The VentureFizz Podcast

Welcome to Episode 34 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For the 34th episode of our podcast, I interviewed Kent Bennett, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. Kent’s career path into venture capital wasn’t typical. He was actually a Hollywood screenwriter before attending Harvard Business School and pursuing a career in venture. He now has 10 years of experience as a venture capitalist and has made investments in lots of high profile companies like Blue Apron, Toast (which just announced $115M in new funding at a $1.4B valuation), MealPal, Renoviso, and others. In this episode, we cover: -His experience as a screenwriter in Hollywood -How he got into venture capital -His investment criteria, and how to get on his radar -What to expect during your first meeting with him -Plus, a lot more! 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 33 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Rick Grinnell, Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures. Glasswing, which is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in next-generation AI startups, just announced its $112M debut fund. Rick has a proven track record of success in the venture capital industry where many of his investments have led to an exit. His investment in EqualLogic led to an acquisition by Dell for $1.4B, which at the time, was the largest cash transaction of a venture-backed company. In this episode, we cover: -How music led him down the path to a career in the tech industry, and how he transitioned into venture capital -The story behind EqualLogic and the massive acquisition -The launch of Glasswing Ventures -The details around his area of focus in terms of making investments -Advice for founders who are looking to raise venture capital -Plus a lot more! 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 32 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! As you may have heard, we recently expanded VentureFizz to New York City, which is really exciting! So, it obviously makes sense for us to expand our podcast there too. Welcome to the 32nd episode (and 1st in New York) of our podcast! For this episode, my guest is Graham Brown, who is a partner at Lerer Hippeau, which is the most active early-stage firm in New York. Their portfolio includes many successful companies and names you’ll recognize like Casper, Warby Parker, BuzzFeed, and many others. The firm recently announced its sixth fund at $122 million, so I was really excited to interview Graham and get all the details. In this episode, we cover: -Graham’s background and his career path -The history of Lerer Hippeau and its new fund -His particular areas of focus in terms of making investments -Advice for founders, who are looking to raise venture capital -Perspectives on the NYC Tech ecosystem -Plus, a lot more. 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 31 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode, I interviewed Armen Zildjian, the VP of Sales at Drift, which one of the fastest growing companies in the area. I don’t know if his last name looks familiar, but if your sales team has a gong in the office, odds are it has his last name on it, as he is part of the Zildjian family tree - the famous maker of cymbals that are played by pretty much every major drummer out there, from the Rolling Stones to the Foo Fighters. Armen has created his own legacy in the tech industry by having built up sales organizations at companies like LogMeIn, GrabCAD, and Dyn - which all had an exit, either an IPO or an acquisition. Based on this common theme of success, I was really excited to chat with him about his expertise around building out high performing sales organizations for tech companies. In this episode, we cover: -Armen’s experience building out sales at each company. -Drift and how they are creating the category of conversational marketing. -The unique structure of the sales team at Drift and what he looks for when hiring sales people for his team. -Advice for founders who are setting up sales and when they should bring in a VP of Sales. -Plus, a lot more! 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 30 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode, I interviewed Julia Austin, who wears many different hats these days. She is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, Board Member, angel investor, and advisor to several emerging tech companies. Julia saw her career skyrocket upon joining Akamai in the early days of the company, where she eventually became VP of Engineering. From there, she went on to hold leadership roles at VMware and was recently the CTO at DigitalOcean. Julia is the definition of someone who knows how to pay-it-forward in terms of her involvement in the Boston tech ecosystem. In this episode, we cover lots of topi: -Julia’s background and the evolution of her career. -What it takes to become a great product manager. -Best practices around hiring and how the first employees define your culture. -The criteria she looks for when she is making investments. -Plus, a lot more. 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 29 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This episode, I interviewed David Friend, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wasabi. Here’s a fun fact. You know the legendary synthesizer sound to "Baba O’Riley" by The Who? Well, that legendary sound was created by David’s first company, ARP Instruments, which provided synthesizer technology to The Who, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, The Beach Boys and many others. The company was ultimately sold to CBS. As you will find out, exits are a common theme throughout our discussion. David and his business partner, Jeff Flowers, have started five companies together, all of which have been acquired or in the case of Carbonite, that company went public in 2011 and currently has a market cap over $1B. The duo’s current company, Wasabi, is taking on the cloud storage giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft by offering faster storage at a fraction of the price. In this episode, we cover: -David’s entrepreneurial journey through many successful companies -The details on Wasabi and why they aren’t afraid to compete against the giants -Why he keeps building companies, plus the secret to staying young -And of course, a lot of useful advice for entrepreneurs! 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 28 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This episode, I interviewed George Colony, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Forrester Research. George originally started Forrester out of his basement, and the company has gone on to become one of the world’s most influential market research and advisory firms. Forrester went public in 1996, and is still traded on the Nasdaq today. These days, George is also involved as the founder of a new startup called Your Call Football, which is modernizing the game of football by giving fans the chance to influence a live sporting event in a real-time competitive gaming experience. Your Call Football actually just completed a very successful inaugural season. In this episode, we cover: -George’s participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos -The story of Forrester -How an interview with former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue led to the a-ha moment of Your Call Football -All the details on getting a new football league set up for its inaugural season, plus the future of the company and technology -And of course, lots of useful advice for entrepreneurs! 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 27 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This episode, I interviewed Jeet Singh, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of Redstar Ventures, a startup foundry that incubates new businesses. Jeet was also a Co-Founder and CEO of ATG, a massively successful company in the Boston tech scene. The eCommerce software company went public in 1999, and was later acquired by Oracle for $1B. Not only is Jeet a successful founder of tech companies, but he is also a passionate musician and has a band called The Singhs. In this episode, we cover: -Alpha Delpha Phi (Fi) - the legendary MIT fraternity where he met Joe Chung, his Co-Founder and other industries luminaries like Brad Feld and Colin Angle -The story of ATG -How giving up $1M in revenue was a catalyst for scaling the company -The Redstar model and their portfolio companies including the most recent one called Money Experience -Plus, lots of useful advice for entrepreneurs! 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 26 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! It’s actually hard to believe that I haven’t interviewed an investor yet… but that is changing today! My guest is TJ Mahony, who is a Partner at Accomplice - one of Boston’s most active venture capital firms. Before joining Accomplice as an investor, TJ was CEO & Co-Founder of FlipKey, which was acquired by TripAdvisor. Prior to FlipKey, he was part of the core team of amazing people that helped build Compete to become a successful business that was ultimately acquired. TJ is what I consider a product-minded investor, as he is able to add value to entrepreneurs in so many ways. TJ is also the type of guy who is always willing to help people out by giving advice or making connections & intros. Each time I’ve met with him, you leave the meeting full of energy and lots of new ideas swirling in your head, which is why I was really excited to interview him. In this episode, we cover: -The story of his basketball career at Macalester College, and how he was just 2 points away from a major milestone -The story of FlipKey, where he shares an embarrassing story about a meeting at Steven Kaufer’s house, who is the CEO & Co-Founder of TripAdvisor… it’s a classic. -How he got into angel investing and venture capital -Advice for founders on building teams -And a whole lot more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice! And make sure to follow Accomplice on Twitter @Accomplices and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 25 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For today’s episode, I interviewed Jay Habegger, who is the CEO and Co-Founder of ownerIQ, a second-party data marketplace. This venture-backed Boston company has over 800 retailers and product brand marketers using the ownerIQ platform to maximize their data asset. Jay is a serial entrepreneur, whose last company BitPipe was acquired by TechTarget in 2004. His career has been focused in the tech industry from the outset, having worked for a company that was building the foundation of the Internet in the early 1990s. In this episode, we cover topics like: -The journey through his career -The story behind ownerIQ -Advice for founders who are raising capital -Hiring and building out teams -And more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice! And make sure to follow ownerIQ on Twitter @ownerIQ and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.