Boston Speaks Up

George Deveney is the Chief Advancement Officer at Make-A-Wish Massachusetts and Rhode Island, headquartered in Boston, MA. Make-A-Wish is a non-profit organization on a mission to create life-changing wish experiences for children with critical illnesses. In 2023, Make-A-Wish Massachusetts and Rhode Island celebrate 40 years of providing life changing experiences to kids and families who deserve it the most.

Deveney has dedicated his life to helping others and he has no plans of taking his foot off the gas. Prior to joining Make-A-Wish, Deveney spent the majority of his career at City Year, an education-focused non-profit organization that unites young people from diverse backgrounds for a year of full-time service to keep students in school and on track to high school graduation. At City Year, Deveney led development of the organization and successfully launched regional teams in more than 10 cities including London, Denver and Orlando.

As a Dorchester native, the return to the Greater Boston area to serve this community he once called home was inevitable. For Deveney, getting the opportunity to lead development for Make-A-Wish, one of the most well-recognized non-profit organizations in the nation, is his own dream come true. And as one could imagine, growing up in the area has left Deveney with strong family ties to Boston and surrounding neighborhoods. This has allowed Deveney to stay in tune with local culture, and more importantly makes this role that much more important to him.

In his role, Deveney is responsible for driving the organization’s growth in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. We unpack his specific efforts to do so in this episode as we also explore Deveney’s career journey, what he finds so special about Boston that brought him back, his passion for helping others through non-profit organizations, and much more.

Guest Kerty Levy is the Managing Director of Techstars Boston, the successful startup accelerator tied to a global network of Techstars programs. (Techstars Boston applications are open now and will close June 7, 2023. Don’t miss out!)

Levy replaced Greg Raiz, who stepped down as managing director at the end of October 2022. She brings a global perspective to her role having grown up all over the world. Born in Japan, Levy spent time in the Philippines, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden before settling in the United States.

Levy is also the managing director of recently launched Techstars Crypto Boston, a crypto-focused accelerator in Boston. This program, run in partnership with Algorand and the Algorand Foundation, is designed for startups globally that focus on innovative and fast-growing web3 development solutions that cut across Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Gaming, Creator Economy, and many more. Techstars Crypto Boston kicked off in January 2023 and just held DemoDay on April 6, 2023.

Levy has been with Techstars since 2019. Before her move to Boston, she served as managing director of Techstars Iowa. Prior to that, the long-time business advisor and coach spent time at the Iowa AgriTech Accelerator where she was a trusted member of Iowa’s startup community and expert on the Des Moines entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Levy is a lifelong learner. After graduating from the Stevenson School, she went on to earn her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of California, Davis. She then earned her MBA from Harvard Business School.

In this episode, our host Zach Servideo discusses with Levy her career journey, what she loves about Boston, the startup sectors that most intrigue her, the future of crypto/blockchain, and much more.

Guest Alex Kantrowitz is the founder of Big Technology, a combo newsletter-podcast news operation analyzing the systems in the tech world that drive what we see in the headlines. He launched Big Technology on the back of his wildly successful book Always Day One, which gives a behind-the-scenes view into how Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have “stayed on top” by operating in Day One: Instead of hunkering down and protecting core advantages, they reinvent constantly.

Kantrowitz most recently served as senior technology reporter at Buzzfeed, and he regularly appears on CNBC to break down the news surrounding the tech giants. He penned the Tech Giant Update newsletter at BuzzFeed. In that role, he fell in love with the back and forth with readers, and found that the live replies with his audience were incredibly heartfelt and informative. It then comes as no surprise that he’s now made a newsletter his de facto journalism format.

Prior to Buzzfeed, Kantrowitz spent time writing for Forbes and Ad Age. He reported on marketing technology at Ad Age, which gives him a really interesting perspective at the intersection of technology disruption with advertising and commerce.

He studied at Cornell University where he wrote for the Cornell Daily Sun and co-hosted WVBR's Weekend Pulse. His radio background shines in his Big Technology podcast and furthermore when he appears as a guest on shows such as his appearance here on Boston Speaks Up.

In this episode, we discuss with Kantrowitz his journey to starting Big Technology, his modern media business monetization model, recent news such as the spiral of Silicon Valley Bank, his time in Seattle working on Always Day One, the impact of AI, the future of Big Tech, and much more.

Guest Chris Cardoza is the Founder & Director of Doza Visuals, a Boston-based media production company with experience filming and photographing across the globe. You may be familiar with Cardoza’s work locally via the artist documentaries he produces for ICA Boston.

Cardoza’s entrepreneurial journey was preceded by a childhood culminating as a multi-sport athlete in high school. Sports were everything to him, until injuries crept into his life and ripped away his first passion. This is when he discovered a new calling in photography and video and he brought that same energy, determination and dedication to his new craft. Although playing sports came to a halt, in this episode we learned that his relationship with sports found a way to blossom in a creative way.

For the past decade, Doza has been shooting stills and videos for some of the most recognizable brands and publications in the world. He’s worked with companies such as Reebok, ESPN, TB12 Sports, VICE and many more. When he’s not behind the lens pointing his camera at athletes such as Olympic Gold Medalist Aly Raisman or NFL Superstar JJ Watt, you can find Doza traveling to countries such as Rwanda and documenting how sports are affecting the world.

Outside of his work, Cardoza spends his time watching documentaries, flying drones, trail running and spending time with his newborn twins. On this episode of Boston Speaks Up, we chat with Cardoza about juggling parenthood with running a startup, traveling in Rwanda with renowned Boston sports journalist Jackie MacMullan, what it’s like working with star athletes, and what it takes to start your own business.

Guest Tucker Cohen is the Founder & CEO of Smoov, an app that makes it easy for couples to split their expenses automatically before they have a shared bank account. Smoov has enjoyed a popular beta period in Boston for its ability to save people time, money and headaches.

Cohen is an entrepreneur with a range of experience on the west and east coasts, and grew to become a very active member of the Boston startup community in recent years. He is also an Web3 maxi as an early investor in Acala and Polkadot, as well spending time as a VC Scout for SHL Capital.

Prior to Smoov, Cohen spent time in various sales and growth roles helping early stage startups build and scale their sales processes and teams. He also served as a Sales Core Leader at Underscore VC. Of note, he built and scaled the go-to-market team at Breezeway as the Head of Sales.

In May 2021 Cohen started Smoov for the same reason most people start any venture – he had a deep desire to fix a problem that he was experiencing personally. It all started when he and his fiancé were sitting down after a month abroad in Madrid. During the trip they were spending time with family and going out to dinners and most meals. Once back in Boston, they were reviewing their various credit cards and expenses, using a spreadsheet to tally up the damage of who paid for what over the past month, and sending Venmo’s to each other to settle up. As they were going through this tedious process, naturally they were chatting and came to the conclusion that “this sucks... and there must be a better way.” The impetus for Smoov was born.

On this episode of Boston Speaks Up, we chat with Cohen about his past experiences, his recent move from Boston to LA and his plans to grow Smoov as it emerges from beta.

Guest Lily Lyman is a General Partner at Underscore VC, a leading Boston venture capital firm known for its Underscore Core Community of proven business builders helping each other succeed. She is also a Board Director for the New England Venture Capital Association, MIT Sandbox Funding Board, and is a leader of the Boston All Raise chapter.

Lyman has a background as a founder, investor, and operator. She came to Underscore VC from Facebook, where she worked in product strategy focused on the international growth of core products including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

Prior to Facebook, Lyman held a variety of strategy, operational, and entrepreneurial roles. Through it all, she has gained a truly global perspective, having lived and worked in more than 75 countries.

At Underscore VC, Lyman leads investments on Future of Work, AI/ML, Insuretech, Commerce, and more. With experience that spans the globe, she spends her time identifying investment opportunities and guiding startups that will define new digital categories, reshape industries, and change the world.

On this episode of Boston Speaks Up, we chat with Lyman about her lessons from the past, her bets today and her predictions for the future.

Miranda Perez is a cross-topic multimedia journalist on a mission to highlight and elevate marginalized voices. Evolving beyond the newsroom, she recently joined the team at HBCU Founders Initiative, a nonprofit organization that is engaging rising HBCU students and alumni interested in pursuing entrepreneurship.

For those unfamiliar with the term HBCU, it refers to any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans.

Perez is playing a critical role supporting entrepreneurs participating in HBCU Founder Initiative’s Pre-Accelerator, an 8-week program for early-stage founders who are past the ideation stage and ready to validate a problem and build a minimum viable product.

Beyond her role at HBCUFI, Perez still writes about business, tech, politics, social issues, fashion, and entertainment, among other topics. She also consults with businesses navigating societal and technological change.

She grew up as an inner-city kid in Chicago. She describes school “as an escape for a lot of the hardships I faced growing up.” She pushed herself academically and became the first person in her family to graduate from college, earning a Mass Media Arts degree from Clark Atlanta University, a top 25 nationally ranked HBCU and Black Ivy League school.

During college, Miranda served as the Editor-In-Chief of CAU's campus newspaper, The Panther, and as the President/Editor-In-Chief of CAU's online magazine, Her Campus. During that time, Miranda had her first national byline in The Nation as a sophomore in college.

These accomplishments won the attention of editors across the country, and Perez earned and held editor/reporter roles at BostInno, Insider and BuiltIn upon graduation. She’s also appeared on programs such as MSNBC discussing education equity for Hispanic Americans.

In this episode, we speak with Perez about the challenges she’s overcome in life, and her evolution from a cross-topic multimedia journalist into a dynamic branding and storytelling consultant.

Guest Scott Ernst is an entrepreneur who’s been at the intersection of market research, commerce and technology for three decades. He was building startups on Newbury Street in Boston long before this recent wave of VCs and startups began moving into the Back Bay area.

After stints at multiple startups in the 1990s, Ernst was a founding management team member of Compete in the 2000s and helped the company grow to a $100 million revenue business resulting in the 2008 acquisition by MIllward Brown Digital/WPP’s Kantar.

In June 2022, he made headlines for his appointment as CEO of Boston-based Drift, a marketing technology trailblazer best known for single-handedly introducing conversational marketing to the market. Ernst joined his friend, company co-founder and long-time CEO, David Cancel, who stepped into the role of Executive Chairman.

Ernst most recently served as CEO of Tubular Labs, a social video analytics company headquartered in San Francisco. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Macromill, a Tokyo-based global marketing research business, which he took through an IPO with an enterprise value of over $1 billion.

In this episode, Ernst discusses the future of Drift, OG Boston tech, his time in Japan, taking a company from early stage to IPO, how San Francisco and Boston compare, the future of marketing and much more.

Guest Kristen Craft is a proven entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in enterprise software and digital marketing. In her role as Director of Early-Stage Startups at Silicon Valley Bank, she’s become well known around the Boston startup community for her passionate support of founders.

Craft has helped build several prominent brands in Boston and is committed to supporting companies with excellent cultures and strong values. Her past experience includes leadership roles at Animalz, Tettra, Ovia Health Wistia, and Transparent Language, as well as launching her own start-up, Brown Box Storage.

A life-long learner, Craft earned her BA from Brown University, and earned a Masters of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Upon graduation, Craft decided she wasn’t ready to leave the classroom just yet, so she went on to MIT’s Sloan School of Management to earn her MBA.

In this episode, Craft discusses the various challenges entrepreneurs face when first building their startups (and how you can avoid them) and the importance of following the proper steps when starting a business. We also explore her Harvard, MA roots, her early jobs as a teenager and our mutual passion for reading with our children.

*Bonus Episode* Boston Speaks Up host Zach Servideo joins Deirdre Sartorelli on The Repivot Project podcast, which explores the art and science of change. Zach discusses: how Value Creation Labs is navigating the current economic downturn; how to select the right people to collaborate with; the value in consulting with different customer archetypes; his company's unique approach to brand development; and his silver linings playbook coming off his achilles tendon tear/surgery this year.