The VentureFizz Podcast

The negotiation dance… some might enjoy it, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most people probably don’t, especially when it comes to purchasing software. It’s like a known fact that if you wait until the end of the quarter, you’ll likely get a better rate versus if you purchase the same product at the beginning of the quarter. It was Ryan’s experience in sales that opened his eyes to this challenge in the industry and realized that there must be a better way. A better way with transparent pricing and a frictionless buying experience which also saves you money. Enter Vendr, the SaaS buying platform that is changing how companies buy and renew SaaS. With over $300+ million in SaaS purchases across over 1,000 suppliers, the Vendr SaaS buying platform enables the world’s fastest-growing companies to purchase SaaS, without friction and at a fair price. The company recently announced a $60M Series A round of funding led by Tiger Global. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Why is it important for entrepreneurs to think big about their business starting day one. * How Ryan transitioned into a career in sales at SCVNGR, then HubSpot where he worked his way into a leadership role and then led enterprise sales at InVision. * All of the details on Vendr including their massive growth, hiring, culture, and funding. * What his experience at Y Combinator taught him. * Advice for entrepreneurs on hiring and structuring their sales 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.

The world of sports and media has been radically changing. Not to date myself, but I remember back in college, it seemed like ESPN was continuously on. It was our go-to for breaking news and SportsCenter gave us the scores and highlights from the day prior. Now, you go to Twitter and other social media outlets if you need to find out what happened or to catch the highlights from a game. As part of this evolution, athletes are building their own personal brands and engaging with their fans through social media. Even college athletes can now earn money from their name, image, and likeness. Tiffany’s experience in the sports industry gave her a front row view of where things were heading. She discovered a need in the market to build a company around this trend. If athletes are now content creators, they need an easy way to create this content and once they build up a following, they need an easy way to monetize it. Thus, Curastory was born. A video creation and monetization platform that is initially targeting athletes, but the company certainly has ambitious plans to eventually grow to other categories. Curastory recently announced a new $2.1M round of funding which included Lightspeed, Techstars, Randi Zuckerberg, and others. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the evolution of sports and media. * Tiffany’s background growing and how she discovered the world of sports analytics. * All the details on her role as part of the Sports Analytics team at ESPN and the origination of the Fan Happiness Index. * The aha moment that led Tiffanny down the path of starting Curastory and the company’s progress to date. * Advice for diverse founders on 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.

Lars is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits, as he has built companies to capitalize on the growth of mobile adoption. It’s a fun discussion and a nice trip down mobile memory lane, like remember when you would get billed by your mobile carrier if you purchased a ring-tone? Not only has Lars had successful exits but his last two companies have been acquired by two world-class organizations: Apple and Mastercard. Thus, he shares some great stories, including some insights into the negotiation process with Steve Jobs, which does not disappoint! For Mastercard, the acquisition has been a massive success, as the company is rapidly expanding this division in Boston with a new 25,000 sq ft state-of-the-art office space in Post Office Square and the Data & Services team is hiring across the board. They are also investing back into the local tech ecosystem through various charitable initiatives such as TUGG, Build Boston, Girls4Tech with the Red Sox Foundation, and more. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the key factors that Lars looks for when deciding to go all-in on an idea for a business. * His background growing up and the details on his first startup which was a photo-sharing app and how he later get involved with the team at m-Qube. * All the details around Quattro Wireless and how the company disrupted the mobile web. * Building SessionM and the tough decision to pivot a successful business which led to its ultimate acquisition by Mastercard. * Lars’ experience as an investor and how it benefits him in terms of learning. * Hiring advice for building out your team at an early-stage 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 a Zoom world that we are living in these days as it relates to meetings. Yes, Zoom became a verb and the company experienced insane levels of growth from the pandemic… but let’s face it, the future of work has also changed with most companies embracing remote work and the world of online meetings are here to stay. So, if this is the way of the world, shouldn’t your online meeting experience and profile look a lot more personalized and meaningful? Ankith thinks so and the company just launched their new Zoom client for creatives where you can remove the barriers to true self expression and bring the full you. Macro raised over $4M last year with tier-A investors. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Tips for running a successful and inclusive online meeting. * Ankith’s background and his experience with a startup before going back to school to pursue an MBA/MS at Harvard, which is where he met his Co-Founder, John Keck. * A deep dive into the creation of Macro and the different iterations of the product to where it is today. * A product demo of Macro where he shares lots of the core features, which you can also find on YouTube. * Why a company should have three different versions of their pitch deck when raising funding. * 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 excited that there is a renewed interest in space and new goals that seem aggressive, like traveling to Mars for example. But as we’ve witnessed in the past, when the most brilliant and ambitious people work on a challenge, the improbable becomes probable. Natalya is one of these pioneers, who as a child dreamed of becoming an astronaut. She actually applied to NASA twice but was unfortunately denied. Instead, she is using her brilliant mind to build a company in the space industry, which has turned out to be perfect timing because of this renewed interest in space and also the rapid growth of the satellite industry. According to The Hustle, there are about 6,000 satellites in orbit and that number is expected to grow to 50,000 by 2030. Accion Systems is redefining space mobility with the world’s most advanced ion electrospray in-space propulsion systems. To put it simply, the company has built ground breaking technology which helps satellites maneuver while in orbit. The company recently announced a $42M Series C round of funding led by Tracker Capital. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the space industry, the mission to Mars, and civilian space travel. * Natalya’s academic career which ultimately led her down the path to pursue her PhD studies at the MIT Space Propulsion Lab. * The full founding story of Accion Systems with her Co-Founder, Louis Perna, and all the details on their revolutionary product. * How they went about getting traction and raising capital. * Lessons learned from building a company in the space industry. * Natalya’s role as an investor with XFactor Ventures which invests in female funded companies. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

For this podcast, I’ve interviewed lots of Venture Capitalists, who talk about their portfolio of investments in companies, but where does this capital come from? When a VC firm announces it’s latest fund of $100M or $1B, who is providing this capital? Well, It’s typically pension funds, university endowment funds, family offices, or high net worth individuals. The investors in these funds are called Limited Partners or LP’s for short and they are the end client for a VC that is ultimately expecting a return on the capital that has been allocated to a fund. Thus, I was excited to speak with Sara, who has a lot of experience in the venture industry as an LP and her current firm Recast Capital is a fund of funds, meaning she has raised her own fund that in return provides capital to VC firms. The firm’s strategy is to invest in and empower emerging managers in venture with a focus on diverse partnerships. The goal of the firm is to provide exceptional returns by investing in diverse emerging venture managers. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Is the VC industry making progress in terms of having more diversity? * Sara’s educational background and her experience joining an early stage startup and how her career progressed over this period of time. * How Sara transitioned into the investment side of the equation and her experience at CNF Investments & Greenspring Associates. * What led Sara and her Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Courtney McCrea, down the path of starting Recast Capital and how they go about making investments into VC funds. * Details on how the VC industry works and how to get a venture capital fund started. * 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 a long overdue episode, as I’ve been wanting to interview Joe for our podcast for quite some time. Joe has been a long time supporter of VentureFizz and was one of our earliest contributors. If you look into the archives of VentureFizz, you’ll find lots of blog posts where he shares advice on tech trends and building companies. What’s great about Joe is the level of transparency that he shares in his stories and when giving advice, which translates into not only a great and inspirational interview, but so much useful information. Joe founded CloudHealth Technologies in 2012 to focus on creating a new product category and after multiple rounds of venture capital funding and years of hypergrowth, the company was acquired by VMware in 2018. Here’s a fun fact about Joe, he was actually part of the first Scrum team back in the early 1990’s when Waterfall was the go-to methodology for developing software. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice for founders on letting go and delegating responsibilities. * A journey through Joe’s professional career as a Software Engineer and the evolution to a leadership role in terms of heading up the engineering function at startups. * The full background story of CloudHealth… from its MVP and first sale… to figuring out product market fit… to raising capital… and of course, scaling the company to the point of the acquisition. * Advice for founders on building a world class engineering 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.

Technology Analyst, Venture Capitalist, Philanthropist, Entrepreneur, Movie Producer… these are just some of the roles that Todd has held throughout his career. His track record as a VC is very impressive, but could his latest initiative be his most successful yet? Todd and his Co-Founder, Jeff Morin, are jumping into the home connected fitness ring with Liteboxer. The company recently announced a $20M Series A round of funding for its full body boxing experience which includes breakthrough technology to give you a challenging and engaging workout. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Todd’s thoughts on the market for tech investing and skyrocketing valuations. * His background growing up, plus the early foundational years for his career and how he got into the VC industry. * His time at Battery Ventures, including the story of his early investment in Akamai. * What led him down the path to start Spark Capital and what he looks for when making investments. * All the details on Liteboxer - from the initial inspiration, to building the product, plus some of the details on how they are planning on competing in the home fitness category. * Advice for founders on hiring and recruiting for their management 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.

This is a first! It’s the first time I’ve had the opportunity to interview both a founder and an investor in the same episode. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but after conducting the interview, I think this might be an interesting format to consider moving forward. We obviously discussed all the details about Vecna Robotics, the autonomous mobile robot and workflow orchestration company, but it was really interesting to learn the story behind the investment. It was like a live version of those common “why we invested” blog posts the VC often write to detail their thought process behind their investment. As you’ll hear, the background story of each person and how they got to where they are today really sets the stage for why I love doing this podcast. It would be hard to find other individuals who have more expertise in their respective fields and why this is a perfect match to hopefully build a massive company. In this episode of our podcast, we also cover: * What the future holds for mobile robots and autonomous vehicles. * The founding story of Vecna and why they spun out Vecna Robotics. * Use cases and why the market is ready for the solutions provided by Vecna Robotics, plus the company’s growth plans ahead. * The details on Blackhorn Ventures and what Trevor is targeting for investments. * Common pitch mistakes entrepreneurs make while raising funding for robotics companies. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

From this podcast, I get to interview lots of highly accomplished entrepreneurs, however it’s not every day that you get to interview a successful entrepreneur, investor, Head of Brand at a fast growing startup, a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, author, .. oh and…. and a four time US national champion for gymnastics...and a Hall of Fame gymnast. Needless to say, we cover a lot of ground and it’s an inspirational interview on so many levels. In addition to her many accomplishments, a lot of Lisa’s personal brand and platform is centered around empowering women which is helping to create the next generation of female leaders. I know my two teenage daughters will be listening to this episode because I want them to know that the world is their oyster and if you put in the hard work, anything is possible. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Lisa’s background growing up, plus all the details on the level of dedication that was required to be a world class gymnast and what this experience was like. * How she got involved in the world of entrepreneurship. * Her experience building SheWorx, a leading community platform for female entrepreneur, which was acquired by Republic, where she is currently the Head of Brand and Communications. * Three pieces of advice for being a confident investor. * An overview of her first book, The Bad Bitch Business Bible, which is scheduled for release next year. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.