The VentureFizz Podcast

Welcome to Episode 133 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Sarah Downey, Principal at Accomplice, a seed-stage venture capital firm. In the past, there really weren’t too many career paths into the venture capital industry. Typically, someone joined a firm from a top business school or investment banking firm. Or, another common path is being a successful founder and switching over to the investment side. Well, this isn’t the case anymore and Sarah is a perfect example of someone whose career has taken lots of great twists and turns leading up to her current role as a Principal at Accomplice. In addition to Sarah’s role as an investor, she is also a community-builder. She is actively involved in Rev Boston, TUGG, and other non-profits. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of topics, like: -The value of having your own user guide to provide others with instructions on the best way to interact with you. -Sarah’s background story including her time in law school and her career pivot into the tech industry as a marketer. -How she made the transition into venture capital. -Trends in the AR/VR space, as well as other areas of tech. -The importance of elevating more women in the Boston tech scene, and -Sarah’s role in making that happen. -And so much more. TUGG is one of the organizations that Sarah is apart of. One of their flagship events is called Tech Gives Back, which we talk about in the podcast. It is the largest industry service event in the country and an opportunity for your company to volunteer for a day of service and work with some incredible non-profits. This year’s event is taking place on October 10th & 11th. Go to tugg.org to learn more and sign your company up for this worthy cause! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 132 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Jon Staff, Founder and CEO of Getaway. With today’s always-connected and always-on world, I think most people would agree that disconnecting is good for the mind, body, and soul. This is exactly the business that Jon has created, an environment where you can disconnect in one of their tiny cabins that are situated in nature a couple of hours from a major city. The goal is to let you recharge and spend time on the things that matter, like ourselves and our relationships. Jon is a serial entrepreneur. We actually wrote a story about prior company called Favecast on VentureFizz several years ago. Getaway ended up being the right idea, as the company recently announced a $22.5M Series B round of funding and is scaling aggressively. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of topics, like: -The interesting places Jon has lived including the basement of a frozen yogurt shop. -The details on his background, including where his work ethic came from and the multiple companies he started. -What led him down the path of founding Getaway and how the company got started. -His experience pitching Getaway on Shark Tank and the impact it had on the company’s business. -Advice for building a great brand. -The challenges of building a team in the early days of a company. -And so much more. Did you know that every Monday morning, we send out two weekly digest emails? There is one for Boston and one for NY. It is your weekly email to stay connected to all the “must-know” information from the local tech scene. It includes information on companies, jobs, events, deals and more. Go to venturefizz.com/email and look for the “Weekly Tech Buzz” to sign up. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 131 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Dan O'Malley, Founder and CEO of Numerated. Dan has built a strong level of domain experience in the Fintech industry. What is really interesting about his career is how he’s been a driver of innovation at startups, as well as much larger companies. At Capital One, he built their payment product into one of the company's largest strategic initiatives. As CEO and Co-Founder of Perkstreet Financial, they built an online-only consumer banking startup, which just didn’t hit the market right from a timing point of view. He later joined Eastern Bank as the Co-Founder and Head of Eastern Labs, the company’s innovation arm which was built to help keep Eastern Bank competitive in their industry. It was this experience that has led to the founding of Numerated, a company that was spun out of the lab and is focused on helping banks grow relationships faster with its real-time sales platform. Numerated recently announced a $15M Series B round of funding. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of topics like: -How innovation works at larger companies. -Dan’s background story and a walk through his career. -All the details on Numerated’s platform and why the company was spun outside of Eastern Bank, plus its growth and hiring plans. -The current state of FinTech in Boston. -Advice for first-time entrepreneurs on raising capital. -And so much more. Whenever someone asks me who are the fastest-growing tech companies in Boston or New York City, I simply direct them to our BIZZpages. From there, you can do a virtual tour of each tech scene and explore over 290 companies! Each BIZZpage tells you everything you need to know from a high level like the details on the company, culture, job openings, leadership team, and more! Go to venturefizz.com/bizzpages to start exploring! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 130 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Eddie Geller, Co-Founder and CEO of Tinybeans. Eddie is a serial entrepreneur who is originally from Australia. He founded his first company, a software development services firm called Unique World in 1999 with just $5,000 in the bank. By the time he sold the company, he had grown the business to $15M with nearly 100 employees. Tinybeans is a company that is dedicated to storing family memories through its secure photo-sharing platform and mobile app. Every day millions of people including celebrities, politicians and high-profile families rely on Tinybeans as their primary platform for capturing, storing and sharing their children’s life stories. It is a product that I wish existed when my kids were younger. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of other topics, like: -The importance of having a transparent company culture. -The story of building and scaling Unique World to an exit. -The background story of Tinybeans and how Eddie got involved, plus the current state of their business and scale. -The benefits of having a concentrated, rather than a general, audience as your users. -And so much more. If you have been enjoying The VentureFizz Podcast, then please leave us a 5-star review on iTunes. The more reviews we have, the more that people will discover these amazing stories about entrepreneurs across the Boston and New York entrepreneurial ecosystems. Thanks in advance—we appreciate it! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 129 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Alicia Lindgren, CEO at CollegeLab. Alicia’s career started out in the financial services industry and then she later moved into the non-profit sector before transitioning into the educational field where she has developed a deep level of expertise around college admissions. CollegeLab is an AI-driven college admissions tool that helps families and counselors better navigate and manage the college admissions process. Built using machine learning methods, CollegeLab utilizes over 4 million student applications with outcomes to tell students their chance of admission at 500 colleges and universities, comparing 12 data points and identifying areas they should focus on to improve their chances. I have a confession to make about this podcast episode. Not only do Alicia and I have a deep conversation about the CollegeLab platform, but we also talk in great detail about the college admissions process, which was of great interest to me. I have a daughter who is a sophomore in high school, and while we are not out there doing college visits just yet, it is all right around the corner. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of other topics, like: -The truth behind college rankings and their data. -Alicia’s background story in terms of her professional career. -All the details on CollegeLab and what makes the platform valuable to students, parents, and counselors. -Her thoughts on the SAT and ACT, and the current status of these tests. -How colleges and universities make their decisions around admissions. And so much more. Our Job Board has over 4,500 positions listed, and the design of our job listings just went through a major overhaul. It is a much cleaner design and you’ll find highly relevant information on each listing like employee testimonials, photos, video, and the latest featured story from VentureFizz. This way you can learn a lot more about the company and its culture direct from each job listing. Go to venturefizz.com/jobs to check it out. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 128 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Leslie Borrell, VP of Smart Cities at Intersection. When we talk about the next 5, 10, 15 or more years of urban living, the phrase “smart city” will almost definitely be a part of the conversation. Now, smart city can mean a number of different things, from good public Wi-Fi to autonomous cars and much, much more. Intersection is a company at the forefront of the smart cities revolution. Its mission is to improve the experience of public places through technology that provides connectivity, information, and engaging content and experiences to civilians across various cities. You might know them from LinkNYC, the largest and fastest free public Wi-Fi network in the world. Leslie is part of the team that is making Smart Cities a reality and as we discuss her background, you’ll notice that she has not been afraid to take chances and go for it. This has all paid off as she has held engineering leadership roles at a variety of tech companies in NYC. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of other topics, like: -Leslie’s thoughts on what our smart city future will look like. -The full background story of her career and how she worked her way into engineering leadership roles. -All the details on Intersection’s products and how they are powering smart cities, plus their business model. -The company’s culture, including their approach to diversity and inclusion, and advice for companies on building a diverse workplace. -Advice for women on pursuing leadership roles in tech. -And so much more. Ok - quick side note - Our Job Board has over 4,400 positions listed, and we just went through a redesign of the job listings. It is a much cleaner design and you’ll find highly relevant information on each listing like employee testimonials, photos, video, and the latest featured story from VentureFizz. This way you can learn a lot more about the company and its culture direct from each job listing. Go to venturefizz.com/jobs to check it out. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 127 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Doron Reuveni, Founder and CEO of Applause. Building a successful company is incredibly difficult. It is definitely not a sprint, it’s not even a marathon… it is more like an Ironman competition where you have to train for multiple events and do it at a massive scale. Well, Doron can definitely relate to this analogy, as an Ironman competitor, biker, and marathoner. He and his co-founder, Roy Solomon, disrupted the software testing industry with a new approach by leveraging a crowdsourcing model. Applause went on to raise over $115M in funding and was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2017. Here’s a fun fact: Applause was originally known as uTest and they were one of the very first sponsors of VentureFizz. It was uTest, General Catalyst, and Akamai. Without their support in the early days of VentureFizz… we might not even exist! In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of topics, like: -Doron’s background story and professional history. -How the idea for uTest originated, how they built out the community of testers, and started to gain traction with customers. -The story behind the rebranding of the company. -The current state of their business in terms of size and scale. -Advice for founders on how to remain as CEO of your company over the long term. -The hardest part of scaling a business -How to build a management team. -And so much more. Did you know that you can get customized job alerts delivered to your inbox every day? It’s a great way to keep informed of the over 4,000 jobs listed on VentureFizz and have jobs from a specific category sent directly to you. Don’t let that career-defining opportunity pass you by, go to venturefizz.com/email to sign up. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 126 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Melody Koh, Partner at NextView Ventures. Melody has a strong mix of professional experience as an entrepreneur, operator, and investor. At Blue Apron, she was the company’s first product hire. She went on to lead a 35-person team through the company's hypergrowth years to an IPO. At NextView Ventures, she’s part of the team that is redesigning the “Everyday Economy,” which we dive into, as it is the firm’s investment thesis. Melody is passionate about working closely with founders at early-stage companies where she can leverage her experience in things like product, go-to-market strategies, hiring, and more. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of other topics too, like: -How parenting relates to entrepreneurship, which is relevant, as Melody and her husband recently welcomed a newborn son to the world. -Her background story and how she landed in venture capital early on in her career and later transitioned into product management. -The details of her experience at Blue Apron and the hypergrowth years where she led product, design, and analytics. -Her current role as a venture capitalist and what she is targeting for investments. -Advice for founders who haven’t made their first product hire yet and finding the right product manager for your company. -Tips on how to pursue a career in venture capital. -And so much more. Is your company hiring? If yes, then you might want to add a BIZZpage subscription. It is our employment branding and hiring solution that helps to keep your company top of mind for our targeted audience of professionals in the tech industry. A BIZZpage subscription includes an employment branding page, unlimited postings to our Job Board, access to our exclusive content series, and more. Send an email to info@venturefizz.com for more details. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 125 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Amy Spurling, Co-Founder and CEO of Compt. By the time Amy started Compt, she was well-versed in the world of startups. As a COO or CFO for multiple venture-backed companies, where many had exited, she knew the playbook around raising funding, negotiating an acquisition, and running the operations of a startup. This experience all led her down the path to where she is today as a Co-Founder & CEO. The idea behind Compt came from a real-world problem that Amy was experiencing. Companies give a standard list of benefits, but not all employees are able to leverage them. So, Compt’s is changing this with their platform that allows employers to develop and manage lifestyle spending accounts so employees can get the perks they want and need the most. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of topics, like: -Amy’s background as a northern California native and how she ended up on the east coast. -A walk through her career and how Amy methodically prepared herself to run a company. -All the details about Compt and the company’s mission to empower employees to choose their own benefits. -How you need to think about the valuation of your company when raising funding and why you shouldn’t always swing for the fences with the highest number. -Advice on how to negotiate the sale of your company. -When a company should think about hiring a CFO. -And so much more. Did you know that every Monday at 9:15 & 10 am, we send out two weekly digest emails? There is one for Boston and one for NY. It is your weekly email to stay connected to all the “must-know” information from the local tech scene. It includes information on companies, jobs, events, deals and more. Go to venturefizz.com/email and look for the “Weekly Tech Buzz” to sign up. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 124 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Stephen Sokoler, Founder and CEO of Journey Meditation. I have to admit, I don’t have a history of meditating. Even though I understand the benefits and have seen the growth in terms of its increasing popularity, I just haven’t taken the leap yet. However, as you’ll hear from this podcast, I feel like it is time and like the analogy Stephen shares: it’s kind of like going to the gym. You just need to get started and build from there. Who knows, maybe we’ll do another podcast a year from know where I can discuss my experiences with meditation. Stephen is a serial entrepreneur with several years of experience founding, building, and running companies. His latest company, Journey Meditation, is building the world’s largest, most supportive, inclusive meditation community, both online and off. Journey’s history has B2B roots, but the company recently announced its consumer product called Journey LIVE, a group meditation app, which TechCrunch referred to it as the “Peloton for Meditation.” In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of topics, like: -Why meditation is so valuable for entrepreneurs, and how to get started. -Stephen’s background story and his experience building successful businesses. -How he got into meditation and how it was the inspiration that led him to start Journey. -All the details behind getting the business started with corporate customers and the launch of Journey LIVE. -The benefits of group meditation. -Growth plans for the company. -And so much more. Our Job Board has over 4,300 positions listed across all functional areas, and we just went through a major redesign of the job listings. It is a much cleaner design and you’ll find highly relevant information on each listing like employee testimonials, photos, video, and the latest featured story from VentureFizz. This way you can learn a lot more about the company and its culture direct from each job listing. Go to venturefizz.com/jobs to check it out. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!