The VentureFizz Podcast

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.

Welcome to Episode 24 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For the 24th episode of our podcast, I interviewed Sue Graham Johnston, the President of 128 Technology in Burlington. I have to admit, one the best things about doing this podcast is the opportunity to dig deep into the background of our guests. When I’m doing research on each person, there’s always something that comes up that helps take the story to the next level. Well in the case of Sue, as I was doing my research on Google, I was blown away to see a connection to an amazing story that made headlines across the world for a great charity, that being the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Sue and her husband were two of the key people that helped grant a wish for a boy named Miles Scott, who ended up being Batkid for the day in San Francisco and fight crime alongside Batman, who was played by Sue’s husband EJ, to rescue the damsel in distress, who was played by (you guessed it) Sue Graham Johnston. It is truly an amazing and heartwarming story that we talk about at length. She also shares the details on how they’ve played a role in crashing the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s website not once, but twice. We also talk about: -Her professional accomplishments, of which there are many. -What she learned at Oracle in terms of operational leadership. -128 Technology - why she joined and what the company does. -Her passion for very important issues, like addressing the pipeline issue of women in STEM roles and working to fix the gender pay gap. 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 128 Technology on Twitter @128technology and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 23 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For the 23rd episode of our podcast, I interviewed Ellie Mirman, the CMO at Crayon in Boston. Ellie was one of the early, early employees at HubSpot, as she joined the company right after they raised their Series A round of funding and were only about 10-15 employees. She saw the full lifecycle of the company in terms of their growth to an IPO and wore lots of different hats along the way. Since HubSpot, she was the VP of Marketing at Toast for a little over two years and is now the CMO at Crayon, a market and competitive intelligence platform company that just raised $5M in venture funding. In this episode, we cover topics like: -Those fun videos HubSpot was making during the early days of the company (the Alanis Morrissette one was classic) -Why she loves joining early stage companies -The current state of the marketing industry -Career advice for marketers looking to become a CMO -And 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! And make sure to follow Crayon on Twitter @Crayon and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 22 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! Let's face it: in order for a tech ecosystem to thrive, you need people who are not only successful entrepreneurs, but also know how to pay it forward for the next generation. For the 22nd episode of our podcast, I interviewed Andy Palmer, who is the CEO & Co-Founder of Tamr in Cambridge. Andy is the definition of what it means to pay it forward. A serial successful entrepreneur in his own right, and he is also a very active angel investor with close to 60 of his own investments (not to mention being an LP in other local funds, and mentoring lots of founders along the way). In this episode, we cover topics like: -How rugby relates to startups -The details behind Vertica, a very successful company that was acquired by HP -Why you shouldn't raise capital in the early days of your company -The common mistakes entrepreneurs make when pitching an idea -And lots 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 Tamr on Twitter @Tamr_Inc and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 21 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This time, I want to start with a question: How do the worlds of professional hockey and business relate to each other? Well, you're about to find out, as I interview my first former professional athlete for the podcast. His name is Mike McKee and he is the CEO at ObserveIT, a company that is rapidly growing in Boston’s massive security cluster. Mike played professional hockey for the Quebec Nordiques before the franchise relocated to Colorado and became the Avalanche. Upon entering the business world, he graduated from Harvard Business School and later became an executive at PTC and Rapid7 before joining ObserveIT as CEO. In this episode, we cover topics like: -What playing professional hockey taught him about the business world, and of adversity -How he charted his way through lots of different roles, to the point of landing a CEO position at a venture-backed company -His “hire slow” philosophy, and why he talks people out of jobs -And so much 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 ObserveIT on Twitter @ObserveIT and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 20 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of The VentureFizz Podcast, I interviewed Howard Kogan, CEO of WordStream. WordStream is a venture-backed SaaS company and a thought leader in the world of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing. They develop online advertising software and provide managed services to help businesses and agencies grow through paid search and paid social. Howard is an expert at growing and scaling companies as an executive, and his track record speaks for itself. The last two companies he was apart of—Communispace and Molecular—were both acquired. In this episode, we cover lots of topics like: -The journey through his career -Building the foundation to allow your company to scale -When you should hire a COO -What companies might be thinking about when it comes to an acquisition -And 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! And make sure to follow WordStream on Twitter @WordStream and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 19 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of The VentureFizz Podcast, I interviewed Jody Rose - President of the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA). If you are not familiar with the NEVCA, they are one of the most important organizations that supports entrepreneurship and innovation for the region, and they do so across two pillar industries (tech and life sciences). While a lot of my previous interviews have focused on the entrepreneurial journey of building a company, in this episode we chat a lot about the challenges surrounding our industry and how several of the NEVCA programs and policy initiatives are making an impact across important topics like: -Diversity & inclusion -Retaining our student population -Non-competes -Increasing the investment activity with female entrepreneurs -And a lot more! Then, of course, we talk about the biggest celebration of the year… the NEVY Awards, happening on May 9th at the House of Blues Boston! If you are buying tickets (which you should) use our code VENTUREFIZZ for a 15% discount. I hope to see you there! 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 NEVCA on Twitter @NewEnglandVC and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 18 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of The VentureFizz Podcast, I interviewed Charles Teague, Founder & CEO of Lose It! If you are not familiar with Lose It!, it is a very successful consumer company in Boston with over 35 million downloads. Since then, the company has helped people lose over 70 million pounds, which is extraordinary! In this podcast, we cover a lot of ground: -His professional journey, which includes being part of Allaire and going public, as well as starting his own company that was acquired by Microsoft -How the first generation iPhone changed everything for him -The story of Lose It!, and how it was founded Then, we surface lots of important advice for entrepreneurs, like: -The benefits of running a capital-efficient company -How they managed to convert users to their premium model -And so much 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 Lose It! on Twitter @loseit and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 17 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of The VentureFizz Podcast, I interviewed Ellen Rubin, Co-Founder & CEO of ClearSky Data. Ellen is a serial entrepreneur. She has been a co-founder of three companies and was an early employee at Netezza, a company that went public and was later acquired by IBM for approximately $1.7B. In this podcast, we cover a ton of great topics, like the Netezza journey from stealth to IPO, how CloudSwitch (a prior company) was an early pioneer of cloud computing for enterprise, and the story behind ClearSky Data. We also surface some great advice for entrepreneurs, like how to validate your idea in the market, how to land your first early adopter customers, and lots 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 ClearSky Data on Twitter @ClearSkyData and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 16 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! On this episode, VentureFizz Founder Keith Cline is joined Sean Ford, Chief Marketing Officer at LogMeIn Sean has built a name for himself as one of the top marketing executives in the software industry, where he is now leading a massive marketing function for a company that is generating north of $1 billion in revenue. We cover so much great info in this episode, like how he built a career that led him down the path to being a Chief Marketing Officer at a publicly traded company, a peek under the hood of LogMeIn's marketing function, the difference between a VP of Marketing and a CMO, and lots 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 LogMeIn on Twitter @LogMeIn and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 15 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! On this episode, VentureFizz Founder Keith Cline is joined Julie Yoo, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Kyruus. Kyruus is a healthcare tech company that is ultimately solving some critical issues when it comes to not only getting the right doctor or specialist but helping to improve the access to these experts so you can get treated sooner. The company has 120 employees, and has raised over $60M in funding from Highland Capital, Venrock, McKesson, and others. In this podcast, we cover lots of topics, like the early days of her career at Endeca, how Moneyball was an inspiration behind Kyruus, advice for women raising venture capital, and lots 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 Kyruus on Twitter @Kyruus and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 14 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! On this episode, VentureFizz Founder Keith Cline is joined Brian Manning, who is the VP & Head of Growth at PatientPing, a healthcare technology company in Boston. He built out successful businesses at Zocdoc and NextJump, and he’s focused on doing the same at PatientPing, a company backed by leading VCs like First Round Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime Capital, and others. In our interview, you’ll hear about Brian’s background, his ability to succeed in a role usually handled by multiple people, his thoughts on creating a growth strategy, and lots 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 PatientPing on Twitter @PatientPing and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 13 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! On this episode, VentureFizz Founder Keith Cline is joined by Izzy Azeri and Dan Belcher, Co-Founders of mabl. Izzy and Dan are serial entrepreneurs whose last company, Stackdriver, was acquired by Google in just 21 months from their Series A financing. Their new company, mabl, is disrupting the software testing industry using a machine intelligence approach, and they just announced their $10M Series A funding led by CRV. As you’ll hear from our discussion, Izzy and Dan are pros in terms of identifying markets that are ripe for disruption, and if you think about it, the world of testing has not been touched in several years. We cover their backgrounds, Stackdriver, and their newest company mabl, plus lots of other great topics like their hiring practices and why keeping a flat organization has been incredibly effective at both companies. 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 mabl on Twitter @mablhq and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 12 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! On this episode, VentureFizz Founder Keith Cline is joined by Chad Laurans, Founder & CEO of SimpliSafe. If you are not familiar with the company, SimpliSafe is disrupting the home security market, and recently launched the third generation of their products at CES in Las Vegas. Chad has such an interesting story, and he shares a ton of the details on how he built the company (which was bootstrapped for a very long time), so there is a lot to learn from his story and success. 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 SimpliSafe on Twitter @SimpliSafe and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.