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As a women's health founder, creativity is the backbone of your company's success. This is particularly true in an industry where less than 4% of all venture capital funding goes towards women's health. Using innovative and community-driven tactics to raise capital, test and launch your product, and earn revenue is essential. In this episode of FemInnovation, host Bethany Corbin sits down with Catherine Hendy, co-founder of ELANZA Wellness, to walk through her startup journey and the creative paths she's taken to fund her startup and contribute to long-term women's health research. Bethany and Catherine discuss pros, cons, and personal experiences with accelerator programs, raising venture capital funds, and crowdfunding; how to overcome the daily challenges of building a health tech product; how founders can use their product's data to contribute to women's health research; the power of technology to help patients actively manage their health; how to incorporate clinical and scientific voices into product development, and much more. Join us for an exciting episode to hear first-hand advice from a femtech founder whose making significant strides in the endometriosis field. About Catherine Hendy:Catherine Hendy is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of ELANZA Wellness, co-author of the book “Everything Egg Freezing” and an ex-BBC producer and program maker. She is focused on the intersection of technology, behavioral science, and wellbeing, is a member of the British Fertility Society, and judged the European Fertility Awards. Catherine was selected as one of 13 Innovators Shaping the Future of Health 2024 by Fortune Health. About ELANZA Wellness: ELANZA's virtual care platform, EverythingEndo, helps people with endometriosis unlock more symptom free days. Catherine and the founding team graduated Techstars New York in 2021 and are also backed by Human Ventures, Gaingels, the Accel Scout Fund, and leading angels in the digital health space. ELANZA has been named a “health startup to watch” by MedCity and has been featured in Techcrunch, BBC, NPR, Grazia, FemTech Insider, Future of FemTech, Women of Wearables, and more. RELEVANT LINKS: Learn more about ELANZA at this website. Purchase “Everything Egg Freezing” on Amazon. Connect with Our Guest, Catherine Hendy: LINKEDIN Follow Our Host, Bethany Corbin: WEBSITE | LINKEDIN | INSTAGRAM | ADDITIONAL LINKS
Gary Stewart learned the biggest limitation life could throw at him (even at Yale) was Gary. Learning to balance self confidence and boldness with perseverance through tough times helped Gary to meet British Royals, scale billion dollar startup portfolios in Spain and U.K., and return to the U.S. to lead one of the country's most reputable accelerators.After helping European conglomerates build a multi-billion dollar portfolio, Gary returned to the States to help founders find their tribe, demystifying the "warm intro" and flipping various power dynamics on their proverbial head.Why Interview Gary Stewart and Founder Tribes?Gary sheds light on the inner mindset of a successful founder while providing practical tips for the aspiring tech entrepreneur. Listen to find out how you can elevate your founder mind, and let us know if you agree.As the Managing Director of Techstars New York, Gary wears multiple hats in this conversation and with stories that will stick with you even after our outro.Considering overlooking this episode because you don't know anything about accelerators?Listen to Part I and Part II to the end and learn why understanding your building a tribe is the key to scaling overseas and beyond.We even discuss Gary's Jamaican roots and unwavering self belief in proving others wrong, of which we all can relate.What Will I Learn From This Episode?As a founder or emerging fund manager, you'll learn what it takes to build an anti-fragile tribe.Join us for a special conversation with Gary Stewart, providing your added motivation with practical tips you can leverage to succeed in the world of early stage startups and venture capital.Subscribe and Review the #11 Podcast for Startups in 2022 as voted by Feedspot.Checkout the full list here-> https://blog.feedspot.com/startup_podcasts/Ranked in top 15% of podcasts shared globally on Spotify.Join us on our journey to earn 50 ratings on iTunes and Spotify!Start you own podcast here (we may receive a small commission if you sign up).See you inside…Questions Answered Inside:1. What is Founder Tribes?2. What do founders get out of Techstars?3. What are investors looking for at various stages?Connect with Gary Stewart using the links below:Gary StewartLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garystew/details/experience/Founder TribesWebsite: https://foundertribes.com/Techstars New York (Powered by J.P. Morgan)Website: https://www.techstars.com/
Gary Stewart learned the biggest limit in life (even at Yale) was himself. Learning to balance self confidence and boldness with perseverance through tough times helped Gary meet British Royals, scale startups in Spain, and return to the U.S. to lead one of the country's most reputable accelerators. After helping European conglomerates build a multi-billion dollar portfolio, Gary returned to the States to help founders find their tribe, demystifying the "warm intro" and turning various power dynamics on their proverbial head. Why Interview Gary Stewart and Founder Tribes?Gary sheds light on the inner mind of a successful founder while providing practical tips for the aspiring tech entrepreneur. Listen to find out how, and let us know if you agree.As the Managing Director of Techstars New York, Gary wears multiple hats and with conversations and stories that will stick with you even after this episode.Considering overlooking this episode because you don't know anything about accelerators?Listen to Part I to the end and learn why understanding building a tribe is the key to scaling overseas and beyond.We even discuss Gary's Jamaican roots and an unwavering self belief to prove others wrong, of which we all can relate. What Will I Learn From This Episode?As a founder or emerging fund manager, you'll learn what it takes to build a tribe that sticks. Join us for a special conversation with Gary Stewart, providing your added motivation with practical tips you can leverage to succeed in the world of early stage startups and venture capital.Follow and Review the #11 Podcast for Startups in 2022 as voted by Feedspot.Checkout the full list here-> https://blog.feedspot.com/startup_podcasts/Join us on our journey to earn 50 ratings on iTunes and Spotify!Start you own podcast here (we may receive a small commission if you sign up).See you inside…Questions Answered Inside:1. What is Founder Tribes?2. How did you build a tech team as a non-technical founder?3. Should founders join accelerators?Connect with Gary Stewart using the links below:Gary StewartLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garystew/details/experience/ Founder TribesWebsite: https://foundertribes.com/ Techstars New York (Powered by J.P. Morgan)Website: https://www.techstars.com/
Jenny Fielding is a two-time founder, pre-seed investor, mentor and entrepreneur from New York. She was the Managing Director of Techstars New York for 7.5 years, before founding her own pre-seed investment fund - The Fund - of which is currently a General Partner.
Stream might be a small startup company, but by listening to its customers and their needs, the company decided to launch a second product that helped it scale. “Focusing only on a single product, it was hard to go for larger channels that are not well-targeted, so we needed to have a broader product offering to really scale up,” said founder and CEO Thierry Schellenbach. “I think that's the one thing in terms of advice for founders, I think you need to look at those metrics and we could have probably raised like an A and B rounds, like earlier on the activity feed business, but it would've been really hard to scale given the unit economics and where they were. So we ended up launching chat, doing well in that space, and then doubling down on like the A and to B. And I think that's been very successful for us.”Listen as Thierry describes the company's coming-to-America moment through Techstars New York and moving its headquarters to Colorado, and all the support he received from business leaders throughout the process.Also, don't miss Thierry and David discussing the difference between Europe and the U.S. when it comes to startup investing, how the pandemic changed how startups launch investment rounds, and how the role of CEO changes as a company scales.Follow Thierry Schellenbach on Twitter @tschellenbachFollow David Cohen on Twitter @davidcohenListen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Miguel Armaza sits down with Kelly Fryer, Executive Director of FinTech Sandbox, a nonprofit that promotes innovation in the financial sector worldwide by providing FinTech entrepreneurs and startups with access to critical data and resources at no cost. The Fintech Sandbox accepts new startup applications on a rolling basis, so if you or someone you know is part of a fintech startup that could benefit from this critical program, make sure to apply! We discuss: - Kelly’s background and why she’s so passionate about new technologies and their applications in the financial industry - The importance of access to data and resources for early-stage startups and how the Fintech Sandbox helps democratize access to information - Their application process, program structure, and the kind of startup they typically look for - Driving Inclusive Fintech and why this is one of Kelly’s most important goals - And just a lot more! Kelly Fryer Kelly Fryer is the Executive Director of FinTech Sandbox, where she leads the organization’s strategy, operations, and community. Given her experience both partnering with major financial services companies and cultivating FinTech startups, Kelly is excited to continue to build out FinTech Sandbox’s vision. Prior to the Sandbox, Kelly was the Director of Techstars’ FinTech accelerator program - the Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars New York. She managed the accelerator operations and fostered the community for three years, as well as sourced, selected, and advised early-stage FinTech startups. Kelly also spent several years on Bloomberg LP’s Global Data team - managing relationships with financial data providers and banks, running the custom index business, and leading technical projects for the department. Kelly received her MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, focusing on Corporate Innovation and Venture Development. About FinTech Sandbox FinTech Sandbox is a nonprofit that promotes innovation in financial technology and financial services globally by providing FinTech entrepreneurs and startups with access to critical data and resources at no cost. The company accepts new startup applications for its Data Access Program on a rolling basis, and has accepted over 230 startups into the program since launching six years ago. FinTech Sandbox also hosts Boston FinTech Week, next taking place from September 28 - October 1, 2021. For more information, please visit https://fintechsandbox.org & https://www.twitter.com/FinTechSandbox For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Miguel's Twitter: twitter.com/MiguelArmaza Miguel's Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp
Catherine Hendy is Co-founder of ELANZA Wellness, a behavioral health coaching platform that helps fertility clinics easily provide lifestyle and emotional support to patients, for better experiences and outcomes. ELANZA was recently selected for Techstars New York, an accelerator program for the world’s most promising startups. Catherine and her cofounder, Brittany Hawkins, started the company after their own experiences of gaps in fertility care and have just launched the ELANZA Wellness Whole Patient Care Initiative - asking clinicians who care about diversity, equity and inclusion, emotional support and patient-centric operations to sign the pledge, as well as past and current patients to share their experiences of care. We discussed types of fertility-related issues, fertility clinics and egg freezing. Check out ELANZA Wellness at www.elanzawellness.com Rate, Review & Subscribe!
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
David Tisch is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Box Group, one of the leading seed focused firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Airtable, Glossier, PillPack, Plaid and many more. Prior to founding Box, David was Managing Director of Techstars New York and was a prolific angel investor making early angel investments in the likes of Vine and Warby Parker to name a few. In Today’s Episode with David Tisch You Will Learn: 1.) How David made his way into the world of tech and startups and came to change the state of seed funding in NYC with the founding of Box Group? 2.) Why does David believe that ownership requirements are "VCs projecting their problems on founders"? Why does David believe that ownership today fundamentally does not matter? How does David feel about his own relationship to price? Why is it important to be price aware across the portfolio, not on a per deal basis? 3.) What does David make of the rise of pre-emptive rounds? How does David advise portfolio founders who have them on the table? What other arguments does David use to founders contemplating taking seed rounds from multi-stage funds? How does David believe founders should assess their importance to the fund investing in them? 4.) How does David feel about his relationship to FOMO today? What have been some of his biggest misses in recent years? How have some of his biggest misses changed how he acts as an investor today? How have some of his biggest successes changed his investing lens? What changes did David and Box make to their decision-making process as a result? 5.) What does David believe are the biggest mistakes to turn down a company? Why is "too early" never a reason to turn down a company? How does David assess and think about market size today? Through what framework does David evaluate and assess competition today? What does David believe are some core concerns that are reasonable to turn down an opportunity? Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with David Tisch David’s Most Recent Investment: Ramp As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
This is a segment of Forward Thinking Investors, featuring Jenny Fielding! Jenny is the Managing Director of Techstars New York and Managing Partner at The Fund.
In this episode, Hall welcomes Soraya Darabi, General Partner of Trail Mix Ventures (TMV). TMV is an early-stage venture firm investing in the future of living well. TMV backs start-up companies focused on ideas that will reshape industries or inspire new ones. Fund I and Fund II investments focus on: frontier health organizations, marketplaces and design-driven technologies. Soraya began her career in journalism at The New York Times, positioning them on large social networks. She has also partnered with startups large and small, establishing award-winning campaigns. Soraya has appeared on magazine covers, mentored for TechStars New York, and is also a podcast host. She graduated with honors from Georgetown University and completed the Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century module at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is currently on the board of the non-profit Yamba Malawi in New York City and is in her 12th year helping the organization connect to global entrepreneurs. Soraya shares her advice for both investors and entrepreneurs and discusses her fund’s thesis with Hall.Visit Trail Mix Ventures at . Soraya can be reached via LinkedIn at , via Twitter at , via Instagram @Soraya and via email at soraya@trailmix.vc.
The Fund, an early-stage investment firm with a memorably straightforward name, is looking beyond New York City as it starts investing its second fund. Founders Jenny Fielding (who's also managing director at Techstars New York) and Scott Hartley (also co-founder and partner at Two Culture Capital) told me that in the past two years, they've […]
Welcome to Episode 101 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Alex Iskold, Managing Partner at 2048 Ventures. Alex is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record of success. Recently, he was the Managing Director for Techstars New York, where he ran the program for five years. Alex is now onto the next chapter in his career. He has launched an early stage venture capital firm called 2048 Ventures with his Partner, Paul Sethi. The firm recently announced a $27M fund which will be used to invest in exceptional first-time entrepreneurs or repeat founders with a first-time founder mindset, which is a term that he explains during our interview. Another important strategy for this firm is the fact that they will be taking a location agnostic approach. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of topics, like: -Alex's background story going back to when he immigrated to the US when he was 19, and his early positions on Wall Street. -His experience as a serial entrepreneur and the companies he founded. -How he got involved in Techstars, and what that experience taught him after running the program, plus some practical advice for getting into this top accelerator. -All the details on 2048 Ventures and what they are targeting for investments. -The questions that entrepreneurs should ask investors. -What is the “magic moment” that a company should be looking for? -The current state of the NY tech scene. -Plus, a lot more. Brex, the corporate credit card for startups, is the sponsor for this week's podcast. Brex founders Henrique and Pedro built a payments business in Brazil, but kept getting rejected for a corporate credit card when they were in Y Combinator. So they decided to build Brex, with instant online sign-up, no founder liability required and limits 10 to 20 times higher than standard cards. It is a must-have for entrepreneurs. Sign up for Brex at brex.com and get card fees waived by entering the code “fizz” during signup. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!
Origins - A podcast about Limited Partners, created by Notation Capital
David Tisch is a founder and managing partner of Box Group, the most prolific angel and seed investing firm in NYC, where they're investors in companies such as Pillpack, Flatiron Health, GroupMe, Plaid, Roman, among many others. He previously co-founded Techstars New York, a fixture of the NYC tech community for many years, and is the head of Cornell Tech's Startup Studio. In this episode, we discuss how Box Group has stuck to its knitting over the years by continuing to focus on the earliest stages of startup investing, how investors do (and don't) add value to the companies they work with, how the NYC tech community has evolved over the past decade, and how Box Group may evolve in the future. David is one of the most colorful and genuine guests we've had on Origins, and so it's no surprise that this interview was one of the most fun we've done to date.
David Heimann is the Co-founder & CTO of Purple. David is originally from Gothenburg, Sweden but came to the US for school. Having always been more technical, he focused on the business side of things. After graduation, he took on several sales roles to deepen his skills before joining a development studio called InfiniOne. There David really learnt the in-and-outs of product management and operating as a lean startup. David is now working on his own company, Purple, which he helped launch by working with Rebecca Harris. Originally a long content format website dedicated to political news and information, Rebecca and David noticed that people - especially their peers - didn’t seem to be connecting with the content they were creating. So they re-imagined the format and discovered that SMS and Messaging apps were a more popular way to share and engage with their audience. Purple was then accepted into the Techstars New York accelerator and continues to grow its reach as a platform. David joins us to share his story, how he started his career in tech, some of the most valuable startup lessons he learnt while building products for other people, what it was like going through Techstars, why Messaging is such an engaging medium, and much more!
Hear how Josh Porter and his MakersKit co-founders went from zero sales to over 300,000 units sold in less than three years. Listen as he describes their unique evolution to becoming a product-based company selling to over 4000 retailer doors and in every state in the U.S. Leave a Rating & Review in iTunes for the Product Launch Rebel Podcast (http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1136273740) Episode Outline: 0:45 – Introduction to Josh Porter, Co-Founder and CEO of MakersKit. MakersKit is a producer of do-it-yourself project kits sold in specialty retailer stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe. 2:53 – Start of the “Give Me the Basics” Podcast Segment 3:02 – Josh describes MakersKit and what makes it unique. He talks about the scope of products offered and the retailers that sell MakersKit. 5:45 – Josh talks about what drives the need for do-it-yourself products. 7:09 – Josh describes his team, Mike Stone, Chief Creative Officer, and Alex Froelich, Chief Product Officer. 9:40 – Josh talks about the number of retail doors they are selling to now (4,000 to 6,000). Retailers include Macy’s, TJ Maxx, Urban Outfitters, Tilly’s, West Elm, Williams Sonoma and others. They are sold in every state in the U.S. 10:24 – Josh answers a question about whether his business assumptions have changed since they started the business. He describes how it took them over two years to figure out their business model, and how they’ve become more data driven. He talks about getting to know their customers and to learn what they’re looking for. He talks about how they’ve used social media to identify product opportunities. 12:00 – Josh talks about how MakersKit started in San Francisco. They started doing fun do-it-yourself workshops on the weekends, which became popular. Then Google invited them to the Google Plex to do some projects. Google helped them create their first videos. MakersKit was published in a San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article, thereby being discovered by Macy’s (the retailer). This led to them being accepted into MakersKit’s first Techstars experience in New York. 15:56 – Start of the “Tell Me How” Podcast Segment 16:10 – Josh describes how they raised money for the business. Starting out, they bootstrapped the company with some financing from family members. Techstars New York helped them find additional financing sources. MakersKit made a list of over 200 investors and talked to those that were the right fit for their business. Josh describes the importance of building relationships with financing sources. 21:05 – Josh talks about how they manufactured their product. They started in a studio in Los Angeles, then moved to a warehouse downtown Los Angeles. Then they moved to a third-party logistics company. They sought a manufacturing firm in the middle of the United States to keep shipping costs down. They had to find a partner that was excited about the product. 23:20 – Josh describes manufacturer partner challenges. He mentions that their biggest challenge is that MakersKit is based on the west coast, but the manufacturer is in the middle of the U.S. He describes that it can be frustrating because there’s a distance. But the benefits outweigh the costs. 24:40 – Josh talks about how they approached retailers to sell the product for the first time. They got their first big order from Macy’s based on a news story that Macy’s heard about. Josh talks about the importance of finding a way to “stand out” so that the buyer chooses your product to be sold in their store. 26:45 – Josh describes how they set the price of their product. He talks about the challenge of selling the product 50 percent off the retail price so the retailer gets the margin they need. 28:25 – Josh describes how they are able to create awareness and demand for the product on small marketing budgets. They are able to leverage their retailers and an influencer audience. They leverage their own...
In today's episode, Dave interviews Alex Iskold, a 2 time founder, an angel investor, and the Managing Director of Techstars New York. Techstars is one of the most prominent startup accelerators in the world. Techstars make entrepreneurship accessible by opening doors to capital, mentorship, marketing, business development, customer acquisition, and talent recruitment. Like many accelerators, Tech Stars runs 13-week programs and also invests in its member companies. Today's guest Alex Iskold founded GetGlue, which was acquired in 2013 and Information Laboratory which was acquired in 2003. Alex writes a great blog about startups and venture capital at alexiskold.net and you can follow him on twitter at @alexiskold.
Originally recorded in April 2011, in this episode, Dave interviewed David Tisch. At the time of the recording, David and his team had just completed Techstars New York's first cycle - this interview took place two days after Techstars' first demo day in New York at Webster Hall. Dave and David talk about the origins of Techstars New York, how to build a great accelerator class, and some of the most exciting companies from that first Techstars NYC class. David also discusses angel investing through his investment firm Box Group. At the time of the interview, Box Group had invested in 27 companies. Now, Box Group has become one of the most prolific New York-based seed investing firms, having backed over 150 companies including Warby Parker, Blue Apron, Class Pass, Harry's, Handy, and Spring, which David co-founded. Box Group has some notable exits including Sunrise, Vine and Behance.
Digital Preservation 2013 Speaker: Hillary Mason chief scientist at bitly, co-founder of HackNY, creator of dataists, and member of NYCResistor, opened Digital Preservation 2013 with her keynote talk on the delicacies of data. Hilary Mason is the chief scientist at bitly, a company that studies attention on the internet in realtime, doing a mix of research, exploration, and engineering. Mason co-founded HackNY, a non-profit that helps talented engineering students find their way into the startup community of creative technologists in New York City. She is also an advisor to a few organizations, including knod.es, collective, and DataKind, as well as a mentor to Betaspring, the Providence, Rhode Island-based startup accelerator, and TechStars New York. She’s a member of Mayor Bloomberg’s Technology and Innovation Advisory Council, which has been a fascinating way to learn how government and industry can work together. For more information visit http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/multimedia/videos/hillary-mason.html&loclr=itb