Tank Talks By Ripple Ventures

The healthcare industry offers a tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs, and the Dental Instrusty, in particular, is experiencing rapid change and transformation with advancements in imaging and analysis. Our guest today, Wardah Inam, Co-Founder and CEO of Overjet is improving the accuracy of dental x-rays and reducing costs for providers and insurance companies. Overjet recently closed a $42M Series B with General Catalyst and Insight Partners, and has raised $75M in total venture financing.About Wardah Inam:Wardah Inam has been a robotics and AI researcher, operator, and now founder for the last 15 years. After completing her undergraduate work at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Wardah came to Boston to finish her schooling at MIT/Havard Business School for a Masters and PhD. After working in product management at Q bio, Wardah co-founded Overjet in 2018.In this episode we discuss:01:38 Wardah’s journey to starting Overjet02:54 How she came to the dental industry04:11 Finding her co-founders and starting the business04:58 The experience of starting Overjet at the Harvard Innovation Labs05:50 What Overjet’s mission is and how it works07:32 How Overjet got access to providers09:54 What Overjet does to solve pain points in the dental industry using AI11:58 How Dental Service Organizations are using to Overjet to drive efficiency14:56 The ways insurance companies are using Overjet and how they got their first insurance customers17:54 Their sales process now that they have momentum and trust in the marketplace18:47 Detecting suspicious claims using Overjet’s AI21:42 Going beyond cavity detection into tumor detection22:57 Overjet’s testing process and better than dentist bar they set for themselves and FDA clearances25:38 How Overjet is used by dentists as a communication tool to patients28:14 The pricing model for Overjet and how that evolved29:30 Learnings from their pricing experimentation32:13 Plans for their recent raise and the long term vision for OverjetFast FavoritesPodcastAll In PodcastNewsletter/BlogTBD ;)Tech GadgetAirpodsNew TrendDigital NomadBookHigh Growth HandbookLife LessonEverything you put in the world is a reflection of youFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

There are few experiences more loaded with lore and mystique in the western world than the Israeli kibbutz and being a soldier in the special forces. Our guest today is Lior Susan, Founding Partner at Eclipse Ventures, and he has lived both of those lives, as well as, being a successful founder and operator, and a non-consensus venture investor. Eclipse invests in founders who want to bring the full-stack approach to legacy industries and build digital bridges to the physical world. They have $2.6B in AUM. Lior’s investments include Bright Machines, Augury, Cheetah, Owlet Baby Care, June Life, Insidepacket, and Lucira Health.About Lior Susan:Prior to launching Eclipse in 2015, Lior was Founder and General Partner at LabIX, the hardware investment platform of Flextronics where he led investments in companies across energy storage, wireless/infrastructure, 3-D optics, additive manufacturing, and robotics.Lior also co-founded Farm 2050, an AgTech Collective, with Innovation Endeavors to address the global food challenge. Prior to LabIX, he was part of the founding team of Elementum, the Flex proprietary SaaS platform, which was later spun out. Before moving to Silicon Valley, Lior was a serial entrepreneur in Tel Aviv, where he helped build Intucell, which was sold to Cisco in 2012. Lior is a reservist of an elite Special Forces unit in the Israel Defense Force.In this episode we discuss:01:47 How Lior’s experience growing up in a kibutz shaped his worldview05:47 What being in the military and special ops taught him07:06 How he and his brother were able to turn a $5M investment in their startup into a $475M exit to Cisco in two years10:10 Why he joined an established company after his startup experience12:29 What he learned about supply chain management and why he started thinking about founding Eclipse16:02 Why Lior wanted to back founders looking to disrupt old-line industries and the early LPs that believed in him18:07 How Lior overcame his lack of track record as an investor when he first started Eclipse19:55 Eclipse’s track record before and after Covid21:28 Timing signals on when to invest in disruptive technologies26:29 Is updating the supply line just about automation and replacing workforce?28:54 How Covid is refocusing supplychains away from global suppliers32:08 Advice for founders looking to disrupt and sell into legacy industries33:35 Why he recommends to his founders to go after larger players first instead of SMB35:02 The importance of finding a design partner36:30 What Lior is telling his companies about how deal with inflation38:59 Why founders should avoid exclusivity40:40 The strategy around Eclipse’s two newest fundsFast FavoritesPodcastBridgewaterNewsletter/BlogWall Street JournalTech GadgetOwletNew TrendClimate InvestingBookThe Art of WarLife LessonWhen you don’t build, you don’t break.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

A great launch can change the trajectory of your startup, and one of the places you can have a great launch is on Product Hunt. So how can you set yourself up for success on that platform?Our guest today, Joaquin Roca, Co-Founder and CEO of Minerva, a Chrome extension that allows you to easily create training guides, and has had multiple successful Product Hunt launches. He talks through some strategies and what he’s learned about launching and running a startup over the last few years.About Joaquin Roca:Joaquín​ ​V.​ ​Roca​ is a seasoned organizational consultant with wide-ranging experience. In addition to consulting, Joaquín has founded two technology companies built to help managers learn to become great leaders (LeaderNation and the Scaffold). As an entrepreneur Joaquín has played every role imaginable from sales rep, to accountant, and from designer to software engineer.Prior to Minerva, Joaquín has an extensive background in teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, where he has designed and delivered courses on varied topics including organization development, statistics, research design, creativity, innovation, and leadership.He then became a consultant working with startups (e.g., SumAll, Eyeview, Datadog, Digital Ocean), large organizations (e.g., Hyundai Capital America, Pfizer, American Express), and government and non-government organizations (e.g., UNICEF, UNFPA, the Borough of Lansdale Pennsylvania).Joaquín did his undergrad at NYU and graduate work at Columbia.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part,  Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist  by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:28 Joaquin’s journey to starting Minerva03:46 The most difficult manual guide he made prior to Minerva04:34 Minerva’s beta process and how the team knew they were onto something06:10 Early use cases and how they found early users08:04 The importance of iterating while defining your Ideal Customer Profile09:16 Why they decided to launch as a Chrome extension11:22 Surprising use cases that have popped up on the platform12:58 What they did prior to launching on Product Hunt14:53 The community’s response to the Product Hunt Launch16:10 What the “mission control” looked like during the launch17:42 Their research process prior to launching19:06 Minerva’s social media strategy on launch day21:20 Jaoquin’s general approach to social media and building in public22:32 How they closed their seed round after their first Product Hunt launch25:46 Looking back on how their fundraising went and how it forced him to step up27:52 Where they ended up after that first Product Hunt launch and what the immediate effect was on their business30:21 the biggest lessons from his Product Hunt launches33:16 How Joaquin is still trigger shy to hire a new head of sales and what steps he’s taking for long-term sales success36:01 Immediate plans for using their $4M Seed round lead by Bryan Rosenblatt Craft VenturesFast FavoritesPodcastShay AnythingNewsletter/BlogMario GabrieleTech GadgetGoogle PixelTrendTikTok as User Acquisition ToolBookIf On A Winter’s Night, A TravellerTeam of RivalsGetting to YesLife LessonDon’t take it too seriously, you’re not getting out alive.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

The notion that leaders are born and not made can feel oppressive to founders and others working their way up the business ladder. Leadership is isolating enough without the toxic mythology that you’re just supposed to know how to do from the get-go. Our guest today, Christine Tao, Co-Founder and CEO of Sounding Board, is working to normalize coaching for CEOs, Founders, and others who want to become better leaders. Sounding Board allows organizations to manage, scale, and measure coaching on one unified platform. Their AI-Powered admin tools and centralized data insights integrate with our proprietary, managed coach network to deliver coaching at scale. Sounding Board recently closed a $30M Series B funding round led by JAZZ Venture Partners.About Christine Tao:Christine co-founded Sounding Board in 2016 to solve the most challenging yet important part of her role as SVP of a fast-growing VC-backed startup: Leadership Development. Her experience as an operator at stops like YouTube and Tapjoy has helped guide at Sounding Board. She did her undergrad at UC Berkeley and her MBA at Wharton.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part,  Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:33 The difference between a coach and a mentor04:51 The lightswitch moment when she knew she had to found Sounding Board08:26 Why she decided to turn her coach into her co-founder11:53 The value and ROI coaching brings to clients and organizations15:23 How the Sounding Board platform is scalable for future growth18:55 Solving the cold start problem with a marketplace21:13 The ICP for Sounding Board and what leadership means to Christine23:35 How they landed at that ICP25:10 How Sounding Board integrates with learning platforms27:02 The biggest challenges coaches and organizations saw during the early pandemic28:32 How Sounding Board standardizes it caching approach across organizations and internally30:32 The structure Sounding Board uses to contract and pay their coaches31:37 Overcoming jargon and other industry-specific knowledge32:34 The success and flexibility of matching coaches to organizations34:00 What the future of the coaching industry looks like over the next 5-10 years37:27 The broad appeal of coaching across the work/life spectrum39:30 Plans to deploy their recent $30M Series B lead by JAZZ Venture Partners41:51 The number of coaches on the platform today and the plans for growthFast Favorites:PodcastThe Startup Chat20 Minute VCNewsletter/BlogMark SusterFirst Round ReviewReforgeTech GadgetLogitech Video CamNew TrendRenting, not owningRentTheRunway.comBookThe Hard Thing About Hard Things By Ben HorowitzLife LessonYou should always just ask.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

We are changing things up with today’s episode whereby our host, Matt Cohen, is answering the questions instead of asking them, on a Dealmaker’s DNA Podcast with Ilan Jacobson.Ilan goes deep into Matt’s family upbringing and how he became so interested in business and investing. They dig into his journey starting Ripple Ventures and his path to becoming an entrepreneur. This episode gives you some insight into who Matt Cohen really is and how he thinks about investing, business, and family.Topics discussed:* What Ripple is and why Matt started it* What creates entrepreneurs* Matt’s backstory and family upbringing* The level of sacrifice involved in being an entrepreneur* Matt’s view on failure and why everyone needs to own it* Matt’s constant curiosity on all things* Maintaining a good network* The line between business and personal* Matt’s mentors* How to pick jockeys (ie startup CEOs)* How our minds perform at the highest level and how we can take care of it This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we need better tools to work and collaborate remotely. For years engineering teams have solved this problem with GitHub and other version control systems, but for documents and other collaborative workflows, there hasn’t been a rock-solid tool. Today’s guest, Adam Nathan, co-founder and CEO of Almanac is working to change that. Almanac is working to replace entrenched players like Google Workspace and Microsoft Office, and a recent $34M Raise led by Tiger Global and joined by Floodgate and others will give them a real shot at disruption.About Adam Nathan:Adam started his career at the White House, where he worked on policy initiatives. He moved to the private sector and had roles at Lyft, Apple, and Varo before co-founding Almanac. He did his undergrad at Duke and an MBA at Harvard.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part,  Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist  by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:57 Adam’s journey to becoming a founder07:34 Why disrupting the status quo has been a recurring theme in his career11:45 How starting Almanac prior to the pandemic allowed them to A-B test assumptions prior to being more widely adopted16:19 Painpoints with Google Workspace and Microsoft Office that Almanac is trying to solve19:50 What Almanac has learned from early use cases outside of the tech world23:39 How their CORE document template library has helped customers and accelerated growth26:01 Uses for Almanac’s Snippet feature28:18 Why Adam thinks Hybrid office strategies are doomed to fail31:24 How Almanac is a cultural choice, not a productivity tool35:15 Adam’s experience working with Floodgate and TigerFast FavoritesPodcastSmartlessNewsletter/BlogWait But WhyTech GadgetAirpodsTrendArtisanal CoffeeBookDeep WorkLife LessonDo Your Homework.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On Today's show, we talk about angel investing, the current venture landscape, and how the later stage investing world is being disrupted with Partner at Craft Ventures, Bryan Rosenblatt. Bryan brings a deep operations background to his investing from working at companies like Twitter and Reddit where he helped with customer acquisition. He soon added angel investing as a side hustle and was able to get into competitive rounds in later-stage companies like Lamda School, Slack, and Carta. It’s a great conversation.About Bryan Rosenblatt:Bryan is a partner at Craft Ventures, focused on building the firm's east coast portfolio. Prior to joining Craft, Bryan led Reddit's New York office and revenue team, cultivating partnerships with brands like Google, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, P&G, and HBO. During his time at Reddit, the revenue organization grew 10x while scaling revenue to a $100m+ annualized revenue run rate. Bryan was an early member of Twitter's New York team where he worked with brands like Peloton, Harry's, Bonobo's, Casper, and Under Armour on their acquisition marketing efforts. Bryan has been an active investor both personally and via Riverside Ventures, which he founded in early 2017. His investments include Carta, Citizen, Bonobo's, Slack, and Dapper Labs. In 2018, Bryan was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Marketing & Advertising. He was also recognized by Ad Council for championing nonprofit advertising that builds awareness around topics including mental health and diversity & inclusion. In 2021, Bryan was named to Business Insider's Top 100 Seed Investors.Bryan is a mentor for Backstage Capital, helping advance underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs.A message from our sponsor:Now more than ever, entrepreneurs need committed partners to help them navigate the hardest pain points of scaling a technology business. Created by one of Canada’s largest banks, RBCx is re-imagining what it means to create meaningful and impactful technology companies in Canada.RBCx – the tech banking arm of the Royal Bank of Canada - is a full-service platform that accelerates the entrepreneurial journey at every stage of growth – providing access to a complete suite of capital solutions, innovative products and services, and operational expertise to help technology companies scale.Sid Paquette – former Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures, is leading the group and has recruited a bunch of new faces to the bank from the Venture and Tech industry. Tony Barkett and Tyler Kirk – two former Silicon Valley Bank leaders in addition to Nicole Kelly and Anthony Mouchantaf have also joined Sid from OMERS Ventures.RBCx has been incredibly active since their launch in June as an LP, and have already backed some of Canada’s most notable VC funds including Golden, Amplitude, Version One, and Lumira Ventures. To learn more about RBCx visit www.rbcx.com or follow them on Twitter or Linkedin.In this episode we discuss:02:42 Biggest lessons he learned in his early career at Reddit and Twitter about customer acquisiton04:34 How he evolved from a qualitative perspective to a quantitative perspective on marketing05:49 The experience of building a sales team at Reddit starting in 201507:41 The importance of brand story and opportunity when there is a strong userbase10:14 How Bryan was able to get into competitive later rounds as an angel investor12:07 The importance of momentum and building on wins to secure dealflow13:26 Bryan’s early due-diligence process14:18 Why a founder’s character is important at early stage investing15:05 The learning value of losing money as angel investor16:04 Early personal risk when investing16:39 The biggest loss and biggest wins as an angel investor18:54 Training yourself to know when to listen to your gut20:34 Ways he needed to step up his game when joining a marquee firm like Craft Ventures22:15 Early lessons he learned from the senior Craft Ventures partners24:01 What was the hardest thing to learn in his transition to venture investing25:18 How the market has evolved since becoming a VC27:16 The importance of conviction in growth when investing28:12 The SaasGridQA.com tool Craft just launched for founders to help analyze and predict growth29:10 How Bryan helps foster and grow partnerships within his portfolio30:55 Will companies like Pipe.com ultimately destroy the VC model?32:25 Bryan’s tips for founders who are pursuing a product-led growth strategy34:33 The best way to onboard new customers35:44 Craft Venture portfolio companies that have nailed the product-led growth strategy37:18 The part of the Craft platform Bryan would recommend to every founder38:53 How Craft views the market in generalFast FavoritesPodcastAll In PodcastNewsletter/BlogFred WilsonHoward Linson/r/MetsTech GadgetQuestTrendAlternative assets like trading cardsBookThinking in BetsLife LessonStay hungry, stay humble.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today’s Tank Talk, we have a throwback episode with Elizabeth Yin, Co-Founder & General Partner of Hustle Fund.We spoke with Elizabeth in July of 2020 and covered her journey in leaving Google and starting LaunchBit, an ad-tech platform that she eventually sold to BuySellAds, and how she eventually made her way onto the investment side with 500 Startups. We dig into Elizabeth's time in running the 500 Startups Mountain View office and how she was able to select founders to back after reviewing over 20,000 pitch decks. Next, we discuss the reason she started Hustle fund with her partner Eric and what their mission is for the next 25 years. Finally, we ask Elizabeth to explain what hustle means to her as an early-stage investor and how she assesses hustle when meeting founders for the first and sometimes only time before deciding on backing them with a $25,000 investment.About Elizabeth Yin:Elizabeth is the co-founder and managing partner of Hustle Fund, an early-stage seed fund. Prior to Hustle, she was a partner at 500 Startups and ran their accelerator program. She founded LaunchBit in 2011, and started her career at Google. She completed her BS at Stanford and her MBA at Sloan/MIT.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part,  Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist  by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:28 Elizabeth’s journey to becoming a founder04:58 What lead to the acquisition of LaunchBit07:23 How Elizabeth got to 500 Startups and what their process was like there11:32 The economics of accelerators vs. venture capital14:53 Hustle Fund’s mission and why they launched17:41 How Hustle Fund defines ‘hustle’ and is there such a thing as too much hustle20:18 The difference between hustle and multitasking21:10 Qualities in startup teams Elizabeth looks for23:52 How Hustle fund supports founders and encourages them to not burnout25:54 Hustle Fund’s investment strategy27:42 Early lessons and changes from the pandemicFavorite Books:The Lean StartupThe Hard Thing About Hard ThingsPredictable RevenueElizabeth’s words of inspiration“Building a startup is tough, so make sure you dig deep and decide why you want to do it, besides the money, because it can really be your north star when moving through difficult times”Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

There’s a term one hears to describe the venture capital market in 2021—frothy. What does that actually mean and what does it mean in the larger historical context of Venture Capital? We speak with Phil Boyer, a partner at Crosslink Capital since 2014. Crosslink was founded in Silicon Valley in 1989 and has institutional memories of the beginning and end of Dot-Com bubble 20+ years ago and the global financial crisis in 2008. How does the firm’s deep history inform what is happening today, what is the outlook for the future, and how can founders pitch their companies to funds like Crosslink.About Phil Boyer:Phil brings over a decade of experience as a technology investor with deep sector expertise within enterprise and vertical software (AI, cloud, developer tools, SaaS, security). He is passionate about serving as a partner with early-stage founding teams, with an eye towards helping strong technical teams build category-defining companies. At Crosslink, Phil’s investments include Armory, BetterUp, Iron Ox, Molekule, Overjet, Verodin (FEYE), and Weave (IPO NYSE: WEAV), among other companies.Prior to Crosslink, Phil was an investor with NYC-based venture capital firm Tenfore Holdings, with early investments in Optoro and Trulioo during his tenure. Before beginning his venture capital career, Phil wrote and published research on the technology sector at Credit Suisse and RBC, where he covered companies such as Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, eBay, Priceline, Yelp, and many others.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part,  Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist  by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:49 The evolution of metrics founders need for later round financing07:34 Why Team is so important to investors at the series A round12:17 How growth velocity can be just as important as size of ARR16:27 What is Net Dollar Retention and why is it important to investors22:49 How to properly calculate CAC/LTV25:03 Deal velocity and speed to close as a metric28:17 Is it better to land and expand deals or to hunt for bigger deals from an investor perspective32:06 Conviction in your model is important and knowing what you want to build33:49 How the speed of venture rounds is affecting the market and larger considerations for founders36:46 How Crosslink is dealing with the market39:55 The Crosslink Alpha network and how it brings value to its foundersFast FavoritesAcquiredHow I Built ThisNewsletterWhat’s Hot in Enterprise IT by Ed SimTech GadgetAirpodsTrendxOpsBookThe Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben HorowitzLife LessonThe only thing that stays constant is change.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Ecommerce and auctions for physical goods is a maturing space in the online world, but when you want to sell a business itself or a digital good it is much less evolved. Our guest today, Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa, is working to change that. Flippa has a suite of tools on its platform to help streamline these transactions and help buyers and sellers with these sometimes complicated transactions. They recently completed an $11M Series A raise led by OneVentures to expand their buying and selling options and to offer new ways to support the community.About Blake Hutchison:Blake leads the team at Flippa, the leading marketplace globally to buy and sell sites, stores, and digital properties. Flippa was started in Melbourne in 2009 and he joined the team in 2018. Prior to Flippa, Blake held roles at various companies, including Xero, Good44, and Lonely Planet.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at any time. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part,  Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:03:15 The current state of online marketplaces and why they have seen such explosive growth04:15 How the marketplace worked prior to Flippa07:04 What is the right size of deal for a site like Flippa09:36 What buying and selling actually is like when using Flippa13:39 How Flippa helps qualify buyers to help maximize sellers time15:22 Other ways Flippa brings trust into the marketplace16:42 Why most sellers are not prepared to sell at the beginning of the process19:02 Why digital marketplaces like Flippa are more trustworthy than private sellers20:10 Statistics from recent sales on Flippa23:57 Are rollup funds and other institutional buyers using Flippa24:57 How Flippa differentiates itself from other competition29:42 How Flippa fits into the early stage VC model31:02 Future features for Flippa32:44 How Flippas large user base is an asset for the company and community as a whole34:12 Plans for crypto on Flippa34:49 What their $11M Series A will mean to themFast FavoritesPodcastBusiness WarsNewsletter/BlogInvesting.ioGadgetiPhoneTrendNFTsBlack Box ThinkingLife LessonDon’t peak when you’re 18.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com