Podcasts about zetta venture partners

There's one marketing tactic that can make people laugh, it can make people gasp. But either way it'll make them remember your content for years. It's shock factor. And people aren't using it enough in B2B marketing. It's eliciting this strong emotional response that grabs your audience's attention, gets them talking about your brand, and makes your content rise above the noise. What's not to love? So in this episode of Remarkable, we're talking about a group of filmmakers who know about shock factor: Traktor. And with the help of our special guest, Senior Director, Head of Content at Domino Data Lab, Yuval Zukerman, we chat about going for the shock factor, creating a series of ads for a single campaign, and using your constraints to your advantage.About our guest, Yuval ZukermanYuval Zukerman is Senior Director, Head of Content at Domino Data Lab. He joined the company in July 2022 as Director of Technical Alliances. Prior to Domino Data Lab, Yuval served as Manager of Partner Marketing at VMWare. He has also founded his own company, Enavigo, LLC, focusing on technology leadership for results-oriented marketers, mobile development, developer relations, translation and localization project management.Over his career, he has served in a variety of roles across the technology lifecycle. From developer and engineer to project manager, technology consultant to technical creative and sales. He has worked with non-profits, medium-sized clients and global Fortune 500 companies in verticals that included CPG, B2C and B2B services, hospitality and financial. Past clients include Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Wells Fargo, Verizon Wireless, The Coca-Cola Company, Philips, and The Greater Boston Food Bank. He has a B.S. in Computer Science from UCLA and an M.A. in Information Technology and Software Engineering from Harvard.About Domino Data Lab​​Domino Data Lab powers model-driven business for the world's most advanced enterprises, including over 20% of the Fortune 100. Their Enterprise MLOps platform speeds up the development and deployment of data science work while increasing collaboration and governance, to scale data science into a competitive advantage. Their platform enables thousands of data scientists to develop better medicines, grow more productive crops, adapt risk models to major economic shifts, build better cars, improve customer support, or simply recommend the best purchase to make at the right time. Domino is backed by leading venture capital firms: Sequoia Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Coatue Management, Dell Technologies Capital, Highland Capital Partners, In-Q-Tel, and Zetta Venture Partners.About TraktorTraktor is a group of filmmakers based in Venice, California. Though they're based in California, they're originally from Sweden and met in film school: Directors Sam Larsson, Pontus Löwenhielm, Patrik von Krusenstjerna, Ole Sanders, Mats Lindberg and producer Richard Ulfvengren. They're globally renowned for their work serving brands like Lego, Nike, PepsiCo, Levi's, Fox Sports, MTV, Virgin Atlantic, and more. They've done music videos for Fatboy Slim, the Flaming Lips and Madonna. At least twice they've been recognized as the most award-winning directors in the world. They've won three Grand Prix at Cannes, a handful of Clios, an Emmy, and been nominated for a Grammy.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Traktor:Go for the shock factor. Knock your audience off-balance with unexpected content. It's inexpensive, it's attention-grabbing, it's memorable. Traktor made ads for Fox Sports that showed a man high diving straight into the ground, and another of two blindfolded men swinging oversized bats at each other. They were shockingly off-kilter for sports ads at the time. Over 20 years later, Yuval still remembers them vividly. Ian says, ”I wouldn't say Traktor's first ads are cheaply done, but comparatively. Like, there's no celebrities. They're just jarring. It's just taking the one salient point that you want the person to know and finding some sort of crazy connection out there in the ether to drive that home and then make the audience think, make them laugh.”Create a series within your campaign. It gives you a format while allowing you freedom to play on your theme. So you can create a variety of ads that appeal to different audience preferences, increase brand awareness and recall, and even run A/B testing with them. It's like how Traktor made a series of ads for Fox Sports. Ian says, ”They have one ad on an Indian sport and one on a Chinese sport. As the viewer, you realize it's a series. It becomes something that's beyond just a one-off thing. And now people think they're so funny. That's where ads are at their best, when it's less of a one-off and more of something that's ongoing.”Use your constraints to your advantage. Traktor leaned into their tight budget, and in doing so created stylized videos that were visually unique and captivating. Ian says, “If you don't have the budget, how can you steer into doing things grainier or less quality or unintentionally done in that way?”Quotes*”You're taking time from your audience. Traktor is giving them an exchange: Humor. They're giving you a giggle and a laugh. And that is something that is very important for us, to provide people value for their time. Time is the most valuable thing we have. So you better not waste it.” - Yuval Zukerman*”No matter what your goal is in the content, stand up to your core set of values. Live up to those standards. I always tell my kids, ‘Are you proud of what you just did?' Because there's something you can feel good that you delivered or created.” - Yuval ZukermanTime Stamps[0:55] Meet Yuval Zukerman, Senior Director, Head of Content at Domino Data Lab[2:08] Why are we talking about ads by Traktor?[3:01] What does Yuval's work at Domino Data Lab entail?[5:35] Learn more about Traktor[12:07] What makes ads by Traktor remarkable?[20:35] What are marketing lessons we can take from Traktor?[27:58] What's Yuval's content strategy?[33:02] How does Yuval get leadership buy-in on new content?[41:40] How does Yuval prove the ROI of content?LinksCheck out films by TraktorConnect with Yuval on LinkedInLearn more about Domino Data LabAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

In this episode, we're resharing one of the most popular & exciting sessions from ELC Annual 2023, featuring a panel of experts discussing what software dev will look like in the decades to come! This conversation features Tara Hernandez, VP Developer Productivity @ MongoDB; Erik Meijer, Sr. Director of Engineering @ Meta; and Jocelyn Goldfein, Managing Director @ Zetta Venture Partners. They debate & dissect how AI is changing what software dev looks like, what capabilities future eng leaders will need to build upon, where AI technology will need to improve moving forward, and more.ABOUT TARA HERNANDEZTara Hernandez has spent nearly thirty years evolving ways for companies to develop and ship software. She helped launch Mozilla.org and has been a firm proponent of open source ever since. She also thinks smart companies understand the business value of having a diverse employee base. Tara currently works at MongoDB, is a member of the board for Women Who Code, and a member of the Continuous Delivery Foundation."What was so amazing about Da Vinci? Da Vinci was an artist, he was a painter, he was a sculptor, he was an engineer. Breadth, more than depth, is increasingly going to be critical.”- Tara Hernandez   ABOUT ERIK MEIJERErik Meijer is a Dutch Computer Scientist, entrepreneur, and AI enthusiast.In his long career, he has democratized many academic concepts such as functional programming, reactive programming, and language-integrated query by introducing these concepts into mainstream languages such as C#, Visual Basic, Dart, and Hack, as well as through his startup Apllied Duality Inc.As an educator, Erik has shared his knowledge through platforms like Channel 9, Coursera, and edX, enlightening learners worldwide with his courses on reactive and functional programming.As the founder of the Probability team at Meta in 2016, he is one of the pioneers in applying AI to programmer productivity and systems efficiency.Most recently, Erik is working on providing every knowledge worker with a personal assistant that supercharges their productivity and boosts job satisfaction."I think the engineer of the future will be more like an English major or a music major. Somebody that can really explain their thoughts very well. If you have kids, I would not send them to do computer science. Send them to a liberal arts.”- Erik Meijer   ABOUT JOCELYN GOLDFEINJocelyn Goldfein (@jgoldfein) is a Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners, where she invests seed capital in AI-native startups with B2B business models.Jocelyn is a widely recognized industry expert on product strategy, infrastructure, and organizational scale. Her career as an engineering leader spans from early-stage startups to high-growth years at Facebook and VMware.During her tenure at Facebook, she helped convert News Feed to Machine Learning and spearheaded the transition to a ‘mobile first' product organization. As an early engineer at VMware, she built core virtualization technology and ultimately created and led VMware's Desktop Business Unit. Jocelyn also held engineering and leadership roles at startups Datify, MessageOne, and Trilogy/pcOrder.Jocelyn has a passion for STEM Education. She currently lectures at Stanford University where she received her BS in Computer Science."Part of me finds it almost insane to think about what if there's never a new programming language? What if we're at the end of history for new programming languages and the next and last programming language is Hindi?”- Jocelyn Goldfein   This episode is brought to you by testRigor!testRigor is trusted by tens of thousands of companies across the globe, including Netflix, Splunk, BusinessWire, and more to solve three main problems with end-to-end test automation:It's challenging, expensive, and slow to hire QA Automation EngineersLow productivity building your own QA AutomationFragile tests, that cause maintenance to consume enormous amounts of timetestRigor solves all of the above by allowing our users to express test cases in plain EnglishTo learn more, check out a case study on testRigor hereSign up for a free trial today at testrigor.comSHOW NOTES:Introducing Jocelyn, Tara, and Erik & their interest in the future of software dev (2:31)Ensuring AI accuracy / confidence as a key inflection point (5:06)What the next generation of building software will look like (7:09)Why engineers will always be needed for understanding machine capabilities (10:51)Erik & Tara's perspectives on the future of AI & engineer interaction in software dev (13:19)Great engineers of the future need to have well-rounded skills (16:38)Why flow will (or will not) be as necessary in the future (19:06)How AI will augment human creativity & the engineering role (21:06)Will AI replace the need for cross-collaborative teams? (23:30)Jocelyn's theory that today's best QA folks will be the best engineers in 2033 (26:14)Audience Q&A: What logical & cognitive skills will still be needed as AI progresses? (28:24)Challenging the current definition of software development (31:45)What is the potential for a future dialogue system? (34:17)Will the change in eng skills also impact other degrees like mathematics? (36:46)How will the industry navigate workforce loss as AI replaces certain roles? (38:01)LINKS AND RESOURCESVideo Version of EpisodeAll of the Sessions from ELC AnnualThis episode wouldn't have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-HostJerry Li - Co-HostNoah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan's also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/

New Podcast Episode, Season 6, Episode 131 Mark Gorenberg, Founder and Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners and current Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation and a member of the MIT Executive Committee, joins host Jason Stoughton to talk about his path to becoming a VC almost 30 years ago and the lessons he has learned along the way and which he shares with founders to enable their success.  Zetta is the original AI-first early stage venture fund focused solely on AI for enterprises and Mark talks about the moment of time we are in with AI right now, the opportunities he sees in the market and why AI makes it such an amazing time to be an entrepeneur. He is hosting an event on September 7th with thought leaders in AI, leaders from enterprise companies and founders from his portfolio. Jason encourages you to listen to this podcast and then to visit www.zettavp.com to register for the virtual event.    I hope you enjoy the conversation and don't forget if you like what you hear subscribe to the podcast and my newsletter at www.thepulseofai.com and follow me on x (formerly Twitter) @thepulseofai.    

About 54 million Americans and 936 million patients globally suffer from sleep apnea and 80% of cases go undiagnosed. Today's guest is fixing that problem.Chris Fernandez co-founded EnsoData in June 2015 to use AI to make sleep studies more efficient, cost effective, and accurate.Since then, he and the team have raised more than $30M from an exceptional group of investors including Zetta Venture Partners, M25 Ventures, and Inspire Medical Systems.Chris received his bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Biomedical and Medical Engineering. He also wrote one of the most thoughtful perspectives on the entrepreneurial journey when he handed over the reigns to new CEO Justin Mortara last November. At 8,200 words, it may also be one of the longest.Listen and learn...What led Chris to care about solving sleep problemsHow EnsoData overcame being "a solution in search of a problem"How AI and machine learning can be applied to sleep apneaHow being incubated by Y Combinator helped launch EnsoDataHow to use brainwaves to train AI models to diagnose sleep issuesWhen we'll get "smart rooms" that adjust the environment to optimize for healthy sleepHow Chris and the team control for the impact of AI biasHow to improve the quality of your sleep... from an expertWhat led Chris to replace himself as CEOReferences in this episode...Gordon Wilson, Rain Neuromorphics CEO, on AI and the Future of WorkWhy We Sleep by Matt WalkerStanford Professor Dr. William Dement and the origins of sleep science

Bob van Luijt has gone from building websites in middle school to raising tens of millions of dollars for his tech startup. The venture, Weaviate, has acquired funding from top-tier investors like Index Ventures, Cortical Ventures, Zetta Venture Partners, and Battery Ventures.

James Alcorn is a partner at Zetta Venture Partners, one of the world's leading AI focused VC investors, serving technical founders building AI-native companies. Zetta has partnered with the founders of Kaggle, Domino Data Lab, Nabla Bio, and other leading franchises.In this episode #135 w James Alcorn, learn about:Given the extensive focus on AI and it's exponential mainstream growth, I wanted to bring on someone who understands this space from various angels, the technological shift, business models, venture capital investment opportunities and what founders should know.A couple of weeks ago, I contacted my network and one name that kept coming up was James Alcorn so here we are. James is a partner at Zetta Venture Partners, one of the world's leading AI focused VC investors since their inception in 2015.This episode can be best described as an introduction to AI, whilst being a deep dive into various aspects. I asked James about Zetta's origin story given they've been 100% focused on only AI since 2015, his thoughts on AI today vs 5 years ago, what exactly led to ChatGPT becoming mainstream, open source vs priopetiary models, infrastructure vs application layer and more.And yes, we cover a lot of questions that founders and investors are asking today including IP protection, metrics for investment, valuation, geographical differences and we end with a special rapid fire final sprint, make sure to listen through for this special conversation.It's now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!(Timestamps below)***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact 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! ***

On this podcast I am joined by Ash Fontana, AI start-up investor with Zetta Venture Partners and technology industry thought leader, to talk about his new book: The AI First Company: How to compete and win with Artificial Intelligence. If you are focused on trying to transform your company into an AI powered leader in your industry, Ash's book is going to end up being a well worn and dog eared resource that you will return to again and again!

Today's guest is Ash Fontana, Special Advisor at Zetta Venture Partners based in the Bay Area. After recently publishing his book, “The AI-First Company,” Ash joins us again on the show to discuss some of the core transferable lessons he's learned. Our topic for this episode is advantage. Ash discusses a way of thinking about building momentum around data and gaining long-term advantage as a result. This episode is one of two episodes Ash recently recorded with us. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to tune in to his second episode on The AI Consulting Podcast to gain insight on how services companies can turn into AI product companies. 

You can't go anywhere today without hearing the term “artificial intelligence” - governments, industry, and startups are thinking through how to build, leverage and harness AI on a daily basis. But what really is AI and how do you build an AI first company? What's overhyped about AI and what's underhyped and not nearly talked about enough. We answered these questions and more today with Ash Fontana, Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners. Ash has built a career building and investing in startups - he was an early and senior member of AngelList and since joining Zetta has been in generational AI-first companies like Canva, Invenia, and more.

Ash Fontana of Zetta Venture Partners joins Nick to discuss How to Value AI, Data Network Effects vs. Data Learning Effects, and Evolution of the VC Asset Class. In this episode we cover: What was the inspiration for the new book? What's the difference between a Data Network Effect and a DLE (data learning effect)? How do you advise those that are building tech where AI will be a valuable piece in the distant future but doesn't really play a role until the growth stage or beyond? Tell us about the Lean AI Method, described in the book, and how companies can use it to start implementing AI. How do you feel about companies using "off-the-shelf" AI, like TensorFlow? Why is now the right time for AI to pervade throughout tech and industry? How do you value AI and determine what's real? How does one put a valuation multiple on fairly nascent category where the value can be exponential and the moat can be unbreachable but there's not a whole lot of precedent? What are the key data categories or types that are most valuable for startups to be capturing and analyzing from day one? How do you find the right types of people with the right capability and mindset to join a startup if they have no formal training or experience directly w/ AI? How do you see the asset class evolving? Do you think the rolling fund product can make the leap to institutional investors, or will it continue to serve smaller, retail investors? What's your opinion on insider rounds? Thoughts on Tiger Global? Does China surpass the U.S. in tech innovation (and AI) over the next decade? Why or Why Not?   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 the exceptions. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and tell us about your business. We'll send a list of possible investors right to your email's InBox!  

Dealing with data hyperabundance, solving economic problems for businesses and changing lives for the better. Tune-in to Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners, Jocelyn Goldfein as she and Sam have a discussion around engineering leadership, organizational graph structures, and productization of AI. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's guest is Ash Fontana, Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners, a firm based in San Francisco. Ash was also a previous guest on our AI in Business Podcast. Today, he gives his recommendations for companies looking to transition from being service-oriented with AI to becoming more product-oriented. Ash also shares some lessons from his experience investing in AI firms and insights from his recently published book, “The AI-First Company: How to Compete and Win with Artificial Intelligence,” on what it takes to iterate and find a scalable business model. Download our whitepaper “Beginning with AI” to learn more about the practical steps for AI deployment at emerj.com/beg1.

Welcome to. Strategy Skills episode 159, an episode with Ash Fontana on the future of AI. Ash just published a great book on AI, THE AI-FIRST COMPANY, please see a link below. THE AI-FIRST COMPANY: https://amzn.to/3zRYW7o Among other insights, Fontana shows readers how to: Make AI your company's first priority. Identify the most valuable data. Build AI teams. Create AI budgets. Integrate AI with existing processes. Measure its effectiveness. Reinvest the profits from automation to build a competitive advantage. About the Author Ash Fontana became one of the most recognized startup investors in the world after launching online investing at AngelList. He then became a Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners, the first investment fund that focused on AI. The firm was the lead investor in category-defining AI companies such as Kaggle, Domino, Tractable, Lilt and Invenia.  Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo We use affiliate links whenever possible (if you purchase items listed above using our affiliate links, we will get a bonus).

Jocelyn Goldfein is a managing director at Zetta Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in AI-first startups. Jocelyn led engineering teams while at Facebook and VMware during their high-growth years before becoming a venture capital investor. In founders, she looks for real empathy for customers. Jocelyn has backed over 20 startups focused on enterprise infrastructure and artificial intelligence.Real empathy for the customers is critical to a great go-to-market strategy.Throwing a ton of irrelevant data at an AI model doesn't make the model more useful. Data can only create real value if it is relevant and clean.Having the right people around the founding team makes big problems smaller, but the wrong people make small problems bigger.Sustainable innovation requires a combination of user needs and robust business models.Non-profit: CODEPATH.ORG

Ash Fontana is Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on artificial intelligence startups. He's also the author of The AI First Company, a new book that draws on Ash's experience as an entrepreneur and investor and lays out the principles for building a successful business based on data learning effects. In this conversation, we dive into the book's core ideas and discuss the past, present and future of AI.-----------------Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

AI can offer a new type of competitive advantage, but entrepreneurs need to know what it is and how to unlock it. Ash Fontana, author of The AI First Company and managing director at Zetta Venture Partners – a firm that exclusively invests in early-stage AI startups, joins Azeem Azhar to explore the risks and rewards of applying AI to business problems.

How should Chief Information Officers manage AI in the enterprise, and what challenges may arise? Every CIO must consider these questions from both enterprise technology and business leadership perspectives.Author and AI investor Ash Fontana explains the CIO role and CIO responsibilities when developing organizational capabilities for AI, which he calls the AI-first company.The conversation covers these essential topics:-- What are the CIO’s first steps to adopting enterprise AI?-- How should CIOs start with enterprise AI?-- How much technical knowledge about machine learning models should business leaders possess?-- What are “data learning effects”?-- What is Lean AI?-- Should the CIO or CTO be responsible for investments in AI?-- Culture change and AI adoption-- Enterprise AI investment and financial return-- How to overcome obstacles to AI adoption in the enterprise?====Read the full transcript and watch other videos: https://www.cxotalk.com/episode/chief-information-officer-enterprise-ai-cioSubscribe to our newsletter: https://www.cxotalk.com/subscribe====Ash Fontana is author of the book The AI-First Company. He is an investor focused on AI-first companies at Zetta Venture Partners since 2014. Before Zetta, Ash launched syndicates at AngelList - the biggest startup investing platform in the world that now manages over $2B. Simultaneously, Ash made investments in Canva, Mixmax and others.====A few excerpts from the conversation:Michael Krigsman: In effect, what you're saying is this part of the company that's focused around AI, ideally, it would be the entire company, but let's just start small. This part of the company is using the delivery, using the use of AI tools, and then the delivery of outcomes relating to those tools as its kind of organizing principle. Is that an accurate way to summarize it?Ash Fontana: Yeah, I think that's a good way to summarize it. But again, there's so much nuance across the board here around the degree to which you focus on this, depending on where you're at in your journey, depending on whether you're at the phase where you're just experimenting with a few models to sort of test, like, can we actually make this prediction about the demand of the thing we're selling, the demand of the apparel we're selling next season? Can we make a prediction about a trend in this industry with our consumers, whether they're going to buy this or that color next season? Can we actually make a prediction around this delivery time in our supply chain? Can we do that?Are you at this stage where you're experimenting with that and really trying to discover from the data that you have whether you can do that? If so, the degree to which you invest in data collection, data infrastructure, and the degree to which you jump in the deep end of machine learning different models is very different to the point at which you've done those experiments, you're sure that you can make these predictions, and you want to really double down.This is where I introduce this concept of latent AI. But again, I think that's a good way to put it. There's a lot of nuance depending on the phase you're at. Different parts of your organization can mean different parts of the journey.The part of your organization that is on the marketing side can be really far ahead on the AI journey because there's a lot of data available to survey customers and run predictive models around what different segments will do and how they behave, whereas the part of the organization that's responsible for production might be a bit further back or earlier in the journey because fully roboticizing a production line is quite an undertaking. You'll want to do more experiments and little bits of the production line first, so it depends on where you are.

Ash Fontana (@ashfontana), author of The AI-First Company and partner at Zetta Venture Partners, joined Erik for a fireside chat for Villagers in May 2021. They discussed:- Why AI creates defensibility and a true, compounding, first-mover advantage.- Why AI should be part of all conversations at your startup: about products to build, people to hire, what price to charge — it should all involve AI.- The difference between Lean Startup and Lean AI.- Common mistakes that early AI companies make, like spending too much on marketing and not enough on sales.- The impacts of AI on hiring and the differences between a data PM and an ordinary PM.- What you can do tomorrow to get started building an AI-first company.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Host Julia Yoo chats with venture capitalists Mohanjit Jolly (Partner, Iron Pillar) and Mark Gorenberg (Founder and Managing Director, Zetta Venture Partners). Tune in to hear Jolly and Gorenberg’s insider advice for founders, observations of common pitfalls facing startups and what each says is their investing “secret sauce.”

Florian Hillen is CEO and Founder of VideaHealth, a leading dental artificial intelligence company. VideaHealth spun out of MIT in 2018 and uses artificial intelligence to automatically detect diseases in dental imaging. Before VideaHealth, Florian founded a digital pregnancy startup, ninu, worked at McKinsey. &. Company and for a SF-based startup Eko which developed a stethoscope automatically analyzing heart sounds. Florian has two Masters in Computer Science and Technology & Policy from MIT, a medical degree and a business degree from the LMU and Technical University Munich. VideaHealth has raised more than $6.5 million in funding from Pillar VC, Zetta Venture Partners, and angel investors. VideaHealth works with leading DSOs and insurance providers nationwide and has been featured in TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal, among many other media outlets.  Join the community on Dentaltown at https://www.dentaltown.com

Discover how AI may shift the workflows and approaches to trading as we interview Ash Fontana, managing director at Zetta Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm focused on AI-first companies with B2B business models. Ash shares his valuable perspective on the present and future of AI in trading. Access Emerj's AI in Financial Services Vendor Landscape Brief here: emerj.com/vl1

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.What a week. Are you still standing? Did you make it? If you are upright and typing, congratulations, you're top-decile. If you're reading this from bed, that's fine too. We understand.The week was so busy that we actually ran a bit long this week, with lots left on the cutting room floor. So, with the full team aboard this week (Danny, Natasha, Chris, Alex), we got into the following:Niche raised $35 million in a Series C for its one-stop shop for college searchers. We talk about the edtech company's growth, confusing past, and how its B2B strategy is especially attractive in our new normal.Duolingo raised $10 million from General Atlantic, a move that was more opportunistic than out of necessity for new cash, the company claims. It also is based in Pittsburgh, which had the whole trio excited.Bonsai, which has a fantastic name, raised $1.5 million for 1-on-1 peer tutoring. We talk about the small round, and why conservatism is a good thing in this sector.To cap off our edtech coverage, we're starting to see sector momentum turn into actual dollars and deals.Figma raised $50 million at a reported $2 billion valuation, a small figure compared to its new pricetag. a16z led the new investment, which came just over a year following Figma's Series C. That prior round valued the firm at around $440 million (post-money), so Figma just glowed up by about 4.5x between rounds. Not bad.Catalyst raised $25 million Series B led Spark, not long after it closed a Series A worth $15 million that Accel had led. The customer success industry is growing in importance as startups and larger companies double-down on selling more to existing clients as net-new logos become harder to scrape together.Stash raised $112 million led by LendingTree, adding to the wave of savings-and-investing-focused services that are seeing a boom in demand (and, therefore, investor interest) as the economy falters.Particle Health raised money to make healthcare data easier to access, because sharing (in some cases) is caring.Plantible made us talk about aquafaba, the liquid found in chickpea cans, for way too long.A host of new funds were locked down this week, including OMERS Ventures putting together $750 million, Kickstart closing $110 million, and Zetta Venture Partners snagging $180 million for AI-focused investing.Then there was the bad news. Layoffs at Lyft, possible layoffs at Uber, and cuts at TripAdvisor. But, as Natasha reported, some folks are working to undo some of the damage that the layoffs are causing.We wrapped with a new Danny segment called "Luckin Watch" and will be back with a special ep on Saturday. Stay tuned!

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.What a week. Are you still standing? Did you make it? If you are upright and typing, congratulations, you're top-decile. If you're reading this from bed, that's fine too. We understand.The week was so busy that we actually ran a bit long this week, with lots left on the cutting room floor. So, with the full team aboard this week (Danny, Natasha, Chris, Alex), we got into the following:Niche raised $35 million in a Series C for its one-stop shop for college searchers. We talk about the edtech company's growth, confusing past, and how its B2B strategy is especially attractive in our new normal.Duolingo raised $10 million from General Atlantic, a move that was more opportunistic than out of necessity for new cash, the company claims. It also is based in Pittsburgh, which had the whole trio excited.Bonsai, which has a fantastic name, raised $1.5 million for 1-on-1 peer tutoring. We talk about the small round, and why conservatism is a good thing in this sector.To cap off our edtech coverage, we're starting to see sector momentum turn into actual dollars and deals.Figma raised $50 million at a reported $2 billion valuation, a small figure compared to its new pricetag. a16z led the new investment, which came just over a year following Figma's Series C. That prior round valued the firm at around $440 million (post-money), so Figma just glowed up by about 4.5x between rounds. Not bad.Catalyst raised $25 million Series B led Spark, not long after it closed a Series A worth $15 million that Accel had led. The customer success industry is growing in importance as startups and larger companies double-down on selling more to existing clients as net-new logos become harder to scrape together.Stash raised $112 million led by LendingTree, adding to the wave of savings-and-investing-focused services that are seeing a boom in demand (and, therefore, investor interest) as the economy falters.Particle Health raised money to make healthcare data easier to access, because sharing (in some cases) is caring.Plantible made us talk about aquafaba, the liquid found in chickpea cans, for way too long.A host of new funds were locked down this week, including OMERS Ventures putting together $750 million, Kickstart closing $110 million, and Zetta Venture Partners snagging $180 million for AI-focused investing.Then there was the bad news. Layoffs at Lyft, possible layoffs at Uber, and cuts at TripAdvisor. But, as Natasha reported, some folks are working to undo some of the damage that the layoffs are causing.We wrapped with a new Danny segment called "Luckin Watch" and will be back with a special ep on Saturday. Stay tuned!

Ash Fontana of Zetta Venture Partners joins Nick on a special Crisis Coverage installment to discuss The AI Investing Playbook; Why "Dev Tools" for Data Scientists is the Next Great Opportunity; When Fund Returns Don't Fit the Power Law; and Ash's Favorite Investment Heuristic from Naval Ravikant. In this episode, we cover: Zetta III was announced recently, a $180M fund for founders building AI-first companies. You went from $60M -> $125M -> $180M... how was the fundraise different this time around? Quickly can you give us your definition of an AI-first company? What will you be doing differently with the new fund and how does the pandemic affect your approach? Tom Tunguz just mentioned that in the data they're analyzing they are seeing a drop in spend on Machine Learning Infrastructure.  How much of a concern is this to you and your portfolio companies? With the launch of the new fund, you outline focus areas both Applications as well as infrastructure and tools...Is the application-layer ready to leverage AI in a significant way or is there still a lot headway that needs to be made at the infrastructure level first? Carlota Perez has written about technology cycles and how new technologies typically go through this installment phase, w/ rapid development and heavy investment, followed by crash and subsequent recovery leading to the deployment phase...  in your estimation where are we in the tech life cycle of AI and is it really ready (or will it be ready over the next 3-7 years) for mass deployment? How effective are the AI models today when much of the input data, generally speaking, is flawed? Talk about the next 3-5 years for Data Science... we've seen significant advances in developer tools and systems for software but I still feel like we're at very early stages in evolution, efficiency and scalability of data science tools/fundamentals. Does your fund returns follow the power law? Part of the advantage to AI-first startups is the supreme data moat that they can build, preventing others from gaining traction w/ competitive solutions. While this is an advantage for the startups that get a head start (and their investors) is there an adverse impact on other startups that are founded later and don't have the extensive data sets? Many of the startups you invest in are "deep-tech" and will not monetize and grow ARR the same way many familiar SaaS or transactional businesses will.  What are the major gating factors to raise each of a Seed Round, a Series A and a Series B, in these longer cycle tech-first approaches? You've create a Playbook on how to build an AI-first company.  It's evergreen with plans to update regularly as you work w/ companies...  I wonder if you might give us the basics... What do AI-First companies have in their DNA and when building a company, what's the sequence and major building blocks required at the early stages? Last time you were on the show you mentioned you learned a lot of great heuristics and mental models from Naval Ravikant. Can you give us a couple of these that have been really valuable in helping you quickly frame startup investment potential? To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Jocelyn Goldfein, Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners, joined the Fund81 podcast to share her approach to investing in artificial intelligence (AI). With the cost of creating software continuing to decline, Zetta believes that the companies of the future will need to build more than just great software to thrive. Zetta invests in AI software that learns from data to analyze, predict, and prescribe outcomes. This is what Zetta defines as the fourth era of computing: the computation of huge volumes – zettabytes – of data on distributed systems and the development of software that can learn from this data. This interview combined with Zetta’s other content is the most insightful information I’ve seen on this topic. It’s really worth a look. More Content from Zetta Venture Partners Investing in Artificial Intelligence: http://investorfieldguide.com/ash/ Why SaaS is Not a Fit for VC and How AI Compounds Competitive Advantage: http://fullratchet.net/161-why-saas-is-not-a-fit-for-vc-and-how-ai-compounds-competitive-advantage-ash-fontana/ Growing Up in the Intelligence Era: https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/growing-up-in-the-intelligence-era/ Data Is Not the New Oil: https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/27/data-is-not-the-new-oil/ Measuring AI Startups by the Right Yardstick: https://medium.com/zetta-venture-partners/measuring-ai-startups-by-the-right-yardstick-6c5f6745dd22 Sourcing with Zetta’s Jocelyn Goldfein: https://www.heavybit.com/library/podcasts/venture-confidential/ep-15-sourcing-with-zettas-jocelyn-goldfein/ Enjoy.

What does it take to up your game and improve your management skills? Do you need to read better books or get around the right environment? Here to help us dig in and understand some key aspects of an effective manger is, Jocelyn Goldfein. Jocelyn is a technology executive and investor. She is the managing director and a general partner at venture capital firm Zetta Venture Partners. Previously she was a director of engineering at Facebook and vice president of engineering at VMware. Jocelyn is passionate about scaling products, teams, and companies, and she cares deeply about STEM education. In our conversation, Jocelyn talks about the lessons she learned as a manager, how to create a positive work culture, advice for leaders, how to encourage diversity, and much more. You’ll want to listen closely to the helpful insights that Jocelyn has to share! Outline of This Episode [0:40] I introduce my guest, Jocelyn Goldfein [1:50] Jocelyn talks about her background in tech. [9:00] What lessons did Jocelyn learn from her early years as a manager? [12:00] Motivation is one of management's underused superpowers. [14:30] How to create a healthy work culture. [22:15] What did Jocelyn do at Facebook to streamline their hiring process? [37:00] Advice for engineering leaders at startups. [39:50] What can leaders do to create a more diverse workplace? [48:00] Resource recommendations from Jocelyn. Lessons learned How do you go from zero management or leadership experience and expect to hit the ground running? The truth is - you can’t! Most people thrust into a sudden leadership role will struggle at first; no one is born with solid management skills. It is your responsibility to be flexible and learn as you go. Unfortunately, in most situations, someone won’t come along and hold your hand, showing you exactly what you need to do. If you can find a mentor or a peer who has also been thrust into a new area of responsibility, then learn from them. Leadership is often lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. Motivation is a manager’s superpower Did you know that motivation is a manager’s secret superpower? It’s true! While some managers will try to dangle carrots or get their team members to perform with sticks, good managers will search for a deeper motivation. Remember, people are not systems or machines; they don’t always respond in predictable or logical ways. If you want to improve your management skills, you need to focus on praise and encouragement. Don’t be so quick to jump to financial incentives - most people just need to feel like they are moving in a positive direction and accomplishing their goals. How to create a healthy culture What does a healthy culture in an organization look like? Does it all come down to putting the right words on the wall or the right onboarding video? Culture starts from the top. Jocelyn Goldfein’s definition of culture is the behavior you reward and punish. What behavior does your organization reward and punish? If your successful leaders embody the vision and values of the organization, then you are headed in the right direction. You can learn more about Jocelyn’s perspective on building a healthy work culture by reading her blog post located in the resources section at the end of this post. Diversity in the workplace One of the key aspects of improving your management skills is learning to pay attention to the level of diversity in your workplace. Diversity is a critical component, especially when it comes to the technology sector. If you want to see your team’s potential increase - then pay attention to the level of diversity! There is a massive opportunity right now for tech companies to tap into underrepresented groups in the workforce. Don’t be afraid or worried about diversity - embrace it. Start with an assessment - where is your organization at, right now? Is there a sufficient level of diversity and inclusion, or is there room to grow? To learn more about improving your management skills by focusing on diversity and other helpful topics, make sure to catch my full conversation with Jocelyn on this episode of Simple Leadership - you don’t want to miss it! Resources & People Mentioned BOOK: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion BOOK: Debugging the Development Process Connect with Jocelyn Goldfein Jocelyn Goldfein - Los Altos, California | Professional Profile | LinkedIn Jocelyngoldfein Jocelyn Goldfein – Medium Jocelyn Goldfein | AngelList Jocelyn Goldfein (@jgoldfein) · Twitter Jocelyn Goldfein - Forbes Culture is the Behavior You Reward and Punish Connect With Christian McCarrick and SimpleLeadership http://simpleleadership.io/ Christian on LinkedIn Christian on Twitter: @CMcCarrick Subscribe to SIMPLELEADERHIP onApple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Player FM, TuneIn, iHeart Radio

Jocelyn Goldfein (LinkedIn, Twitter) is a true IT Visionary. Having worked at VMware and Facebook in the early days of both, and now as Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners, Jocelyn has been involved in the formative years of the internet and technological innovations. In part two of their interview, Jocelyn and Ian discuss whether A.I. is an industry in and of itself, what companies are worth investing in, how collaboration works between enterprises and start-ups, and much more. IT Visionaries is brought to you by The Lightning Platform by Salesforce. The Lightning Platform is a leading cloud platform that makes building AI-powered apps faster and easier. With Salesforce, now everyone is empowered to build apps for their organization! Learn more at salesforce.com/buildmobileapps. Salesforce and MIT recently teamed up to create a whitepaper exploring what happens when AI meets CRM. Read: AI Meets CRM: An MIT Tech Review Whitepaper

Jocelyn Goldfein (LinkedIn, Twitter)  is a true IT Visionary. Having worked at VMware and Facebook in the early days of both, and now as Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners, Jocelyn has been involved in the formative years of the internet and technological innovations. In part one of their interview, Jocelyn and Ian discuss everything from the rise of the computer sciences industry, how to look at investing in start-ups, to the role artificial intelligence will play in businesses moving forward, how the rise of cloud technology could be a precursor to the rise of A.I. and much more. Plus, Jocelyn dives into her years of experience at Facebook working closely with Mark Zuckerberg as well as what it was like riding the VMware rocket ship right as it caught fire. IT Visionaries is brought to you by The Lightning Platform by Salesforce. The Lightning Platform is a leading cloud platform that makes building AI-powered apps faster and easier. With Salesforce, now everyone is empowered to build apps for their organization! Learn more at salesforce.com/buildmobileapps. Salesforce and MIT recently teamed up to create a whitepaper exploring what happens when AI meets CRM. Read: AI Meets CRM: An MIT Tech Review Whitepaper

“Data is the new oil” has become one of the most common catch phrases in popular media. It makes sense right? Wrong. At least according to Ash Fontana, Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners and one of the most nuanced thinkers on AI today.  Ash believes we are squarely in the fourth era of computing, the intelligence era. In this era, data aggregation is less interesting than matching data sets to tactical problems. And with good reason. The intelligence era is an inflection point; traditional I.T. infrastructure will change to enable the development of self-learning software and previously data-starved markets — from agriculture to sales — will benefit from the information generated by self-learning software.  Ash thinks about AI companies with an incredibly human centric approach; when he evaluates data sets and companies, he asks how much human activity can the company free up if it works at scale.  In this episode, we chatted all things AI with Ash. We talked about a number of topics; some of my favorite included: (1) the utility of data for AI first companies, (2) why data strategy is fundamentally different for an AI driven company vs. a normal software company, (3) why Ash is bearish on SaaS and (4) how do you compete with Google, Amazon and Facebook in a data driven world. It was a pleasure to have Ash on the show to get his thoughts on the future of AI. His perspective was incredibly thoughtful and I personally learned an incredible amount from him in this conversation. 

Erik and co-host for this episode Ash Fontana (@ashfontana) of Zetta Venture Partners interview Ali Hamed (@AliBHamed), investor at CoVenture.Ali gives us a primer on the online lending space and compares and contrasts it to offline lending. He explains why payday lenders with astronomical APRs actually have small margins. He also talks about how government can improve the regulatory environment to allow for more disruption of traditional lending and help new companies get a foothold.They talk about crypto and whether people will be making loans against Bitcoin anytime soon as well as the idea of personal ICOs and why Ali thinks they are a bad idea.The trio finish with a rapid-fire round where Erik names a venture firm and Ali talks about what he thinks that company should do in the future. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Colin Campbell is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Erik and co-host for this episode Ash Fontana (@ashfontana) of Zetta Venture Partners interview Ali Hamed (@AliBHamed), investor at CoVenture.Ali gives us a primer on the online lending space and compares and contrasts it to offline lending. He explains why payday lenders with astronomical APRs actually have small margins. He also talks about how government can improve the regulatory environment to allow for more disruption of traditional lending and help new companies get a foothold.They talk about crypto and whether people will be making loans against Bitcoin anytime soon as well as the idea of personal ICOs and why Ali thinks they are a bad idea.The trio finish with a rapid-fire round where Erik names a venture firm and Ali talks about what he thinks that company should do in the future. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Colin Campbell is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Do you even care about AI? Maybe you should. Mark Gorenberg is the founder of Zetta Venture Partners, an investment group focused on companies who lead the world in analytics and artificial intelligence. Mark has seen just about everything there is when it comes to AI and in this episode we sit down and talk about the trend of AI, what makes AI companies successful, and what sales leaders must know about it to win. Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Mark's LinkedIn The State of Artificial Intelligence Subscribe to Gabe's Content In This Episode You'll Learn: What is artificial intelligence What are some of the top trends in the space Why are some companies growing in the AI marketing What sales leaders should be thinking about in regards to AI

Ash Fontana of Zetta Venture Partners joins Nick to discuss Why SaaS is not a fit for VC and How AI Compounds Competitive Advantage. In this episode, we cover: Categories of AI that Ash is most interested in The difference between real AI and AI-enabled companies Why SaaS will cease to be investable by VCs The current AI stage of adoption How he times the market The four phases of AI What phase of AI they invest in How AI is and will be affected by limited data How startups can compete for talent w/ GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) The moats being created by their AI-first portcos How they think about metrics and milestones for AI-backed companies If AI should be feared and finally we wrap up w/ Ash's thoughts on Chris Dixon's position that we will see a movement from centralization back to decentralization in tech-- and the role that AI will play   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Erik interviews Ash Fontana (@ashfontana) of Zetta Venture Partners with his co-host for this episode, Abie Katz of August Capital. They talk about how Ash got his fund started and how and why he structured it the way he did. They discuss how to manage growth in a venture fund and the relative importance of being a recognizable brand in the space. They ask Ash what he looks for in a machine learning startup and Ash explains why sometimes it’s better to stay small. He also talks about how and why to be intellectually honest about your investing decisions. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast.

Erik interviews Ash Fontana (@ashfontana) of Zetta Venture Partners with his co-host for this episode, Abie Katz of August Capital. They talk about how Ash got his fund started and how and why he structured it the way he did. They discuss how to manage growth in a venture fund and the relative importance of being a recognizable brand in the space. They ask Ash what he looks for in a machine learning startup and Ash explains why sometimes it’s better to stay small. He also talks about how and why to be intellectually honest about your investing decisions. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast.