Podcasts about techstars boston

This week, Jenny and Thanasis are joined by Semyon Dukach, Founding Partner of One Way Ventures, a seed-stage firm investing in immigrant founders. Semyon brings a wealth of experience to the conversation, having previously served as Managing Director of TechStars Boston, as well as an entrepreneur and angel investor. In a unique twist, Semyon's journey also includes a stint as a professional blackjack player, marking a first for our podcast. Tune in for insights on Semyon's fascinating career, his passion for supporting immigrant founders, and the lessons he's learned along the way.

Episode 316 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Clement Cazalot, CEO & Co-Founder of Machinery Partner. From scaling docTrackr to an exit… to running the Boston Techstars program… to his latest company… since coming to Boston from France in 2011, Clem has become an anchor of the Boston tech scene as an entrepreneur, investor, and community builder. Machinery Partner is on a mission to digitize access to high quality heavy equipment and machinery for small and medium sized businesses. Its unique, integrated model offers procurement, financing and service that are more affordable, more efficient and more accessible for customers, enabling them to start or scale their businesses and punch above their weight in a competitive landscape. The company just recently announced $11M in funding. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the current state of the tech scene in Boston. * Building docTrackr and how Katie Rae, who was the Managing Director of Techstars Boston at the time, persuaded Clem to move the company to the U.S. * His experience running the Techstars Boston accelerator and the most common issue he would see with entrepreneurs. * His family roots in heavy equipment and all the details about Machinery Partner in terms of how they are digitizing the heavy equipment and machinery industry. * The latest on the company in terms of the new round of funding and plans ahead. * The importance of finding the right investors who are aligned with your business. * And so much more.

Sean Grundy, co-founder and CEO of Bevi, wouldn't budge despite calls from, ironically, David Cohen, the GiveFirst podcast host. Cohen wanted Bevi smart water coolers in more places than just Boston. Grundy wanted to prioritize quality control and customer retention. “We wanted our mechanical engineers and electrical engineers close by so they could personally put their eyes on any errors, see what was going wrong and fix it,” said Grundy. That was back in 2014 just after participating in Techstars Boston. Grundy's phased approach ethos worked then and still works today. In fact, Bevi not only survived the pandemic but recently raised $70 million in a series D funding round. “The pandemic was brutal,” said Sean Grundy. “It felt like running into a wall.”Listen in as Grundy and Cohen discuss taking a compassionate approach to crisis leadership, gradual recovery and redefining success … all with only a few liquid-related puns. Follow David Cohen on Twitter @davidcohenListen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest Kerty Levy is the Managing Director of Techstars Boston, the successful startup accelerator tied to a global network of Techstars programs. (Techstars Boston applications are open now and will close June 7, 2023. Don't miss out!) Levy replaced Greg Raiz, who stepped down as managing director at the end of October 2022. She brings a global perspective to her role having grown up all over the world. Born in Japan, Levy spent time in the Philippines, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden before settling in the United States. Levy is also the managing director of recently launched Techstars Crypto Boston, a crypto-focused accelerator in Boston. This program, run in partnership with Algorand and the Algorand Foundation, is designed for startups globally that focus on innovative and fast-growing web3 development solutions that cut across Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Gaming, Creator Economy, and many more. Techstars Crypto Boston kicked off in January 2023 and just held DemoDay on April 6, 2023. Levy has been with Techstars since 2019. Before her move to Boston, she served as managing director of Techstars Iowa. Prior to that, the long-time business advisor and coach spent time at the Iowa AgriTech Accelerator where she was a trusted member of Iowa's startup community and expert on the Des Moines entrepreneurial ecosystem. Levy is a lifelong learner. After graduating from the Stevenson School, she went on to earn her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of California, Davis. She then earned her MBA from Harvard Business School. In this episode, our host Zach Servideo discusses with Levy her career journey, what she loves about Boston, the startup sectors that most intrigue her, the future of crypto/blockchain, and much more.

Onur Akpolat is the Ecosystem Growth Lead of Builders at Interchain GmbH, which builds and stewards foundational decentralized technologies throughout the Cosmos ecosystem. Previously, Onur developed Monadic, the team behind Radicle (previously osCoin), a framework for decentralized code collaboration. In 2015, Onur co-founded Tapglue (acquired by Localytics) through the Techstars Boston startup accelerator program. A passionate developer, Onur is focused on onboarding the next generation to the Cosmos. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crypto-hipster-podcast/support

Sonciary Perez is a Boston-based founder on a mission to change human interaction with customers through fast technology, to deliver exceptional experiences by converting day-to-day conversations with SaaS businesses into data that improve the whole business. She is Co-Founder of Quala.io, the only frontline intelligence platform for B2B SaaS companies that helps them better serve, retain, and upsell customers. With two decades in early-stage B2B SaaS, Sonci has dedicated the last twelve years to building and scaling pre-and post-sales motions. Ten of those years were at the helm of customer success, services, and support teams. Before Quala, she co-founded Promoboxx, a marketing technology startup connecting brands with independent retailers to increase awareness of buying goods locally. She also serves as a Mentor with Techstars Boston and represents BOSS - Accomplice VC's syndicate of hundreds of Boston Angel Investors. Sonci is a well-versed, insightful speaker. Her knowledge will benefit SaaS executives, entrepreneurs, and innovators interested in getting fresh perspectives and learning how to improve product development, deliver excellent customer experiences, grow revenue from the customer base, and reduce customer churn. Sonciary Perez website: https://www.quala.io/ For top tips and more resources pls go here for show notes: https://successgrid.net/sg100/ “If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to https://ratethispodcast.com/successgrid  and follow the simple instructions

Susanna Twarog is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of SOS, which is transforming wellness on the go through a network of smart vending machines that deliver just-in-time necessities where and when you need the most. Chad talks with Susanna about wellness on the go, the unique business that they're building and what SOS can offer brands, and the biggest hurdles to overcome to get 10,000 machines up and running. SOS (https://www.worldofsos.com/) Follow SOS on TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@world_of_sos), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzJ_tp6e-M39_6I53xKTu8A), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/world_of_sos/) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-of-sos/). Follow Susanna on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanna-twarog-2b483ab/). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: CHAD: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Chad Pytel. And with me today is Susanna Twarog, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of SOS, which is transforming wellness on the go through a network of smart vending machines that deliver just-in-time necessities where and when you need the most. Susanna, thank you for joining me. SUSANNA: Thank you, Chad. It's great to be here. CHAD: So, what makes the vending machines from SOS smart? SUSANNA: So what makes our vending machines smart? Well, I think smart and vending are typically not words that go together. And I think when we founded the company, the machines that we were looking at were outdated and old and out of stock. And to be honest, first and foremost, payment methods that are accepted by most vending machines are completely not in line with the modern consumer. So we were looking at vending machines that take quarters and cash. And as two working women on the trading floor, nobody has quarters or coins or even cash anymore. So first and foremost, we are a cashless, modern vending machine that accepts contactless and modern forms of payment. CHAD: Let's level-set a little bit about wellness on the go, what that means. What I hear when I look at...which I took a look at the product on the website, which I encourage people to do, and it's worldofsos.com. I think it gives a much better sense of this. But correct me if I'm wrong that what we're talking about here is the vending machines that might typically be in a men's or women's restroom. Is that right? SUSANNA: Absolutely. So the problem that we are in a mission to solve is to transform outdated, completely broken, ugly hardware that's existed to distribute wellness essentials like menstrual care and other wellness products in public spaces. So those old machines that look like steel box drops [chuckles] that is the business or the distribution channel that we're looking to disrupt. And so, by introducing beautiful design-first tech-enabled hardware into this space, we're completely transforming a distribution channel that has not worked or served anyone for decades at this point. CHAD: I don't even use those vending machines. But it seems to me like they're often broken, dirty, not even stocked. Is there market reasons why that's the case? SUSANNA: So, to be quite honest, I think Robina and I, when we founded the company, started to explore why hasn't this problem been solved? And the fact of the matter is the built world, and a lot of commercial real estate is designed and developed by a group of people who don't necessarily menstruate or need these products that are everyday health and wellness essentials for actually what is over half of the world's population. But the folks who design and plan these spaces are not necessarily coming at the design with a perspective of these needs. And so, honestly, Robina and I set out on a mission to say when we think about inclusive space and the world that we want to live in, we want to live in a world where not just among certain people but all people have access to health and wellness products that they need when they're not at home. So you may have everything that you need and want from the brands that you love and the ingredients that you trust in your own cabinet. But when you're on the go, and you're at work or you're traveling or entertaining, or spending time in other physical spaces that aren't your home, typically, those products aren't available, and they're very hard to access. So it's a major area for us to innovate and introduce a world that we want to live in where you can access the products you need from brands you already know and love or want to discover and try. CHAD: So building really any hardware, and I have a lot of guests who have done hardware in the past, can be a challenge, especially starting out. What you talk about in the startup industry is often like starting out small, figuring out the minimum viable product, bringing that to market to early customers, and then learning and refining. And that can be difficult to do when you're shipping something physical. So how did you approach that? SUSANNA: Robina and I approached this with a lot of intention and a lot of thought. We came from finance, business development, and sales backgrounds. Neither of us are engineers. So when we decided that we were going to found SOS and started to literally sketch out renderings for the type of hardware and design that we wanted to see in the world, initially, we were faced by a lot of people telling us to white-label products that already existed. You know, maybe don't invest in proprietary hardware or designing it yourselves. Try something that already exists. See if there's a product-market fit. And ultimately, we actually invested in and began to work with an industrial design firm from the beginning. We have seven global design patents on the hardware because we knew that without an elevated design-first piece of hardware, the network would not be well-received, would not be able to grow and exist in the places we knew it needed to be, so to be in grade A commercial real estate where hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on designing and innovating into the built world to make these spaces cutting edge and tech-enabled. And yet, if we didn't do the same with our hardware, this would just be another vending machine that got relegated to the basement or the back room, and that is not the company that we set out to build. We want to be a piece of integrated, exciting, engaging hardware and tech-enabled experience in these spaces. And so, to do that, we had to forge the path of bringing in and working with and basically investing our own money into designing a proprietary piece of hardware that could deliver the experience we knew was so integral to driving value for the company. CHAD: I assume that wasn't easy or cheap. Did you fundraise at that point to do it? Or when you say your own money, were you literally the two of you investing yourselves? SUSANNA: Absolutely. A big point of pride for me and Robina is that from the moment we founded the company through, to be quite honest, I would say the first 18 months of work, we invested our own personal savings. And this wasn't trust fund money that we'd inherited. This was truly just personal savings as young women in finance that we'd put aside, and it was the most money that either of us had ever spent on anything, was investing in ourselves and our own company. So we started...our first investments were in legal work and doing the patent search, and generating ultimately what has now been granted as seven patents for the company. So patent work was the first money we spent, and then also engaging with an industrial design firm to get our concept into CAD rendering and identify the first contract manufacturer that we worked with on the prototype. So we were able to get pretty far prior to fundraising with our own investment. And trust me, it was a big commitment from both of us. And I think the fact that as co-founders being totally in lockstep with taking some of the biggest financial risks that either of us had ever taken and doing it together, and really having equal passion and commitment and belief in what we were going to build was an exceptional part of our founding story. CHAD: I imagine you were probably a little nervous, the two of you. [chuckles] SUSANNA: You know, it felt just like we had to do it. And I think it's kind of like lightning struck in the sense that we had this moment. And from literally the moment that we stepped aside and started to map out the business, there hasn't really been a pause or self-doubt in the sense that we've really known we're going to take this as far as we possibly can. So scary, yes, but it felt like we had the conviction from the very beginning, which I know is rare and not everyone's founding story. But for us, it really was 100% the right thing to do at the time, which was we're going to make this happen. CHAD: So where did you and Robina meet? SUSANNA: So we met as colleagues first and foremost. So we were two, I would say at the time, young women working in finance, and she was my counterpart. So she had a role in London, and I was in Boston. And we worked on our basically sales and business development pipelines together as colleagues first. And ultimately, Robina relocated back to the U.S, and we became friends on the same trading floor. So really, it was a friendship that grew out of a business relationship. CHAD: Do you remember when and where this idea first came from? SUSANNA: Sure do. [chuckles] It's very close to my heart. I was in the middle of a workday faced with a frustration and inconvenient situation where I couldn't find products that I needed when I needed them at work. And it was interrupting my day for the millionth time. And you know those moments when you have a friend, and you choose the person that you run to when you are, I guess, pissed off for lack of a better word? [laughs] And we just took that moment of me saying, "This is insane. How am I dealing with this? I can't get a tampon when I need one." And our eyes lit up. And we said, "Ah, well, this is a common problem for a very important segment of the world. And we need to do something about it." CHAD: Now, it's a big leap to go from that frustration to founding a company together and actually working on it. So, how did that happen? SUSANNA: So we had that moment, and we stepped aside and said, "This is completely insane. I'm too valuable to be wasting my time worrying about this on a daily basis." And the other fun part of our relationship is that we're also two young women with disposable income. We love products; we love travel, we love entertainment. We like to have fun. We work hard; we play hard. I'm taking those two perspectives, which is like this frustration and universal need combined with consumerism. And this desire to make money, spend money is like combining the two and saying we have an opportunity to capitalize on this need and this consumer at the same time to deliver on a mission and drive value and consumer value for brands at the same time. And that really, I would say, sparked a tremendous amount of excitement and interest from Robina and myself. How incredible to have an opportunity to build a company that is really driving good, and changing the world, and elevating access to these essential products while also tapping into this consumer interest of ours in products, and brands, and emerging indie brands, and digital content, and tech. And combining them all into one company and doing so with a lot of, I would say, excitement, and optimism, and win-win-win. Making the world a better place fulfilling a passion and interest of ours at the same time and driving value, and building a company. CHAD: How far along were you in the idea stages, the legwork stages, before you both quit and started working on it full time? SUSANNA: Took the leap. Yeah, that was a really critical decision and part of our journey. We were very intentional about taking the business as far as we could while protecting our personal financial interests in the sense that, you know, retaining benefits, positioning ourselves so that the company would have the most ability to succeed. And so we actually got through to basically 2020 when we were launching our first machines before we quit and ultimately joined our Techstars Boston 2020 program. So we were, I would say, nights and weekends absolutely killing ourselves with work. We were able to raise our seed round, our pre-seed round technically, while still employed at the bank. And I would encourage others who are thinking about starting companies to maybe...in some cases; I'd say do what we did. And in other cases, I'd say it might kill you. CHAD: [laughs] SUSANNA: But I feel like whether we liked it or not, it put us in a position where we had achieved a tremendous amount of traction. We had our prototypes built and ready to be installed. And they were literally going into some of the most prestigious physical, commercial real estate locations in Boston as we were quitting. So I would say we were taking quite a bit of risk still. But we'd done everything we could to protect the company and make sure that we could get SOS where it needed to be before joining and coming on full-time. CHAD: How did you find those first places where the machines were going to be installed? SUSANNA: From the beginning, it was one of the areas of the company that we invested the most of our time in, which was that we had extensive contacts and relationships in financial services; that was our background. We had to start from scratch networking, and telling our story, and telling our vision with commercial real estate partners. So pre-product, first slide decks, first cold calls, and warm introductions all really focused on commercial real estate. So we gave ourselves a crash course in real estate owner-managers, who the national players were, and started to network a ton, which was just LinkedIn, asking for introductions, having some meetings that were successes, having others that weren't. But really, I think Robina and I had a and have a very, I guess, strong sense of salesmanship, I would say. That's a strength of ours. And so we were able to really get people excited and to believe in us and not to say sell smoke and mirrors, but we were waiting on a physical product prototype to arrive. And we were able to get believers and commitments before we actually had the product ready to demo in the market. Mid-Roll Ad: As life moves online, bricks-and-mortar businesses are having to adapt to survive. With over 18 years of experience building reliable web products and services, thoughtbot is the technology partner you can trust. We provide the technical expertise to enable your business to adapt and thrive in a changing environment. We start by understanding what's important to your customers to help you transition to intuitive digital services your customers will trust. We take the time to understand what makes your business great and work fast yet thoroughly to build, test, and validate ideas, helping you discover new customers. Take your business online with design‑driven digital acceleration. Find out more at: url tbot.io/acceleration or click the link in the show notes for this episode. CHAD: So you already said at the beginning of the show your product is targeted or primarily for people who menstruate, and not a lot of property, commercial real estate developers, that kind of thing, are those people. So was that a struggle early on to get people excited or to find the right people? SUSANNA: It will always be a struggle, or maybe not always, but it continues to be a struggle. I do also want to make sure I share what we have built. And we have a mission to elevate access to menstrual care products, but our product is for everyone. So our actual physical network and machines we actually carry wellness essentials for everyone. So by solving this mission-based problem of access to menstrual care, we're actually building a product that serves everyone. We have products that everybody uses and needs every day. And what we see in the marketplace is that SOS really is for everyone. But to your point, I think a lot of conversations, particularly early days and even now, still is a lot of educating and educating decision-makers about the need for this amenity in inclusive space and diversity and inclusion goals. And how can you expect or corporations expect to deliver on these important metrics that their leadership teams are being asked when these essential everyday products aren't even available in their space? So there is a huge education. There are some uncomfortable conversations. Robina and I have gotten very, very good at having these direct conversations with a lot of people who maybe aren't comfortable talking about the products, but it's an important conversation that needs to happen. And if we don't have the conversation, then we're never going to get anywhere, and we're not going to be making progress. So our goal is to try to make the conversation exciting and engaging and show these leaders or decision-makers that there is a lot of brand equity that can go alongside thinking about the people in their space, what they need, and what can make their experience in physical spaces better. So that's kind of like leading leadership to a place where being part of what we're building is exciting. And it's an exciting opportunity to deliver an experience that's been long overlooked and is in need of a refresh. And so I think when we find folks who get that and are comfortable and excited to be part of the story, then that's usually where we find our best fit. CHAD: So you're now a little ways on from that period of time. So what stage would you say you're at from a company and a product perspective and a market perspective? SUSANNA: We closed our seed round fall of 2021. And that put us in a position, and that capital has taken us to a place where we're a team of 12, and that's across sort of all categories, which is sales, product, marketing, operations. And we're operating in three markets so New York, Boston, and South Florida. We are going to be doubling our network from just over 40 machines to over 100 by the end of summer. And then we'll be looking to get to closer to between 300 and 400 by the end of 2023. So we are in a phase where our prototypes went from three machines in Boston to, like I mentioned, over 40 machines on walls now across corporate locations, transit, retail, sports, and entertainment. And we are and have been investing in and developing and evolving our tech stack and our product. So we've made some changes to our hardware since our prototypes, of course, and then invested quite a bit in our tech stack on the product side. So we will continue to bring in new best-in-class software partners where appropriate and then also invest in-house in continuing to evolve our product and features that we release to the network. CHAD: Do you have a sense of, you know, currently the biggest number you mentioned is the 300 to 400 machine target. I imagine that the total possible number of machines that you could have, even just with moderate growth, is actually huge. SUSANNA: Absolutely huge. So when we talk about our five year-projection, the number that we use is like 10,000 machines. So really, we want SOS to be ubiquitous. We want SOS to be everywhere you go, and so it's a brand that you associate and you trust to deliver just-in-time necessities from brands you love when you're not at home. So that would be across, you know, as people return to offices being an enterprise amenity and being in all leading real estate locations across the categories that I mentioned and really having a connected network. So I would say, in general, vending is usually associated with white-label machines or mom-and-pop operations with snack machines, and that is really not the goal. We want to deliver an elevated experience as a brand and as a company across all of these locations so that you recognize the SOS machine. You know the experience that you're going to get. You know the perks of interacting and engaging with us as a brand and that there's a real trust and brand awareness that comes with the network as it grows. CHAD: I totally get that you're trying to do something different in this space. But what are the numbers of those traditional vending machine suppliers like? Is there a big player in this space, or is it a lot of local companies white-labeling? SUSANNA: It's a lot of local companies. And I think probably a good opportunity for me to highlight probably the biggest component of our business has to do with the media network that we're driving. So our machines are 32-inch touch screens serving interactive digital media when not being used as a point of sale. So, in addition to obviously having contact with cashless payment for the actual transactions and retail at the machines, we are serving direct campaigns and programmatic advertising across the network. And in terms of the value and the drivers behind what we're building, experiential marketing which can be a combination of digital media and physical retail distribution and sampling. And we have abilities to deliver value to brands looking for both. And in some cases, brands are looking to execute both at the same time. Others will be just looking at SOS as a unique way to drive impressions and brand awareness in spaces, and locations, and audiences that they haven't had access to in the past in this way. CHAD: What might that look like? That might be a company like an exercise equipment company or something wanting to spread awareness but not necessarily having a product to offer in the vending machine. SUSANNA: Exactly. It could be fitness, financial services, direct-to-consumer brands where the consumer matches the audience that we're reaching, but the product doesn't belong in the machine at the distribution point. So the digital media and impressions that we can drive in addition to the product type, which is we have touch screens. So we have first-party data collection opportunities, interactive campaigns, and surveys that run on our screens that are different than, for instance, a billboard that you drive by because this is a physical, interactive network. And with Instagram and Facebook advertising and first-party data being a very hot topic right now, having opt-in first-party data collection mechanisms for brands to offer sampling in a new channel is very valuable right now to a lot of the executives and CPG brands that we're talking to. CHAD: I assume that from a business perspective, that is pretty attractive to you because the business of physical goods looks like one thing, but the business of advertising is a completely different model. And the combination of those two could be pretty attractive. SUSANNA: Exactly. It's really unique about the business that we're building and what SOS can offer brands. So in order to, for instance, stand up a sampling campaign with SOS versus potentially having a street marketing team sampling, the cost and the data that we're able to collect by sampling through our network is much more valuable than potentially hiring folks to stand around and pass out product. CHAD: Yeah, there might even be some brands that aren't necessarily comfortable doing it depending on what it is, a street campaign, or consumers that might not be comfortable taking something from somebody on the street that in the privacy of a restaurant might go over a little better. SUSANNA: Absolutely. I think there's discretion in this automated retail experience for actual interaction with the physical product. And our machines and the network are, in some cases, in restrooms. In other cases, we're actually public access, and we're in amenity spaces. So these machines and the distribution channel is available in a whole host of appropriate locations and spaces. CHAD: Cool. So what's your biggest hurdle to getting to 10,000 machines? SUSANNA: Well, right now, we have a ton of demand, and the hardware is capital intensive. I'm sure there'll be people listening to this who are scared of hardware. And I would say, in general, that is certainly an obstacle to growing a hardware business. CHAD: Putting a machine in a new location is not immediately profitable. There's an expense to creating that machine and then a timeline for it to pay itself back. SUSANNA: I would say certainly. At a high level, SOS is a B2B2C business. So it's a B2B sales lifecycle for you're building relationships selling into institutions in commercial real estate and corporations. That is the first I would say challenge, and funding the hardware and lead times with supply chain and hardware right now. It's a very hot topic, certainly hasn't been easy. So the lead times on the hardware and then funding the hardware, so exactly if it's going to be a three or four-month potential lead time on hardware and orders. Funding that order before machines are on walls and revenue can be generated on media, and our product sales or amenity fees kick in. The timing of all of that makes, I would say, our business but hardware businesses in general potentially either less attractive to investors who are looking at SaaS companies all day long and have a very different profile in terms of the company. But we're excited to be in a position where we have a very, very hot pipeline, a lot of inbound interest. I would say we're getting inbounds from best-in-class partners that we could only dream of doing business with. And they're reaching out to us to bring in the amenity. So it's an exciting position as a founder to be in to be opening your inbox and having multiple grade A inbounds a day. That's fantastic. And moving towards a place where we're happy to report that we have signed and committed machine financing in place for this next period of growth. So that opens up a lot of doors. And in terms of our journey, initially investing our own cash into getting the prototypes ready for installation in 2020 to being in a position now where we have our first machine financing vehicle in place to actually protect our equity as we grow the network, which is what we're looking to do for the remainder of this year and next. I don't know if I answered that accurately. [chuckles] But the challenges of running and operating and funding a hardware capex–intensive business is probably the biggest. CHAD: Is there a point in time where it really is that or something close to that that's holding you back, and you end up just doing this huge financing round or something in order to completely blow out the scale? SUSANNA: I think we have, and we're very keenly aware of first-mover advantage in the sense that we have, and COVID and other global macro-economic barriers have basically made it hard for a lot of companies to grow really fast right now in certain industries. So we do have a first-mover advantage right now. And I think we want to look at the next; I would say year to year and a half to get the company to a network size where we're operating profitably and then go to our Series A and really crank on the growth and get the network humming and growing really rapidly after our Series A. CHAD: So your goal would be to be operating profitably before getting to that next phase of growth. SUSANNA: We expect to right now based on what we're seeing. So the business and our performance indicates that with this equity, this next...we're basically entering a bridge round, but with this machine financing and a bridge round, we should be in good shape to do so. CHAD: Yeah, I think there are lots of different ways of doing things. But that seems to be what investors are wanting to see today. But also, I think not only is it from the market, but I think they're a little bit more...not to dwell on specific examples that I don't know too much about, but like, for example, scaling Blue Apron and a lot of the other meal box companies they were doing that when they weren't profitable. So they had never really shown that they could actually be profitable, but there were real costs to scale as well like you have. SUSANNA: I think for many reasons, it makes sense for us, I think, to get the business to profitability. And a lot of it is selfish, you know, thinking about the company and our current equity stakeholders. But we don't want to be in a position where we dilute ourselves out of the business effectively with growth capital when we haven't proven or made the company profitable. So, anyway, that's our goal. And I think we're feeling pretty optimistic about it right now despite the fact that I know the market and the world feels like it's falling apart [chuckles] for a million different reasons. But we actually, surprisingly and shockingly, feel pretty optimistic right now. CHAD: Well, I really wish you the best with that, and I look forward to following along and seeing all the good news along the way. If folks want to find out more about SOS or get in touch with you, where are the best places for them to do that? SUSANNA: So definitely, I think you mentioned our website, that's worldofsos.com. And you can feel free to email us at hello@worldofsos.com. CHAD: Awesome. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your story and your wisdom with us. I really appreciate it. SUSANNA: Great. Thank you so much for having me. CHAD: You can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. And you can find me on Twitter at @cpytel. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thanks so much for listening, and see you next time. ANNOUNCER: This podcast was brought to you by thoughtbot. thoughtbot is your expert design and development partner. Let's make your product and team a success. Special Guest: Susanna Twarog.

Semyon Dukach is the Managing Partner of One Way Ventures - the venture capital fund backing exceptional immigrant tech founders building great companies including Brex, Momentus Space, and Chipper Cash. He is also a founder of the nonprofit Cash For Refugees. Previously, Semyon was managing director of Techstars Boston. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theindustryshow/support

Today we're going to talk about building a smart, scalable customer success program that utilizes the best of people, processes, and software. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Sonciary Pérez, Co-Founder of Quala, and Mentor with Techstars Boston.

Today we're going to talk about building a smart, scalable customer success program that utilizes the best of people, processes, and software. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Sonciary Pérez, Co-Founder of Quala, and Mentor with Techstars Boston.

Brent Grinna began his career in investment banking in Chicago at William Blair & Company and then Madison Dearborn Partners. Prior to founding EverTrue, he received his MBA with honors from Harvard Business School.With Brent's leadership, EverTrue participated in Techstars Boston, was selected as a winner of MassChallenge, and secured top investors, such as Bain Capital Ventures. Brent serves as a Board Member for the Brown University Alumni Association Board of Governors and Board Director for the Brown Football Association. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife and three boys.

On this episode, I have a wonderful conversation with Sonci Perez. Sonci has founded multiple tech companies and is currently working to help companies change their interaction with customers through fast technology that delivers exceptional experiences. She is a Co-Founder of Quala.io, which is a frontline intelligence platform for B2B SaaS companies that helps them better serve and retain customers. Before Quala, she co-founded Promoboxx, a marketing technology startup that connected brands with independent retailers to increase awareness of where to buy goods locally. She also serves as a Mentor with Techstars Boston, which helps grow startups. Sonci enjoys providing customer success leaders and innovators in SaaS businesses with fresh perspectives on how to improve customer health, gain retention, and create expansion to upgrade their company. “Customer success teams are often responsible for generating 60-70% of a company's revenue.” – Sonci Perez Today on the Tech Leader Talk podcast: - The importance of customer success technology - Scaling your business by finding the intersection of technology and humans - How to monitor customer relationship health - Developing business intelligence from customer success data Resources Mentioned: Books:One to Ten by Rags GuptaUntamed by Glennon Doyle Connect with Sonci Perez: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonciary/ Website: https://Quala.io Thanks for listening! Be sure to get your free copy of Steve's latest book, Cracking the Patent Code, and discover his proven system for identifying and protecting your most valuable inventions. Get the book at https://stevesponseller.com/book.

Sal's Syndicate: Click to Join Podcast Sponsored by: Purdue University's Entrepreneurship Center Peter Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson Greg Raiz founded app-building colossus Raizlabs and sold it in 2017. He's now the head of Techstars Boston and has big ideas in mind. Be you founder or angel, listen to this luminous interview for practical advice and inspiration on building startups. Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Greg Raiz, Founder of Raizlabs, the App-building Colossus and Head of Techstars Boston Founding Story of Raizlabs “As soon as engineering starts to implement, they learn things, they discover things through the process of implementation that impact the design.” Steve Job's Launch of the iPhone Galvanized Greg Raiz to Build Apps for the New Device RunKeeper Put Raizlabs on the Map, Then Came Rue La La The importance of Focus on Building a Brand “I think a lot of early-stage founders, they tried to boil the ocean.” “Amazon's master plan may have been to dominate e-commerce but in their first several years of Amazon's history, the only thing they did was sell books.” “Founders really need to think about the long-term growth and trajectory of their business and what elements are okay to outsource.” Raizlabs Was Sold in 2017, This Intensified Greg's Angel Investing – Why Raizlabs Ran an Accelerator Fintech Startup Own Up Grew Out of Raizlabs' Accelerator and Has Gone on to a Series B Round Greg Raiz's Big Ideas for Techstars Boston: (1) Save Lives, (2) Save the Planet and (3) Improve How We Work and Live Sal's Story Illustrating How Our Lives Have Improved Since the 1980s “It's funny we sometimes don't reflect on how fast society and technology can change the day-to-day of interactions.” Techstars Boston Is Leaning into the Coming Decade of Biotech “I think biotech and medical specifically, Boston has one of the hottest markets, if not the hottest markets for many of those technologies.” “...we have an incredible Fintech sector. We have an incredible robotic sector. We have incredible 3D printing sector...” Sal Daher Talks About One of the Big Differences between Biotech Investing and Software Investing Sal Daher Expresses a Need to Train Angels in Biotech Investing “I want to accelerate companies that are really important and meaningful and I expect to get a capital return to allow me to do more of that.” Check Out Greg Raiz's YouTube Channel – Half Ideas What Are Half Ideas? YouTube Is the Number 2 Search Engine It's Hard to View or Listen to One's Early Content How Greg Raiz Discovered Computer Programming The Vast Horizons of Software How Bad User Interfaces Create Inequality PURE GOLD: Greg Raiz's Parting Advice to Angels & Founders

On today's episode, Kaily and Randi sit down with the Founder & CEO of Seed&Spark, Emily Best. Emily shares her unique story of becoming an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry.Seed&Spark's platform and national education program have helped thousands of bold storytellers raise millions to bring to life entirely new stories, and Seed&Spark delivers those stories into workplaces for employee training, engagement, and intelligence through their proprietary Impact Screening Platform. Prior to Seed&Spark, Emily produced and acted in theater in New York, which led to producing her first feature film in 2011 Like the Water (co-written by and starring Caitlin FitzGerald). Best was named a 2013 IndieWire Influencer, a 2014 New York Business Journal “Woman of Influence”, a 2015 Upstart 100 entrepreneur (Business Journals), received the Ivy Film Innovator Award in 2015 and 2016, and graduated from Techstars Boston.

This week we're having tea with Nick Tommarello, founder and CEO at Wefunder, a crowdfunding platform that allows anyone—customers, users, fans—to invest as little as $100 in companies they love. Nick is an alumni of Y Combinator (W13) and Techstars (Boston '10). In this episode, Nick and Immad discuss:How the law changed on crowdfunding optionsWhy founders might choose to raise funds on WefunderThe benefits of having distributed ownershipThe future of Wefunder and crowdfundingLinks:Nick TommarelloWefunder

In this episode of the Give First podcast, Brad Feld talks with his old friend Katie Rae, who was once the Managing Director of Techstars Boston. These days, Katie is the CEO and Managing Partner at The Engine.Launched by MIT, The Engine supports big ideas and breakthrough technologies — “the long shots, the unimaginable, the unbelievable,” as their website says — that have really big potential to make a big impact and benefit society. While others refer to this as deep tech or frontier tech, Katie prefers tough tech, and she thinks of it as the “convergence of breakthrough technology and leadership.”Listen for Katie’s story, which is inextricably entwined with the evolution of the Boston startup ecosystem, plus insights into how truly transformational technology happens. Some fun examples include fusion and deep geothermal energy.Follow Katie on Twitter @ktraeTechstars personnel and/or guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, and not the opinion of either Techstars or any company discussed in this podcast. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities are for illustrative and/or informational purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investor or prospective investor, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by Techstars. Certain of Techstars funds own (or may own in the future) securities in some of the companies discussed in this podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode Summary In this episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast, Benoy talks with Steph Speirs who is the co-founder and CEO of Solstice.  Solstice connects businesses and households to local clean energy sources with guaranteed annual savings.  Steph speaks about a lot of interesting topics about their innovative customer acquisition strategies for community solar subscribers, how their Energy Score is better predictor of customers paying their energy bill compared to FICO, engaging the LMI community regarding community solar, and community solar trends. Benoy Thanjan Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy, as well as an advisor for several solar startup companies. Reneu Energy is a premier international solar energy consulting firm and developer, and the company focuses on developing commercial and industrial solar, as well as utility-scale solar plus storage projects. The company also sources financing for solar projects and hedges both energy and environmental commodities.  Benoy received his first experience in Finance as an intern at D.E. Shaw & Co., which is a global investment firm with 37 billion dollars in investment capital. Before founding Reneu Energy, he was the SREC Trader in the Project Finance Group for SolarCity, which merged with Tesla in 2016. He originated SREC trades with buyers and co-developed their SREC monetization and hedging strategy with the senior management of SolarCity, to move into the east coast markets. Benoy also worked at Vanguard Energy Partners, Ridgewood Renewable Power, and Deloitte & Touche. Steph Speirs She co-founded and runs Solstice, an enterprise dedicated to radically expanding the number of American households that can take advantage of clean energy using community-shared solar farms. She was selected as an Inc Magazine Female Founder 100, Echoing Green Climate Fellow, a Kia Revisionary, a Renewable Energy World 40 Under 40 in Solar, Elle Magazine/INCO’s US Impact Entrepreneur of the Year, a Grist 50 Fixer, a Sierra Club Face of Clean Energy, a GLG Social Impact Fellow, a Cordes Fellow, a Global Good Fund Fellow, and an Acumen Global Fellow. Solstice was accelerated by Techstars Boston, MIT, Princeton, MassChallenge, Halcyon Incubator, and Cleantech Open. 

 She previously led sales and marketing innovation initiatives in India at d.light, a solar products company powering areas without reliable electricity; spearheaded Acumen's renewable energy impact investment strategy in Pakistan; developed Middle East policy as the youngest policy director at the White House National Security Council; and field organized in seven states for the first Obama presidential campaign. 

 She serves on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club Foundation and on the Advisory Board of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. She holds a B.A. from Yale, a Master in Public Affairs (MPA) with distinction from Princeton, and an MBA from MIT with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. At MIT, she was a recipient of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, the Legatum Fellowship, the Dean's Fellowship, and the Public Service Fellowship. She originally hails from Hawaii and was raised by a single immigrant mother. Stay Connected: Benoy Thanjan Email: info@reneuenergy.com  LinkedIn: Benoy Thanjan Website: https://www.reneuenergy.com   Steph Speirs Website:  https://solstice.us Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/skyspeirs/   Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on iTunes,Podbean, and youtube.  This episode was produced and managed by  Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)                

Slater Victoroff is the CTO and co-founder of indico.Indico creates meaningful process automation around business documents.We talk about What is Natural Language Processing  Using A.I. to create meaning behind business documents  The unique school (Olin) that Slater attended  The number of textbooks Slater bought in school (answer: zero)  How indico has attracted $8.4 Million by solving a massive problem  Slater nominates his co-founder as a future guestA summary of Slater's accomplishments with indico in his own point form notes while serving as CEO of indico for ~4 years.1. Founded in Olin College dorm room (literally) as a developer platform 2. Accepted to Techstars Boston; Raised ~$5M of venture capital from top-tier VCs including General Catalyst, .406 Ventures, Boston Seed, Hyperplane as well as many high-profile Boston Angel Investors 3. Led successful highly technical content marketing strategy including the earliest tutorials and reviews for tensorflow 4. Scaled backend system to handle several billion monthly API calls and a developer ecosystem of roughly 10k developers 5. Closed multiple six-figure enterprise contracts and coordinated joint press releases with customers such as interlinkOne, and Manulife.Slater Victoroffhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/slatervictoroff/The Data Standardhttps://datastandard.io/https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-data-standard/

Andy Sack has been a technology entrepreneur, angel investor and venture capitalist for 25 years — and is one of the godfathers of the Seattle startup community. He was managing director for Techstars Seattle, founder and executive chairman for Lighter Capital, and cofounder of seed stage fund Founder's Co-op. He participated in the first Techstars Boston Startup Weekend and was so moved by the experience that he decided to run a Techstars Startup Weekend in Seattle. As Andy says, “(I gave) a talk to the Techstars Boston class and it was supposed to be one hour. Three hours later after talking and answering questions, I left the building, and I was moved to tears.”He rallied the venture capital community in Seattle to support entrepreneurs through Techstars, creating a vibrant startup ecosystem that didn't previously exist. Three different unicorn startups (valued over a billion dollars) came out of Andy's 2011 Class of Techstars Seattle. Follow Andy on Twitter: @AndySackLearn more about his favorite charitable organizations:Two Screens for Teachers - Gives teachers a second computer screen so they can see their students while teaching remotely.Rainier Scholars - Creates pathways to college graduation for hard-working, low-income students and provides access to transformative educational opportunities.REST - Helps women on the street get out of troubled situations and abusive relationships and gives them a place to live.Techstars personnel and/or guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, and not the opinion of either Techstars or any company discussed in this podcast. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities are for illustrative and/or informational purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investor or prospective investor, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by Techstars. Certain of Techstars funds own (or may own in the future) securities in some of the companies discussed in this podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today I'm excited to talk with Bob Mason! Bob is a Managing Partner at Argon Ventures, leading pre-seed stage investments in Boston with a mission to amplify founder energy to launch cutting-edge software products and build impactful, global businesses. He has been a Managing Partner at Project 11 Ventures and was previously part of the Techstars Boston investment committee. His portfolio includes over 50 startups and access to a network of hundreds of founders. Before his career as an investor, Bob helped found and build industry-shifting products and businesses for two highly successful public companies: ATG, a leading e-commerce and personalization platform, and Brightcove, the market-leading online video platform for enterprise and premium media. In both roles he provided engineering and product leadership in support of the companies' vision and strategy. Bob received the Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1994 and currently sits on the WPI Department of Computer Science Board of Advisors and mentors founders through the WPI Tech Advisor Network. Episode Mentions: https://www.argon.vc Venture diversity is burdened by the unnecessary need for wealth. VCedia and Host Info/Promos Follow VCedia @the_vcedia on Twitter and Instagram, The VCedia on YouTube, and on our website at www.vcedia.com. You can also follow the host Schyler Cole on Twitter at @SchylerCole! Know someone who should be on VCedia? Let us know here! For startups: https://forms.gle/8ESnmJf4XNRL5W1A6 For other guests: https://forms.gle/LbTvrUUbXW1YiAPP7 Music Intro/Outro - Instafunk - Premium Beats Intermission - hard animal crossing type beat by vanity - https://soundcloud.com/11182018

Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a platform that makes entertainment more diverse, inclusive, connected, and essential. Seed&Spark’s platform and national education program have helped thousands of bold storytellers raise millions to bring to life entirely new stories, and Seed&Spark delivers those stories into workplaces for employee training, engagement, and intelligence through their proprietary Impact Screening Platform. They gather the qualitative and quantitative data essential for driving lasting structural change for inclusive and productive workplaces. An advocate for diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry, Best regularly speaks at conferences and events about leveraging entertainment to build equity and sustainability for everyone. She also runs workshops to help independent content creators successfully crowdfund, build an audience and pitch their projects. Best was named a 2013 Indiewire Influencer, a 2014 New York Business Journal “Woman of Influence”, a 2015 Upstart 100 entrepreneur (Business Journals), received the Ivy Film Innovator Award in 2015 and in 2016, graduated from Techstars Boston, an elite accelerator program for the country’s top entrepreneurs. Best has raised millions of dollars in traditional funding, equity crowdfunding, and rewards-based crowdfunding and has personally participated in more than 300 crowdfunding campaigns. Some of the Topics Covered by Emily Best in this Episode What Seed&Spark does and the big pivot they went through in 2020 Why Film Forward was created by Seed&Spark How Seed&Spark got started The story of building the Seed&Spark platform itself What went into the launch of Seed&Spark How Emily grew Seed&Spark through 120 live workshops per year The business model behind Seed&Spark What goes into a successful crowdfunding campaign The biggest challenges that go into creating a crowdfunding platform Why Emily has a love/hate relationship with accelerators How Emily recharges away from work Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

It's time to give thanks. On this episode of Talking Through It, Neal Sáles-Griffin talks with Taylor McLemore, Managing Director of the Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator, and Clement Cazalot, Managing Director of Techstars Boston.Today's 5 Topics:Virtual holidaysBiden economyVenture capital and long-term successVaccines and 2021Virtual Demo DaysFollow Taylor on Twitter @taylormclemoreFollow Clem on Twitter @clementcTechstars personnel and/or guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, and not the opinion of either Techstars or any company discussed in this podcast. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities are for illustrative and/or informational purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investor or prospective investor, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by Techstars. Certain of Techstars funds own (or may own in the future) securities in some of the companies discussed in this podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lissy Hu is the founder and CEO of Careport and came up with the concept while she was getting her MD and MBA at Harvard. She entered and won a Harvard business plan competition in 2012. That same year, she got additional funding, $3.8 million, through the Techstars Boston accelerator program, allowing her to launch CarePort in 2013. The company built out its software, which patients use to find a post-acute provider and hospitals use to track patient outcomes. In 2016, national healthcare IT company Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) acquired CarePort. CarePort's software is now available both as a standalone product and integrated into Allscript's platform, which is used by 1,000 hospitals and 20,000 post-acute care facilities. Lissy runs both the CarePort business unit and the larger Allscripts care coordination unit, which were rolled under the CarePort name this year. Subscribe to Healthtech Pigeon

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate: Click Here  Brazilian patients struggle to access specialized medical care. Precavida, which just graduated from Techstars Boston, is addressing this problem. Here is my interview with founder Lais Fonseca.

The producers behind the Female Voices Rock Film Festival bring you Female Voices The Virtual Filmmaking Summit and this podcast episode! This episode was a live-stream recording that took place in early May 2020, and is a conversation with Emily Best, founder and CEO of Seed&Spark moderated by Pink Among Men host, Amy DePaola. Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a platform that bridges online and offline experiences to make entertainment more diverse, inclusive, connected and essential. Seed&Spark’s platform and national education program have helped thousands of bold storytellers raise millions to bring to life entirely new stories.  An advocate for diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry, Best regularly speaks at conferences and events about leveraging entertainment to build equity and sustainability for everyone.  In addition to her work at Seed&Spark, Best produces film, series, and VR that have premiered at Sundance, SXSW and other festivals. Best produced projects including “Like the Water,” a feature film starring Caitlin FitzGerald (“Masters of Sex,” “UnREAL”); “Fck Yes!,” a digital series about sexual consent which she also co-wrote and co-directed; Janicza Bravo’s virtual reality film “Hard World for Small Things” which premiered at Sundance; and James Kaelan’s “The Visitor,” which premiered at Slamdance and was featured at Tribeca. Best was named a 2013 Indiewire Influencer, a 2014 New York Business Journal “Woman of Influence”, a 2015 Upstart 100 entrepreneur (Business Journals), received the Ivy Film Innovator Award in 2015 and in 2016, graduated from Techstars Boston, an elite accelerator program for the country’s top entrepreneurs. Best has raised millions of dollars in traditional funding, equity crowdfunding, and rewards-based crowdfunding and has personally participated in more than 300 crowdfunding campaigns. ALSO in this episode our #WCW Women Crushing-It is a young woman from Newport Beach, CA, Chloe-Mei Espinosa!! Chloe is an 8th-grader and the founder of the Skip the Plastic Straw campaign, and she's ready to bring it to the next level. Chloe started the Skip the Plastic Straw campaign in the sixth grade, from a passion project that my class participated in. For her project she chose to campaign against the use of single-use plastic straws, and she built a website in April 2018 to start. From Chloe: "I know it may seem ridiculous to get rid of single-use plastic straws, but our oceans need our help NOW and nothing is impossible!" Her first goal was to get 500 people to take the pledge and stop using single-use plastic straws. (She reached that goal in May 2018!) Now, she will take on other projects that can help spread the Skip the Plastic Straw message. Check out her blog to see what else she is working on! All the research on this website was done by Chloe to further her mission, and you can help her by taking the pledge and by printing out the restaurant flyer (in Resources) to give to your favorite restaurants. Stop the use of single-use plastic straws. Let's save the ocean planet together! Click here to go to the Skip The Plastic Straw Website and join Chloe!  

cc: growth journeys from emerging ecosystems to global markets. Semyon is the General Partner of One Way Ventures, the VC fund that is solely focused on immigrant entrepreneurs. As an immigrant himself, Semyon is a former professional blackjack player with the MIT Blackjack Team and has invested in 100+ companies as an angel investor. After running Techstars Boston for a couple of years, he started One Way. What’s in this episode? 1) How to earn $Ms from casinos 2) Influence of his blackjack experience on investing 3) Experience as the MD of Techstars Boston 4) Disproportionate success of immigrant entrepreneurs 5) Importance of immigrants and the talent network effect You can reach us through our website or @getcced on Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, and Linkedin. Hosted by Enis Hulli and Rina Onur.

They met at Techstars Boston and were getting their startups off the ground and then COVID-19 struck. Here's what they're doing about it. Oguzhan Oyar, founder of Metrobi which does B2B deliveries, Jinesh Patel, founder of UptimeHealth which automates compliance for healthcare, Susan Conover, founder of LuminDX which is building a database for the diagnosis of skin conditions. Both Jinesh and Susan are alums of the podcast. Here are their full-length interviews: Jinesh Patel's Podcast Susan Conover Podcast

Semyon's professional journey started out in a rather unconventional manner. As one of the members of the famed MIT Blackjack team, he's always had an incredible knack and drive for mastering whatever challenge was in front of him. After living the life of a high roller, Semyon went on to become a successful founder of multiple tech companies but he found his true calling when he started angel investing and running the Techstars Boston program. He realized that his passion was really centered around helping other entrepreneurs succeed. Today, Semyon is the Founder and Managing Partner of One Way Ventures, a venture fund that is focused on investing in immigrant founders. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Semyon's own story as an immigrant who migrated to the U.S. from Moscow. * How he became a member of the MIT Blackjack Team, which has been featured in movies, books, and documentaries. * His experience as an entrepreneur and the companies that he founded. * How he got into investing, where he made over 100 angel investments, plus his involvement with Techstars. * All of the details on One Way Ventures and how they are helping immigrant entrepreneurs. * Advice on generating interest from investors. * Common mistakes made by entrepreneurs. * And more! If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, an entertainment platform building a new studio model, with fair and transparent business practices, to provide every filmmaker the opportunity to create a sustainable career, no matter where they live or what they look like. Seed&Spark has curated streaming platform, which is fed by its crowdfunding platform, which has the highest campaign success rate in the world. An advocate for diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry, Best regularly speaks at conferences and events about leveraging entertainment to build equity and sustainability for everyone. In 2011, she produced the feature film, Like the Water, starring Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex, UnREAL). Since then she has served as executive producer on a host of film and virtual reality projects that have played at festivals from Sundance to SXSW to Tribeca and beyond. Most recently she co-created and co-directed the web series F*ck Yes!, which Refinery 29 called, "The sex education you wish you had in high school." Emily was named a 2013 Indiewire Influencer, a 2014 New York Woman of Influence, was included on the 2015 Upstart 100 list, and graduated from the 2016 class of Techstars Boston. She has raised millions of dollars in traditional funding, equity crowdfunding, and rewards based crowdfunding, and contributed to over 300 crowdfunding campaigns to date.

Guest Clement Cazalot is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, now Managing Director of Techstars Boston, which is the #1 Global Tech Accelerator with $80 Billion in value created. His latest company, docTrackr, recognized as one of the most innovative cybersecurity players, was acquired by Intralinks (NYSE:IL), and deployed to 99% of the Fortune 1000 within a couple of years, securing some of the world’s most sensitive data. A Boston resident, Cazalot is originally from the south of France. He’s now become one of Boston’s most prominent startup mentors. Discover more Boston Speaks Up at Boston Business Journal's BostInno: https://www.americaninno.com/boston/boston-speaks-up/

"In the beginning, you don't want to waste your time trying to raise money of any kind from investors that are not inherently, organically interested in either you or your industry vertical. You are not going to convert those people to you. You want to go out and find the people that are already excited either about you or about the problem space that you're in. It's like starting with a warm audience." ~ Melissa Withers, Managing Partner, RevUp CapitalMelissa Withers is an experienced fund manager and business builder who has overseen investments in over 100 companies. She is currently a Founding Partner of RevUp Capital, a fund focused on B2B and B2C companies moving fast up a revenue-fueled growth curve. She’s a mentor in residence at TechStars Boston and she’s a strong advocate for closing the diversity gap in early stage investing. Hooray!Melissa's career began at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT, where she worked at the intersection of basic research, communications and public policy. She was also co-founder and executive director of the Business Innovation Factory, an organization dedicated to the design and testing of new business models. I had my first Melissa Withers experience several years ago when she was a featured speaker at a Startup Grind Boston Firechat… I ate up every delicious morsel she served, and I’ve been a devoted fan ever since. Melissa has a unique ability to quickly cut through the startup BS and get down to the nitty gritty details of what’s really going on for a business.I love her fierce advocacy for startup founders everywhere… and she is a pioneer role model for women in tech and for female funders.Melissa shares candid stories from her early days as a woman in technology, advice for customer discovery, raising capital, and much more insights for the startup founder. Please connect with Melissa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwithers/ and Twitter: https://twitter.com/MizWithers, and hop onto RevUp Capital to learn more about this innovative funding resource: https://www.revupfund.com/.Are you ready for startup mentoring or some delicious DIY advice for your new business? Then please visit my website, http://andelyons.com where you’ll find all the ways I can add value to your startup journey: strategy calls, pitch deck and one page business snapshot coaching, WBENC application support for women business owners - I’d be honored to mentor you through whatever you’re going through – so please don’t hesitate to reach out.If you’d like to receive an alert whenever I post a new episode, please follow me on Spreaker, Stitcher, iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcasts… and let’s connect on social media!Listeners - thank you so much for tuning in - I am genuinely grateful for your time and presence. Stay strong, stay focused – and please remember – you’ve got this – Cheers!Ande ♥

Invest Alongside Boston's Top Angels: Link to Our Syndicates Page Action Jack Barker move over! Chainsaw Jack Huntress is the real deal. CEOs don’t get more dynamic than this geologist turned founder. Jack's startup, HomeBinder offers invaluable tools to help homeowners manage and record work done on their most valuable asset. It’s getting real traction via home inspectors eager to help home buyers. Breaking News: HomeBinder is in Techstars! Special mention in this episode:  Ed Hosepian and Dean Kahr. Thanks for your generous help in the purchase of the big, dilapidated house in Cambridge. Guys, you were right! Jack Huntress trained as a geologist and geophysicist then worked as a consultant for decades. Acted as an intrapreneur in building a new practice at an existing firm. No Conjoined Triangles of Success for this Jack – he’s a truly action-prone CEO. How “Chainsaw Jack” got his name. Story told by super angel and CEO whisperer Joe Caruso (Link to Joe Caruso Episode Page) Jack’s owned a bunch of homes including one built in the 1700s. Having been orphaned at an early age he had to come up to speed fast on home maintenance. Homeowner is more like a home steward. Lack of continuity on home maintenance information. HomeBinder solves that problem. Jack bought a house from an owner who had a binder with loads of details about the house including paint colors, receipts for work done, warranties and manuals. This gave Jack the idea for HomeBinder. We homeowners did not have a good way to keep information about the home before HomeBinder. Proactive home maintenance rather than reactive. For the most valuable asset homeowners own, their house. Home inspectors create binder for homeowner, making their life easier. Integrated into home inspection software. Someday, you won’t buy a house without a HomeBinder report. Sal thanks Jack for helping in a crucial moment in the purchase of big dilapidated house in Cambridge. Thank you, Ed and Dean! Getting tens of thousands of HomeBinders set up by home inspectors. Need to enlist other players in the home buying process to grow even faster. Building valuable data on the home. Can tell you about the electricians and plumbers who will show up. Really important! Biggest complaint for plumbers & electricians is that they don’t call you back. Career advice for your kid who’s handy but not a great student. Get the kid into the trades; they’re not going away! HomeBinder is like a drip campaign for the home inspectors in helping inspectors stay in touch with home owners. Sal reads inspiring review from listener Andy_C_B. He points out an underappreciated objective of the podcast, to inspire young people to take on big challenges. Please leave a review on iTunes. Jack’s pivot. Thought real estate brokers were the best initial channel for HomeBinder. Discovered they were not. Real estate agents actually do few transactions per year compared to home inspectors. Average home inspector does 250 to 300 home per year. Home inspectors are ideally positioned to create the HomeBinder. Jack used to dodge managing people; he’s now embraced people management in his startup. Jack Huntress thinks people management can be greatly improved to the huge benefit of our economy. When you get a high-performing team it’s glorious. We should want to go to work. HomeBinder will be in Techstars Boston this year. Inspired by Clem Cazalot of Techstars to apply. Ideas are easy, getting it right is far more valuable than being the first to do something. There was Friendster, then there was My Space and then there was Facebook. Instant success that’s taken seven years. TED Talk by Bill Gross, a very useful way for angels and founders to spend seven minutes: (https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gross_the_single_biggest_reason_why_startups_succeed?language=en) CORRECTION: during the interview I mentioned Bill Gross, the bond genius. The Bill Gross I should have mentioned is the startup genius with the TED Talk linked above. The biggest factor for startup success is market timing, i.e. Lots of companies throw in the towel and a year later their market takes off. Why Jack decided to start a company. Jack was not a good fit at a large company; too impatient with things not being done right. First run at it was as an intrapreneur. Starting a company is like an itch. Like Jack’s need to build potato canons, trebuchets and the like. If you find yourself spending too much time on your hobby and too little time at work, you should take the hint that you’re in the wrong job. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone was a ditherer but his future father in law was not. Filed patent on the telephone just hours prior to another person. Jack’s story about Arthur D. Little & Co. Invented synthetic penicillin, color contact lenses, inkjet printing etc. Sold at a fire sale. Biggest obstacle was raising money. Bootstrapped for four years. Jack read his family into the business he was founding, yet being a startup CEO has been a very lonely experience. Techstars is a great place to find peers to talk to. Sal recommends finding a board member/investor that you can open up to. Jack Huntress’ parting thoughts: founders need to take care of themselves. Eat well, exercise and get enough sleep. Brings to mind wisdom of Brendan Schwartz that you can’t out hustle the competition, you can only out think them. How are you going to out think the competition if you’re exhausted from working twenty-hour days? Link to the Wistia Episode

ABOUT THE GUEST Victor Santos is the co-founder and CEO of Airfox. A graduate from UC Berkeley Victor currently lives in Boston and is originally from Brazil. AirFox’s vision is to make the mobile internet more affordable and accessible. Founded by ex-Googlers, AirFox quickly established itself as the leader in affordable data plans for prepaid wireless carriers. Incubated at Harvard’s Innovation Launch Lab, AirFox is a TechStars Boston alumni and is venture backed by Project 11, Launch Capital, and NXT Ventures, among others. DESCRIPTION We talk to Victor Santos, CEO and Co-founder of Airfox. Airfox has been in existence for a long time in the crypto world with the vision of unlocking mobile access to emerging market. Airfox started off by providing wireless care in USA in the form of sponsored internet and moved on to build an app based on blockchain technology. The browser application is designed for low end Android phones which save data while browsing. Every user using airfox browser is rewarded with airtokens which can be redeemed later. Know more about Airfox and Airtokens on this episode of CryptoKnights! LINKS Newsletter : www.airtoken.com Website: http://www.airfox.io/ To invest : www.whitelist.airtoken.com Victor Santos : www.linkedin.com/in/victordossantos Twitter : www.twitter.com/airtoken Whitepaper: https://www.airtoken.com/paper/AirFoxICO_WhitePaper_v3.0.pdf

Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a subscription video streaming and crowdfunding platform that gives filmmakers the power to take control of their careers. In 2011, she produced the feature film, Like the Water, starring Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex, Rectify). Since then she has served as executive producer on a host of film and virtual reality projects that have played at festivals from Sundance to SXSW to Tribeca and beyond. Most recently she created and co-directed the web series F*ck Yes!, which Refinery 29 called, "The sex education you wish you had in high school." Emily was named a 2013 Indiewire Influencer, a 2014 New York Woman of Influence, was included on the 2015 Upstart 100 list, and graduated from the 2016 class of Techstars Boston. She has raised millions of dollars in traditional funding, equity crowdfunding, and rewards based crowdfunding, and contributed to over 300 crowdfunding campaigns to date. For more information on Seed and Spark and Emily, please visit her website at: www.seedandspark.com. Seed and Spark can also be found on all social media sites: @seedandspark and on Twitter: @emilybest. You can, also, connect with Laura Powers at www.laurapowers.net. You can also find her on facebook and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers.

Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a subscription video streaming and crowdfunding platform that gives filmmakers the power to take control of their careers. In 2011, she produced the feature film, Like the Water, starring Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex, Rectify). Since then she has served as executive producer on a host of film and virtual reality projects that have played at festivals from Sundance to SXSW to Tribeca and beyond. Most recently she created and co-directed the web series F*ck Yes!, which Refinery 29 called, "The sex education you wish you had in high school." Emily was named a 2013 Indiewire Influencer, a 2014 New York Woman of Influence, was included on the 2015 Upstart 100 list, and graduated from the 2016 class of Techstars Boston. She has raised millions of dollars in traditional funding, equity crowdfunding, and rewards based crowdfunding, and contributed to over 300 crowdfunding campaigns to date. For more information on Seed and Spark and Emily, please visit her website at: www.seedandspark.com. Seed and Spark can also be found on all social media sites: @seedandspark and on Twitter: @emilybest. You can, also, connect with Laura Powers at www.laurapowers.net. You can also find her on facebook and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers.

Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a subscription video streaming and crowdfunding platform that gives filmmakers the power to take control of their careers. In 2011, she produced the feature film, Like the Water, starring Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex, Rectify). Since then she has served as executive producer on a host of film and virtual reality projects that have played at festivals from Sundance to SXSW to Tribeca and beyond. Most recently she created and co-directed the web series F*ck Yes!, which Refinery 29 called, "The sex education you wish you had in high school." Emily was named a 2013 Indiewire Influencer, a 2014 New York Woman of Influence, was included on the 2015 Upstart 100 list, and graduated from the 2016 class of Techstars Boston. She has raised millions of dollars in traditional funding, equity crowdfunding, and rewards based crowdfunding, and contributed to over 300 crowdfunding campaigns to date. For more information on Seed and Spark and Emily, please visit her website at: www.seedandspark.com. Seed and Spark can also be found on all social media sites: @seedandspark and on Twitter: @emilybest. You can, also, connect with Laura Powers at www.laurapowers.net. You can also find her on facebook and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers.

Semyon Dukach is currently the Program Director at Techstars Boston and is an angel investor with roughly over 100 investments. He is also the chairman of SharpSpring, which he took over in 2002 and then took public in 2011. He lead one of the MIT blackjack teams in the early nineties, has started a few companies, and in 2012 Semyon created “The Troublemaker Award”.   In this episode, Semyon talks about:   His time leading one of the MIT blackjack teams in the nineties   Why he loves investing in startups and what he looks for   Why he took a company public in 2011, despite not needing to raise money   Advice he would give to someone applying to Techstars   Why he created “The Troublemaker Award”   Links from today’s episode:   Semyon Dukach   SharpSpring   AccuRev   Techstars Boston   Troublemaker Award   If you liked this episode:   Follow the podcast on Twitter   Subscribe on iTunes or your podcast app and write a review   Get in touch with feedback, ideas, or to say hi: nic {AT} startupbostonpodcast [DOT] com   Music by: Broke For Free

Ty Danco is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and Program Director at Techstars Boston. Ty started his career on Wall St. then moved to Vermont where he founded, in 2000, and later sold, in 2006, eSecLending. A few years later he got involved with angel investing and made ‘every mistake in the book’. He has made ~75 direct investments into companies, including Crashlytics (sold to Twitter), Codeship, EverTrue, Appcues, and Drizly. Ty currently splits his time between Boston and Burlington, Vermont.   In this episode, Ty shares amongst other things: How he first got involved in Angel investing How his approach to angel investing has changed over time His decision making process The role he likes to take as an investor Why valuation is no longer a deciding factor for him Why you should underprice your funding round The types of entrepreneurs he looks for Tips for getting into Techstars   Links from this episode: AngelList Danny Moon Misfit wearables John Sculley Mark Suster Boston Tech Guide VentureFizz Botstinno Xconomy Starthub Boston.com MassChallenge Ty Danco’s blog post on Phil Beauregard Katie Rae Brent Grinna HubSpot Fred Wilson’s blog, AVC Brad Feld’s blog Alex Danco Social Capital Kensho Astreus Technologies If you liked this episode: Follow the podcast on Twitter Subscribe on iTunes or your podcast app and write a review Get in touch with feedback, ideas, or to say hi: nic {AT} startupbostonpodcast [DOT] com

Semyon Dukach, managing director of TechStars Boston, talks with us about what they look for in founders that are applying to the program. He also talks about the qualities of a good CEO, and how difficult it is to find. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick Francis, co-founder and CEO of Help Scout, brings a unique, middle-ground, perspective on funding and growth. He also talks about how going through TechStars Boston had a huge impact on their trajectory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices