Podcasts about Uncork Capital

Deloitte announced that it has acquired all of the assets of SimplrOps, a boutique enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company known for streamlining and automating Workday, SAP and Oracle operations and implementations. https://hrtechfeed.com/deloitte-acquires-hcm-tech-play/ SAN FRANCISCO — Final Round AI, an AI-powered platform transforming how people find jobs, today announced the successful close of a $6.88 million oversubscribed seed funding round. With backing from Uncork Capital, Final Round AI is on a mission to become the “Robin Hood of the modern recruiting industry,” making career transitions faster, smarter, and more equitable.  https://hrtechfeed.com/interview-copilot-tool-lands-6-88-million-in-funding/ Talroo, the leading provider of technology to power the recruitment of frontline and skilled trades professionals, today introduced a new technology partnership with UKG TalentXi, a leading recruitment marketing platform, will partner with Betterleap The Adecco Group, has strengthened its partnership with Bullhorn Workday, Inc. and TechWolf today announced a partnership https://hrtechfeed.com/january-hr-tech-partnerships-4/  

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — Funding the Future. In today's episode, we're speaking with Susan Liu, Partner at Uncork Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm investing out of a $200 Million fund. Here are the most interesting points from our conversation: Shift to Seed-Stage Investing: Susan transitioned from later-stage investing at Scale Venture Partners to focusing on seed-stage at Uncork Capital, driven by her passion for working with founders at the earliest stages of their journey. State of Enterprise Software: The current enterprise software market is challenging, with traditional SaaS seeing budget constraints. However, AI-driven solutions are gaining traction, often backed by separate AI budgets within enterprises. AI Investment Strategy: While there's a surge in AI startups, Susan emphasizes the importance of founder-market fit and differentiation, as many companies are tackling similar problems in the AI space. Evaluating Early-Stage Startups: Susan looks for a strong founding team with market experience, a large addressable market, and a compelling product wedge when evaluating seed-stage opportunities. Traits of Successful Founders: Founders with deep industry experience, grit, and the ability to learn quickly tend to have a higher success rate, particularly in B2B markets. Advice for Series A: For seed-stage founders preparing for Series A, Susan advises demonstrating strong revenue growth and capital efficiency, as these are key factors that attract investors in the current market.   //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co    

Vous voulez entendre l'histoire du premier fonds d'investissement “early stage” au monde ?Jeff Clavier est un incontournable dans le monde des VC (Venture Capitalist). Entre l'audace et la naïveté, il lance son premier fonds et parvient à faire x17 en moins d'un an.En 2007, quand Jeff a démarré son fonds, il était parmi les premiers à le faire dans la Silicon Valley. Aujourd'hui, plus de 2000 sociétés se sont créées pour faire la même chose.Il est aujourd'hui à la tête de Uncork Capital et finance les start-ups dans leur phase de lancement. Des paris excessivement risqués mais très rentables pour qui sait attendre et miser sur quelques bons chevaux.Chaque année, des milliers d'entreprises viennent vers Jeff et ses partenaires.“On dit non à 90% des boîtes littéralement en l'espace de 3 secondes.”Il nous dévoile le pourquoi du comment :Les pires “red flags” chez les fondateursLe fonctionnement des VC aux USComment ne pas passer (à nouveau) à côté d'UberLa recette pour minimiser le risqueComment les investisseurs analysent les dossiers et diversifient leur portefeuilleQuelles sont les meilleures opportunités aujourd'huiUn épisode enregistré “au cœur de réacteur” à Menlo Park dans la Silicon Valley qui nous livre les secrets des meilleurs investissements et toutes les clés pour se mettre à jour sur la finance “spéciale start-up”.TIMELINE:00:00:00 : Lancer son fonds sur fonds propres (débile ?)00:14:01 : Comprendre la valorisation et l'introduction en Bourse dans le monde des start-ups00:24:24 : Le fonctionnement des VCs aux US00:30:29 : Comment Jeff choisit les entreprises dans lesquelles investir ou non00:35:00 : Les pires et les meilleures décisions de sa carrière00:46:24 : Le régime Biden-Harris : un frein à l'innovation ?00:50:10 : Les avantages de la culture de l'actionnariat01:00:13 : La philosophie du Venture Capitalism01:10:13 : Les “red flags” chez les fondateurs de start-up01:16:24 : Les conseils d'un vétéran du capital-risque01:23:59 : Dans quoi investir aujourd'huiLes anciens épisodes de GDIY mentionnés :#229 - Frédéric Montagnon - Arianee - Le WEB3 pour se réapproprier Internet#259 - Thibaud Elziere - eFounders - Startups, Web3, voile solaire et maisons de luxe : quand la curiosité n'a plus de limites.#280 - Loic Le Meur - PAWA, Leade.rs, LeWeb - “The revenant” : devenir gardien de la forêt puis revenir au business pour changer le monde#214 - Mathilde Collin - Front - Créer les conditions de son bonheur au travail#393 - Renaud Visage - Eventbrite, Slate.vc - De l'API à l'IPO : le français derrière Eventbrite#409 - Alexandre Jardin - Auteur, yourscrib.ai - Peut-on laisser la folie gouverner sa vie ?#354 - Alex Bouaziz - Deel - Fonder discrètement une décacorne valorisée à 12 milliards de dollars, pour devenir le plus gros DRH du mondeNous avons parlé de :Uncork CapitalOVNITravis Kalanick ex CEO d'UberCarlos DiazIlan AbehasseraLes recommandations de lecture : Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the FutureBe useful - 7 principes pour une vie meilleureVous pouvez contacter Jeff sur Linkedin ou sur X.La musique du générique vous plaît ? C'est à Morgan Prudhomme que je la dois ! Contactez-le sur : https://studio-module.com. Vous souhaitez sponsoriser Génération Do It Yourself ou nous proposer un partenariat ? Contactez mon label Orso Media via ce formulaire.

Min-Kyu Jung is the CEO and co-founder at Ivo, an AI contract law assistant for legal teams, which has raised $6.2 million in funding total from investors including Uncork Capital, Fika Ventures, GD1, Phase One, and Daniel Gross. Min-Kyu got the idea for Ivo (previously Latch) while working as a corporate lawyer in New Zealand, when he saw how much time, effort and money were spent drawing up agreements. His entrepreneurial streak got the better of him — drawn to what he saw as “low-hanging fruit”, under-optimised processes around him in the legal profession, he taught himself how to code in two months and took the leap to start a startup.Ivo works in Microsoft Word to explain legal terms, determine if clauses are market standard and instantly create a summary of an agreement to help speed up the process. After a cold outbound DM landed him an angel investment from Daniel Gross in San Francisco, he moved his whole team over for an initial three months — and never looked back. He thinks other kiwi founders - at least those who aspire to be at the frontiers of AI - should do the same, and issues a challenge to other founders to reflect on where they need to locate to maximise their chances of success.He's not afraid to roll up his sleeves and do the work to sell, get connected with people... even if that means lots of cold outbound: “Kiwis tend to be modest and avoid making impositions on others. You will need to overcome this cultural quirk and simply cold email / DM people you find interesting.” We talk about how social capital flows in the Bay Area, and how it helped him build a local network, recruit his team, land hundreds of customer conversations, and more: “The SF Bay Area has a strong culture of paying it forward. Successful people here are often willing to spend time and social capital helping founders with no network if they seem to be working on something interesting.” We talk about his thesis for AI product development, how founders should think about designing user experiences, how Ivo handles issues with Large Language Model (“LLM”) reliability and hallucinations, and how he's preparing to leverage ever more powerful AI models to his advantage in coming years. This was a fun episode to record — we look forward to your feedback!!  Where to find Min-Kyu online:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/min-kyu-jung/* Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/mkjungKnow an expat we should feature on diaspora.nz? * reach out via david@diaspora.nz This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.diaspora.nz

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We are back with Amy Saper, partner at Uncork Capital. Amy shares her journey from Silicon Valley operator at Twitter and Stripe to venture capitalist. She talks about Uncork's strategy, including its recent $200 million seed fund and $200 million opportunity fund, and how the firm balances growth with specialization.Investors will find her perspective on non-consensus investing particularly compelling, as she outlines how she evaluates technical teams and market potential. Successful founders attract and develop talent. Finally, she reflects on her move to Uncork and shares her key learnings as an institutional investor.A word from our sponsorIn the fast-paced world of startups, every decision counts. And for venture-backed startups, choosing the right banking partner can make all the difference. That's why you need to consider Grasshopper Bank. Nationally chartered and headquartered in New York City, Grasshopper Bank is a client-first digital bank built to serve the business and innovation economy, combining the best of banking technology and years of industry expertise to deliver best-in-class experiences with trusted security and unparalleled support. Join the ranks of forward-thinking entrepreneurs who love their digital platform by applying online in as little as 5 minutes from any device today at www.grasshopper.bank.Grasshopper - where banking meets innovation.About Amy Saper:Amy Saper is a Partner at Uncork Capital, where she invests in seed-stage B2B SaaS, API-first, and fintech companies. Previously, she spent four years as an early-stage partner at Accel where she led seed and Series A investments in companies such as Gamma, Beam, Complete, and Sprinter Health.Prior to her venture career, she worked at Stripe, Uber, and Twitter launching products, business lines and new markets, in product marketing, product management, business development and international expansion roles.She received her BS and MBA from Stanford University.In this episode, we discuss:(02:27) Amy discusses her background, including her experience at Twitter, Stripe, and her transition to venture capital(08:00) Joining Uncork Capital, the firm's history, and the recent funds they have raised(09:14) Comparing the culture of a firm with that of a startup and discusses the importance of sticking to the core focus(15:17) How Uncork Capital decided on its fund strategy and the balance they struck between fund size and being lead investors(18:28) Product market fit in Venture firm and how she delivers value to founders(24:27) How constraints can foster creativity and the importance of staying focused in a capital-constrained market(28:49) The challenges startups face in raising Series A funding and the importance of balancing focus and growth.(34:37) Non-Consensus investing and what she looks for in founders(37:17) The importance of a founder's ability to attract and develop talent and shares her thoughts on whether this can be learned(42:13) What attracted her to Uncork Capital and how the team dynamics influenced her decision(45:40) The one thing she knows now that she wishes she knew when she started investingI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Amy. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Ari Tulla is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur, co-founder, and CEO of the smart nutrition service Elo. Elo uses an AI personalization engine to turn food from the cause of disease into your best medicine. Ari is also an active angel investor and advisor with a portfolio of 50 startups, including Virta Health, Verge Motorcycles, Levels, and Ōura. Previously, Ari was the CEO of Quest Analytics, the market leader in doctor data and network management. Ari led the company through a pivotal growth stage from $15M to $40M in revenue. Before joining Quest Analytics, Ari was co-founder and CEO of BetterDoctor, a doctor search engine. BetterDoctor raised $30M from first-tier investors, including NEA and Uncork Capital. In June 2018, BetterDoctor was acquired by private equity firm Vestar Capital. Before BetterDoctor, Ari led Nokia's game and application studios. After years of family health struggles, Ari has dedicated his life to building companies that help people live better. His companies, BetterDoctor, Quest Analytics, and Elo, have helped over a hundred million people gain better access to healthcare. When not working or parenting his two young children with his wife, Ari spends his time on the steep cliffs, powdery slopes, and big cold waves that only Northern California can offer. What you will learn Explore the origins of mobile gaming with a Nokia innovator who helped launch the first popular mobile game Trace the meteoric rise of mobile gaming from a small niche to surpassing the music, movie, and book industries Ari shares his firsthand experiences as an entrepreneur instrumental in shaping the early mobile and smartphone markets Discover how personal health challenges propelled Ari into creating health-focused startups Understand the transformative impact of integrating AI and nutrition to revolutionize personal health solutions Gain insights into the evolution of health tech, and the future role of AI and wearable devices in enhancing wellness

Ann Bordetsky, partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), joins us in this episode to discuss how AI is creating new business categories and transforming the tech industry. Ann shares her journey through the tech world, her role in supporting startups, and the keys to building successful businesses today. She highlights the importance of understanding market trends and customer needs to innovate and stay ahead. Listen to Ann's unique experiences and get valuable advice for entrepreneurs and investors keen on navigating the evolving landscape of tech with AI. This episode is ideal for anyone curious about technology, startups, and innovation in business. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in early-stage startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency, VSC. Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem. Chapters: 1. 0:00 - Introduction and Overview of Category Creation 2. 6:09 - The Role of First Movers in Market Evolution 3. 12:15 - Attributes of a Successful Category-Creating Founder 4. 18:25 - Depth and Vision in Pitching Ideas 5. 24:50 - Validating New Categories 6. 30:55 - The Impact of AI on Small and Medium Businesses 7. 37:05 - Lessons from Mobile Era and Patience in Investing 8. 43:43 - Democratizing Creative Tooling with AI 9. 49:46 - Supporting Female Founders 10. 56:13 - Final Thoughts and Advice for Founders Pitching to Investors

Join us in this episode as we talk with Jason Shuman, a General Partner at Primary Ventures. Jason shares his journey from selling shoes to becoming a big name in venture capital and we dive deep into how venture capitalists like him support and grow startups. Jason talks about his early days of starting his own business, his experiences, and how he moved into the world of investing. He explains what startups need to do to succeed and how investors can really help them grow. You'll hear stories from Jason's own life, like how driving for Uber helped him make important business connections. He also gives us a peek into his strategies for picking and supporting new companies. This episode is a must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs, seasoned investors, and anyone interested in the transformative power of venture capital. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in early-stage startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency, VSC. Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem. Chapters - 0:00 - Intro: Value and Impact of Venture Capital 5:05 - The Growth and Influence of New York's Tech Ecosystem 10:17 - Leveraging the "X for Y" Investment Framework 15:10 - The Strategic Use of AI for Enhancing Small Businesses 20:04 - Understanding the Dynamics of SMB Customer Acquisition 25:00 - The Role and Impact of Expert Networks in Venture Capital 30:44 - Discussing the Distinct Approach of Primary's Investment Team 35:42 - Insights into the Scale and Incentives in Venture Capital 40:16 - The Significance of Being Present and Engaged in Investments 45:21 - Practical Advice for Founders on Learning and Networking 50:02 - Closing Remarks and Reflections on Venture Capital Practices

In this episode, we welcome Sunil Paul, a pioneer in ride-sharing and a significant figure in sustainable transportation. Paul, who started Sidecar and influenced the early stages of Getaround, dives into his newest venture, Spring Free EV. With his extensive experience, including his early work as a NASA contractor and AOL's first internet product manager, Paul brings a rich history of innovation and policy analysis. Join us as Sunil Paul shares his journey from a technology policy analyst in Washington D.C. to becoming a cornerstone in the evolution of ride-sharing and electric vehicles. The discussion unpacks the origins and future of Spring Free EV, emphasizing its role in transitioning fleet vehicles from gas to electric through innovative financing models. Paul elaborates on the challenges and potential of electric vehicles in solving the climate crisis, reflecting on how electrification can aid in managing renewable energy sources like solar and wind due to battery storage capabilities. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in early-stage startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC. Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem.

We welcome Peter Relan, a seasoned Silicon Valley veteran with a rich 40-year history of entrepreneurship and investment. Renowned for founding the YouWeb Incubator, Relan has been instrumental in the early stages of companies that have become household names, such as Discord. His early engagement with VSC Ventures has been invaluable, and his participation promises a wealth of knowledge and experience. Relan shares the compelling story behind Discord's success, emphasizing the importance of a strong founding team, innovative thinking, and the right investor support. The conversation also turns to Relan's unique approach with YouWeb, where he opts for a deeply involved, personalized mentoring method, distinguishing his work from more conventional, larger-scale incubators. His ability to foresee and act on emerging trends, from digital entertainment to the latest advancements in climate technology, highlights his forward-thinking approach. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in early-stage startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC. Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem.

This week, we host Kate McAndrew, founding partner of Baukunst. We discuss the ‘art of building' successful startups and VC firms as well as the philosophy and practices that have driven Kate to find and invest in groundbreaking technologies over her venture career. From building and leading a $100 million Fund I to championing innovative business models, Kate shares her journey and insights on taking risks, the importance of art and design in technology, and how to be the perfect board member for transformative companies. If you're curious about what it takes to build the future and create category-defining companies that matter, this conversation is for you. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in early-stage startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC. Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem. Chapters 00:00:00 Trailer 00:00:44 Introduction 00:07:21 What's the secret to leading pre-seed rounds successfully 00:11:33 How do founders find the right Venture Capital fit 00:20:57 Focusing solely on the end goal can lead to failure 00:23:29 How do founders stay motivated for goals YEARS AWAY 00:33:26 Resume Versus Real Experience: What Matters Most? 00:35:40 How an Airbnb executive created a baby formula brand 00:41:36 Why some founders succeed without deep industry experience 00:45:54 How do Venture Capital Teams handle competition 00:49:50 Being too hard on yourself can doom your startup 00:53:19 Technology isn't the only answer to climate change

We're honored to host Sunil Nagaraj, a visionary investor in the intersection of deep tech and climate innovation, and founding partner of Ubiquity Ventures. Nagaraj's unique perspective on "software beyond the screen" and his commitment to supporting early-stage, tech-driven startups are at the forefront of our discussion. We dive into the essence of nurturing technologies with disciplined financing and the strategic scaling of startups to mitigate climate change. Our conversation spans a variety of topics, from the complexities of venture capital in the climate tech space to the pivotal role of startups in driving substantial change. Sunil shares insights on the importance of focusing on high-impact areas and the potential pitfalls in the startup ecosystem, particularly emphasizing the significance of avoiding the "moonshot culture" that often hinders the progress of deep tech ventures. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in early-stage startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC. Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem. Links discussed in this episode: Moonshot Culture is Strangling Deeptech article: https://www.ubqt.vc/p/moonshot-culture-is-strangling-deeptech Ubiquity University: https://university.ubiquity.vc/

Bob Moore is the founder of Crossbeam, which is a platform-led ecosystem that helps companies build sales partnerships by understanding their overlapping accounts using a process called account mapping. There is a vast network effect as customers attract other partners to the network. The Company raised $117 million from notable investors such as Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from prior round lead investors Redpoint Ventures, FirstMark Capital, First Round Capital and Uncork Capital, along with Salesforce Ventures, HubSpot Ventures and Okta Ventures.So far that network has grown to 18,000 companies. If you like our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe and support us on your favorite podcast players. We also would appreciate your feedback and rating to reach more people.We recently launched our new newsletter, Principles Friday, where I share one principle that can help you in your life or business, one thought-provoking question, and one call to action toward that principle. Please subscribe Here.It is Free and Short (2min).

We are joined by Ian Samuels, founder and managing partner of New System Ventures, a climate tech investment firm dedicated to fostering transformative climate solutions. With a rich background in climate finance, policy, and technology, Ian offers deep insights into the intersection of climate innovation and investment. Our discussion dives into the role of policy in climate tech, the nuances of climate-focused investing, the challenges and opportunities in decarbonizing sectors like transportation, as well as the growth of The conversation also touches on the importance of capital efficiency in climate tech startups and the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on the climate technology landscape. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in early-stage startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem.

We have the pleasure of hosting Eric Rosenblum, the Managing Partner at Foothill Ventures. Eric shares his compelling journey from his humble beginnings in a small Ohio town to making significant strides in the tech world, including his time at Google where he embraced the fast-paced culture and learned valuable lessons in building scalable solutions. We dive into Eric's expertise in guiding startups through the complex landscape of deep tech and climate technology, drawing on his vast experiences from Google to launching successful ventures in Shanghai. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in industrial automation and climate adaptation startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem.

We are excited to welcome Alex Hall, co-founder and CEO of Concrete AI, a trailblazer in the construction industry's shift towards sustainability. With an innovative generative AI platform, Concrete AI revolutionizes the concrete mix formulation process, significantly reducing time, costs, and carbon emissions for manufacturers and the construction sector. Our discussion with Alex will explore how generative AI is transforming traditional practices and the broader implications for sustainability in construction. We'll also touch on the challenges and opportunities in adopting new technologies within this age-old industry. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in industrial automation and climate adaptation startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem.

We're excited to have Rishi Taparia, Twitter friend turned real-life companion and the founder and managing partner of Garuda Ventures. With the recent close of their first institutional fund at $31 million, Garuda Ventures is taking the early-stage startup world by storm, offering not just capital, but invaluable advice and support to entrepreneurs. Rishi shares his journey from banking to venture capital, and then as an operator in growing companies, before making his way back to venture, emphasizing the importance of resilience, relationship-building, and the nuanced understanding of market needs. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in industrial automation and climate adaptation startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem.

We sit down with Graham Brown, Managing Partner at Lerer Hippeau Ventures. Brown brings his venture capital expertise to the table, focusing on climate tech innovation. Lerer Hippeau has been the earliest investor in some of the most iconic consumer brands of the last decade, including Casper, Oscar, Buzzfeed, Mirror, Axios, and more. In late 2022, they announced $230M across two new funds. More recently, the fund has been an active investor in the kinds of climate and industrial automation companies we love to discuss on CLIMB. Our conversation covers the detrimental impact of large fund sizes on the early-stage founders they back, the evolving venture scene in New York over the past decade, and what makes climate tech startups succeed in 2024. Brown is now at the helm of one of the most iconic seed funds in our business and this interview had key insights for entrepreneurs and investors navigating the venture market in 2024. About VSC Ventures: VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in industrial automation and climate adaptation startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds. Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem

Sean Behr is the CEO of Fountain, the company transforming the hiring process for hourly workers. Sean and the team have helped more than 80M applicants in 75 countries at places like Stitch Fix, sweetgreen, and gopuff. Fountain has raised $225M to date most recently through a $100M series C last June from an amazing list of investors including B Capital Group, SoftBank, DCM, and Uncork Capital.Sean joined Fountain as CEO in 2020 after founding fleet infrastructure platform Stratim, serving as SVP of Adap.tv through its acquisition by AOL, and holding various management roles at Shopping.com.Listen and learn...How Sean is creating opportunities for frontline workers around the worldWhat's uniquely challenging about hiring frontline vs. knowledge workersHow long before robots will replace human frontline workersThe ethical implications of using AI in hiringWhat biases are embedded in the hiring process... without AIWhy the future of hiring... is more human thanks to AIReferences in this episode...May Habib, Writer CEO, on AI and the Future of WorkJosh Bersin, HRTech pioner, on AI and the Future of WorkWhy every organization needs a Chief Ethics Officer

Maia Benson and Joe Lynch discuss A SaaS Gal in VC Land. Maia is a SaaS gal in VC land and a Managing Director at Forum Ventures where she works with SaaS founders from inception to scale.  About Maia Benson Maia Benson is a Managing Director at Forum where she works with SaaS founders from inception to scale.  She has spent over 20 years founding, building and scaling award-winning SaaS products for Entrepreneurs and SMBs at places like LexisNexis, Pitney Bowes and most recently at Shopify, where she helped found, launch and scale their Shipping and Fulfillment products from inception to 60%+ merchant adoption and $Bs of transportation spend. About Forum Ventures Forum Ventures is the leading early-stage fund, program and community for B2B SaaS startups. Founded in 2014 as Acceleprise, we're on a mission to make the B2B SaaS journey easier, more accessible and successful for early-stage founders, through pre-seed and seed-stage funding, high touch programming, corporate perks and introductions, and an active SaaS community. Forum For Founders, our pre-seed program, provides founders with $100k in funding and 15 intense weeks of talks, events, mentorship and 1:1 guidance focused on go to market and fundraising. Forum Seed, our seed fund, backs exceptional SaaS startups at the seed-stage both from within and outside of our pre-seed program. With over 250 portfolio companies, Forum founders have gone on to raise from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Uncork Capital, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Canaan, Bowery Capital, Susa Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, SV Angel, True Ventures and many more. Our private peer community for Innovation executives -- The Innovation Forum -- brings together like-minded intrapreneurs from all backgrounds to share best practices, insights, and advice, and support one another. In addition to our incredible peer community, members get access to industry trend reports, collaborative events, emerging technology, and startup introductions. Key Takeaways: A SaaS Gal in VC Land Forum Ventures is the top choice for early-stage B2B SaaS companies looking for funding. Forum Ventures is different and better for the following reasons: Founder-focused: Their team consists of former SaaS founders, offering deep understanding of the early-stage journey and expertise in GTM, sales, and fundraising. Pre-seed and seed investments: They empower early-stage B2B SaaS companies with pre-seed and seed funding, ranging from $100k to $2 million. High-touch programs: Beyond funding, they provide high-touch programs like "Forum For Founders" (15 weeks of talks, mentorship, and guidance) and a dedicated fundraising track. Thriving community: They foster an active SaaS community with over 450 founders, mentors, and experts, offering connections, support, and valuable insights. Accessibility champions: Committed to diversity and inclusion, they strive to make the B2B SaaS ecosystem more accessible to underrepresented founders. Proven success: With over 250 successful pre-seed and seed investments, their track record speaks for itself. Fractional co-founder approach: They act as a "fractional co-founder" with world-class expertise, helping startups navigate crucial steps like product development, go-to-market strategy, and fundraising. Mission-driven: Driven by a genuine passion for aiding founders, they prioritize their success and strive to make the B2B SaaS journey easier and more impactful. Learn More About A SaaS Gal in VC Maia Benson | LinkedIn Forum Ventures | LinkedIn Forum Ventures | Homepage The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube

In this episode, Adriana Roche, Head of Talent at Uncork Capital, joins Amir Bormand to discuss the importance of getting back to basics as people leaders. She shares insights on the fundamentals companies should focus on during lean times and highlights healthy people practices for early-stage startups. Uncork Capital, a seed investor, has been supporting startups for almost 20 years and invests in a range of technology companies, including consumer, marketplace, frontier, and B2B SaaS. Tune in to gain valuable perspectives on building successful teams and nurturing early-stage companies. Highlights: [00:02:32] Getting back to basics. [00:06:07] The reactive nature of HR. [00:08:00] Metrics in talent and sales. [00:12:56] Surveying stakeholder needs. [00:15:23] Grabbing a seat at the table. [00:18:37] Healthy people practices. [00:26:23] Building with stakeholder input. [00:28:29] Tough conversations and disagreeing. Guest: Adriana Roche has seen firsthand many of the team-related issues startups face. She joined Uncork from Mural, a maker of visual team collaboration software, where she was Chief People Officer as the company grew from 150 employees to 900 in just two years. Prior to that, Adriana was VP, People and Places at Segment, a customer data company that grew from 50 people to 650 in four years and was acquired by Twilio in 2020. Earlier, Adriana led employer branding and managed a large recruiting team at Dropbox. She was also a recruiting manager at Salesforce and a recruiter at Google. Born and raised in Venezuela, Adriana immigrated to the U.S. when she was seventeen. She earned a Master's degree in Organizational Psychology at New York University and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology at College of the Holy Cross. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianaroche/ --- Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Talent Tango, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player. Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests? Please message me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand)  

Tune in on Monday, 9/25/23, for a new episode of The Doctor Whisperer Show featuring co-founder and CEO of Elo Health, Ari Tulla. ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ A︎BOUT OUR GUEST: Ari Tulla is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Elo smart nutrition service, transforming food from the cause of disease to medicine. Ari is also an active angel investor with a portfolio of 40 startups, including Virta Health, Good Eggs, and Oura. Previously, Ari was the CEO of Quest Analytics, the market leader in doctor data and network management. Ari led the company through a pivotal growth stage from $15M to $40M in revenue. Before joining Quest Analytics, Ari was co-founder and CEO of BetterDoctor, a doctor search engine. BetterDoctor raised $30M from first-tier investors, including NEA and Uncork Capital. June 2018, BetterDoctor was acquired by private equity firm Vestar Capital. Before BetterDoctor, Ari led Nokia's game and application studios and was brand manager for Lucky Strike in Northern Europe. When not working/parenting, Ari spends his time on the steep cliffs, powdery slopes, and big cold waves that only Northern California can offer. ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ Thank you to our sponsor, SRA 831b Admin, for supporting the show! Click here to learn more: ⁠http://831b.com⁠ #businessofmedicine #medicalindustry #HealthcarePodcast #healthcareindustry #healthcare #business --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thedoctorwhisperer/message

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Michael Cardamone, CEO and General Partner at Forum Ventures. Located in New York, NY, USA, Forum Ventures is the leading early-stage fund, program, and community for B2B SaaS startups. Founded in 2014 as Acceleprise, they are on a mission to make the B2B SaaS journey easier, more accessible, and successful for early-stage founders, through pre-seed and seed-stage funding, high-touch programming, corporate perks and introductions, and an active SaaS community.  With over 250 portfolio companies, Forum founders have gone on to raise from NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Uncork Capital, 8VC, Founders Fund, Menlo Ventures, Canaan, Bowery Capital, Susa Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, SV Angel, True Ventures and many more. Michael Cardamone focuses on developing our investment strategy with the mission to make the B2B SaaS journey easier, more accessible, and more successful for early-stage founders. As one of the first 30 employees at Box, as well as leading partnerships at AcedemixDirect, Michael has had direct experience growing SaaS companies from small startups to large-scale enterprises. He is also an angel investor in a dozen companies including a seed investment in Flexport. Michael shares insights about his background in tech, the evolution of Foreign Ventures, and their unique approach to investing in startups. He discusses the challenges of raising pre-seed capital in the current market and outlines the criteria they look for in founders and startups. Michael also explains the differences between Foreign Ventures and other venture funds, emphasizing their hands-on approach and extensive resources.  Visit Forum Ventures at , and on . Reach out to Michael at , and on . _______________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at:    Check out our other podcasts here:   For Investors check out:   For Startups check out:   For eGuides check out:   For upcoming Events, check out    For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group    Please , share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of .

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.We're joined by Stephanie Palmeri and Melody Koh, Partners at NextView Ventures. Nextview was founded in 2010 and recently raised $200MM for their new set of funds. Located in SF, NY, and Boston, the firm invests all across the US and has invested in over 170 companies at the seed-stage since its founding, including Devoted Health, Thread up, and Attentive. We had a great conversation about how NextView thinks about firm partnerships, what seed and pre-seed investing look like today, and what they believe it means to successfully work with founders. About Stephanie Palmeri:Stephanie is a Partner at NextView Ventures and is based in San Francisco. She focuses on the power of technology to positively transform how we live, work, learn, play, and care for our planet and each other. Her investments in the “Everyday Economy” have spanned many industries, including social commerce, circular retail, education, digital health, marketplaces, transportation, and finance. Previously, Stephanie was a partner at Uncork Capital, where she spent a decade investing in dozens of seed stage companies, including Poshmark ($POSH), Clever (aqu. by Kahoot!), Chariot (acq. by Ford), ClassDojo, Carrot Fertility, Hallow, Panorama Education, Phil, Wrapbook, and Wonderschool. Before venture investing, Stephanie worked as a technology consultant and marketer at Accenture, Estee Lauder, and several startups.Stephanie holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Marketing and Management Information Systems, magna cum laude, from Villanova University.About Melody Koh:Melody is a Partner at NextView Ventures, based in its New York office. Prior to joining NextView, Melody was Head of Product at Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN). Melody joined Blue Apron as the first product hire when the company was 18 months old with 20 HQ employees. She helped scale the business through hyper-growth (25x in 3.5 years) and to its IPO.Previously, Melody was a Product Manager at Fab.com leading marketing & analytics products and the founder/CEO of a seed-funded wine subscription e-commerce service. Melody was also a venture investor at Time Warner's strategic VC group and was one of six inaugural members of First Round Capital's Product Co-op initiative. Melody began her career as a tech/media M&A investment banking analyst at Evercore Partners.Melody holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and the University of Virginia.In this episode. we discuss:(01:54) Why NextView strives to not be a pack of lone wolves(03:35) How the carry economics of the firm drives a deeper partnership(06:57) Building firm culture with so many locations(11:21) How NextView uses strategic in-person time to remain connected(13:42) The benefits to founders by being more strategic in their investments(16:33) How the NextView model performed in the different market conditions over the last few years(21:04) What the moving goalposts of the market has meant to founders and investors(25:27) The advice they are giving founders to get through this difficult funding cycle(29:18) Why NextView sees themselves as invited guests and why that translates to happy founders(34:31) How they think about the growth and evolution of NextViewI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Stephanie and Melody. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

Ari Tulla is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur and the co-founder & CEO of the smart nutrition service, Elo, whose mission is to transform food from the leading cause of disease to medicine. Ari is also an active angel investor and advisor with a portfolio of 40 startups, including Virta Health, Good Eggs, and Ōura. Previously, Ari was the CEO of Quest Analytics, the market leader in doctor data and network management. Ari led the company through a pivotal growth stage from $15M to $40M in revenue. Before joining Quest Analytics, Ari was co-founder and CEO of BetterDoctor, a doctor search engine. BetterDoctor raised $30M from first-tier investors, including NEA and Uncork Capital. In June 2018, BetterDoctor was acquired by private equity firm Vestar Capital. Before BetterDoctor, Ari led Nokia's game and application studios.  When not working or co-parenting his two young children with his wife, Ari spends his time on the steep cliffs, powdery slopes, and big cold waves that only Northern California can offer. During this episode, Ari chats to Victoria Fenton about: his journey from Nokia to nutrition - and the interesting challenges and similarities in smart-tech over the years the issues we currently face in the healthcare world, and how Elo is aiming to tackle them personalized nutrition and supplementation - how to do it, why many companies get it wrong and how Elo is addressing the problem personalized protein powder post workout - and how to integrate health-tech to support your recovery and physiology the future of healthcare, and the fundamental need for change the importance of the human element (in Elo's case: nutrition coaches) for behavioral transformation when it comes to our health And so, so much more. Find Elo - get your kit and your personalized supplements today - head to https://elo.health Discover more about Oura - head to https://ouraring.com

Finding founders with true visions that have a real plan to execute those visions is rare. So rare that those founders are actually called unicorns. But finding and supporting those founders takes a lot of patience and skill. Today's guest has both of those traits, Stephanie Palmeri, Partner at NextView Ventures, has been working at the top of the venture industry for more than a decade and has backed impressive founders.About Stephanie Palmeri:Stephanie Palmeri is a Partner at NextView Ventures and is based in San Francisco. She loves supporting founders who share a North Star of building exceptional user-centric experiences for individuals, families, workers, and communities. Her investments in the Everyday Economy have spanned many industries, including social commerce, circular retail, education, digital health, marketplaces, transportation, and finance. Previously, Stephanie was a partner at Uncork Capital, where she spent a decade investing in dozens of seed-stage companies, including Poshmark ($POSH), Clever (acq. by Kahoot!), Chariot (acq. by Ford), ClassDojo, Carrot Fertility, Hallow, Panorama Education, Phil, Wrapbook, and Wonderschool. Before venture investing, Stephanie worked as a technology consultant and marketer at Accenture, Estee Lauder, and several startups.Stephanie holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS from Villanova University.In this episode we discuss:(0:01:15) News roundup with John Ruffolo(0:22:44) How Stephanie ended up in the venture and startup world(0:27:32) Why she chose NextView instead of creating a new fund(0:29:36) What appeals to Stephanie about investing in Canadian Startups(0:32:17) Becoming comfortable investing in the Canadian ecosystem(0:33:28) The biggest changes to early-stage investing in the last decade(0:36:29) The process of joining NextView(0:41:22) NextView's current focus and plans for its new $200M fund(0:44:18) Starting NextView's accelerator program(0:47:29) Founders deciding to have an early exit(0:50:08) Deciding to become a certified coach to help her founders(0:53:50) What makes a great board member(0:58:39) How she advises as an LP and angel investor(1:00:09) Who should contact her and what she invest inFast Favorites:*

Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early­ stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Under his leadership, Precursor Ventures has raised four funds and has over $175 million under management. He has invested in 250 companies and supported more than 400 founders, including the teams behind Clearco, Juniper Square, The Athletic, Incredible Health, Carrot, and Pair Eyewear.  Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at Uncork Capital and Co­Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Stanford University. Charles maintains close connections with his alma mater through volunteer service and teaching at GSB. He is an active member of the VC community, serving on several advisory boards and as a mentor to a number of emerging managers. Charles also serves on the Advisory Board for the San Francisco Opera Association. --------- Take the Next Reality Hero Quiz at http://www.heroesofreality.com

"Smart nutrition is personalized, precise, and proactive."—Ari Tulla   Technology and innovation have revolutionized modern life. A wide range of cutting-edge gadgets are at our disposal to make life easier and more enjoyable. So why not take advantage of the technological advances and use them to be smarter about our nutrition choices?    People tend to forget about the negative effects of an unhealthy lifestyle at a young age, thinking that mortality and health are a worry for the future. But it's never too late to start on the road to wellness and the best place to start is to evaluate and revise our diet.    Co-founded by Ari Tulla, Elo Health is introducing the concept of smart nutrition to the world. Elo has created a personalized nutrition solution to provide its customers with a unique supplement regimen for their specific needs. They believe that nutrition should be tailored to each individual, and innovating new products and technologies can help empower people to take control of their health.    Tune in as Justine and Ari discuss more about what smart nutrition means, how to understand our biomarkers, and how to do breakfast the right way to get the most from our food. They also talk about what companies should focus on when creating a product, how to build credibility as a business entity, and how we can gain access to trusted healthcare information.  Meet Ari:  Ari Tulla is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur with an impressive list of successes. Ari is currently the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Elo smart nutrition services, a revolutionary service whose mission is to transform how we view food, from the cause of disease to a tool for medicine.    Ari has a great track record for turning ideas into business, as demonstrated by his past successes. Ari is the Chief Executive Officer of the market leader in doctor data and network management, Quest Analytics, which he brought up to a $40 million-dollar revenue, an increase in $15 million, during a pivotal growth stage.    Ari is also the co-founder and CEO of BetterDoctor, a popular doctor search engine, which raised $30 million in investments from first-tier investors such as NEA and Uncork Capital, before being acquired by private equity firm Vestar Capital in June 2018. Apart from his entrepreneurial successes, Ari is also the Head of Nokia's game and application studios. Ari is also an angel investor with a portfolio of 45 startups, such as Virta Health, Good Eggs, and Oura.    Aside from his impressive accomplishments, Ari is also a proud father, husband and outdoorsman. Website Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn Connect with NextGen Purpose: Website Facebook Instagram  LinkedIn YouTube Episode Highlights: 01:40 Solving Healthcare Problem 05:30 Food as Medicine 12:38 Understanding Your Biomarkers 16:04 Smart Nutrition 21:00 Better Doctor 23:57 Elo and Health 27:32 Can Kids Take Smart Protein?

This week Dr. Chris had the honor of interviewing, Ari Tulla. Ari  is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur and the co-founder & CEO of the smart nutrition service, Elo, whose mission is to transform food from the leading cause of disease to medicine. Ari is also an active angel investor and advisor with a portfolio of 40 startups, including Virta Health, Good Eggs, and Ōura. Previously, Ari was the CEO of Quest Analytics, the market leader in doctor data and network management. Ari led the company through a pivotal growth stage from $15M to $40M in revenue. Before joining Quest Analytics, Ari was co-founder and CEO of BetterDoctor, a doctor search engine.  BetterDoctor raised $30M from first-tier investors, including NEA and Uncork Capital. In June 2018, BetterDoctor was acquired by private equity firm Vestar Capital. Before BetterDoctor, Ari led Nokia's game and application studios. When not working or co-parenting his two young children with his wife, Ari spends his time on the steep cliffs, powdery slopes, and big cold waves that only Northern California can offer.Connect & learn more about Ari and Elo:@aritullaaritulla.com@Elo.health

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Daniel Wild, Gründer und Aufsichtsrat von Mountain Alliance. Daniel hat einen Blick auf die Übernahme von Heardle durch Spotify sowie auf den Börsengang von Deezer geworfen. Außerdem wurde die Finanzierungsrunde von Continuum analysiert: Das von "Wordle" inspirierte Browserspiel "Heardle" steht nun hinter einer Spotify-URL und verweist direkt auf Songs aus dem schwedischen Musikstreamingdienst. Zuvor hatte "Heardle" auf Songs auf Soundcloud verlinkt. Finanzielle Hintergründe der Übernahme hat Spotify nicht offengelegt. In Deutschland kann man "Heardle" nach der Übernahme durch Spotify nicht spielen. Der französische Musikstreaming-Dienst Deezer hat letzte Woche seinen Börsengang via SPAC vollzogen, nachdem vor Jahren ein IPO abgeblasen wurde. Die Fusion von Deezer mit einer Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) wurde im April 2022 abgeschlossen und bewertete das Unternehmen mit rund 1,05 Mrd. US-Dollar. Die Papiere des Musikstreaming-Dienstes brachen bei ihrem Börsendebüt in Paris um bis zu 35 Prozent auf 5,52 Euro ein. Die Aktien des Deezer-Rivalen Spotify fallen im US-Geschäft zeitweise um 1,7 Prozent auf 95,79 US-Dollar. Außerdem haben Daniel und Jan noch über die Finanzierungsrunde von Continuum gesprochen, das in einer Series A-Finanzierung 12 Millionen US-Dollar einsammeln konnte. Das HR-Startup will Massenkündigungen humaner machen, indem man den Prozess richtig angeht. Innerhalb von 48 Stunden werden Führungsteams mit HR-Experten verbunden, die zuvor bereits die gleiche Situation gemeistert haben. Diese helfen dann bei der Ausarbeitung eines Kommunikationsplans für das Unternehmen und einer Diversitäts- und Auswirkungsanalyse und bei der tatsächlichen Durchführung der Entlassungen. Die Serie A wurde von Pelion Ventures unter Beteiligung von Uncork Capital, Day One Ventures und Angel-Investoren, darunter die CEOs von DoorDash, Divvy und Thumbtack, geleitet.

Avery Pennarun launched his first successful startup in college. He is now on his second tech startup, and investors have been more than eager to help fund it. The venture, Tailscale has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Accel, Heavybit, Insight Partners, and Uncork Capital.

Tripp Jones of Uncork Capital joins Nate to discuss Billion $ Lessons from a Dozen Unicorns, Why Consumer VC is not Dead, How to Size a Marketplace, and What the LP Pullback means for VC Funds. In this episode we cover: What Sets Apart a Unicorn Founding Team The Problem Uber Poses in Labor Marketplaces and Entrepreneurship Why Raising Funds May Be Difficult in the Coming Year How Slowing Down Can Increase Efficiency Missed a recent episode? Go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. Learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website. Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter! Founders, are you frustrated by trying to find the ideal VC's for your stage, sector, and geography? Answer five questions with VC Rank and generate your customized list now.

Thomas is delighted to have Tripp Jones of Uncork Capital on the Unlimited Partners pod today. He discusses his investing philosophies, and Uncork's ability to make a name for itself in the VC marketplace. Most of his investments are a focus on digital transformation. They also discuss Uncork's Founder, Jeff Clavier (formerly SoftTech VC) who is a legend in the VC world. He shares his passion for "investing against his phone" which Thomas dives into a little deeper. This brings up companies like Hipcamp.com and Roamadventureco.com. Tripp knew he wanted to be a VC even as a young kid. He enjoys being an enabler, to help companies reach fantastic outcomes. He believes the team behind the company is the number one criterium for investing, but that even more importantly is getting behind macro trends. They also go into risk and how Tripp loves knowing he can take bigger swings knowing his firm has a great core B2B portfolio. He also shares that he learned early to assess trends in the American woman, who statistically do a lot more of the buying in US households. Uncork Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm with over $500 million under management.  Links: https://uncorkcapital.com/ Tripp Jones LinkedIn Jeff Clavier Bio Susan Liu LinkedIn Roamadventureco.com Thomas McGannon LinkedIn Showlinks: up-pod.com @uppodpod  Email: show@up-pod.com Sponsors: https://www.tegus.com/ https://mymarketplacebuilder.com/

I moved from San Francisco to New York, in February 2019, back before it was cool to turn tail on the tech mecca. Truth be told, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for San Francisco, but my girlfriend beckoned from Brooklyn.I’m writing this from my flight back to New York after over a week in SF. I spent much of it in an Airbnb next to Mr. Pickle’s on Van Ness Avenue and then a few days crashing at a fellow tech reporter’s apartment in the Outer Richmond. I ate Mission Chinese and La Taqueria, drank at Brass Tacks and The Monk’s Kettle, and made it up to Calistoga for a picturesque vineyard wedding.But did I spend any time working for you, dear reader? Yes, not to worry. I spent my days shuttling from South Park to the Presidio, catching up with venture capitalists, founders, tech media insiders, and senior tech executives. And I spent my nights getting drunk with them, eager for looser lips.Here are my key immediate takeaways:One source told me that even Insight Partners — which announced a $20 billion fund in February — has decided to seriously slow down big late stage private investments. Until recently, Insight looked like one of the last holdouts when it came to doing late stage deals even as the market unraveled. But now, like pretty much everyone else, it’s mostly focused on its existing portfolio.VC advice on the downturn — even Sequoia Capital’s presentation to founders — has felt too much like content marketing. For some startup CEOs it can feel a bit like you’re the goody two-shoes, “A” student in the classroom, when the teacher reprimands everyone. You think the rebuke applies to you, but really the message is meant for the troublemakers. But it’s the most diligent among us that take these admonitions personally. Founders need advice specific to their company. There’s a sense that there have been many software engineers who have been overpromoted in the bull cycle and that this downturn could force some coders to reset their expectations about their appropriate rank and pay.I spent much of my time asking sources what the overarching, thematic story of the downturn would be. One venture capitalist gave me my favorite answer: He argued that we’d look back on this downturn as a story of the perfect storm between retail and professional investor excesses. On the retail side, we saw the rise of Robinhood and Coinbase, and r/wallstreetbets trades on Kodak and GameStop. On the professional side, we saw firms like SoftBank and Tiger go so, so long without enough diligence to back it up.If I had to name a couple companies/firms that I think are most likely to represent this downturn, right now I’d name Instacart, Coinbase, Robinhood, GoPuff, Bird, Tesla, Tiger, and SoftBank. Though, right now, I think increasingly crypto is looking like it will be the category most associated with this cycle’s excesses.There’s been a lot of envy in traditional startup world of people who went over to the the crypto dark side. Now there’s all sorts of schadenfreude going on as crypto prices plummet. Some VCs are starting to admit (mostly in private) that they never really believed in crypto. Still, there’s so much money. Just as I was leaving the city, Coinbase announced that it was brutally laying off 18% of its staff, locking them out of their emails before they even had time to say goodbye.We’re overdue for a reckoning over who screwed over credulous investors with implausible SPAC deals. ~cough~ Chamath ~ cough ~ At least, Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter led the PIPE on its own terrible Grab SPAC deal. Andreessen Horowitz still remains, probably, the biggest nemesis of many firms in Silicon Valley. Sure, Tiger blew up the startup world. But what Tiger did was so unlike anything venture capital firms were doing, so there’s less professional jealousy. There are whispers that things aren’t as copacetic internally at a16z as might appear from their highly choreographed public communications. It would seem that part of the explanation for the explosion of funds at the firm has been the explosion of egos. Instead of resolving interpersonal conflicts on the consumer fund, let’s just create a gaming fund. In that light, it’s pretty amazing that the firm couldn’t figure out a way to keep Katie Haun. Consumer investing across the board seems challenged. What’s going on over at Popshop, Lunchclub, Cameo, and Clubhouse just to name a few? I guess investors simply wishing consumer investing into being without a strong new thesis wasn’t exactly an omen for the sector’s inevitable success. (I will say that Whatnot and BeReal remain two consumer plays that I’m still following.) What will it mean for this generation of consumer investors? Benchmark’s next generation consumer investor, Sarah Tavel, seems to have made her best investment in business-to-business company Chainalysis, last valued at $8.6 billion. Speaking of Benchmark, the firm deserves some credit for holding firm on its strategy as other venture firms’ fund sizes got crazy. Sure, Benchmark probably could have made way more money if it topped up its own investments — but then it might be taking the heat that Benchmark favorite Altimeter is getting right now over its overexuberance. There’s money and reputation to manage. Benchmark has always made enough money to value its reputation. (That’s something Travis Kalanick, Adam Neumann, Nirav Tolia, etc. surely gripe about.)Last year’s hype around venture capital firms indefinitely holding onto private companies long after they go public is looking like pure bubble thinking. Sequoia’s timing on its all-in-one, hold indefinitely “The Sequoia Capital Fund” looks a little more like one of the excesses from the bull market. But limited partners seem too afraid to do anything to unwind the strategy shift that seems designed to enrich the firm’s general partners. (Reach out to me if you have off-the-record intel on this.)Investors are dramatically slowing the pace of their investments. These funds are going to last years longer than they would have in bull times. Multi-stage investors seem more inclined to double-down on their existing portfolio companies than to make new bets. Bridge rounds are on everyone’s lips. Still, I heard from investors who had made secret Series B and C investments in companies this year. It’s a good time to make a bet on a company that got away for a hype-y Series A round.Startup founders think prospective employees want assurances that their company is really worth what the company says it is. Good private unicorns are in a bit of a bind. Prospective employees are now automatically giving their equity offers a mental haircut based on the market downturn. So good companies have an incentive to reaffirm their valuations with funding rounds during the downturn — even if it otherwise might be smarter to keep their valuations artificially low so as to maintain room to grow should conditions worsen. (I wish employees would get better at assessing companies based on fundamentals, rather than the last tick fundraising round. Employees are basically begging founders to maximize for valuation, which then minimizes employee upside.)Some small-to-medium sized companies are shopping themselves to their rival startups but it’s not always clear why the competitor would want to buy. Why take on additional burn and headcount when all you might end up getting is leads on some new customers? Sure, you might do some venture capital firm a favor, but what’s that really worth?There are some cracks in up-start media world. The most obvious tremor is at BuzzFeed where the stock has sunk 54% in a month. Reporters have been leaving in droves. Meanwhile, The Information lost one of its top editors — Martin Peers. He’s long been a central figure over there. The Information’s up-and-coming venture capital reporter Berber Jin departed to the Wall Street Journal, as did Sarah Krouse who will be covering Netflix for the Journal. Stephen Nellis returned to Reuters. Meanwhile spirits seem strong at my former employer, Bloomberg. The ascendance of the player-coach editor seems to have people upbeat. Sarah Frier is leading big tech coverage and Lucas Shaw (who has been a guest on Dead Cat) is running the show on Hollywood coverage. And somehow Bloomberg just lured back a former star reporter who had left to join the startup ranks: Alex Barinka — who left Bloomberg as a deals reporter to help launch Imran Khan’s Verishop before going over to Stitch Fix — is joining Frier’s team as a social media reporter based in LA. Next week I’m in Toronto for Collision where I’ll be interviewing Uncork Capital’s Andy McLoughlin, Real Ventures’ Janet Bannister, and Left Lane Capital’s Vinny Pujji on a panel Wednesday called “Survival of the leanest: The importance of being capital efficient.” Then, less than an hour later I’ll interview General Catalyst’s Hemant Taneja about responsible innovation. On Thursday, I’ll ask “Has the tech bubble burst... again?!” in a panel with FirstMark’s Matt Turck, Lux’s Deena Shakir, and Neo Financial’s Andrew Chau. Expect the most interesting tidbits in this newsletter late next week.Talking about Chesa Boudin on Dead CatMy first meeting in San Francisco started with a tour of The San Francisco Standard, the Michael Moritz-funded local news enterprise. My old editor Jonathan Weber — once the editor of tech media dot-com icon The Industry Standard — is the editor-in-chief over at the SF Standard. Weber, Dead Cat co-host Tom Dotan, and I met up for a nice dinner at The Morris in the Mission. After spending the evening discussing San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s recall, Tom and I convinced Weber to come on the Dead Cat podcast and talk about the Standard and San Francisco politics.Tom thinks I’m going to get eviscerated by San Franciscans for my politics. This is something we’ve never seen before: a New Yorker opining on San Francisco local affairs. I did my best to offend conservatives and liberals alike, maligning the police while rooting for tech’s ascendant influence on San Francisco politics. Weber makes the case for objective, follow-the-reporting local news and outlines the real issues underpinning the recall. He explains how money is simultaneously to blame and not to blame for Boudin’s recall. And he defends the Standard against its critics for its influential story on Boudin’s refusal to make drug arrests. We interrogate what Boudin’s defeat means for the future of progressive politics and the city of San Francisco.Give it a listen.Read the automated transcript. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe

I moved from San Francisco to New York, in February 2019, back before it was cool to turn tail on the tech mecca. Truth be told, I'll always have a special place in my heart for San Francisco, but my girlfriend beckoned from Brooklyn.I'm writing this from my flight back to New York after over a week in SF. I spent much of it in an Airbnb next to Mr. Pickle's on Van Ness Avenue and then a few days crashing at a fellow tech reporter's apartment in the Outer Richmond. I ate Mission Chinese and La Taqueria, drank at Brass Tacks and The Monk's Kettle, and made it up to Calistoga for a picturesque vineyard wedding.But did I spend any time working for you, dear reader? Yes, not to worry. I spent my days shuttling from South Park to the Presidio, catching up with venture capitalists, founders, tech media insiders, and senior tech executives. And I spent my nights getting drunk with them, eager for looser lips.Here are my key immediate takeaways:One source told me that even Insight Partners — which announced a $20 billion fund in February — has decided to seriously slow down big late stage private investments. Until recently, Insight looked like one of the last holdouts when it came to doing late stage deals even as the market unraveled. But now, like pretty much everyone else, it's mostly focused on its existing portfolio.VC advice on the downturn — even Sequoia Capital's presentation to founders — has felt too much like content marketing. For some startup CEOs it can feel a bit like you're the goody two-shoes, “A” student in the classroom, when the teacher reprimands everyone. You think the rebuke applies to you, but really the message is meant for the troublemakers. But it's the most diligent among us that take these admonitions personally. Founders need advice specific to their company. There's a sense that there have been many software engineers who have been overpromoted in the bull cycle and that this downturn could force some coders to reset their expectations about their appropriate rank and pay.I spent much of my time asking sources what the overarching, thematic story of the downturn would be. One venture capitalist gave me my favorite answer: He argued that we'd look back on this downturn as a story of the perfect storm between retail and professional investor excesses. On the retail side, we saw the rise of Robinhood and Coinbase, and r/wallstreetbets trades on Kodak and GameStop. On the professional side, we saw firms like SoftBank and Tiger go so, so long without enough diligence to back it up.If I had to name a couple companies/firms that I think are most likely to represent this downturn, right now I'd name Instacart, Coinbase, Robinhood, GoPuff, Bird, Tesla, Tiger, and SoftBank. Though, right now, I think increasingly crypto is looking like it will be the category most associated with this cycle's excesses.There's been a lot of envy in traditional startup world of people who went over to the the crypto dark side. Now there's all sorts of schadenfreude going on as crypto prices plummet. Some VCs are starting to admit (mostly in private) that they never really believed in crypto. Still, there's so much money. Just as I was leaving the city, Coinbase announced that it was brutally laying off 18% of its staff, locking them out of their emails before they even had time to say goodbye.We're overdue for a reckoning over who screwed over credulous investors with implausible SPAC deals. ~cough~ Chamath ~ cough ~ At least, Brad Gerstner's Altimeter led the PIPE on its own terrible Grab SPAC deal. Andreessen Horowitz still remains, probably, the biggest nemesis of many firms in Silicon Valley. Sure, Tiger blew up the startup world. But what Tiger did was so unlike anything venture capital firms were doing, so there's less professional jealousy. There are whispers that things aren't as copacetic internally at a16z as might appear from their highly choreographed public communications. It would seem that part of the explanation for the explosion of funds at the firm has been the explosion of egos. Instead of resolving interpersonal conflicts on the consumer fund, let's just create a gaming fund. In that light, it's pretty amazing that the firm couldn't figure out a way to keep Katie Haun. Consumer investing across the board seems challenged. What's going on over at Popshop, Lunchclub, Cameo, and Clubhouse just to name a few? I guess investors simply wishing consumer investing into being without a strong new thesis wasn't exactly an omen for the sector's inevitable success. (I will say that Whatnot and BeReal remain two consumer plays that I'm still following.) What will it mean for this generation of consumer investors? Benchmark's next generation consumer investor, Sarah Tavel, seems to have made her best investment in business-to-business company Chainalysis, last valued at $8.6 billion. Speaking of Benchmark, the firm deserves some credit for holding firm on its strategy as other venture firms' fund sizes got crazy. Sure, Benchmark probably could have made way more money if it topped up its own investments — but then it might be taking the heat that Benchmark favorite Altimeter is getting right now over its overexuberance. There's money and reputation to manage. Benchmark has always made enough money to value its reputation. (That's something Travis Kalanick, Adam Neumann, Nirav Tolia, etc. surely gripe about.)Last year's hype around venture capital firms indefinitely holding onto private companies long after they go public is looking like pure bubble thinking. Sequoia's timing on its all-in-one, hold indefinitely “The Sequoia Capital Fund” looks a little more like one of the excesses from the bull market. But limited partners seem too afraid to do anything to unwind the strategy shift that seems designed to enrich the firm's general partners. (Reach out to me if you have off-the-record intel on this.)Investors are dramatically slowing the pace of their investments. These funds are going to last years longer than they would have in bull times. Multi-stage investors seem more inclined to double-down on their existing portfolio companies than to make new bets. Bridge rounds are on everyone's lips. Still, I heard from investors who had made secret Series B and C investments in companies this year. It's a good time to make a bet on a company that got away for a hype-y Series A round.Startup founders think prospective employees want assurances that their company is really worth what the company says it is. Good private unicorns are in a bit of a bind. Prospective employees are now automatically giving their equity offers a mental haircut based on the market downturn. So good companies have an incentive to reaffirm their valuations with funding rounds during the downturn — even if it otherwise might be smarter to keep their valuations artificially low so as to maintain room to grow should conditions worsen. (I wish employees would get better at assessing companies based on fundamentals, rather than the last tick fundraising round. Employees are basically begging founders to maximize for valuation, which then minimizes employee upside.)Some small-to-medium sized companies are shopping themselves to their rival startups but it's not always clear why the competitor would want to buy. Why take on additional burn and headcount when all you might end up getting is leads on some new customers? Sure, you might do some venture capital firm a favor, but what's that really worth?There are some cracks in up-start media world. The most obvious tremor is at BuzzFeed where the stock has sunk 54% in a month. Reporters have been leaving in droves. Meanwhile, The Information lost one of its top editors — Martin Peers. He's long been a central figure over there. The Information's up-and-coming venture capital reporter Berber Jin departed to the Wall Street Journal, as did Sarah Krouse who will be covering Netflix for the Journal. Stephen Nellis returned to Reuters. Meanwhile spirits seem strong at my former employer, Bloomberg. The ascendance of the player-coach editor seems to have people upbeat. Sarah Frier is leading big tech coverage and Lucas Shaw (who has been a guest on Dead Cat) is running the show on Hollywood coverage. And somehow Bloomberg just lured back a former star reporter who had left to join the startup ranks: Alex Barinka — who left Bloomberg as a deals reporter to help launch Imran Khan's Verishop before going over to Stitch Fix — is joining Frier's team as a social media reporter based in LA. Next week I'm in Toronto for Collision where I'll be interviewing Uncork Capital's Andy McLoughlin, Real Ventures' Janet Bannister, and Left Lane Capital's Vinny Pujji on a panel Wednesday called “Survival of the leanest: The importance of being capital efficient.” Then, less than an hour later I'll interview General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja about responsible innovation. On Thursday, I'll ask “Has the tech bubble burst... again?!” in a panel with FirstMark's Matt Turck, Lux's Deena Shakir, and Neo Financial's Andrew Chau. Expect the most interesting tidbits in this newsletter late next week.Talking about Chesa Boudin on Dead CatMy first meeting in San Francisco started with a tour of The San Francisco Standard, the Michael Moritz-funded local news enterprise. My old editor Jonathan Weber — once the editor of tech media dot-com icon The Industry Standard — is the editor-in-chief over at the SF Standard. Weber, Dead Cat co-host Tom Dotan, and I met up for a nice dinner at The Morris in the Mission. After spending the evening discussing San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin's recall, Tom and I convinced Weber to come on the Dead Cat podcast and talk about the Standard and San Francisco politics.Tom thinks I'm going to get eviscerated by San Franciscans for my politics. This is something we've never seen before: a New Yorker opining on San Francisco local affairs. I did my best to offend conservatives and liberals alike, maligning the police while rooting for tech's ascendant influence on San Francisco politics. Weber makes the case for objective, follow-the-reporting local news and outlines the real issues underpinning the recall. He explains how money is simultaneously to blame and not to blame for Boudin's recall. And he defends the Standard against its critics for its influential story on Boudin's refusal to make drug arrests. We interrogate what Boudin's defeat means for the future of progressive politics and the city of San Francisco.Give it a listen.Read the automated transcript. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe

Claim your free at-home blood test and biomarker kit at Elo.Health by entering discount code “biohackingsecrets”.    Ari Tulla is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Elo smart nutrition service, transforming food from the cause of disease to medicine. Ari is also an active angel investor with a portfolio of 40 startups, including Virta Health, Good Eggs, and Oura. Previously, Ari was the CEO of Quest Analytics, the market leader in doctor data and network management. Ari led the company through a pivotal growth stage from $15M to $40M in revenue. Before joining Quest Analytics, Ari was co-founder and CEO of BetterDoctor, a doctor search engine. BetterDoctor raised $30M from first-tier investors, including NEA and Uncork Capital. June 2018, BetterDoctor was acquired by private equity firm Vestar Capital. When not working/parenting, Ari spends his time on the steep cliffs, powdery slopes, and big cold waves that only Northern California can offer. Learn more at Elo.Health (discount code: “biohackingsecrets”)   Resources and products mentioned in this episode:    Vagus nerve tracking https://vagus.co — happy to intro to the founder/CEO   Biomarker tracking https://nightingalehealth.com — happy to intro to their team.     Ari's Sleep Hacks     Sleep tech Oura ring sleep tracker (or similar) helps you to test how your body reacts to the recommendations listed below.    Sleep timing & environment Set a “go-to-sleep” time instead of wake-up time. I go to sleep between 10pm-11pm. Going to sleep before 10pm always gives better quality sleep (and more REM sleep).  Cool environment 65 degrees Blackout curtains Comfortable mattress (avoid hot memory foam mattresses), small pillow, down blanket Earplugs — I have worn earplugs on for the last 6 years and they significantly improve sleep quality   Sleep supplement (30 minutes prior to sleep) L-theanine 200mg  — Several studies suggest that L-theanine could help people relax before bedtime, get to sleep more easily, and sleep more deeply. These benefits may result from the specific effects that amino acid has on brain chemicals that play a role in sleep. Magnesium L-Threonate 1,000mg — Magnesium plays a particularly important role as it is needed to form serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline. Magnesium also helps form melatonin as serotonin gets converted to melatonin which is needed for sleep. Apigenin 50mg — Apigenin binds to specific receptors in your brain that may decrease anxiety and initiate sleep.     Food/Drink Eat dinner (or other food) before 7pm  No alcohol after 7pm No caffeine after 2pm Chamomile tea 8pm   Physical Hot shower right before going to bed No physical training after 7pm Evening stretching (15minutes) and Theragun massage (10 minutes) on days with intense exercise  Lower the light level and avoid screens (blue light) after 8pm 30 minutes of sunlight in the morning (within 1 hour of waking up) to set your circadian rhythm   Mental Wind-down rituals before sleep (journaling, turning on night lights, and putting on pajamas). Yoga Nidra breathing exercise in bed to help you fall asleep (go through your body and relax from toes to head). Read more here. Deep breathing in bed (physiological sigh). Breathe deeply through the nose and once lungs feel full do one quick inhale. Repeat 4-6 times and you are relaxed and ready to fall asleep.  Learn details at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBdhqBGqiMc   Read/Listen Why we sleep? By Matt Walker Matt Walker on HubermanLab Podcast   - Learn more about our one-on-one Biohacker Coaching program www.BiohackerCoaching.com   - Grab your free copy of The Biohacker's Guide to Upgraded Energy and Focus (just help with s/h) https://biohackersguide.com/free-guide   - Subscribe to our free email newsletter www.biohackersguide.com/energycrash    - Subscribe to The Biohacking Secrets Show podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biohacking-secrets-show/id1139825099   Join Our Uncensored Telegram Channel for VIP Biohacking Content You Can't Get On Social

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI features a fireside chat between Matt Mickiewicz, Co-founder of 99designs, Hired, SitePoint, and Flippa, and Andy McLoughlin Partner at Uncork Capital from the IRL Traction Conference.   Matt shares his secrets to building disruptive multibillion-dollar marketplaces. Specifically, he covers:   1:19 - Back story on how he got into doing some of the most popular marketplaces of the last decade 2:25 - Interacting with professionals at just 14 years old 3:47 - Key learnings from building 99designs, Flippa, and SitePoint  9:04 - Growth hacks applicable to any kind of marketplace 11:15 - How Hired became one of the biggest shippers of alcohol in California 13:12 - When is the right time to take on VC money? 16:20 - What type of deals he's looking for as an angel investor 17:39 - The one piece of advice he would give an entrepreneur   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Matt Mickiewicz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattmickiewicz   Learn more about Unstoppable Domains at https://unstoppabledomains.com/   This episode is brought to you by:   Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don't get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca    Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com

There’s a lot of hype around AI—both its capabilities and the extreme predictions of its utility and potential harm to society. Our guest today is using AI to help reduce harm by detecting fraud at scale in the financial sector. Ronan Burke is Co-Founder and CEO of Inscribe, a platform that has a mission to save billions of dollars lost to fraud by onboarding trusted customers faster and finding bad-faith users quicker using AI.About Ronan Burke:Ronan Burke is the Co-Founder of Inscribe.ai, which he founded after graduating from University College in Dublin. He participated in YCS18 and Inscribe is trusted by companies like BlueVine, Petal, Fair, and Ramp, and backed by Y Combinator, Uncork Capital, Crosslink Capital, and Foundry Group.In this episode we discuss:01:37 Ronan’s path to founding Inscribe with his twin brother03:02 How they viewed startups growing up in Ireland04:44 Growing the startup ecosystem in Dublin05:20 The launch of Inscribe08:06 Deciding which brother was CTO and which was CEO09:52 Ronan experience at YC12:54 What fraud means to Inscribe and how the pandemic made their service even more urgently needed16:09 The ROI of Inscribe to onboarding customers and detecting fraud from preexisting customers19:29 The three steps Inscribe uses to validate customers21:54 How Inscribe searches the dark web for templates and other fraudulent activities23:33 How the volume of data helps their ML24:00 What a typical fraud case looks like25:28 The market size for fraud detection26:55 Competition to Inscribe28:00 What the sales process looks like when selling to large FinTechs30:19 Case studies for Inscribe31:53 How their fundraising process went33:23 Plans for the next few years34:20 Plans for a hybrid model workplaceFast FavoritesPodcastTim Ferris ShowNewsletter BlogSimon Taylor FinTech Brain FoodTech GadgetLogiTech Stream CamNew TrendHybrid WorkingBookPrincipalsLife LessonIf you care about something, double down on it.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Charles Hudson, Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, talks about how he founded Precursor Ventures and why he is unafraid to back unproven first-time entrepreneurs. Charles gives useful tips for founders embarking on finding product-market fit, and shares his thoughts on bridge funding.In this episode, you'll learn:[3:57] Starting early in venture capital as an undergraduate; what you enjoy, and what you miss[8:49] Why Precursor is unafraid to back unproven, first-time entrepreneurs[11:50] $1m pre-seed funding can quickly vanish due to lack of clarity on the product-market fit.[16:26] How bridge funding can be helpful to entrepreneursNon-profit that Charles is passionate about: San Francisco-Marin Food BankAbout Guest SpeakerCharles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures. For more than three decades, Charles has made seed-stage investments in startups in the internet and mobile spaces. Prior to founding Precursor, he identified investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure, mobile applications, and marketplaces as a Partner at Uncork Capital. Before that, he co-founded Bionic Panda Games (a mobile games startup), held business development roles for Gaia Interactive, Google, and Serious Business, was a Product Manager for IronPort Systems, and worked at In-Q-Tel, CIA's venture capital fund.About Precursor VenturesPrecursor Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that seeks to invest in a company's first round of institutional investment and focuses on investments in B2B software applications, B2C software and services, and connected hardware. Precursor's portfolio includes: AnyRoad, Afriex, Arternal, Ascent Autism, Bloom, Bobbie, Documate, Nomad, Encantos, Healthie, Knack, Sagelink, and Zeta.Next Week's EpisodeComing up next week in Episode 74, we welcome a special guest, Heather Harnett, CEO and Founding Partner of Human Ventures, to talk about how she identifies ‘futurists' to back them until the market sees their value.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode that will drop next Tuesday. Follow Us:  Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook

Lever, a leading Talent Acquisition Suite, has completed a $50 millionSeries D funding round with the Apax Digital Fund. The funding comes as the market for talent acquisition is continuing to heat up, and companies face the most competitive market for hiring and retaining talent to date.  The investment in Lever will accelerate solution development in talent analytics, top-of-funnel talent discovery, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as well as support growth in new markets, and continued product innovation. https://hrtechfeed.com/lever-raises-50-million/ Fountain, the world's leading all-in-one applicant tracking system for high volume hiring, today announced $85 million in Series C financing, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2* with participation from B Capital Group and Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and existing investors DCM, Origin Ventures, Commerce Ventures, SemperVirens Venture Capital and Uncork Capital.  This new round follows strong company momentum in 2021 as revenue grew 220% year-over-year. Fountain now has more than 250 customers including Chipotle Mexican Grill, John Lewis & Partners and Just Eat Takeaway. With the Series C, Fountain has now raised $119 million to date. Fountain will use the new funding to continue to invest in innovation of its hiring platform, as well as to grow its sales and engineering teams and its operations and presence in EMEA and APAC regions.  https://hrtechfeed.com/fountain-raises-85-million-to-help-companies-hire-hourly-workers/  Contra, a professional community that empowers anyone to work independently, today announced the launch of commission-free payments and $30M in Series B funding to help Contra on its journey to revolutionizing the way independents work.The funds will be used for internal hiring and further product innovation as Contra scales to meet the needs of the millions of independent workers that value the freedom, autonomy and financial benefits of the freelance lifestyle. Contra has combined every aspect of the independent journey into one platform and gives independents all the tools they need to build their professional identities and work the way they want.  https://hrtechfeed.com/independent-worker-community-lands-30-million-in-funding/ Fiverr announced the acquisition of Stoke Talent, an intuitive all-in-one solution to help companies manage their work with freelance talent, for $95 million.  This includes tools to onboard, pay, track budgets and more. With Stoke's product suite, Fiverr is looking to add more value to larger businesses and integrate with existing corporate workflows. https://hrtechfeed.com/fiverr-acquires-stoke-talent-freelance-management-platform/  When I Work, a leading SaaS employee scheduling, time-tracking and team messaging platform, today announced it has secured a $200 million growth investment. Founded in Minneapolis and now operating as a remote-first company, When I Work is a leading provider of shift-based workforce management software that delivers a powerful, employee-first experience to streamline scheduling, enhance internal communication and more efficiently track time. Since its founding in 2010, more than 10 million hourly employees have used the frictionless platform to easily view and swap shifts, clock in, view hours worked, request time off and seamlessly communicate with their managers and co-workers.    https://hrtechfeed.com/hourly-worker-scheduling-app-raises-200-million/

Subscriptions are taking over the world, but it can often be a challenge for smaller e-commerce sites to add and service this new sector on top of their existing business, Upscribe is here to fill that niche for Shopify shops and other e-commerce platforms. We talk with Dileepan Siva, founder and CEO, about what he’s building, the e-commerce landscape, and how to reduce churn and increase loyalty through smarter subscription offerings.About Dileepan Siva:Dileepan grew up across three continents and four countries before the age of ten. His dream job growing up was to be the UN Secretary General. After graduating from UC Berkeley and getting an MBA from Harvard, he went on to be an advisor for the US and UN in war-torn countries.After his time in government and politics, he moved to consulting and tech operations at Ebay, and Twitter, before becoming a founder for himself. Upscribe was founded in 2019 and recently closed a $4M seed round lead by Uncork Capital.In this episode we discuss:01:24 The evolution of the subscription economy03:09 What has caused the shift to subscriptions?06:13 The technologies that have helped enable subscriptions08:25 How companies can start into subscriptions10:27 Why Shopify and CAC has changed the game in e-commerce12:15 How non-SaaS businesses can implement subscriptions13:52 Why subscriptions are not just yesterday’s box companies15:25 What is the best strategy for pricing your subscriptions17:24 Why bundling is so important to e-commerce19:21 The importance of data and personalized marketing with subscription21:18 How companies should think about retention in relation to growth24:05 Dileepan’s best advice for a company just starting a subscription service26:18 Targeting data that Upscribe uses to upsell customers27:22 Why smart subscriptions is a good idea29:14 The decision to take on funding from UncorkFast FavoritesPodcast:Invest Like The BestNewsletter/BlogScott GallowayTech GadgetSony HeadphonesTrendThe future of workBookUntethered Soul by Michael SingerFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Not everyone can become a successful founder, but a successful founder can come from anywhere. The increasing number of amazing businesses sprouting up throughout the United States is prompting venture capitalists to seek out new ventures all over the country. In this episode, special guest host Jeff Burkland, Founder & CEO of Burkland, returns! He talks with Andy McLoughlin, Partner at Uncork Capital, about why this shift is occurring and what it means for the future of the startup ecosystem. Topics covered: -What makes a good founder -Helping startups navigate the changing landscape -Silicon Valley becoming more of a mindset than a place -Deciding on a remote, in-office, or hybrid model -Pitching on zoom This discussion with Andy McLoughlin was taken from our show Startup Success. Andy can be found on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andymcloughlin/. If you want to hear more episodes like this one, check us out on Apple Podcasts. If you don't use Apple Podcasts, you can find every episode here. Listening on a desktop & can't see the links? Just search for Startup Success in your favorite podcast player.

Jeff Clavier began investing into early stage ventures more than twenty years ago and have supported several teams that have reached successful outcomes, among others Eventbrite, Fitbit or Postmates. He has founded Uncork Capital in 2004, one of the most prominent seed funds based in Palo Alto with over $500m under management. In today's episode, he shares with us the current and hottest investment areas he focuses on and why he is passionate about B2B SaaS enterprises. Also, he gives us his take on the current state of the European start-up ecosystem and his advice on avoiding the three most common mistakes made by early stage founders both in the ideation as well as in the product building phase. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffclavier https://uncorkcapital.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/janbrinckmann 00:00 Introduction 0:50 Why and how Jeff joined the entrepreneurship world 02:35 Jeff's reasons for moving to the US & becoming a VC 05:45 The first investment in the time of the Web 2.0 & impressive returns 11:25 Investment hypothesis: Coming from seed investments to also having a growth fund 13:55 On which sectors Jeff focuses his investments 15:35 The opportunity for B2B SaaS companies 17:05 Jeff's view on the European start-up ecosystem 22:50 Advices for founders in the early stage 25:30 How to find the right idea for starting a start-up 27:10 Common mistakes made by founders 29:35 After having the idea - how to build the product 32:45 Jeff's personal advice for getting into the entrepreneurship space 34:28 Quick fire round: Thing Jeff is most proud of; most useful software tool; what would Jeff be if not a VC 38:15 Closing

Dans ce 49ème Runway Series Originals, je reçois Jeff Clavier, Founder & Managing Partner d'Uncork Capital établi dans la Valley depuis 2000. [Cet épisode est un extrait de l'épisode que tu peux retrouver en intégralité et avec les shownotes sur VentureNotes.co] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Il y a aujourd'hui plus de 1'200 fonds de micro VC dans le monde. Selon CrunchBase, un Micro-VC fund est un fonds qui se définit surtout par sa taille (le capital à déployer) typiquement inférieure à US$ 100M. C'est par conséquent un fonds qui naturellement va backer des founders essentiellement du pre-seed au seed, au plus tard la Series A. Avec l'émergence et l'accessibilité des plate-formes comme AngelList, des service providers comme Assure, les repeat founders ayant fait des exits embrassant le modèle operator-investor et les solo-capitalists.. nul doute que le trend va accélérer. D'ailleurs la définition par la taille a déjà beaucoup évolué puisqu'en 2014, un Micro-VC fund déployait typiquement moins de US$ 50M. J'ai voulu en savoir plus sur les origines de cette catégorie d'investisseurs de Micro-VC qui existe depuis bien avant 2014. Et Jeff Clavier est sans nul doute l'acteur de ce space pouvant en parler avec le plus d'expérience et de granularité. Car Jeff, Founder & General Partner de Uncork Capital à Palo Alto est un pionnier du Micro-VC depuis 2004. Français et établi depuis 2000 dans la Valley, Jeff a fait depuis plus de 250 investissements (Front, SendGrid, Postmates, Poshmark, Fitbit, Eventbrite) d'abord comme "super angel" puis avec un des tout premiers fonds instit solo-GP de micro-VC, SoftTech VC rebrandé depuis quelques années Uncork avec l'arrivée de Partners. Dans ce super épisode qui est un deep dive dans le monde du Micro-VC dans la Valley, Jeff revient sur _ son parcours en France, son envie de s'établir aux US et ce qui lui a permis d'avoir un dealflow de super angel et une notoriété établie très rapidement _ Jeff revient aussi sur l'intérêt de lancer hybride angelvc et comment il a été un des précuseurs dans la création d'une nouvelle catégorie d'investisseurs _ Jeff nous explique pourquoi le rebranding Uncork Capital, l'atout capital qu'il a reussi à developper, à savoir le tissu d'entrepreneurs soutenus lui permet de ne quasiment jamais perdre un deal _ L'importance particulière que Jeff accorde à la transparence, le challenge essentiel qu'il rencontre en early stage et les questions qu'il aime que les founders posent aux VCs. Je remercie vraiment Jeff et je suis certain que vous allez adorer cet épisode. Très bonne écoute! ____ Les podcasts Runway Series Originals, AMA VC, Human Factor, No-Code VC / Fit & Venture Talks sont produits par UPCOMINGVC® (www.upcoming.vc), imaginés, animés par Raphael Grieco. UPCOMINGVC® a lancé le podcast Runway Series en octobre 2019 et après 70+ épisodes, 85+ invités dans 6 formats différents, le podcast évolue et s'ouvre comme plateforme de lancement pour aspirant.e.s podcasters ! Si comme Melchior Mesnard, et son podcast Momentor que nous produisons, tu as un projet de podcasts sur le Venture Capital, l'Entrepreneuriat, les Startups et l'Innovation, contacte-nous à hello@upcoming.vc ! UPCOMINGVC® c'est aussi une newsletter, "Venture Notes" (venturenotes.co) qui ajoute du contexte aux podcasts & donne accès à des outils & infos uniques pour la Communauté.

Listen now (49 min) | We’re thrilled to bring you my recent talk with Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital, one of the early trailblazers of the emerging manager community. Jeff started investing in seed full time all the way back in 2004 well before the Micro-VC moniker was even conceived (back then we called them Super Angels). Today the firm is one of the most active seed funds in the market with over $500MM in AUM and having invested in companies such as Poshmark, Fitbit, Eventbrite, and Molekule. Get on the email list at ventureunlocked.substack.com

In this episode, Jeff shares his personal journey as the founder of Uncork Capital and discusses the most important traits he looks for when investing in startup founders.Guest - Jeff ClavierWebsite - uncorkcapital.com Twitter - @JeffFollow Us!LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/coefficient-labsInstagram: www.instagram.com/demodaypodcast/Facebook: www.facebook.com/coefficientlabs/Twitter: https://twitter.com/coefficientlabsContact Information:social@coefficientlabs.com

Charles Hudson is the Founder & Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures, a seed and pre seed venture capital fund based in San Francisco with nearly $100 million in assets under management. Prior to launching Precursor, Charles was an investor at Uncork Capital, and was the co-founder of Bionic Panda Games. He is a two time graduate of Stanford University, and is a guest lecturing professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business where he teaches Entrepreneurship from Diverse Perspectives. In our first episode of the Diversity Riders podcast, Charles shares his story as one of the first venture capitalists to sign on to the Diversity Rider initiative, which was launched in the Summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent racial awakening in America. He explains why he did it, his perspective on why it works so well, and how the Diversity Rider is making an impact on him and his firm. We also discuss the topics of race and gender in venture capital today from the perspective of one of the most prominent Black investors in the entire investing game.

Imagine posting up in Silicon Valley for a year to soak up the entrepreneurial ecosystem while while waiting for inspiration for a startup idea.  Sounds artsy, but from a business perspective it can be incredibly helpful to sort through various uses of technology and the business modes that get them to market.  Fresh off a career in private equity and a short stint studying medicine, Chris Bennett took this exact approach.  With a passion for using technology to improve the quality of human life, he has built Wonderschool to improve the quality and access to childcare.   Founder Bio: Chris Bennett is a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and early childhood education advocate passionate about the power of the Internet and using it for social good.   Chris is the co-founder and CEO of Wonderschool, an all-in-one online platform that helps families seeking childcare and microschools to find available options near them and supports those who provide that care and education. Born out of Chris's realization that early childhood education is what enabled him to be the first member of his family to go to college.   Since its start in 2016, Wonderschool has expanded its offerings and partnerships, pivoting to meet the unique needs of today's families and providers. Recognized by Fast Company as one of the most innovative companies, Wonderschool has been funded by Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Imaginable Futures, Cross Culture Ventures, Uncork Capital, Rethink Education, Edelweiss, Lerer Ventures, 500 Startups, FundersClub, and others.   Timestamps: 1:54 How his uncle's experience as a black doctor in Honduras influenced a passion for entrepreneurship 7:24 Life at Wharton (Undergrad) | Struggling as a student, but thriving as an entrepreneur 10:00  Exploring the right early career fit – private equity, medicine, and then to Silicon Valley 11:55  The origins of Wonderschool 15:18  Strategy for validating market demand before building tech 17:56  Raising $2mm to build engineering team to build product 18:30  Wonderschool described – platform, functionality, and value prop within childcare 22:40  Matching supply and demand in a marketplace 27:30  Chris receiving his first investment via NewMe accelerator (and 500 Startups) 30:30  Benefits of joining and accelerator 34:33  What help investors can provide…not including funding 38:35  Taking the team remote and moving to a global talent strategy

064 Jeff Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), one of the original seed VC firms in the Silicon Valley, and has closed 200+ investments since 2004. His portfolio includes Postmates, Poshmark, Fitbit, SendGrid, Mint and many others. He was also a board member of the National Venture Capital Association and was featured on the Forbes Midas List among top venture capitalists in the world.  https://www.SmartVenturePod.com IG/Twitter/FB @GraceGongGG LinkedIn:@GraceGong YouTube: https://bit.ly/gracegongyoutube Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are going to have conversations with some of the top investors, super star founders, as well as well known tech executives in the silicon valley. We will have a coffee chat with them to learn their ways of thinking and actionable tips on how to build or invest in a successful company.

Tammy Sun is the CEO and co-founder of Carrot Fertility, the leading global fertility benefits provider for employers. Carrot's mission is to improve access to high-quality fertility care and dramatically reduce the emotional and financial strain for employees who need it. Tammy was inspired to create Carrot after she spent $35,000 of her personal savings to undergo egg freezing. Carrot supports over 200 companies in more than 50 countries across North America, Asia, Europe, South America, and the Middle East. Carrot has raised $40M in venture capital from leading funds like F-Prime, CRV, Maven Ventures, Precursor Ventures, and Uncork Capital. Tammy has had a successful career across marketing, technology, and politics. Before founding Carrot, she was the Director of Partnerships at Evernote. Prior to Evernote, she spent a decade in politics, where she served as a presidential appointee at the Federal Communications Commission during the Obama administration. She also held roles at the Clinton Foundation and The White House. In this episode, we will cover: How Tammy turned her personal experience with fertility into the motivation to start and build Carrot How to know if you're the best person to turn your idea into a business What to look for in a co-founder and founding team How to create feedback loops with prospective customers to inform market discovery and land your first customers The critical things Tammy did to generate momentum for her first raise and why fundraising has been easier since Tips for standing out in the sea of companies selling into HR & benefits teams Tammy's #1 suggestion for early stage founders

Stephanie invests around a core thesis focusing on how technology affects how we live, work, and play. Her conversation with Next Play founder Ryan Nece covers a lot of ground, including her current investment focus areas, her favorite hobbies (travel, yoga), how to win competitive deals (have good references), why VCs need psychology degrees, and much more.   Wanna know how Stephanie has two biological children 14 days apart in age? Hint: it does not involve adoption. Check out this week's podcast to hear her unique story.

Listen now (36 min) | Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder at Precursor Ventures, one of the first and most active pre-seed focused venture firms in the world. Precursor seeks to invest in a company’s first round of institutional investment and focuses on investments in B2B software applications, B2C software and services, and connected hardware. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, he spent 5 years as a Partner at Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC). Charles was also the Co­Founder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, a mobile games startup. Prior to this he held Business Development roles for Serious Business (acquired by Zynga), Gaia Interactive, and Google. Prior to joining Google, Charles was a Product Manager for IronPort Systems, and he worked at In-Q-Tel, the venture capital fund backed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Charles holds a BA and an MBA from Stanford University. Get on the email list at ventureunlocked.substack.com

Michael Winn is the co-founder and CEO of DroneDeploy which is a cloud-based drone mapping and analytics platform to help businesses get things done. The company has raised $100 million from top tier investors which include Bessemer Venture Partners, Threshold, Redpoint, Data Collective DCVC, Uncork Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Emergence, AngelPad, AirTree Ventures, High Alpha, Drone Fund, and Energize Ventures to name a few.

Michael Winn is the co-founder and CEO of DroneDeploy which is a cloud-based drone mapping and analytics platform to help businesses get things done. The company has raised $100 million from top tier investors which include Bessemer Venture Partners, Threshold, Redpoint, Data Collective DCVC, Uncork Capital, Scale Venture Partners, Emergence, AngelPad, AirTree Ventures, High Alpha, Drone Fund, and Energize Ventures to name a few.

Dilip Goswami is the co-founder and CEO of Molekule which is a San Francisco-based science and clean air company that has developed a fundamentally new approach to cleaning the air. The company has raised $100 million from top tier investors such as Crosslink Capital, Uncork Capital, Foundry Group, TransLink Capital, Highway1, Foxconn Technology Group, Hack VC, Founders Circle Capital, Hone Capital, CSC, Inventec Corporation, and RPS Ventures.

Dilip Goswami is the co-founder and CEO of Molekule which is a San Francisco-based science and clean air company that has developed a fundamentally new approach to cleaning the air. The company has raised $100 million from top tier investors such as Crosslink Capital, Uncork Capital, Foundry Group, TransLink Capital, Highway1, Foxconn Technology Group, Hack VC, Founders Circle Capital, Hone Capital, CSC, Inventec Corporation, and RPS Ventures.

With the increasing popularity and buzz surrounding remote EA work, we decided it was time to get some real insight from a remote Executive Assistant in our network. In this episode, we interview LJ Cohen, remote Executive Assistant to the Partners of Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC). In this episode, LJ addresses everything from the importance of asking the right questions in the interview process to ensure success in a remote role to setting up boundaries within her personal life to create a home environment that supports her work to dealing with situations like her executive having trouble connecting to a video conference when she isn’t physically there to assist. Listen in as LJ dives into the nuances of remote support and shares with us what it’s really like to work from home on a daily basis. (Hint: it’s not always pjs, slippers and a cup of tea!) Our hope is that after listening to this episode, you’ll have a clearer sense as to whether remote work is for you and what questions to ask of yourself and others before taking the leap.

With the increasing popularity and buzz surrounding remote EA work, we decided it was time to get some real insight from a remote Executive Assistant in our network. In this episode, we interview LJ Cohen, remote Executive Assistant to the Partners of Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC). In this episode, LJ addresses everything from the importance of asking the right questions in the interview process to ensure success in a remote role to setting up boundaries within her personal life to create a home environment that supports her work to dealing with situations like her executive having trouble connecting to a video conference when she isn’t physically there to assist. Listen in as LJ dives into the nuances of remote support and shares with us what it’s really like to work from home on a daily basis. (Hint: it’s not always pjs, slippers and a cup of tea!) Our hope is that after listening to this episode, you’ll have a clearer sense as to whether remote work is for you and what questions to ask of yourself and others before taking the leap.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Matt Tucker of Koan.co, a software platform that helps manage and report on goals (OKRs) and to turn strategy into action. In this episode, Matt talks about why he bootstrapped the company for seven years before raising capital, the balance between chasing profitability and the largest valuation, when to use an "investor memo" vs. a pitch deck, the definition of a modern SAFE note, and more. The Company most recently raised a $5 million seed round led by Uncork Capital. Spider Capital, Crosslink Capital, Webb Investment Network, Maynard Webb, Scott G. McNealy and SV Angel also participated. This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Jaleh Rezaei is the Founder & CEO @ Mutiny, the startup that allows you to personalise your website for each and every visitor. Jaleh has raised from some of the best in the early stage business with Mutiny including the likes of Y Combinator, Uncork Capital and Cowboy Ventures on the fund side and then Mathilde @ Front, Henrique @ Brex and Shan-Lyn Ma @ Zola on the operator side. Prior to founding Mutiny, Jaleh spent an incredible 4 years at Gusto seeing their hypergrowth first hand as one of the first 10 employees. If that was not enough, Jaleh has also enjoyed advisory roles at both Google and Y Combinator.  In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Jaleh made her way into the world of SaaS as one of the first team members at Gusto and how that led to her founding Mutiny most recently?  What were Jaleh’s biggest takeaways from her time at Gusto? How did that time impact her operating mentality with Mutiny today? How did her time at Gusto teach her about the right way to build company culture? Where do so many go wrong with this? What does Jaleh believe is the biggest problem in SaaS marketing today? How does Jaleh specifically use ABM to acquire customers and leads effectively? What price points is required for an ABM strategy to be viable?   How does Jaleh approach the issue of determining the success of marketing? Should marketing be held accountable to a number tied directly to revenue? How does brand marketing play into this? Where are the nuances here?      Jaleh’s 60 Second SaaStr: What is the hardest role to hire for today? Hardest element for Jaleh of her role with Mutiny today? What does Jaleh know now that she wishes she had known when she entered the world of SaaS? Read the transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Jaleh Rezaei

Andy McLoughlin is a partner at Uncork Capital in San Francisco, focusing on B2B software opportunities. Uncork Capital is a seed-stage venture firm that commits early, helps with the hard stuff, and sticks around. Really. Andy's investments include LaunchDarkly, Coder, Crossbeam, Focal Systems, Human Interest, Pattern (acquired by Workday), Test.ai, Simplify, Fountain, GreatHorn, Bigfinite, and Identify3D, as well as a number of companies still in stealth. Andy was previously a prolific seed investor into many well-known startups. Postmates, Buffer, Intercom, Pipedrive, Hullabalu, RolePoint, Tray.io, Bugsnag, Thread, Calm, Secret Escapes, Apiary (acquired by Oracle), Import.io, Zesty (acquired by Square), Marvel, Cloud66 and more. Prior to becoming an investor, Andy is best know for co-founding Huddle with Alastair Mitchell. Andy had many roles at Huddle over the years - Head of Technology, Head of Product, Head of Marketing, Head of Strategy / Business Development, GM North America - but he was most passionate about building a great team and a great product. Andy stepped back from his executive role in 2015 but remained on the board of directors until the company's acquisition in 2017, when it was eventually sold to private equity for $89m in August 2017. That sum is far less than Huddle's reported peak valuation of up to $300M when it snagged a $51 million Series D funding round in 2014.

Jeff Clavier is a Veteran of the Forbes Midas List of Top Venture Capitalists in the World. He’s Founder & Managing Partner of Uncork Capital, one of the original seed VC firms in Silicon Valley with over $500M under management, having closed 200+ investments since 2004 including in companies like Fitbit, Eventbrite, Bleacher Report, Postmates, Bitly, and in companies that were acquired by Intuit, GameStop, Yahoo, eBay, Google, and Twitter. https://uncorkcapital.com https://twitter.com/jeff ******* Simulation interviews the greatest minds alive to inspire you to build the future ► http://simulationseries.com Design Merch, Get Paid, Spread Thought-Provoking Questions ► https://yoobe.me/simulation ******* Subscribe across platforms ► Youtube ► http://bit.ly/SimYoTu iTunes ► http://bit.ly/SimulationiTunes Instagram ► http://bit.ly/SimulationIG Twitter ► http://bit.ly/SimulationTwitter Spotify ► http://bit.ly/SpotifySim BiliBili ► http://bit.ly/SimBiliBili ******* Facebook ► http://bit.ly/SimulationFB Soundcloud ► http://bit.ly/SimulationSC LinkedIn ► http://bit.ly/SimulationLinkedIn Patreon ► http://bit.ly/SimulationPatreon Crypto ► http://bit.ly/CryptoSimu PayPal ► https://paypal.me/simulationseries ******* Nuance-driven Telegram chat ► http://bit.ly/SimulationTG Allen's TEDx Talk ► http://bit.ly/AllenTEDx Allen's IG ► http://bit.ly/AllenIG Allen's Twitter ► http://bit.ly/AllenT ******* List of Thought-Provoking Questions ► http://simulationseries.com/the-list Get in Touch ► simulationseries@gmail.com

What’s up everyone! Today I am joined by Jeff Clavier, founder and managing partner of Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC). He founded Uncork Capital in 2004 to serve an unmet need of startup founders: active support and capital for companies in their first 18 months of life. Some of his successful investments include Fitbit, Sendgrid, Eventbrite, and Vungle. As a VC today, working hard/smart is not enough. You need to find that investor-market fit. After first working as a CTO for a fintech startup in France, Jeff then founded Uncork. Since then, Uncork has been helping startups through their most critical early stages. Jeff has helped guide these companies through the many struggles that come with being an early stage startup. Listen as Jeff shares his startup and VC journey, challenges encountered with founders, and how he built a successful venture capital firm. Enjoy! Episode Quotes "You can't just put a thesis together and say I'm going to work hard and succeed" "Today working hard/smart is not enough. You need to find that investor-market fit" "Get the valuation that the market gives you but don't go seeking the unicorn status" "We should do fundraising not just for the sake of raising but to scale faster, better and higher" Listen to Learn 01:04 How Jeff got into startups and venture capital? 04:53 Helping founders and challenges encountered 08:14 Jeff's core VC skill 14:13 Advice for new investors or startup founders 19:08 Insights from the recession, The $15 million VC fund 23:56 What does it take to start a successful fund? 32:41 Non-rapid Fire Questions 43:45 Jeff's social media links

Andy is a Partner with Uncork Capital, one of the most active seed-stage investors in Silicon Valley. He invests in early-stage software startups that help businesses operate like the best companies in the world either by building better, selling more, or operating more effectively. Prior to joining Uncork Capital in 2015, Andy was co-founder of London-based Huddle, a leading enterprise content collaboration company. Under Andy's leadership, Huddle became one of Europe's most awarded and well-known technology startups, raising over $80M of venture funding. Andy is a Kauffman Fellow from Class 22. Signup for our newsletter to get notified of the latest release and to receive the latest insights in VC and startups http://eepurl.com/dzVE5j

Mathilde Collin is the co-founder and CEO of Front, the first shared inbox for teams. Front serves more than 4,000 companies around the world and has raised $79 million in venture funding from investors such as Sequoia Capital, DFJ, and Uncork Capital.Mathilde was recognized in 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Enterprise Tech list and 2018 Inc’s 30 Under 30 Rising Star list. She is based in San Francisco and originally from Paris, and earned her Masters in Entrepreneurship from the HEC School of Management in 2012.Bryan Schreier is a Partner at Sequoia, where he works with consumer and enterprise companies. He is a Director of Clever, Domino Data, Dropbox, Front, Hearsay Systems, Qualtrics, Thumbtack, TuneIn, and Zūm, among others.Startup Grind Global Conference 2019

Pour ce premier épisode nous avons été au coeur de la Silicon Valley à la rencontre de l'un des meilleurs investisseurs de la nouvelle génération. Pendant une petite heure, Jeff Clavier partage les coulisses de son fonds d'investissement Uncork Capital.

Hiten Shah is the Co-Founder @ FYI, the startup that allows you to find your documents in 3 clicks or less. Before FYI, Hiten co-founded QuickSprout alongside Neil Patel, together they scaled the platform to over 500,000 readers every month. Before QuickSprout, Hiten was the Co-Founder and CEO of KISSmetrics, raising over $19m in the process for the company from the likes of True Ventures, Uncork Capital and Felicis Ventures just to name a few. Finally, Hiten is also the Co-Founder @ Crazy Egg, the heat mapping tool used by thousands to improve the effectiveness of their websites. Finally, Hiten is also an angel investor with a portfolio including Buffer, Clearbit, Front, Gusto and more incredible companies. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Hiten made his way into the world of startups, growth market and SaaS and how that led to his co-founding FYI today? Having founded multiple startups, does Hiten agree with Joe Fernandez @ JoyMode that "serial entrepreneurship is overrated"? Why does Hiten believe that fundamentally, nobody knows what they are doing? 2.) How does Hiten feel about the compression of fundraising timelines today? How does Hiten advise founders on building authentic relationships with investors? What is it crucial that founders understand about the investing class? How does Chetan advise founders on building hype and urgency within their fundraising? What works? What does not? 3.) Why does Hiten believe that we have seen the eradication of the friends and family round? What other large trends has Hiten observed in the early stage over the last few years? How does Hiten advise founders on how to approach which seed investors they take on board? Does Hiten think founders and investors can be friends? 4.) How has Hiten seen himself change and evolve as a leader over the last decade? What have been the biggest learnings on what great leadership really means? What are the 5 core elements that all great leaders must focus on? How does he split his time across these 5 disciplines? Where do founders often not spend adequate time among the 5? 5.) How does Hiten think about the element of "burnout" and depression today? Has Hiten ever felt burned out himself? How does this stress manifest itself? How does Hiten think that burnout and control are correlated? What can one do to change their relationship to control? What has worked for Hiten? What has not? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Hiten’s Fave Book: The Courage To Be Disliked  As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Hiten on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Mathilde Collin is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Front, reinventing the email inbox with new workflows and efficient collaboration so people can accomplish more together. To date, Mathilde has raised over $79m in VC funding with Front from some of the best in the business including Bryan Schreier @ Sequoia, Initialized, Uncork Capital, Boldstart and individuals including Andrew Chen, Elad Gil, Ray Tonsing the list goes on. With 4,500+ customers, and 100+ employees, in Paris, San Francisco and Amsterdam, Front is one of the fastest growing companies in SaaS and Mathilde has become a thought leader for the next generation of SaaS CEOs, read more on her blog here.  In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Mathilde made her way from product manager in Paris to founding one of the hottest and fastest growing companies in the world of SaaS in the form of Front? 2.) What does Mathilde mean when she says, "I would choose discipline over vision any day of the week"? What does discipline really mean to Mathilde? Why is it a priority in the early days? How can a VC stress test and determine the level of discipline a founder has in first meetings? What are the signs or leading indicators? 3.) Communications: Investor Updates: What is Mathilde's biggest advice to founders when it comes to investor updates? What should they contain? How often should they go out? How should founders ask for help in updates? Where do founders often make mistakes? Revenue Updates: Why does Mathilde do revenue updates with the team? Is there a danger of being too transparent? What are the benefits of this transparency? What is the structure of the update? Who is privy to it? Direct Reports: How does Mathilde communicate with her direct reports? Why does Mathilde believe that CEOs should have their calendar public? What is the right cadence for these direct reports? 4.) How does Mathilde approach and think about fundraises with Front today? How can founders know when is the right time to raise? How does Mathilde think about building relationships with investors when she is not raising? How transparent should founders be when they are not raising? What are Mathilde tips for always overshooting her numbers? How does Mathilde conduct DD on potential investors in the company? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Mathilde’s Fave Book: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Mathilde on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Bob Moore of Crossbeam (www.getcrossbeam.com). Crossbeam makes leads management software that leverages data for improving business partnerships. The Company raised $3.5 million in seed funding from First Round Capital and Uncork Capital. In this episode, Bob talks about the booming API economy, what to watch for regarding earn-outs after your startup is acquired, when and how to raise capital to improve speed and growth (and optimize for big outcomes), the rise of "platform VCs" and much more. This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Learn more at www.foundersuite.com.

Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital joins Nick to discuss Market Cycles, Escalating Costs to Start Up, and the Micro VC Surge. In this episode, we cover:   In 2004 you started making angel investments in emerging Web 2.0 companies and at that time, only a handful of individuals backed entrepreneurs in the internet space…What was your first investment and how did you get involved in the space?  What's the story of the founding of SoftTech--now known as Uncork Capital.  What led to the rebrand from SoftTech to Uncork?  The investment focus/thesis of Uncork.  You mentioned...FitBit, EventBrite, and Sendgrid...it's striking how different each of these businesses are...How you are able to get conviction and understand key success factors across different sectors with different models and overall profiles?  How have the market cycles affected VC, your fund strategy, raising capital and the impact on portfolio companies?  What are the most common mistakes you see early investors making?  With the 600+ micro-VC funds now...is the stage over capitalized?  Is it more expensive to build a startup today than 10 years ago?  Being that you are from France...in your estimation, what have been the primary differences in funding European based startups vs. those in the States?  Said to be one of the most helpful investors in the valley... what are some of the specific ways you get involved?  On the firms website it talks about your “No Playbook” and “No Bullshit” approach that you're not delivering “prescriptive formulas on how to build or scale” but instead developing custom plans, one on one. Tell us about these custom plans and the key elements.  How Jeff balances time and energy with so many portfolio companies.

We've got a double dose of exciting news for you, startup fans. First, we're thrilled to announce that investment firms August Capital, SV Angel and Uncork Capital have partnered with us for the 2nd Annual TechCrunch Winter Party at Galvanize on February 8. And second, today we released into the wild another fresh, though limited, batch of tickets. If you haven't snagged a ticket to this Silicon Valley shindig, take heed.

Welcome to Episode 62 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 Aaron Feuer, Co-Founder and CEO of Panorama Education. Education has always been a passion for Aaron and what ended up being the inspiration behind Panorama actually began when he was in high school. As a student organizer, he got a bill passed in the state of California, which was an attempt at giving students a voice through feedback surveys. Although the bill was passed, it didn't accomplish what he expected at all, and that frustration ultimately upped the ante for his mission to change the future of what education should be. Aaron and his co-founders started Panorama Education when they were students at Yale, juggling coursework while embarking on this entrepreneurial journey. Today, Panorama is a venture-backed company ($32M raised) that helps schools collect & analyze data about social-emotional learning, school climate, engagement, and more through its Panorama Platform. The company currently serves 9 million students across 900 school districts. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: -The Panorama journey, from the foundation years of building a company while in college to the current state of their business and products. -His experience at Y Combinator, and why that time was so valuable. -Advice on raising capital for first-time founders and how they raised initial seed funding from so many prominent investors like Mark Zuckerberg's Startup:Education Fund (now know as the Zuckerberg Chan Initiative), Ashton Kutcher, Eric Ries, Spark Capital, Owl Ventures, Uncork Capital, and Emerson Collective, which is the firm that was launched by Laurene Powell Jobs and led its most recent round of funding. -Why focus and solving your customers' pain points are so important for building out successful products. -A deep discussion around how he learned to be a leader. -Plus, a lot more. Panorama Education is rapidly expanding the team! They are growing quickly and hiring for a number of key roles across the company including marketing, sales, product and client success leadership. Check out their BIZZpage on VentureFizz for a full list of opportunities: venturefizz.com/panorama. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

As part of our Investor Series, we hear from Silicon Valley VC, Charles Hudson, currently at his own seed stage investment firm, Precursor Ventures, although at the time of this recording, Charles was at SofTech Ventures (now Uncork Capital). In this podcast, Charles talks a lot about the fundraising process, along with some keen thoughts on founding teams and solo founders. He also gives a very realistic glimpse into how VCs approach investing - what worries them, what he wishes he hadn't passed on. In his words, 'You have to have a short memory in this job.' Over his career, Charles has been an active investor in all different stages of the investment spectrum, from Series A and M&A, to now Pre-Seed and Seed stage. You can follow him on Twitter, @chudson, as well as us here at Founders Floor on all social channels as @foundersfloor. Don't forget to rate, comment and subscribe to stay updated when we regularly release new episodes.   

Founding General Partner Vic Singh speaks with one of the OG’s of seed investing and a Veteran of the Forbes Midas List, Jeff Clavier, Founder & Managing Partner at Uncork Capital. In this episode, Jeff recounts his journey from a small town in France to studying in Paris and landing in the startup circuit as an engineer that eventually led him to angel investing in successful the Web 2.0 companies of the early 2000’s. Jeff gives advice to aspiring VCs, his thoughts on what it was like transitioning from an angel to his first institutional fund and how the timeline for building credibility as an investor is very different today. He also speaks to the challenges faced as their funds grew, the best strategy to stand out to LPs and how Uncork views co-investors. He also speaks on his journey building hardware companies and how he saw the opportunity to apply the capital efficient model of software as well as his experience with Fitbit.

Hello and welcome back toEquity, TechCrunch's venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a treat. We had Danny Crichton in the studio. We had Connie Loizos in the studio. I was in the studio. And our guest, the excellentAndy McLoughlin, a partner at UnCork Capital, was in the studio as well.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a treat. We had Danny Crichton in the studio. We had Connie Loizos in the studio. I was in the studio. And our guest, the excellent Andy McLoughlin, a partner at UnCork Capital, was in the studio as well. Thus it was with much enthusiasm that we first got to talk about the latest Elon Musk tweet to move Tesla's stock, causing the famous CEO's best-known company even more self-inflicted damage. What a mess. Happily, we had a whole show planned out before that happened, so after cleaning up Musk's latest we tucked into a bit of our normal fare: big rounds, IPOs, and venture moves. Up first was the $100 million Hopper round. For those unaware, Hopper is a travel-focused company that helps folks with flexible schedules get cheap tickets to fun places. Who these people are who have flexible schedules isn't clear to me at the moment, but I'm sure someone, somewhere, isn't effectively their Google Calendar's valet. Also up this week: $165 million more for ZipRecruiter, and possibly $500 million more for Coinbase. A few thoughts. First, it was super interesting that this was only Zip's second known round ever, and that Coinbase's valuation could have been even higher than the rumor. Perhaps even 50 percent higher. Scooting to the next, the impending Tencent Music IPO caught our fancy. It's going to be big, it's going to be splashy, and the company actually makes money. What an odd trio of things! Yes, there are companies in the world that go public and make money. Just not that many of them these days. And finally. there's news out of the a16z fortress: a new partner rises. As Connie notes during the show, Andreessen as a firm has been on a bit of a hiring kick. Which is fair, frankly, as it's not like the shop is short of cash. That and a few jokes along the way were all that we had time for. Shout out to Andy for being fun, and you, for sticking with the show. Chat soon!

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a treat. We had Danny Crichton in the studio. We had Connie Loizos in the studio. I was in the studio. And our guest, the excellent Andy McLoughlin, a partner at UnCork Capital, was in the studio as well. Thus it was with much enthusiasm that we first got to talk about the latest Elon Musk tweet to move Tesla's stock, causing the famous CEO's best-known company even more self-inflicted damage. What a mess. Happily, we had a whole show planned out before that happened, so after cleaning up Musk's latest we tucked into a bit of our normal fare: big rounds, IPOs, and venture moves. Up first was the $100 million Hopper round. For those unaware, Hopper is a travel-focused company that helps folks with flexible schedules get cheap tickets to fun places. Who these people are who have flexible schedules isn't clear to me at the moment, but I'm sure someone, somewhere, isn't effectively their Google Calendar's valet. Also up this week: $165 million more for ZipRecruiter, and possibly $500 million more for Coinbase. A few thoughts. First, it was super interesting that this was only Zip's second known round ever, and that Coinbase's valuation could have been even higher than the rumor. Perhaps even 50 percent higher. Scooting to the next, the impending Tencent Music IPO caught our fancy. It's going to be big, it's going to be splashy, and the company actually makes money. What an odd trio of things! Yes, there are companies in the world that go public and make money. Just not that many of them these days. And finally. there's news out of the a16z fortress: a new partner rises. As Connie notes during the show, Andreessen as a firm has been on a bit of a hiring kick. Which is fair, frankly, as it's not like the shop is short of cash. That and a few jokes along the way were all that we had time for. Shout out to Andy for being fun, and you, for sticking with the show. Chat soon!

Hadley Harris continues the conversation from last week with Brad Feld, Founder and Managing Director of Foundry Group. In this episode, Brad talks about the changing model of VC firms and how partners should be investing in each other in order to make the partnership and the firm stronger. He also answers fellow VC Jeff Clavier from Uncork Capital’s question on what makes an excellent board member, as well as the biggest reasons startups fail and the three machines that must work together in order for a company to scale. If you haven’t heard Part 1, make sure to subscribe and listen to last week’s show. It’s too good to miss: He discusses why it’s important to build long-term fund strategies, and gives his perspective on team size and geography. He also gives advice to himself looking back early in his career.

The post E830: Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital shares seed funding strategies: understanding VC, prepping the pitch, setting valuations, targeting investors, avoiding traps & more @ LAUNCH Incubator appeared first on This Week In Startups.

The post E830: Jeff Clavier of Uncork Capital shares seed funding strategies: understanding VC, prepping the pitch, setting valuations, targeting investors, avoiding traps & more @ LAUNCH Incubator appeared first on This Week In Startups.

Jeff Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), one of the original seed VC firms in Silicon Valley, having closed 200+ investments since 2004. An early angel investor in Web 2.0, Jeff and his team have backed successful startups like Mint (Intuit), Kongregate (GameStop), Brightroll (Yahoo), LiveRamp (Acxiom), Milo... The post Jeff Clavier on Why Brand Matters in VC and the Best Startup Investments Break Your Investing Rules appeared first on The Syndicate.

When Stephanie Palmeri graduated from Columbia Business School in 2011, she took a leap of faith. With no job and two suitcases, she left New York City for Silicon Valley, crashing on the couches of fellow CBS grads. “As someone who didn't have a network [in the Valley]…it was scary, but I did it,” Palmeri says. Palmeri, now a partner at Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), sat down with Why CBS host Fahad Ahmed ’17 during the School’s Women’s Business Leadership in Tech: From Talk to Action conference in February, where she was a panelist.

Mike Silagadze is the Founder & CEO @ Top Hat, the market leader in student engagement software, and is used by millions of students at three-quarters of the top 1,000 colleges and universities in North America. To date, they have raised over $47m in VC funding from many friends and former guests on the show including Albert Wenger @ USV, Boris Wertz @ Version One, Uncork Capital, Felicis and Emergence just to name a few. As for Mike, prior to TopHat, he was a developer at MioVision Technologies. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Mike made his way into the world of startups and came to realise the current method of learning was so broken? 2.) Why does Mike believe that investors have an automatic dislike to edtech? Why does he believe it is the most difficult to market to enter? Why is go to market one of the biggest challenges? How can on innovate on this antiquated go-to-market to enable the rapid scaling required? How did TopHat achieve this? 3.) Why does Mike believe that most companies hire in fundamentally the wrong way? How does Mike balance the complex elements of raw IQ over culture when hiring? If there was one predictive factor Mike uses to hire, what is it? What is the framework and methodology Mike has constructed to ensure the best hires? 4.) What were the biggest mistakes Mike made in scaling out the sales team? Why does Mike think he made them? If he were to advise a younger self, what would be the biggest advice and tips with regards to scaling the sales team, from an engineer's mindset? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Mike’s Fave Book: Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Mike on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Leesa is the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Leesa have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is ordered completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10-inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com to start the New Year with better nights sleep! Zoom, fastest growing video and web conferencing service, providing one consistent enterprise experience that allows you to engage in an array of activities including video meetings and webinars, collaboration-enabled conference rooms, and persistent chat all in one easy platform. Plus, it is the easiest solution to manage, scale, and use, and has the most straightforward, affordable pricing. Don’t take our word for it. Zoom is the top rated conferencing app across various user review sites including G2Crowd and Trust Radius. And you can sign up for a free account (not a trial!). Just visit Zoom.us.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. In this interview, we chat with Jameson Toole about raising capital for Fritz.ai, a platform offers machine learning on any device, enabling developers to manage machine learning models. Jameson raised $2 million of seed funding in a deal led by Eniac Ventures, Uncork Capital, Agile Angel, Hack VC and other investors.

Jeff Clavier, Uncork Capital, on pioneering micro VC, lessons from 200+ investments & 5 funds, strategizing at Seed for Series A crunch, risky ICOs, & the hard-won wisdom of always be raising