Podcast appearances and mentions of Sierra Ventures

Employ Inc., the market-leading intelligent hiring suite, announces today the release of the 2025 Job Seeker Nation report, providing a data-driven look into how job seekers perceive the market, candidates' perspectives on AI, what makes employees leave or stay. https://recruitingheadlines.com/2025-job-seeker-nation-report/ Survale the employee survey tool has made an acquisition. CEO Jason Moreau made the announcement on LinkedIn. https://hrtechfeed.com/survale-acquires-the-candes-program/ Recruitics, the recruitment marketing platform, just announced the official launch of ApplyAnywhere™, a new solution built to turn every online channel into a candidate conversion engine and drive higher-quality hiring results. https://hrtechfeed.com/recruitics-unveils-applyanywhere-to-reduce-cost-per-quality-applicant-by-33-2/ PALO ALTO, Calif. — Lumber, the leading construction workforce management platform, announced its acquisition of BuilderFax, a digital credential management platform for construction craft workers. This move integrates BuilderFax's specialized credential wallet with Lumber's AI-powered suite, creating a first-of-its-kind solution to address critical workforce challenges and empower skilled craft professionals in advancing their careers. https://hrtechfeed.com/construction-workforce-management-platform-makes-acquisition/ SAN FRANCISCO — TeamOhana, the headcount management and compensation planning software uniting Finance, HR, and Talent teams, has secured $7.5 million in seed funding. This round, led by Lerer Hippeau and Collide Capital with participation from Sierra Ventures and Recall Capital, combined with a previous $4 million pre-seed round in October 2022, brings TeamOhana's total funding raised above $11.5 million. https://hrtechfeed.com/workforce-planning-tool-gets-7-5m/  

➡️ Join 321,000 people who read my free weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.scottdclary.com➡️ Like The Podcast? Leave A Rating: https://ratethispodcast.com/successstoryTim Guleri is a seasoned venture capitalist and managing partner at Sierra Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based early-stage technology-focused venture capital firm. With over two decades of experience in the technology industry, he has a strong track record of identifying and nurturing successful startups. Before joining Sierra Ventures, he co-founded Scopus Technology, which went public in 1995 and was later acquired by Siebel Systems for $460 million, and Octane Software, which was acquired by E.piphany in 2000 for $3.2 billion.  ➡️ Show Linkshttps://www.x.com/timguleri/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/timguleri/ ➡️ Podcast SponsorsHubspot - https://hubspot.com/  Lingoda - https://try.lingoda.com/successstory (Code: scott25)Vanta - https://www.vanta.com/scottFederated Computer - https://www.federated.computerCornbread Hemp - https://cornbreadhemp.com/success (Code: Success)Create Like The Greats Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/lu/podcast/create-like-the-greats/id1653650073FreshBooks - https://www.freshbooks.com/pricing-offer/Bank On Yourself - https://www.bankonyourself.com/scottStash - https://get.stash.com/successstoryNetSuite — https://netsuite.com/scottclary/Indeed - https://indeed.com/clary ➡️ Talking Points00:00 - Intro05:23 - The Common Thread in Tim's Journey08:01 - Born Entrepreneur or Learned Skill?10:31 - How Entrepreneurs Find Their Focus18:30 - Tim's Career & Investment Philosophy22:08 - Sponsor Break24:46 - The Evolution of Sierra Ventures30:27 - Founder Traps in Venture Capital35:08 - Managing Risk at Sierra Ventures40:57 - Finding Investors: Tips for Founders49:50 - Sponsor Break52:03 - The Biggest Challenge for First-Time Entrepreneurs57:24 - Riding Trends vs. True Innovation1:00:26 - Is There an Undiscovered Playbook for Distribution?1:03:17 - Scaling Without Crashing1:08:05 - Making High-Stakes Decisions with Confidence1:12:28 - Smart Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs1:17:03 - Final Thoughts from Tim Guleri

Produced by Foundersuite (for startups: www.foundersuite.com) and Fundingstack (for VCs: www.fundingstack.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with with Arto Yeritsyan of Podcastle.ai, a startup using AI to help podcasters create professional-quality audio & video content. Learn more at podcastle.ai In this episode, Arto shares his journey building and fundraising in Armenia, how he used Chat GPT to research investors and find the right person at each VC firm, how he got a 90% conversion rate from sending a deck to securing a pitch meeting, how he built a relationship with Point Nine Capital even after they said "no," how he used early investors as part of his deal team, and more. Podcastle most recently raised $13.5m in a Series A funding round led by Mosaic Ventures, with participation from existing Podcastle investors RTP Global, Point Nine, Sierra Ventures, and Andrew Ng's AI Fund. The CEOs of Squarespace and Moonbug Media also participated in the round. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $21 Billion since 2016. If you are a startup, create a free account at www.foundersuite.com. If you are a VC, venture studio or investment banker, check out our new platform, www.fundingstack.com

Caroline Winnett is the Executive Director at Berkeley SkyDeck, a world leading startup accelerator. We discuss What it is like running a startup accelerator. How academics make the decision to commercialize their ideas and research.  What Skydeck looks for in applicants. Advising startups on their best path forward. About their fund _ _ _ _The Berkeley SkyDeck Fund is the investment partner for UC Berkeley's SkyDeck Accelerator Program. The Fund invests $200K into each startup that goes through SkyDeck, and can participate in later stage investment rounds with Berkeley founders. One of the most active seed investors in the Bay Area, the Fund has made over 130 investments in 3 years! In a first-of-its-kind, public-private partnership, the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund shares one-half of fund profits with UC Berkeley. This unique partnership helps support UC Berkeley education and creates a source of funding for UC Berkeley's public education mission. The Berkeley SkyDeck Fund is run by Chon Tang, Managing Partner, and Brian Bordley, Partner. It is funded by organizations such as Sequoia Capital, Sierra Ventures, and Canvas Ventures, as well as other VC firms, individuals, and large corporations.Learn more about Berkeley Skydeck: https://skydeck.berkeley.edu/our_teamGRAB YOUR COPY OF STARTUP MINDSETS ON AMAZON, UNLOCK VALUABLE LIFE AND BUSINESS INSIGHTS FROM OUR RESEARCH, PODCAST, AND LIFE EXPERIENCES: https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Mindsets-Blueprint-Innovation-Driven-Connected

Shashank Saxena of Sierra Ventures joins Nick to discuss How AI Transforms Services into Software and Revolutionizes Enterprise SaaS. In this episode we cover: Vendor Management System Vinley The Future of Work and AI The Role of AI in Enterprise Adoption Regulation and AI Adoption Characteristics of Successful Founders Guest Links: Shashank's LinkedIn Company's LinkedIn Company's Website Company's Twitter 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. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and we'll send a list of potential investors right to your inbox!

Episode #364 of The VentureFizz Podcast features John Andrews, Co-Founder & CEO of Cimulate. There is a wave of entrepreneurs who are uniquely qualified to build a pillar tech company in the Boston tech ecosystem while leveraging the platform shift to AI. Not only is John one of them, but he is also an alum of the very successful crew from Endeca. John and his co-founder, Vivek Farias, are tackling the future of eCommerce and as you'll hear, their platform is a perfect use case for Gen AI. Their last company, Celect, was a big data predictive analytics platform for the retail industry which was acquired by Nike. Cimulate recently announced a $28M Series A round of funding led by Spark Capital with participation from their seed stage investors SIERRA Ventures and Pillar VC, with additional participation from LFX Venture Partners and Commerce Ventures. In this podcast, we cover: * A deep dive into the use cases of AI in the retail & eCommerce industry especially around personalization. * John's background story and getting his career started at Deloitte Consulting and getting an MBA from HBS. * How he met Steve Papa, the founder of Endeca, and the full lifecycle of his experience there including the acquisition by Oracle and integration of their tech there. * Connecting with Vivek Farias and Devavrat Shah through Steve Papa and the story of building Celect which was using AI / machine learning back in 2014. * How the acquisition by Nike came together * All the details about Cimulate and how the platform works, plus their growth plans ahead. * Biggest lessons learned as a multi-time CEO. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

After all the commentary and debate about AI and talent acquisition over the last two years, we are finally starting to see what this brave new world might look like as many technology providers roll out new AI-driven products and services. While it is clear that massive changes are coming to the way companies hire talent, there are still many unanswered questions and contradictory views on what the future will look like. I wanted to get a different perspective on things, so this week, my guest is Shashank Saxena, a Managing Partner at Sierra Ventures. Sierra Ventures is an early-stage VC firm that has made several investments in AI-driven HR software companies. In our conversation, Shashank gives us some alternative visions of what the future of work might look like and implications for talent acquisition. In the interview, we discuss: How is the world of work changing AI use cases and the speed of adoption Does AI make TA more efficient, or does it completely disrupt it? Are AI-powered job seekers cheating? Can AI make hiring decisions? The implications of AI agents on white collar work What does the future of HR and Recruiting Technology look like? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify.

After all the commentary and debate about AI and talent acquisition over the last two years, we are finally starting to see what this brave new world might look like as many technology providers roll out new AI-driven products and services. While it is clear that massive changes are coming to the way companies hire talent, there are still many unanswered questions and contradictory views on what the future will look like. I wanted to get a different perspective on things, so this week, my guest is Shashank Saxena, a Managing Partner at Sierra Ventures. Sierra Ventures is an early-stage VC firm that has made several investments in AI-driven HR software companies. In our conversation, Shashank gives us some alternative visions of what the future of work might look like and implications for talent acquisition. In the interview, we discuss: How is the world of work changing AI use cases and the speed of adoption Does AI make TA more efficient, or does it completely disrupt it? Are AI-powered job seekers cheating? Can AI make hiring decisions? The implications of AI agents on white collar work What does the future of HR and Recruiting Technology look like? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify.

After all the commentary and debate about AI and talent acquisition over the last two years, we are finally starting to see what this brave new world might look like as many technology providers roll out new AI-driven products and services. While it is clear that massive changes are coming to the way companies hire talent, there are still many unanswered questions and contradictory views on what the future will look like. I wanted to get a different perspective on things, so this week, my guest is Shashank Saxena, a Managing Partner at Sierra Ventures. Sierra Ventures is an early-stage VC firm that has made several investments in AI-driven HR software companies. In our conversation, Shashank gives us some alternative visions of what the future of work might look like and implications for talent acquisition. In the interview, we discuss: How is the world of work changing AI use cases and the speed of adoption Does AI make TA more efficient, or does it completely disrupt it? Are AI-powered job seekers cheating? Can AI make hiring decisions? The implications of AI agents on white collar work What does the future of HR and Recruiting Technology look like? Follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts. Follow this podcast on Spotify.

Show Notes: Episode E104 - Anne Gherini - SIERRA Ventures Episode Summary: In this enlightening episode of Female VC Lab, our host Barbara Bickham sits down with Anne Gherini, the CMO at Sierra Ventures, an early-stage VC firm focusing on the future of enterprise. Anne reveals her journey from being an operator to a venture capitalist, the dynamic role she plays in Sierra Ventures, and her investment thesis centered around B2B SaaS. She also shares her insights on the rapid changes in the venture capital world and the significance of go-to-market strategies. Key Topics Discussed: - Anne Gherini's career transition from operator to venture capitalist - Detailed breakdown of Anne's role as a CMO at Sierra Ventures - Sierra Ventures’ investment thesis focused on early-stage B2B SaaS companies - Importance of building a technical moat and go-to-market strategies - Anne’s recommendations on reading and continuously learning about health and longevity Fun Facts: 1. Diverse Portfolio: Sierra Ventures invests almost exclusively in B2B software but has delved into deep tech sectors like quantum computing and Vertex AI. 2. Passion for Optimization: Anne is enthusiastic about optimizing not only businesses and campaigns but also personal health and longevity, inspired by Peter Attia's book "Outlive." 3. Constant Learning: Besides sitting on investment teams and helping build campaigns, Anne enjoys the continuous learning aspect of venture capital, finding excitement in the pace of advancements in technology and startup solutions. Contact Information: - Anne Gherini on LinkedIn - Anne Gherini on Twitter (X): @AnnieG - Sierra Ventures Website Thanks for Listening! Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Female VC Lab. Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you enjoyed the episode. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories from female venture capitalists around the world!

This week's Espresso covers news from Bucksapp, Realize, Moffin, and more!Outline of this episode:[00:27] – Bucksapp lands $1M in pre-seed[00:43] – Realize secures $300K from Investidores.vc[00:55] – Moffin raises $2.1M seed round[01:16] – Perhaps raises $1.7M pre-seed round[01:29] – Bits raises $330K to enhance AI use[01:43] – Eden raises $10M led by Sierra Ventures.[01:53] – Avra raised $2M in a round led by MAYA Capital[02:08] – Overview of Cali's entrepreneurial ecosystem[02:20] – Latamlist Roundup July 1st - July 15thResources & people mentioned:Startups: Bucksapp, Realize, Moffin, Perhaps, Bits, EdenVCs: iThink VC, BuenTrip Ventures, Investidores.vc, Accion Venture Lab,  Chile Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Quintal, Levain Ventures, Sierra Ventures

In this episode, we sit down with Marty Roesch, founder of Sourcefire. Sourcefire led the intrusion detection and protection (IDS/IPS) wave, raised four rounds of financing from leading VCs like NEA, Sierra Ventures, and Sequoia, and went public, later to be acquired by Cisco for $2.7 billion.Founders often believe that their first few customers cannot be large enterprises. Marty took the contrarian path. Sourcefire's first few customers were all six-figure deals - PWC, Intel, SAIC, and International Paper. In addition to that, Sourcefire was incredibly successful in working with industry research firms like Gartner and organizations like SANS in developing a new category. In this podcast, Marty shares what happened behind the scenes and provides founders with advice on how to work with enterprises and gain the interest of industry analysts.Almost two decades after starting Sourcefire, Marty has gone back full circle to being the CEO of Netography, a network security startup. Marty shares stories from both his Sourcefire and Netography journeys, discusses how he navigated the M&A landscape and explains where we should be excited about AI in security, and where it's wise to be cautious.

010. Crowdbotics | Anand Kulkarni was previously co-founder and Chief Scientist of LeadGenius, a Y Combinator, Sierra Ventures, and Lumia Capital-backed startup using human computation and deep learning to automate account-based marketing (ABM). LeadGenius has raised over $20M in venture funding and developed best-in-class marketing automation technology used by Fortune 500 customers like Google, eBay, and Box. In conjunction with nonprofits like the World Bank, LeadGenius generates fairly-paid digital employment for over 500 individuals in 40 countries. *** For Show Notes, Key Points, Contact Info, & Resources Mentioned on this episode visit here: Anand Kulkarni Interview. ***   Looking to offload some vacant land? Explore what the host's other venture, Bubba Land Company, can offer you!

Artificial intelligence is already having a major impact on many industries around the world, and it is only going to become more important in the future. In fact, the global robot software market is estimated to generate $47.24 billion by 2030. But how will 'no-code' robotics continue to push the boundaries of automation and AI? Daryl Lim, Co-Founder of Augmentus explains.  Augmentus has recently announced the successful completion of its USD 5M Series A round led by Sierra Ventures to revolutionize industrial robotics with its patented no-code and vision-based system.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tim Guleri has had a remarkable run at Sierra Ventures since 2001. He has invested in transcendent companies including Sourcefire and MakeMyTrip which both went public. Before that, Tim had a successful career as an entrepreneur and exec at companies like Scopus and Octane which was acquired by Epiphany in 2000.Sierra has one of the strongest future of work and AI portfolios that includes companies like Paro, Krisp, and SupportLogic which acquired Emtropy Labs which was founded by great former guest Harish Batlapenamurthy. In full disclosure, Sierra and I are both investors in ArmorCode.Listen and learn...Why the most successful venture investors were previously entrepreneursTim's thesis for investing in gen AI customer journey company SimulateHow Tim identifies "gen AI whitewashing" when hearing pitchesWhy gen AI is more than just another platform shiftHow gen AI startups can beat Big Tech incumbentsWhy all companies are ultimately "financial products"Sierra's primary data from CIOs: "...they're spending money on use cases that unlock employee productivity"What Tim means by "build horizontally but execute vertically"Which jobs AI will eliminate vs. augmentTim's "one that got away" pitch from his early days at SierraReferences in this episode...According to CNBC, 69% of U.S. adults are uncomfortable with AI that can mimic human thinkingAshu Garg from Foundation Capital on AI and the Future of WorkRory O'Driscoll from Scale Venture Partners on AI and the Future of WorkSierra Ventures

Stonegate implements dynamic pricing, global soybean oil market projected to reach $122.67 billion by 2028, Verde Resources appoints key executives, ClearOPS emphasizes updating incident response policies, Sierra Ventures raises $265 million fund, CleanTech Lithium open to collaboration with Chilean government, Education Finance Council releases national impact report, Google Cloud partners with LayerZero for blockchain security, and data-driven strategies shape B2B PR landscape.

Paul Johnson, a successful entrepreneur with a passion for transforming traditional industries with technology, shares his remarkable journey just crystallized on a $400 million acquisition in a recent interview for the DealMakers podcast. His venture, Lemonaid Health, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Sierra Ventures, Health Velocity Capital, Correlation Ventures, and Hikma Ventures.

Ry Walker is Founder of open source data companies Astronomer and CoreDB. Astronomer is the commercial company tied to the popular open source data workflow management system Apache Airflow, and CoreDB is a database company based on the popular open source database Postgres. CoreDB has raised $7M from investors including Venrock and CincyTech, and Astronomer has raised $283M from investors including Venrock, Insight, and Sierra Ventures. In this episode, we dig into the Astronomer journey and when things really started to work, what a great UI means in the data space, where the idea for CoreDB came from, his learnings around open source monetization, the benefits and drawbacks of building a commercial open source data company, and learnings Ry is taking from Astronomer to his new company CoreDB.

“Overseeing your own health is so valuable – and we're at the cusp of it in America. We are giving people the information that can finally help themselves in a unique way.” - Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer   Did you know trillions of dollars are being poured into chronic conditions in America – and many of them are unknowingly rooted in glucose challenges or mismanagement? During today's show, Dr. Michelle Robin invites Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer to share his reasons for co-founding Signos – a CGM technology that shows how your body uniquely reacts to what you eat, plus other lifestyle factors such as stress patterns and sleep habits that are affecting your glucose levels. Sharam tells his personal journey of weight management issues growing up and why he finally figured out that glucose spikes and dips were causing more harm on the overall body than he realized. He explains how Signos technology works and some stories of people who have tried everything from diets to exercise, but the Signos CGM monitor is the first thing that has made them feel empowered to see what their bodies need on an individual level to reach their goals. Sharam also unpacks why glucose monitoring is not just for people who have diabetes, and why this can be a powerful tool in life to manage pain, weight management, increase energy, and even impact mental health. About Today's Guest:  Growing up in upstate New York, Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer fluctuated between obese, overweight, athletic, and back again before he founded Signos to tackle the obesity epidemic in America. Sharam is also the Board Director and Co-Founder at Onclusive, an Al software company to measure the impact of PR, as well as originally serving as the company's founding CEO. Prior to Onclusive, he was an entrepreneur in residence at Shasta Ventures focused on consumer internet and the social graph. Before joining Shasta, Sharam was a Venture Capitalist at Sierra Ventures and served on the Board at Makara (sold to RedHat) and TouchCommerce (sold to Nuance). Sharam began his career as an early employee at Appian (NASDAQ:APPN), a low-code software company. He graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He played NCAA D-1 ice hockey and lives with his family in California.   Mentioned in the Episode:  Signos website  What is Signos?  Dr. Georgia Nab's podcast  Signos is hiring

K4 Connect Co-founder & CEO Scott Moody is chatting live with the folks of GrepBeat, plus Triangle entrepreneur (among other things) Sarah Glova. Raleigh's K4Connect is a mission-centered company that integrates the latest advances in technology to serve and empower older adults and those living with disabilities. The company has raised over $25M in venture capital including investors like Intel Capital and Sierra Ventures. Prior, Scott was the co-founder and former CEO of AuthenTec, a leading provider of fingerprint sensors and security solutions. It was acquired by Apple in 2012.

Why does how you describe your team — down to its name — matter? Gerri Martin-Flickinger, former executive vice president CTO at Starbucks, joins Me, Myself, and AI to describe some of the technology initiatives the coffeehouse chain has been able to pursue since rebranding its technology team and articulating its mission. In her conversation with Sam and Shervin, Gerri recaps a decades-spanning career working in technology leadership roles at Chevron, McAfee, and Adobe, then explains some recent employee- and customer-facing projects Starbucks has undertaken using AI and machine learning. Read the episode transcript here. Me, Myself, and AI is a collaborative podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group and is hosted by Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh. Our engineer is David Lishansky, and the coordinating producers are Allison Ryder and Sophie Rüdinger. Stay in touch with us by joining our LinkedIn group, AI for Leaders at mitsmr.com/AIforLeaders. Read more about our show and follow along with the series at https://sloanreview.mit.edu/ai. Guest bio: As executive vice president and CTO at Starbucks, Gerri Martin-Flickinger led the Starbucks Technology team through a transformation into a best-in-class retail technology organization. She was the passionate leader behind the technology strategy that plays a critical role in propelling the Starbucks mission — “empowering partners and delighting customers, globally.” Before joining Starbucks in 2015, Martin-Flickinger was senior vice president and CIO at Adobe, where she led portions of its technology transformation to a cloud-based subscription services business. Previously, she served as CIO at Verisign, McAfee, and Network Associates and held numerous senior leadership roles at Chevron, where she began her career. Martin-Flickinger currently sits on Charles Schwab's board of directors and serves as a member of Arizona State University's Fulton School of Engineering Advisory Board, Sierra Ventures' CIO Advisory Board, and The Wall Street Journal CIO Network.

Vignesh Ravikumar is the Principal at Sierra Ventures, an early-stage venture firm that invests in impactful businesses with a focus on Next Generation Enterprise and Emerging Technologies. Vignesh specializes in investments in Enterprise and Vertical SaaS as well as Healthcare IT. His background is in M&A transactions for enterprise software companies, and he previously worked at AGC Partners, a Boston-based investment bank. Vignesh received his bachelor's degree in management science from the University of California San Diego. In this episode… Venture capital is a powerful and often necessary tool in the world of startups. It takes a lot of funding to get a new business off the ground. And, beyond financial help, budding companies also require direction, strategy, and effective marketing to fully succeed. The best venture capital firms are able to support their investments on all fronts to ensure mutual profit. Sierra Ventures is one of these firms. Although they have more than 40 years of experience, the firm had to regroup and rebrand when new leadership took over. This has given them a similar perspective to their startups, helping their team relate in a way that few other firms can. Altogether, they've developed a successful model that has led to many notable companies taking off. So what does that model look like in action? In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz invites Vignesh Ravikumar, the Principal at Sierra Ventures, to discuss venture capital and how to market your startup. They go over the metrics and qualities of a promising startup, what to look for in a successful founder, and the early steps companies should take after funding. They also touch on digital marketing trends and how vertical SaaS solutions are changing the landscape. Check out the full episode for all this and more.

Peter Wendell founded Sierra Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has invested more than $2 billion in a wide variety of successful technology companies. Peter co-teaches Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, “Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital” course with former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt. He is a trustee of Merck and was chairman of the board of Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO), which manages Princeton University's endowment.Peter provides an insider's perspective on venture capital. Find out how start-ups can secure funding and grow to become unicorns – start-ups valued at over $1 billion. There are currently more than 800 unicorn start-ups worldwide.

Swapnil Shinde and his twin brother are now on their third startup venture. Their first two companies were both successfully acquired. Including one by AMEX. Their venture, Zeni has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Elevation Capital, Sierra Ventures, Amit Singhal, and Neeraj Arora.

Swapnil Shinde and his twin brother are now on their third startup venture. Their first two companies were both successfully acquired. Including one by AMEX. Their venture, Zeni has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Elevation Capital, Sierra Ventures, Amit Singhal, and Neeraj Arora.

Peter Wendell is the founder of Sierra Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has invested more than $2 billion over the past 35 years in a wide variety of successful technology companies. Peter has taught more than 2,000 Stanford MBAs over the past 30 years, specifically the very popular course Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Scott Kupor, managing partner of Andreessen Horowitz. He serves on the board of Merck. He just completed his trusteeship at Princeton. He was also chairman of the board for Princeton University Investment Company (PRINCO) for six years, during which time PRINCO doubled the University's endowment. In this episode, Peter discusses the evolving nature of venture capital investing, the relationship between VCs and their LPs (limited partners), emerging phenomenon like SPACs and cryptocurrencies, whether we're entering another great age of secular growth for technology, and his personal journey in starting Sierra Ventures. Peter has been recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the 100 best technology venture investors in the United States and named one of the 15 venture capitalists on Upside magazine's “Elite 100” list of influential U.S. leaders in technology, finance, and business. Peter started Sierra Ventures as a young investor with some wealthy families' money –– “they should've never given someone like me money to manage,” joked Peter. But it was the age where “it was hard to not make money in venture investing” –– every fund started in Peter's time had returned money to LPs; not a single fund lost money, in contrast to around a fourth of all bond funds back then collapsing given the Asian financial crises. Peter bought 6% of stake in Intuit with a $2.5 million investment; now it's a company with a market capitalization of around $145 billion –– you can do the math. This investment, along with many others, made Peter one of the most successful venture capitalists in the world over the last few decades. We also ask Peter whether he sees us entering another period of great secular growth for technology. The sentiment amongst pro-tech, pro-growth investors seems to be that the hyper growth stocks (Snowflake, Coinbase, Shopify, Docusign, Twilio, Upstart, etc.) look expensive and many are currently unprofitable, but most have long runways, high margins, sticky customers, and steady revenues. If we value these companies on what they might look like 5 years from now, do most secular compounders still seem fairly valued? Looking at the market environment today, Peter is very skeptical of the promises of SPACs. He said in his keynote address at Princeton GCEPS that the SPAC boom likely won't end well because there is a lot of promotion, a lack of regulation, but fundamentally not that many great companies to acquire. Peter thinks that cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are the future and certainly on the risk frontier, but we still don't know which chain or project will eventually prevail, so the overall asset class is still a highly risky investment option. A big proponent of SaaS (especially given how he's one of the first investors that embraced this idea back in the early days), Peter also believes that we're still at an early stage in exploring artificial intelligence and the good it could do for the world.

Choosing the correct market segment and customers is vital to optimizing your revenue for the long run. "Call the herd" of VCs so you can filter out who has the most conviction for your business.

ABOUT THE GUEST - ANDREW BUTT, CEO AT ENABLE  From Andrews LinkedIn Profile:  Founder & CEO of Silicon Valley venture-backed SaaS platform. My vision is for intelligent deals to connect every trading relationship to drive mutual success.  My mission is to digitize the deal economy by creating the best product, operational excellence and a unique sustainable high performance culture driving team retention, growth and customer success.  Enable is a Series-A funded SaaS product for companies across 50+ sectors to analyse, negotiate and execute complex trading agreements to drive profitable growth. Much more than rebate management software, Enable is the number 1 solution in construction products distribution, and is rapidly growing in North America. Proud to have two top Silicon Valley VCs as our partners: Menlo Ventures and Sierra Ventures.  Served on the Board of Directors of several other companies and not-for-profits. I have started and grown multiple businesses into profit and positive cash flow, including exit to PE.  * Founded 4 businesses, and demonstrated traction and growth in every case  * Grown revenues every quarter without exception - now a permanent team of 130  * Co-founded and sold business to private equity  * Served on main board of directors for 3 years for Helicopter Club of Great Britain  * Served on main board of directors for 3 years for a $300m business  You can find Andrew on LinkedIn here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/awbutt/And you can learn more about Enable here:https://enable.com/ABOUT THE EPISODE:  Do you know what a Saas startup and a rocket ship have in common? Andrew Butt thinks it’s a lot - and it’s all about escape velocity. Rockets burn most of their fuel just trying to get into space, and from there it’s much less of a push. Not to say that it is easy...  In this episode, Andrew discusses what it takes to lay the foundations in a startup for success - before taking funding, while establishing the foundations for success, and while the company is growing fast. Andrew’s success with Enable and the companies he’s led prior give him huge credibility to address this important topic, it’s a great episode - I think you’ll enjoy it.

In this episode, Tim shares the dos and don’ts for entrepreneurs and early team members when it comes to business mentalities and mindsets. Guest - Tim GuleriWebsite - www.sierraventures.comFollow Us!LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/coefficient-labsInstagram: www.instagram.com/demodaypodcast/Facebook: www.facebook.com/coefficientlabs/Twitter: https://twitter.com/coefficientlabsContact Information:social@coefficientlabs.com

Faisal Masud is a visionary, a disruptor, and a true digital veteran. After spending two decades at some of the world's most respected companies, including Amazon, Google, and eBay, Faisal took the helm at Fabric, a headless commerce platform built for growth.   In this conversation, Faisal talks about: • How change and a desire to solve complex problems can power a career • Advice to boards and executive teams when hiring progressive digital leaders, including trade-offs,  a clear framework of accountability, and the risk of being overly protective about the culture • Working with investors Redpoint Ventures, Sierra Ventures, and Norwest Venture Partners to build out the Fabric team and deliver a world-class product for their customers

Tim Guleri is Managing Director at Sierra Ventures. We have a terrific discussion on Business Model Innovation and Distribution Innovation that Tim believes trumps technology innovation. We go through some excellent examples. Do give this a listen!

In this episode of Coffee + Commerce, Tim Guleri from Sierra Ventures joins our CEO Faisal Masud to break down headless commerce and how it's creating new opportunities for omnichannel commerce. Faisal met Tim while he was running global shipping at eBay. Before eBay, Faisal built AmazonBasics for Amazon and was the CTO at Staples. He was also the COO for Project Wing, a Google moonshot company.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Andrew Butt of Enable.com, a cloud-based SaaS solution for B2B rebate management. In this episode, Andrew talks about why he decided to move to Silicon Valley from the UK, tips for running a streamlined fundraising process, why time is the killer of deals, how he did outreach to CEOs to diligence the VCs he was talking with, the deal terms that were most important to him, and more. The Company most recently raised a $16M Series A funding round from Menlo Ventures and Sierra Ventures. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

In this episode of Coffee + Commerce, Tim Guleri joins our CEO Faisal Masud to discuss Sierra Ventures' investment in Fabric. Tim joined Sierra Ventures as managing director in 2002 and built two successful software infrastructure companies before this. Most recently, Tim spearheaded Sierra's investment in Fabric, helping us raise a $43M series A. Faisal met Tim while he was running global shipping at eBay. Before eBay, Faisal built AmazonBasics for Amazon and was the CTO at Staples. He was also the COO for Project Wing, a Google moonshot company. Together, Faisal and Tim have a laundry list of tech and e-commerce knowledge. To learn more about Sierra Ventures' investment in Fabric, listen to this Coffee + Commerce episode and get key takeaways from this blog post below. You can also read more on Tim's blog post.

Season Two Episode Three  Guest: Andrew Butt, Co-founder & CEO of Enable  About Andrew:  Andrew Butt is the Co-founder & CEO of Enable, a modern, cloud-based B2B software solution for rebate management. Launched in 2017, Andrew and his co-founder, met twenty years ago while learning to fly helicopters. In March 2000, they formed their first business together, DCS E-Commerce, a profitable software engineering company, employing a team of 100. The company was ranked in the Sunday Times as the 50th fastest growing private technology company in Britain.  You can learn more about Andrew and reach out to him on LinkedIn here:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/awbutt/  About Enable:  Distributors, wholesalers, and manufacturers across over 50 industries now have an easy, seamless solution to execute and track their full range of trading programs. The company is backed by $16M in funding from notable Silicon Valley investors, Menlo Ventures and Sierra Ventures.  Learn more about Enable here:  https://enable.com/

Tim Guleri and Marc Bernstein talk about the industry shifts in the contact center space, the growth & potential of the Contact Center as a Software (aka CCaaS) market, and the importance of building a resilient operation. Tim Guleri, the Managing Director at Sierra Ventures, is a venture capital firm focused on emerging technologies with over $2 billion in assets. Tim has personal experience with leading and investing in contact centers as he helped build Scopus Technology, an $800 MM software company for customer support. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/marcbernstein/message

Tim Guleri of Sierra Ventures joins Nick to discuss Advice from a Unicorn Founder Turned VC, the Future of the VC Landscape for Founders & VCs, and the Founder Love Metric. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What's the thesis at Sierra Ventures? What's been your biggest influence on the firm's ethos? You've had two incredible outcomes as a founder... first question is do you think the process of building a company today is materially different than it was when you did it... if so how? We've talked a lot on the show, over the past 8 months about the effects of COVID on venture... what have been you main observations on how VCs are adjusting to investing during COVID? What do you think the new normal for startups looks like post-covid? How do you advise a founder that's in a hot space, doesn't need capital, but has inbound interest and large investment offers, maybe at inflated valuations, from tier 1 coastal investors? How do you handle situations where the product is just not a great fit for the market and the momentum is not building the way it should? You've been through the exit process this yourself and, I'd imagine, even w/ great outcomes those are some of the hardest decision one faces as a CEO... Do you have a framework or an approach to assessing whether an exit offer is strong and should be taken or whether the founder should hold out for a bigger outcome. There are a lot of factors that play into having to wind down a company...  are there any that standout that signal to you that it's no longer working and we need to face to reality? You mentioned something interesting recently pertaining to your relationship with founders and that's that you track a metric that you dub “Founder Love”. Can you explain how you gauge and measure this? What do you think the venture industry looks like in 5-10 year

We are still in the midst of the pandemic, but these trying times have also led to an increase in  entrepreneurial activity and opportunities. According to a https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-it-insane-to-start-a-business-during-coronavirus-millions-of-americans-dont-think-so-11601092841?st=ssdvp6j134prpji&reflink=article_copyURL_share&fbclid=IwAR29acRvrf2dZW9HWqCNLAsx_qe9UrNdZb3w9QBHtAbh_sjW0tPloyuJh68 (Wall Street Journal analysis), “Americans are starting new businesses at the fastest rate in more than a decade.” The Foundation for Economic Education even cites that the pandemic offers a moment ripe for ‘creative destruction.’  That’s certainly not surprising for Tim Guleri, who has been knee deep in the startup world for much of his career. As a Managing Partner at Sierra Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture firm investing globally with a focus on Next Generation Enterprise and Emerging Technologies, he knows all too well the journey and evolution of successful entrepreneurs. Over his 18-year career in venture capital, as well as being a former serial entrepreneur himself, he has developed an inherent understanding of those critical traits aspiring and current entrepreneurs need to possess to build businesses that thrive. But he didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur. In fact, it was his curiosity and desire to ‘Alway be Trying’ that led him down the path of expanding his skill sets, experiences, and, ultimately, his career.  Resources: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timguleri/ (linkedin.com/in/timguleri) Twitter: https://twitter.com/timguleri (twitter.com/timguleri) Visit https://www.sierraventures.com/ (Sierra Ventures) Subscribe to the Strategic Momentum podcast: On https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/strategic-momentum/id1261436986?mt=2 (Apple Podcasts) On the https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ime3k7finzrap7xqdhtewtqogk4 (Google Play Store) On https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/music-evo-review/strategic-momentum?refid=stpr (Stitcher Radio) On https://open.spotify.com/show/37gZozvPDvEaQwSs3fqvKl?si=gU8O7_UFScWfkFUf3x1Tmw (Spotify) Strategic Momentum is produced by http://crate.media (Crate Media)

Mark Fernandes is Managing Partner at Sierra Ventures, an early-stage VC firm that specializes in Enterprise & Emerging Tech Companies. Mark hit a homer in his first at-bat when his first-ever investment in Sourcefire paid off big time when it was acquired by Cisco for $2.7B in 2013. If you want to understand what separates a good entrepreneur from a great one and how the high stakes venture business works, you don't want to miss this episode.

Today we are introducing our December series called “Rewind.” In this series, we will introduce one of the companies we've had on the show, give a quick update, and replay that episode in its entirety.We think this will be a really fascinating look back on these companies to see how far they've come over the last 6-18 months.And we're kicking this series of with Balto.We talked to Balto CEO Marc Bernstein in June of 2018. At the time, Balto described itself this way:"Balto helps sales, service, and accounts receivable reps win as much revenue as possible from every phone call. Teams use Balto's artificial intelligence software to analyze phone calls in real-time – live while the call is still happening – and instantly provide reps recommendations on how to communicate as effectively as possible before it's too late. For more information visit Baltosoftware.com”Since our conversation with Marc in June 2018, Balto raised $1.3M in October 2018. Then, they raised another $3M in September 2019. Both of those rounds featured Stage Venture Partners, another former guest on this show.And then, just over a month ago in October 2020, Balto raised a $10M Series A led by Sierra Ventures bringing their total funding to date up to around $14.3M since we spoke with them.Today, Balto describes themselves this way:"Balto is the leader in real-time guidance for contact centers. Powered by AI, Balto's software solution evaluates both sides of a phone call and instantly delivers critical information that enables agents to perform at the highest level humanly possible. With Balto, contact centers deliver world-class customer experiences, increase conversions, and decrease agent ramp time. Current customers include contact centers in sectors such as insurance, telecommunications, retail, financial services, and healthcare. For more information, visit balto.ai."Super similar, but a little different.We are big fans of Marc here on the show, so we love seeing his team continue to grow and succeed.Now, we'll share with you the original interview with Marc from June 2018. Knowing where the team has gone now, it's an awesome listen to hear where they started.We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode as you listen, you can tweet at us @upsidefm or email us hello@upside.fm. And check out our new branding! We've refreshed our show artwork here, as well as our entire website. Check it out and let us know what you think.Follow Balto: https://balto.ai/ Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm Advertise with an upside classified: https://upside.fm/classifieds 

GeneralSubscribe to Fully Vested at FullyVested.co or through your podcast app of choice.Companies Which Raised Money During Covid TimesRun The WorldBased in Mountain View, California, Run The World is a startup founded in July 2019 which builds software tools to help conference organizers produce virtual conferences. It provides event templates, streaming video, real-time chat and other features which help structure interactions between conference speakers and attendees, as well as community features to help attendees network with one another. At time of recording, the company has raised $14.8 million to date. Run The World closed $10.8 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz. Articles:Connecting the next Nobel Prize Winner and Billboard artist, one idea at a time (Run The World's funding announcement, from the company's Substack-hosted blog)With High-Profile And Celebrity Backers, Run The World Closes $11M Series A For Its Event Platform (Christine Hall for Crunchbase News)Virtual events startup Run The World just nabbed $10.8 million from a16z and Founders Fund (Connie Loizos for TechCrunch)Investing in Run The World (Andreessen Horowitz partner Connie Chan on the a16z blog)TockTock is a Chicago-based company behind restaurant and winery booking software of the same name. The company's business user base consists of nearly 3,000 restaurants, wineries, and pop-ups across 28 countries, as of February 2020, according to the company. Many of those businesses were forced to close due to the public health response to COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. In response, Tock built out Tock To Go, which aims to help restaurants with pickup and delivery booking. Tock has onboarded 1,000 businesses in April onto the new platform. Tock's take rate is 3% as opposed to the 25% or more charged by bigger platform providers like Uber Eats and DoorDash. It looks like mostly high-end restaurants use the platform.Tock raised $10 million in an "oversubscribed" funding round led by Valor Siren Ventures with participation from prior investor Origin Ventures. The round was announced on May 12.Articles:Tock Announces $10M in Funding (Press release)Tock raises $10 million to help fancy restaurants do takeout (Ari Levy for CNBC)QuillBotFounded by alumni (and one dropout) from the University of Illinois system, Chicago-based QuillBot is a company which uses natural language processing technology to summarize and paraphrase text. It identifies and suggests synonyms to replace words and phrases contained within text. The company offers its service through its website and offers extensions for Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Google's Chrome web browser. QuillBot's service is free to try with limited functionality, but the company sells premium subscriptions for as little as $80 per year, depending on billing frequency.In late April, QuillBot announced that it raised $4.25 million in a seed funding round co-led by Sierra Ventures and GSV Ventures, which saw participation from Service Provider Capital.Articles:Announcing QuillBot’s $4.25M Seed Round (QuillBot's official announcement)QuillBot Raises $4M to Help You Become a Better Writer Using AI (Gordon Gottsegen for Built In Chicago)About The Co-HostsJason D. Rowley is a researcher and writer at Golden.com. He volunteers with startup outreach for the open-source community and sends occasional newsletters from Rowley.Report.Graham C. Peck is a Venture Partner with Cultivation Capital and additionally helps companies build technology development teams in partnership with Brightgrove and other technology development organizations.

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.

Davit Baghdasaryan is the CEO and Co-Founder of an artificial intelligence app called Krisp.Ai. It's the first Armenian Startup to be featured in the Berkeley SkyDeck Accelerator and is consideredone of the 12 most disruptive startups for 2019. It raised $3.5 Million USD from investors that include Sierra Ventures. Krisp eliminates all the background noise from calls, being able to use in apps such as Skype, Zoom, Google Hangouts or any calling technology you might use by using Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks to be able to separate the noise from the voice. Davit Baghdasaryan worked for 9 years in Silicon Valley and never thought he would become one of a CEO of one of the startups found in there. Let alone taking on a problem that nobody was able to solve yet, making his startup the unique solution for those who need help removing background noise from any kind of call. Along with his co-founder, serial tech entrepreneur Arto Minasyan, they created a product that works exceptionally well, and now more than 30,000 people use it to converse in 200 different languages. Click here to get resources and more info on this interview: https://www.rodrigoflamenco.com/davit-baghdasaryan-krisp/ About Rodrigo Flamenco: Rodrigo flamenco started in a third world Country called El Salvador in Central America with no idea how to do businesses earning $600 a month on an IT job while on a $20K+ debt. After taking a couple of courses he decided to start his own business called Epic Web Studio, which ended working with many big international brands and over 18+ countries all over the world. Then an opportunity arrived to start a new business and for 2 years, without a website or even a name, that business won two $30K projects, one $55K project and connected with many of the top professionals and business and founders in the industry of animation. That business is now Frame Freak Studio which is his 100% focus. About Level Up! Your Business, Life & Mind: Level Up! is a series of interviews featuring successful professionals from all over the world who are making a mark in their lives and others and finding out how they did it so you can learn from the very best. Our interviews will be focused on finding out their principles, strategies, mindsets, habits and tools that you can use and implement in your business, life and mind to get to the next level of your goals. Join Our Business Community! http://www.rodrigoflamenco.com/ SUBSCRIBE! http://www.framefreakstudio.com/youtube Podcast: https://www.rodrigoflamenco.com/podcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RodrigoeFlamenco/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rodrigoeflamenco/ Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigoflamenco/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RodrigoFlamenco If you want to see better quality of videos please support us by becoming our Patron and help us bring you more amazing videos. https://www.rodrigoflamenco.com/patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/level-up-business/message

010. Crowdbotics | Anand Kulkarni was previously co-founder and Chief Scientist of LeadGenius, a Y Combinator, Sierra Ventures, and Lumia Capital-backed startup using human computation and deep learning to automate account-based marketing (ABM). LeadGenius has raised over $20M in venture funding and developed best-in-class marketing automation technology used by Fortune 500 customers like Google, eBay, and Box. In conjunction with nonprofits like the World Bank, LeadGenius generates fairly-paid digital employment for over 500 individuals in 40 countries.*** For Show Notes, Key Points, Contact Info, & Resources Mentioned on this episode visit here: Anand Kulkarni Interview. ***

403: Sierra Ventures Managing Director Mark Fernandes discusses the five attributes he looks for in an entrepreneur. These five attributes include their ability to raise money beyond the early stages, their ability to attract talent, their ability to generate momentum, if they come prepared, and their ability to tell their story. In terms of what Mark looks for in a company, he cites that there needs to be a technology platform shift or a business model innovation that is applicable to something that they are doing. We also discuss Mark's accidental path to the VC community, the CXO Advisory Board Sierra has started, the importance of approaching investing from a bottoms-up and top-down approach, among other topics.

403: Sierra Ventures Managing Director Mark Fernandes discusses the five attributes he looks for in an entrepreneur. These five attributes include their ability to raise money beyond the early stages, their ability to attract talent, their ability to generate momentum, if they come prepared, and their ability to tell their story. In terms of what Mark looks for in a company, he cites that there needs to be a technology platform shift or a business model innovation that is applicable to something that they are doing. We also discuss Mark’s accidental path to the VC community, the CXO Advisory Board Sierra has started, the importance of approaching investing from a bottoms-up and top-down approach, among other topics.

Join us today as we speak with Vignesh Ravikumar from Sierra Ventures about innovations in A.I., genomics, automation, and remote patient monitoring.

Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer is the Co-founder and CEO of AirPR, a technology solution to measure the impact of PR. He was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Shasta Ventures focused on consumer internet and the social graph. Prior to joining Shasta, Sharam was a Senior Associate at Sierra Ventures focused on consumer internet, enterprise software (cloud computing / virtualization), and mobile. He served on the Board at Makara (sold to RedHat) and TouchCommerce (sold to Nuance). Sharam began his career as a technologist at Appian, a BPM software startup where he managed the first enterprise-wide tracking system for the Department of Homeland Security. Sharam has lectured at universities, events and conferences, and judged business plan competitions at Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and Syracuse. He is also an advisor and mentor to eLab (Princeton University's Accelerator), Dorm Room Fund (First Round Capital's Accelerator), and Acceleprise (Enterprise Technology Accelerator). Sharam graduated with honors with a BS in Computer Science from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He played NCAA D 1 ice hockey and is fluent in Farsi. Follow him on twitter @sharamfm.

Tim Guleri, Managing Director at Sierra Ventures, discusses at length his firm’s investment thesis, unique relationships with CIOs, and some of the industry trends he sees.

Anand Kulkarni was previously co-founder and Chief Scientist of LeadGenius, a Y Combinator, Sierra Ventures, and Lumia Capital-backed startup using human computation and deep learning to automate account-based marketing (ABM). LeadGenius has raised over $20M in venture funding and developed best-in-class marketing automation technology used by Fortune 500 customers like Google, eBay, and Box. In conjunction with nonprofits like the World Bank, LeadGenius generates fairly-paid digital employment for over 500 individuals in 40 countries. *** For Show Notes, Key Points, Contact Info, & Resources Mentioned on this episode visit here: Anand Kulkarni Interview. ***

Co-founder and Chairman/CEO of K4Connect where we provide a "connected-life" software platform serving older adults and those living with disabilities, making their lives simpler, healthier and happier. Raised over $10M in venture capital including such investors as Intel Capital, Sierra Ventures, Reinsurance Group of America, Lowe's Home Improvement and other value added investors. Headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina (the "Triangle"). Previously co-founded and former Chairman/CEO of AuthenTec, a leading provider of fingerprint sensor and security solutions, acquired by Apple in October, 2012 (only public company ever acquired by Apple). The AuthenTec fingerprint sensor is now the foundation of the iPhone's and iPad's Touch ID. Raised over $70 million in venture capital (including such investors as The Carlyle Group, Texas Instruments, Sierra Ventures, Stonehenge Growth Capital and others), led the company’s successful IPO in 2007 (NASDAQ) and recruited an excellent management team. Helped grow company from the two co-founders to over 300 employees with development centers in Melbourne, Fl., Shanghai, China and Vught, The Netherlands. Prior to founding AuthenTec, was the Vice President of a $200 million division of Harris'​ Semiconductor Sector (now Intersil) where I started as a new grad engineer in 1980. Led successful turnaround of several diverse operations including the commodity logic business (sold to TI), the acquisition GE Microelectronics and turnaround of the Group's Mil/Aero business. https://www.k4connect.com https://www.facebook.com/k4connect https://twitter.com/k4connect

Prior to running Born To Sell, Mike had 3 distinct careers: software engineering, investment banking, and venture capital. As a software engineer, Mike spent 12 years at several Silicon Valley startups. Two of them went public on NASDAQ: Storm Technology (1994) and General Magic (1997). After that Mike switched to investment banking at Garage.com (now Garage Technology Ventures) where he helped early stage startups raise money from angel investors and VCs. During his 4 years at Garage, Mike read thousands of business plans and was part of the team that helped over 100 startups raise over $300M. Mike switched from investment banking to venture capital in 2002. He worked at two billion dollar VC funds, Sierra Ventures and Battery Ventures, as a direct investor -- putting $86M of LP money into high tech startups and serving on their Board of Directors. He is currently a Venture Partner at Ottawa's top venture capital firm, Mistral Venture Partners. His passion has always been covered calls. In 2009 he became a full-time entrepreneur and started Born To Sell. The goal was (and is) to provide best-of-breed covered call software to self-directed covered call investors.     Steven bought his first stock at the age of 14 and the rest was history. He lives in the small working class town of Russellville, Arkansas with his wife and 2 kids. Steven has a background in Economics and Finance and worked for one of the largest investment firms in the U.S for 6 years.   He has established The Trader's Plan as a distinctively unique ETF & Growth stock newsletter that focuses on trends in the market indices. Being a former Financial Advisor at a large broker dealer (and watching portfolios crash in 2008) forced Steven to abandon "buy & hold" and create a simple ETF strategy that has averaged 64.11% per year since 2007 that anyone can follow.   Powered by Seth Greene: a 6 Time Best Selling Author, Nationally Recognized Direct Response Marketing Expert, and the only back to back to back GKIC Dan Kennedy Marketer of the Year Nominee.  Get a FREE Copy of Seth’s new book Podcast Marketing Magic, and access to a Live Podcast Marketing Training Webinar at http://www.UltimateMarketingMagician.com

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason spoke to a student audience about his entrepreneurial path, what its like to be the CEO of a public company, and the importance of having the right people on your team. Mason was interviewed by Peter Wendell, managing director of Sierra Ventures and lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Source: http://podfm.ru/goto/d836b10