By Erica Wenger
The Dear Twentysomething podcast started because we wanted to create a space for ambitious and curious twentysomethings to connect with the successful changemakers they most look up to.
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The podcast currently has 114 episodes available.
This week we chat with Ben Lang!
Ben has spent his life hopping between New York, Tel Aviv, and San Francisco. He is a builder, former founder, and community guy, always in multiple places at one time.
He was an early member of the Notion team, where he led community for nearly 5 years. He actively makes angel investments and advises a few select startups.
He’s helping world-class talent discover what’s next through next play.
Follow us!
Ben Lang: @benln
next play: @nextplayso
Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
This week we chat with Nik Sharma!
Nik is the CEO of Sharma Brands, a strategic initiatives firm working with a wide range of brands to help grow and scale revenue across digital platforms.
Nik is one of AdWeek’s Young & Influential, Forbes 30 under 30, Business Insider's up and coming Investors to Watch, and an investor and advisor to some of the fastest-growing brands in commerce.
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Nik Sharma: @mrsharma
Sharma Brands: @sharmabrands
Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
This week we chat with Sieva Kozinsky!
Sieva is a founder of Enduring Ventures, a long-term holding company that buys wonderful businesses and holds them forever. Sieva is a lifelong entrepreneur who started Enduring Ventures with Xavier Helgesen, taking inspiration from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway model.
Together with investors, they own stakes in over 20 companies, including Somewhere.com, Scribe Media, and Abstract. Sieva is a founder of Enduring Ventures, a long-term holding company that buys wonderful businesses and holds them forever. Sieva is a lifelong entrepreneur who started Enduring Ventures with Xavier Helgesen, taking inspiration from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway model.
Together with investors, they own stakes in over 20 companies, including Somewhere.com, Scribe Media, and Abstract.
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Sieva Kozinsky: @sievakozinsky
Enduring Ventures: @enduring.ventures
Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
This week we chat with Liz Wessel!
Liz Wessel is a Partner at First Round Capital, a pre-seed and seed venture fund, based in San Francisco. Prior to joining First Round, she was a Visiting Group Partner at Y Combinator, where she worked directly with over 110 early-stage startups. Liz has also been investing as an angel since 2016, backing over 60 startups, including Ramp, ScaleAI, Ro, Artera (fka WELL Health), FreeWill, Snackpass and others.
Before becoming a full-time investor, Liz was the co-founder and CEO of WayUp, an early-career recruitment platform used by over 7 million candidates and thousands of companies. She launched WayUp in 2014 and ran it for seven years — during which time she raised over $40 million in venture and was with the company as CEO through its M&A exit in 2021.
Prior to WayUp, Liz worked at Google as a product marketing manager. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor’s in Political Science, Mathematics and Japanese.
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Liz Wessel: @lizwessel
First Round Capital: @firstround
Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
This week we chat with Casey Lewis!
Casey is a youth trends expert and brand consultant. Formerly an editor at Teen Vogue, MTV, and New York Magazine.
She now writes After School, a trends newsletter read by 45,000+ people, and helps companies reach Gen Z.
Follow us!
Casey Lewis: @caseymlewis
Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
This week our host, Erica Wenger, chats about her most recent essay: Elephants in the Wild!
On this episode Erica dives into her newest essay which draws a parallel between the Ironman Triathlon and successful startups, focusing on the qualities that create strong, long-lasting brands.
Using the Ironman community as an example, Erica highlights how Elephants—those built on social attraction, mission-driven growth, and public transparency—foster deep loyalty through identity, community, and shared culture.
Read the essay here: Elephants in the Wild
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Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
This week we chat with Jason Yeh!
Jason Yeh is the Founder of Adamant, a fundraising strategy and investor relations firm dedicated to making capital raising less painful for founders and fund managers around the world.
As a formal and informal advisor to startups, he’s helped companies raise over $300MM in capital - first as an investor at Greycroft Partners and afterwards as a founder where he led multiple fundraises. His previous company Tape sold to Hustle in 2020.
Jason is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Harvard Business School.
Follow Us!
Jason Yeh: @jayyeh
Adamant: @adamantfounders
Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
This week we chat with April Underwood!
April Underwood is co-founder and Managing Director of Adverb Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology startups launched in 2023. In addition, April is a member of the boards of directors for Zillow Group and Eventbrite, and a co-founder of the #ANGELS angel investing collective through which she backed over 50 companies as an angel investor.
April brings 20 years of experience building software to her role as an investor. Until 2019, April was the first Chief Product Officer at Slack Technologies, Inc, where she led Product, Platform, Design, and Research as the company scaled 10X to IPO-ready in less than 4 years. Prior to joining Slack in 2015, April was director of product at Twitter from 2010 to 2015 from through its IPO.
Previously, April has held product, partnerships, and engineering roles at Google, Travelocity, and Intel. April has also been a founder: in 2020, She founded Nearby, an e-commerce marketplace composed of local retailers backed by GV, Obvious Ventures, Redpoint, and many prominent operator angel investors, and her team was acquired by Twitter in 2021.
April holds a B.B.A. in Management Information Systems and Business Honors from The University of Texas at Austin (2001), and an M.B.A. from The University of California at Berkeley (2007).
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April Underwood: @aunder
Adverb Ventures: @adverbvc
Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
This week we chat with Andrew Gazdecki!
Andrew is a 4x founder with 3x exits, former CRO, and founder of Acquire.com. Gazdecki has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, and Entrepreneur Magazine, as well as prominent industry blogs such as Mashable, TechCrunch and VentureBeat.
Follow Us!
Andrew Gazdecki: @agazdecki
Acquire.com: @acquiredotcom
Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
This week we chat with Sara Mauskopf!
Sara Mauskopf is the CEO and Co-founder of Winnie, a leading marketplace for daycare and preschool helping millions of parents across the United States. Parents use Winnie to discover high-quality local daycares and preschools and learn all about their programs including detailed descriptions, photos, tuition information, licensing status, availability data and more.
Child care providers use Winnie to get the tools and support to grow their business. Sara has a background in consumer technology and product management and is also a mom of 3 young children
Follow us!
Sara Mauskopf: @sm
Winnie: @winnie
Erica Wenger: @erica_wenger
Dear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething
The podcast currently has 114 episodes available.