The VentureFizz Podcast

One piece of advice that many successful entrepreneurs share with other founders is to wait as long as possible before you raise outside funding. The longer you can stay as a successful bootstrapped company, the more leverage you will have when you are finally ready to raise capital and negative the company’s valuation. For Oisin and his Co-Founder, Mike Flynn, they took a very smart approach to building their business. They built a product development agency and launched several products to solve different problems with a focus on eCommerce. From this approach, they were able to fund their business until they had the right product where they could built a massive business. This ended up being Recharge, a subscription payments solution helping eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Case in point to my earlier statement, the company was self funded for over five years before raising capital. It’s latest round of funding was a $277M growth round of capital at a $2.1B valuation. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice on building a remote-first company and how to create a vibrant and inclusive culture. * Oisin’s background story and why he chose the entrepreneurial path. All the details on their product development agency and how it funded the business. * Finding product market fit with Recharge and how the company has scaled over the years. * Product Distribution Fit - what is it and why does it matter for entrepreneurs. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Unless you were already in the sector, topics within the manufacturing and supply chain industry were probably not on the radar for most people. As consumers, when you went to the store, you bought what you needed and that was that. However, people became very aware of the importance that these industries play in our lives during the pandemic when everything changed. Supply chain and manufacturing issues were the topics of the nightly news as shelves were bare with lots of essential items missing or purchasing a new car was almost impossible due to inventory shortages. Even though technology has helped these industries evolve over time, there is still a massive opportunity for disruption within the manufacturing and supply chain industries. It is a topic that Colin is thinking deeply about in terms of making investments and we start out our conversation with a discussion around the trends and opportunities for technology to make an impact to these sectors. Two Sigma Ventures is an early stage venture firm that was started in 2012 under the Two Sigma umbrella. The firm has made over 100 investments across many industries. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Colin’s professional background including how he gained experience in the tech industry and then as an Investment Banker at Lehman Brothers. * What led him down the path of early stage investing and starting Two Sigma Ventures. * An overview of the firm today including portfolio examples. * His decision making criteria for making new investments. * How the tech scene has evolved in NYC. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Many entrepreneurs have aspirations to make an impact and change the world, which is admirable. However, building a company that impacts billions is obviously very hard and very rare. In the case of Rich Miner, his professional career has been very successful on several levels including the change the world category. As a co-founder of Wildfire, he was part of the team that built the world’s first digital assistant which also includes having his name on the patent for using words to wake up your voice based assistant - which is something that we are all familiar with via our Hey Google, Alexa, or Siri commands. Then, as a co-founder of Android, he helped revolutionize the smartphone industry with a product that has over 3 billion active users and what is now the most popular operating system in the world. Next, he disrupted the corporate venture fund industry by helping to launch Google Ventures (now known as GV) which is one of the top investors in the industry with billions of dollars under management. Last year was another accomplishment that will make an ongoing impact to students for years to come in the naming of the school that he graduated from which is the UMass Lowell Richard A. Miner School of Computer & Information Sciences. We obviously had a ton to cover over the course of this podcast, so stay tuned to hear lots of great stories about his background and all the companies he’s built, plus lots of great advice along the way. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

I first met Sravish about 10 years ago. It was an era where there was a resurgence in the Boston tech scene. A new level of excitement that was fueled by a crop of young entrepreneurs who were building companies that were powered by accelerators or incubators like Techstars, Dogpatch Labs, Bolt, and others. What is great about this era in the Boston tech scene is that many of these entrepreneurs, like Sravish, have exited and are now on to building their next startup. Having successful serial entrepreneurs is a critical part of the success of a land standing major startup ecosystem. Not only do they have more experience and lessons learned from their first company, but they can also think longer term and swing for the fences. Sravish’s last company was Kinvey, a company that coined the term Backend-As-A-Service with their platform for mobile developers. The company was acquired by Progress in 2017. His current company is called Kintent, which is looking to become the trusted platform for compliance. Its Trust Cloud will help eliminate those dreaded compliance and security questionnaires that you get from companies that take forever to fill out. The company announced its $18M Series A round of funding led by OpenView earlier this year. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice for founders on the acquisition process. * Sravish’s background growing up including how he got involved as an early employee at a startup called United Devices that was a pre-cursor to cloud computing. * The story of Kinvey and its acquisition by Progress. * All the details on Kintent and what the future looks like for the company. * Advice for getting started as an angel investor. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Building a startup is tough in any industry, but for a healthcare startup, there is a whole different level of complexity. It is a heavily regulated industry that has been slow to change in terms of digital transformation. As you’ll hear from Troy, the majority of healthcare records are transmitted via a fax machine. How is that possible in our modern world of technology? But, it is opportunities like this that catch the eye for entrepreneurs like Troy. Particle Health’s mission is to enable simple and secure access to actionable healthcare data for digital health innovators. It’s user-friendly API platform lets healthcare providers get patient records from over 270 million patients across the United States. The company announced a $25M Series B round of funding back in July led by Canvas Ventures. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Some of the biggest challenges around building a startup in a heavily regulated industry like healthcare. * Troy’s background story including his time as an EMT and how he got involved in the healthcare industry and joining Startup Health in its early days. * All of the details on Particle Health and how they are disrupting the healthcare industry. * Advice for recruiting and attracting a world class team. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

I was excited to interview Rick for The VentureFizz Podcast, as he has a very unique background in terms of scaling great retail and restaurant brands like Borders, Panera Bread, and Wahlburgers, which was a startup at the time when he joined as CEO. Sure in the case of Wahlburgers, it is helpful when the owners are celebrities and you have an A&E reality show to support the company, but regardless… you still need to have the right vision, product, and service… and even more importanlty, you need to have the ability to execute, which is where so many companies fail. Rick is now tackling a new but related industry and that is in the world AgTech as CEO of Freight Farms. It is a company that I have been following and have admired since I first heard about them from their time at MassChallenge and Techstars. It is such a cool concept - hydroponic container farms where can grow food any time and anywhere. Freight Farms recently announced a $17.5M Series B3 round of funding to support the growth of the business. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice for scaling companies in the food industry. * Rick’s professional background throughout his early career including his time as the EVP and Co-COO at Panera Bread. * How he sought out Wahlburgers and became the company’s first CEO and helped it grow to a $100M brand, plus details on working with the Wahlberg family and the A&E show. * All the information on Freight Farms in terms of how their container farms work, plus details on the company’s business model which includes hardware, software, and services. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Who are the tech companies in the Boston tech scene that are going to scale and become the next anchor companies like Rapid7, CarGurus, Amwell, or DraftKings? If I was pulling together a list of companies, I would definitely add Fairmarkit to the short-list. The company is revolutionizing the way organizations buy and sell through automated sourcing. It is a massive market in a sector that has been vastly underserved in terms of leveraging technological advancements like AI. Plus, regardless of economic conditions, procurement teams are always going to be looking for ways to reduce expense and automate business processes. Fairmarket recently announced a $35.6M Series C led by OMERS Growth Equity, with participation from GGV Capital, Insight Partners, Highland Capital Partners, and ServiceNow. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice on taking that entrepreneurial risk of starting a company. * The beginning of Kevin’s professional journey and how sales helped propel his career at tech companies like EMC and Turbonomic. * The full story of Fairmarkit from the very early days of an idea to where it is today. * The benefits of having an executive coach. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

You likely know these companies: Eventbrite, Canva, Houzz - so, what do all of these companies have in common other than being incredibly successful? All of the companies were founded by a married couple. Most of the interviews that I’ve had for the podcastare one on one with a few exceptions of talking to a couple of co-founders at once or even a founder and their investor for the podcast, but this was the first time that I’ve interviewed a married couple, which was cool. Gene and Elaine are looking to disrupt the sporting industry with Athletes Untapped, a private coaching platform for young athletes who are looking to take their game to the next level. What’s impressive about this couple’s entrepreneurial journey is that the business is bootstrapped and they are building it while they both have fulltime jobs. It’s something that I can relate to as VentureFizz was a side business until I went fulltime on it five years ago. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Taking the entrepreneurial leap while working full time. * A look at Gene and Elaine’s background including their athletic careers and how it influenced their interest in starting the company. * All the details on Athletes Untapped including how they get started and their progress around building the company to date, plus future plans. * Lessons learned. * Advice on building a company with your spouse. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Are we entering the primetime era for venture capital investments into Artificial Intelligence or AI startups? It at least seems that way, as things have cooled off with Web 3 and crypto. There is a ton of momentum in this space with lots of use cases including Jasper, an AI copywriting and content platform that recently announced $125M in funding. Or, it will be interesting to see what companies are funded that are built on top of tech like OpenAI’s DALL·E 2. Arthur is looking to ride this wave but they are taking a very smart approach an infrastructure play with its machine learning observability platform. A great analogy for this sector is what network monitoring software does for the netwrk, which detects outages, issues, and vulnerabilities… Arthur is looking to do the same for AI models. The company recently announced a $42M Series B round of funding co-led by Acrew Capital and Greycroft Ventures. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The pulse of innovation and entrepreneurship at two under-recognized institutions - University of Maryland and Carnegie Mellon. * John’s career prior to starting Arthur including a deep dive into his research, experience as an advisor, and his path to becoming a tenured professor. * All the details about Arthur and its platform, plus how the company is making AI more transparent and equitable. * Advice for academics who are thinking of taking on a leadership role at a startup. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

There is a growing number of VC firms that are focused on investing in diverse founders. It’s a very important trend, as I believe these firms will continue to build a foundation that leads to more investing in great companies regardless of the founder’s gender or ethnic background. VamosVentures is one of these firms that is focused on changing the dynamic. 100% of the firm’s portfolio is diverse. Over 40% of their investments are women led and over 90% of their portfolio companies are Latinx led. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A deep discussion on what can be done to grow the number of diverse investors who are funding startups. * Ashley’s background story including her time at Brown University and how her career got started in various roles across investment banking and eCommerce. * How she got started in the world of venture capital while at MIT Sloan with the Dorm Room Fund and other firms. * What led her to join VamosVentures and some of the details around the firm’s investment thesis. * Lots of great advice for founders around fundraising regardless of the economic climate. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.