Podcasts about Polaris Partners

Pat Kinsel likes to solve big problems.  As founder and CEO of Proof, formerly known as Notarize, Pat created the first company that made it possible to legally notarize documents online. Before Proof, Pat co-founded the technology start-up Spindle, which was acquired by Twitter in 2013.  He was also a partner in the venture capital firm Polaris Partners where he helped build companies such as Drizly which was acquired by Uber. In this episode, Pat shares insights for entrepreneurs young and old on building a company that “stands the test of time”. In the episode we will learn:(2:06) — How did growing up in Silicon Valley influence Pat's entrepreneurial spirit?(3:33) — What inspired Pat's early desire to become a venture capitalist?(5:07) — What was Pat's journey from college to founding Spindle?(7:57) — What problem was Spindle trying to solve and what was the process of selling it to Twitter like?(10:16) — What lessons did Pat learn from the sale process with Twitter?(12:05) — How did a frustrating notarization experience lead to the founding of Notarize (now Proof)?(14:35) — How did Pat and his team navigate regulatory challenges to scale Proof?(17:03) — What qualities does Pat believe are important for a CEO leading a pioneering team?(19:37) — What common mistakes do young entrepreneurs make?(23:51) — What values does Pat want to cultivate in his children as they grow up?(26:14) — What drives Pat to continue working hard in his business and personal life?(29:08) — What does the future have in store for Pat?

Even in turbulent times, early-stage investing has held up in one particular area: Healthcare. In fact: Biotech, pharmaceutical, and digital therapeutic startups are receiving more capital now than before the pandemic, in 2018 - 2019.In this week's episode of The Data Minute, join Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) as he sits down with Marissa Bertorelli (Principal, Polaris Partners) for an illuminating conversation around trends they're seeing in early-stage healthcare investing.In a wide-ranging discussion, they discuss how the pandemic changed investing in the sector, the transformative potential of AI in healthcare, the hurdles of early-stage healthtech startups, whether founders are wasting their time pitching "generalist funds," and much more.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 Intro01:29 Marissa's background and Polaris Partners03:16 The pandemic's impact on healthtech06:12 Early 2024 trends07:23 AI and the hurdles of early-stage healthtech companies 11:16 Investor specialization12:57 Do healthtech founders waste time pitching generalist funds?14:57 Is a cofounder needed?18:10 Exit strategies and vision21:32 Differences in the early-stage healthtech and SaSS founder experience24:26 The Angel Investor community25:40 Academia and entrepreneurship29:00 Can you found a healthtech company without being a scientist?32:42 Robots in healthtech?33:51 Final thoughtsThis 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.

Pat Kinsel is back for his second appearance on Tech Nest. Pat is the Founder and CEO of Proof, an intelligent platform that combines auditable verification with cryptographic evidence to securely execute legally binding agreements. We waste no time getting into why Proof rebranded from being known as Notarize and how the new brand more accurately reflects the full vision of the company. Some of the big problems we discuss include the types of fraud in real estate transactions, including wire fraud, synthetic identity fraud, and deed fraud. Pat also explores the risks associated with AI in increasing fraud and the need for robust security measures. He explains how Proof verifies identity and documents and emphasizes the importance of bringing security frameworks into the consumer world. The conversation sheds light on the challenges and solutions in ensuring trust and security in digital transactions. In this conversation, Pat Kinsel discusses the government's fear of systemic algorithmic bias and the challenges of task automation. The future of real estate transaction depends on trust of identity. Listen in to learn more about Proof and the problems their solving for.More about Pat and ProofAchieve trust in every transaction. With Proof, lock in certainty that your customer actually signed on the dotted line. Proof is an intelligent platform that combines auditable verification with cryptographic evidence to securely execute legally binding agreements.Pat is Founder and CEO of Proof. After creating Notarize, the world's leading notarization platform, Pat raised the standard of trust again with the launch of Proof. Before Proof, Pat was a Venture Partner at Polaris Partners, the first investor into Drizly, and sold his prior startup, Spindle, to Twitter. Follow Pat on TwitterConnect with Pat on LinkedInFollow Proof on TwitterCheck out Proof

Healthcare and biotech venture capital plays a critical role in funding innovative medical technologies, drug development, and life-saving therapies. These investments drive advancements in healthcare, transforming science into products that improve global patient outcomes.Terry McGuire is a founding partner of Polaris Partners, with over 35 years of early-stage investing experience in medical and information technology companies. As a venture capitalist, Terry has invested in more than 80 companies that have raised over $7 billion in equity and corporate capital. In this episode, Hercules Capital's Janice Bourque and Terry McGuire discuss Terry's trajectory from generalist to distinguished expert in healthcare and biotech venture capital, strategies to find the right scientists and product, Terry's biggest lessons in raises, limited partnerships and investor relationships, and much more.Topics Include:Terry's path from generalist to venture capitalistStrategies to find the right scientists3 traits that can turn a scientist into an effective CEOHow to turn science into a productThe emerging technologies to look out forStrengths and weaknesses of the industryTerry's biggest lessons from the evolution of raises, limited partnerships, and investor relationshipsAnd other topics…Terry McGuire is a founding partner of Polaris Partners, with over 35 years of early-stage investing experience in medical and information technology companies. As a venture capitalist, Terry has invested in more than 80 companies that have raised over $7 billion in equity and corporate capital. He also co-founded three companies: Inspire, AIR, and MicroCHIPS. Companies Terry has supported have touched more than 60 million patients and directly saved over 400,000 lives.Terry has been listed as one of Scientific American's Worldview 100, Forbes' Top Life Sciences Investors, and Forbes' Midas 100 List of Top Tech Investors, among others. He is the chairman of the Global Venture Capital Congress, serves on several public and private boards of directors, and is the recipient of various awards, including the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences awarded by Harvard and the City of Jerusalem.  

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.On this week's show, we're excited to have Ben Lerer and Graham Brown, Managing Partners at Lerer Hippeau. The firm was founded in New York in 2010 to back early-stage entrepreneurs. Today the firm manages $1.2B and has invested in over 400 companies including Oscar, Buzzfeed, Mirror, Warby Parker, and Casper. Ben's background prior to investing was as Founder and CEO Thrillist, while Graham came over in 2015 from Softbank. During our chat, we covered everything from building and productizing a community to the evolution of the firm in maintaining its competitive advantage in the region. Hope you enjoy our conversation. A word from our sponsor:Feature-packed operating account & partnership ecosystemNationally chartered and headquartered in New York City, Grasshopper Bank is a client-first digital bank built to serve the business and innovation economy, combining the best of banking technology and years of industry expertise to deliver best-in-class experiences with trusted security and unparalleled support. Serving clients globally, the client-first digital bank recently announced the launch of Accelerator Checking, a feature-packed operating account with powerful digital tools designed to serve a wide range of venture-backed startups. With its latest offering, startup clients also receive exclusive access to its newly established partner marketplace, as well as a curated community of investors for fundraising support. For more information about Accelerator Checking or how to leverage Grasshopper's platform for your firm, visit the bank's website at www.grasshopper.bank or follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.About Ben Lerer:Ben Lerer is a Managing Partner at Lerer Hippeau. He is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Thrillist, which was acquired by Vox Media in 2022. He chairs the Board of Directors for Urban Upbound and is an Associate Member of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS). Lerer holds a BS from the University of Pennsylvania.About Graham Brown:Graham is a Managing Partner at Lerer Hippeau. He joined Lerer Hippeau from SoftBank Capital, where he focused primarily on early stage investments in mobile and Internet, with a particular interest in marketplaces. Prior to SoftBank Capital, Graham was an Associate at Polaris Partners and then helped lead digital strategy at Life Line Screening, a direct-to-consumer preventive health company backed by Polaris Partners.Graham is a graduate of Colby College and Columbia Business School.In this episode, we discuss:(02:48) Why start a company? (05:33) The gap they saw when founding the firm in 2010(09:59) What drew Graham to the firm in 2015(13:34) Why their investing thesis of early-stage NYC companies worked so well in retrospect(19:32) How the the firm invests in its community(26:32) The number of investments typically per fund at Lerer Hippeau(29:11) Maintaining operational discipline(34:24) Deciding when to make an exception on a deal(38:08) Why they launched a select fund to invest at Series A, B, and C(42:41) Learnings from investing in companies later stages after they passed the first time(48:36) The importance of empathy and being humane when passing on a companyI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Ben and Graham. 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

Picture this: tens thousands of fans screaming from the top of their lungs for more content from you, the B2B marketer.It may sound more like how people react to superstars like Taylor Swift; there are tactics she uses in her branding that inspire intense fandom, like how Swifties can wear red lipstick, make beaded bracelets or decode hidden messages in her Instagram posts to own a bit of her brand for themselves. It's all a part of a culture that Taylor Swift and her team of amazing marketers have meticulously cultivated over time. But who's to say B2B marketers can't borrow a bit of that marketing magic? In this episode, we're turning to the artist with more #1 albums than any other woman in history: Taylor Swift, and seeing what new B2B marketing ideas we can learn from her. What about her brand has inspired such passion; the kind of passion that is expected to bring in more than $1 billion in ticket sales from her current tour? Joining us is Senior Director of Content Marketing at Lob, Kim Courvoisier. Together, we're talking about the marketing behind Taylor Swift's record-breaking tour, creating a shareable brand, and refreshing content to give your audience even more value. So layer on your Swifty bracelets and maybe a little something sparkly for this episode of Remarkable.About LobLob is the only direct mail automation platform for the digital age. Lob's platform automates the direct mail execution process for enterprises at any scale - from creation, printing, postage, delivery, and sustainability with end-to-end analytics and campaign attribution. Over 12,000 businesses trust Lob to transform their direct mail into intelligent mail. Founded in 2013 and based in San Francisco, Lob is venture-backed by Y Combinator, Polaris Partners, Floodgate, and First Round Capital.About Taylor Swift and The Eras TourTaylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter who has more #1 albums than any other woman in history after her album “Speak Now (Taylor's Version)” debuted at #1. The 33-year-old artist from Pennsylvania who was originally known for country music is known for her musical versatility and reinventing herself as an artist. As a cultural figure, she has had several high-profile news stories, including her dispute with Big Machine Records over ownership of the masters of her first 6 studio albums which led to her re-recording all of them, and another legal battle with Apple in 2015 over protecting artists' rights to fair compensation for their work. She currently has 10 albums, and has sold 114 million albums worldwide. She's won 12 Grammys, 19 Billboard Music Awards (the most of any woman), 40 American Music Awards, and more.  She has many trademarks, including hiding messages in her content, frequently using the number 13, wearing red lipstick, and going barefoot. Her fans call themselves Swifties.The Eras Tour is a journey through all of Taylor Swift's studio albums. It's 131 concerts across five continents, and is expected to be the highest grossing tour in history. Tickets bring in more than $13 million a night, for an expected $1 billion+ overall. The average ticket costs $254. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve even reported that the tour is boosting economic growth, specifically related to hotel revenue. Taylor Swift has a 44-song set list and the concert is 3-hours long. The tour started on March 17th in Glendale, Arizona which was officially renamed “Swift City” for two days. The tour will wrap up on November 23rd, 2024 in Toronto.About our guest, Kim CourvoisierKim Courvoisier is the Senior Director of Content Marketing at Lob, the only direct mail automation platform for the digital age. Kim is an experienced senior-level digital marketing leader with over 12 years of experience in SaaS marketing, specializing in B2B and B2C content marketing, social media, email marketing, customer lifecycle marketing, AI, and SEO. She is based in San Francisco, California.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Taylor Swift and The Eras Tour: Re-use, recycle, repurpose your classic content. Look back at your past marketing content that did really well and see if you can get more juice out of it. Kim says, “A lot of times, I'll write an ebook, and it's like, ‘Okay, that was great for that campaign. Moving on,' And I'm like, ‘No, no, no. That's all perfectly relevant content. We should reuse that, we should recycle it, we should repurpose that.' And that's exactly what Taylor Swift is doing when she is re-releasing these albums because she's now driving eyeballs or ears back to that content.” So make the most of the content you've invested time and effort in in the past, and refresh it to give your customers added value today.Create a shareable culture around your brand. For Swifties, it's making beaded bracelets, wearing the number 13, going barefoot, putting on red lipstick. And it inspires fans to create their own content or even make their own bracelets and sell them. Kim says, “It's helping this whole little generation become entrepreneurs, which I think is so incredible. I talk about marketing and [Taylor isn't] keeping it for herself. She's sharing it with everyone, and I think there's no greater power as a marketer than to empower others. And she's absolutely doing that.” So extend your brand to include free elements that fans can own, get added value from, and make their own.Quotes“If your content isn't adding value, then you're just creating more noise.” - Kim Courvoisier “When [Taylor Swift] re-releases an album, she actually adds new content to it. Like content from the vault that wasn't on the original edition. And so it's adding more value. So that would be like if I took an old ebook that I had written and then put on an extra bonus chapter and re-released it. So I think there's a ton of lessons we can learn as marketers to go back and refresh and repurpose our content. And I get a ton of inspiration from that.” - Kim CourvoisierTime Stamps[0:54] Meet Kim Courvoisier, Senior Director of Content Marketing at Lob[1:32] Why are we covering Taylor Swift?[4:04] Tell me more about Taylor Swift[10:32] Learn more about the record-breaking Eras Tour[16:54] How do you create a shareable culture?[22:39] What are marketing lessons we can learn from The Eras Tour?[24:58] How to repurpose classic content and give your audience added value[33:55] How to make content appeal to people who aren't currently in the “buying mode”[36:34] How does Kim think about the ROI of content?[42:57] What are Kim's favorite pieces of content she's made at Lob?[45:15] Tell me more about Lob's 2023 State of Direct Mail and Consumer Insights ReportsLinksListen to Taylor SwiftLearn more about The Eras TourConnect with Kim on LinkedInLearn more about LobAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios), Colin Stamps (Podcast Launch Manager), and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith O'Neil, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

The healthcare technology sector has witnessed astonishing growth in investments, skyrocketing from $3 billion pre-pandemic to $29 billion in 2021. Michael Greeley brings invaluable insights to the show as the co-founder and general partner of Flare Capital Partners, a pioneering venture capital firm dedicated to healthcare technology.Before Flare, Greeley was the founding general partner of Flybridge Capital Partners. Earlier in his career, he was with Polaris Partners, and also held positions at GCC Investments, Wasserstein Perella & Co., and Morgan Stanley & Co.  In this episode, Hercules Capital's Katie Segien is joined by Michael Greeley to discuss his experience as an early pioneer in health tech investments, the remarkable growth and challenges of healthcare technology, the impact of AI on healthcare programs and services, and much more.Topics Include:Michael's experience as an early pioneer in health tech investmentsLiquidity and scaling challenges for healthcare tech companiesHow to create a more sustainable business model in this spaceWhat Michael looks for when building out his portfolio companiesAI's impact on healthcare programs and servicesThe Flare Scholars programFuture challenges and possibilities in the healthcare sectorAnd other topics…Michael Greeley is a co-founder and general partner at Flare Capital Partners. Before co-founding Flare in 2014, he focused on emerging growth company financings as the founding general partner of Flybridge Capital Partners. Earlier, he held positions with Polaris Partners, GCC Investments, Wasserstein Perella & Co., and Morgan Stanley & Co. Greeley sits on dozens of boards and authors the blog On the Flying Bridge.Greeley received a BA with honors in chemistry from Williams College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. While he considers himself a New Yorker, he grew up in Hong Kong and currently resides in Boston. Resources Mentioned:Flare Capital Partners: https://www.flarecapital.com/ Michael Greeley's blog: https://ontheflyingbridge.wordpress.com/ Flare Capital Scholars Program: https://www.flarecapital.com/flare-capital-scholar-application 

FDA Commissioner Rob Califf's biggest legacy could be his reform of FDA's advisory committee process. But what is uncertain is whether his review can bring together enough consensus among agency leaders to drive a meaningful change, said Washington Editor Steve Usdin on the latest BioCentury This Week podcast. Usdin and colleagues discuss the areas of the U.S. regulator's advisory committee process where there is — and isn't — agreement on needed changes, and what could make this time different from a lengthy history of calls for change. BioCentury's editors also preview an upcoming discussion with Polaris Partners' Amy Schulman regarding why Singapore, the funding scene, and women in leadership. Usdin then discusses why reimbursing the recently approved DMD gene therapy from Sarepta Therapeutics through state Medicaid plans won't be so simple.

Synopsis: Josh Mandel-Brehm is the President and CEO of CAMP4 Therapeutics, a company pioneering mRNA amplification by using programmable ASO therapeutics to control gene expression. He joins host Rahul Chaturverdi to discuss the arc of his career and his interest in the intersection of business and science. They dive into the origins of CAMP4 and the inspiration behind the company's name. He also talks about where CAMP4 is from a pipeline development perspective and how he approaches fundraising. Biography: Josh Mandel-Brehm is President & Chief Executive Officer of CAMP4 Therapeutics. Mr. Mandel-Brehm previously held roles as an entrepreneur partner with Polaris Partners and key business development and operations leadership roles at leading biotech companies. Most recently he served as part of the Business Development group at Biogen, where he led multiple strategic activities and corresponding transactions, which included expanding Biogen's non-malignant hematology franchise and overseeing seminal investments to enter in gene therapy and the ophthalmology field. Prior to Biogen, Mr. Mandel-Brehm held several roles of increasing responsibility at Genzyme as part of the business development group for the company's rare disease business unit. Mr. Mandel-Brehm earned a BA in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis and holds an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Medicine is a complex field. There are traditional ways of learning it with lectures and textbooks and then there are more novel methods such as using online medical education platforms and test prep materials. With the pandemic turning the field on its head, it stands to reason that more disruptions must be coming and along with them more complexity from startups, companies, and investors aiming to fill students' needs. Today we sat down with Stanford Assistant Professor Sharif Vakili to find out what medical students should know before starting their residency, the basics of investing in healthcare, and the biggest challenges facing the medical field. //Interviewee: Stanford Assistant Professor and Senior Associate at Polaris Partners, Sharif Vakili//AMBOSS Blog: Impress Your Attending With Help From AMBOSS /https://blog.amboss.com/us/impress-your-attending-with-help-from-amboss AMBOSS Blog: How to Prepare for Residency During Clerkships /https://blog.amboss.com/us/how-to-prepare-for-residency-during-clerkships AMBOSS Blog: Insider Tips For Nailing Your Residency Interview /https://blog.amboss.com/us/2018/5/11/insider-tips-for-nailing-your-residency-interview The Doctor is Out podcast /https://open.spotify.com/show/0tAMbLeSHnbq7ZtHi69uX3   // Sign up for a free 5-day trial at www.amboss.com. Read more at the AMBOSS blog: blog.amboss.com/us. Find out more about the AMBOSS podcast: go.amboss.com/intpodcast.

  This week we revisit our conversation with Gary Swart. Gary is a General Partner with Polaris Partners and until April 2014 he was the CEO of oDesk  (now UpWork, NASDAQ; UPWK). Gary is a thought leader in entrepreneurship; how best to hire and manage teams; and the future of work, including online work.  

If ever there was a process ripe for disruption, notarization would seem to be it. A function that may date back to Ancient Egypt, it has changed little for centuries – still typically done in person, on hard-copy paper, using physical seals, and recorded in written ledgers.  Pat Kinsel, founder and CEO of Notarize, believes society has grappled for too long with how to scale this simple process of authenticating signatures. His company is striving to do that, both for consumers who need a one-time notarization and for businesses for which notarizations are part of the normal course.  Since its founding in 2015, Notarize has become the category leader in transforming this traditional paper-based process into a digital one. Along the way, it has raised $213 million, grown to nearly 500 employees, and was recently ranked 24th on the Financial Times' list of The Fastest Growing Companies of 2022. Kinsel, who is also a partner at the venture capital firm Polaris Partners, was previously cofounder and CEO of Spindle until it was acquired by Twitter in June 2013. Earlier, he was at Microsoft incubating new concepts and bringing them to market. He serves on the board of Lob and was the lead investor in Drizly.  Thank You To Our Sponsors This episode of LawNext is generously made possible by our sponsors. We appreciate their support and hope you will check them out.  Paradigm, home to the practice management platforms PracticePanther, Bill4Time, and MerusCase, and e-payments platform Headnote. If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

In Episode 12 of Tattoos, Code, and Data Flows, Matt Rose interviews Nick Sinai, Senior Advisor / Venture Partner at Insight Partners. Nick Sinai is a Senior Advisor at Insight Partners and a Senior Fellow at the #HarvardKennedySchool. Previously, Nick was U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the #WhiteHouse. Nick led President Obama's Open Data Initiatives to liberate data to fuel innovation and economic growth, and worked to advance innovation in health, energy, education, and finance sectors. Nick also co-led President Obama's Open Government Initiative to ensure the Federal Government is more transparent, participatory, and collaborative. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Nick was a venture capitalist at Lehman Brothers Venture Partners (now Tenaya Capital). He co-established the Boston office of Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, sourced investments, and served as a board representative and advisor to portfolio companies. Previously, at Polaris Partners since 2004, Nick helped invest in almost a dozen Internet, software, communications and clean technology companies, including an early stage investment in LogMeIn (NASDAQ: LOGM). Nick is a Berkeley, CA native, a private pilot, and the father of twin girls. Nick and Matt talk about: ↳ How the U.S. Defense Department needs to do a better job trying, buying, and scaling new emerging technologies and innovations ↳ The challenges of hiring professionals in Government ↳ DevOps vs DevSecOps and Shift Left within Government agencies and groups ↳ Being on the executive staff for the Obama Administration And so much more. Be sure to listen to this episode, and so many of our other great episodes by hitting the follow button. Make sure to like and subscribe to the episode. We hope you enjoy it!

Jake Becraft is co-founder and CEO of Strand Therapeutics, an emerging biotechnology company at the forefront of mRNA therapeutics. With colleagues at MIT's Synthetic Biology Center, he led the development of the world's first synthetic biology programming language for mRNA. Jake has been featured in Fierce Biotech, Bloomberg, and the Boston Business Journal, among others, for his vision and mission at Strand of applying this unique platform for real-world disease applications. Jake was recently named a Termeer Fellow and listed on MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 and Boston Business Journal's 40 Under 40. Outside of science, Jake is an active backcountry snowboarder and trains Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Lex Rovner is the CEO and cofounder of 64x Bio, a spinout of Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. Using novel high throughput genome engineering and screening technologies in a design loop with computational tools, 64x Bio is developing new ways of generating highly optimized cell lines for the manufacturing of viral vectors. These fundamental advances enable pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to bring more lifesaving cell and gene therapies to patients by reducing the cost and complexity of manufacturing, a critical bottleneck in this multibillion dollar market. Lex was a postdoc in George Church's lab and cofounded the company along with George, Pam Silver, Jeff Way, and David Thompson. She received her Ph.D in molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale University. Josh Mandel-Brehm is President & Chief Executive Officer of CAMP4 Therapeutics and holds a dual appointment as entrepreneur partner with Polaris Partners. Mr. Mandel-Brehm previously held key business development and operations leadership roles at leading biotech companies. Most recently he served as part of the Business Development group at Biogen, where he led multiple strategic activities and corresponding transactions, which included expanding Biogen's non-malignant hematology franchise and overseeing seminal investments to enter the ophthalmology field. Mr. Mandel-Brehm also played an integral role advancing Biogen's gene therapy strategy, executing a series of external collaborations. Prior to Biogen, Mr. Mandel-Brehm held several roles of increasing responsibility at Genzyme as part of the business development group for the company's rare disease business unit. Mr. Mandel-Brehm earned a BA in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis and holds an MBA from the University of Michigan. Nabiha Saklayen is CEO & co-founder of Cellino. Cellino's proprietary technology makes personalized stem cell-derived therapies scalable for the first time. Nabiha was selected as a Pioneer in MIT Tech Review's 35 Innovators under 35 list for her patented inventions in cellular laser editing. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Fellow. She is also the inaugural Tory Burch Foundation Fellow in Genomics at the Innovative Genomics Institute led by Nobel Laureate Dr. Jennifer Doudna. Nabiha is also a TED speaker and co-creator of I Am A Scientist, an educational program running in 50 states that inspires children to explore science.

Gary Swart, General Partner of leading venture capital firm Polaris Partners, focusing on investing in technology and healthcare companies. Prior to joining Polaris he was CEO of oDesk, now Upwork, the world's largest online work marketplace. He regularly appears in major media such as CNBC, NPR, Fox, and Washington Post to discuss marketplaces, the freelance economy, and the future of work.

Patrick Kinsel, "Eating Glass", Founder & CEO at Notarize, shares his story on Global Luxury Real Estate Mastermind with Michael Valdes Podcast #211 Patrick Kinsel is the CEO & Founder of "Notarize". He is a successful serial entrepreneur who has shared some powerful lessons in our conversation. He is someone with a strong passion to change the world and to empower his team to see the larger goal they are striving for. More About Patrick Kinsel: "I'm the Founder/CEO of Notarize, the first company making it possible to legally notarize documents online and on demand. We're a company of firsts. We completed the country's first-ever online real estate closing and now make it possible for anyone to click to buy, sell, or finance their home online. We also executed the country's first-ever online will and have digitized how people finance their business, assign power of attorney, purchase and finance a vehicle, open a bank account, and complete countless other transactions online for the first time. We've changed numerous federal and state policies, have won many first-of-their-kind regulatory and commercial approvals, and have now worked to pass 35+ state laws enabling many of America's largest industries to enter the digital age.  I'm also a Partner in the venture capital firm Polaris Partners where I spend my time building and investing in new technology companies. I led Series A & B financings in Lob and Drizly (acquired by Uber for $1.1B) and serve(d) on the boards of both companies. I've built products across a wide range of industries, including search, social, productivity, legal, finance, and real estate. I previously co-founded Spindle, a company I led as CEO from December 2010 until it was acquired by Twitter in June 2013. Spindle developed patented search technology to generate topical, algorithmic timelines from Facebook and Twitter content. Prior to Spindle, I was at Microsoft incubating new concepts and bringing them to market. I led the development of Docs.com. Launched by Mark Zuckerberg at F8 in 2010, Docs.com was a collaboration with Facebook to bring Microsoft Office Online to the Facebook audience. Before Docs.com, I helped to launch Bing Social Search in October 2009. Prior to Microsoft, I tried to start several companies with varying degrees of success.  I live in Boston and am committed to helping the entrepreneurial community, but have been amazed by my experiences visiting 35+ states for Notarize and believe the opportunities of the digital economy exist in every corner of America.  I'm an eighth generation Californian and visit San Francisco often." About Michael Valdes:   Michael Valdes is the President of eXp Global. He is currently the only Latino President of a publicly traded real estate company in the country (Nasdaq: EXPI). In his first year of joining, he has led a team that has opened 12 countries in 12 months without ever getting on a plane which is a feat that has never been done in the industry. This model has successfully touched the lives of thousands of people across the globe and given them an opportunity to change their lives. Michael was the former Senior Vice President of Global Servicing for Realogy Corporation. In that role he oversaw the international servicing platform for all Realogy brands including Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA, Better Homes & Garden, Corcoran, Climb and Sotheby's International Realty in 113 countries. He had been with Realogy in a variety of roles for 15 years. Prior to that, Mr. Valdes was Director of Private Banking at Deutsche Bank for a decade where he oversaw a book of business of just under $1 billion. He has the distinction of being the first Director in the United States of Latino descent. Mr. Valdes is the Chair of the AREAA Global Advisory Board and co-host of the 2020 AREAA Global Luxury Summit. He is also a current member of the NAHREP Corporate Board of Governors. Additionally, he is a the Executive Chair of eXp Latino and former member of the Realogy Diversity Board as well as the Executive Chair of the ONE VOZ, Hispanic ERG. He is a former Board Member of Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach as well as the Shanti Organization in San Francisco. Michael was also a Board Member of Pink & Blue for 2, an organization started by Olivia Newton-John to promote breast and prostate cancer awareness. Michael is also the host of "The Global Luxury Real Estate Mastermind" podcast which focuses on interviewing global leaders in the industry. It is currently distributed in over 90 countries and has over 10 million impressions. He is also a current member of the Forbes Real Estate Advisory Council. He currently resides in New York City and has a home in Miami.

CodeSignal, a technical assessment platform dedicated to helping companies, including Facebook, Roblox, Zoom, Robinhood, and others, make data-driven hiring decisions in tech recruiting, announced $50M in Series C funding and the launch of CodeSignal's new advanced Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that unlocks highly relevant assessment experiences.  This round, which brings CodeSignal's total funding to $87.5M,  With Codesignal's newly launched advanced IDE, candidates will now be able to interact with code, files, a terminal, and a preview of their application in a persistent, fully configurable environment. This means candidates will have a similar experience to coding on a local machine, and the assessment  provides a more powerful and familiar environment for them to solve tasks just as they would actually do on the job, showcasing their full range of skills.  https://hrtechfeed.com/codesignal-announces-new-advanced-assessment-capabilities-fueled-by-a-50m-series-c-funding/  Talenya, the provider of the world's most advanced, AI-powered talent sourcing and diversity solutions, today announced the release of Engagement AI™: a first-of-its-kind, fully automated talent sourcing solution.  As recruiters and HR teams struggle to find talent in an increasingly competitive market, Engagement AI™ saves hours of work by automatically sourcing and contacting potential candidates, allowing more time for interviews and connection. Talenya's data scientists spent four years developing the GDPR-compliant technology to enable talent acquisition teams to fully automate talent sourcing, with a focus on diverse talent.  https://hrtechfeed.com/talenya-launches-automated-talent-sourcing-tool/ WurkNow.com, a fully-integrated, digital staffing and workforce management platform for hourly work, today announced the closing of a $10 million Series A funding round, led by Newport Beach, CA-based Newport Hayseed Group. This funding will be used to further optimize WurkNow's user base and product offering, including investments in new product development, staff growth and scaling the company's brand and market presence. WurkNow's capital raise comes after a year of immense growth, brought on by the digital acceleration the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to many businesses. Demand for WurkNow's fully-integrated staffing and workforce management platform has surged within its client base of staffing and recruiting firms and employers that manage large, hourly workforces. Currently there are over 125,000 active employees using the platform; a year-over-year increase of 400%. https://hrtechfeed.com/wurknow-gets-10-million-series-a/ Clovers (www.clovers.ai), a human resources technology firm leveraging conversational intelligence to improve interviewing and hiring practices, today announced it has raised $15 million in seed funding.  The company was co-founded in December 2020 by HR tech pioneers Adam Miller, Founder & former CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand, and Jason Nazar, Co-Founder & CEO of Comparably, along with Doug Leonard and Cihan Ucar. Clovers is jointly headquartered in Los Angeles and Nashville. https://hrtechfeed.com/clovers-raises-15-million-to-revolutionize-interviewing-for-the-modern-workforce/ Nomad Health, the leading digital marketplace for temporary healthcare jobs, today announced the completion of $63 million in new equity and debt financing. Adams Street Partners led, and all existing investors participated, including Icon Ventures, Polaris Partners, RRE Ventures, .406 Ventures, First Round Capital, and Silicon Valley Bank.  With this financing, the business has raised over $100 million since the company's inception in 2015. The funding will be used to support Nomad Health's explosive growth, allowing the company to double down on efforts to hire, invest in the technology platform, and grow its national footprint. https://hrtechfeed.com/nomad-health-raises-63-million-to-address-healthcare-staffing-shortages/

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

PathAI CEO Dr. Andrew Beck discusses how he went from a career as a physician scientist to the CEO of one of the most formative Pathology AI startups in Medicine. Hear the story of a pathologist who uses the catalyst of winning a premier AI pathology research competition to build the leading pathology AI company that's raised $255M from investors across the healthcare services and pharma industries including Polaris Partners, General Catalyst, Kaiser Permanente, Bristol Myers Squibb, Labcorp and Merck's Global Health Innovation Fund. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdio/message

168. oDesk aka UpWork | Gary Swart is a partner at Polaris Partners, investing in technology and healthcare companies, out of their San Francisco office. He represents Polaris on the boards of Quantcast, SimplyInsured, FloQast, Falkonry, Faro Health, and Qstream. He also served on the board of CliQr (Cisco). This Episode is Sponsored By: Freshbooks invoicing and accounting software is designed specifically for small business owners. Freshbooks grows alongside your business, so you’ll always have the tools you need when you need them without ever having to learn the ins and outs of accounting. Try it FREE for thirty days, no catch and no credit card required, just go to: millionaire-interviews.com/freshbooks Hubstaff makes invoicing super easy. Hubstaff is not designed for one type of business, which is why there are over 34,000 companies using their application. To help your business get started with Hubstaff, use promo code YOLO and get 60 days FREE when you visit: millionaire-interviews.com/hubstaff On Episode 104, Eric Gilbert Williams talks about his journey from rock-bottom to building and selling a multi-million dollar business. Now, Eric is taking his business experience and coaching entrepreneurs like you, so you can increase your bottom line. For a limited time, you can book a complimentary one-on-one session with Eric to find solutions for your business, no strings attached, simply visit: millionaire-interviews.com/egw-coaching  

In this episode, we interview Dr. Jon Bloom, the Co-Founder and CEO of Podimetrics. The company’s mission is to improve patient lives through early detection and prevention of diabetic foot ulcers. They are a virtual care management company dedicated to preventing diabetic amputations through their SmartMat product and partnerships with both payers and at-risk providers, including the Veteran’s Health Administration. The company was founded in 2011 and has been backed by Norwich Ventures, Rock Health, Scientific Health Development, and Polaris Partners.

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

Gary Swart is a General Partner with Polaris Partners, and until April 2014, he was the CEO of oDesk  (now UpWork, NASDAQ; UPWK). Gary is a thought leader in entrepreneurship, how best to hire and manage teams, and the future of work, including online work. He is passionate about helping small businesses thrive, fueled by his extensive experience working with startups and small businesses and mentoring entrepreneurs and business school students. Gary has spoken at the Inc. Leadership Conference, The Economist’s Ideas Economy panel, South by Southwest, TechCrunch 50, TiECon, GigaOM’s Net:Work Conference, and at Harvard Business School, which teaches a case study on oDesk. His commentary has appeared in various publications, including Forbes, TechCrunch, The Washington Post, and The Next Web. He has also appeared on TV and radio shows, including the BBC, National Public Radio, CNBC, and Bloomberg TV and Startups Uncensored. Previously, Gary led SMB Sales for the Americas at IBM’s Rational Software Product Group and also served as VP of Worldwide Sales and Operations at Intellibank. Gary holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.

Demetri Karagas is the cofounder and CEO of Thirty Madison which offers direct-to-consumer healthcare and wellness products. The company has raised over $70 million from top tier investors which include First Round Capital, Greycroft, Polaris Partners, and Maveron to name a few.

Demetri Karagas is the cofounder and CEO of Thirty Madison which offers direct-to-consumer healthcare and wellness products. The company has raised over $70 million from top tier investors which include First Round Capital, Greycroft, Polaris Partners, and Maveron to name a few.

In this episode, host Bob Knorpp speaks with Dr. Amir Nashat, a managing partner at venture capital firm, Polaris Partners, and former student of Bob Langer’s; and Dr. César de la Fuente, Presidential Assistant Professor in Bioengineering, Microbiology, and Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, and the first recipient of the Langer Prize.

Welcome to The Doctor Is Out, a podcast hosted by Dr. Sharif Vakili, resident physician at Stanford Hospital and investor at Polaris Partners. Join Sharif in exploring the nonclinical practice of medicine as he interviews healthcare leaders who have gone from bedside to build companies, run health systems, spearhead public policy and much more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdio/message

#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.

Gary Swart is a tech and healthcare investor at Polaris Partners and a former executive with experience in general management of all size organizations, including leading sales, operations, staffing, and strategy. Up until April 2014, Gary was the CEO of oDesk (UpWork now), the world's largest online workplace. He guided the company to industry leadership and through a merger with eLance, while serving as a leading voice for the future of work and the emerging online work industry. Gary is passionate about helping entrepreneurs build their businesses, where he regularly shares his knowledge and provides mentorship on how to craft a successful path with fellow business people and anyone building their career. His past positions included: -VP of Sales and Operations at Intellibank, a SaaS collaboration platform -Business Unit Executive (SMB Division), IBM Rational Software -Director of Corporate Sales, Rational Software -Western Region Sales, Pure Atria Gary is an expert in the future of work, fundamentals of management, effective interviewing and staffing methods, entrepreneurship, online marketplaces/platform strategy and sales/go-to-market During this interview we cover: Going through a merger and getting  acquired by IBM Leaving IBM and Gary's career path criteria Growth and development not to steep that you go off of the cliff Turning down an offer on Netflix as employee #3 Why you should consider merging with a better business model (oDesk & eLance merge) User Experience as the best marketing tool. Insights on the Future of Work and the landscape after COVID-19 Hiring talent criteria as a SaaS founder Investing trends surrounding Healthcare and Technology Adding value to a company post-acquisition Productivity and effective leadership habits advice (Hint: ABR) Book Recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/That-Will-Never-Work-Netflix/dp/0316530204 (That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea) Links and mentions: UpWorks Website Polaris Partners Website Get in touch with Gary: Gary's LinkedIn Profile More about Akeel:

This week we interview Gary Swart, Partner at VC firm Polaris Partners, former CEO of oDesk (now UpWork, NASDAQ;UPWK), the world’s largest online service marketplace. Gary’s portfolio includes investments in innovative medtech and pharmaceutical companies. And in this episode, he shares his valuable perspective on how the pandemic may transform the opportunity landscape, at the intersection between AI and Healthcare technology. Discover our full range of high-ROI use cases for AI with Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1

This week we interview Gary Swart, Partner at VC firm Polaris Partners, former CEO of oDesk (now UpWork, NASDAQ;UPWK), the world’s largest online service marketplace. In this episode, he offers a pragmatic perspective about opportunities and challenges for AI adoption in the current economic climate. Discover our full range of high-ROI use cases for AI with Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1

Come spend some time learning about what a typical work-day could look like in the future! The future of the common workday is changing rapidly in the current world and Gary Swart has spent years developing the remote work landscape. Come join as he talks about his journey, the future, and his experience at Polaris Partners. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nyu-svs/support

Gary Swart is a partner at Polaris Partners, investing in technology and healthcare companies, out of their San Francisco office. He represents Polaris on the boards of Quantcast, SimplyInsured, FloQast, Falkonry, Faro Health, and Qstream. He also served on the board of CliQr (Cisco). This Episode is Sponsored By: Freshbooks invoicing and accounting software is designed specifically for small business owners. Freshbooks grows alongside your business, so you’ll always have the tools you need when you need them without ever having to learn the ins and outs of accounting. Try it FREE for thirty days, no catch and no credit card required, just go to: millionaire-interviews.com/freshbooks Hubstaff makes invoicing super easy. Hubstaff is not designed for one type of business, which is why there are over 34,000 companies using their application. To help your business get started with Hubstaff, use promo code YOLO and get 60 days FREE when you visit: millionaire-interviews.com/hubstaff On Episode 104, Eric Gilbert Williams talks about his journey from rock-bottom to building and selling a multi-million dollar business. Now, Eric is taking his business experience and coaching entrepreneurs like you, so you can increase your bottom line. For a limited time, you can book a complimentary one-on-one session with Eric to find solutions for your business, no strings attached, simply visit: millionaire-interviews.com/egw-coaching   Want to Support the Show? Well we'd love for you to join our Patreon Group!  What's in it for you?  Well you'll instantly get a scheduled call from Austin, where he'll help you with your current or future business... Sign-Up Now at millionaire-interviews.com/patreon.

Gary Swart was an early CEO at Upwork (formerly oDesk), now a public company and the largest freelancer marketplace in the world. He is now a partner at Polaris Partners, investing in technology and healthcare companies. Prior to oDesk, Gary was the vice president of worldwide sales for Intellibank, responsible for building the direct and indirect sales organization and channel development. Previous to Intellibank, he was a business unit executive for IBM's Rational Software Product Group. www.polarispartners.com www.linkedin.com/in/garyswart/

Leore Avidar is the CEO and co-founder of Lob, one of the fastest-growing companies in America. He’s also a business leader with a deep passion for culture, diverse workplaces, and growing an organization that people want to stay at for life.  Lob works to better connect the online and offline world for brands including Booking.com, HelloFresh, Betterment, and over 5,000 more. Last year, Lob ranked #12 on San Francisco Business Times’ Fastest-Growing Private Companies list with a reported 360% year-over-year revenue growth from 2016–2018.  At Lob and beyond, Leore is committed to building a diverse tech ecosystem. In 2017, he was honored on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. He and his partner Harry Zhang are members of Founders for Change group, which brings together venture-backed founders who are dedicated to improving diversity and inclusion within their companies, as well as within the investment community. Lob is backed by leading investors including Y Combinator, Floodgate and Polaris Partners. Today, Lob employs 80 people, and its 2018 revenue was $44 million. In this episode of the donothing podcast, you’ll learn: What Leore wanted to build as a young child When Leore first became interested in entrepreneurship What valuable leadership advice Leore learned in high school  Why Leore left Wall Street to become an entrepreneur What Kobe Bryant taught Leore about work ethic Why Leore is so passionate about mentorship About Leore’s earliest social commerce startup What all Lob employees receive when they’re hired Why Leore checks in with his team members on Sundays  How turnover stays so low at Lob Why Lob has a VP of People How experiences can teach us more than books ever will And so much more! Enjoy my great conversation with Leore! Connect with Leore Avidar and Lob Website: http://lob.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/bavidar Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/bavidar Twitter: https://twitter.com/bavidar Make This Your Year of Positive, Mindful Leadership! Discover why more leaders are practicing mindfulness at the workplace. Join Rob and the donothing team at the 2020 donothing Leadership Retreat in the Colorado Rockies! Experience extraordinary leadership-focused events including the exclusive MindTravel SilentHike with Murray Hidary, meditation teachings with expert instructors, opportunities to connect with other like-minded leaders, and so much more!Get out of your comfort zone and take the most rewarding leadership challenge of your life! Learn more at www.donothingbook.com/retreat. Follow Rob Dube on Social Media LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/robdube Facebook: www.facebook.com/rob.dube.1 Twitter: twitter.com/robddube   Instagram: www.instagram.com/robddube YouTube: bit.ly/2FYdckW Rob Dube’s Website www.donothingbook.com   donothing Podcast Subscribe to the donothing podcast to discover simple, practical tips and tools from mindful, high-performing leaders that you can implement in your leadership philosophy today.  www.donothingbook.com/podcast  Buy the donothing book (now available as an audiobook, too!) amzn.to/2y9N1TK

Ally raises $8M Series A for its OKR solution OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results, are a popular planning method in Silicon Valley. Like most of those methods that make you fill in some form once every quarter, that employees find rather annoying and a waste of their time. Ally wants to change that and make the process more useful. The company today announced that it has raised an $8 million Series A round led by Accel Partners, with participation from Vulcan Capital, Founders Co-op and Lee Fixel. The company, which launched in 2018, previously raised a $3 million seed round. Most companies that adopt this methodology, though, tend to work with spreadsheets and Google Docs. Over time, that simply doesn’t work, especially as companies get larger. Ally, then, is meant to replace these other tools. The service is currently in use at “hundreds” of companies in more than 70 countries, Vellore tells me. Simon Data hauls in $30M Series C to continue building customer data platform As businesses use an increasing variety of marketing software solutions, the goal around collecting all of that data is to improve customer experience. Simon Data announced a $30 million Series C round today to help. The round was led by Polaris Partners . Previous investors .406 Ventures and F-Prime Capital also participated. Today’s investment brings the total raised to $59 million, according to the company. Companies tend to use a variety of marketing tools, and Simon Data takes on the job of understanding the data and activities going on in each one. Then based on certain actions — such as, say, an abandoned shopping cart — it delivers a consistent message to the customer, regardless of the source of the data that triggered the action. They see this ability to pull together data as a customer data platform (CDP). In fact, part of its job is to aggregate data and use it as the basis of other activities. In this case, it involves activating actions you define based on what you know about the customer at any given moment in the process. RedDoorz raises $70M to expand its budget hotel network in Southeast Asia Singapore-based budget-hotel booking startup RedDoorz is tiny in comparison to fast-growing giant Oyo. But it is holding its ground and winning the trust of an ever-growing number of investors. The four-year-old startup announced it has raised $70 million in a Series C financing round, less than five months after it closed its $45 million Series B. The new round, which is ongoing, was led by Asia Partners and saw participation from new investors Rakuten Capital and Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth FundRegardless, the new funds will help RedDoorz fight SoftBank-backed Oyo, which is already aggressively expanding to new markets. Oyo currently operates in more than 80 nations. The startup operates in 80 cities across Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam, and plans to use the new capital to expand its network in its existing markets, said Saberwal. At least for the next year, RedDoorz has no plans to expand beyond the four markets where it currently operates, he said. Twitter leads $100M round in top Indian regional social media platform ShareChat ShareChat, a four-year-old social network in India that serves tens of million of people in regional languages, just answered that question with a $100 million financing round led by global giant Twitter . Other than Twitter, TrustBridge Partners, and existing investors Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital also participated in the Series D round of ShareChat. The new round, which pushes ShareChat’s all-time raise to $224 million, valued the firm at about $650 million, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. ShareChat declined to comment on the valuation. This investment will help ShareChat grow and provide the company’s management team access to Twitter’s executives as thought partners Moving on to acquisitions: Salesforce is acquiring ClickSoftware for $1.35B Just days after closing the hefty $15.7 billion Tableau deal, salesforce opened its wallet again, this time announcing it has bought field service software company ClickSoftware for a tidy $1.35 billion. This one could help beef up the company’s field service offering, which falls under the Service Cloud umbrella. In its June earnings report, the company reported that Service Cloud crossed the $1 billion revenue threshold for the first time. This acquisition is designed to keep those numbers growing. What else caught our eyes- Developers accuse Apple of anti-competitive behavior with its privacy changes in iOS 13 A group of app developers have penned a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, arguing that certain privacy-focused changes to Apple’s iOS 13 operating system will hurt their business. In a report by The Information, the developers were said to have accused Apple of anti-competitive behavior when it comes to how apps can access user location data. With iOS 13, Apple aims to curtail apps’ abuse of its location-tracking features as part of its larger privacy focus as a company. Today, many apps ask users upon first launch to give their app the “Always Allow” location-tracking permission. Users can confirm this with a tap, unwittingly giving apps far more access to their location data than is actually necessary, in many cases. There will now be a new option upon launch presented to users, “Allow Once,” which allows users to first explore the app to see if it fits their needs before granting the app developer the ability to continually access location data. This option will be presented alongside existing options “Allow While Using App” and “Don’t Allow.” The app developers argue that this change may confuse less-technical users, who will assume the app isn’t functioning properly unless they figure out how to change their iOS Settings to ensure the app has the proper permissions.

Welcome to Episode 68 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 Pat Kinsel, Founder and CEO of Notarize. You know, some of the most successful tech companies have triumphed not only because they have a great technical solution, but also because they had to totally disrupt an antiqued industry… I'm referring to really hard things like changing laws or regulations. Think of what companies like Airbnb and Uber went through in their earlier days. Notarize, which has raised $31M in funding, has been in a similar situation, where they are taking the centuries-old process of notarizing documents into the modern, digital era by allowing any person or business to get their documents legally notarized online. It is a massive market opportunity, as over 1 billion documents are notarized every year. Pat Kinsel is a serial entrepreneur and a venture capitalist. His prior company Spindle was acquired by Twitter, and after the acquisition, he joined Polaris Partners as an investor where he has led rounds of funding in companies like Drizly and Lob. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like: -Pat's background growing up on the West Coast and why he moved East. -His experience working at Microsoft's FUSE Labs in Cambridge and how that experience set the stage for his next company. -How Spindle raised capital from top investors on both coasts for their social discovery app and the details behind the acquisition. -His experience joining Polaris as an EIR and eventually becoming an investor. -The story of a critical mistake that led him down the path of exploring the world of notaries and ultimately starting a company to disrupt this industry. -Advice for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital. -Practical advice for purchasing domain names. -Plus, a lot more. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

My guest for Episode 90 of The Startup Playbook Podcast is the former CEO of Odesk (now known as Upwork) and General Partner of Polaris Partners, Gary Swart. The post Ep090 – Gary Swart (Former CEO of oDesk) on focusing on your strengths appeared first on Startup Playbook.

In this episode, Gary Swart and Joseph Fung discuss what it means to combine the power of competency and frequency, both of which AI can help deliver to sales teams.  Gary is a General Partner at Polaris Partners and a thought leader on marketplaces, sales leadership, the future of work and scaling sales teams. Listen to this episode to hear Gary Swart and Joseph Fung discuss: How Gary’s experience starting out as a sales rep led him to become a Polaris investor Augmentation, atomization, and automation; and how these play into the future of work The importance of increasing frequency and competency among sales teams What current sales reps can do to keep up with changes in sales and build their career You can learn more about our podcast here:  http:///www.kiite.ai/podcast Know someone who we should interview? Drop us a line at marketing@kiite.ai  

On Episode 39 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv interviews Bryce Youngren, Managing Partner at Polaris Partners, and they discuss how SaaS companies can expand internationally. Bryce shares 5 ways SaaS companies can go about doing this and uses real life examples from his portfolio companies: 1) Channel Partners 2) Telesales 3) Freemium 4) Local Presence 5) Acquisitions

My guest this week is Jason Trevisan, Chief Financial Officer of Boston-based IPO darling CarGurus. After funding itself for its first 8 years with less than $5 million of total venture capital, CarGurus took its $200 million business to the public markets in October at $16/share, raising $150 million customer acquisition war chest on the back of a $1.7 Billion enterprise valuation. After beating estimates for Q3, the stock sits today around $30/share, representing a market cap of over $3.2 Billion. To call their exit a home run would be a massive understatement, and Jason Trevisan was at the center of it. This will be Jason’s first big interview since the end of their quiet period, and to set expectations we did NOT talk very much about the business. My focus as always was on Jason’s personal journey, which began at Duke and ran through Bain & Company, a stint at online advertising leader aQuantive until it was acquired by Microsoft, and an extended stay as a VC at Polaris Partners, a Boston VC firm focused on growth equity investments and buyouts in Internet, technology and healthcare.

On this episode of Bootstrapped, we interviewed venture capitalist and UMD alumnus Gary Swart. Gary operates out of Silicon Valley as a general partner at Polaris Partners, a Boston VC firm that invests in technology and healthcare companies. Prior to his role at Polaris Partners, Gary was CEO of oDesk, a job-search platform that aimed to be the number one destination for job-seekers looking to work remotely. During his eight-year stint as CEO, Gary gained keen insights on customer acquisition, global expansion and staying ahead of competitors, lessons that as an investor he imparts to the entrepreneurs he works with. In this episode, Gary describes the challenges of being CEO, the key factors a startup needs before seeking investment and the differences between the startup ecosystems of Boston and Silicon Valley.

Getting an investor's perspective in AI is always a good idea for companies looking to raise money, in terms of understanding of excites VC's, but even more broadly an investor's perspective can point to emerging  factors in how AI is going to impact a particular industry, shining a light on industry developments, including the commonalities that matter for any company, in any industry, leveraging these tools that are increasingly embedded with AI. In this episode we interview Polaris Partners' Gary Swart, who speaks about elements of companies that are laying the right foundations for using AI optimally and making a more defensible, durable company in an increasingly competitive landscape.

In this replay of our popular podcast we learn that Quartet Health is building a platform to support behavioral health. The company partners with health systems to provide consistent online support for their patients. Investors include former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, GV (formerly Google Ventures), F-Prime Capital Partners, Polaris Partners and others.

Bob Metcalfe is an Internet pioneer, Ethernet inventor, 3COM founder, former venture capital partner with Polaris Partners in Boston, former pundit and publisher with InfoWorld and now professor of Innovation at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. In this interview, he discusses how he invented Ethernet and founded 3Com.   Just so know: We recorded this interview at Galvanize in the 2nd Street District in downtown Austin and construction workers were creating a cafe on the first floor. We were in a conference room on the fourth floor, but you can still occasionally hear the buzzing of the construction workers below. Just wanted listeners to know what that sound is. Also, the first couple minutes of the interview are not in stereo because I had to use the backup recording from my iPhone. But after that it goes back to stereo recording. The interview is really good so please listen. 

Quartet Health recently closed on a $40 million second round to build a support platform for behavorial health patients. The company partners with health systems to provide consistent online support for their patients. Investors include former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, GV (formerly Google Ventures), F-Prime Capital Partners, Polaris Partners and others.

Gary Swart is a Venture Partner at Polaris Partners, an 18-year old venture capital firm. Gary is also the former CEO of Odesk, the world's largest online workplace with over 1 million clients and 5 million freelancers. He joined the company as its CEO in 2005 and has guided the company to industry leadership and through their recent merger with Elance. Links & Resources Mentioned ODesk Polaris Partners Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to the podcast Leave a rating and review Follow Omer on Twitter Need help with your SaaS? Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support. Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue. Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Gary Swart is a Venture Partner at Polaris Partners, an 18-year old venture capital firm. Gary is also the former CEO of Odesk, the world's largest online workplace with over 1 million clients and 5 million freelancers. He joined the company as its CEO in 2005 and has guided the company to industry leadership and through their recent merger with Elance.Links & Resources MentionedODeskPolaris PartnersEnjoyed this episode?Subscribe to the podcastLeave a rating and reviewFollow Omer on TwitterNeed help with your SaaS?Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support.Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue.Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.