Podcasts about Sapphire Ventures

Casber Wang of Sapphire Ventures joins Nick to discuss How AI Reshapes Distribution Models, What Startups Get Wrong About Product-Led Growth, and the Real Use Case for Agents. In this episode we cover: AI's Impact on Business Models and Capital Efficiency Defensibility and Product Market Fit AI Fatigue and Market Conditions Fundraising and Investor Expectations Cybersecurity and Competitive Intensity AI Agents and Enterprise Value Glean's Success in Enterprise Search Market Conditions and Investment Strategy Guest Links: Casber's LinkedIn Casber's Twitter/X Sapphire's LinkedIn Sapphire's Website The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. Want to keep up to date with The Full Ratchet? Follow us on social. You can learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our LinkedIn and Twitter.

Supio, a startup that uses AI to automate data collection and analysis for legal teams, has raised $60 million in a funding round led by Sapphire Ventures with participation from Mayfield and Thomson Reuters Ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The future of selling. We cover AI-copilots for sales, forecasting engines for CROs, real-time procurement layers, and the future of revenue intelligence. Guiding us will be Andy Byrne CEO of Clari, the #1 Enterprise Revenue Platform trusted by over 1,500 companies managing more than $4 trillion in revenue. From pipeline to close, renewal to expansion, Clari brings end-to-end visibility, control, and predictability to every revenue-critical function in the enterprise. The company has raised $520 million in funding from top-tier investors including Blackstone, Silver Lake, Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and Sapphire Ventures. Recognized as a 2024 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ winner and growing at 227% over three years, Clari is leading a movement to modernize how businesses run their revenue process — transforming it from siloed and reactive to unified, intelligent, and data-driven. Andy is a defining voice in the future of revenue operations. A serial entrepreneur and two-time CEO, Clari marks the fourth company he’s helped build with backing from Sequoia Capital — a rare feat that speaks to his track record and long-term vision. Known for being thoughtful, resilient, and a true builder, Byrne has helped scale Clari into a global platform used by the world’s most sophisticated sales and finance teams. Sign up for new podcasts and our newsletter, and email me on danieldarling@focal.vcSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here's the latest CPG news happening right now on April 3rd, 2025 including Trump Tariffs Goes Into Effect, Huge Series A with Lucky Energy, Acquisitions Galore with Lesser Evil and Mela, and More Investment ActionOn April 2nd, (yesterday) Trump has announced reciprocal tariffs on essentially all goods, unless otherwise noted. Some details will emerge on what is exempt. For food and beverage people, this will deeply impact cost of goods sold for bottles, caps, labels, cans, and just about every type of packaging that is manufactured outside of the United States, typically in Asia. Also, companies sourcing raw materials and ingredients will be subject to tariffs. This will undoubtedly affect brands and their margins, forcing them to raise their wholesale pricing to retailers and distributors. And ultimately will affect the everyday consumer, paying more for goods, even more than the inflationary costs right now. We will watch this closely, but our opinion is this will disrupt the market, cause margin compression, and force manufacturers to re-think how they source their product.Lucky Energy, a simpler, better-for-you energy drink, announced today that it has successfully closed a $14.2 million oversubscribed Series A1 round, bringing its total funding to over $40 million. The round is led by Maveron, with backing from DMG Ventures, Second Sight Ventures, and existing investors: Imaginary Ventures, Brand Foundry Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and Sugar Capital. The capital secured will fuel the brand's growth, enabling it to accelerate distribution, introduce new products, support strategic partnerships, and recruit in key business areas. Additionally, the company welcomed Dan Ginsberg, former Chief Executive Officer of Red Bull NA and CEO of Dermalogica®, to its Board of Directors.Lucky Energy has experienced explosive growth, entering 10,000 new doors with plans to expand to an additional 15,000 before the end of the year. The brand has also surpassed 400,000 followers across its social channels. The product is designed for individuals seeking to enhance performance with a natural, functional drink. It is currently available in six flavors: Son of a Peach, Orange Drizzle, Red Ryder Punch, OG Luck, Tropical Thrill, and Bodacious Berry. It has zero sugar and zero calories, ensuring a healthier choice for consumers. Nixie, the better for your sparkling water and now has a soda line that debuted in 2024, has secured $27M in fresh funding to help expand their product nationwide. Wet hydration has also raised $4.5M and brought on the former EVP from CelsiusHershey has agreed to buy the organic popcorn giant LesserEvil for about $750 million, a figure that could increase if the brand meets certain performance benchmarks, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing anonymous sources. The deal accelerates Hershey's expansion into salty snacks, and aligns with a broader rush by food giants to snap up smaller, more nimble competitors to reach new customers.Last but not least, Mela has been acquired by the beverage company Calypso. Which is under the umbrella company King Juice Holdings - a platform company backed by Mason Wells - a $2B PE firm out of Milwaukee that owns businesses across the CPG value chain

There's no shortage of cybersecurity companies, and artificial intelligence continues to help transform that competitive landscape. So, how do investors decide who's worth helping? Casber Wang, a partner at Sapphire Ventures, identifies what's hot in the market now and where there's promise. Sand Hill Road Host Scott McGrew spoke with Wang to learn more about the space and what stands out to him. Also, McGrew finds out why Wang's name is similar to that of a "Friendly Ghost." Sand Hill Road is hosted by Scott McGrew and produced and edited by Andrew Mendez. Sara Bueno manages NBC Bay Area's digital platforms. Stephanie Adrouny is the station's news director. If you'd like to get in touch, email us at sandhillroad@nbcuni.com or on any social media platform at @nbcbayarea.

Our guest for Episode 72 is Karan Singh, VP GTM Strategy, Revenue Operations & Enablement, LaunchDarkly. Before joining LaunchDarkly, Karan held senior leadership positions at Sapphire Ventures, Procore Technologies, and SalesSource, where he spearheaded major product rollouts and guided organizational growth. In this episode, Ross and Karan discuss the importance of establishing consistent rituals and cadences, break down how to set and track SMART goals, and examine how technology can act as a force multiplier.

On this week's episode, Jim sits down with Jai Das, President and Partner at Sapphire Ventures. They cover Jai's history as a developer, the Sapphire origin story, and Jai's current read of the financial landscape. Their conversation explores what sets successful companies apart, and what's next for Sapphire, including their groundbreaking AI investment initiative. A fascinating conversation you don't want to miss!

In this episode, Amir speaks with Tiffany Chandra, Director of People and Talent at Sapphire Ventures, about the intersection of program management and talent acquisition. Tiffany shares her journey into program management, the skills she cultivated, and how program management principles can transform talent functions in organizations of any size. Whether you're in a small company or a large organization, Tiffany's insights offer practical ways to enhance recruiting strategies and improve team alignment. Key Takeaways Program Management in Talent: Effective program management aligns multiple recruiting projects under shared goals, ensuring seamless workflows and outcomes. Stakeholder Alignment is Foundational: Building strong relationships and setting clear expectations with stakeholders ensures program success. Governance and Ownership: Defining clear roles and accountability for team members leads to more efficient talent processes. Embracing Ambiguity: Thriving in undefined roles and adapting to challenges fosters creativity and innovation. Feedback and Iteration: Actively seeking feedback from cross-functional teams helps refine processes and deliver better outcomes. Episode Highlights [00:00:00] Introduction: Meet Tiffany Chandra and learn about Sapphire Ventures' focus on growth-stage companies. [00:01:32] Defining Program Management in Talent: How program management differs from project management and applies to recruiting. [00:04:15] Stakeholder Alignment: Understanding the needs and priorities of stakeholders to drive results. [00:05:22] Governance Structures: Creating accountability and streamlining workflows in recruiting. [00:08:27] Recruiters as Project Managers: Why talent teams can benefit from adopting program and project management techniques. [00:11:31] Setting Expectations Early: Aligning with stakeholders upfront to avoid miscommunication and delays. [00:15:04] Enforcing Accountability: Managing matrixed teams to ensure consistent participation and delivery. [00:20:31] Transitioning to Program Management: Skills and mindset shifts needed to move from recruiting to program management roles. [00:24:00] Metrics in Program Management: How program metrics differ from traditional recruiting KPIs. [00:28:42] Thriving in Ambiguity: Learning to navigate undefined roles and leveraging feedback for continuous improvement. [00:30:30] Closing Thoughts: Tiffany shares advice for those considering a move into program management. This episode is a must-listen for talent professionals and recruiters looking to enhance their processes, adopt program management principles, and create more impactful hiring strategies.

Karthik Ranganathan is Founder & CTO of Yugabyte, the PostgreSQL-compatible distributed database for cloud native applications. Their open source database, also called yugabyte, has almost 10K stars on GitHub. Yugabyte has raised almost $300M and sits at a $1.3B valuation. They've raised from investors including Sapphire Ventures, Lightspeed, and 8VC. In this episode, we dig into the enormous interest Yugabyte had at the onset as transactional databases were due for innovation, the key architecture choices they made, the initial launch, key early customer wins, the importance of positioning as a distributed SQL company, their evolving open source strategy, building alongside the Postgres community, the decision to bring on an outside CEO & much more!

Artificial intelligence funding continues to grow despite seasonal changes. Manufacturing AI startup Tractian has raised $120 million in Series C funding, led by Sapphire Ventures, with contributions from General Catalyst, Next47, and NGP Capital. Tractian, based in Atlanta, integrates hardware, software, and AI to improve manufacturing maintenance processes. The company targets unplanned downtime in industrial maintenance, which costs major companies around 11% of annual revenue, or approximately $1.4 trillion. The cofounder and CEO Igor Marinelli notes a gap between human expertise and machine understanding due to an aging workforce and a decline in younger workers entering the field. This shift complicates industrial operations as efforts to reshore manufacturing in the U.S. increase. More than half of the $28 billion in global venture funding last month supported AI sector companies, which address various challenges in fields like robotics, marketing, and healthcare. Since its founding in 2019, Tractian has raised over $180 million, including a $45 million growth capital round in August 2023.Learn more on this news visit us at: https://greyjournal.net/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

KeyBanc Capital Markets in partnership with Sapphire Ventures recently published their 2024 SaaS Metrics Benchmark report. During today's episode, Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike dive into this years highlights including:Growth RatesNet and Gross Revenue RetentionRule of 40Go-to-Market Organization RatiosMarketing Strategies and ProductivityHuman Capital EfficiencyValuation Multiples - By Growth RateIf you are a SaaS executive, employee or investor this episode is a great listen!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Cyera, a data security startup, raised $300 million in a Series D funding round, increasing its valuation to $3 billion within seven months. The funding round, led by Accel and Sapphire Ventures, follows a previous $300 million Series C round that valued the company at $1.4 billion in April 2024 and a $100 million Series B round in June 2023 that valued it at $500 million. Founded in 2021, Cyera has raised a total of $760 million, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Coatue in the latest round. Cyera integrates AI into its cybersecurity services to help businesses assess data security, privacy, and compliance risks. The recent funding will enhance platform development, recruit talent, and support strategic acquisitions. This fundraising event marks the largest in the cybersecurity sector this year. Learn more on this news visit us at: https://greyjournal.net/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Matt MacInnis, COO of RipplingOne of the most important things a non-founder can do, says Rippling COO Matt MacInnis, is to learn how to operate in the context of the company they're joining. His CEO, Parker Conrad, “spikes” in certain skill areas, and the rest of the executive team needs to maximize his ability to thrive while “taking care of the rest of it.” Matt likened the work to being a hobbyist airplane pilot, who can't get a license without knowing all the minute details about their plane's engine and aerodynamics. “You can't be a good pilot if you don't understand the engine, because if something goes wrong, you want to be able to troubleshoot it,” he says. “An executive coming in to fly your airplane better learn the engine.”Chapters:(01:08) - Telling Rippling's story (04:27) - Founding & failing at Inkling (09:30) - Different types of hard (13:55) - Discipline and stamina (15:22) - Meeting with Steve Jobs (19:20) - Definitely, give up! (22:29) - Product-market fit (27:15) - Founders and culture (33:24) - Executive instincts (36:06) - Talent Signal and AI (40:06) - 150 former founders (44:08) - Zero to one projects (48:06) - The failure of Silicon Valley Bank (55:25) - Routines and discipline (59:37) - Disagreeing with Parker (01:02:25) - Who Rippling is hiring (01:03:37) - What “grit” means to Matt Mentioned in this episode: Parker Conrad, London Breed, Apple, Sequoia Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Tenaya Capital, digital textbooks on iPad, Oricom, Netscape, Peter Cho, Eddy Cue, John Couch, iBooks, Slack, Airbnb, Paul Graham, Brian Chesky, “founder mode,” Larry Ellison, Ivan Zhao and Notion, Intel and ARM, Salesforce, United Airlines, LLMs, GitHub, DocuCharm, Peter Thiel, Mamoon Hamid, Expensify, Navan, Costco, Comcast, HBO's Silicon Valley, Jensen Huang and NVIDIA, and Taylor Swift.Links:Connect with MattLinkedInTwitterConnect with JoubinTwitterLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner PerkinsThis episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, unpack their recent conversation with Jai Das, President + Partner at Sapphire Ventures and Mike Maples, Co-Founder + Partner at Floodgate,  to answer their burning question: What changes in the way seed and growth investors think, and what stays the same? They discuss the crushing importance of team no matter the stage; the parallels in LP land (at the end of the day, you're just backing people); the difference between small iterations on a business model vs a radical remaking of a company; and the imperfect information you get at Seed vs the luxury of canvasing an entire landscape at growth via customer calls and key metrics.   Learn more about Sapphire Partners: https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners/ Learn more about OpenLP: https://openlp.sapphireventures.com/ Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc Learn more about Floodgate: https://www.floodgate.com/ Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox. CHAPTERS: 0:00-Intro & Takeaways 1:20-Is This the Team That's Going to IPO? 4:02-Early Stage Pivots 7:44-How Hard a Pivot is Too Hard? 12:23-LP Strategy for Picking Managers 13:09-The Importance of Timing 15:59-You Need to Call the Customers 18:05-Outro

In this episode, Sasha Orloff welcomes Jane Lee and Aditya Reddy of Sapphire Ventures to unpack their paper, “Rise of the Next Gen CFO,” which features a market map of CFO tools and identifies key trends and predictions. Jane and Aditya discuss how finance roles are transforming, the convergence of finance and data science, the influence of AI, and emerging investment strategies in this fast-paced sector. Nothing presented within this podcast is intended to constitute investment advice, and under no circumstances should any information provided herein be used or considered as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund managed by Sapphire Ventures (“Sapphire”). Information provided reflects Sapphires' views as of a time, whereby such views are subject to change at any point and Sapphire shall not be obligated to provide notice of any change. No assumptions should be made that investments or strategies described were or will be profitable. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual events, results or the actual experience may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in these statements. Nothing contained in this podcast may be relied upon as a guarantee or assurance as to the future success of any particular company or strategy. Past performance is not indicative of future results. -- SPONSORS: ANROK is the enterprise-grade solution that automates sales tax compliance worldwide. Anrok tracks your exposure, calculates tax, and handles filings—all in one platform. Visit https://www.anrok.com/turpentine to claim your free nexus study and take control of your SaaS tax strategy. NETSUITE: More than 40,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud ERP bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's guide to AI and Machine Learning at https://netsuite.com/102 METAVIEW is the AI assistant for interviewing. Metaview completely removes the need for recruiters and hiring managers to take notes during interviews—because their AI is designed to take world-class interview notes for you. Team builders at companies like Brex, Hellofresh, and Quora say Metaview has changed the game—see the magic for yourself: https://www.metaview.ai/heretics OMNEKY is an omnichannel creative generation platform that lets you launch hundreds of thousands of ad iterations that actually work customized across all platforms, with a click of a button. Omneky combines generative AI and real-time advertising data. Mention "Cog Rev" for 10% off https://www.omneky.com/ -- LINKS: Rise of the Next Gen CFO: https://sapphireventures.com/blog/rise-of-the-next-gen-cfo-the-evolution-of-finances-role-and-tech-stack/ Sapphire Ventures: https://sapphireventures.com/ -- X/SOCIAL: @sashaorloff @leejane09 @adityareddy97 -- TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Preview (00:53) Intro (01:18) Viral market map by Sapphire Ventures (02:23) Rise of the Next Gen CFO (06:25) Key findings from the paper (10:57) Impact of AI on finance (18:09) Sponsors: Anrok | Netsuite (20:36) Complexities with crypto assets (24:22) AI affecting different industries (28:22) Investment insights from Sapphire Ventures (34:58) Sponsors: Metaview | Omneky (36:27) Platform risks (41:06) Sapphire Ventures' focus (43:37) Wrap

With a few dozen software exits under his belt (including Box, Square, Mulesoft & JFrog), nobody knows enterprise investing like Sapphire Ventures' President + PartnerJai Das. Likewise, Floodgate co-founder + Partner Mike Maples Jr. is often credited with pioneering seed investing as we know it, with names like Twitter, Twitch and Lyft in his portfolio. Together, they join Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures,  and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners, to share how they pick winners at their respective stages. What does it take to spot someone who sees the future before it's here? How do inflection points like AI impact an investor's thesis? And are there more opportunities in the market for VCs today? Plus, Jai and Mike discuss the one throughline from seed to growth to lead to a successful exit: the management team. Learn more about Sapphire Partners: sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners Learn more about OpenLP: openlp.vc Learn more about Asylum Ventures: asylum.vc Learn more about Sapphire Ventures: sapphireventures.com Learn more about Floodgate: floodgate.com Subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter for a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, delivered straight to your inbox. CHAPTERS: 0:00-Introduction & the Burning Question4:08-Intro to Sapphire Ventures 6:02-Intro to Floodgate7:56-Setting the Stage at Seed 10:30-Inflection Points: We're Going Through a Sea Change of Mass Cognition 13:43-What's Happening at the Growth Stage 15:17-More Choice in the Market 16:10-Importance of Management Team 17:44-Mike's New Book “Pattern Breakers” 23:09-The Three Things Floodgate Looks for in a Founder 25:25-Founder Future Fit & Pivots 27:56-In Enterprise Software, You Don't Always Have to Build a New Category29:52-AI: Over-Valued? Under-Valued? 32:50-Is There Anything Left in AI Non-Consensus? 34:37-How Sapphire Approaches GenAI Investing 37:31-The Exit Market Today 44:10-How to Approach Founder Liquidity

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Casber Wang, Partner at Sapphire Ventures, who shares the issues with AI startups and cash burn. "Let's just say we intentionally freeze the progress of technology. There's no ChatGPT five, there's no GPT six. It's only what we have today; GPT four and some of the other, call it 3.5. I believe the next five years we can just build applications on those existing technologies without underlying technological progress. So that's how much progress we made from the starting point. So to me it's less so 'why haven't we seen much progress yet', it's just all the systems take a little bit more time, right? People get used to a new thing and that just takes more time than folks had expected, just given how much attention there is around this topic." Casber shares: - What he's looking for in companies that Sapphire invests in - Why he favours founders who constantly think about talent valuation; from tracking talent to their talent bench - Why building a great software standalone is rarely enough - you need to be backwardly compatible with all the other tools on the stack and nail distribution - The watershed moment in AI and why its garnered so much attention from founders and media - Why specific fields like engineering are seeing a more accentuated economic impact from AI - The five or six prime investment areas where investors spend a lot of time making real bets on and more.Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

Creatio, a Boston-based company specializing in no-code platforms for automating CRM and enterprise workflows, achieved unicorn status by securing a $200 million investment. Led by Sapphire Ventures and supported by StepStone Group, Volition Capital, and Horizon Capital, this investment values Creatio at $1.2 billion and aims to support global expansion and sustain its 50% annual revenue growth. CEO Katherine Kostereva stated that the funding would accelerate the company's mission to revolutionize enterprise software and enhance its technological capabilities. Additionally, Creatio has integrated AI with a generative AI copilot to automate various marketing and sales tasks, competing with industry giants such as Salesforce, Oracle, and SAP. Despite a slowdown in the low-code and no-code sector after its peak in 2021-2022, the rise of generative AI has revitalized interest in the space. Creatio, founded in 2014, had previously raised $68 million in 2021 in an investment round led by Volition Capital.Learn more on this news visit us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week in the Tank we have Winter Mead, founder of Coolwater Capital, to discuss his background in venture capital and the challenges faced by emerging fund managers. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the LP perspective and operationalizing the fund to attract institutional investors. Winter also shares insights from his book on raising a venture capital fund and the mission of Coolwater Capital's Accelerator program. The program aims to bridge the knowledge gap for emerging VCs and provides guidance on fund formation, LP fundraising, and fund management. Winter highlights the criteria for selecting VCs for the program and the focus on community orientation.The conversation covers three main themes: fund management and operations, fundraising, and the future of venture capital. Winter emphasizes the importance of setting up the operations of a fund correctly, learning the new language of being a fund manager, and understanding the market when it comes to fundraising. He also discusses the benefits of building a network and leveraging relationships in the venture capital industry. Winter shares their thoughts on the future of venture capital, including the potential for consolidation, the role of AI in fund management, and the continued focus on investing in big themes and challenges.And John Ruffolo and Matt Cohen discuss the week's news.About Winter Mead:Winter Mead is the founder and managing member of the investment firm Coolwater Capital. The firm focuses on emerging managers and technology investments. He is author of How To Raise A Venture Capital Fund, and operates Coolwater, an academy for training, building and scaling emerging managers. Coolwater has worked with over 240 emerging managers in the last four years.Prior, Winter helped build and invest an evergreen fund at SAP, a publicly listed enterprise software company, where he co-founded the LP transparency movement called #OpenLP. Winter also worked as a private equity and venture capital investor at a large multi-family office in San Francisco. Winter has completed seventy-nine institutional investments, as well as over twenty-five other investments since leaving his institutional allocator role. He served as junior faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business on Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship.Winter holds a Master of Science degree majoring in Management Research from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University.In this episode, we discuss:(02:06) John Ruffolo discusses the potential political motivations behind not including a higher capital gains tax in the recent budget proposal and how it might be a strategic move by the government to pressure the conservative opposition(02:29) A potential second reason for the omission might be a need for more time to draft detailed rules around the new capital gains strategies, suggesting it's still a work in progress(03:35) The governmental challenges in managing the budget and public expectations, highlighting the difficulty in aligning political strategies with economic needs.(06:01) Concerns about the impact of unrestricted immigration on housing markets, criticizing the government for not addressing the core issues of housing supply.(07:34) The need for national unity and economic growth rather than redistributive measures that pit different societal groups against each other.(12:40) Llama 3 might cause disruption in the AI model market, praising its rapid adoption and potential to democratize high-quality AI tools(16:34) Winter Mead describes the mission of Coolwater Capital as supporting emerging managers, detailing how the firm aids them through training and network building to establish and grow their funds.(17:24) Foundational experiences at Sapphire Ventures that led him to focus on venture capital, highlighting the importance of understanding the investment landscape and operational aspects of managing a fund.(19:39) Discusses the importance of creating educational resources like his book to help emerging managers navigate the complexities of VC funding, emphasizing the lack of consolidated knowledge in the field(23:26) The challenges of fundraising for new funds, including the necessity of aligning with the right LPs and understanding the fundraising environment to effectively position a new fund in the market(24:32) The reasons behind writing his guidebook, aimed at solidifying his understanding of venture capital and offering a structured tool for new fund managers to increase their probability of success(28:07) The inception of Coolwater Capital and its strategic focus on providing a scaffolding to support emerging VC managers through both the fundraising process and fund operations(30:40) The operational complexities of running a venture capital fund, from compliance and management to investor relations, underscoring the importance of operational efficiency for fund success(34:27) The long-term commitment required to manage a venture fund, urging potential fund managers to evaluate their dedication to the operational demands of fund management beyond just investment activities.(36:36) The importance of creating educational resources for emerging managers and the necessity of operational excellence(40:09) The challenges new fund managers face, such as aligning with the right LPs, understanding market positioning, and the importance of strategic planning in the early stages of fund development(47:25) Speculating on the future of venture capital, discussing potential trends such as the increasing role of technology and the likelihood of more consolidation in the industry as firms seek to scale and enhance capabilitiesFast Favorites:*

On this episode, Rajeev Dham, Managing Director of Sapphire Ventures, delves into the strategies of venture capital investment and the effective scaling of startups. Focusing on the B2B SaaS space, Rajeev highlights how Sapphire Ventures selects startups that redefine their market categories and the methodologies that lead to their success.Discussion points include:- The importance of backing companies that redefine their categories within the tech and software industries.- Developing go-to-market strategies that improve customer experiences and distinguish startups from their competitors.- Reconsidering the net burn ratio, advocating for a more nuanced financial management approach during growth phases.- The value of founders' direct engagement with their top customers.- The need for startups to be adaptable and tackle unscalable tasks during crucial times.- The critical role of a founder's passion and determination in propelling a startup toward success.Resources Mentioned:Rajeev Dham - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeev-dham-79332812/Sapphire Ventures - https://sapphireventures.com/This episode is brought to you by:Leverage community-led growth to skyrocket your business. “From Grassroots to Greatness” by author Lloyed Lobo will help you master 13 game-changing rules from some of the most iconic brands in the world — like Apple, Atlassian, CrossFit, Harley-Davidson, HubSpot, Red Bull and many more — to attract superfans of your own that will propel you to new heights. Grab your copy today at FromGrassrootsToGreatness.com.Each year the US and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don't get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca.Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com.#product #marketing #innovation #startup #generativeai #AI

SaaStr 728: How to Double Your Magic Number and Increase Your Go-to-Market Efficiency with Sapphire Ventures Go-to-market (GTM) design and efficiency are sometimes overlooked, but they're a critical driver of any SaaS business. Rajeev Dham and Karan Singh, Partners at Sapphire Ventures, and Jane Lee, Vice President at Sapphire walk us through how to double your “Magic Number,” a shorthand for your sales and marketing efficiency. Magic Number is your growth in ARR over a quarter divided by the sales and marketing spend in the prior quarter.  Previously in SaaS, it was widely seen that anything > 1 was healthy if you were venture-backed, and anything > 1.5 is was seen as perhaps too capital-efficient.  If you were well-funded, 0.7 was fine. But as Rajeev, Karan, and Jane point out to set the stage for this discussion, Go-to-market efficiency in recent years has suffered a significant drop across both public and private SaaS companies.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet. Join us in 2024 at: SaaStr Annual: Sept. 10-12 in the SF Bay Area. Join 12,500 SaaS professionals, CEOs, revenue leaders and investors for the world's LARGEST SaaS community event of the year. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on tickets here: https://www.saastrannual2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20 SaaStr Europa: June 5-6 in London. We'll be hosting the 5th SaaStr Europa in London for two days of content and networking. Join 3,000 SaaS and Cloud leaders. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on Europa tickets here: https://www.saastreuropa2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave200 -------------- This episode is sponsored by: Northwest Registered Agent Get more when Northwest Registered Agent starts your business. They'll form your company fast and stand up your entire business identity in minutes. That means business free domain, business email, website, hosting, address, mail scanning, business phone app, all within minutes. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/saastr to get a 60 percent discount on your next LLC.

Nvidia's fourth quarter blew past expectations. The chip maker's revenue tripled from last year, hitting $22B in one quarter. Sapphire Ventures partner Cathy Gao explains how Nvidia's boom is impacting the private AI market. Another company did not fare as well in its fourth quarter: Rivian. The EV-maker is cutting 10% of its workforce. The Presidential candidate Nikki Haley is still fundraising; Puck founder Teddy Schleifer weighs in on the 2024 race, the slate of candidates, and the likelihood of a newcomer in the Democratic Party. Plus, the circus is back! Kenneth Feld, CEO of Feld Entertainment and owner of the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, discusses the event's return to audiences–without animals.  Cathy Gao - 4:26Teddy Schleifer - 12:06Kenneth Feld - 25:41 In this episode:Teddy Schleifer, @teddyschleiferJoe Kernen, @JoeSquawkAndrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkinKatie Kramer, @Kramer_Katie

In this episode Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church talk with Elizabeth Patterson, Partner (People & Talent) at Sapphire Ventures. The conversation is all about how to find the best CPO roles, how VC talent partners actually work, and what it's like engaging with portfolio companies and execs. Lots of insider info. Elizabeth manages Sapphire Venture's human capital network, including the Sapphire Fellows program.HR Heretics is part of the Turpentine podcast network. Learn more at turpentine.coThis episode is brought to you by AttioAttio is the next generation of CRM. It's powerful, flexible and easily configures to the unique way your startup runs, whatever your go-to-market motion. The next era deserves a better CRM. Join OpenAI, Replicate, ElevenLabs and more at https://bit.ly/AttioHRHereticsKEEP UP WITH ELIZABETH,NOLAN, + KELLI ON LINKEDIN- Elizabeth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabetharnsdorfpatterson/Nolan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-church/Kelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellidragovich/TIMESTAMPS:(00:00) Preview(03:17) Stories(08:08) Navigating the Venture Capital World(11:00) The Gotchas and Ahas of Finding the Best Opportunity into Venture Capital(13:50) How Success is Measured(16:00) Sponsor - Attio(17:11) How to Find the Best CPO Roles(22:56) The Relationship Between Talent Partners and Executive Recruiters(27:24) Correlating the Business with Cultural Fit and Vibe in Recruitment(31:28) Back Channels in Recruitment(35:49) Executive Compensation on Recruitment (40:18) How Photographic Memory Helps in Recruitment(45:53) Elizabeth's Favorite Interview Question(48:02) Qualities of a Great Leader This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hrheretics.substack.com

Steven Bartel is the co-founder of Gem, which is helping talent acquisition teams hire with remarkable speed and efficiency. With Gem, teams can automate and personalize candidate communication, unify all recruiting touchpoints into a single system, and get usable data across the entire hiring process. Gem has raised a total of $148 million from notable investors such as ICONIQ, Greylock, Accel, Sapphire Ventures, and Meritech Capital.Where to find Steven Bartel:• Website: Recruiting CRM | All-in-One Hiring Software | Gem• LinkedIn Steve Bartel | LinkedInWhere to find Hadi Radwan:• Newsletter: Principles Friday | Hadi Radwan | Substack• LinkedIn: Hadi Radwan | LinkedInIf you like our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe and support us on your favorite podcast players. We also would appreciate your feedback and rating to reach more people.We recently launched our new newsletter, Principles Friday, where I share one principle that can help you in your life or business, one thought-provoking question, and one call to action toward that principle. Please subscribe Here.It is Free and Short (2min).

In this episode, we speak with Raghu Ravinutala, Co-Founder and CEO of Yellow.ai, a global leader in generative AI-powered customer service automation. Raghu co-founded the company with a vision to make customer and enterprise interactions more effective and effortless. Since its inception, Raghu and his team have successfully expanded Yellow.ai's presence across the U.S., Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Japan, Australia and Latin America with over 1,000 customers in over 85 countries. Previously, Raghu worked for 16 years with leading tech companies such as Texas Instruments, and Broadcom across leadership roles in engineering, product management and business development both in the Bay Area and India. Raghu was recently recognized as one of the Top 50 SaaS CEOs of 2023 by The Software Report.  The company is backed by Salesforce Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, WestBridge Capital, and other notable investors. I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to follow.

Gen-AI, Gen-AI, Gen-AI. The transformative technology has captured the imagination of everyone in the tech industry. Industries are shifting before our eyes, and the roles and responsibilities of data practitioners everywhere are going to shift again. The question is not whether an impact will be made, but what will the impact be? In this episode, Cindi sits down with 3 industry leaders to discuss how AI will impact our work and our personal lives in 2024. Sandy Carter shares how a severe injury in Brazil impacted her outlook on data sharing, and data verification in a world where AI can convince millions that the Pope wears puffy jackets. Jai Das sees a gap in educating technical workers if AI is too widely adopted. Prab Pritchandi shares how the financial industries will modernize in a heavily regulated environment.  Industry Predictions: There will be an intersection of AI Privacy and blockchain technology that will be poised to reshape the entire landscape of proof of ownership. And therefore, also revolutionize data sharing practices. We will go and move into a decentralized proof of ownership because of the increasing use of Gen AI and the fear of deep fakes. (34:15) - Sandy CarterGenerative AI is going to get rid of a lot of the grunt work that we have day to day. Including some of the groundwork in data prep, some of the groundwork that analysts have to do, or even understanding reports and dashboards. I think the fear about [AI] getting really smart and destroying the world is really far-fetched. All of the LLMs and all of these GPT 5 and all of these models, they're great [but] they're not really reasoning. They're not right. They're great at getting some information and putting it in a new form. They don't come up with anything original. So I'm not actually fearful of [AI] replacing humans. (14:30) - Jai Das90 percent of the data available in the world has been created in the last one year.And every year the amount of data is actually increasing. I could say data is really a good digital twin of your business [but] that itself is not a value unless you're able to convert this data to insights and then convert the insights to actionable insights. (1:06:00)- Prab Pitchandi Key MomentsJai observes 2023 AI startups are missing profitable business models  (10:55)Jai identifies a gap in education. Developers are trained through repetition. But what happens when repetition is replaced by AI (24:53)Sandy breaks her femur and surgery is delayed by 48 hours due to data (34:54)Sandy says, Taylor Swift is Web 3.0 (46:30)Prab compares banking data and analytics to cricket (51:27)Prab wonders if Formula 1 can be driverless (1:07:00) Mentions: Microsoft CoPilotGoogle GeminiMidjourneyOpenAITop 10 data and analytics trends 2024The Year GenAI Comes to Fruition: 10 Enterprise Tech Trends Set to Define 2024 

好久不见！OnBoard! 回来啦！这一期又是考验听力的全英文访谈。这次，我们跟亲历者聊聊，今年AI领域最受瞩目的一笔10亿美金的并购：Databricks 今年6月以13亿美金的“天价”，收购了当时成立2年的大语言模型（LMM）基础设施创业公司 MosaicML。 Hello World, who is OnBoard!? 可以说，这是今年最受关注的AI领域收购之一了，之后AI 基础设施领域的巨头和创业公司，都被这次收购推动，开始了融资和产品迭代的热潮。收购的时候，MosaicML 仅有60多人，但是已经推出了 MPT 7B, 30B 两个开源大语言模型，总下载量超过330万。也是最早一批推出开源LLM的公司之一。这次访谈，Monica 不仅邀请到了 MosaicML 联合创始人、CTO，Hanlin Tang, 还邀请到还有之前来OnBoard! 做过客的非常专业的硅谷成长期投资人， Sapphire Ventures 合伙人，Casber Wang，我们得以从创始人和投资人的视角，一起解读这个有里程碑意义的收购，以及对于生成式AI，AI infra 核心竞争力和未来格局等等话题进行非常有意思的探讨。 准备好你的英语听力，enjoy! 嘉宾介绍 Hanlin Tang (@hanlintang), 现Databricks Neural Networks CTO, 前 MosaicML co-founder & CTO, Intel AI Lab Senior Director, Nervana (2016.9 被Intel 4亿美金收购）创始团队成员 Casber Wang (@CasberW), Sapphire Ventures 合伙人，专注data, infra, 安全等领域，投资了Auth0, JumpCloud, StarTree 等。Sapphire Ventures 是一家资产管理总额超过110亿美金的全球风险投资基金。 Onboard！主持：Monica（推特：@Monica_XieY）：美元VC投资人，前 AWS 硅谷团队+AI创业公司打工人，公众号：M小姐研习录 (ID: MissMStudy) 主理人 | 即刻：莫妮卡同学 我们都聊了什么 [01:57] 两位嘉宾自我介绍，Hanlin 最近感兴趣的AI产品，以及Casber 最近在AI领域的投资 [08:40] LLM 的到来对传统 MLOps 公司有什么影响 [14:13] MosaicML 介绍，2021年如何发现这个创业机会的 [17:28] ChatGPT 发布以来，MosaicML 经历了哪些重要的里程碑事件，行业有哪些重要变化 [21:41] MosaicML 早期客户是哪些公司？ [22:55] MosaicML 的几个重要产品决定：一开始为什么要做开源？ [26:43] 创业公司应该如何思考是否要开源？ [34:36] MosaicML 如何做开源商业化？商业化模式如何演进？ [37:17] 如何思考 LLM serving 和训练平台的产品竞争力和差异性？MosaicML 的平台如何在探索中演进？ [42:32] MosaicML 为何推出自己的开源LLM？ [45:39] 客户如何选择LLM？常见的问题是什么？有什么常见的误解？ [51:11] 开源和闭源LLM格局会如何演进？如何影响LLM周边的生态？我们能从云计算生态发展历史中学到什么 [58:39] 客户如何衡量LLM的performance? 客户需要的是怎样的服务？ [62:06] LLM 会如何改变SaaS 生态？为什么说我们低估了数据对新的平台的意义？ [70:52] 为什么说提高LLM 训练效率和成本没有 silver bullet? 做成本优化的公司如何设计商业模式？ [82:00] 企业如何思考是否要自己训练LLM？还是在已有模型上 fine tune? [89:23] MosaicML 被 Databricks 收购之后会有哪些变化？下一个聚焦的点是什么？ [91:32] Casber 作为投资人，如何看待 Databricks 对 MosaicML 的收购？对未来行业有什么影响？ [95:44] Hanlin 创业以来对于行业的观点有过什么改变？过去和未来有什么值得关注的变化？ [108:52] 如果坐时光机到5年后，你最想问的问题是什么？ 提到的公司 MosaicML Databricks Weights & Bias FlowGPT 参考文字 www.mosaicml.com www.youtube.com www.latent.space blog.replit.com www.databricks.com www.latent.space 欢迎关注M小姐的微信公众号，了解更多中美软件、AI与创业投资的干货内容！ M小姐研习录 (ID: MissMStudy) 大家的点赞、评论、转发是对我们最好的鼓励！ 如果你能在小宇宙上点个赞，Apple Podcasts 上给个五星好评，就能让更多的朋友看到我们努力制作的内容，打赏请我们喝杯咖啡，就给你比心！

Miguel Armaza sits down with Stuart Sopp, CEO and Co-Founder at Current, one of the largest New York fintech platforms offering financial services to US consumers.Launched in 2015, Current serves almost four million customers and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, TQ Ventures, Avenir, Sapphire Ventures, Foundation Capital, Wellington Management, QED, and many more.We recorded this conversation live in the heart of NYC at Barclays Rise, as part of a series of events during New York Tech Week.We discussed:Launching Current and why it took many iterations and two pivots to eventually land on Current present stateThe importance of balancing growth and tech development in periods of hypergrowthWhy Stuart believes we've entered the “era of value” for fintech and what this means for founders launching companies these daysWhat he's learned working with Mr. Beast and many other influencersWhy NYC is the best place to start a fintech company… and a lot more! Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today's global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.Do you prefer a written summary, instead? Check out the Fintech Leaders newsletter and join almost 60,000 readers and listeners worldwide!Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder and General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.Miguel on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3nKha4ZMiguel on Twitter: https://bit.ly/2Jb5oBcFintech Leaders Newsletter: bit.ly/3jWIp

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're thrilled to bring back three experienced institutional venture LPs with Chris Douvos of Ahoy Capital, Beezer Clarkson of Sapphire Partners, and Guy Perelmuter of GRIDS Capital. When we last convened, it was almost exactly two years ago in October of 2021. We had an inkling of the changes to the market on the horizon, but what a two years it has been.Given the dramatic shift in the market, we had a lot to cover, and we spoke about the impact of the downturn on emerging managers, what managers can do to navigate this market, and the role of secondaries.A word from our sponsor:Is AI coming for your administrator?With ever-increasing investors, dollars, and data to manage, the fund administration industry has evolved significantly in the last 20 years. Now, forces like AI, automation, and cybersecurity are coming together to drive even more change.Juniper Square's latest guide looks at the five biggest trends shaping the future of fund administration. Download it now to learn more.About Beezer Clarkson:Beezer Clarkson is Managing Director of Sapphire Partners, the LP arm of Sapphire Ventures. She began her career in financial services over 20 years ago at Morgan Stanley in its global infrastructure group. Since, she has held various direct and indirect venture investment roles, as well as operational roles in software business development at Hewlett Packard. Prior to joining Sapphire in 2012, Beezer managed the day-to-day operations of the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Global Network.Additionally, she is a judge for 100&Change, a MacArthur Foundation competition that provides funding to solve critical challenges of our time. In 2014, she was named to the Forty Over 40 list of women to watch.About Chris Douvos:Chris Douvos is the Founder of Ahoy Capital, a boutique Fund of Funds that focuses primarily on allocating into early-stage venture capital funds, while selectively co-investing directly into companies.Chris started his career at Morgan Stanley while still at Yale earning his MBA. From there he worked at Princeton University's endowment fund where he got his start in venture before moving on to The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF). At TIFF he decided that the right strategy was to make “heroic investments” and invest in very early-stage, and often unproven managers.About Guy Perelmuter:Guy Perelmuter is the Co-Founder and CEO of GRIDS Capital. Guy began his career in Banking as Chief Risk Officer at Banco Pactual (acquired by UBS), one of the largest banks in Latin America. He went to Vinci Partners, an investing platform for alternative investments in 2009 as Chief Risk Officer. He and his partner, Isabelle, Co-Founded GRIDS Capital in 2016.He received a BS in Computer Engineering and an MS in AI from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro.In this episode, we discuss:(02:51) Venture is _______(06:46) Outlook for emerging managers(09:42) Why it's so difficult to raise a fund two right now(13:01) Is new money and funders in venture a net positive(16:16) Why emerging managers are still important for LPs(21:46) What they look for in a fund one investment(22:48) The decision to stop investing in grownups and look to emerging managers(25:24) How GPs get mentored and how information flows to them(27:23) Peer pressure amongst GPs to grow their fund size(31:53) How managers are recalibrating their funds to the current market(35:12) The role of secondaries(39:49) Why Venture is an unsophisticated asset class(44:29) How do you get institutional investorsI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Guy, Chris, and Beezer. 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

Beezer Clarkson leads Sapphire Partners‘ investments in venture funds domestically and internationally. Beezer has invested in some of the best firms of a generation including USV and Point Nine to name a few. Beezer began her career in financial services over 20 years ago at Morgan Stanley in its global infrastructure group. Prior to joining Sapphire in 2012, Beezer managed the day-to-day operations of the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Global Network, which then had $7 billion under management across 16 venture funds worldwide. In Today's Episode with Beezer Clarkson We Discuss: LP Landscape: WTF is Going On: Are LPs really all closed for business? What has changed in what LPs want to see from managers they are looking to invest in? What has changed about the size and pace of new commitments for LPs? Are all LPs moving away from growth? 2. 2020-2022: Years in Review: Are LPs frustrated by managers who reduced deployment timelines to 12-18 months? Are LPs frustrated with managers who did not take liquidity when they could have done? How does Beezer advise managers on when and how to take liquidity in their best positions? Are managers accurately marking their portfolios to their LPs today? Why does Beezer believe the incentive mechanism for LPs is broken today in many ways? 3. How To Build a Top Decile Firm: Why does Beezer believe if you want to have the best returns, you have to have one company that returns the fund? Can you not do it with multiple half-fund returners? Is ownership core to all the best firm's top performance? Is it the size of outcome or the size of ownership that drives the best performance across the board? What does data show on how the best funds take significant risk? What are their loss ratios? What are the core tradeoffs to Beezer between scaling AUM and providing top decile returns? 4. LP Markets: The Times They are a Changing: Does Beezer believe LPs will remain cold on large $1BN+ growth firms? Which segments of the market are hot? Which are cold? What are the most significant changes we will see in the LP markets moving forward? Is today the new normal or are we in a downturn that we will come out of?  

Hear Krupa (Desai) Vankayala, VP of People and HR at Sapphire Ventures discuss aligning business strategy with HR strategy, HR trends affecting leaders at high-growth companies, life-long learning, and more.

In this episode, we speak with Andy Byrne, CEO and Co-founder of Clari. Clari is a platform that uses AI and machine learning to support sales teams by integrating with their existing CRM systems. Thousands of sales, marketing, and customer success teams at leading companies, including Okta, Adobe, Workday, Zoom, and Finastra, use Clari's execution insights to make their revenue process more connected, efficient, and predictable. The company is backed by Blackstone, Silver Lake, Sapphire Ventures, Tenaya, Bain Capital, Sequoia and other notable investors. Prior to Clari, Byrne was a founding executive at Clearwell, which he helped grow from pre-product and pre-revenue in 2005 to an $80 million annual revenue run rate until its acquisition by Symantec in 2011. Andy supports Rise Against Hunger. To learn more about this organization click here. I am your host RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to subscribe.  

The Sapphire Ventures partner on AI and SaaS. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

2021 saw tech startups reach unicorn status in droves, but the easy money fueling billion-dollar valuations has dried up. In this episode of The Next Stage, Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo and investor Jai Das explore the end of the unicorn era and what it will take for startups to succeed in the new normal.Christina Cacioppo, co-founder and CEO of Vanta, and Jai Das, co-founder, president and partner with Sapphire Ventures, were in conversation with Frederic Lardinois, editor of TC, on Centre Stage at Collision 2023."The best technology conference on the planet".Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/websummit/message

Paul Dix is Cofounder & CTO of open source time series data company InfluxData. The company's open source datastore, InfluxDB, has 26K stars on GitHub. InfluxData has raised over $200M from investors including Norwest, Battery, and Sapphire Ventures. In this episode, we dig into building the category of time series data, how an open source company's monetization plan should tie to fundraising, some of the hardest decisions the team had to make during InfluxData's journey so far & more!

Featured Guests: Neil Sequeira, Founder and Partner, defy.vc | Jai Das, President and Partner, Sapphire Ventures An OECD report suggests that 27% of jobs are at risk to be replaced by AI, Sapphire Ventures commits $1 billion to AI investments, and Microsoft's $75 billion merger with Activision-Blizzard will not be blocked by U.S. courts.

Gigs, the job platform that connects companies to job seekers looking for hourly jobs in their neighborhood, announced today the company's official launch of its employer portal to help retailers, food and beverage, logistics, and hospitality companies with their full-time and part-time hiring needs. The news comes jointly with the company announcing $2.7 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Slauson & Co with additional investment from Wonder Ventures and several angel investors. https://hrtechfeed.com/new-hourly-marketplacelands-2-7m-seed-round/ Modern Hire, the enterprise hiring platform that uses advanced selection science to reduce bias and predict candidate fit, today announced the launch of Virtual Job Tryout® (VJT) for Flight Attendants, a preconfigured assessment tool geared toward candidates across the globe seeking employment as a flight attendant.  Fiverr International is introducing Fiverr Enterprise, formerly Stoke Talent. This announcement comes as Stoke Talent is being integrated into Fiverr, and as the company continues to expand its solutions upmarket and aims to bring larger brands into the Fiverr suite of products as well as offer its existing customers additional capabilities.  https://hrtechfeed.com/fiverr-launches-fiverr-enterprise-to-simplify-freelance-management/ Simpplr, anAI-powered employee experience platform, announced it has secured $70M Series D funding. The investment was led by Sapphire Ventures with participation from existing investor Norwest Venture Partners.  https://hrtechfeed.com/employee-experience-platform-lands-70m/ hackajob, the full stack technical hiring platform, announces a $25m Series B funding round led by Boston-based growth equity firm, Volition Capital, with participation from existing investors AXA Venture Partners and Foresight.  https://hrtechfeed.com/hackajob-announces-a-25m-series-b-funding-round/  

In this episode, we speak with Maxim Melamedov, the CEO of Zesty, which has developed the next generation of cloud management solutions. Maxim came to Zesty from a prior career in homeland security and is a veteran of the Israeli Air Force. Zesty helps cloud engineering teams to slash cloud costs, maintain perfect app performance, minimize the hassle of managing infrastructure, and fully realize the true flexibility of the cloud. The company has raised over $116 million since its founding and is backed by B Capital, Sapphire Ventures, and other notable investors. I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to subscribe.

Beezer Clarkson is Managing Director at Sapphire Ventures where she is responsible for the management of Sapphire's fund investments in early stage venture funds globally.  Her career through direct and fund investing has left her with unusually deep knowledge and insights in the space. Our conversation starts with Beezer's meandering career and turns to her work at Sapphire, including its structure and unique relationship with SAP, Series A investing, winnowing through a massive funnel of fund opportunities, the due diligence process and re-underwriting process, implications of companies staying private longer, and #OpenLP, a public forum to hear the voice of VC LPs that Beezer created with past podcast guest Chris Douvos.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Beezer Clarkson, Chris Douvos, and Joelle Kayden are three of the most respected investors in venture capital funds, manning their forts at Sapphire Ventures, Ahoy Capital, and Accolade Partners, respectively. Each is a past guest on the show and we're replayed those conversations in the feed.   In a far more challenging environment after last year's public market growth selloff and tightening of purse strings in private markets, we convened to discuss the state of the venture capital industry. Our conversation covers what got us here, re-up and new fund decisions facing allocators, challenges for venture capitalists and their portfolio companies, funding discipline across stages, dry powder, tourists exiting the game, and valuations. We discuss the potential winners and losers coming out of this trough and close with exciting opportunities and a current perspective on the blockchain.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Show Notes John Baird John is Founder of Velocity Coaching and coauthor (with Edward Sullivan) of the recently published book, Leading with Heart (Harper Collins). John is considered to be one of the premier executive coaches in Silicon Valley, having coached CEOs and Founders for over 25 years. John built his career working with the top leaders at companies ranging from early stage start-ups to Fortune 500 firms like Apple and Nike. His first company ExecutivEdge (with Michele Bolton) in many ways set the standard for executive coaching in Silicon Valley over 20 years ago. He considers his 25 years of coaching work at Apple, from their fast growth period to the present, to be among his most significant achievements. John's passion for bringing strong leadership and culture building skills to early stage ventures resulted in the founding of the Velocity Group in 2015 (with Ben Tauber). John is currently the Senior Partner and Board Chair at Velocity. He and Managing Partner Edward Sullivan have positioned Velocity as the “go to” coaching firm for early stage companies beginning to scale. They have worked with companies at various stages of growth including Marketo, Krux, AirTable, Clover Health, CultureAmp, Doordash, Grail, MasterClass, Remitly, and many others. Most recently, John serves as a Fellow at Sapphire Ventures. John brings a strong business perspective to his work, helping leaders leverage their natural talents and expand their skill sets to the next level. John is passionate about innovation and change and helps leaders scale and transform their teams and organizations while building cultures of inclusion and diversity. CEOs have found his advice, counsel and practical tools critical to scaling their companies and avoiding many of the pitfalls along the way. John holds a PhD in Organizational Communication and Leadership from Purdue University. He spent 17 years on the faculty at San Jose State University in the College of Business and was named Outstanding Professor of the entire University during his time there.   We talk about          What questions should someone ask when looking for an executive coach? Heart led companies' vs fear led companies? Is it different coaching Fortune 500 CEOs vs CEO from Early startups? What do you need to see or hear to be able to say someone is a leader?   Connect with John Baird https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbaird2191/ http://www.velocitycoaching.com Leading with Heart (leadingwithheartbook.com)

[1:53] - Journey to becoming a venture partner at 29 years[7:40] - Increasing the number of women in VC[10:53] - Ideal startups for Sapphire and how they source deals[21:29] - Common challenges, mistakes and advice for Series B companies[30:14] - Series B valuation and trends in valuation[33:51] - Work life balance as a VCLinks:Sapphire VenturesThe Fearless Organization

Jai Das is Co-Founder, President, and Partner at Sapphire Ventures, which currently has $10 billion AUM. Fourteen of Jai's investments (including Square and MuleSoft) have become publicly traded companies and more than 15 have been acquired. Jai's focus is on SaaS and the next big thing in crypto—B2B Blockchain Infrastructure—and has led investments such as a $210M Series C into FalconX, now valued at $3.75 Billion, and a $207 million Series C into Blockdaemon, now valued at $3.25 Billion. He is also a valued voice on how VCs or founders can weather the current market turbulence (potentially even coming out ahead), having weathered multiple market cycles. To hear the full story of how he kickstarted his career in venture after immigrating from India, listen to the episode above.Twitter of Host: @mbitpodcastTwitter of Guest: @jai_das

PitchBook senior editor James Thorne sits down with Brad Feld, partner and co-founder of early-stage VC firm Foundry, to discuss how venture investors behave in a downturn, why entrepreneurs may want to steer clear of structured deals, and why so many good companies are born in such bad times. Plus, PitchBook senior analyst Kyle Stanford joins to discuss key takeaways from the Q3 2022 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor and Quantitative Perspectives: Silver Linings on the Time Horizon.In this episode of Sapphire Ventures' series "GameChangers," Sapphire partner and Head of Revenue Excellence Karan Singh speaks with Forter's Chief Revenue Officer Marcus Holm about unlocking seller productivity and repeatability through value realization methodologies.Listen to all of Season 6, presented by Sapphire Ventures, and subscribe to get future episodes of "In Visible Capital" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen. For inquiries, please contact us at podcast@pitchbook.com.

Kishore Gopalakrishna, co-founder and CEO of StarTree, created a solution to a database problem with his co-worker and eventual co-founder Xiang Fu while working at LinkedIn. At the time, LinkedIn was debuting its now-popular feature called Who's Viewed Your Profile, which required the ability to slice and dice massive amounts of data in real time. Kishore and Xiang developed what they called Apache Pinot, a real-time distributed analytical processing data store used to deliver scalable real-time analytics with very low latency. The pair went on to found their open source company, StarTree, in 2019 to build a commercial version of Apache Pinot. The analytics provided by its technology are increasingly essential for all kinds of business decision makers, and the company's quickly emerged as a leader in serving up real-time user-facing analytics at very low latency—for millions. In this episode, Kishore talks about the solutions StarTree provides, its key relationship with the developer community and the roadmap for the company, which just announced a $47 million series B led by GGV, with participation from investor existing investors, Bain and CRV as well as new investor Sapphire Ventures.

In this episode, we meet Dr. Vijay Yanamadala, Chief Medical Officer of Sword Health. SWORD Health is the world's fastest growing virtual MSK care provider, on a mission to free two billion people from pain. The company's clinical-grade virtual therapy platform pairs expert physical therapists with FDA-listed wearable technology to deliver a personalized treatment plan that is more effective, easier and less expensive than traditional physical therapy. SWORD Health believes in the power of people to recover at home, without resorting to imaging, surgeries or opioids. Since launching in 2015, SWORD Health has worked with insurers, health systems and employers in the U.S, Europe and Australia to make quality physical therapy more accessible to everyone. Launched in 2015, the company has raised approximately $324 million to date, with nearly $300 million raised in 2021 alone. In November 2021, Sword closed a $189M Series D financing round led by Sapphire Ventures with participation from new investors including Sozo Ventures and Willoughby Capital as well as previous investors including General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures. This round valued Sword Health at $2B. (Source: Bloomberg) Dr. Vijay Yanamadala brings over a decade of clinical medical expertise as a world-renowned surgeon with a firm belief in reducing dependency on surgery through data-driven and patient-centered treatment plans. He has published over 60 papers focused on the safe and effective treatment of complex spinal conditions through advanced and innovative techniques and the use of multidisciplinary teams, for which he has received numerous awards. He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School (MD), Harvard Business School (MBA) and Harvard College (BA). In this episode, Dr. Yanamadala and I chat about: How his early childhood experiences motivated him to pursue a career as a surgeon and what led him to join Sword Health Why over 50% of spine surgeries today are avoidable and unnecessary and why the least invasive & highest value care (physical therapy) is underutilized Sword Health's approach to improving access to comprehensive digital MSK care and how their outcomes compare to traditional care

This episode features an interview with Karan Singh (CURREN), Partner, Revenue Excellence at Sapphire Ventures. Sapphire Ventures is a VC Firm focusing on investing in companies of consequence. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Karan is responsible for providing strategic GTM advisory services to Sapphire portfolio companies to help scale their revenue engines. In addition, he is a Limited Partner at GTM Fund, focusing on B2B SaaS startups. Karan is an experienced Ops leader. Prior to joining Sapphire Ventures, Karan was the VP of Revenue Operations at Procure Technologies. He has also held the title of COO at SalesSource LLC and Head of Sales Strategy, Program and Analytics at Cloudera. On this episode, Karan discusses RevOps' unique perspective on data, why he thinks spreadsheets can be dangerous, and why he thinks RevOps is the connective tissue of a company.—Guest Quote“I am a big believer in a center of excellence and field operations model. This is probably more relevant for later stage mid stage companies. When you have really large organizations that need a lot of help, but the way to think about it is that your centers of excellence are the teams that need to go deep, not wide.” - Karan Singh—Time Stamps *(02:11) Karan's Background*(05:07) Investing in companies of consequence*(09:16) Karan's RevOps Framework*(20:22) Starting as a small team*(22:46) Segment 1: RevObstacles*(29:16) Segment 2: The Tool Shed*(32:20) Karan's problem with spreadsheets*(38:30) Segment 3: Quick Hits*(39:55) The tool Karan can't live without*(41:18) Some final advice —Sponsor:Rise of RevOps is brought to you by Qualified. Qualified's Pipeline Cloud is the future of pipeline generation for revenue teams that use Salesforce. Learn more about the Pipeline Cloud on Qualified.com. —Links Connect with Karan Singh on LinkedInConnect with Ian Faison on LinkedinCheck out the Sapphire Ventures Website

Manish Sood has taken his idea for a startup to becoming a billion-dollar company. They are aiming to go even far larger than that. His venture, Reltio has raised funding from top-tier investors like Brighton Park Capital, NewView Capital, Sapphire Ventures, and Crosslink Capital.

Matthew Scullion got an early start in entrepreneurship. Even though he grew up far from Silicon Valley his latest company has raised hundreds of millions from top VCs. Now one of the first unicorn companies from his corner of the world, his venture serves fast-moving small businesses and global corporate giants alike. The venture, Matillion has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Scale Venture Partners, General Atlantic, Sapphire Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

In this episode, we sat down with Virgílio “V” Bento, Founder & CEO of SWORD Health. SWORD Health aims to bring world-class musculoskeletal (MSK) care to patients around the world by connecting members with physical therapists and digital therapists through a member app that combines sensor technology with telemedicine to prevent, relieve, and accelerate the healing of acute conditions, chronic pain, and post-surgical recovery. SWORD Health raised $163M in their latest Series D round led by Sapphire Ventures. This latest fundraising round brings SWORD's valuation at $2B. We discussed Drawing inspiration for the genesis of SWORD Health after V's brother got into a car accident and could not access the high quality physical therapy he needed for a speedy recovery. Delivering precision care through AI that generates personalized care plans for each patient with the guidance of physical therapists. How SWORD Health's proven clinical model, created to address MSK-related issues, could target other conditions in the future.