectives for investors to prioritize diversity and inclusion goals in both their own teams and in their portfolios.

MVCA hosted a recent virtual webinar with Jeff Farrah and Justin Field from the National Venture Capital Association to discuss venture investing in the year ahead, including the impacts related to the Biden-Harris administration policy items, tax and carried interest, research and tech transfer, and capital markets.

It was one of the most tumultuous years the country and the world have ever seen. And yet, as we reported on GeekWire last week, venture capital investments in the United States broke another record in 2020, topping $150 billion for the first time, according to Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association. In Seattle and across the Pacific Northwest, funding totals came in at $4.4 billion, up 15% year-over-year, according to GeekWire’s tally, derived from our running list of startup investments.  What in the heck is going on? My colleague, GeekWire co-founder John Cook, put that question to Mike Davidson, a Seattle-based tech and media veteran who was Twitter’s vice president of design from 2012 to 2016, during the recording of our most recent GeekWire podcast episode. This portion of the conversation didn't make the final cut, but we found the analysis illuminating, so we're presenting it here as a bonus episode.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is a SPAC and why are so many companies choosing that route to go public? Chargepoint CEO Pasquale Romano and National Venture Capital Association's Justin Field explain.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Innovation in the Classroom Classroom innovation stems from teachers and students working together to pursue subjects that excite students to learn. Examples include allowing students to design robots and make documentaries about local landmarks. In the age of Zoom learning, keeping students engaged by letting them solve community problems or pursue independent learning goals will achieve much more than endless worksheets and standardized test prep. Standards V. Standardized Tests Implementing and upholding academic standards are not the same as demanding high scores on standardized tests. Engaging and exciting students about a topic should be the focus, like teaching students to think critically like scientists. Information retention rates are abysmal when the emphasis is to just regurgitate scientific facts for a test. Other basic standards should include knowing how democracy works, reading, writing, and thinking critically. High School Education A high school education should prepare all Americans for a life of civic and economic success. Our current education system fails to deliver this promise, which has resulted in many of our current social problems. Maintaining a functioning and thriving democracy requires high-quality education that equips students with pragmatic life and civic engagement skills. Find out more: Ted Dintersmith is one of America's leaders in innovation, entrepreneurship, and education. Ted has become one of America's leading advocates for education policies that foster creativity, innovation, motivation, and purpose. He knows what skills are valuable in a world of innovation, and how we can transform our schools to prepare kids for their futures. His contributions span film, books, philanthropy, and the hard work of going all across America. He's funded and executive produced acclaimed education documentaries, including Most Likely To Succeed, (Sundance, AFI, and Tribeca). With co-author Tony Wagner, he wrote Most Likely To Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era. During the 2015/16 school year, he went to all fifty U.S. states, meeting with governors, legislators, educators, parents, and students, and encouraging communities to work collectively to re-imagine school and its purpose. The culmination of that effort was his recent book What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers Across America.  Ted's professional experience includes two decades in venture capital, including being ranked by Business 2.0 as the top-performing U.S. venture capitalist for 1995-1999. He chaired the Public Policy Committee of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association. In the public sector, he was a staff analyst in 1976-78 for the U.S. House of Representatives, and was appointed in 2012 by President Obama to represent the U.S. at the United Nations General Assembly. Ted earned a Ph.D. in Engineering from Stanford University and a B.A. from the College of William and Mary, with High Honors in Physics and English. Learn more about his work from his website or by following him on Twitter @dintersmith. We've started a referral program! Refer us to your friends to get a free button or Moleskine notebook. Please use this link to get your personal referral code: https://refer.glow.fm/future-hindsight, which you can then forward to your friends.

In this episode of Immigration Law for Tech Startups, I discuss the top seven most startup-friendly visas and green cards and what startup founders can and cannot do on each of them.   Unlike Canada, Australia, the U.K., and New Zealand, the United States does not have a startup visa. Congress attempted to create a startup visa through legislation in 2010, 2011, and 2013, but each effort failed. Shortly before leaving office, the Obama administration created the International Entrepreneur Rule through an executive order. After delaying the rule’s implementation, the Trump administration eliminated it, prompting a lawsuit from the National Venture Capital Association. In 2017, a federal district court ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to implement the rule. The Trump administration filed a new proposal to end the rule in 2018, but never finalized the proposal. While not officially ended, the International Entrepreneur Rule has not been implemented.   In a report issued this year on startup visas, the National Foundation for American Policy estimated that if the U.S. had created a startup visa in 2016, it would have led to the creation of as many as 3.2 million jobs in the U.S. by 2026.   Even without a startup visa, startup founders have many ways to live and work in the U.S. The top seven options are: B-1 visa L-1A visa E-2 visa H-1B visa O-1A visa EB-1A green card EB-2 NIW green card   Please share this episode with any startup founders or entrepreneurs who can benefit from it. Reach out to us if we can help you determine your immigration options whether you’re in the U.S. or abroad.   In this episode, you’ll hear about: Which visas and green cards made it to the startup-friendly list and why The benefits and drawbacks of each visa and green card in the list Two unique H-1B hacks The best options for startup founders born in India or China   Don’t miss my conversations with top Silicon Valley venture capitalists, startup founders and experts, professors, futurists, and thought leaders on Immigration Law for Tech Startups. Subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or whatever your favorite platform is. We appreciate your ratings and reviews.   Resources: Enroll in Alcorn’s Extraordinary Ability Bootcamp to learn the best practices for securing the O-1A visa, EB-1A green card, or the EB-2 NIW (National Interest Waiver) green card—the top options for startup founders. Use promo code ILTS for 20% off the enrollment fee.   Get Alcorn’s Immigration Law for Tech Startups eBook   Immigration Law for Tech Startups: Episode 3: The Different Types of Nonimmigrant Visas Episode 11: Your Startup’s First H-1B Episode 14: Visas & Green Cards Based on Past Accomplishments Episode 16: E-2 Visa for Founders and Employees Episode 28: All About Priority Dates Episode 30: H-1B Nitty Gritty #1: Transfers, Extensions, Amendments in Tech Episode 31: H-1B Nitty Gritty #2: H-1B Transfer for Startup Founders Episode 37: What is U.S. Startup Founder Immigration?   Alcorn Immigration Law’s Menu of Services page: B-1 Visa for Visitors for Business E-2 Visa for Treaty Investors H-1B Visa for Specialty Occupations L-1A Visa for Intracompany Transferee Managers and Executives O-1A Visa for Extraordinary Ability EB-1A Extraordinary Ability Green Card EB-2 NIW (Exceptional Ability with National Interest Waiver)   National Foundation for American Policy’s policy brief, “The International Experience of Startup Visas for Immigrant Entrepreneurs”   *** EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com  

On Episode 32 of Livestream Deals, we discuss early-stage investing, the New Jersey tech scene and opportunities for startups in the current economy. Stephen Socolof of Tech Council Ventures joins Ross Brand of Livestream Universe as part of the PodMAX event presented by Propelify. SUBSCRIBE YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/LivestreamUniverse (https://YouTube.com/LivestreamUniverse) SHOP THE SHOW: https://livestreamdeals.com/ (https://LivestreamDeals.com) https://livestreamuniverse.com/Resources (https://LivestreamUniverse.com/Resources) https://amazon.com/shop/iRossBrand (https://amazon.com/shop/iRossBrand) Steve Socolof has been a technology investor for over twenty years. Steve's interests are in enterprise software (particularly applications of AI/ML), infrastructure required to collect, store, and process data, internet of things, wireless, and environmental and materials technologies. He is currently on the board of StratIS IoT, SunRay Scientific, and Vydia as well as the public company Everspin Technologies, an investment of his prior fund. He was recently a director of Airclic (sold to Descartes Systems), Alverix (sold to BD), Neohapsis (sold to Cisco), Silicon Hive (sold to Intel), Sychip (sold to Murata), and an observer of Flarion Technologies (sold to Qualcomm). Steve has also been a leader in the corporate venture community and was Chair of the Corporate Venture Group within the National Venture Capital Association and on the Advisory Board of Global Corporate Venturing. Prior to TCV, he created a venture incubator for Lucent's Bell Laboratories for 5 years and then formed and ran New Venture Partners for 15 years investing in commercialization of technologies spun out of corporate labs. Steve received an MBA from The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College where he is currently on the board of the Center for the Study of VC & PE. He received degrees in economics and mathematical sciences from Stanford University.

On Episode 32 of Livestream Deals, we discuss early-stage investing, the New Jersey tech scene and opportunities for startups in the current economy. Stephen Socolof of Tech Council Ventures joins Ross Brand of Livestream Universe as part of the PodMAX event presented by Propelify. SUBSCRIBE Podcast: https://livestreamdeals.com/podcast/YouTube Channel: https://YouTube.com/LivestreamUniverseSHOP THE SHOW:https://LivestreamDeals.comhttps://LivestreamUniverse.com/Resourceshttps://amazon.com/shop/iRossBrandSteve Socolof has been a technology investor for over twenty years. Steve’s interests are in enterprise software (particularly applications of AI/ML), infrastructure required to collect, store, and process data, internet of things, wireless, and environmental and materials technologies. He is currently on the board of StratIS IoT, SunRay Scientific, and Vydia as well as the public company Everspin Technologies, an investment of his prior fund.He was recently a director of Airclic (sold to Descartes Systems), Alverix (sold to BD), Neohapsis (sold to Cisco), Silicon Hive (sold to Intel), Sychip (sold to Murata), and an observer of Flarion Technologies (sold to Qualcomm). Steve has also been a leader in the corporate venture community and was Chair of the Corporate Venture Group within the National Venture Capital Association and on the Advisory Board of Global Corporate Venturing.Prior to TCV, he created a venture incubator for Lucent’s Bell Laboratories for 5 years and then formed and ran New Venture Partners for 15 years investing in commercialization of technologies spun out of corporate labs. Steve received an MBA from The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College where he is currently on the board of the Center for the Study of VC & PE. He received degrees in economics and mathematical sciences from Stanford University.

#015 Terry McGuire is the Co-founder and General Partner of Polaris Partners. Polaris Partners has a portfolio including Adimab, Akamai (IPO), Acceleron (IPO), and Ironwood (IPO).  Before starting his own fund, he spent seven years at Burr, Egan, Deleage, & Co. His investments are focused on early-stage medical and information technology companies. He was on the Forbes Midas List of the top 100 tech investors several times. He received the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research Award and the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievements in Life Sciences (awarded by Harvard and the City of Jerusalem). He is chairman emeritus of the National Venture Capital Association and chairman of the Global Venture Capital Congress. He holds an engineering degree from Dartmouth College, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BS in physics and economics from Hobart College. He is on the board of MIT’s David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School (HBS), and the Healthcare Initiative Advisory Board (HBS). He also chairs the board of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/Twitter/FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are going to have conversations with some of the top investors, super star founders, as well as well known tech executives in the silicon valley. We will have a coffee chat with them to learn their ways of thinking and actionable tips on how to build or invest in a successful company.

#014 Terry McGuire is the Co-founder and General Partner of Polaris Partners. Polaris Partners has a portfolio including Adimab, Akamai (IPO), Acceleron (IPO), and Ironwood (IPO).  Before starting his own fund, he spent seven years at Burr, Egan, Deleage, & Co. His investments are focused on early-stage medical and information technology companies. He was on the Forbes Midas List of the top 100 tech investors several times. He received the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research Award and the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievements in Life Sciences (awarded by Harvard and the City of Jerusalem). He is chairman emeritus of the National Venture Capital Association and chairman of the Global Venture Capital Congress. He holds an engineering degree from Dartmouth College, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BS in physics and economics from Hobart College. He is on the board of MIT’s David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School (HBS), and the Healthcare Initiative Advisory Board (HBS). He also chairs the board of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/Twitter/FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are going to have conversations with some of the top investors, super star founders, as well as well known tech executives in the silicon valley. We will have a coffee chat with them to learn their ways of thinking and actionable tips on how to build or invest in a successful company.

Patricia Nakache invests in early-stage consumer and business tech startups with current investments including Bevi, EAT Club, Life House, Side, thredUP, and Turo, and previous investments in Care.com (CRCM), LoopNet (LOOP), PayScale (acq. Warburg Pincus), and Sabrix (acq. Thomson Reuters), among others. Patricia is a board member of the National Venture Capital Association and a Lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she teaches Startup Garage. She earned an M.B.A from Stanford University and an A.B. from Harvard University.

Start of Interview [1:51]How is a16z dealing with COVID-19, plus its new Talent & Opportunity Fund [2:31]Scott's professional background [3:48]The shift from traditional VC firm to Registered Investment Advisor (to pursue investment opportunities beyond traditional equity, such as crypto) [6:00]The governance chapters of his book The Secrets of Sand Hill Road. Distinctions between public and private venture-backed boards [12:11]:The contrast in board composition in the private and public board context [12:38]Dual fiduciary duties owed by VC directors [13:48]"Common controlled" boards vs "preferred controlled" boards [14:50]Andreessen Horowitz' different approach to support its portfolio CEOs post-investment (institutionalizing the network) [17:03]Number of boards seats held by VC investors (and why it's different to public boards) [20:33]Scott's take on dual-class shares, and distinctions in the private and public company context [25:13]Scott's take on tenure-voting ("rethinking what's fair in corporate governance") [29:10]Why a16z invested in the Long Term Stock Exchange [32:35]Scott's recommendations to boards of venture-backed companies in down-rounds and M&A [36:09]Trends of independent directors in venture-backed companies [40:00]The rise of private markets in the tech financing ecosystem [42:46]The new governance challenges of late stage private companies [44:20]The Purpose of the Corporation and the Governance of Cryptonetworks [47:06]Two of his favorite books: "The Lost Lawyer" by Anthony Kronman, and "The Master of the Senate: the Years of Lyndon Johnson" by Robert Caro [54:06]His mentors: Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz. Early (informal mentor): Armin Weinberg [55:38]His favorite quote “In the long run, we are all dead” by John Maynard Keynes. [57:13]Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He has been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth, from three employees to 180 and from $300 million in assets under management to more than $12 billion.Scott is chairman of the board of Genesys Works; cofounder and co-director of the Stanford Venture Capital Director’s College; Executive in Residence at Haas School of Business and Boalt School of Law; and a Lecturer at Stanford Law School. He is vice-chair of the investment committee of St. Jude’s Children’s Cancer Research Hospital and also serves as a member of the investment committees for Stanford Medical Center, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Lick Wilmerding High School.Scott served as Chairman of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association (2017-2018). He is the author of the national bestselling book Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It, published by Portfolio, a division of Penguin.___Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License 

Maryam Haque from the National Venture Capital Association discusses how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting investments and funding for startups. By scottmcgrew

At the beginning of May 2020, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) released some interesting and time-sensitive pieces in light of COVID-19. I want to share this information with you because I don’t think this is just about VCs. Entrepreneurs, innovators, and small businesses will be the ones to bring the world out of this pandemic - help them make it happen. You have an opportunity to write to your representatives about getting this stimulus package to the people who need it. How are you doing? Did you find this helpful? Leave me a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yfm/message Highlights 4:56 How the NVCA is encouraging the government to increase PPP funding 5:58 Why I see the world of VC as more than just the extremely wealthy 8:16 Statistics and numbers about how startups are affected 10:40 Why it’s important to help the VC industry stay afloat 15:00 How this affects underrepresented founders 17:48 How Backstage Capital is trying to provide opportunities for serendipitous relationships to happen between investors and entrepreneurs 20:08 Some companies that I see doing great work 29:00 VC-specific details and terms in the NVCA letter to the treasury Links https://backstagecapital.com/together https://nvca.org/ https://itsaboutdamntime.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yfm/message

Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z for the 16 letters between the A in Andreessen and the z in Horowitz. Scott is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He joined Andreessen at its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth from three employees and $300 million under management to 150 employees managing in excess of $10 billion. Scott has served on a number of industry-related Boards, including as Chairman of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association, and he currently sits on four non-profit Investment Committees. A few months ago, Scott published the national bestselling book, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It,https://amzn.to/2GX5O9M Our conversation is a full-blown overview of one of the leading venture capital firms and the dynamics at play in the venture industry. We cover Scott's shift from finance to an operating role, and from an individual producer to a manager, the formation of a16z, its founder-centric investment model, building services to increase their portfolio companies chance of success, sourcing investment ideas, conducting due diligence, making decisions, the competitive environment, Board seats, changes in the venture industry, the cardinal sins of venture investing, new frontiers for venture investment, how venture capitalists manage their own money, and the purpose of writing his book. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Many sellers overlook fundamental selling principles, but salespeople must learn the importance of a strategic network for business and career success in order to become proficient in our jobs.  Judy Robinett is an advisor to Springboard, an incubator that helps women founders, with great statistics of 19 IPOs and 165 strategic sells. Judy loves educating people and meeting entrepreneurs and helping them with connections.  She wrote the book, How to Be a Power Connector, a bestseller in 2014, and she recently published another book called Crack the Funding Code: How Investors Think and What They Need to Hear to Fund Your Startup. It's a book that tells us how investors think and what they need to hear to fund your startup.  The beginning Judy worked as a social worker but she didn't stop there. She explored her options and opportunities after making some bad decisions like starting her own franchise restaurant. In time, her business failed and she had to sell it.  She worked with a then-unknown company called Skullcandy® when they were broke and had a quarter of a million dollars in revenue. She helped the company build its credibility and bring its revenue up again. That fueled her interest in startups and she became an investor herself. Fast forward to now, she's a managing director at Golden Seeds.  Crack the funding code Many great entrepreneurs in the U.S. don't understand the facts. For one, there's no lack of money. In fact, there's $318 trillion of private global wealth. These entrepreneurs don't understand the players: there's private equity that are all investing into startups as well as the sovereign wealth funds that manage 10% of the global GDP.  The book Crack the Funding Code is an easy-to-follow roadmap on how to find and pitch investors. The book's appendix has term sheets, actual pitch decks, and other relevant research information. It is a book that will educate entrepreneurs because these people can change the world.  Lessons in mistakes Entrepreneurs take calculated risks. Along the way, missteps create lessons waiting to be learned. Judy's bankruptcy lawyer said of her failed franchise restaurant, “They can break you but they can't eat you.”  Judy learned to kick fear to the curb and understand that there's no lack of resources in the world because resources are connected to human beings. It is true that sales are critical in finding and catching investors. It's also important in catching the customers. Entrepreneurs must learn to navigate in their mistakes.  They need to figure out how to get investors to figure out how to find customers.  If you can't figure out how to find a venture capitalist, you can't figure out how to find a customer. #investors Funding mindset  Howard Stevenson, known as the Lion of Entrepreneurism at Harvard, wrote a book on how to be an angel investor. His book talked about how you can set yourself apart from everybody else. In order to be perceived as a high-potential startup: Be clear on your exit strategy and the comparables because investors want to get their money back.  Mitigate risks as viewed by the investors.  It is good for startups to put high-powered people in their advisory board to help build their credibility, especially if the CEO hasn't done a startup before. In the VC investing world, people talk about adult supervision. This is critical because you want to have reliable people in your team with deep industry expertise who can open doors to money, media, and other resources that you might need.  Getting investors is more than just being good and being able to produce something.  One of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs do in their pitches is the way they focus on technology and explain the details at length. Investors, however, care less about that. Harvard researchers found that the average amount of time people spend looking at a particular slide is 11 seconds. Financial slides, however, get 23 seconds worth of attention. Investors look for a team that can execute to a big enough market, the total addressable market (TAM).  Three C's Arthur Rock was the first venture capitalist who started the industry in Silicon Valley. He said that if somebody comes to him with a B product but with an A team or an A product but with a B team, he'd always go for the A-team. This means that investors invest in the team that can execute.  So, the first C is you need to be coachable. We all have that blindspot of not knowing what we don't know. It's important to come across as coachable rather than arrogant. If somebody asks you about something that you don't know, then be upfront and tell that person that you'll get back to him. Then ask for help to show that you are coachable.  The second one is having a level of confidence. You are selling your concept, your company, and how you're going to grow it to the investors so a level of confidence is important.  The third one is character. Howard Stevenson said in his book that when he hears an exaggeration or half-truth, he runs away instead of walking so that he won't lose money. Investors have a way of looking at your character in a substantial way.  Be coachable  The moment we say that we don't need more information is the moment that we stop growing. When we stop learning and stop being coached, we also stop progressing and growing.  A sales rep who has been selling for 10 years and who stops reading books about sales is stuck in the same way that an entrepreneur who stops needing advice is stuck.  Businesses fall short because entrepreneurs stop growing and because they don't have a board of advisers to tell them the truth or advise them what to do.   CB Insights did a post mortem of 101 startups and one of the problems they found was the inability to learn and pivot. Clayton Christiansen, an expert on innovation at Harvard, said that 75% of startups pivot. Viagra didn't start out being used the way it's used today, but the nurses noticed a side-effect. Everybody must be in an exploration of finding out what you don't know because that's where growth happens.  The obstacle is a gift. Run to your obstacle much like David running toward Goliath. Understand that every time you have a vision, Goliath shows up so you must master how to learn and pivot.  There are two words that mean fear: the first refers to being terrified, and the second is the sense of awe and wonder. This happens when you step out of your comfort zone.  You need to reframe your fear and deal with it.  Network your way to the right investors  It is critical to be in the right room. Judy met a founder who was trying to get investors in Salt Lake City for her company but she was in the wrong room because she wasn't Mormon and she was a woman. Judy took her to Boston and San Francisco where she closed deals and then sold her company for millions There are specific groups of investors. First, you start with your family, then your friends, then your credit cards, and you move up to the angel investor, the seed round. There are 400 angel groups in the U.S. and $317 trillion in private global wealth. There is no lack of money here. There's also the governmental fund, the sovereign wealth fund. It is important that you know which group to go to.  You can find them via searching in Google, by going to pitch events, or by asking top lawyers and bankers who work with startups.  Do not forget to ask them the two golden questions:  What other ideas do you have for me? Who else do you know that I should talk to? On average, people know between 600 and 1,000 people. You don't have to know tons of people; you need the right people to get in the right room.  Another good way to build your network is to find your way to private curated events and talk to people.  Let them know what you do. You can also ask them their opinion and who they know that you ought to be talking to as well. You'd be surprised at the number of people who are happy to help but you need to learn to ask.  This is particularly difficult if you are from the lower to middle class where you're taught to keep your head down, get a degree, work hard, and don't ask for help because people would notice. In truth, people do not notice.  According to research in Denmark, 5% of people in any corporation or organization are the true influencers and power brokers. Those are the people that you need to get to know. Delivering a compelling pitch You need a concise, compelling narrative. Dick Wilson, a VC who has had $1billion exit every year for the past five years, was asked how to create a compelling pitch. He said that it's important to be concise, be compelling, and have passion.  You want to get to the second date so don't spill all the details or all the financials because your job is to get those people to be interested in you and start doing due diligence. John Livesay, also known as Pitch Deck Guru, is a great man who can help you out with your compelling stories. Research often suggests that the majority of startups fail but that data is inaccurate. Hard research shows that about 50 percent fail because the owners aren't willing to learn.  Reasons startups fail Phil Graham, one of the Y Combinator founders, said that there are two reasons why startups fail: lack of customers  lack of sales  One of the Dropbox founders said that before he started Dropbox, he didn't know anything about sales engineering and product development. He bought the top three books in each of those areas, and he got an advisory board. Simply put, you don't have to be brilliant and smarter than everybody else.  Don't fail your startup. Use the two golden questions and start reaching out to strangers. Open your mouth and ask. Investors are everywhere and they need startups, too. They need to put their money into entrepreneurs' startups so a little leg work and some networking is helpful. Go to the National Venture Capital Association and the National Angel Association to find lists of everybody.  Do your homework and do your due diligence on the investors.  “The importance of a strategic network for business and career success” episode resource  Stay in touch with Judy via email, judy@judyrobinett.com, and her LinkedIn account.  If you're a sales rep looking to hone your craft and learn from the top 1% of sellers, make plans to attend the Sales Success Summit in Austin, Tx, October 14-15. Scheduled on a Monday and Tuesday to limit the impact to the sales week, the Sales Success Summit connects sellers with top-level performers who have appeared on the podcast. Visit Top1Summit.com to learn more and register!  This episode is brought to you in part by TSE Certified Training Sales Program. A course to guide sales reps and sales leaders to become better in doing their pitches and presentations. It has 12 courses to help you find the right customers, ask the right questions, and close great deals. You can get the first two modules for free!  Or you can also check out Audible as well and explore this huge online library with thousands of books. Register now to get a free book and a 30-day free trial.  Thank you for tuning in and if you liked this episode, do give a rating and review on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.  Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

Bobby Franklin is the President & CEO of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the venture community’s preeminent trade association, having taken the helm of NVCA in September of 2013 after nearly a decade at CTIA – The Wireless Association, where he first served as head lobbyist and then Executive Vice President of the association. Prior to joining CTIA, Bobby worked for wireless provider Alltel Corporation as both their lobbyist and then head of their Washington office, and he originally got his start in Washington working in the U.S. Senate for Senator David Pryor of Arkansas. As the voice of the U.S. venture capital and startup community, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) advocates for public policy that supports the American entrepreneurial ecosystem and serves as the leading resource for venture capital data, practical education, peer-led initiatives, and networking.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz interviews Scott Kupor. Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He has been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth, from three employees to 150+ and from $300 million in assets under management to more than $10 billion. Kupor served as Chairman of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association (2017-2018). He is the author of the national bestselling book Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It.

As a managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Scott Kupor has seen it all. He offers firsthand experiences and insider advice for every entrepreneur trying to secure venture capital funding. Kupor has been with Andreessen Horowitz since its inception in 2009 and has overseen the firm's growth from $300 million in assets to over $7 billion. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Stanford Venture Capital Director's College and was previously the chairman of the board of the National Venture Capital Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He has been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth, from three employees to 150+ and from $300 million in assets under management to more than $7 billion. Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Scott worked as vice president and general manager of Software-as-a-Service at Hewlett Packard. Scott joined HP in 2007 as part of the Opsware acquisition, where he was senior vice president of Customer Solutions. In this role, he had global responsibility for customer interaction, including professional services, technical pre-sales, and customer support. Scott joined Opsware shortly after the company’s founding and held numerous executive management positions including vice president, financial planning and vice president, corporate development. In these roles, he led the company’s private financing activities as well as its initial public offering in 2001. Scott also started the company’s Asia Pacific operations and led the execution of the company’s multiple acquisitions. Prior to Opsware, Scott represented software companies in both financing and mergers and acquisitions transactions at Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in public policy with honors and distinction. Scott also holds a law degree with distinction from Stanford University and is a member of the State Bar of California. Scott is chairman of the board of Genesys Works; cofounder and co-director of the Stanford Venture Capital Director’s College; co-founder and co-director of the Stanford Rock Center’s Guide to Venture-Backed Board Membership; Executive in Residence at Haas School of Business and Boalt School of Law; and a Lecturer at Stanford Law School. He is vice-chair of the investment committee of St. Jude’s Children’s Cancer Research Hospital and also serves as a member of the investment committees for Stanford Medical Center, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and Lick Wilmerding High School. Scott served as Chairman of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association (2017-2018). He is the author of the forthcoming book (June 2019), published by Portfolio, a division of Penguin, on Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It. https://a16z.com https://a16z.com/book/secrets-of-sand-hill-road https://twitter.com/skupor

This week I spoke with Ted Dintersmith. Ted Dintersmith is one of America's leaders in innovation, entrepreneurship, and education. Ted's professional experience includes two decades in venture capital, including being ranked by Business 2.0 as the top-performing U.S. venture capitalist for 1995-1999. He served on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association, chairing its Public Policy Committee. From 1981 to 1987, he ran a business at Analog Devices that helped enable the digital revolution. In the public sector, he was a staff analyst in 1976-78 for the U.S. House of Representatives, and was appointed in 2012 by President Obama to represent the U.S. at the United Nations General Assembly. Ted earned a Ph.D. in Engineering from Stanford University and a B.A. from the College of William and Mary, with High Honors in Physics and English. Ted has become one of America's leading advocates for education policies that foster creativity, innovation, motivation, and purpose. He knows what skills are valuable in a world of innovation, and how we can transform our schools to prepare kids for their futures. His contributions span film, books, philanthropy, and the hard work of going all across America. He's funded and executive produced acclaimed education documentaries, including Most Likely To Succeed, (Sundance, AFI, and Tribeca). With co-author Tony Wagner, he wrote Most Likely To Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era. During the 2015/16 school year, he went to all fifty U.S. states, meeting with governors, legislators, educators, parents, and students, and encouraging communities to work collectively to re-imagine school and its purpose. Learn more about his work from his website or by following him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dintersmith. Ted speaks frequently at major events and conferences, delivering a vision of what our schools could - and need to - be. Drawing on inspiring examples garnered during his fifty-state tour, he can articulate the conditions required to let our students, teachers, and schools race forward. Recent keynotes include state superintendent meetings in Virginia and North Dakota, the annual meeting of the Coalition for Access (several hundred top college admissions officers), the annual Jobs for America's Graduates conference, and a plenary session of the Finnish parliament. In addition to his keynotes, Ted is often asked to also screen his film and lead a post-film discussion. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Terri talks to Jenny Kassan about alternative funding mechanisms for female founders and small business owners and how she works with them to provide tailored fundraising strategies.  Who is Jenny Kassan?   Jenny Kassan has over two decades of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises and is a certified coach.  She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors.  She is the author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul (Berrett-Koehler, October 2017).  She served on the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies and submitted the petition to the SEC that led to the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act.  Before becoming a securities lawyer, Jenny worked for eleven years at a nonprofit community development corporation in Oakland, where she served as staff attorney and managed community economic development projects including the formation and management of several social ventures designed to employ and create business ownership opportunities for low-income community residents.  Jenny is a fellow at Democracy Collaborative and the co-founder of the Force for Good Fund, is the President of Community Ventures, and co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center.  She was a director of Berrett-Koehler Publishers and is a member of the Content Advisory Panel of Conscious Company Magazine and serves on the advisory boards of Lioness Magazine and Investibule.   Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley.    Show Highlights  Jenny talks about her journey into working with startups and businesses on tailored fundraising strategies and the importance of Title III of the JOBS Act.    Jenny talks about how her frustration with fundraising options and meeting Michelle Thimesch led to the recent launch of CrowdFund Main Street to take advantage of Title III of the JOBS Act.    Terri and Jenny talk about how crowdfunding can fit into a startup’s fundraising strategy and how the definition of success for a startup is not based on funding rounds.  Jenny is now focusing on the investor side and educating a lot of Americans on investing opportunities through her new organization called Angels of Main Street.    Terri talks about how important it is for some us to see the direct impact of their investments and/or time.      Jenny talks about how she works with her clients to structure their financing strategies in alignment with their goals, values, and short/long term strategies.  She also talks about the various options available to founders.   Jenny felt most like the pilot in her own life when she went out on her own with her own firm.  She now has the business of dreams.      Terri’s Key Takeaway  Taking the first step is important to opening up new opportunity paths.     References in the Podcast  CrowdFund Main Street: https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/  JOBS Act, Title III:  https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/jobs-act.shtml  Gabrielle Katsnelson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielle-katsnelson-6a73958/  SMBX: https://www.thesmbx.com/  National Venture Capital Association:    Changing Tides:  https://thinkresultsmarketing.com/books/changing-tides/    Contact  Jenny can be reached through her website http://www.jennykassan.com/  You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.   Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.  To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife. 

Bill Egan is an owner of the Boston Celtics and one of the original Venture Capitalist. He is one of the original investors of Federal Express (FedEx) to give you an idea of the successes Bill has had as a VC. Bill started his Venture Capitalist career in 1969 well before anyone had heard of it that wasn’t in the industry. It’s fascinating hearing how things were in the early days of the industry. Bill is a founder and General Partner of Alta Communications and Marion Equity Partners, Massachusetts-based venture capital firms. He founded Alta’s predecessor firm, Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. in 1979, and has identified and backed several of America’s leading growth companies in the information technology, life sciences, and communications industries. Prior to founding Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co., Bill was a Partner at TA Associates. He began his career as a Manager of Venture Capital for New England Enterprise Capital Corporation. He is past President and Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, a Trustee of Fairfield University, a Member of the Board of Overseers of The Wharton School and a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Board of CRH plc, and a number of privately held companies. Get Your FREE 12 Day Personal Reboot Challenge: https://mailchi.mp/65edb486ceb2/12dayrebootchallenge

In this episode of the TeacherCast Podcast, we speak with TED speaker Ted Dintersmith about his movie “Most Likely to Succeed” and ask the question, “what should our students be learning in school?” Follow our PodcastThe TeacherCast Educational Broadcasting Network | http://www.twitter.com/teachercast (@TeacherCast) Follow our HostJeff Bradbury | http://www.twitter.com/jeffbradbury (@JeffBradbury) About our GuestTed DintersmithAfter a 25-year career in venture capital, Ted Dintersmith is now committed to creating national change through initiatives at the intersection of innovation, education, and film. He is the producer of the documentary “Most Likely to Succeed,” and an executive producer of “The Hunting Ground” (both films premiered at Sundance, 2015). Ted served as part of the delegation representing the U.S. at the United Nations General Assembly in a year, where he focused on global education and entrepreneurship; is a partner emeritus with Charles River Ventures; and has served on the board of the National Venture Capital Association, chairing its Public Policy Committee. He earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Stanford and an undergraduate degree in physics and English from the College of William and Mary. About the MovieMost Likely to Succeed is the first national campaign to inspire – and empower – communities across the country to revolutionize their schools for the 21st Century. Through a 50-state tour; community screenings; and a call to action to students, parents, educators, policymakers, and organizations to take a stand for the potential of every young person, we are uniting millions to revolutionize education once and for all. https://www.facebook.com/MLTSfilm/ (https://www.facebook.com/MLTSfilm/) https://twitter.com/MLTSfilm (https://twitter.com/MLTSfilm) Join our PLNAre you enjoying the TeacherCast Network, please share your thoughts with the world by https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/educational-podcasting-today/id972444781?mt=2 (commenting on iTunes) today? I enjoy reading and sharing your comments on the podcast each week. Let's Work TogetherHost: Jeff Bradbury http://www.twitter.com/teachercast (@TeacherCast) | http://twitter.com/jeffbradbury (@JeffBradbury) Email: info@teachercast.net Voice Mail: https://www.teachercast.net/voicemail (http://www.TeacherCast.net/voicemail) YouTube: https://www.teachercast.net/YouTube (http://www.TeacherCast.net/YouTube) iTunes: https://www.teachercast.net/iTunes (http://www.TeacherCast.net/iTunes) Check Out More TeacherCast ProgrammingTeacherCast Podcast (https://www.teachercast.net/tcp (https://www.teachercast.net/tcp)) TeacherCast App Spotlight (https://www.teachercast.net/appspotlight (https://www.teachercast.net/appspotlight)) Educational Podcasting Today (http://www.educationalpodcasting.today/ (http://www.educationalpodcasting.today)) The https://www.teachercast.net/tep (TechEducator Podcast) (http://www.techeducatorpodcast.com/ (http://www.techeducatorpodcast.com)) Ask The Tech Coach (http://www.askthetechcoach.com/ (http://www.AskTheTechCoach.com)) View LIVE Professional Development from TeacherCastJoin us LIVE every Tuesday at [8:00] PM EST: http://www.teachercast.tv/ (http://www.TeacherCast.tv) Need a Presenter?Jeff Bradbury https://www.teachercast.net/twitter ((@TeacherCast)) is available as a http://jeffreybradbury.com/ (Keynote Speaker, Presenter), or to Broadcast your conference LIVE!

You want updates, so we've got updates! We begin [at 1:50] with the very unusual goings-on in a case everyone thought was over: the Jane Doe litigation over access to abortion while in immigration detention, a case now called Hargan v. Garza. We then turn [at 13:00] to litigation involving the ban on military service by transgender individuals. Next up [at 21:00]: the Muslim Ban, which is now on version 3.0. After that, [at 25:00] we turn to deeper cuts, and update you on the progress of a lawsuit by the National Venture Capital Association about a rule called the "International Entrepreneur Rule," and then we update another lawsuit Trump's inciting violence at a campaign rally [at 29:00]. Finally, we have our third—and final?—edition of Sam Clovis watch [at 32:00] and end with a response to a listener question about referring to Senators in the Federal Register [at 38:00]. Phew.Please share or provide feedback, and rate us in iTunes. You can find us at @VersusTrumpPod on twitter, or send us an email at versustrumppodcast@gmail.com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Venture capitalists already have invested more into U.S. life sciences companies in 2017 than in any other prior year, according to data released today by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.

(Bloomberg) -- Andrew Harris, a legal reporter for Bloomberg News, discusses why the National Venture Capital Association is suing the Trump administration over its decision to delay, and likely kill, an Obama-era initiative to encourage foreign entrepreneurs to build businesses in the United States. He speaks with June Grasso and Michael Best on Bloomberg Radio's "Bloomberg Law."

(Bloomberg) -- Andrew Harris, a legal reporter for Bloomberg News, discusses why the National Venture Capital Association is suing the Trump administration over its decision to delay, and likely kill, an Obama-era initiative to encourage foreign entrepreneurs to build businesses in the United States. He speaks with June Grasso and Michael Best on Bloomberg Radio's "Bloomberg Law." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

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