Podcasts about Rothenberg Ventures

Driving from the flats of Beverly Hills up into the hills themselves feels like I'm entering into a different world. Here the picturesque, tree-line streets filled with beautiful homes give way to narrow, winding roads that snake their way to the tops of hillsides. In these hills, each home looks like an architectural marvel, delicately perched at the very edge of a steep slope, with expansive views of Los Angeles.It was in one of these homes where I met with key members of the Snap marketing team to preview Snap's latest efforts to build AR glasses, the 5th generation Spectacles.In this episode, I share my impressions of the device and my perspective on its place in the larger narrative of AR Glasses.To help set the stage, I had a chance to catch up with Sophia Dominguez, the Director of the AR Platform, at Snap. Prior to her four and a half years at Snap, Sophia started the widely followed “All Things VR” newsletter and joined Rothenberg Ventures as an Entrepreneur in Residence before co-founding her first company, SVRF. There she created the first API and SDKs for searching and rendering 3D face filters. They powered over 280M AR experiences, and she successfully sold the company to Poplar before joining Snap.Sophia began her career by attending NYU with a focus on how technology impacts human interaction. She then organized one of the world's first wearable technology conferences, before working in product and operations for a startup focused on visual messaging.You may remember Sophia from my interview with her published in the summer of 2023. Check out that two-part episode for her wonderful backstory and broader perspective on the market.Here we keep things very focused on the 5th generation Snap Spectacles.----Callout: Developers in the U.S. can join the Spectacles Developer Program for $99 per month with a one year commitment by visiting www.spectacles.com/lens-studio.

Tommy Leep, founding partner at Jetstream, shares insights on climate tech investing and nurturing startups for a sustainable future. He delves into climate tech trends, opportunities for startups, and challenges that early-stage investors face (such as greenwashing). Tommy also advises founders on articulating their vision, avoiding the "founders' curse of knowledge" and the importance of sales skills.In this episode, you'll learn:[2:05] Startups attract people who love to be part of disruptive innovation.[4:53] Finding purpose in setbacks: the story of how Jetstream started[9:59] Trends and opportunities in climate tech investing.[14:03] Building a startup in the climate tech space[19:47] Founders' curse of knowledge - what is it? How can founders avoid the curse of knowledge?[25:21] There's something special about a founder who can influence an investor to make subjective decisions.About Tommy LeepTommy Leep is the founder of Jetstream. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, and business advisor with experience in startup funding and growth. He held key roles at Floodgate and Rothenberg Ventures before delving into venture capitalism. With experience at Meraki, Inc., Intuit, and Yahoo! Music, he brings a diverse skill set. Tommy advises startups like Around, Payable, and Patreon, and formerly led Rothenberg Ventures' SF office. He's also advised Orchestra Inc. (now part of Dropbox).About JetstreamJetstream is a venture capital firm investing in pre-seed climate, sustainability, and biodiversity startups. Companies in Jetstream's startup portfolio include Verdi, Pachama, Windborne Systems, Glacier, Albebo, Lightship, Pathways, Cecil, Wildgrid among others.  Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode.

Sophia Dominguez is the Director of AR Platform Partnerships and Ecosystem at Snap, where she's been the last three years.Previously, she started the widely followed “All Things VR” newsletter and joined Rothenberg Ventures as an Entrepreneur in Residence before co-founding her first company, SVRF. There she created the first API and SDKs for searching and rendering 3D face filters. They powered over 280M AR experiences, and Sophia successfully sold the company to Poplar before joining Snap.Sophia began her career by attending NYU with a focus on how technology impacts human interaction. She then organized one of the world's first wearable technology conferences, before working in product and operations for a startup focused on visual messaging.In this, the second of our two-part conversation, Sophia talks more about utility and the role technology should overtly play in our lives.We go on to talk about about:- Snap's wearables strategy as well as the hopes and recognized gaps, - expected benefits of being laser focused on AR rather than also working on VR or MR, - Snap's perspective on privacy, and- how recent advancements in AI fit into AR.As an added bonus in this episode, we hear from two Snap partners:- Yusuf Omar, co-founder of SEEN, and - Michael Nicoll, founder and Creative Director at BLNK Digital I had a chance to briefly chat with them both at the recent Snap Partner Summit, and we'll start the episode there.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com. Please consider contributing to my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theARshow.

Sophia Dominguez is the Director of AR Platform Partnerships and Ecosystem at Snap, where she's been the last three years.Previously, she started the widely followed “All Things VR” newsletter and joined Rothenberg Ventures as an Entrepreneur in Residence before co-founding her first company, SVRF. There she created the first API and SDKs for searching and rendering 3D face filters. They powered over 280M AR experiences, and Sophia successfully sold the company to Poplar before joining Snap.Sophia began her career by attending NYU with a focus on how technology impacts human interaction. She then organized one of the world's first wearable technology conferences, before working in product and operations for a startup focused on visual messaging.In this, the first of a two-part conversation, Sophia shares a number of insights, including:- her unique and early perspective on head-worn AR, - the pivot she took at her VR platform startup,- how Snap sees the evolution of AR in wearables,- some of the numbers around AR usage at Snap, - the evolution of the partner program, and- the core pillars of Snap's AR platform focus including the recent addition of shopping and commerce. Sophia describes how Snap has set a path to become the comprehensive developer platform of choice in AR.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com. Please consider contributing to my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theARshow.

Future of AI&ML in Creative Tech: Machine Learning in Animation, Artificial Intelligence for Creative Studios, Democratization of Machine Learning for Creatives Michael Dempsey is a partner at Compound and invests in frontier technologies such as robotics, autonomous vehicles, machine learning, immersive computing, & AI/ML for creative work which is our topic today. Prior to joining Compound, Michael was an early employee at CB Insights where he focused on researching frontier tech and then he made the jump into venture when he joined Rothenberg Ventures in SF. /// IN THIS EPISODE WE COVER /// 1. What does the future of AI&ML in Creative Tech look like 2. Automation with ML in animation and creative studios 4. AI replacing human creatives 5. Shadows and studio of the future 6. RunwayML and democratization of ML 7. VC research process for new spaces /// NOTABLE MENTIONS /// Animation Is Eating The World - https://www.michaeldempsey.me/animation/ Shadow - https://shadows.co/ RunwayML - https://runwayml.com/ Morphin - https://getmorphin.com/ Facemoji - http://facemoji.me/ The Mission of a Lifetime - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41454623-the-mission-of-a-lifetime @Gwern - https://twitter.com/gwern

Derrick Fung is the co-founder and CEO of Drop which is an intelligent mobile rewards platform for debit and credit cards. The company has raised over $70 million from investors such as NEA, ff Venture Capital, Sierra Ventures, CRCM Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures, Hedgewood, White Star Capital, HIGHLINEvc, and RBC Capital, to name a few.

Derrick Fung is the co-founder and CEO of Drop which is an intelligent mobile rewards platform for debit and credit cards. The company has raised over $70 million from investors such as NEA, ff Venture Capital, Sierra Ventures, CRCM Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures, Hedgewood, White Star Capital, HIGHLINEvc, and RBC Capital, to name a few.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a bit special. Instead of meeting up at the TechCrunch HQ to record the episode, Kate and Alex met up in muggy Boston at Drift's office, where we linked up with Axios's Dan Primack. And since we were feeling chatty, we went a bit long. After checking in with Primack (he has a newsletter and a podcast), we first dealt with the latest from Tumblr. In short, Verizon Media is selling Tumblr to Automattic for a few dollars. How did Verizon wind up owning Tumblr? Ah. Well, Yahoo bought it. Later, after Verizon bought AOL, it bought Yahoo. Then it smushed them together and called it Oath. Then Verizon decided that it didn't like that much and renamed the group Verizon Media. But Verizon doesn't want to own media (besides TechCrunch, of course), so it sold Tumblr to Automattic, a venture-backed company best known for operating WordPress. That's a lot, I know. What matters is that Yahoo bought Tumblr for more than $1 billion. Verizon sold it for around $3 million. Now, Automattic now has a few hundred new employees and a shot at juicing its userbase before it goes public. After that, we lamented that the WeWork S-1 had yet to appear. This was a tragedy, frankly. We had expected to spend half the show riffing on WeWork's financials, alas... So we turned to some normal material, like Ramp's recent $7 million raise to take on Brex, and, SmartNews's recent round, which gave it an eye-popping $1.1 billion valuation. We ran a bit long because we were having fun, fitting in some conversation surrounding the notes from the SEC regarding the now-dead and then-fraudulent Rothenberg Ventures. More on that here if you want to get angry. And finally, Vision Fund 2. It's been a big source of interest for everyone on the show, and we expect whatever the second-act Vision Fund winds up becoming to be a big damn deal. The fund will invest in more than just consumer marketplaces, in fact, it's eyeing more AI businesses and even biotech. That should be interesting. All that and we have a lot more good stuff coming. Thanks for listening to the show, and we'll be right back.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a bit special. Instead of meeting up at the TechCrunch HQ to record the episode, Kate and Alex met up in muggy Boston at Drift's office, where we linked up with Axios's Dan Primack. And since we were feeling chatty, we went a bit long. After checking in with Primack (he has a newsletter and a podcast), we first dealt with the latest from Tumblr. In short, Verizon Media is selling Tumblr to Automattic for a few dollars. How did Verizon wind up owning Tumblr? Ah. Well, Yahoo bought it. Later, after Verizon bought AOL, it bought Yahoo. Then it smushed them together and called it Oath. Then Verizon decided that it didn't like that much and renamed the group Verizon Media. But Verizon doesn't want to own media (besides TechCrunch, of course), so it sold Tumblr to Automattic, a venture-backed company best known for operating WordPress. That's a lot, I know. What matters is that Yahoo bought Tumblr for more than $1 billion. Verizon sold it for around $3 million. Now, Automattic now has a few hundred new employees and a shot at juicing its userbase before it goes public. After that, we lamented that the WeWork S-1 had yet to appear. This was a tragedy, frankly. We had expected to spend half the show riffing on WeWork's financials, alas... So we turned to some normal material, like Ramp's recent $7 million raise to take on Brex, and, SmartNews's recent round, which gave it an eye-popping $1.1 billion valuation. We ran a bit long because we were having fun, fitting in some conversation surrounding the notes from the SEC regarding the now-dead and then-fraudulent Rothenberg Ventures. More on that here if you want to get angry. And finally, Vision Fund 2. It's been a big source of interest for everyone on the show, and we expect whatever the second-act Vision Fund winds up becoming to be a big damn deal. The fund will invest in more than just consumer marketplaces, in fact, it's eyeing more AI businesses and even biotech. That should be interesting. All that and we have a lot more good stuff coming. Thanks for listening to the show, and we'll be right back.

Josh and Braeden talked to VR designer/developer duo Christian and Alex who have created virtual reality content for artists such as Coldplay and The Black Eyed Peas. We talk about the virtual reality industry and some design best practices when it comes to creating amazing VR user experiences.

We sat down at Rothenberg Ventures with Sophia Dominguez (founder of SVRF), and Josh Maldonado (founder of Discovr Labs). This episode is a brief overview of the virtual reality industry, how Josh and Sophia started their companies and raised investment, and where things are headed in the VR industry. We get into philosophical debates, UX techniques, and how to start a VR company in such a new and unpredictable market.

If you look at a GeoCV created 3D Tour, on first glance, you might think it is Matterport. It's a David versus Golith Story. --   Hi All,If you look at a GeoCV created 3D Tour, on first glance, you might be thinking that you are looking at a Matterport Spaces 3D Tour:✓ Dollhouse View✓ Floor Plan View (with measurements)✓ Walk Around View✓ Photos✓ Floor PlansAnd, this tour was shot using an (extra smart) 3D-enabled smartphone.On WGAN-TV Live at 5 (5 pm EST GMT -5) on Wednesday, 17 January 2018, CEO and Co-Founder @AntonYakubenko, PhD will demo and discuss GeoCV; including Matterport Versus GeoCV.You can Join the Virtual Studio Audience to ask Anton questions directly.Anton is one of the speakers at Inman Connect NYC 2018 (22-26 January 2018). He is on a panel: Visual Revolution: Breakthroughs in Virtual Reality 3D and Video. [Matterport CEO Bill Brown is on the same panel.)I could imagine that Anton might give us a sneak peak of what he will announce at Inman Connect. So, why have you not heard about GeoCV? They have been focused on New York City while they have been refining their technology, value-proposition and marketing strategy. I could imagine that Inman Connect, Anton will announce that GeoCV is now available across the United States (and potentially, around the globe).Here are We Get Around Network Forum discussions tagged: GeoCVSome additional backstory from Anton's LinkedIn Profile:"GeoCV is a venture capital backed 3D capturing VR / AR company. Our vision is to enable everyone to capture the world in 3D with a phone and share it in virtual and augmented reality. We're currently using 3D camera-enabled Google Tango phones.3D virtual tours for real estate is our beachhead market. We allow agents and brokerages differentiate themselves to win more listings and get more referrals, attract more qualified leads to their listings to sell faster spending less time on unpromising in-person showings. We've developed an advanced automated technology for providing unique 3D virtual tours, photography and floor plans at the highest quality and at an affordable price."Source: GeoCV Co-Founder and CEO Anton Yakubenko LinkedIn ProfileAbout GeoCV (Source)GeoCV was founded by 3D computer vision veterans with 12 years experience in the industry. They’ve worked with Samsung and Align Technology and have a strong track record of building successful companies.GeoCV is backed by five venture capital firms including Rothenberg Ventures, the most active investor in virtual reality.--GeoCV has raised $2.5+ million in venture capital, according to Crunchbase

When Francisco Riordan suspected his company of breaking the law last year, he secretly reached out to federal regulators. His actions helped set in motion events that left Rothenberg Ventures subject to a government investigation and multiple lawsuits -- and according to Francisco, cost him his own job. This week, we're re-broadcasting this May episode, in which Francisco first went public with his role as a whistleblower. At the end, you'll hear a recent conversation between Decrypted's Aki Ito and Francisco, who give us an update on his life. There's valuable advice here for people who are considering calling out their own employers for bad behavior.

When Francisco Riordan suspected his company of breaking the law last year, he secretly reached out to government regulators. His actions set in motion events that left Rothenberg Ventures the object of a government investigation and multiple lawsuits -- and, according to Riordan, cost him his own job. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Adam Satariano and Aki Ito meet Riordan, who's now ready to speak publicly about his experiences for the very first time. In an industry where corporate governance sometimes takes a backseat to rapid growth, Riordan says he wants to encourage more people to speak up when they see signs of wrongdoing.

Sophia Dominguez is the CEO & Cofounder of SVRF, the best way to search and discover VR content on the web. Sophia learnt how to be a front end developer after asking for an internship with a local company. From there, she developed a passion for product and startups. After graduating, Sophia went to San Francisco and fell in love with VR. Wanting to spend more time around this emerging technology, Sophia ended up helping to organize one of the first conferences for wearable technologies. After the conference, Sophia got a Google Glass and decided to travel the world to see how people in other countries would react to this emerging technology. She raised some money to make the project a reality and ended up visiting countries like: Spain, France, England, Germany, India, and more, before ending up at CES to cap off her trip. Sophia continued to build her career in tech by joining a startup called Context Labs where she helped launch several different products and startups. Following this experience, Sophia launched AllThingsVR as a go-to newsletter for VR enthusiasts. She then joined Rothenberg Ventures (now Frontier Tech Ventures) as an EIR before launching her current startup SVRF which is the best way to search and discover VR content on the web. Sophia joins us to share her story, how she got into startups, what it was like organizing a Google Glass trip around the world, how she approaches product management, why she’s so excited about VR, what it’s been like working on SVRF, and much more!

Habit Changers: 81 Game-Changing Mantras to Mindfully Realize Your Goals "From ‘trust your inner GPS’ to ‘presume goodwill,’ these slogans are simple, memorable and remarkably effective. Changing a habit requires going beyond intention to embrace tactics that enable you to consciously achieve your goals. This book will help you do just that, providing actionable strategies that you can quickly incorporate into your daily routine.”–Fran Hauser, Partner at Rothenberg Ventures and former President of Digital Time Inc. “If you’re ready to live a fearless, awesome life, Habit Changers will help you take control of your destiny and be the badassiest version of yourself, every day. Ryan’s techniques are easy to jump into and they work.” -Jen Sincero, New York Times Bestselling author of You Are a Badass M. J. RYAN is a leading expert on change and human fulfillment and senior coach to executives, entrepreneurs, and small business owners around the world. Her clients include Royal Dutch Shell, Microsoft, Time Warner, the U.S. military, and Aon Hewitt. She’s a partner with the Levo League career network and lead coach at SheEO, an organization offering new funding and support models for female entrepreneurs. She’s the founder of Conari Press, creator of the New York Times bestselling Random Acts of Kindness series, and author of many books including This Year I Will… ABOUT HABIT CHANGERS What would you like to change in your life? Be more focused at work? Communicate more effectively? Find work-life balance? Make smarter decisions? Be more patient with your team or family? Have greater self-confidence? Less stress? Just . . . be happier? Often, the biggest obstacle to change lies in our most deeply ingrained habits: those automatic thought processes that operate outside our consciousness, and yet have a profound impact on our behavior, shaping everything from how we respond to challenges to how we engage with others. The good news is that we can literally rewire our mental habits for the better. In Habit Changers,executive coach M.J. Ryan shares the secret weapon that has helped her highest performing clients improve their focus, better manage under pressure, enhance their emotional intelligence, become more effective leaders, and more. Inspired by the Buddhist tradition of Lojong, or "slogan practice," habit changers are simple, one-line aphorisms that, when recited, reprogram your brain’s automatic responses. Here, Ryan explains how to use the 81 Habit Changers that have demonstrated the most profound and lasting results. They include: § You can’t say yes if you can’t say no § Don’t push buttons that don’t need to be § Handshake your fear § Stand where you’d rather not § Remember your highest intention § Outsource your worry § Reach for the better thought Our capacity to change is our greatest gift as human beings. Habit Changers will help you take control of your destiny and more easily achieve the success and happiness you desire.

At 28 years old, Mike Rothenberg created a venture capital fund to invest in future forward technologies. 3 years and 60 companies later, the former US Math Olympian's portfolio boasts everything from artificial intelligence, to virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics, and even commercial space travel. One of the few venture firms to have built a noticeable brand, Rothenberg Ventures is known-- among other things-- for its annual Founder's Field Day, bringing it's portfolio companies together for a day of fun, networking at San Francisco's AT&T park. On Innovation Crush, Mike discusses the 10 year journey to start his company, his love of mathematics as a kid, how brands should approach frontier tech, and how his company navigates political and consumer hurdles. ... and more! rothenbergventures.com/

Mike Rothenberg, founder and CEO of Rothenberg Ventures, describes the entrepreneurial approach he took in starting his firm and how failures along the way were actually opportunities to reset. He also explains the business concept of red versus blue ocean, where the latter represents an uncharted market that entrepreneurs should swim toward at all costs.

Mike Rothenberg, founder and CEO of Rothenberg Ventures, describes the entrepreneurial approach he took in starting his firm and how failures along the way were actually opportunities to reset. He also explains the business concept of red versus blue ocean, where the latter represents an uncharted market that entrepreneurs should swim toward at all costs.

Mike Rothenberg, founder and CEO of Rothenberg Ventures, describes the entrepreneurial approach he took in starting his firm and how failures along the way were actually opportunities to reset. He also explains the business concept of red versus blue ocean, where the latter represents an uncharted market that entrepreneurs should swim toward at all costs.