Boston Speaks Up

Guest Russell Follansbee leads Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) enterprise software team in New England, which counts roughly 60 percent of VC-backed startups in the Greater Boston region as clients.

He and his team help enterprise software companies, typically post-series A funding, to more efficiently achieve scale. While his experience ranges across industries, Follansbee specializes in the cybersecurity industry, a technology cluster in Boston that is driving global innovation.

Since joining SVB in 2009, Follansbee has worked with high-growth innovators at all life stages, from pre-seed startups to billion dollar juggernauts. This experience has afforded him deep insights into patterns of success and failure, making him a valuable resource to founders and C-level executives.

Follansbee lives in Boston with his wife and two kids. In his free time, he serves on the Rising Leaders board of BUILD Greater Boston, an organization that calls on the tenets of entrepreneurship to help youth in underserved communities succeed in high school, college and beyond.

Michael Caron is the founder and CEO of Get Burly, which organizes and creates custom fitness programs and team building retreats. WIth more than 40 seasons of coaching under his belt, Caron fosters a team of elite level coaches that push individuals and groups to overcome adversity.

Caron is an elite coach in every sense of the concept. He is a Spartan SGX certified coach. He earned the Navy Seal Inspired Sealfit Basic Training Certification. He is also a certified Unbeatable Mind Coach and through performance coaching services is able to collaborate with individuals from all walks of life in the process of overcoming obstacles in pursuit of their goals and missions.

Caron has also traveled extensively. He traveled the world through the Semester at Sea Program, following that up by participating in Teach For America in Houston, Texas. While strongly identifying with the struggles and hardships he witnessed, he decided to continue his passion for learning and education by attaining a Masters Degree in Education.

Combining his experiences, education and certifications, Michael has developed a transformative and integrated approach to developing strength in mind, body, and spirit with Get Burly, which has worked with an impressive list of organizations, including SealFit, Ben Greenfield Fitness Systems, Yancy Camp, Spartan DekaFit, the Army National Guard, Spartan Race, SWAT Academy leadership and many more.

Guest Jordan Staab is the CEO of SmarterTravel, an industry leader in online travel with a travel media portfolio including Airfarewatchdog, BookingBuddy, Family Vacation Critic, Oyster, SmarterTravel, and WhatToPack. As the story goes with most entrepreneurial ventures, Staab’s journey in building SmarterTravel endured various pivots, twists and turns to get to where it is today. The company is flourishing but Staab will be the first to tell you that this was not always the case.

With Staab at the helm, SmarterTravel empowers 7 million unique travelers each month through engaging content, innovative technology, and strategic partnerships to help them find the right trip at the right price. The company’s success was rewarded in September 2021 with a $9.5 million series B funding round co-led by Link Ventures and Second Alpha.

Staab was previously the VP of Revenue at Cognius, and later became CRO when it spun out of Link Ventures’ incubator CogoLabs. When Jordan saw that Cognius was able to predict patterns in travel consumer behavior, Staab co-founded Hopjump. That company started out in 2018 as a digital marketing agency that focused on partnering with brands to develop user acquisition campaigns. Staab and his team went on to launch their first product in January 2020 and saw 60,000 members join in the first few months. Staab was on a joyride that seemingly had no end, then the COVID-19 global pandemic took the world by storm and brought so much momentum, potential, and belief to an immediate halt.

Staab, along with the entire population, had one option, and one option only, PIVOT. Hopjump paused their travel product and focused on content. Staab then learned through industry contacts that TripAdvisor was looking to sell a number of their travel properties, many of which he was familiar with. He saw this as an immense opportunity for Hopjump, and purchased all of the properties, one of which was SmarterTravel. Since that name closely aligned with Hopjump’s purpose and goals, the company adopted that name and in September of 2021, announced funding and Staab’s bump to CEO.

A global pandemic was nowhere to be found in Staab’s playbook, but rest assured staying agile and nimble to whatever life throws at him, surely was. Find out how Staab not only stayed afloat, but flourished in one of the most challenging times the industry has ever seen in this week’s episode.

Guest Cam Brown is the founder and CEO of KingFish, a Boston-based marketing agency set to celebrate its 20-year anniversary in November 2021. Brown has developed a hybrid agency model which combines a full-time staff of strategists, account executives and designers with a database of hundreds of subject matter experts (SMEs) to create custom content solutions for its clients. Perhaps most impressively, Brown personally oversees the relationships with the majority of KingFish SMEs.

He brings over 30 years of marketing, digital, video, virtual & live events and advertising experience with industry leaders such as Ziff Davis Media, Arnold Advertising (Havas) and The Robb Report. While at Ziff Davis, Brown founded and headed their launch custom media business unit at the company.

Brown also serves as a volunteer with the Cummings Foundation Sustaining Grant division, working to understand the issues local communities are facing, identifying the most promising and effective nonprofits to fund, and strengthening relationships with beneficiaries. He is also on the Advisory Board of Give Us Your Poor, an organization that brings together the latest research, multimedia, celebrities, citizens, homeless people, and partner organizations to help end homelessness. And recently, Brown was elected onto the Topsfield Select Board for a three year term.

Brown is also a sought out strategic advisor to the investment and venture capital community, advising emerging companies on their business models and communications strategies.

Guest Guy Hudson is a marketing programs manager in the Boston office of ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: ZI), a global go-to-market enterprise SaaS leader.

Hudson caught our attention on LinkedIn where he’s posted several inspiring messages, including an official ZoomInfo corporate video he recorded for Juneteenth. Unsurprisingly, ZoomInfo CEO Henry Schuck recently came in at number eight on Business Insider's list of the best CEOs of large companies ranked by BIPOC employees.

Hudson’s story is fascinating, and his journey is a worldly one. He was born in Liberia, and at the age of 7, he moved to Methuen, MA where he spent the remainder of his childhood. At Methuen High School, Hudson was a soccer player and star track athlete, eventually earning a track scholarship to attend the University of Memphis where he graduated with a degree in Sports Management.

He has matured into an example of a modern marketer that is both a wide-ranging generalist and savvy specialist. Thanks to the digital marketing skills he acquired early in his career at Boston-based Acquia, Hudson secured a job with the Phoenix Suns. It was with the Suns that Hudson honed his craft, helping bring the NBA franchise into the digital marketing age. Hudson oversaw the Suns’ embrace of a CRM and then led the team’s deployment of email marketing and database management programs.

His story only gets more interesting the more you hear. The Servideo brothers had the honor of jointly interviewing Hudson, and in the process, we learned so much more about our friend from Methuen. On the podcast, you’ll hear him share a story about living in Liberia amidst a civil war, and being scared for his life with soldiers outside his home. You’ll hear his honest thoughts on people needing to “walk the walk” instead of just “talking the talk” when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. You’re in for a real treat.

Guest Aisha Chottani is a former McKinsey consultant turned thriving entrepreneur. After a stint at Harvard Business School, and amidst a pandemic, Chottani founded her company Moment, a natural botanical and adaptogen beverage that aims to bottle the feeling of meditation in a can.

Chottani is a heart-driven leader on a mission to help people more easily achieve mindfulness. At no additional cost to consumers, Moment provides content and interactive programming to help people meditate more, gain mindfulness, and ultimately, improve their overall wellness. Moment also donates one percent of revenue to help at-risk youth.

We had an opportunity to speak with Chottani as she was preparing to celebrate Moment’s one year anniversary.

Guest Mike Salguero is the founder and CEO of ButcherBox, a Boston-based meat brand that delivers high quality, humanely raised meat to consumers across the country. He founded ButcherBox in 2015 as a hobby, but quickly solved the need to increase access to high-quality, humanely raised protein.

Prior to ButcherBox, Salguero founded CustomMade, a marketplace for consumers to commission custom made items such as furniture and jewelry. His serial entrepreneurship gives him an interesting perspective to share on the different financing options for startups. For example, CustomMade was VC-backed whereas ButcherBox was bootstrapped and still has taken no outside capital.

ButcherBox also became B Corp certified in 2020, and Salguero is focused on making his company a force for good. On the podcast, we chat about how he’s built a supply chain that considers the animal, the farmer, and the planet in all decisions – a unique approach for the meat industry.

Guest Jennifer Neundorfer is cofounder and managing partner at January Ventures, an investment firm that is trying to address the unique challenges and biases faced by entrepreneurs often under-represented in business, including women and people of color.

Neundorfer believes the next generation of startup investment returns will be driven by a much broader and more diverse set of founders, and she co-founded January Ventures to be the fund of choice for these traditionally underrepresented founders at the earliest stage.

An operator turned investor, Neundorfer has been investing in early-stage startups for the last decade. And as a Latina GP, she is also committed to making the venture career path accessible to a more diverse group of potential GPs.

Previously, Neundorfer was a Partner and Cofounder of Flashstarts, a startup accelerator and micro-VC fund focused on software startups in the Midwest. As an operator, she launched and scaled media and advertising businesses at 21st Century Fox and YouTube. She brings commercialization and business development expertise to her portfolio as she focuses on go to market strategy and tactics. She earned an MBA from Stanford and a BA from Harvard.

Guest Ryan Durkin is a serial entrepreneur, operator and product guy who’s interwoven himself into the fabric of Boston’s elite tech talent. Following his latest successful stint serving as head of product at Drizly (sold to Uber for 1.1B), Durkin is now busy building a sports agency for tech professionals in Boston -- The Operators. Durkin’s goal is to represent the top percent of tech talent, and offer them everything that agents provide to professional athletes -- from opening doors and closing deals to creative contracts and fan ownership. Durkin negotiates on their behalf much like a sports agent would, and helps The Operators and founders build strong companies.

Durkin is no stranger to startups. He previously founded Wayfund, HeadstoneHub, and OneGoodMeal. Additionally, he was the cofounder of Dailybreak (acquired by Connelly Partners) and was a product manager at Wayfair (pre- and through IPO).

We got a chance to catch up with Durkin before he hit the road on his motorcycle for a six-month journey around the country. Enjoy.

Guest Dominique Aubry is the founder of Aubry, an influencer-driven shopping app that uses computer vision, augmented reality and AI to help women build personalized wardrobes. This isn’t Aubry’s first foray into retail innovation. She previously founded All Yoga Pants to give curvy women better clothing options.

With more than 15 years of experience working within the government, non-profit, for-profit, and startup community, Aubry has enjoyed a fascinating journey from Philadelphia to Boston. She began her career working for the Mayor's Office of Philadelphia and Teach for America.

Aubry went on to become a Lean trainer for the Techstars company Lean Startup Machine where she trained more than 3,000 entrepreneurs, companies, non-profits, and government agencies on lean methodology. This led her to becoming the Managing Director of Impact Hub Philadelphia, an innovation campus focused on supporting entrepreneurs creating social change.

When Aubry isn't working on her business, she mentors tech companies from Techstars, Harvard ilab, StartED, MassChallenge and others.