Worried about retaining your best employees?

Our guest on this episode is helping you do just that.

Lindsay McGregor is the CEO and Co-Founder of Factor.ai and co-author of the bestselling book "Primed to Perform: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Total Motivation."

Lindsay has one of the best track records of working with fast-growing startups like Slack, Grab, and Flexport byhelping them build a high-performance team culture.

Previously, Lindsay led impactful projects at McKinsey, partnering with Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, universities, and school systems.

She earned her B.A. from Princeton and her MBA from Harvard Business School.

In Episode 075 of CLIMB by VSC, Lindsay discusses why the 'fun' culture in entrepreneurship isn't working, the importance of measuring your team’s motivation, and why autonomy could be killing your startup.

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00:00:00 Intro

The value of water to water security is $4 trillion today and is likely to triple in the next 10 years. [Source: Global Water Intelligence]

Watch the full video on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/U4NFkF7jCmg

Ann Bordetsky, partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), joins us in this episode to discuss how AI is creating new business categories and transforming the tech industry.

Join us in this episode as we talk with Jason Shuman, a General Partner at Primary Ventures. Jason shares his journey from selling shoes to becoming a big name in venture capital and we dive deep into how venture capitalists like him support and grow startups.

Chapters -

In this episode, we welcome Sunil Paul, a pioneer in ride-sharing and a significant figure in sustainable transportation. Paul, who started Sidecar and influenced the early stages of Getaround, dives into his newest venture, Spring Free EV. With his extensive experience, including his early work as a NASA contractor and AOL's first internet product manager, Paul brings a rich history of innovation and policy analysis.

We welcome Peter Relan, a seasoned Silicon Valley veteran with a rich 40-year history of entrepreneurship and investment. Renowned for founding the YouWeb Incubator, Relan has been instrumental in the early stages of companies that have become household names, such as Discord. His early engagement with VSC Ventures has been invaluable, and his participation promises a wealth of knowledge and experience.

This week, we host Kate McAndrew, founding partner of Baukunst. We discuss the ‘art of building’ successful startups and VC firms as well as the philosophy and practices that have driven Kate to find and invest in groundbreaking technologies over her venture career.

We're honored to host Sunil Nagaraj, a visionary investor in the intersection of deep tech and climate innovation, and founding partner of Ubiquity Ventures. Nagaraj's unique perspective on "software beyond the screen" and his commitment to supporting early-stage, tech-driven startups are at the forefront of our discussion. We dive into the essence of nurturing technologies with disciplined financing and the strategic scaling of startups to mitigate climate change.

Our conversation spans a variety of topics, from the complexities of venture capital in the climate tech space to the pivotal role of startups in driving substantial change. Sunil shares insights on the importance of focusing on high-impact areas and the potential pitfalls in the startup ecosystem, particularly emphasizing the significance of avoiding the "moonshot culture" that often hinders the progress of deep tech ventures.

About VSC Ventures:

VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in early-stage startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC.

Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds.

Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem.

Links discussed in this episode:

Moonshot Culture is Strangling Deeptech article: https://www.ubqt.vc/p/moonshot-culture-is-strangling-deeptech

Ubiquity University: https://university.ubiquity.vc/

This week, we have the privilege of presenting a discussion from "Consensus in Conversation," hosted by Conor Gaughan, featuring Matt Rogers, CEO of Mill Mills. This episode dives into Matt's impressive journey from his formative years at Apple, where he contributed to the design of groundbreaking products like the iPhone and iPod, to co-founding Nest, and now leading the charge at Mill with a mission to combat food waste through innovative consumer hardware.