The VentureFizz Podcast

Episode 322 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Ryan Shank, CEO & Founder of ShareWillow. Finding the right idea for building a company that will scale is hard. It’s even harder when you get influenced by all the news about the trends in tech like AI, Web 3, crypto, or whatever is the latest trend. Yet, there are still some very large industries that are still operating with very old tech and are still ripe for disruption. Case in point is Ryan’s latest company, ShareWillow, which is a modern platform that enables businesses to design, launch, and manage profit-sharing plans. It makes me think of Gusto, which modernized payroll or Stripe, that modernized payments with tech that just worked. As Ryan was looking under the hood of this industry, it became very obvious that there was a massive opportunity. Instead of stock options, lots of companies issue profit-sharing plans and come to find out businesses that have a profit-sharing plan tend to be more profitable over the long term and get more output from employees. Yet, there really isn’t an easy way for creating a profit-sharing plan on a modern tech stack that does everything from getting started to ongoing management of the plan. Bingo! Here is a massive market opportunity to build a category defining company which is in desperate need of a modern tech stack and user experience. Investors have noticed too as the company has raised $6.5m from top-tier software investors in what ended up being an over-subscribed round. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The importance of learning sales as an entrepreneur. * Ryan’s background story growing up in Ocean City, Maryland and his early entrepreneurial roots. * A rant / business idea about how the experience of college tours is broken. * The story of mHelpDesk and its acquisition by HomeAdvisor. * The details and lessons learned about his next startup, PhoneWagon, which was a TechStars company that went on to get acquired by CallRail. * The state of the state with ShareWillow * Things to think about during the acquisition process, including how an escrow factors in. * And so much more.

Episode #321 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Gabi Steele, Co-Founder & CEO at Preql. Building a company is hard and there is no “one right way” to go about getting started, especially when you are creating a new category. But, when I talk to founders like Gabi, there was always an emphasis on generating revenue from the start. It’s a smart move, as you can obviously control your own destiny through any customer work that might seem more like a services play. But, in addition to being able to pay the bills by bootstrapping, you are also getting a tremendous amount of market research and exposure to the real world problems that your customers are trying to solve. It was this approach that allowed Gabi and her Co-Founder, Leah Weiss, the ability to spin off and launch Preql as a stand alone product company and raise capital to grow it. Preql is a no-code data transformation solution built for business users. Their technology’s core solutions help companies with data access, metric management, and data governance. The company has raised $7M from Bessemer Venture Partners. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A deep dive into the world of data visualization and the career path into this field. * Gabi background story including how her career got started at The Washington Post. * Her experience at WeWork, where she met her co-founder, and the creation of the company’s Data Cult program… plus, how the portrayal in the WeCrashed series may have been under-dramatized. * The founding of Raw Haus, a community connecting emerging talent across the art, design, technology, and entrepreneurial spaces. * The background story of Preql and how they built revenue from its consultancy and spun out a product. * The challenges of building a new category in tech and selling it to a business user. * Hiring the company’s first sales leader. * Lessons learned while building a product company. * And so much more.

Mike Duda, Managing Partner at Bullish, offers insightful perspectives on the direct-to-consumer revolution, highlighting brands like Peloton and Warby Parker. He discusses the innovative approach of Function of Beauty and the qualities that define successful entrepreneurs. Duda shares the thrill and challenges of creating Super Bowl commercials, and emphasizes how consumer validation shapes investment strategies. With a nod to the power of networking, he explores the resilience of consumer spending in changing markets and the unique qualities of "chip on the shoulder" entrepreneurs.

Episode 319 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Peter Berg, Managing Partner at M12, Microsoft’s venture capital fund. I’ve had lots of investors as guests on the podcast, but I was excited to interview Peter because I’ve never interviewed an investor from a CVC or a Corporate Venture Capital fund. I’m not sure what the number is today, but according to a 2023 report about CVCs, it counts 1,100 active CVCs. Based on this scale, it is a very meaningful opportunity for entrepreneurs in terms of raising capital. Thus, Peter and I pretty much get right into the details towards the beginning of our conversation about the world of CVCs… from what they are, differentiators, strategic advantages of raising capital from a CVC, how to evaluate a CVC, and other topics. As previously stated, M12 is Microsoft’s VC fund. The firm invests in Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds of funding across different categories like Cloud Infrastructure, AI, Cybersecurity, Web 3 & Gaming, Vertical SaaS, and Developer Tools. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * How Peter landed a first name @peter handle on Twitter / X.com. * A walk through Peter’s career including his investment into Square and the creation of Visa Ventures which scaled to a global organization and went on to invest in Stripe, LoopPay (a Boston startup that was acquired by Samsung), and many other companies. * All the details on Peter’s area of focus at M12 and what he is targeting for investments. * M12 portfolio company examples like Inworld and Typeface. * His thoughts and opinions on the current state of the market for raising capital. * And so much more.

Episode #318 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Henrik Werdelin, entrepreneur & author. Incubators are not a new thing but some are certainly more successful than others. Take prehype, a venture development firm in New York City where Henrik is a Founding Partner. It has holdings in major success stories like BarkBox and Ro, plus over a dozen other venture capital-backed startups. As a Co-Founder of BarkBox, he was part of the team that built one of the most successful subscription commerce companies with a focus on making dogs and their owners happy. The company went public in 2021 and has launched several businesses internally on top of the core business like BARK Food, BARK Bright, and more. Henrik’s latest project coming out of prehype is Audos, an AI copilot for entrepreneurs which is committed to making entrepreneurship accessible to all. With a focus on customer-centric strategies and innovative problem-solving, Audos empowers people to “just get going.” Conversation Outline: * A discussion around how greatness can’t be planned. * The details about Henrik’s background including his experience at MTV and how he ended up in the startup world. * How prehype operates. * The story of BarkBox in terms of the full lifecycle of the company including the day that BarkBox went public. * All the details on Audos and how it will help entrepreneurs. * Henrik’s 8+1 Framework which allows him be a bit more purposeful with what he spends his time on and live a more rich & meaningful life. * And so much more!

Episode 317 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Deon Nicholas, CEO & Co-Founder of Forethought. I was at a couple of networking events the other week and let’s just say the word AI was brought up many, many times. Yes, we are in a major shift in terms of a tech platform, but doesn’t it feel like some companies are forcing AI into their business model or solution… versus an organic solution. Well, this is not the case for Forethought where AI has been core to their platform since the beginning. Forethought is a leading Generative AI company providing customer service solutions that transform the customer experience. The company has raised over $92M in VC funding from top investors. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around AI and how it should be organically applied to a business and not forced. * Deon’s background story including how he got involved in AI back in high school and getting his career started at Dropbox and Pure Storage. * The background story of Forethought and how they ended up pitching at and winning TechCrunch Disrupt. * How Forethought is disrupting the customer service industry and why AI as a solution makes sense. * The current state of the company and future outlook. * The importance of storytelling for raising capital, hiring, sales, etc. * And so much more.

Episode 316 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Clement Cazalot, CEO & Co-Founder of Machinery Partner. From scaling docTrackr to an exit… to running the Boston Techstars program… to his latest company… since coming to Boston from France in 2011, Clem has become an anchor of the Boston tech scene as an entrepreneur, investor, and community builder. Machinery Partner is on a mission to digitize access to high quality heavy equipment and machinery for small and medium sized businesses. Its unique, integrated model offers procurement, financing and service that are more affordable, more efficient and more accessible for customers, enabling them to start or scale their businesses and punch above their weight in a competitive landscape. The company just recently announced $11M in funding. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the current state of the tech scene in Boston. * Building docTrackr and how Katie Rae, who was the Managing Director of Techstars Boston at the time, persuaded Clem to move the company to the U.S. * His experience running the Techstars Boston accelerator and the most common issue he would see with entrepreneurs. * His family roots in heavy equipment and all the details about Machinery Partner in terms of how they are digitizing the heavy equipment and machinery industry. * The latest on the company in terms of the new round of funding and plans ahead. * The importance of finding the right investors who are aligned with your business. * And so much more.

Episode 315 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Jordan Fliegel, Managing Director of Techstars’ NYC and Sports accelerators. Athlete, entrepreneur, investor, mentor, are just some of the words to describe Jordan’s career. Originally a fixture of the Boston tech scene with his first company, CoachUp, and now a major part of the NYC tech scene as the leader of the Techstars program, it is shocking that Jordan hasn’t been a guest on The VentureFizz Podcast, since that is the two markets that we are focused on. Well, the wait is finally over and it was worth the wait! If you are not familiar with Techstars, it is the world’s most active pre-seed investor and one of the top accelerators in the world. Since 2006, Techstars has worked with over 9,000 founders from companies like DigitalOcean, Zipline, DataRobot, and more that have gone on to raise over $26B in funding. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The similarities between coaching athletes and mentoring entrepreneurs. * Jordan’s background story and his experience playing professional basketball in Israel. * The inspiration behind CoachUp, a venture backed marketplace that connects athletes with personal coaches, and how he landed Steph Curry as an investor. * Working closely with his childhood friend, Jeremy Levine, on Draft, a fantasy sports company, which was acquired by Paddy Power Betfair. * Launching the Techstars Sports Accelerator in Indianapolis and portfolio company examples, plus the details on the NYC program. * The inside look at how companies are selected for Techstars. * And so much more.

Episode 314 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Cory Munchbach, CEO of BlueConic. There is no set rule on how one becomes a CEO of a tech company and when you look at Cory’s career path, it is one of the main reasons why I encourage people to work for high growth startups. She was employee #17 at BlueConic, eight years ago, and was announced as the company’s CEO earlier this year. My point isn’t that you should join an early stage company because it is the best shot to a CEO role, but it is a perfect example of the career progression that one can experience if they are dedicated and are a top performer. If you are interested in becoming a CEO some day, then you are in luck as Cory shares some great advice. BlueConic is a leading pure-play customer data platform that liberates companies’ first-party data from disparate systems and makes it accessible wherever and whenever it is required to transform customer relationships and drive business growth. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Cory’s background story and how she got her career started as a Research Associate at Forrester covering the Martech industry. * How she landed at BlueConic in the early days of the company and how they were able to gain traction initially. * All the details about BlueConic in terms of the company’s platform today and the value it provides to customers. * Lessons learned since becoming a CEO. * How Cory thinks about the culture at BlueConic. * The future of the Martech stack and how AI will play a role. * And so much more.

Thanksgiving is not only a special holiday because of the time with your family, all the great food, and of course, football, but it is also a time when lots of people volunteer and give back. Thus, the timing of this interview with John couldn’t have been more perfect as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday. Most people know of John as an entrepreneur and investor, as he was the founder of a company that went public and was a co-founder of General Catalyst and has since been with Sigma Prime. But what many people might not know is the philanthropic side of his background. John is the co-founder of the GreenLight Fund, a national nonprofit network matching local communities’ unmet needs with evidence-based social innovations. The organization takes a unique approach which is similar to how a VC firm operates where each city that it supports raises it’s own fund and decides on what strategic investments will have the greatest impact. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice for founders on how to incorporate a social mission into their company or a culture of giving back. * John background story and how he started his career in venture capital in the earlier days of the industry. * Starting and scaling UroMed Corporation to an IPO. * The story of how General Catalyst got started and his experience as a Venture Capitalist at Sigma Prime Ventures. * What led John and his co-founder, Margaret Hall, down the path of starting the GreenLight Fund, plus how their model works and the impact it has had to various cities. * Advice for entrepreneurs on how to build a company of lasting value. * Why he has focused on investing into founders who are uniquely qualified and have world-leading domain experience to solve problems. * And so much more.