Podcasts about Upfront Ventures

On a clear spring evening in Michigan, the stars aligned — just not in the way Upfront Ventures partner Nick Kim expected. He'd just led a $9.5 million seed round for OurSky, a software platform for space observational data, and was eager to see what its telescope partner PlaneWave Instruments could do.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of the SHE MD podcast, hosts Dr. Thais Aliabadi and Mary Alice Haney are joined by Katerina Schneider, founder and CEO of the innovative vitamin company Ritual. While pregnant, Katerina discovered that many multivitamins on the market contained questionable ingredients she didn't feel comfortable putting in her body. Determined to change the industry, she created a transparent, science-backed vitamin line for women. Together, they discuss Ritual's mission to improve supplement standards, what to look for on a vitamin bottle, and the three key policy changes the company advocates for in Congress. If you've ever asked yourself, Do vitamins work? Am I taking the right ones? How can they improve my health?—this episode is for you! IN THIS EPISODE:[00:44] Kat shares how Ritual was conceived[4:44] Traceability - Where are the elements for the product coming from[7:01] Why does a woman need a prenatal vitamin[10:35] An overview of the FDA's regulations and the three policy initiatives Ritual is advocating for in Congress[15:09] What should you look for in a prenatal vitamin and on its label[21:34] What's next at Ritual, and what vitamins Kat takes[28:27] Kat's podcast, For The Real Bodybuilders, is coming out in JanuaryKEY TAKEAWAYS: Women Should Never Feel They Are "Nothing" In A Man's World. Success isn't about gender or background; it's about silencing self-doubt and embracing your leadership power.The Vitamin Industry Needs More Transparency And Efficacy. Ingredients are often untraceable, and many multivitamins need more forms and dosages of the nutrients people need. Clinical research in the category needs to be more extensive, highlighting a need for evidence-based formulations that address actual nutritional deficiencies rather than relying on broad assumptions about dietary gaps.Prenatal Vitamins Are Vital For Healthy Pregnancy And Support Fetal Development And Maternal Health. Folic acid prevents neural tube defects, iron combats anemia, omega-3s aid brain development, and calcium with vitamin D strengthens bones. Ritual Advocates For Three Key Policy Changes To Improve Supplement Safety: mandatory ingredient listings for transparency, strict limits on heavy metals with more transparent labeling, and a standardized definition of "clinically studied" based on human trials of finished products. These steps aim to enhance trust and accountability in the industry.Choose Vitamins With Trusted Certifications And Clinical Backing. Clean Label Project tests for toxins, while USP and NSF verify ingredient accuracy. Opt for supplements with clinically studied ingredients in proper dosages, backed by peer-reviewed, published research for safety and efficacy.Resources: Ritual - WebsiteGET IN TOUCH WITH SHE MD: SHE MD - WebsiteSHE MD - YouTubeOVII - WebsiteGUEST BIOGRAPHY: Katerina Schneider is the Founder and CEO of Ritual, a health technology company that is reinventing the products women use every single day.To date, Kat has raised over $40 million in funding from Forerunner, Founders Fund, NEA, and Upfront Ventures, among others.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ivan Burazin is Co-Founder & CEO of Daytona, the open source developer environment management platform. Their open source manager, also called daytona, has 9K stars on GitHub. Daytona has raised $5M from investors including Upfront Ventures. In this episode, we dig into Daytona's plan to be the fastest growing cloud development environment, how consistent and frequent content has become a huge driver of their growth, how bringing successful DevTool founders as angels helped with initial credibility and growth, thinking about the user and buyer's motivations, open source license decisions and the future of open source licenses (MIT + Apache are the only true open source licenses in their perspective) & more!

What does it take to transition from a startup founder to a successful investor? How is AI transforming the way developers write code? What does the future hold for automation in software engineering? Today's guest, Peter Zakin, an investor at Upfront Ventures, shares his journey from engineer to investor, discussing key lessons and challenges. He explores how AI tools like Copilot are reshaping the developer experience and the implications for technology's future. Peter also delves into AI's current and future impact on software development. He explains how AI is simplifying coding, enhancing efficiency, and what the next decade may bring for automation. Additionally, he provides insights into how engineers and product managers will interact with AI-generated code and how startups can leverage AI's expanding capabilities. If you're interested in startups, AI, or the future of tech, this conversation offers valuable insights! NB: The episode was recorded on Sep 14, 2023, so some predictions might not be accurate Arman Suleimenov: https://www.instagram.com/armansu/ Peter Zakin: https://x.com/pzakin/ Producer, Daniyar Akhmetzhanov: https://www.instagram.com/good.years/ Join our telegram channel: https://t.me/nfactorialpodcast  

In this episode of The Data Minute, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) and Aditi Maliwal (Partner, Upfront Ventures) have an in-depth conversation regarding the seed and Series A market. They discuss seed stage dynamics across the U.S. plus AI companies and how to determine which companies are worth investing in.There's also a discussion on the importance of grit, both in an investor portfolio and as a founder trait, and, of course, speed round questions.Subscribe to Carta's weekly Data Minute newsletter: https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/Explore interactive startup and VC data, with Carta's Data Desk: https://carta.com/data-desk/Chapters:00:00 Welcome01:26 Shoutout to Jane!01:58 Intro to Upfront Ventures11:45 Changes in AI investing over the last two years18:25 Thoughts on the founders market23:01 Median valuations on non-AI companies28:39 Discussing the Seed/Series A chasm32:52 The desire to be a founder40:36 Speed round questions40:45 What's a category that's overlooked that still has opportunity?41:40 Most unique way a fund has helped portfolio founders?44:19 The one question more founders should ask in fundraising?47:34 OutroThis presentation contains general information only and eShares, Inc. dba Carta, Inc. (“Carta”) is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services, and is for informational purposes only.  This presentation is not a substitute for such professional advice or services nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business or interests. © 2024 eShares, Inc., dba Carta, Inc. All rights reserved.

This week on Turpentine VC, we're releasing Molly O'Shea's interview with Mark Suster, Managing Partner of Upfront Ventures. In this episode, Mark discusses the value of disciplined investments and Upfront Ventures' focused investment strategy. He emphasizes the importance of founder-market fit and market timing in investment decisions. Mark shares his perspectives on promising sectors such as healthcare, national defense, and space, while also reflecting on the lessons from his time as a CEO and the significance of understanding historical context in relation to current trends. —

Kara Nortman '93 is co-founder of Los Angeles's professional women's soccer team Angel City. In this episode, Kara recounts her evolution from leading LA's largest venture capital firm, Upfront Ventures, to co-founding Angel City alongside partners Natalie Portman and Julie Uhrman in 2020. Since then, Angel City has not only garnered significant fan followings and profitability (quadrupling its revenue projections in year one), but also developed a profit model to enable community and philanthropic impact. Using Angel City as a model, Kara has since broadened her focus--leading a $150M raise to form Monarch Collective, whose mission is to invest in women's teams, sports, and rights across the world. Finally, Kara describes her own Harvard-Westlake story and personal connections to the team—noting that three of Angel City's stars, including team captain Ali Riley '06, Gisele Thompson '24, and Alyssa Thompson '23 are all HW alumnae. Kara references Jeanne Huybrechts and Barb Welch of Harvard-Westlake, as well as Alan Blinder and Lori Dauphiny of Princeton University, as profound educational influences.

Julie Uhrman, Co-founder and president of Angel City Football, shared the story behind her title with us on March 13, 2024.Julie is an American soccer executive and entrepreneur who is president of Angel City FC, a National Women's Soccer League team based in Los Angeles, California, that Uhrman also co-founded. She was previously an executive at Playboy Enterprises, Lionsgate Entertainment, IGN, and Vivendi Entertainment, and founded the former video game console company Ouya.In 2020 Uhrman co-founded Angel City FC with venture capitalist Kara Nortman of Upfront Ventures, and actress Natalie Portman. The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club signed 21 sponsors and sold 14,300 season tickets before its first season of play, and attracted a $14 million investment round from numerous celebrities, including lead investor Alexis Ohanian. Nortman recruited Uhrman in 2019 from the pickup basketball league both women competed in and tasked her with building the team's business plan, despite Uhrman not previously knowing that the NWSL existed. The NWSL granted Uhrman's group an expansion team on July 21, 2020, for play in the 2022 NWSL season.SUE SAYS"I sit down with Julie Uhrman, the President of Angel City Football to talk about women in sports, pay equity, the value of sports for young girls and her surprise when she found out she'd be working with Natalie Portman!"Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/women-to-watch-r/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The future of biosecurity and securing our environments from virus and disease. In it we cover the power of light to disinfect and protect our indoor spaces, advances in sensor technologies and data to pick up future pandemics, risk modeling for real estate operators and the insurance industry, all the way to biosecurity at our borders and protecting humans as they travel through outer space. Ben Boyer is co-founder of R-Zero Systems, who builds autonomous systems that disinfect indoor environments using UV light. Founded in response to COVID RZero has become a leader leveraging light, sensors, and data to keep our environments safe from disease — deploying their technology in hospitals, schools, offices and with the government. This year they raised over $100M from the likes of Qualcomm, Mayo Clinic and Upfront Ventures. In addition to Rzero, Ben is co-founder of Tenaya Capital, a growth stage venture firm with over $1.5B AUM backing technology companies such as Lyft, Kayak and PlanGrid amongst others. Subscribe for the latest episodes. Email me on danieldarling@focal.vcSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark Suster is a globally renowned Investor, being Partner at Upfront Ventures, based in LA, California. He previously was the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com where Mark became VP, Product. Mark was born in Philadelphia, and now lives in Los Angeles, California in the USA. ***CLICK HERE to read show notes from this conversation between our host, Vidit Agarwal and Mark Suster. It's now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterGet in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly hereContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***The High Flyers Podcast re-imagines the traditional notion of a "high flyer" and is a premier product of the Curiosity Center. The podcast showcases the journeys of relatable role models from their sunrise (childhood) to today. Listeners love the unique and direct inside access to these relatable role models, companies and industries in every walk of life to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.150+ guests have joined Vidit Agarwal on the show from around the world including Heads of state, Olympians, Business and cultural leaders, Social Advocates, Investors, Entrepreneurs and more. The Curiosity Center is widely recognised as a leading on-demand intelligence network for founders, investors, executives and students with an audience of over 200,000 across this podcast + Association Series Newsletter and 7-Star Events. Find out more at www.curiositycenter.xyz***

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia. In this episode, we chat with Mark Suster, a Partner at Upfront Ventures. Upfront is one of LA's most prominent venture capital firms, renowned for backing companies like Ring, GOAT, Overture, and even Starbucks back in the day. Mark was previously the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com. Prior to being a founder, Mark was a software developer at Accenture where he lived and worked in Europe, Japan and the U.S.  In this episode we discuss: How Japanese startups can win globally Uncovering the truth about unicorn companies Top VC firms reducing the size of their funds 50% of seed funds disappearing Advice for startups considering fundraising Love decay - how entrepreneurs and investors can nurture "love"

Join us for an enlightening episode of Life of Flow as we dive into the world of retirement planning with expert guest Austin Hankwitz. Discover how bridge accounts can bridge the gap between your working years and retirement, ensuring a smooth transition. Plus, gain insights into the potential of angel investing to diversify your retirement portfolio. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting, this episode offers practical tips for a secure retirement. Tune in to Life of Flow and take control of your financial future! About Austin:Austin is a graduate from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor's in Finance. While at UT, he took courses focused on financial analysis and accounting, risk management, and equity research. After graduation in 2018, he worked along side the CEO and SVP of Finance at Amedisys to help grow the company's already 380,000 patient reach.In 2020, Austin began creating short form personal finance and investing videos on TikTok. In 2021, he decided to pursue this passion full-time and is currently spending his time creating content, mentoring other creators in the space, and advising fintech startups backed by Y-Combinator, Forerunner Ventures, Norwest Ventures, Upfront Ventures, and many more. He is the co-host of the Rich Habits podcast with Robert Croak, founder of Silly Bandz. The goal behind their podcast is to give listeners habits to take back control of their money. Listen to Rich Habits podcast on Spotify Follow Austin on TwitterFollow Austin on Instagram Follow Austin on TikTokFollow Witz Business on InstagramFollow Life of Flow on InstagramFollow Life of Flow on TwitterFollow Dr. Miguel Montero-Baker on Twitter

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Today we're excited to bring Mark Suster back on the pod. Mark is the managing partner of Upfront and also a frequent contributor of great content for the venture ecosystem through his blog, Both Sides of the Table, which I'd highly recommend you subscribe to. Mark and Samir were recently talking about venture funds raising in this market, and we thought it would be timely to record a session on what we are seeing, and how venture fund managers should think about navigating in this market. About Mark Suster:Mark Suster is a Partner at Upfront. He previously was the Founder and CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com where Mark became VP, Products. Prior to being a founder, Mark was a software developer at Accenture where he lived and worked in Europe, Japan and the U.S.Mark is a graduate of UCSD and has an MBA from the University of Chicago.In this episode we discuss:(01:51) With fundraising down from its high in 2021, what are GPs and LPs saying about the market(04:33) What institutional investors are saying about the market(09:19) How emerging managers can access larger global pools of capital(13:47) Building a sales pipeline for your fundraising process as an emerging manager(18:03) Moving deals through the mid-funnel death trap(21:55) Non-obvious things managers can do to improve their fundraising(25:29) Strategies to talk to Family Offices versus large institutional investors(30:49) How to stand out as a manager in a crowded field(34:17) Preparing for an LP meeting(38:45) The bull case for venture moving forward(41:44) How are LPs thinking about venture as an asset category and about the liquidity premiums across the entire market(45:49) Putting in the work to find good managers versus investing in a larger brand name fund(47:30) The importance of having a reserve as an emerging managerI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Mark. 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

Nico Simko, is the co-founder and CEO of Clair, a fintech startup rewriting the rulebook on how paychecks are managed and accessed. His unique multicultural background and international education have lent an extraordinary perspective to his innovative approach in the finance industry. The venture, Clair, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Pathward, Upfront Ventures, Founder Collective, and Kairos HQ.

Kurtis Lin has been involved with several successful startups that have had great exits. His latest venture aims to disrupt the way our credit and borrowing power is valued, by using more data. Pinwheel has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Indeed, Coatue, First Round Capital, Upfront Ventures, and Franklin Templeton Investments.

Imran Khan went from becoming one of the youngest managing directors at JP Morgan to taking Snap through raising $4B, and becoming an entrepreneur himself. His venture, Verishop, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Lion Capital, Cassius Family Fund, Upfront Ventures, and DCM Ventures.

DrinksWithAVC welcomes Kobie Fuller of Upfront Ventures, merging the worlds of athletic excellence and venture capital. Bree and producer Reyn delve into Kobie's history as a record-setting athlete and explore how the competitive spirit and discipline from sports translate into savvy investing. Stay tuned to learn about Kobie's current SaaS metric of choice and his anticipated guests at the Upfront Summit in LA.Links:www.upfront.comwww.twitter.com/upfrontvcThis year's Upfront summit is at capacity, but you can still stream from home!Join the Valence Community and help grow the black community inside of business:Support Kobie's wife and her kids clothing brand.

Jason is joined by Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures to cover various topics. They discuss raising capital in the early 2000s (1:22), aligning board members (21:19), the three variables VCs need to bet on (40:51), and so much more! (0:00) Molly kicks off the show (1:22) A recap of the previous 3 market cycles (5:23) The hurdles founders will face starting a company in 2023 (6:55) Raising capital in the early 2000s (9:15) LinkedIn Jobs - Go to https://linkedIn.com/angel and post your first job for free. (10:37) Upfront's strategy and changes to the market (15:35) Misalignment of investors (19:48) Prenuvo - Get $300 off a full-body MRI scan at https://prenuvo.com/twist (21:19) Aligning of board members (29:13) Setting reality as an investor/board member (33:40) Cutting Burn & Mark's decision framework (39:23) Orgspace - Get $2000 of credits on pro plans with a 30-day free trial at https://orgspace.io/twist (40:51) The 3 variables VCs need to bet on (48:28) The power law and mission aligned founders (52:13) Feed the family money (58:33) Company killers + Investing in lines not dots FOLLOW Mark: https://twitter.com/msuster FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

In this episode, we speak with Gregg Johnson, the CEO of Invoca.  Gregg is a seasoned software leader who previously led Salesforce Marketing Cloud's social marketing product line, where he integrated $1 billion of M&A investments into the Salesforce product portfolio.  He is also a successful entrepreneur. Invoca is the cloud leader in AI-powered conversation intelligence for revenue teams that enables marketing, sales, customer experience, and eCommerce teams to understand and immediately act on the information consumers share via conversations. The company has raised $184 million from leading venture capitalists including Upfront Ventures, Accel, Silver Lake Waterman, H.I.G. Growth Partners, and Salesforce Ventures. I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.

On this week's dose, we interview Charlie Greene, CEO and Co-Founder of Remento. Tune in to hear about Charlie's passion for storytelling and how he channeled that passion into founding Remento. Keep listening to hear more about the backstory of Remento, and how Charlie knew the idea was worth going all-in for. From there, Charlie discusses the fundraising experience for Remento's seed round led by Upfront Ventures, as well as what's in store for the startup moving forward. Then, Charlie informs us about a few startups that he's tracking. Stick with us as Charlie shares his beliefs on startups and provides several doses' worth of valuable advice for anyone looking to get into venture.https://www.remento.co/https://twitter.com/GetRementohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-greene-2b649b23/

Kara Nortman is one of the three founders of Angel City Football Club, along with Julie Uhrman and the actor Natalie Portman, and it's the first women's professional soccer team in Los Angeles for over ten years.But the story has been about far more than football. A host of famous people have come on board, Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian, Mia Hamm, Eva Longoria and Jessica Chastain to name just a few of the club's investors, who are buying in to one of the sports business's most intriguing case studies. Nortman brings financial expertise from her role as managing partner of Upfront Ventures, so we talk about how US investors view women's and men's football, the opportunities and pitfalls ahead for women's pro leagues, the questions associated with private equity and the benefit of an outside perspective in growing the women's game.To keep up to date with all our podcasts, you should sign up to the Unofficial Partner newsletter. It goes to thousands of people across sport, every Thursday. 

On this episode we have Charlie Greene. CEO of Remento, a company focused on capturing and preserving family stories, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Upfront Ventures. The Los Angeles-based company is also launching its iOS app today after beta testing it for a year.The company's new iOS app is designed to give users conversation prompts to inspire family members to share stories about their lives. Once you select a prompt, you can record a conversation directly within the app. Individual stories from these sessions are then displayed in the app's interactive playback experience, where they can be shared with other loved ones without any editing required.As always this show is brought to you by Tribe and Purpose.  You've put the work in but you're not sure how to reap the rewards. It's time to focus on the success you have planned for yourself and your team.The Tribe + Purpose team can guide you to build on that success to have even more.Learn more at www.tribe-purpose.comand connect with Charlie on LinkedIn here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-greene-2b649b23/Check out his website: https://www.remento.co/YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/5qVgEqCsIGw

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Otto Birnbaum, General Partner von Revent. Otto hat die Runde von Everdrop und Canvas Medical sowie der neue Fonds von Vektor Partners analysiert: Das Münchner Startup Everdrop hat sich in einer Series-B-Finanzierungsrunde 80 Millionen Euro Wachstumskapital gesichert. Das ClimateTech will Plastikverpackungen im Haushalt überflüssig machen und haben Tabs auf den Markt gebracht, die Kundinnen und Kunden am Stück mit Wasser zu Putzmitteln vermischen können. Derzeit ist Everdrop mit seinen Reinigungsmitteln – das Sortiment umfasst etwa 40 Produkte – in Deutschland, Österreich, Frankreich, Italien und der Schweiz vertreten. Dazu sollen weitere europäische Märkte kommen – welche das genau sind, ist noch nicht öffentlich bekannt. Beteiligt an der Runde haben sich der belgische Growth-Investor Sofina, der Impact Fund der Schweizer Bankengruppe Lombard Odier und TriplePoint Capital sowie die Altinvestoren Felix Capital, HV Capital und Vorwerk Ventures. Das EMR-Startup Canvas Medical hat kürzlich in einer Serie-B-Finanzierungsrunde 24 Millionen US-Dollar eingenommen, um Kliniken und Entwicklern zu ermöglichen, die Zukunft der Gesundheitsversorgung voranzutreiben. Die Runde wurde von M13 angeführt, mit Beteiligung von Haystack und den früheren Investoren Inspired Capital, IA Ventures, Upfront Ventures und Irongrey. Mit dieser Runde hat das in San Francisco ansässige Unternehmen insgesamt 44 Millionen US-Dollar aufgebracht. Zusätzlich zu dieser Finanzierung hat Canvas die staatliche Zertifizierung durch das Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) erhalten. Die ONC-Zertifizierung stellt einen wichtigen Produktmeilenstein für das Unternehmen dar: Canvas ist eines der ersten EMR-Systeme in den Vereinigten Staaten, das eine standardisierte Patientendaten-API unterstützt, wie sie im 21st Century Cures Act vorgesehen ist. Vektor Partners, eine unabhängige Technologie-VC-Firma mit Sitz in London, die sich auf die Unterstützung von Start-ups im Bereich Mobilität spezialisiert hat, hat einen Fonds in Höhe von 125 Millionen Euro aufgelegt. Vektor Partners wird von Chris Riley und Sebastian Bihari geleitet und ist ein spezialisierter Risikokapitalinvestor für globale Mobilitätsunternehmen in Europa, den USA und Israel. Der Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf KI, Software und datenzentrierten Technologien, die sich an Megatrends wie Automatisierung und Elektrifizierung orientieren.

In August 2019, Kobie Fuller, General Partner at Upfront Ventures, joined High Alpha Partner Eric Tobias for our monthly Speaker Series. Kobie joined Upfront in 2016 after having previously been an investor at Accel. Prior to Accel, Kobie was the Chief Marketing Officer at LA-based REVOLVE, one of the largest players in the global fashion e-commerce ecosystem. He has deep knowledge of emerging sectors including VR and AR and was an early investor in Oculus and ExactTarget. Earlier in his career, Kobie helped found OpenView Venture Partners and was an investor at Insight Venture Partners.  In this episode, we revisit Kobie's Speaker Series where you'll learn: Kobie's journey into Venture Capital His experience being a part of the Los Angeles startup community The power of community and how you can use it to build a brand and serve today's hyper competitive landscape His take on the future of software and tech

Every pitch today involves community.  Upfront partner and former CMO Kobie Fuller tells us how the best brands are giving users the tools to be brand advocates and how those same brands are tapping into the community to get insights.   We also talk about being black in venture and what inspired Kobie to build Valence, a network for black professionals.

Milana Rabkin Lewis is Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Stem, the leading distribution, payment, and financing solution built to simplify the process of releasing music in today's industry and designed to empower artists & their teams to run their business truly independently. Backed by industry-leading investors including Upfront Ventures, Evolution Media, and WndrCo, Stem is one of the fastest-growing artist-centric distribution platforms championing for the creative class by bringing clarity to the music business. www.stem.is The Business Side of Music ™ © 2022 Lotta Dogs Productions LLC Showrunner and Executive Producer Emeritus: Tom Sabella Producer and Host (the guy who has a face for podcasting): Bob Bender Co-Producer - Audio/Video Editor (the man behind the curtain): Mark Sabella Director of Video and Continuity (the brains of the entire operation): Deborah Halle Marketing and Social Media (all knowing): Sarah Fleshner for 362 Entertainment All Around Problem Solver (and Mental Health Therapist for us): Connie Ribas Recorded inside an old beat up Airstream Trailer located somewhere on what's left of Music Row in Nashville TN (except during the Covid 19 pandemic, then it's pretty much been accomplished VIA Zoom or over the phone, with the exception for those fearless enough to come to Bob Bender's dining room… and there have been a few that have survived). Mixed and Mastered at Music Dog Studios in Nashville, TN Editing and Post at Midnight Express Studio located in Olian, NY Production Sound Design: Keith Stark Voice Over and Promo: Lisa Fuson Special Thanks to the creator and founder of the podcast, Tom Sabella, along with Traci Snow for producing and hosting over 100 episodes of the original "Business Side of Music" podcast and trusting us to carry on their legacy.  Website: If you would like to be a guest on the show, please submit a request to: musicpodcast@mail.com If you're interested in becoming a sponsor for the show, let us know and we'll send you a media / sponsorship kit to you. Contact us at musicpodcast@mail.com

Mark Suster, General Partner at Upfront Ventures, talks about how he transitioned from being an entrepreneur to investing in startups. Mark elaborates his Lines and Dots technique for evaluating founders. He also points out some fundraising mistakes to avoid, especially when the capital market is undergoing correction.In this episode, you'll learn:6:27 Entrepreneurs need different kinds of help at different stages of their company.10:47 Cadence, ability to hire talent, and ability to ship code are tell-tale signs of a successful founder.15:03 Taking fundraising as part of your day job, and allocating time for it, is critical to building a strong company.23:03 Don't optimize for short-term valuation. Inevitably, everybody ends up raising capital downstream even if they thought they were not going to.Non-profit organization that Mark is passionate about: Defy VenturesAbout Guest SpeakerMark Suster is a General Partner at Upfront Ventures. Previously, Mark was the founder & CEO of Koral (Acquired by Salesforce.com in 2007) and BuildOnline (acquired by The Sword Group). Upfront Ventures backed both startups. Mark became VP, Products at Salesforce.com after the acquisition of his company. He had been working with Upfront partners for 8 years prior to joining as a General Partner, to help fund like-minded entrepreneurs. Mark writes a blog, Both Sides of the Table, in which he shares his views on tech trends and offers advice to start-up founders.Fun fact: Ask Mark about triathlonsAbout Upfront VenturesUpfront Ventures is an LA-based venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage technology companies. Founded in 1996 in Los Angeles with investing professionals based in LA, San Francisco, and Paris, Upfront has backed standout teams across all technology sectors, including Ring (acq. by Amazon), TrueCar (NASDAQ: TRUE), Bird, MakerStudios (acq by Disney), GOAT, Apeel Sciences, thredUP, Invoca and Kyriba (acq by Bridgepoint). Upfront invests about half of its capital in the fast-growing Southern California ecosystem, with the balance across the country as well as investments in Europe and Israel.Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode that will drop next Tuesday. Follow Us:  Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook

Kobie Fuller is a General Partner at Upfront Ventures – one of the largest Venture Capital companies in LA. After graduating from Harvard, he's invested, built, and scaled several multi-billion-dollar organizations (09:05). As 20-year VC veteran, he provides insight into everything from developing high-performance teams (14:44), how the metaverse will change marketing (25:10), and how he grew Valence, a networking site and cross-industry management training program to promote Black economic empowerment (33:23).

Seksom Suriyapa, Partner at Upfront Ventures, and formerly head of Corp Dev at Twitter, SuccessFactors, McAfee and Akamai, discusses exit strategy from the buy-side perspective at length.

Mark Suster is a Partner at Upfront Ventures, one of Los Angeles' leading and largest venture firms with a portfolio including the likes of Bird, GOAT,  and Ring.com. Before joining the world of venture, Mark was the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com where Mark became VP of Products. Thank you to our sponsors Upkey and Seedscout. Check out Upkey's free career resources at www.Upkey.com/inTheir20s Get connected to hundreds of investors at www.Seedscout.com

Bill Dallas is President of Finance of America Mortgage, leading the business operations and strategic vision for FAM and all of its businesses. Bill is known for building two mortgage companies from the ground up: First Franklin and Ownit Mortgage Solutions. In 2009, he purchased Skyline Home Loans with Upfront Ventures and a talented team to modernize the traditional mortgage business. In 2018, Skyline was purchased by Finance of America. Today, Bill leads the combined business. Don't miss out, listen now!

Should start-ups target consumer or enterprise markets first? Former entrepreneur turned investor and Managing Partner of Upfront Ventures, Mark Suster, joins this episode to give his guidance to entrepreneurs looking for investment and growth. He discusses how to engineer product-led growth for your market, how to secure investment, and the dos and don'ts for start-up entrepreneurs. Press play to hear Mark's thoughts on… Understanding Product-Market Fit  “I would rather you have no influencers. I would rather you have no hype. I would rather you raise less capital and obsess with what is the product feature that's really going to resonate with a group of people, like the raison d'etre. What is it that they're waking up every day to use your product, to do and why your product and not other stuff?” The Value of Sales and Marketing “At the end of the day, sales and marketing really matter. And it turns out that people buy products for reasons other than, this is the absolute best product in the market. They buy products for the perception that this is going to help them improve.”  Committing to Being an Entrepreneur “We're looking for people who want to go on a 10- or 12-year journey with us. We're not looking for people to go on a two-year journey. So you've got to want to do this. This is your career. This is your livelihood, your life, and your mission. And if you're successful at it, you're going to be hugely financially and emotionally rewarded for doing it.”

Our anchors kick off the show from the Code Conference in Los Angeles with reactions to Elon Musk's comments on crypto yesterday. Then, Plexo Capital Managing Partner Lo Toney joins to cover more the themes from the conference. We also get Toney's reaction to comments from European Commission Executive VP Margrethe Vestager on regulating Big Tech from her interview with CNBC's Carl Quintanilla. Next, Upfront Ventures Partner Mark Suster joins our anchors at Code to discuss his investment outlook and which categories he sees opportunity in. Later, TCV Founding General Partner Jay Hoag joins to give his take on the market as well as Netflix and the broader streaming space. Plus, CNBC's Julia Boorstin brings us her interview with WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar where he says he sees Amazon, not Netflix, as their biggest competitor. And later, DocuSign CEO Dan Springer is here to talk future growth of the company, whose stock has tripled in 2020.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for an inspiring conversation with Kara Nortman, Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures. In this episode, Kara shares invaluable insight into her trailblazing career as a venture capitalist as well as how an incredible experience at the Women's World Cup Finals eventually let to her becoming a co-founder of Angel City Football Club.As Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, Kara leverages her own founder experience to help entrepreneurs build high-performing teams across software, consumer, and the future of work categories. She is also a founding member of All Raise, dedicated to diversity in founders and funders.Before joining Upfront in 2014, Kara co-founded Moonfrye, a children's e-commerce company. Prior to Moonfrye, Kara spent close to seven years at IAC where she was the SVP and General Manager of Urbanspoon and Citysearch. Earlier Kara co-headed IAC's M&A group where she led some of their most successful acquisitions, notably Urbanspoon, Dictionary.com and Aston Hotels. She also served as a board member to Hatch Labs, IAC's mobile technology incubator, where she was the seed investor in Tinder. In earlier years, Kara spent time at Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and Battery Ventures. She received her AB in Politics from Princeton University and her MBA from Stanford University.If you like what you've heard please like, subscribe, or rate our show. To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Welcome to our fifth News(ish) Breakdown with https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-crusan-davis/ (Lindsay Davis) andhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/zachpettet/ ( Zach Anderson Pettet). Lindsay is the Head of Markets at https://atomic.financial/ (Atomic) and an all around fintech expert. https://twitter.com/robpetrozzo (Rob Petrozzo), Chief Product Officer at https://rallyrd.com/ (Rally), joins us to help break down the news of the week. This week we're covering Rally's $30 million Series B, non-fungible tokens (NFTS), and the Rally Rd. ahead to bring Wall Street to the main street. The news:  $30 million Series B funding led by Accel, with participation from existing investors Upfront Ventures, Social Leverage, and others. Additionally, Rally has secured a $50M debt facility from Upper90 Capital to allow the company to efficiently offer one-of-a-kind assets across all categories.

Jason Spievak is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Entrada Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm on the California Central Coast. Entrada Ventures focuses on disruptive innovations that have the potential to reshape markets. Jason is also a longtime investor, board member, and an executive with Apeel Sciences, which is reinventing the multitrillion-dollar global fresh produce market. Prior to that, Jason was Co-founder and CEO of Invoca, a leading provider of marketing automation technology for inbound phone calls. They were backed by some big names in the venture capital community like Accel Partners, Upfront Ventures, and Salesforce. Before founding Invoca, Jason was CFO at CallWave, where he led the company's successful IPO in 2004. He has had an esteemed experience throughout Silicon Valley in various different venture capital firms. He also teaches a startup class in UCSB's Technology Management Program. In this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, John Corcoran interviews Jason Spievak, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Entrada Ventures, about Jason's strategies for growing multibillion-dollar businesses. They also talk about the story behind the founding of Apeel Sciences and how disruptive technologies impact venture capital funds.

Few days back many states across India declared extension of lockdowns and these sudden pour of new measures by the state governance has led many of us into panic shopping! I too stocked up vegetables last week whatever was available at the counter. Some with plastic packaging, some open. Now a week later when I removed some for cooking I noticed that few of the open veggies somehow were unfit for use and had gone stale, while the ones covered in plastic still were good to go. Just imagine, how many more people around our country might be facing similar issues? Just imagine how many tonnes of waste will be piling up in landfills just because of this utility error. Think about how many more people can be fed, if only we could innovate for longer lasting produce? Wouldn't it be amazing if there was a way to extend the shelf life of perishable items like vegetables and fruits without using plastic? Well, there should be right, otherwise we wouldn't be recording this episode ;). Apeel is an AgTech (a startup that combines agriculture and technology) that developed a substance, transparent and flavourless, to protect fruits and vegetables. The idea is to cover fresh products with a second “skin”, a peel that allows to double or triple their life. This substance reduces the loss of water and the oxidation of the products, slowing their maturation and extending their expiry date. For growers, suppliers, and retailers, Apeel is a post harvest solution that creates an optimal microclimate inside every piece of produce, which leads to extended shelf life and transportability —with reduced reliance on refrigeration and controlled atmosphere. Apeel's technology has the potential to reduce losses by; 1) enabling more produce to reach markets in the absence of the cold chain; 2) reducing retail and consumer waste by providing more time to consume the produce at its ripe condition. By reducing loss and waste throughout the produce supply chain, the Apeel technology can effectively increase yields across the supply chain, simultaneously reducing the embodied emissions and resource consumption associated with that otherwise wasted food. Did you know 19% of all avocados on grocery store shelves never get purchased? Even sadder, 25% of the avocados that we do bring home still end up in the trash. This "second skin" has already reduced waste by more than half in supermarkets that have sprayed it on their apples, asparagus and lemons. Apeel has recently raised $250 M dollars in a round of investments, becoming a real “unicorn”. Most of them came from investors like Viking Global Investors, Upfront Ventures, and Rock Creek Group. Few other noteworthy supporters of Apeel are Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Oprah Winfrey, and Katy Perry. Hope you enjoy listening to this episode and if you are aware of similar groundbreaking technologies in India, then please share it with us on circularbusinesspodcast.india@gmail.com * Do leave a rating and write a review for us on iTunes / Apple Podcasts and help us build that strong content footing; * Follow our page on LinkedIn - (Circular Business Podcast | The Circular Collective); * Join the episodic posts on social media- LinkedIn & Twitter by commenting your thoughts and learnings on each post. #CircularEconomy --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/circular-business-podcast/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/circular-business-podcast/support

Welcome to the Future of Fintech, hosted by Immad Akhund and Sheel Mohnot. This week we're covering the future of retail investing. Our guests are: - Alex Rampell, a VC at Andreessen Horowitz - Leif Abraham, cofounder and Co-CEO at Public.com - Julie Young, a writer and investor, former product at Snap - David McDonough, cofounder of Commonstock - Howard Lindzon, cofounder of Stocktwits - Aditi Maliwal, a GP at Upfront Ventures

Loved talking with Kerry about how startups should think about their marketing org and how that has changed. Also fun to hear about Upfront's brand and the brand of the partners at Upfront.

Hunter Walk (@hunterwalk) is Co-founder & Partner at Homebrew, a seed-stage venture firm he founded in 2013 with Satya Patel. Homebrew has invested in the likes of Plaid, Gusto, Chime, Bowery Farming, Stir, Finix Payments, Honor, Lumi, Tia, theSkimm, Winnie, and many more (see full portfolio). Prior to founding Homebrew, Hunter led consumer product management at YouTube, spent time on the product and marketing team at Linden Lab, and worked in management consulting at Deloitte. In this episode, Hunter and The Takeoff's Michael Spiro discuss: Founding Homebrew with Satya Patel How Homebrew adds value to portfolio founders Changes to the seed investing landscape since Homebrew started in 2013 Optimizing for processes and learning early on, not just hitting milestones Consulting at Deloitte out of school Why you should focus on learning early in your career Advice for aspiring VCs & more You can find Hunter's blog at https://hunterwalk.com/about/. He's on Twitter @hunterwalk (I highly recommend following him if you aren't already!). If you dig what we're doing with The Takeoff, go ahead and subscribe to our newsletter https://thetakeoff.substack.com/ and follow us on Twitter @_TheTakeoff. We're a student-run podcast & newsletter hoping to become the go-to spot for students and young professionals looking to learn more about startups, tech, venture capital, and more. Items reference in the episode: Mark Suster's blog post (Upfront Ventures): https://bothsidesofthetable.com/is-it-time-for-you-to-earn-or-to-learn-34270acd2f4 Influence by Robert Cialdini: https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X (Apologies for the suboptimal audio in the first few minutes of the episode. I was recording out of my college apartment and a bunch of background noises popped up. We did our best to get rid of them all, but, unfortunately, we're not audio engineers)

French startup In&motion has raised a $12 million (€10 million) funding round led by Upfront Ventures with 360 Capital also participating. The company has been working on wearable airbag systems for motorbikes. Integrated in a vest, the airbag is completely autonomous and can detect crashes in 60 milliseconds. The company has worked on a device […]

Mark Suster from Upfront explains why the best time to talk to founders about fundraising is 3-4 months after their last fundraise.     He was kind enough to share that framework and others this week on LAV.   #longla

Jordan Hudson received a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in Finance and a minor in History. Jordan began his career in investment banking at GCA Savvian Advisors in San Francisco, providing M&A and capital raising advisory services for technology companies. He then went on to be a part of the strategy and business development team at Fox Filmed Entertainment. At Fox, he managed strategic planning across Fox's theatrical, home entertainment, television and digital businesses. Prior to joining Apeel, Jordan was a Principal at Upfront Ventures, the largest and longest-serving venture capital fund in Los Angeles, where he was heavily involved in both investment and operating initiatives. Jordan is currently the VP of Strategy at Apeel. Drawing from his experience across venture capital, business development, and investment banking, Jordan focuses on planning, implementing, and maintaining strategies. Jordan's experience serves a big part in his aim to achieve Apeel's business goals while establishing an analytical framework to drive decision-making and optimize business operations. Briefly, Apeel Sciences develops plant-derived technology to help USDA organic and traditional fresh food providers maintain quality, reduce waste and ensure an abundant future for our planet.

One of the newest partners at Upfront, Aditi Maliwal, tells us about her path to partner, her investments in Chime, BetterUp, and her time in Google corp dev.

Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week's noteworthy news pertaining to startups and venture capital. Before I jump into today's topic, let's catch up a bit. I've been on a bit of startup profile kick as of late. Last week, I wrote a little bit about Landline, a bus network backed by Upfront Ventures. Before that, I profiled an e-commerce startup called Part & Parcel.

Lior Elazary is the cofounder of inVia Robotics which provides next-generation robotics warehouse automation solutions for e-commerce distribution centers and supply chains. The company has raised $30 million from Point72 Ventures, Upfront Ventures, and Embark Ventures to name a few. Prior to this, Lior Elazary sold his first business for $20 million and his next one for $400 million.

Kara is a partner at Upfront, a founder, and one of the most prominent investors in LA.  Kara shares about the Upfront partnership (8 different UIs with the same backend), advice for founders, and her own areas of interest.

The Wing, the owner of several co-working spaces and social clubs designed for women, has garnered the support of Sequoia Capital in its latest funding round. The startup has announced a $75 million Series C led by the storied venture capital firm, with support from Airbnb and Upfront Ventures, as well as existing investors NEA and WeWork. Headquartered in New York, The Wing was founded by Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan in 2015. To date, the pair have raised $117.

On today's episode, we hear from Kobie Fuller, who is a general partner at Upfront Ventures, the largest venture fund in Los Angeles that focuses on investing in software and consumer product companies. Previously, Kobie worked at Accel Ventures and was CMO at REVOLVE, one of the largest fashion e­commerce companies in Los Angeles.

Kobie Fuller joined the Upfront Ventures in June 2016 after having previously worked at Silicon Valley-based Accel, where he was involved in investments including Campaign Monitor, UserTesting, AdRoll, Emergent VR and Invoca. Prior to Accel, Kobie was the Chief Marketing Officer at REVOLVE, one of the largest global fashion e-commerce players based in Los Angeles. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 31748]