Village Global's Venture Stories

Mike Maples (@m2jr), founding partner at Floodgate, joins Lucas Bagno (@lucasbagnocv) and Ian Cinnamon (@iancinnamon) to discuss:- Why there has been an “epidemic of fakery” in society over the last 50 years or so. Mike says that institutions are pretending to be working rather than doing actual work.- Why the right “angle of attack” for societal problems is not head-on but rather to create something completely different than changes the subject entirely.- Why he advises founders to make sure they are working on an idea that is worthy of their time and why as a founder you need to “get out of the present and start living in the future.”- How Silicon Valley can have more empathy and make the case for broader prosperity.- How to build connection and shared purpose in an American society that is increasingly tribal.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Ayo Omojola (https://www.linkedin.com/in/omojola/), SVP of Product at Carbon Health, joins Anne Dwane (@adwane) and Lucas Bagno (@lucasbagnocv) to discuss:- What he noticed moving from fintech to healthtech.- Advice for people working in a highly regulated industry like healthcare.- What’s unique about Carbon Health and why healthtech is so promising.- Why he likes to hire former founders and his favorite interview questions.- How he thinks about angel investing as an operator and why “angel investing is like a really expensive email newsletter.”Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Delian Asparouhov (@zebulgar), co-founder of Varda Space Industries and principal at Founders Fund, joins Lucas Bagno (@lucasbagnocv) and Ian Cinnamon (@iancinnammon) on this episode to discuss:- Why he says that VCs have a moral obligation to fund companies that help keep America a step ahead of its adversaries.- Why space matters for him personally and why expanding the economic bounds of humankind is the best way to achieve all of humanity’s other goals.- The current state of the space economy and the space supply chain, and how he sees them evolving in the future.- Why the US is in a new space race with Russia and China.- His advice on building a space company for aspiring founders.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Katherine Boyle (@KTmBoyle), GP at a16z, joins Anne Dwane (@adwane) and Lucas Bagno (@lucasbagnocv) on this episode to discuss:- What needs to change inside the federal government for more contracts to go to startups.- How startups should think about working with state and local governments.- How trust has declined in public institutions over the last several decades and how companies can credibly step into that void by building in public and telling their own story.- How Starlink will change where people live and how they live their offline life.- Why, if people are laughing at you, you’re probably taking yourself seriously enough.- What tech misunderstands about government and vice versa, including how Silicon Valley came to have a positive sum mindset and Washington ended up with a zero sum mindset.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Cristina Cordova was the 28th employee at Stripe and grew their partnerships arm from the ground up. Most recently, she led platform & partnerships at Notion, which included starting the Growth Product Team.In this episode, we discuss how to build a partnerships team, what to look for in BD hires, and the ins and outs of successful deal-making. Cristina is an active angel and advisor. You can hear more from her by following @cjc on Twitter.---Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale.  To engage further: Hosted by: @eriktorenberg 
Produced by: @jacksonsteger

Trae Stephens (@traestephens), co-founder at Anduril and partner at Founders Fund joins Lucas Bagno (@lucasbagnocv) and Ian Cinnamon (@iancinnamon) to discuss:- What keeps him up at night when he looks at the US today.- What he would change about the US government if he could wave a magic wand.- Common mistakes made by people selling to government.- How they think about acquisitions at Anduril.- Advice for people looking to build in the defense space.- What gives him hope when he thinks about the future of the US.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Richard Ni is the current Head of People at Scale AI after being the first recruiting hire at Cruise Automation, where he helped bring the team from 10 to 700 in three years.Prior to leading people teams, Richard was a Software Engineer at Venmo and a Computer Science major at MIT. We discuss the unique perspective that his technical background gives him in recruiting, how to solicit genuine feedback from employees, and build a leveling system. ---Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. Share your thoughts with us on Twitter: Hosted by: @eriktorenberg Produced by: @jacksonsteger

Village Global's Solarpunk is a new podcast series about technology, space, and defense. We discuss how western society will use technology to adapt to the changing global landscape. We’re inspired by the theme of solarpunk — the mindset of what the planet will look like when humanity succeeds in solving major contemporary challenges through technology.Josh Wolfe (@wolfejosh), co-founder and managing partner at Lux Capital, joins Lucas Bagno (@lucasbagnocv) and Ian Cinnamon (@IanCinnamon), investors at Village Global, to discuss:- The problems that some of the leading companies working with the US government have been trying to solve.- The threats that America faces today and how technology has been used by its adversaries against it.- New domains where America is in conflict with other countries, including cyber, financial warfare, and space.- The reinvigoration of space that has been led by SpaceX.- Josh’s thoughts on polarization and tribalism in the US.- What people who want to get involved in improving society should do to make a difference.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Semil Shah (@semil), investor at Haystack and venture partner at Lightspeed, joins Lucas Bagno to discuss:- The trends Semil sees in the entrepreneurial landscape today: the ease of getting started as a founder, the fight for ownership among funds, and renewed attention to dilution from founders.- How he raised his most recent fund at Haystack and how he determined what size of fund to raise.- The lessons he’s learned about deploying funds.- What the downturn means for fund managers.- The state of seed investing.- The impact of the changes to YC’s standard offer.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Michal Cieplinski is the Chief Business Officer at Pipe. He has also spent time as General Counsel and CCO at Fundbox as well as a Senior VP at Lending Club, among other roles.He describes himself as a lawyer who has never really been a lawyer - meaning that “no” is a rare answer for him to give his fast-moving colleagues.In this episode, we discussed the important role that a CBO plays at a high growth tech company. Michal shares tips on building legal teams, hiring speed for the rest of the org , and why you should hire for a plan, not a problem.For anyone thinking deeply about their team’s legal function, this should be a great one.____Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. Share your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenbergGuest: @m_cieplinskiProduced by: @jacksonsteger

David Sneider (@davidlsneider), of Lit Protocol, and Stephen McKeon (@sbmckeon), partner at Collab+Currency, join Anne Dwane to discuss:- What Lit Protocol is, what it enables, and how it is being used today.- The vision for a different architecture of the internet.- How user-owned networks would work and their prospects for achieving scale.- How tokenization allows all stakeholders to capture more of the network effects of a project.- The biggest challenges present in Web3 and how they might be solved.- Predictions for the progress of Web3 in the next decade.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Olivia Chen was most recently Head of Product at Faire. She joined Faire as their first ops/business hire. By the time she left four years later, Faire had grown to over 750 employees and Olivia was managing a cross-functional team of more than 60 people. In this episode, we discussed how to build successful referral programs, how to grow a product team, how to navigate hyper-growth as an early-stage employee, and much more. Andrew Yu, Director of On Deck’s Product Management Fellowship, joined as a guest co-host. We hope you enjoy. --- Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. Share your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenberg
Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-chen-22b38960/Guest co-host: @andrewcyu
Produced by: @jacksonsteger
Brought to you by: @beondeck

Sarah Smith is currently a partner at Bain Capital Ventures after an early career of building elite HR teams for huge tech players, including Facebook and Quora, where she helped scale Quora from 40 to 160 people in 3 years. In this episode, we discussed hiring that first crucial people person, how to train first-time management, how to nail goal setting, and how to improve vesting schedules. ---Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. Share your thoughts with us on Twitter:Hosted by: @eriktorenbergGuest: @sasmith4Produced by: @jacksonsteger

Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures, joins Lucas Bagno (@lucasbagnocv) of Village Global to discuss:- Sheel’s reflections on raising a fund and the opportunities he sees in fintech today.- The importance of ownership in seed investing.- How the fintech landscape has evolved over the last year.- Why non-fintech companies are integrating fintech into their business.- Whether banks can be disrupted and the unique regulatory environment that influences the financial market.- The advice he gives to founders on which investors to work with.- Opportunities in fintech globally.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at www.villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.Want to get updates from us? Subscribe to get a peek inside the Village. We’ll send you reading recommendations, exclusive event invites, and commentary on the latest happenings in Silicon Valley. www.villageglobal.vc/signup

Anne Dwane is co-founder and partner at Village Global. She was previously CEO at Zinch, a network connecting students with colleges and scholarships. Zinch was acquired by Chegg, where she served as Chief Business Officer, before and after the IPO. Previously, Anne co-founded Military.com, a social and professional network for service members and veterans that was acquired by Monster.In this episode, they discussed how to do annual planning, how to figure out comp, why the role of a CBO is an allocative role, and much more. ___Execs is a show for founders, operators, and pioneers who want to understand the playbooks, frameworks, and tactics that leading tech companies today have used to scale. Hosted by: @eriktorenberg
Guest: @adwane
Produced by: @jacksonsteger