Podcasts about nextview ventures

Episode 331 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Rob Go, Co-Founder & Partner at NextView Ventures. I've been fortunate to have many people support my journey with building VentureFizz through the years and Rob was one of the earliest. Shortly after I launched the site, he reached out looking to meet up and needless to say, I jumped at the chance. Through the years, Rob has always been incredibly helpful with his feedback on VentureFizz when I needed an outside perspective. I thank him at the beginning of our show, but I did want to note a sincere “thank you” here as well. Rob's also has a podcast that you should check out called The Idea Maze where he asks the question: where do great entrepreneurial ideas really come from? You can find it on all major podcast platforms, plus I have included a link to it in the show notes. NextView Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage VC firm that invests in founders who want to redesign the Everyday Economy. The firm's portfolio includes Bobbie, The Browser Company, Devoted Health, WHOOP, Attentive, and more. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The five flavors of AI. * Rob's background story including what he learned from his Dad's entrepreneurial endeavors, getting his career started in management consulting, and then learning product at eBay. * How he landed a VC position at Spark Capital, plus a fun story about his almost investment into Groupon. * What led Rob and his Co-Founders, David Beisel and Lee Hower, down the path of starting a seed stage firm and what the seed investing landscape looked like back then. * What Rob is targeting for investments and the importance of founder-opportunity fit. * What he's learned while running a venture firm. * And so much more. This Week's Sponsor This is exciting… for the “Hey Mom, I made it” category… we are in a book… not any old book… but a book from MIT! Be on the lookout for the new book for entrepreneurs called Startup Tactics. It is available globally starting on April 2nd and it features 15 tactics entrepreneurs need for success. You'll find VentureFizz listed as a “tool of the trade” in the chapter on Hiring for Startups! Amazing!!! Get your copy now from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.org.

In this episode we discuss:[00:00:00] Why Melody chose to stay in the US for startups and her hobbies growing up[00:07:00] What values Melody upholds as a VC when working with startup founders[00:12:00] The important lesson Melody learned in early-stage venture investing[00:13:00] Why Melody believes in investing in exceptional founders with high potential[00:18:00] Melody's hands-on approach as a VC and how she supports founders[00:21:00] The benefits of NextView Ventures' concentrated bets on startup founders[00:22:00] Why building trust is crucial in the VC-founder relationship[00:23:00] Melody's role as a VC and how she guides founders[00:25:00] How NextView faced challenges during COVID and supported a struggling portfolio company[00:28:00] The key trait that makes founders successful in the fast-changing startup world[00:30:00] Understand the mindset founders need to overcome obstacles and achieve their mission[00:32:00] Why startups should focus on problems in large, pervasive markets[00:35:00] NextView's investment thesis and the problems they aim to solve[00:37:00] How NextView supports concept-stage companies through their accelerator program[00:42:00] Meaning of different seed and pre-seed funding stages for startups and what matters most[00:53:00] Investors Melody would reach out to if she were starting a new startup todayAboutMelody is a Partner at NextView Ventures based in its New York office. She has spent her entire career working with technology and Internet startups as an entrepreneur, operator, and investor.Prior to joining NextView, Melody was Head of Product at Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN). Melody joined Blue Apron as the first product hire when the company was 18 months old with 20 HQ employees. She helped scale the business through hyper-growth (25x in 3.5 years) and to its IPO, building and leading a 35-person team across Product Management, Product Design, and Analytics/Data Science.Previously, Melody was a Product Manager at Fab.com leading marketing & analytics products and the founder/CEO of a seed-funded wine subscription e-commerce service. Melody was also a venture investor at Time Warner's strategic VC group and was a one of six inaugural members of First Round Capital's Product Co-op initiative. Melody began her career as a tech/media M&A investment banking analyst at Evercore Partners.Melody holds an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Commerce with Distinction from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and son. 

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're joined by Stephanie Palmeri and Melody Koh, Partners at NextView Ventures. Nextview was founded in 2010 and recently raised $200MM for their new set of funds. Located in SF, NY, and Boston, the firm invests all across the US and has invested in over 170 companies at the seed-stage since its founding, including Devoted Health, Thread up, and Attentive. We had a great conversation about how NextView thinks about firm partnerships, what seed and pre-seed investing look like today, and what they believe it means to successfully work with founders. About Stephanie Palmeri:Stephanie is a Partner at NextView Ventures and is based in San Francisco. She focuses on the power of technology to positively transform how we live, work, learn, play, and care for our planet and each other. Her investments in the “Everyday Economy” have spanned many industries, including social commerce, circular retail, education, digital health, marketplaces, transportation, and finance. Previously, Stephanie was a partner at Uncork Capital, where she spent a decade investing in dozens of seed stage companies, including Poshmark ($POSH), Clever (aqu. by Kahoot!), Chariot (acq. by Ford), ClassDojo, Carrot Fertility, Hallow, Panorama Education, Phil, Wrapbook, and Wonderschool. Before venture investing, Stephanie worked as a technology consultant and marketer at Accenture, Estee Lauder, and several startups.Stephanie holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Marketing and Management Information Systems, magna cum laude, from Villanova University.About Melody Koh:Melody is a Partner at NextView Ventures, based in its New York office. Prior to joining NextView, Melody was Head of Product at Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN). Melody joined Blue Apron as the first product hire when the company was 18 months old with 20 HQ employees. She helped scale the business through hyper-growth (25x in 3.5 years) and to its IPO.Previously, Melody was a Product Manager at Fab.com leading marketing & analytics products and the founder/CEO of a seed-funded wine subscription e-commerce service. Melody was also a venture investor at Time Warner's strategic VC group and was one of six inaugural members of First Round Capital's Product Co-op initiative. Melody began her career as a tech/media M&A investment banking analyst at Evercore Partners.Melody holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and the University of Virginia.In this episode. we discuss:(01:54) Why NextView strives to not be a pack of lone wolves(03:35) How the carry economics of the firm drives a deeper partnership(06:57) Building firm culture with so many locations(11:21) How NextView uses strategic in-person time to remain connected(13:42) The benefits to founders by being more strategic in their investments(16:33) How the NextView model performed in the different market conditions over the last few years(21:04) What the moving goalposts of the market has meant to founders and investors(25:27) The advice they are giving founders to get through this difficult funding cycle(29:18) Why NextView sees themselves as invited guests and why that translates to happy founders(34:31) How they think about the growth and evolution of NextViewI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Stephanie and Melody. 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

Finding founders with true visions that have a real plan to execute those visions is rare. So rare that those founders are actually called unicorns. But finding and supporting those founders takes a lot of patience and skill. Today's guest has both of those traits, Stephanie Palmeri, Partner at NextView Ventures, has been working at the top of the venture industry for more than a decade and has backed impressive founders.About Stephanie Palmeri:Stephanie Palmeri is a Partner at NextView Ventures and is based in San Francisco. She loves supporting founders who share a North Star of building exceptional user-centric experiences for individuals, families, workers, and communities. Her investments in the Everyday Economy have spanned many industries, including social commerce, circular retail, education, digital health, marketplaces, transportation, and finance. Previously, Stephanie was a partner at Uncork Capital, where she spent a decade investing in dozens of seed-stage companies, including Poshmark ($POSH), Clever (acq. by Kahoot!), Chariot (acq. by Ford), ClassDojo, Carrot Fertility, Hallow, Panorama Education, Phil, Wrapbook, and Wonderschool. Before venture investing, Stephanie worked as a technology consultant and marketer at Accenture, Estee Lauder, and several startups.Stephanie holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS from Villanova University.In this episode we discuss:(0:01:15) News roundup with John Ruffolo(0:22:44) How Stephanie ended up in the venture and startup world(0:27:32) Why she chose NextView instead of creating a new fund(0:29:36) What appeals to Stephanie about investing in Canadian Startups(0:32:17) Becoming comfortable investing in the Canadian ecosystem(0:33:28) The biggest changes to early-stage investing in the last decade(0:36:29) The process of joining NextView(0:41:22) NextView's current focus and plans for its new $200M fund(0:44:18) Starting NextView's accelerator program(0:47:29) Founders deciding to have an early exit(0:50:08) Deciding to become a certified coach to help her founders(0:53:50) What makes a great board member(0:58:39) How she advises as an LP and angel investor(1:00:09) Who should contact her and what she invest inFast Favorites:*

David Beisel is a Co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures, where he invests in technology-driven companies that are redesigning the Everday Economy. Some of his past portfolios include Attentive, TripleLift, Code Climate, Parsec (acquired by Unity for $320M), BookBub, thredUP (IPO'ed), MealPal, The Nudge, Hatch, and TapCommerce (acquired by Twitter for $100M) among others. Prior to NextView, he served as a Vice President at Venrock (an early-stage VC firm initially established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family). You can learn more about: 1. What to look for when investing in early-stage startups 2. Raising funding as a startup and as a venture fund 3. How to attract top startups and build a high-quality network  ===================== YouTube: @GraceGongCEO Newsletter: @SmartVenture LinkedIn: @GraceGong TikTok: @GraceGongCEO IG: @GraceGongCEO Twitter: @GraceGongGG 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. =====================

Episode Description:  In episode 7 of Season 3,  Matt and Rob speak with Lee Hower, co-founder and Partner of NextView Ventures.  Lee has spent his career as an entrepreneur and investor in early-stage software and internet startups.  In this episode, you'll learn more on Lee's early days at PayPal alongside Elon Musk, to co-founding LinkedIn and moving back to the east coast to start his venture career at PJC.  You'll hear more on his experience starting NextView Ventures, the biggest challenges he has faced with NextView and what has surprised him the most being in venture for over 10 years.  What is Uncovered: What it was like starting Fund I at NextViewThe parallels of running a startup and raising money as a VCWhat it was like to receive that first LP commitment How Lee's experience in tech has influenced his experience in VentureThe most surprising thing about starting a venture fund The biggest challenge Lee has faced over the last 10 years at NextView Learn more about: Lee Hower: Lee is a co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures. He has spent his entire career as an entrepreneur and investor in early-stage software and internet startups.Lee started his career as an early employee of PayPal in product and business development roles, through the company's 2002 IPO and sale to eBay. After PayPal, Lee was a co-founder of LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) and served as head of corporate development during the company's early years.Lee began his VC career at PJC, a Boston-based early-stage VC firm, where he was a Principal and helped to build the firm's internet investment practice. At PJC Lee led investments in and served as a board director of Multiply (acq. by Naspers) and FanIQ.Lee graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Management & Technology program, with a BAS in Systems Engineering and a BS Economics from the Wharton School. He was selected as Wharton's Commencement Speaker in 2000. He lives with his wife and small daughter and splits his time between Boston and San Francisco.Connect with Lee on LinkedIn. NextView Ventures: Seed stage investors who champion founders who want to redesign the Everyday Economy.  NextView keeps their number of deals small and platform offerings expansive so they can help their portfolio with what matters most at the seed-stage. Check out their full pitch deck: https://nextview.vc/approach/Highlighted Quote rom Lee: “People come up with all kinds of sports analogies as to what early-stage VC and investing is like and the best one that I've said is it's kind of like baseball: a hybrid between the base running coach whose standing at third base and the talent-scout.  The 3rd base coach gives perspective and input to the founders, who are the ones who are actually building and running the companies. Sometimes they listen to our advice, sometimes they don't, but hopefully the third base coach can see the whole field and see what's happening and offer that perspective to go around third base and head for home or not. The talent scouting part of it is identifying really exceptional people who sometimes have ideas that seem unusual at the very early stage.” 

This week, Mighty Capital Founding Partner and host of the series on The Age of Product, SC Moatti, sat down with NextView Partner, Melody Koh to discuss where product meets investing. Melody Koh is a Partner at NextView Ventures, which is a C-stage focused firm. She has experience both in Consumer B2B and marketplace investments. Before joining NextView Ventures, Koh was Head of Product at Blue Apron. She joined Blue Apron as their first product hire and helped scale the business, built out their product management function, and more.

Rob Go of NextView Ventures joins Nick to discuss Reflections From 10 Years at NextView, Dogma vs Discipline, the Importance of Effective Post Money, and Market Sizing Pitfalls. In this episode we cover: Is VC fundamentally changing under our feet? What are other biggest industry shifts that have changed the way you operate at Next View? Most LPs are focused on their fund managers' ownership percentage at entry. Explain what effective post-money at exit is and why that has become a north star from next view? Takeaway #3: There is a Goldilocks zone between too much dogma and lack of discipline. Can you give us an example or two of strategies that were difficult to let go of or move on from? Your favorite saying internally is “anything worth doing is worth doing fast”. Yet this is a pretty long cycle business and it takes time for a portfolio to mature and drive returns. What were the key learnings with regards to returns and metrics? How do you know if you're winning if the metrics are a bit of a red herring?  Are there any alternative metrics or signals you look for to quantitatively gauge performance? You cited the biggest observable misses for most VC's and it's related to market size -- what's been your observation here and where are investors missing? You suggest that founders and investors should make each other a bit uncomfortable. Why? Does this ever prevent you from winning deals? What's your opinion on competition after a decade of investing? How do you think about the competitive set of investors and how to maintain and edge in sourcing and winning the best deals? Do you have any advice for founders w/regards to fundraising? Missed a recent episode? Go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Today's guest started building a strong work ethic at the age of 12, and never stopped. Understanding she learned through work, it was fundamental that her choice in University had an emphasis on learning through action. She followed her interest in event production to a premier events company in Boston, producing high-end events like a Super Bowl Ring Ceremony at the team owner's house. It was in her time managing Boston's most select night clubs that she noticed a gap; The Ultra Premium club life was Ultra antiquated in how they managed guest bookings. To solve that, she co-founded TabelList to modernize Night Club and event reservations. They soon expanded Nationally, and beyond the club too, landing the most Ultra Premium event of 2017... Fyre Fest! Wow! You may have seen the documentaries, but facing $3.5M in chargebacks! Just Wow! Following that, she took over as CEO, and with 4 others stayed to rebuild the decimated company. Just as things were growing again, she lost her Mom to Cancer. This was all just before COVID hit, shutting down every nightclub and event in the World. A call came in from an old contact from Boston, who needed help managing the growing queues at their dispensaries during Covid. Could their software help? Bring hospitality to Cannabis, please enjoy the Founder's Journey of Kyla Sirni, Co-Founder & CEO of Dispense. Professional Summary: Kyla (Moore) Sirni is the Co-Founder & CEO of Dispense, an e-commerce and order management software for cannabis dispensaries. Before Dispense, Kyla worked for nearly two decades in the hospitality industry, planning prestigious events for high-profile clients and managing several nightlife venues. In 2013, experiencing firsthand the lack of technology and tools available for venue operators, Kyla Co-Founded Tablelist, a ticketing, reservations, and guest management software that is now being used in 50+ cities worldwide. When hospitality shut down because of COVID 19, Kyla saw an opportunity to utilize her experience and the Tablelist infrastructure to bring a hospitality-driven, customer-centric software to help retailers in the cannabis industry. Company Summary: Dispense is B2B e-commerce software focused on providing cannabis dispensaries with the technology and tools they need to sell products online, manage operations, build direct customer relationships, and scale their businesses. Show Notes: https://playlandpark.org/ (Playland Park) https://www.rafanellievents.com/ (Rafanelli Events) https://www.tablelist.com/ (Tabelist) https://www.linkedin.com/in/abner-kurtin-78b8b66b/ (Abner Kurtin), https://awholdings.com/ (Ascend Wellness) https://nextviewventures.com/ (NextView Ventures) https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilypaxhia (Emily Paxhia), https://www.linkedin.com/in/reapatrick/ (Patrick Rea), https://www.poseidonassetmanagement.com/ (Poseidon Asset Management) https://www.dispenseapp.com/ (Dispense) Top 5 Articles/Interview with our Guest: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ticket-vendor-tablelist-sues-fyre-festival-organizers-for-3-5-million-121409/ (Ticket Vendor Tablelist Sues Fyre Festival Organizers for $3.5 Million) https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200128005200/en/Miami-Party-Organizers-Select-Tablelist-as-Event-Operations-Partner-to-Streamline-Guest-Experience-for-the-Big-Game (Miami Party Organizers Select Tablelist as Event Operations Partner to Streamline Guest Experience for the Big Game) Kyla Sirni, Co-Founder & CEO of Dispense https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylamoore/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylamoore/) https://www.dispenseapp.com (https://www.dispenseapp.com) https://www.facebook.com/dispenseapp (https://www.facebook.com/dispenseapp) https://www.instagram.com/dispense_app (https://www.instagram.com/dispense_app) https://twitter.com/dispense_app (https://twitter.com/dispense_app) https://www.linkedin.com/company/dispenseapp (https://www.linkedin.com/company/dispenseapp) Brian Weber, Producer... Support this podcast

Tim is the CEO and Co-Founder of Correlated, the leading product-led revenue platform for sales teams. Correlated recently launched publicly and announced an $8.3 million round of funding led by Harrison Metal and NextView Ventures. Prior to founding Correlated, Tim was an early executive team member at two data and analytics startups: Facet and Timescale. Timescale recently raised a $40 million Series B from Redpoint. Earlier in his career he was on the founding team of TapCommerce, a leading marketing tech startup which was acquired by Twitter for a reported $100 million. Tim has led sales, partnerships and go-to-market teams throughout his career and has witnessed the transition to product-led growth as a go-to-market motion firsthand." He also plays a mean game of Poker.  We talk Product Led Growth/Revenue. What is PLG? Hype and reality….  What are its strengths and limitations? How do product managers work in the PLG model? Which team in the revenue org is most responsible for expansion, sales or CS? How do sales teams in companies with a PLG motion optimally insert themselves into GTM? When should PLG companies hire sales? Are “traditional” SaaS companies starting to pursue a PLG model? What's working/not working?  

HackerU, a cybersecurity technology solutions, services, and knowledge transfer company, has acquired Cybint. The combined entity's global reach will expand following the purchase, and it will be known as ThriveDX, which stands for digital transformation.Dataiku, a platform for everyday AI, raised $300M in a Series E round led by Tiger Global, valuing the business at $4.6B. This funding will aid Dataiku in achieving its aim of systematizing data utilization for exceptional business results. Over 450 organizations use Dataiku globally.Correlated, a product-led revenue startup, has raised $8.3M in a seed round led by NextView Ventures and Harrison Metal. To assist the firm in exiting beta, the cash will acquire expertise in areas like engineering and go-to-market.Google Workspace and Miro have teamed together to make it easier for teams to collaborate, whether in person or remotely. Teams will be able to brainstorm and communicate in real-time and asynchronously with the help of Google Workspace and Miro.HubSpot has announced that its Co-founder and CEO Brian Halligan, would move to the position of the company's executive chairman and Yamini Rangan, its chief customer officer, has been promoted to the position of CEO.MakerSights has raised $25M in a Series B funding round to rebuild the profitability and sustainability of the retail industry. It would also use the proceeds from the funding to support its key executive hires and global expansion aspirations.STW Technic and Elevāt enter partnership to offer mobile machine IoT solution to users, allowing the extension of the value of every machine asset that Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) deploy, fleet operators utilize, and dealers deliver.Tsingyuan Ventures has now rebranded itself as Foothill Ventures to better reflect its vision of elevating entrepreneurs from the very first step (foothills to above). It has also closed an oversubscribed fund of $100M, initially targeting $70M.Digital experience intelligence (DXI) provider FullStory has raised $103M in an oversubscribed Series D round at $1.8B valuation to expand internationally and enhance its DXI platform to help companies in building their digital products and services across various teams, ranging from customer success to product.

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors. This episode is with Michael Kim of Cendana Capital (https://www.cendanacapital.com/), a "fund of funds" that invests in very early stage venture capital funds. In this episode, Michael talks about why he started Cendana Capital and how he raised his fund, the types of emerging VCs he prefers to invest in (and what he's looking for when meeting a new VC), the evolution of seed investing, tips for raising an inaugural fund, the process for raising capital from a FoF, and much more. The VC funds that Cendana Capital has invested in include: US Seed: 11.2 Capital, Accelerator Ventures, Angular Ventures, Bowery Capital, Collaborative Fund, Forerunner Ventures, Founder Collective, Freestyle Capital, IA Ventures, L2 Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, MHS Capital, Montage Ventures, Moxxie Ventures, Neo, NextView Ventures, Silicon Valley Data Capital, Spider Capital, Susa Ventures, Uncork VC (fka SoftTech VC), Wave Capital and XYZ Ventures US Pre-Seed: Better Tomorrow Ventures, Bolt VC, Engineering Capital, K9 Ventures, Mucker Capital, Notation Capital, PivotNorth Capital, Rhapsody Venture Partners, Root Ventures and Wonder Ventures International Seed: 01VC, Blackbird Ventures (AUS and NZ), Cherubic Ventures, ChinaRock Capital Management, Entree Capital, Golden Ventures, Leo Capital, Moonfire, Saama Capital and System.One How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at https:/www.foundersuite.com/

Our hosts are joined by David Beisel a partner at NextView Ventures. With offices in Boston and New York, NextView is a seed-stage investment firm focused on the "Everyday Economy."

It’s been a rough year. As the pandemic grows, so have all sorts of unhealthy behaviors… including alcohol abuse. Fortunately, there’s Mike Russell. Mike is Co-Founder & CEO of Monument, an online treatment platform for those looking to change their relationship with alcohol. Designed to support sobriety or moderation, Monument plans are personalized to members’ goals, lifestyles, and preferences. Plans include access to therapist-moderated support groups, video therapy, and physician-prescribed medication. Mike started the company, driven by his own struggle with alcohol. And he knows what he’s doing. Mike is a member of the founding teams of Paintzen (Acquired by PPG Industries), Bombas, Zipdrug, and MyClean. Investors love it too. They include Lerer Hippeau, Collaborative Fund, Red Sea Ventures, NextView Ventures, Corigin Ventures, and Data Point Capital. In this 20-minute conversation, Mike shares how he’s built a Rockstar team at Monument.

How does one go from being an operator to starting a venture capital fund? Rob Go, co-founder of NextView Ventures shared how he got started as a VC, how companies in NextView’s portfolio as well as NextView have been adapting to the pandemic, what’s changed for the firm since the pandemic hit, the new accelerator program and much much more. Rob Go is a co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures. Prior to founding NextView, Rob was at Spark Capital, Ebay, as well as, Fidelity Investments and BzzAgent. Catch him on Twitter at @robgo Catch the video at https://youtu.be/3Ng8IqiBlSk --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pjain/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pjain/support

Rob Go, General Partner, NextView Ventures Key Takeaways: 1. E-com businesses that have subscription-like unit economics will begin to be treated more favorably as this crisis unlocks a new consistent consumer base. 2. Dislocation between economic realities and public markets exists, but early stage company valuations are still predominantly driven by their competition. 3. Reference checks are a critical and useful way to check on a founder in a remote environment.

Product leaders who’ve grown with a successful startup and venture capitalists both have interesting perspectives on product organizations. Wouldn’t it be nice if one person could offer both? As part of our How to Fund Your Venture series, Product Talk host and product exec, Samantha Scott, interviews x, Melody Koh, and discusses scaling a product organization, which she’s seen as the first PM at Blue Apron and now as a venture capital partner.

I have been wanting to interview Lee for a long time, as he has played a key role in the early stages of two iconic tech companies. He was an early employee at PayPal and was part of the founding team at LinkedIn before becoming a venture capitalist. Needless to say, he's worked with some amazing people like Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, David Sacks, and others. He shares some awesome stories around each company, especially how LinkedIn started to gain traction in the early days. Today, Lee is a Partner & Co-Founder of NextView Ventures, a seed stage investment firm that is focused on investing into companies that are redesigning the Everyday Economy. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Lee's background and why he was so interested in joining a startup after college. * How he met Elon Musk which landed him a job at the startup he was working on that turned into PayPal. * A deep dive into the early foundational years at LinkedIn. * His transition into VC and all the details on NextView Ventures. * Why you shouldn't hire specialists for your startup. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Melody Koh of Nextview Ventures joins Nick on a special Crisis Coverage installment to discuss Super-Technologies; The Everyday Economy; The Overlooked Working Class; and Fear of Missing Out vs. Fear of Looking Dumb. In this episode, we cover: Background and path to venture Thesis and Focus at NextView Hands-on approach (only 2-3 investments/yr)? You wrote that when it comes to investing in the COVID era -- FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is replaced by FOLD (Fear Of Looking Dumb). What are you seeing from other investors? How will this effect 'Seed' as a Stage of investing? How has the crisis effected your approach? Conviction without face to face? Recently heard about NextView's new virtual Accelerator... congrats on the launch. Can you give us a quick overview of the program? Do you have any predictions on the long-term effects of this crisis on the ‘Everyday Economy'? I saw your tweet about companies shifting the real estate burden to employees as everyone works from home... do you think companies should subsidize this? Super-Technologies...  railroads, electricity, automobiles, and now internet connectivity.  Ideas about what may be some of the next infrastructure type super-technology? Why do you think the working class has been overlooked as an opportunity for innovation? You cite labor as an opportunity ready for innovation. Why is now the time for innovation here? You point out a really interesting observation -- that this demographic is more likely to use smartphones as their daily driver and that they tend to skew towards older devices. What does that mean for new tech products? Are there examples of tech companies that have successfully built a company designed for this category of workers? What are the key success factors or key criteria for success, when launching technologies for the working class? Which working class industries do you think are in the best position for change? To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

There's perhaps never been a better time for a fast-growing startup focused on unlocking human health & performance. It's called Whoop. And I just had a chance to interview its CEO Will Ahmed. Whoop combines hardware, software, and analytics to take people to a whole new level of health. Will conceived the idea as a top squash athlete at Harvard. Since then, he's assembled a world-class team of 100 professionals based in Boston. He's raised $100M in venture capital from Foundry Group, Two Sigma Ventures, Accomplice, Thursday Ventures, Promus Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, NFL Players Association, Thursday Ventures, Mousse Partners, and NextView Ventures.. And created a $30/month subscription (hardware included) that tracks 1,000 times the amount of health data as an Apple Watch. It tracks physiological metrics, such as heart-rate variability, resting heart rate, and sleep data. It crunches this info to calculate levels of fatigue & stress on the body, allowing the athlete to optimize their training schedule & sleep. During our conversation, Will explains why (and where!) how he looks for people who have a rare combination of high-intensity and high-humility.  

Stuart Landesberg is the co-founder and CEO of Grove Collaborative which has an owned direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform for natural home and personal care products. The company has raised over $200 million at a $1B+ valuation from investors like Norwest Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, General Atlantic, Marc Bell Ventures, Greenspring Associates, Nextview Ventures, and Bullpen Capital to name a few. 

Stuart Landesberg is the co-founder and CEO of Grove Collaborative which has an owned direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform for natural home and personal care products. The company has raised over $200 million at a $1B+ valuation from investors like Norwest Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, General Atlantic, Marc Bell Ventures, Greenspring Associates, Nextview Ventures, and Bullpen Capital to name a few. 

Welcome to Episode 126 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Melody Koh, Partner at NextView Ventures. Melody has a strong mix of professional experience as an entrepreneur, operator, and investor. At Blue Apron, she was the company's first product hire. She went on to lead a 35-person team through the company's hypergrowth years to an IPO. At NextView Ventures, she's part of the team that is redesigning the “Everyday Economy,” which we dive into, as it is the firm's investment thesis. Melody is passionate about working closely with founders at early-stage companies where she can leverage her experience in things like product, go-to-market strategies, hiring, and more. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of other topics too, like: -How parenting relates to entrepreneurship, which is relevant, as Melody and her husband recently welcomed a newborn son to the world. -Her background story and how she landed in venture capital early on in her career and later transitioned into product management. -The details of her experience at Blue Apron and the hypergrowth years where she led product, design, and analytics. -Her current role as a venture capitalist and what she is targeting for investments. -Advice for founders who haven't made their first product hire yet and finding the right product manager for your company. -Tips on how to pursue a career in venture capital. -And so much more. Is your company hiring? If yes, then you might want to add a BIZZpage subscription. It is our employment branding and hiring solution that helps to keep your company top of mind for our targeted audience of professionals in the tech industry. A BIZZpage subscription includes an employment branding page, unlimited postings to our Job Board, access to our exclusive content series, and more. Send an email to info@venturefizz.com for more details. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 95 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Kristen Caldwell, talent consultant and advisor. I was really excited to speak with Kristen as we talk at length about a topic that I'm very passionate about and have pretty much built my career around: recruiting. Kristen has an impressive background where she has played in key role in building out some of the top companies across both coasts like Yammer, Vine, Uber, and Blue Apron. Today, she is working with founders to help out with their talent acquisition strategy, as well as working as an advisor for firms Thrive Capital and NextView Ventures. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of topics, like: -Kristen's background and the story of how she “fell into” recruiting. -The details of her in-house recruiting experience at each company. -The common mistakes entrepreneurs make when hiring. -How Kristen advises brand-new companies on top-of-the-funnel candidate strategy, including how to recruit engineers. -Telling the difference between someone who is good at interviewing versus a good hire. -How to approach diversity and inclusion. -Plus, a lot more. Our BIZZpages are a great way to do a virtual tour of high growth tech companies across the New York tech scene. Each BIZZpage has lots of information about the company, its culture, job openings, team, and more. You'll find lots of great companies listed like Ordergroove, SevenRooms, Reonomy, Kasisto, Bowery, UiPath, Facebook, DigitalOcean, and so many more. Go to venturefizz.com/bizzpages to start exploring! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

BROUGHT TO YOU BY HIRETUAL! Phenom People has a released a major enhancement to it product suite this week; Theyre calling it the Talent Experience Management (TXM) ...a methodology and platform that unifies technology and experience design to enhance the talent journey, turning interested candidates to thriving employees to enthusiastic brand advocates, while helping recruiters and management boost productivity and communicate seamlessly. Talent Experience Management connects the four key experiences of Candidates, Recruiters, Employees, and Management. TXM helps:  Candidates find the right job, where they will succeed for a long time Recruiters be more productive, finding more quality candidates Employees evolve into the best talent, enabling their careers to flourish Management get the insights they need, allowing them to make smarter business decisions I attended their analyst day and user conference in Philly this week and will be publishing some news and podcasts very soon. -------- Eightfold.ai, the creator of the first Talent Intelligence Platform, announced it has added IVP to its growing list of investors in raising $28 million in a Series C financing. The round, joined by Foundation Capital and Lightspeed Ventures who led previous funding rounds, brings Eightfold.ai’s total funding to $55 million, making it one of the most well-capitalized AI solutions for talent management. Built by co-founders Ashutosh Garg and Varun Kacholia, distinguished engineers out of Google and Facebook, Eightfold.ai’s Talent Intelligence Platform empowers enterprises to solve the number one challenge facing chief executives and chief human resource officers today – hiring and retaining top talent. This new funding follows significant interest in Eightfold.ai’s patented artificial intelligence–based platform which has secured numerous new customers in four continents around the world since emerging from stealth mode one year ago. From Fortune 500 companies to fast-growing technology companies, current customers include Conagra, AdRoll Group, Tata Communications and DigitalOcean. The Talent Intelligence Platform from Eightfold.ai is also available via a growing set of channel partners, including the SAP App Center, and integrates with major human resource information systems (HRIS) and applicant tracking systems (ATS). https://recruitingheadlines.com/eightfold-ai-secures-28-million-in-series-c-funding-for-its-talent-intelligence-platform/ Last week a relatively unknown recruitment technology player called Zippia announced a significant round of funding that will help it continue to build a tool for job seekers in their quest for the ideal career pathway. The San Mateo based company raised a Series A investment of $8.5 million led by e.ventures, with participation from existing shareholders including MHS Capital, NextView Ventures, and Correlation Ventures. This brings the startup’s total capital raised to $12 million since its founding in early 2015. Zippia, uses machine learning and data aggregation to create its ‘career map’, which helps job seekers understand career pathways like never before. Zippia’s tools provide job seekers unique resources, creating a more complete understanding of job titles and career options. Read my Q&a with them on the Recruiting Headlines blog. https://recruitingheadlines.com/zippia-gets-8-million-to-help-people-plan-their-careers/ MINNEAPOLIS –CATS Software, a leading provider of recruiting software, has released the fifth major update to their applicant tracking system. This release focuses on improving recruiter productivity and enhancing communication with candidates and clients. The CATS 5.0 rollout includes numerous features, like a meeting scheduler, SMS texting capabilities, and a new version of the sourcing browser extension, but the anchor point for CATS 5.0 is the complete UI overhaul. “This is a major change in the UI. Most of our past updates have been a continuation of the same thematic elements. This is the first time in a decade where we are fundamentally reshaping, rebranding and recreating CATS from the ground up. That work and passion has culminated in this update—codenamed ‘Nala’—which is the leading edge of user interaction design.” – CATS President Tony Sternberg Key Highlights: Connect with candidates through SMS/marketing text messages Seamlessly schedule meetings by sharing your calendar with candidates Enable candidates to apply faster with a more efficient career portal Increase your productivity in CATS with the sleek, modern UI   https://recruitingheadlines.com/cats-recruiting-software-releases-new-version/ announcing new partnerships with enterprise HR companies such as SAP SuccessFactors which will combine the ease and convenience of hiring tools with the expansive reach of Jobs on Facebook. Now, employers can easily create job posts and manage applications through these applicant tracking systems. This lets businesses continue using the hiring tools they already use, and also access the expansive talent pool on Facebook. And applications from job seekers on Facebook will be sent directly to a partner's tool for a seamless review experience. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/helping-businesses-hire-through-jobs-on-facebook

David is the Co-Founder and CEO of Drift, where he is helping everyone know, grow, and amaze their customers. Prior Experience: He previously founded Compete, Lookery, Ghostery, and Performable. Most recently, after the Acquisition of Performable by HubSpot, David was the Chief Product Officer responsible for re-architecting the engineering team and HubSpots products. He is active in the Boston tech community investing in and advising organizations like Charles River Ventures, Spark Capital, NextView Ventures, DormRoom Fund, EverTrue, Visible Measures, Yottaa, and HelpScout. Skills & Expertise: David is passionate about building amazing products for Marketers. Interests: SaaS, building teams, patents. During out interview we discuss: - Talks about how and why he raised $107 million in venture funding. - David talks about how how they grew from 20 people in 2017 to 250 people in 2018. - Then David talks about the the top 2 strategies Drift uses to acquire new customers. - We dissect Drift's strategy for converting event attendees into inbound sales. - Hind sight being 20/20, David shares what he would do differently to grow faster if he could start Drift all over again. - David shares the biggest challenge Drift has faced since launching the business. - He shares his favorite growth tool/software. - Then David recommends one of his favorite books to you my audience. David's website: www.Drift.com www.twitter.com/dcancel www.linkedin.com/in/dcancel

Did you know that 80% of job opportunities at $100,000+ filled every month aren’t advertised? Despite the internet, it’s still a highly inefficient & hidden market. Joe Meyer, Founder & CEO of Execthread, intends to change that. It’s NYC-based VC-backed job-sharing network that enables executives to access that “hidden job market.” ExecThread has become the largest global aggregator of unpublished executive-level job opportunities. Joe has been a successful start-up CEO and operating executive at high-growth tech companies including HopStop (acquired by Apple), Quigo (acquired by AOL) and eBay. He’s been named Entrepreneur of the Year by Crain's New York Business. And investors have taken notice. He’s raised $6.5 million in capital from Canaan Partners, Javelin Venture Partners, NextView Ventures, and Corazon Capital. In this 20-minute conversation, Joe explains how it works & why. If you’re looking for a senior-level role, or senior-level talent, pull on this thread & listen.

Welcome to Episode 40 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Eric Horndahl, CEO & Co-Founder at Renoviso. Eric was a major contributor to two successful web companies in the Boston area, that being FlipKey (which was acquired by TripAdvisor) and BuyerZone (which was acquired by Reed Business Information). If you've ever had a major home improvement project like replacing your windows… it's typically not a great experience, but Renoviso is looking to change that by disrupting the home improvement industry with a whole new approach through transparency, technology, and world-class customer service. . Renoviso's investors are Corigin Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, NextView Ventures, FJ Labs, plus a who's who list of angel investors. This interview is timely, as they just recently raised $7M in venture funding, so we had a lot to talk about. In this episode, we cover: -Eric's background and his experience at BuyerZone, which includes so many great alumni -His experience at FlipKey, where they built a vacation rental marketplace -The aha moment behind Renoviso and their unique business model -Advice for first-time founders raising capital -Plus, a lot more! Quick side note: It's hard to believe that this is our 40th episode! It's been a blast interviewing so many great people in the tech industry. We have a great roster of guests coming up, but I want to make sure we're giving our audience what they want. So, if there are any guests you'd like to hear the background story of, feel free to shoot us an email at podcast@venturefizz.com! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Excited to have Ginny Mineo from NextView Ventures as a guest on this podcast to discuss the future of content marketing in demand generation.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Stuart Landesberg, CEO of Grove Collaborative (www.grove.co). Grove makes natural home and personal care products with a mission to help every family create a healthy and beautiful home. Grove recently raised raised $36.77 million of Series C funding in a deal led by Norwest Venture Partners. Bullpen Capital, Mayfield Fund, Serious Change, NextView Ventures, MHS Capital, John Replogle and others also participated in the round. Stuart discusses raising initial capital based on a clickable prototype and excel, why he chose a B-Corporation, his investor funnel for the A round, and more.

Nadia Boujarwah is the Founder & CEO @ Dia & Co, the startup that provides premier plus size clothing and styling for women. To date they have raised over $20m in funding from some of the best in the business including the likes of Alfred Lin @ Sequoia and the team @ NextView Ventures. Prior to Dia&Co Nadia was the CFO and COO @ Frieda and Nellie and also enjoyed time in the marketing and strategy team @ Diane von Furstenberg. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Nadia made her way from HBS grad to founding one of the hottest e-commerce companies of the day backed by Sequoia, Dia&Co? 2.) Why does Nadia believe that the biggest opportunity for value creation is through category creation? What does Nadia mean when she discusses category re-architecture? How does she think of the inherent cons (CAC, consumer education, distribution etc.) 3.) Despite the likes of Sequoia being invested now, the first year of Dia gained no institutional money. Why does Nadia think this is? What was the inflection point for VC interest? Is there anything that Nadia would change about how she has run the fundraising process? 4.) What does Nadia suggest as some core solutions to ensuring that more females become VCs? How does Nadia believe this will impact the types of companies that are being funded and built? What remain the core issues today? 5.) How does Nadia differentiate between customer centricity and customer devotion? Why is this so crucial in today's proliferated world of e-commerce? How does Nadi and Dia determine with data, the extent to which they achieve their customer devotion targets? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Nadia's Fave Book: Competing Against Luck As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Nadia on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Cooley are the global law firm built around startups and venture capital.  Since forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley, Cooley has formed more venture capital funds than any other law firm in the world, with 50+ years working with VCs. They help VCs form and manage funds, make investments and handle the myriad issues that arise through a fund’s lifetime. So to learn more about the #1 most active law firm representing VC-backed companies going public. Head over to cooley.com and also at cooleygo.com. Zoom, fastest growing video and web conferencing service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an array of activities including video meetings and webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms, and persistent chat all in one easy platform. Plus, it is the easiest solution to manage, scale, and use, and has the most straightforward, affordable pricing. Don’t take our word for it. Zoom is the top rated conferencing app across various user review sites including G2Crowd and Trust Radius. And you can sign up for a free account (not a trial!). Just visit Zoom.us.

Melody Koh and Jenna discuss her goal to create the most impactful product offering for startups in NYC at NextView Ventures. We then walk through the lessons Melody learned at Blue Apron during the company's ascent from 20 to 500 people in four years, including: How to constantly reinvent yourself with a growth mindset, a weekly time management system that syncs your priorities with your energy management, and daily questions to ask yourself to escape inertia.

Rob Go is a founding partner of NextView Ventures, a seed fund focused on consumer and the everyday economy. Based out of Boston and NYC, NextView has been leading the way on East Coast consumer innovation and built a great brand through their podcast and constant content. Prior to this, Rob worked at Spark Capital... The post Rob Go of NextView Ventures on Ecommerce, Consumer Tech and Investing in the Everyday Economy appeared first on The Syndicate.

Melody Koh was the very first product hire and Head of Product at Blue Apron, where she helped grow its customer base and revenue 25x in 3.5 years. Now with NextView Ventures, she joins Intercom co-founder Des Traynor to share her lessons learned on leading a team at scale, collaboration and managing a product that's both physical and digital in nature.

David is a partner and co-founder at NextView Ventures. The firm just raised a new $50 million fund for seed stage investments in the Everyday Economy. In this interview, David Beisel talks about super technologies, innovation waves, how voice and AI will play a role in the things we do every day and three strategies for driving discovery of a new Alexa skill. David previously published a voice computing map that highlighted multiple sectors of voice technology and shares his thoughts on whether he thinks Amazon, Google, Apple or others will ultimately capture the hearts, minds and ears of everyday consumers. This is a must listen for entrepreneurs and executives working in the AI and voice ecosystems today. 

David Beisel is a co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures, one of the East Coast's leading early stage funds with their recent $50m seed fund being announced just this month. David was most recently a Vice President at Venrock and previously a Principal at Masthead Venture Partners. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, David co-founded Sombasa Media, an e-mail marketing company best known for its flagship product BargainDog. Sombasa was successfully acquired by About.com where David served as Vice President of Marketing.   In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How David made his way into the world of early stage venture and came to co-found NextView? 2.) How did Nextview design an investment decision-making process that allows for outliers to get through? How does this change with the decision for follow on investment? 3.) Why should firms write investment memos for every investment, regardless of stage and sector? How can firms implement a voting process that is both rigourous yet innovative? 4.) Why is David so excited by the voice computing space? With incumbents like Google and Amazon dominating, where is the opportunity for startups to play? Why does David believe that voice is the most natural user interface possible? 5.) Why does David believe distribution is one of the biggest challenges facing startups today? What does David look for in founders that suggest inherent knowledge of marketing and distribution prowess? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: David’s Fave Book: Look Homeward, Angel David’s Fave Blog: Gotham Voices, Hearing Voices David’s Most Recent Investment: Skyways As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and David on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Pendo delivers the only complete platform that helps companies create great products. The Pendo Product Experience Platform enables product teams to understand product usage, collect user feedback, measure NPS, assist users, and promote new features in-app - all without requiring any engineering resources. This unique combination of capabilities helps companies improve customer satisfaction, reduce churn, and increase revenue. Pendo is the proven choice of Salesforce, Cisco, Optimizely Citrix, BMC and many more leading companies. Start a free trial at http://go.pendo.io/harry Treehouse is an online school where you can learn how to build websites and apps. Their course library has thousands of hours of content, where you can learn all sorts of topics, including Javascript, iOS, Android and more.  With high-quality video instruction from real industry experts teaching you all you need to know, and quizzes and code challenges keep you engaged and on track. Learn on your own schedule and go from beginner to pro. Go to teamtreehouse.com to start your free trial.

Lee Hower is a co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures, one of the East coast's leading early stage funds with investments in the likes of Dia & Co, Sunrise, TaskRabbit and GrabCad just to name a few. As for Lee, prior to being a VC with NextView, Lee started his career as an early employee of PayPal in product and business development roles, through the company’s 2002 IPO and sale to eBay. After PayPal, Lee was a co-founder of LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) and served as head of corporate development. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Lee made his way from the early days of PayPal with Elon Musk to the founding team of LinkedIn with Reid Hoffman to founding NextView and being a VC? 2.) What were Lee's biggest takeaways from his time working with Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman in the early days of PayPal? How has that experience affected how he invests today? 3.) Unlike other Paypal mafia members, Lee decided not to pursue the multi-stage investing strategy. Why was this? How does Lee evaluate the current seed environment? 4.) Why does Lee believe it is fundamental to study the history of VC and innovation? How does this affect his mindset when investing? 5.) What would Lee advice to a junior VC or someone looking to move into the industry in terms of differentiation and personal branding? What is key? How should this be approached? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Lee’s Fave Book: The Globalisation Paradox Lee's Most Recent Investment: Optimus Ride As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Lee on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. X.ai is AI-poweredered personal assistant for scheduling meetings bringing you Amy or Andrew. The assistant you interact with like you would to any other person and it allows you to avoid the tedious hours of email ping pong in order to schedule one meeting. Even better, there is no sign in, no password, no download, all you do is cc amy@x.ai beautiful! And you can check it out now on x.ai it really is a must! Workable is the all-in-one recruiting software for ambitious companies. From posting a job to tracking and managing candidates, Workable provides everything you need to hire better. Transparent communication, organized candidate profiles, structured interviews and a full reporting suite gives hiring teams the information they need to make the best choice. Workable is available for desktop and mobile and you can find out more on workable.com where you can try it for free.

In this episode we look at advice from Hyde Park Angels and Rob Go of NextView Ventures about how to best pitch your startup to VCs or angel investors. We also look at what you can learn from a story Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures tells about an entrepreneur who successfully convinced Fred to invest without a pitch deck at all. Building The Perfect Pitch Hyde Park Angels As part of their educational series Hyde Park's team created a great outline for the story your pitch should tell. The flow they suggest may be different than you would expect. But, it syncs with the way most venture capitalists and angel investors evaluate opportunities. A Simple Approach To Startup Pitch Decks Rob Go - NextView Ventures Rob Go and the NextView team have created two amazingly helpful templates for startup pitches: one for email and smaller meetings and a second for larger group settings (e.g. a demo day).  I focus on the individual or small group format. Their format has tremendous versatility and does for startup pitches what responsive design and HTML 5 did for web sites. You can use content once and then adapt literally in the middle of a pitch to tailor it to your unique audience. Here's the PowerPoint template It's hosted on DropBox.  If you don't want to sign in there to get it you can go to SlideShare.net (just to manage expectations, they released it on SlideShare as a single PDF, not in an editable format for PowerPoint or Keynote) As a little extra bonus here are some early pitches from companies you probably know. (yes...I know. Some are probably bootlegged and incomplete, but they're interesting none the less.) LinkedIn Buffer YouTube FourSquare Best Seed Pitch Ever Fred Wilson - Union Square Ventures Do you even need a pitch? Sounds like heresy. No self-respecting entrepreneur would pitch a startup without a deck. Fred says you can and has the story to prove it. Bonus Information about Rob Go Rob describes himself this way: "Here’s a quick background on who I am: 1. My name is Rob, I live in Lexington, MA 2. I’m married and have two young daughters. My wife and I met in college at Duke University - Go Blue Devils! 3. We really love our church in Arlington, MA. It’s called Highrock and it’s a wonderful and vibrant community. Email me if you want to visit! 4. I grew up in the Philippines (ages 0-9) and Hong Kong (ages 9-17). 5. I am a cofounder of NextView Ventures, a seed stage investment firm focused on internet enabled innovation. I try to spend as much time as possible working with entrepreneurs and investing in businesses that are trying to solve important problems for everyday people. 6. The best way to reach me is by email: rob at nextviewventures dot com" Blog NextView Ventures Twitter @RobGO LinkedIn  

Kristen Craft is VP of business development and marketing at Ovia Health. For this episode, Jay sat down with Kristen while she was head of biz dev at video platform company Wistia. They talk about what business development roles actually do for their companies, and when and why a founder would hire someone to lead up the function. This is a deep, nuanced exploration of a job role that doesn't often fit as neatly into departmental categories as engineering, product, sales, or marketing. And Kristen is one of the best in the biz to discuss it. Follow Kristen: http://twitter.com/thecrafty Follow Jay: http://twitter.com/jayacunzo Subscribe to the NextView Ventures blog: http://nextviewvc.com/blog  

For his birthday, this episode's guest, decided he wanted to spend some time with us (big mistake). Rob Go (http://robgo.org/ or @robgo on Twitter), a partner and co-founder at NextView Ventures joins us for a fun conversation about all sorts of stuff including the latest gift-giving trends, some great advice for east coast entrepreneurs, thoughts on the Boston tech scene, and more. We play the usual games including the Startup Name Game. Oddly, Rob was prepared with market size and other metrics. Rob and NextView have been great friends and supporters of the podcast so at the very least, you owe this episode a listen.   This episode is actually sponsored by Grove (grovegrown.com). We thank them for their support as well.  

In today’s episode I sit down with Rob Go, Co-Founder and Partner at NextView Ventures, a seed-stage VC firm focused on internet and software businesses, investing in both B2C and B2B companies. NextView has investments in companies such as Drift, InsightSqaured, Bridj, and TaskRabbit. Before founding NextView, Rob was at Spark Capital and focused on early stage consumer web and mobile companies. Prior to Spark Capital, Rob worked at eBay as the Business Product Lead overseeing the launch of products that enhanced the search, browse, and discovery experience for millions of users. NextView believes in being great at one thing: high-conviction, hands-on seed investing.   In this episode, Rob shares among other things:                 Why he decided to start his own VC firm The three problems with VC are                 What growing up abroad taught him about running a company                 What makes the Boston startup scene unique                 Deal killers                 How early stage startup valuations have changed over the last ten years                 Why a smaller seed round can be better than a larger seed round                 What he’s learned raising money for his first fund                 His advice to founders raising money Links from this episode:                 Boston Tech Guide                 Congrats to the Sunrise Team                 Lessons from my Dad Amazon Echo Nest Thermostat The Trend Back Towards Smaller Seed Rounds RentJuice Dia&Co Wait But Why The Martian Ready Player One High Failure Strategies 2U PillPack Traction Podcast Rog Go on Twitter Jay Acunzo on snapchat   If you liked this episode: Follow the podcast on Twitter Subscribe on iTunes or your podcast app and write a review Get in touch with feedback, ideas, or to say hi: nic {AT} startupbostonpodcast [DOT] com

Rob Go, Co-Founder of NextView Ventures, knows what the future of business looks like. In fact, he’s invested in it. As an early-stage VC, he’s backed many companies that made it big. In this episode, Rob shares his thoughts on what it takes to get traction for your product and what else he looks for in companies he invests in.

What design problems do startups have on various levels of development? How do they handle their UI/UX? To answer these questions, we invited a special guest: Jay Acunzo, VP of Platform at NextView Ventures. He's been helping startups for years by creating helpful content for them. In addition to startup problems, we also discuss Unthinkable — Jay's show for craft-driven creators (which represents a new format of podcasting). Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app. Show Notes NextView Ventures — seed stage VC company we're talking about The NextView Platform — their community & content platform for startups, developed by Jay Unthinkable.fm — Jay's show for craft-driven creators Podcasting for the Creative-Minded: How to Avoid Yet Another Talking Head Show — Jay's post on narrative podcast production Follow Jay on Twitter: @jayacunzo

Today we cover Part 2 of Building an Investor Brand with Jay Acunzo & John Gannon of NextView Ventures. In this segment we address: Jay, how do you approach outsourcing for the Traction Podcast? John, what other elements are important and what other suggestions do you have for newer investors...   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Jay Acunzo is NextView Ventures VP of Platform and runs the View from Seed blog. At NextView, he leads the creation of business development and educational resources for startups, from board deck templates to mobile workshops to the popular Hitchhiker's Guide to Boston Tech (bostontechguide.com). Prior to NextView, Jay led content marketing and production teams at HubSpot (IPO) and Dailybreak Media (acquired). A former sports journalist, he began his career in tech at Google. As a result of Jay's tremendous success Jay has been named Top 10 B2B Marketer in Boston, 70 Rising Social Media Stars and 100 Most Influential Content Marketers. Items Mentioned in Today's Show: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain  Jay's Article in TechCrunch a16z GoDaddy Wordpress The Weird Things Business People Do On Twitter The Content Marketing Institute   In Today's Episode you will Learn: How Jay made his move into the world of tech with Google and how he then transitioned into the world of venture with NextView? What does VP of Platform really entail? Why has it become an emerging trend in the venture industry? How is the structure of VCs firms changing, with the likes of a16z moving to a much more service orientated venture fund. Are there any individuals or sections of society that should or should not be blogging? How can individuals drive traffic to their blog and what tactics Jay uses to get visitors to his blog? What Jay would suggest to business and startup founders thinking about whether to start blogging? What is the best platform to market your content or startup? Is Twitter really an effective marketing tool? How can individuals and businesses increase engagement on Twitter? What not to do on Twitter? We then finish today's episode with a lightning round where we hear Jay's thoughts on the best and worst aspects as VP of Platform, his best resource for content marketing, his favourite book and why.  

How do unicorns and Calvin & Hobbes make it into a conversation about content marketing? This episode of Content Marketing NEXT, host Pamela Muldoon talks with the super-talented and very personable Jay Acunzo, Director of Platform for NextView Ventures. Listen to hear how Jay's journey from Google and Hubspot led him to this great rol as content marketing pioneer for the start-up community. And yes, they even discuss unicorns and Calvin & Hobbes. Enjoy. 

We had the chance to sit down and chat with co-founder Rob Go of NextView Ventures while at their offices in Boston. With a background in operational product-focused roles at eBay, Fidelity and BzzAgent, and having spent some time as a VC at Spark Capital prior to starting NextView, Rob brings a wealth of different points of view to the companies he works with.

Too often, as start-ups and even as established companies, the marketing messages we create for our audience share only the features, not the true benefits that will help those we serve. In this episode of Content, Inc., Joe Pulizzi brings on guest Jay Acunzo, VP of Platform for NextView Ventures, to share how to get past the features conversation and go directly to addressing the problems you solve for your customers. Don't fail by leading with your product. Succeed by leading with how you improve the current situation for your customer. 

In this episode, I interview Co-Founder & Partner of NextView Ventures, David Beisel. NextView Ventures focuses on consumer web, mobile, SaaS, and other internet startups. During our interview, I probe David about the strategic nuances & details of starting a venture fund and the important elements of searching for other investors/growing your fund. -------------- For More Information, Visit the HUB of Startups / Business in Emerging Technology. From Robotic Limbs to Getting Angel Investment, from Biotech to Intellectual Property: http://www.TechEmergence.com Interested in the Future of Humanity and the Ramifications of Emerging Tech? Sentient Potential Covers the Ethical Considerations and Future Projections at the Crossroads of Technology and Consciousness:  http://www.SentientPotential.com

Lee Hower, co-founder & Partner at NextView Ventures, describes his trek from entrepreneur at PayPal and Linkedin to Venture Capitalist. He explains the many paths startups take and some basics on getting funded by venture capital.

*Lee Hower* ( https://nextviewventures.com/team/lee-hower/ ) *is the Co-Founder and Partner of* *NextView Ventures* ( https://nextviewventures.com/ ) *. NextView is a high-conviction hands on seed-stage VC firm that invests in founders who are redesigning the everyday economy. Some of their investments include Grove Collaborative, Skillz, Plastiq, Attentive, LetGo and TapCommerce. Previously, Lee was an early employee at Paypal and served as the Director of Financial Services. He then went on to co-found LinkedIn and serve as a Principal and Venture Partner at PJC.* *Thank you* *Gautam Gupta* ( https://theconsumervc.com/2020/02/13/gautam-gupta/ ) *for introducing me to Lee!* *One of Lee's blog posts that we discuss on the show is* *Denouement* ( https://nextviewventures.com/blog/denouement/ ) *. All of Lee's and NextView's blog posts are available* *here* ( https://nextviewventures.com/blog/ ) *.* *One book that inspired Lee professionally is* *Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't* ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0066620996?camp=1789&creativeASIN=0066620996&ie=UTF8&linkCode=xm2&tag=theconsumervc-20 ) *by Jim Collins. One book that inspired Lee personally is* *Mutiny on the Bounty* ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316611689?camp=1789&creativeASIN=0316611689&ie=UTF8&linkCode=xm2&tag=theconsumervc-20 ) *by Charles Nordoff* *If you would like to keep up to date with Lee, you can follow him on Twitter* *@leehower* ( https://twitter.com/leehower ) *. To follow along behind the scenes of the show, you can follow* *@mikegelb* ( https://twitter.com/MikeGelb ) *and* *@consumervc* ( https://twitter.com/consumervc ) *.* *In this episode you will learn -* * *What attracted Lee to work in technology and what was it like working with the Paypal Mafia? What were some of the learnings from those moments and what led him to co-founding LinkedIn? Is operational experience important to an investor?* * ** * *What are some of the qualities in a founder that he focuses on and look for? His due diligence process? How does he think about portfolio construction at the seed level? What are data points when it comes to consumer companies that you most focus on in the early stages? What he means by the everyday economy? How he thinks about today's venture capital era and why he refers to it as the denouement era?* * ** * *How does he think about the future of venture capital in the new decade? What are some consumer trends that he is most excited about?* * ** * *What is one thing that he would change when it came to venture capital? What is his most recent investment and what makes you excited about it? What's one piece of advice for early stage B2C founders?* * **