The VentureFizz Podcast

For this podcast, I typically interview founders and investors, but there are times that I like to switch things up and get a different perspective about startups and entrepreneurship. Thus, I was excited to interview Jorge, as he teaches Entrepreneurial Strategy at Columbia Business School and his research has been focused on entrepreneurship policy, regional entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial strategy. He is also one of the creators of The Startup Cartography Project, which is an interactive map showcasing the quantity, quality, and performance of entrepreneurship across America. Jorge received his PhD from the Sloan School of Management at MIT, and was previously a postdoc at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a lecturer at MIT Sloan. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Jorge’s thoughts on the current economic conditions and what it means for entrepreneurs. * His background story and the path his career took to becoming a professor. * The latest in terms of the entrepreneurial culture at Columbia Business School, including the details on the school’s brand new Manhattanville campus. * The expansion of entrepreneurship across lots of different regions and does it matter to be in Silicon Valley? * A discussion on his research around the gender gap in entrepreneurship. * Common mistakes that Jorge sees entrepreneurs make over and over again. * 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 might have heard the oxygen versus aspirin analogy for finding product market fit for a company. For Matt, he likes to use the burnt pizza analogy. Most people don’t like burnt pizza, but if you are solving a problem that has a very high degree of importance, they will eat the burnt pizza when the product is at an early stage no matter how bad it tastes. Obviously, as the product evolves it will hopefully end up being a delicious slice of pizza, but you need to eat to survive and it all goes back to what has been discuss several times on this podcast. Don’t build your product in a vacuum where you have cool technology in search of a problem. Instead, talk to your customers or potential customers, figure out the critical challenges they are dealing with, and determine if you can build the product to solve it. Pave is on a mission to build the world's best compensation tools and easily accessible market data so companies can plan, communicate, and benchmark in real-time. The company recently announced its $100M Series C round of funding at a $1.6B valuation. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A deep dive into the state of the tech industry and how current market factors are affecting compensation. * Matt’s experiences while at Penn and how he caught the entrepreneurial bug, plus his experience traveling the world. * The background story of Pave and how he figured out the burnt pizza problem that needed to be solved and how their initiative approach won over customers. * All the latest on Pave in terms of its platform, recent round of funding, and goals for the future. * How he came up with the name for the rebrand and was able to obtain a single word .com domain. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Most companies in the tech industry that scale aggressively and create a category leading company usually raise a significant amount of venture capital funding. In the case of LinkSquares, the company has raised over $161M in funding which includes a $100M Series C round of funding that was announced in April. The funding has come along at a very steady clip with its Series B round in 2021 and Series A round in 2020. Needless to say LinkSquares is in hypergrowth mode and this capital is helping the company take advantage of its product market fit, but Vishal and I start off the conversation with a deep dive into how he’s been able to raise capital each year while balancing his responsibilities as a CEO with hundreds of other taks that need to be tackled. LinkSquares is the company behind the AI-powered contract management platform for legal teams aiming to move their business forward faster. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Vishal’s background growing up, including the start of his professional career and how the Startup Institute helped pave his way into the world of startups. * His experience at Backupify and various roles that he played at the company. * The full story of LinkSquares and how they identified this opportunity to disrupt an industry and take on incumbants. * All the details on the LinkSquares platform and how they are leveraging AI, plus the company’s growth plans ahead. * His biggest lessons learned as a CEO of a hypergrowth company. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

It’s always great to speak with a fellow podcaster, as Nathan is the host of How I Raised It. He interviews founders of startups and dissects the details on how they raised each round of funding. It’s a great podcast that I recommend, but as I dug into his archives, I realized that we’ve been podcasting for about the same length of time and almost the same number of episodes, which I thought was pretty cool. Nathan’s podcast makes a lot of sense based on his company. Foundersuite is the leading platform for raising capital, used by thousands of startups, VCs, accelerators and investment bankers around the world. Companies using the platform have raised over $3B in seed and venture capital. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * More of the details on his podcast including his experiences and some of his biggest takeaways. * His career path coming out of school and his decision to get his MBA at the McCombs School of Business at UT, Austin. * What led him down the path of starting Foundersuite and all the details on the company, plus a look at its features. * The most common mistakes that founders make when raising capital. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Did you know that: * Supermarkets waste $25B of food every year * 63 million tons of food is wasted every year in the U.S. * ⅓ of all food produced in the U.S. ends up in a landfill * It’s a $400B problem That’s some staggering statistics and obviously a massive problem that needs to be solved. Luckily, this world has brilliant entrepreneurs who think differently and are able to address these complex problems. In the case of Divert, they are tackling this key issue for supermarkets and retailers. Divert works with five Fortune 100 companies and more than 5,200 retail stores across all 50 U.S. states, providing technology, logistics and anaerobic digestion facilities to help retailers reach their sustainability goals. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion focused on the food waste issue that I previously mentioned. * Ryan’s professional background working at Raytheon and what this experience taught him. * The founding story of Divert and what led him down the path of starting the company. * All the details on what they are doing and how they are working to transform the food industry into a zero-waste sector. * Ryan’s lessons learned on hiring executives. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

This is episode #268 and today’s guest is Jeffrey L. Bowman, CEO & Co-Founder of Reframe, the first tech enabled change management platform that helps build inclusive employee and customer experiences at scale. From what I’ve noticed by working with hundreds of tech startups through the years, is that the companies that are the most successful at building a diverse and inclusive workforce start from the very early days and make it a priority. It ultimately becomes more and more difficult to change the course as the company grows and scales, especially if you are talking about large Fortune 500 companies. Jeffrey has been working to help change the narrative around this very important topic and throughout our conversation, he gives some great insights into items like the current state of diversity in the tech industry, historical references, and advice for founders on how to build a solid foundation for a diverse workforce through its mission, vision, and value statements. In this episode of our podcast, we also cover: * Jeffrey’s background story and his experience in sales and then in various marketing positions after completing his MBA. * His experience at Ogilvy & Mather where he pioneered the industry’s first cross-cultural practice that modernized the marketing and communications industry. * What led Jeffrey down the path of starting Reframe and how he was able to productize the company’s services with a software platform. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Market timing. It can destroy a business or it can be the greatest gift and the launchpad to massive scale and adoption. For Dan and the team at Donut, it was the latter. While some companies saw an uptick over the past couple of years, the real challenge has been maintaining that growth when the tide changes. The good news for Donut, is that remote and hybrid work are not going away anytime soon (if ever) and it’s this shift in terms of how we work that has kept up Donut’s momentum. The company’s Slack extension has ultimately replaced the watercooler chatter that would happen in the office and has been a key part for helping keep a company’s culture intact by connecting people internally no matter the working environment. Based on Dan’s background, it is not a surprise that the company has built a product that creates value for users and can withstand market conditions. His background in product leadership and as a lecturer on lean startup methodologies are the perfect foundational blocks for building a market leading company. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Dan’s framework for naming a company which includes customer feedback and how they landed on Donut, plus how they secured the single word .com. * A journey through Dan’s career in academia and product leadership roles at startups. * Working with Steve Blank and how Dan got involved in the lean startup methodology. * The full background story on Donut which includes lots of key decisions (like building on top of Slack), lessons learned along the way, and the explosive growth during the pandemic. * His experience as a professional musician for Mobile Steam Unit which writes songs with a business theme. * 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’m sure most of our listeners remember or even still use Mint.com. I have vivid memories of the company as it basically kicked off a Fintech revolution and it was such a major success story. In the span of two years, it launched at a TechCrunch event and was acquired by Intuit for $170M. This was back in 2009, about a year after Sequoia Capital published its famous RIP good times presentation. Lofty valuations and unicorns were not a common thing back then and this exit was a homerun at the time. I still remember the blog post about the exit from Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital, who was an early investor in the company. It mentioned how Aaron was a member of the First Round Capital blank check club, which they did follow through on that promise as an investor in his other companies. Looking back, there were 3 reasons why Mint.com stood out for me - 1. It was a design first type of product which was not common especially in the financial services industry. 2. It was free for consumers to use, so they had to figure out an alternative way to generate revenue. 3. It automatically pulled in your financial data and categorized transactions, which is something that we just take for granted now. Since Mint.com, Aaron has gone on to build other companies and his latest startup is called Vital. The company is building software for care teams & patients, with a focus on the Emergency Room (ER) experience. Vital uses AI/ML to transform the care experience, increase patient & staff satisfaction, and increase revenue for their clients. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Why having a “fail fast” mentality may not be the best way to build a company if you are solving a really complex problem. * Aaron’s full background story including examples as an entrepreneur and a builder from an early age. He even had a business called getawebsite.com and yes, he owned that domain, which he later sold. * The full lifecycle story of Mint.com with lots of great stories and lessons learned along the way. * How Vital is disrupting the healthcare industry and emergency room experience for consumers. * The difference between building a consumer product versus an enterprise solution in the healthcare industry. * Advice on building the initial foundation team for 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.

Whether it was being a member of an advanced studies program as a child, to moving to Los Angeles from Israel as a teenager, or his experience as part of an elite team called Unit 8200 of the Israel Defense Forces, Udi has always been up for a challenge and has a passion for solving hard problems. This passion has continued throughout his career as he took the leap of faith into entrepreneurship towards the beginning of his career by building an enterprise software company that was later acquired by SAP. Udi is now looking to replicate the same level of success that he’s had at multiple enterprise software companies at Earnix. The company is a global provider of real-time AI-driven rating, dynamic pricing, product personalization, and fully operationalized telematics solutions for Insurance and Banking. Earnix achieved unicorn status last year after its latest funding round and recently opened its new North American headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The overview of the tech and startup industry in Israel and the momentum there. * Udi’s full background story and his experience scaling and growing enterprise software companies. * All the details on Earnix, plus use case and customer examples. * Details on the growth plans for hiring at Earnix and what it is like working there in terms of its culture. * Advice for entrepreneurs and CEOs who are looking to expand in the U.S. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Typically, you don’t hear many venture capital backed companies get mentioned during daytime talkshows, but did you know that SevenRooms is one of Drew Barrymore’s favorite companies. At least that is what she said during her show. She highlighted the company’s Fresh Start policy which gives new hires their first two weeks of employment as paid time off as a chance to recharge before they get going at the company. In addition, SevenRooms has a 7R&R program which requires employees who have been with the company up to five years gto take five consecutive days off twice a year and employees with a longer tenure must take double that. Joel and I talk in detail about these benefits and why they are so meaningful for the company’s people first culture. SevenRooms is a guest experience and retention platform that helps hospitality operators create exceptional experiences that drive revenue and repeat business. The company is venture In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Joel’s professional background and what he learned as the Chief of Staff at LivePerson. * The founding story of SevenRooms and the details on the platform, plus the impact it has for its customers. * What it was like running a company focused on the hospitality industry during the height of the pandemic and how some key decisions made the company stronger in the long run. * The market opportunity and areas for disruption within the hospitality industry. * Advice on building a global company. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.