Episode 418: Jeff Glass - CEO & Co-Founder, Hometap

Episode 418 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Jeff Glass, Co-Founder & CEO of Hometap. Jeff’s track record is pretty amazing, yet he is incredibly humble. As both an entrepreneur and an investor, he has…in my opinion… earned a spot as one of the top builders in the Boston tech ecosystem. While success always requires the right market timing and a great team, you also need a leader who truly thrives in the full lifecycle journey of building a startup and that is exactly what Jeff has done throughout his career. Listen to this track record. Back in the Internet 1.0 era, he co-founded Transactive Solutions. This tech company included a web property called Zooba which scaled and had very forward looking technology. The company was acquired by a joint venture between Bertelsmann and AOL Time Warner. Then, in the early days of mobile, he led m-Qube through each company phase from figuring out product market fit to the hypergrowth years and eventually an acquisition by VeriSign. Beyond the exit, m-Qube is legendary for its "alumni network," having produced a generation of founders and executives who have gone on to build many successful companies in Boston and beyond. Jeff also spent years as a VC with Bain Capital Ventures, where he sat on the board of LinkedIn for three years leading up to their IPO. He later joined a portfolio company as the CEO of Skyhook Wireless which was acquired by Liberty Media. Today, Jeff is the CEO and Co-Founder of Hometap which has a very meaningful mission: making homeownership less stressful and more accessible. Hometap allows consumers to access the equity in their homes without taking on a loan or sell their home. Think of it like a startup, where an investor is taking equity as a percentage of ownership in a company for a future return. The same idea applies here for consumers and their home. It’s just one of those ideas that makes a world of sense. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 03:40 Building Extraordinary Teams 07:38 Jeff's Background & Early Career 15:15 Learning How to Sell 23:27 Early Career 28:30 Building Zooba to an Exit 39:49 m-Qube and the early days of mobile 44:33 Powering the Voting System in American Idol and Deal or No Deal 47:15 VeriSign's Acquisition of m-Qube 50:41 The amazing alumni of m-Qube 54:27 Joining Bain Capital Ventures 58:30 Joining Skyhook Wireless as CEO 01:01:15 The Early Beginnings of Hometap: A New Approach to Home Equity 01:06:28 Building Hometap: Raising Capital and Growing Initial Customer Base 01:12:43 The Scale of Hometap 01:16:08 How Hometap Works 01:20:17 What's Next for Hometap? 01:22:09 Jeff's Interests Outside of Work