The VentureFizz Podcast

Through the years, many successful businesses have been born from unbundling CraigsList with stand alone companies from different categories across the site. I’ve recently read articles about how the same could be said for Google and internet search with more of a curated web approach which makes me wonder if the same opportunity exists to unbundle YouTube into different streaming platforms for a targeted audience. Twitch was obviously the homerun in this category, as it proved that there was a large enough audience and interest to build a business around livestreaming videos games. Well, did you know that, according to Jenny, that the beauty market is five times larger than the gaming industry. Based on this massive opportunity, Jenny has taken her experience, knowledge, and passion to build NEWNESS, which is the livestreaming platform built specifically for the beauty community. The company is venture backed by Sequoia Capital and other leading VC firms and angel investors. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A very open discussion about imposter syndrome and advice on how to overcome it. * Jenny’s background story in terms starting her career in investment banking and why she made the transition to the tech industry. * Her experience at Twitch right before the acquisition by Amazon and her different roles there, plus some key lessons learned from working under the Amazon umbrella. * All the details on NEWNESS and how she got the business started in terms of raising funding (where she shares a very unique tip), building out the tech, identifying creators, and growing an audience. * Her thoughts about the future of livestreaming. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Healthcare is the biggest labor sector in the country and the demand for healthcare workers continues to grow as the population is aging. The challenge is that the number of healthcare workers has certainly not kept up with demand, as we are on track to be short 1 million nurses by the end of next year. Any solid entrepreneur would hear that number and think of one word and that is opportunity. However, when you combine two industries that can be very difficult to transform that being healthcare and staffing, well most entrepreneurs are going to run the other way. This was not the case for Iman and her co-founder, Rome Portlock, as they both come from families with lots of roots in the industry and how they have built their own careers with domain experience in healthcare, it makes them uniquely qualifies to flip this industry on its head and scale a massive company. Incredible Health’s mission is to help healthcare professionals live better lives and find and do their best work. The company is backed by leading VC firms and was recognized by Forbes as a “Next Billion-Dollar Startup” company. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice on perfecting your company’s story & pitch deck when raising capital. * Iman’s background including how her experience in medical school and management consulting helped build out the initial foundation for her career. * Why she decided to join the tech industry as a Product Manager out of business school at Wharton and her path into entrepreneurship. * All the details about Incredible Health from how the idea come to fruition to how the company differentiates itself through the use of technology and other key benefits to solve this staffing crisis. * The value and importance of focus and the emphasis on delivering user delight. * Advice for entrepreneurs who are building companies in the healthcare industry. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

How many times a week does someone ping you with a question about how to do something? You could respond by explaining it over email, jumping on Zoom to show them to give the visual, detail it with step by step instructions in a doc… or you could just make a Scribe in seconds. Lots of products help solve pain points, but very few really nail the user experience to the point where you pause with a delightful look on your face and blurt out “that’s cool.” It’s that a-ha moment that any founder would love to see from its users. Before interviewing Jennifer, I signed up for Scribe. As a product-led-growth company, the onboarding process was incredibly simple, as it should be, but it was the experience of using their product that gave me the exact a-ha experience. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice and tips on best practices for onboarding remote employees. * Jennifer’s background story including how she landed on the investment side of the equation and how her experience at Greylock helped her as an entrepreneur. * Lots of details about Scribe including how the idea came to fruition, building out the company, their go-to-market strategy, onboarding of new users, and more. * Key advice for entrepreneurs on raising VC funding and how to build out a diverse 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.

Pop quiz… what do you think would be the most detrimental to your health… lack of food, water, or sleep? Well, you’ll have to listen to this episode to find out, as Joe shares the answer and it may surprise you. Not only is Joe a successful startup CEO, but he is also an endurance athlete. I’m talking about someone who is pushing their body to the ultimate limits… things like running a marathon a day for six days across six continents which is something that Joe accomplished. As he shares, running a startup is a lot like being an endurance athlete in terms of the mentality and the commitment not to quit when things get hard or challenging. Your mindset is so critical to the foundation of your success. 1upHealth is an intelligent health data platform powered and connected by FHIR® that connects an ecosystem of payers, providers, patients, life sciences and app developers within a trusted interoperability network. The company announced a $25M Series B round of funding last year led by F-Prime Capital. Joe also has a podcast called Chasing Tomorrow where he interviews other endurance athletes with his co-host Dave Proctor. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Joe’s background story and how he got his career started at E&Y, plus his journey in the tech industry. * All the details on 1upHealth and how they are disrupting the healthcare industry, plus growth plans ahead in terms of hiring. * Lots of fun stories from his experience as an endurance athlete. * How to prepare yourself for a CEO position 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 tremendous amount of information that has been written about the process of raising funding for startups, but for some reason, you don’t see nearly as much information about the acquisition process. What are the good, the bad, or the ugly experiences? How does one get on the radar for a potential acquirer? What are the common pitfalls, etc., etc.? It seems like there are so many things that can go wrong, so it’s a common question that I ask entrepreneurs for this podcast. Based on Brian’s track record, it was a perfect opportunity to get some solid advice for entrepreneurs to follow, as he’s been through multiple acquisitions via companies like Google and Facebook. Brian’s latest startup is focused on data privacy for digital marketing, as Sourcepoint provides tools to protect consumer privacy, manage compliance and optimize revenue. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Brian’s background story and how he got his career started in the tech industry in customer service. * His experience in leadership roles in the tech industry at DoubleClick, Admeld, and LiveRail. * The story behind Sourcepoint with his Co-Founder, Ben Barokas, and how their vision of transparency around usage of data became a reality. * The current stage of Sourcepoint and growth plans ahead. * Advice around hiring for startups and how to think about the recruiting process. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

The shift of founders building startups in other regions outside of Silicon Valley is an interesting trend that has been taking shape especially since the pandemic hit and working with remote employees really hit its stride. So, what does it take to build a thriving tech ecosystem in a city or region? Well, it takes a lot of different components plus you need the people who can execute on a vision. Lakshmi is a builder of these ecosystems from her time in Chicago to what she is doing now in terms of building up a robust startup scene in Tampa Bay, Florida. As CEO of Embarc Collective, she has helped to build out the vision of Jeff Vinik, who is the owner of the Tampa Bay Lighting. Today, Embarc Collective is thriving with a 32,000 sq ft facility and over 100 startups. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Detailed advice on how to build out a successful tech ecosystem. * Lakshmi’s background story and the foundational years of her career. * Her experience at 1871 which is Chicago’s technology hub for over 450 startups. * How she landed her current position at Embarc Collective and what they have accomplished over the past 4+ years. * A deep dive into the tech scene in Tampa Bay. * Three tips on how founders should leverage their own local startup community. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Episode 257 features a discussion from a recent webinar we hosted with OpenView Venture Partners around hiring and competing for talent in this competitive market. Since most companies are hiring, we thought this topic would be incredibly beneficial. For this discussion, I was joined by Steve Melia, Talent Partner, and Maggie Crean, Talent Manager from OpenView and we cover a lot of ground. We discuss great topics like: * Lots of data from OpenView’s State of the SaaS Talent Market Report. * Advice on how to demonstrate a company’s culture during a remote interview process. * Why consistency and transparency during an interview process are so important. * Unique ideas on how to build up your top-of-the-funnel talent pipeline. * How to get more employee referrals and buy-in from employees on helping out with employment branding. * And 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 Rahul for our podcast since his background before starting Clora is very deep in the life sciences industry as the head of clinical development at several biopharma companies. It was an opportunity to explore this industry, as I haven’t interviewed anyone who has the same depth of experience, so we talk about the drug discovery and clinical trials process. It was this industry knowledge that led Rahul down the path of starting Clora to address a critical pain point in the life sciences industry and that is the lack of resources. And, when I say resources… I’m referring to talent and having the right expertise at the right time during the drug discovery process. As you’ll hear, it takes over 300 unique skillsets to bring a drug to market. Well, Clora is helping to solve this talent crisis with its intelligent platform that efficiently matches life science companies with flexible, on-demand expertise. The company is venture backed by Spark Capital, Social Capital, Notation Capital, and others. Rahul is also a fellow podcaster, as he is one of the hosts of the Biotech 2050 Podcast, which I would recommend checking out if you are interested in learning more about the biotech and life sciences industry. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * What’s the biggest difference between building a tech startup versus a life sciences company. * Rahul’s background story and why he pursued a career in the life sciences industry. * His experience leading clinical development across multiple companies. * All the details about Clora in terms of their mission, the details on their platform, and growth plans ahead. * Advice for founders on building a company in the healthtech industry. * 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 feel like this interview was long overdue, as I’ve know Rob for a long time. I probably first met him at one of the tech events in Boston… maybe Web Innovators Group or something like that. It was during a resurgence of the tech industry in that region where a new crop of entrepreneurs were building companies and Rob’s company, Backupify, was one of the hot companies in the Boston tech scene. Backupify raised funding from top investors like First Round Capital, Avalon Ventures, General Catalyst, Lowercase Capital and top angel investors like Dharmesh Shah, Chris Sacca, and Jason Calacanis. It was a big deal because he chose to build his company in Boston instead of Silicon Valley or NYC, which helped him make a splash coming from Kentucky. Since having a successful exit with Backupify, Rob has gone on to make a major impact to not only the Boston tech scene, but to the tech industry at large as both an entrepreneur and investor. His latest company is called Dianthus, the world's only AI-first eCommerce company which is acquiring small to medium sized brands and helping them grow faster with a common AI platform that includes not just new technologies, but new AI-centric workflows, processes, and ways of working. The company just announced $11.5M in seed funding led by PJC, Underscore, and Jason Calacanis. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The use of AI and the areas that Rob finds the most interesting in terms of use cases. * Rob’s early professional career out of school and a look at how he got into blogging in the early days, including how it has helped him as an entrepreneur. * The story of Backupify, a backup cloud company that was started in 2008 for Salesforce and Google Apps and was acquired by Datto. * His experience as an investor - first as an angel, which includes some amazing advice on how to get started as an angel investor and then his experience as a Venture Partner at PJC. * A deep dive into the creation of his latest company, Dianthus and how they are leveraging AI as a competitive advantage. * Advice for hiring when building out your 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.

Entrepreneurship… is it something that is taught or is it just engrained into some people? Personally, I think the answer is both but in the case of Ritik, it is deeply rooted in his DNA. His journey into entrepreneurship started in middle school when he built a successful web development & hosting business. He’s now a successful serial entrepreneur, as his last two companies were acquired by Box and Brex. Ritik’s next company, Savvy, could be his biggest success yet. Savvy is a next-generation wealth management firm that supercharges its wealth managers with enhanced software, sales and marketing automation, and back office servicing. The company recently, announced a $7.3M seed round of funding co-led by Index Ventures and Thrive Capital. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The benefits of having a waitlist before you launch your product. * How Ritik got involved in entrepreneurship and stories from his earlier companies. * His experience as a Thiel Fellow. * A look at his prior two companies, Stream & Elph, plus advice on the acquisition process. * All the details on Savvy and how they are disrupting the financial services industry. * Advice on applying to Y Combinator. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.