The VentureFizz Podcast

Jessica and Steve are serial entrepreneurs. They both started successful companies separately in other industries, but it was their personal experiences that brought them together to build ianacare. If you’ve ever had to care for a loved one who is ill, then you know first hand how challenging it can be on so many levels. You need help but you don’t want to be a burden to others and there are challenges around coordinating the care. In the U.S. alone, there are over 43M family caregivers and over 90% of the care happens in the home, not a hospital. ianacare was built to support these caregivers. It is a mobile app that provides the emotional and practical support they need. The creation of ianacare is a perfect example of entrepreneurs who find a problem through real-world experiences and realize that something needs to change and it becomes their passion to create the solution. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Steve & Jessica’s background and entrepreneurial stories including scaling a consumer subscription business to an exit for Jessica and Steve’s experience taking a video AdTech company public. * The details behind their personal experiences caregiving for a family member and why they decided to take action. * A deep dive into ianacare in terms of their business and product. * What the Just Show Up movement means. * Advice for founders on hiring during different stages of a business. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

This episode must have been fate. I subscribe to an email newsletter about podcasting from PodReacher and they had recommended Otter for transcriptions. I had been looking for a way to include a transcript for each podcast episode on VentureFizz, but I wanted something that was accurate and cost-effective. No, this is not a commercial for Otter, but I tested out the product and was blown away by its accuracy. If you go to our recent podcast episode, you’ll now see a full transcript available, which is powered by Otter. Anyway, a few weeks later after becoming a fan of Otter, I heard from their PR firm about having Sam as a guest on our podcast. When I took a deeper dive into his background, things just got even more interesting. Sam started and led Google location server, which powered the blue dot feature on Google Mobile Map in 2006 - 2010. After Google, he launched a successful startup that was acquired and now with Otter, he has a very big vision in how their platform might even change our lives. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Sam’s background including his PhD studies at Stanford under famed professor, David Cheriton. * The story of his involvement in creating Google Maps and the blue dot. * The details on Sam’s previous company, Alohar, and the acquisition by Alibaba. * A deep dive into Otter in terms of its many use cases, plus the complexity of their platform and its use of AI & deep learning. * What the future might look like if you could document and search all of your conversations. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Carlos is the definition of a serial entrepreneur. He has started over ten companies and many of which have exited. I first learned about Carlos back around the year 1999, as I was still cutting my teeth as a recruiter during the internet 1.0 era. He was the founder of a company called Opus360, a professional services automation software company that went public. After numerous startups later like CourseAdvisor, APT, OrionCKB, and others… his latest venture is Thrasio, which could be the biggest opportunity yet. Thrasio is the fastest-growing acquirer of Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) businesses. The company recently closed $110M in financing at a valuation of almost $800M and its just a couple of years old. As you’ll hear from our discussion, it is a business that just makes sense in terms of how they are leveraging their knowledge from previous companies to build this consumer company at such a rapid pace. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Carlos’ background and his unique major at MIT. * The story of Opus360 and why he decided to travel cross country on a motorcycle afterward. * A journey through lots of the companies that Carlos has started. * A deep dive into Thrasio and its business model. * Advice for founders during the acquisition process. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

It was obvious that entrepreneurship was in the future for Aubrie being that she started her first venture as a child with a neighborhood door to door art gallery. After graduating from Harvard and spending time in the finance industry, she knew that she always wanted to start a company. She had noticed a growing trend towards mass customization across different sectors and decided to start a platform for custom fashion called Bow & Drape with her co-founder Shelly Madick. Like with so many startups, you have to find the right product-market fit for your audience and it took lots of experiments, determination, and good old fashioned hard work before they landed on a hit - that being personalized casualwear that was fun and all about expression. Not only did it appeal to a mass audience but soon celebrities and influencers became customers. The company was acquired last year by Win Brand Group. For Aubrie’s next chapter, she has joined Alpaca VC as a Partner. She is looking to leverage her combination of experience as an operator and investor to work with entrepreneurs who are reshaping the real world and layering technology over daily life experiences. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A deep dive into Bow & Drape and the stories behind the company. * Why entrepreneurs might want to consider debt financing more often. * How Aubrie landed in the VC industry and discovered a passion for working with other entrepreneurs through XFactor Ventures. * All the details on Alpaca VC, a seed-stage investment firm. * Advice for female & minority founders when raising capital. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Episode #171 - Yan Liu, Co-Founder & CEO of TVision. It is a golden era of television. There is a tremendous amount of amazing content out there across the major TV networks and subscription services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney Plus, Apple TV+, and more. It’s hard to keep up with it all. You might be familiar with the Nielsen TV ratings system which measures what television programs people are watching. It hs been around for many years, but it really hasn’t evolved with how consumers actually watch TV and advertising only works if people are actually paying attention to it. This is where TVision comes into play. They are a TV performance metrics company and their technology measures what was once unmeasurable - how people really watch TV. They are collecting unique viewability and attention data, which in return helps brands and agencies maximize their advertising budgets. The company has raised over $24M in venture funding. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * How the pandemic is affecting viewership and what it means for the media industry. * The story of Yan’s first company which pivoted from a women’s underwear eCommerce company to an interactive agency. * How TVision got started at MIT Sloan after the idea was validated by 20 industry experts. * All the details on TVision in terms of how they are disrupting the TV performance metrics industry, plus how they landed ABC Disney as an early customer. * Why you should hire based on culture & character, versus skillset. * What a viral show like Tiger King means for Netflix’s business. * And so much more. Disclaimer: Keith Cline is an angel investor in TVision. Not that it matters all that much, as this interview is like all of his other interviews, but just wanted to disclose it upfront. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

A lot of apps these days count on knowing your location. It is a key piece to enabling the product and offering the right user experience. However, the options for enabling a location offering from a technical point of view have been very limited. It basically has involved a lot of custom built solutions. It reminds me of the world of payments. Online payment services have existed for several years, but it wasn’t until Stripe changed the game and built a platform that allowed companies to enable online payments and subscription services easily with a product that just worked. Radar is looking to do the same for location-aware products experiences with its privacy-first location data infrastructure platform. Nick and his co-founder, Coby Berman, are Foursquare alumni and have a lot of experience with location services. The company recently announced a $20M Series B round of funding led by Accel. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The current trends in the tech industry as it relates to data and privacy. * Nick’s decision to pursue a career in product management and his experience at Microsoft, Foursquare, and Handy. * The aha moment that led to the founding of Radar. * All of the details on Radar in terms of how they are changing the narrative on location data, plus some use case examples. * Advice for entrepreneurs on negotiating a company’s valuation. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

As you’ll hear from this discussion, data is the new oil. It is what runs businesses and the amount of data that is created daily is exploding. Every business is trying to figure out to harness and leverage this data and there are a never ended amount of use cases. Justin’s entrepreneurial journey has focused on helping companies with this challenge. While at Yale, where he received his MBA, he connected with a team that went on to create Hadapt, which focused on Hadoop and was acquired by Teradata. His next company is called Starburst which is on a mission to modernize big data access and analtyics. The company raised $22M in Series A funding towards the end of last year and it is centered around an open source SQL query engine called Presto. Starburst is providing enterprise grade features and services around this open source initiative, which is certainly a business model that has been successful for other companies like Red Hat, Acquia, and many others. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the massive growth of data and how it affects businesses. * Justin’s career path which started out in engineering and moved to product management. * How Justin got into entrepreneurship while at Yale and the story of Hadapt. * All the details on Starburst and how they were able to achieve significant traction before raising capital. * Lessons learned from his first startup that he has been able to apply the second time around. * Advice on selecting the right VC’s to partner with when raising funding. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

A common question that often arises is whether or not entrepreneurship is a skill that you are born with or is something that can be taught. Based on the number of successful companies that he’s built, it’s obvious that BC was born to be an entrepreneur. For someone with his level of success, he is also extremely humble and that is a skill that really can’t be taught. BC started his first company in 1996 with a company called FutureTense that revolutionalized the digital publishing industry on the web with a first-generation content management system (CMS). Since then, he’s started companies across multiple domains like security (Memento) and accounts payable automation (MineralTree). He’s now working on his fourth startup called Centime, a stealth mode startup that is tackling another massive multi-billion dollar opportunity. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Why BC keeps building companies. * All the details on FutureTense and its acquisition by OpenMarket. * His experience as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Greylock * The background story and all the details on Mememto and MineralTree. * A glimpse into his latest startup. * When a founder should consider exiting from a company. And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

One might say that Lily was destined to be a venture capitalist. She started out angel investing when she was just 23 years old. Then, the role became a bit more formal when she joined the investment committee at Yard Ventures, Harvard’s alumni angel group. As a Partner at Underscore, she is focused on making seed and Series A investments in Boston startups. The firm is focused on building a community driven model through its various initiatives like Underscore Core, a community of several hundred proven entrepreneurs, business builders, and domain experts that portfolio companies get to leverage to help drive their own success. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The current entrepreneurial vibe at Harvard and HBS. * Lily’s experience after Harvard at Endeavor where she spent two years working with entrepreneurs in Chile. * Her position at Facebook where she was part of a global growth & connectivity team that brought on 100M new users in 3 years. * All of the details on Underscore including the firm's model and what makes the firm so unique. * A discussion around why it might be a good idea for Boston companies to brag about success. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

It’s no secret that diversity is an issue in the tech industry, but it is an even bigger issue when you look at the venture capital industry. Rich has conducted a lot of research on this topic and based on his last report, only 2% of African Americans were represented as investors in the venture capital industry. Rich is the type who takes action. By publishing his findings (which have been featured on TechCrunch, his personal blog, and in many other interviews), it helps to bring awareness to this key issue. In addition, Rich is also the founder of Stealth Mode, a community of more than 1,500 African American founders, operators, and investors. After spending time in the venture capital industry at IVP and Venrock, Rich is now a Co-Founder & General Partner at a new firm called Equal Ventures, which recently announced a $56M first fund. The firm is focused on bridging the digital divide by investing in founders who are transforming legacy markets in industries like insurance, retail, supply chain and the care economy. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Rich’s early career in investment banking and how he landed in the venture capital industry, which involved a lot of cold emailing to partners at firms. * All the details on Equal Ventures in terms of the firm’s thesis and the stage of investments they are focused on. * What an investor is looking to get out of a first meeting. And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

At home, my family has a Cavapoo, who basically rules the roost. She has a big personality in a small frame and when she is sick, we definitely want to give her the best care possible. In the world where personalized medicine is becoming very real for humans, why shouldn’t the same apply for pets? Enter Mixlab, the first-ever modern compounding pharmacy for animals. Mixlab customizes medication ingredients, strengths, forms, and flavors, specifically for your pet. The company announced $8.5M in funding last year and in addition to providing this very meaningful service, they also have a knack at wowing their customers, which we talk about in detail. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Stella’s background as a Designer and how that shaped her experience as an entrepreneur. * What led her down the path of starting Mixlab and how she met her co-founders. * The details on Mixlab and how their business model works. * Advice for founders on hiring a designer. * How a startup should think about branding and packaging. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

The fashion industry is constantly changing. It feels as though one week something can be in style, and the next it is already out of fashion. As a company, it’s nearly impossible to be able to keep up with trends and get them manufactured in a timely manner before the look goes out of style. Choosy is utilizing social media and algorithms to tackle this problem and this direct to consumer eCommerce company is on a path to revolutionize the fashion industry. Jessie was born in China before moving to the United States while she was in elementary school. She originally envisioned a career in politics, but she ended up in finance which is where she met her co-founders for Choosy. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * What it's like being selected and featured by Forbes as a 30 Under 30. * Jessie’s early career and experience working in the finance industry and what that taught her. * What led Jessie and her co-founders down the path of starting Choosy? * All the details on Choosy and how their business model works. * How Choosy is able to flourish in a highly competitive market. * Advice on getting publicity for your startup. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

The insurance industry is extremely complex and can be very challenging to break into as an industry outsider. After being in a minor car accident, Snejina’s premium increased. Like any of us, she went online to find a better option only to realize that a marketplace for insurance didn’t exist. Existing sites were all lead gen. The complexity of the insurance industry probably kept other entrepreneurs from trying to build this type of marketplace, but it was the a-ha moment that led Snejina to take on this challenge, which has required a tremendous amount of grit and determination. Insurify is reimagining the way you compare, buy, and manage your insurance online. Through artificial intelligence, they make insurance shopping simple, affordable, and hassle-free. The company recently announced $23M in Series A funding led by MTech Capital and Viola FinTech, with participation from Nationwide, Hearst Ventures, and MassMutual Ventures. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Snejina’s background growing up in Bulgaria and her professional career, including her move to the U.S. * What led her down the path of starting Insurify and why she spoke with hundreds of people in the insurance industry before even starting to build out the core product. * How she landed her first insurance carrier which created a snowball effect. * The current state and scale of Insurify, plus its growth plans ahead. * Advice on building a customer acquisition strategy. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Lots and lots of startups and corporations have moved to an open office environment, which was supposed to foster collaboration amongst employees. As it turns out, according to research published by CNBC, “90% of employees working in offices with an open floor plan experience increased stress levels, conflict, blood pressure and turnover rates.” Wow… shocking! So, how do you solve this issue without completely renovating your office, which would be very costly and disruptive? That’s where ROOM comes into play. They are rethinking the modern workplace with their innovative phone booth design. They are on to something, as the company has over 3,000 customers. Growing up Brian always dreamed of being an entrepreneur and being a part of a startup. This is his second company, as he was previously a co-founder of a smart suitcase startup called Bluesmart, which was a Y Combinator company. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Brian's early experience teaching English in Ecuador and what that taught him about leadership. * How he got into startups and his involvement with Bluesmart. * The origin story of ROOM and how they discovered an underserved market that is helping to improve mental health and wellness in the workplace. * The current stage of the company and growth plans ahead. * Advice on setting up and finding the right manufacturer, plus why they choose to work with partners in Indiana and Portugal. * And so much more. If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

It’s one thing to build a successful business, but it’s a whole different level if you can build a business out of doing good and creating better lives for others. As you will hear in this podcast, Liz has a heart of gold and a do whatever it takes attitude to help others out in need. She has a history of volunteering and during her time at Harvard, Liz realized that there was an opportunity to help the less fortunate succeed through art. This led Liz and her brother to pull together $4,000 from their personal savings to create ArtLifting. The company empowers artists living with homelessness or disabilities through the celebration and sale of their artwork. Its impact? Artists have earned over $1M from ArtLifting. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Liz’s experience and her background in volunteering for non-profits. * The inspiration that ultimately led to the start of ArtLifting. * All of the details on ArtLifting and the massive impact they are having on improving the lives of the homeless or disabled. * How they raised capital from prominent investors, like the founder of TOMS Shoes, while building a social enterprise. * The evolution of their business from a direct to consumer model to a more sustainable B2B focus. * Advice for other founders around getting PR. * And more! If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.