Tank Talks By Ripple Ventures

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guestDevon Wright, General Manager at Yelp! In San Francisco & former Co-Founder & CEO of Turnstyle Solutions.This talk is a special one for me personally as I owe a lot of my entrepreneurial and venture investing career to Devon. Not only was Devon the first person I wrote my initial angel check into back in 2012 to help start Turnstyle before it was even a company, but Devon has become one of my closest friends and supporters to push me to leave my cushy job on wall st and start my own venture fund. I could go on and on, but you will hear more about that and more on the show.On today's Talk, we ask Devon about the humble beginnings of starting Turnstyle in 2012 along with my initial capital investment that in hindsight was truly based on a ridiculous idea. We also dig into what it was like trying to find a Venture Fund let alone one to pitch to in Toronto during the first few years of the company. We learn how Devon found a way to beg, borrow and hustle his way through the early years at Turnstyle with limited capital and supporters. Finally, we dig into Devon's journey building Turnstyle into a profitable 40 person company with some amazing talent around him even after all the VC funds turned him down and why he decided to eventually sell to Yelp in 2017. Devon's entrepreneurial journey is one of hustle, persistence and the desire to prove others wrong in the face of adversity.Books Mentioned In The Show:-Loonshots - How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars - by Safi Bahcall- Brick by Brick - How Lego Rewrote The Rules Of Innovation - By David C. Robertson-The Perfect Store - Ebay’s Story - By Adam Cohen-Teams of Teams - New Rules of Engagement for Complex Worlds - By Gen. Stanley McChrystalDevon’s words of Inspiration “Be fair and be generous to everyone on your team when it comes to equity. It is really easy to get sucked into the capital side of your balance sheet. But don’t forget your role as an employee. And how important those people are to your success every day. Do what you can to give your employees ownership of the company. To make sure they win from the upside of your success. “You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! 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 welcome our guest Tony van Marken, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of First Ascent Ventures.Tony is not only a successful businessman and venture capitalist but has an extremely accomplished mountaineering career having become the first South African to climb all Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each of the world’s seven continents.On today's Talk, we ask Tony about his experience climbing Mount Everest in 2005 and his battle with the mountain, poor health and the worst weather seen on Everest for decades and his final steps to the summit on June 2, 2005. We also talk about his own personal business and other expedition experiences and the lessons learned that he has applied in building and investing in startups. This tank talk sure was a cliffhanger!Now please welcome today's guest to the Tank, Tony Van Marken.Books Mentioned In The Show:- Annapurna Paperback - by Maurice Herzog- Touching My Father's Soul: A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest Paperback – by Jamling T. Norgay- Into Thin Air - by Jon Krakauer- Seven Summits - by Dick Bass, Frank Wells & Rick Ridgeway- High Altitude Leadership - by Chris Warner & Don SchminckeTony’s words of Inspiration "If you dream of doing something, stop dreaming, get out and make it happen" by Sir Chris BoningtonYou can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! 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 welcome our guest John Ruffolo, Founder & former CEO of OMERS Ventures and Co-Founder & Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators.John is well known around the VC and Tech ecosystem for starting the Ontario Municipal Workers Pension Funds Venture arm in 2011. John has been instrumental in helping develop some of Canada’s biggest tech companies and was an early investor in some of the biggest exits in Canadian tech. Johns portfolio includes companies such as Hootsuite, Hopper, PasswordBox (which sold to Intel), Shopify (which IPOd 2015), Wave (which sold to H&R Block) and countless others.On today's Talk, we ask John about his views on Venture and Growth Capital and how investors should be thinking about valuations during the crisis. We also talk to John about his views on the Canadian tech landscape and how founders should be thinking about building world class companies for the next decade.You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! 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 welcome our guest Michael Hyatt, Co-Founder of Hyatt Family Office.Michael is well known in the Canadian tech ecosystem as a serial entrepreneur turned angel investor and is regularly seen on TV providing his advice to aspiring entrepreneurs. Before Michael started his first company, he was President & CEO at Dyadem which sold to IHS a US public company in 2011. Michael went on to co-found BlueCat Networks with his brother and eventually sold the business to private equity firm Madison Dearborn for a reported $400mm in 2017On today's Talk, we ask Michael about his family office and their focus on wealth preservation vs wealth creation during the crisis. We also talk to Michael about his operator first approach to investing and what he looks for when backing early-stage founders or fund managers.You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! 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 welcome our guest Lawrence Mandel, Director of Production Engineering & Developer Acceleration at Shopify. Prior to Shopify, Lawrence spent time at Mozilla as a Director of Engineering where he oversaw the release of the Firefox browser & before that he spent time at IBM as a Senior Product Manager.On today's Talk, we ask Lawrence about running remote engineering teams and some best practices on how to keep developers engaged and on time during COVID. We also talk to Lawrence about life at Shopify and what it's like working for one of the world's fastest-growing technology companies while going head to head with Amazon.You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! 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 welcome our guest Houman Haghighi, Partner at Menlo Ventures.Houman has spent the last decade of his career investing and building startups. Prior to joining Menlo, Houman was the Director and Head of Business Development at Qualcomm Ventures for over 7 years and was a Senior Product Manager and engineer at Qualcomm Corporate before joining the venture team in 2011.On today's Talk, we ask Houman about his outlook on Venture as a top tier VC and his tips on managing business development opportunities and partnerships as a startup. We also talk to Houman about his investment in Zooms Seed round and what Menlo is looking at investing in during the crisis.You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! 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 welcome our guest Rob Kazzahm former General Manager of Uber Canada.Rob was one of the first launchers in Central & Eastern Europe and was at the frontlines of trying to onboard drivers and users on to Uber while managing the regulatory environment. We discuss growth tactics that worked and didn't work while assessing the proper way to attract new users with constrained resources.Rob’s experience building the Uber brand in Europe and then managing the Canadian office provides listeners with a behind the scenes viewpoint into the good and the bad side of rapid growth.You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! 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 welcome our guest Chris Rasmussen, Founder & Chairman of Doxim.Chris founded Doxim in 2000 with a vision to develop and deliver software that helps customers automate and digitize processes that enhance customer engagement. Through the last two decades he has lived through the ground zero of transformational change in business communications, information management, and document automation. Chris is a charismatic and approachable leader, and under his careful guidance Doxim has grown to become a leading supplier of SaaS customer engagement software to the North American Financial Services marketplace. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Administrative and Commercial Studies from Western University.On today's Talk, we ask Chris about his experience building and managing Doxim during the last few crisis periods, and suggestions on transforming legacy paper-based industries.You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! 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

Welcome to Tank Talks presented by Ripple Ventures. The interactive podcast series focused on Entrepreneurs, Operators & Investors. 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

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