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Today's guest is Marcus Ryu, Co-Founder/Former CEO of Guidewire Software and General Partner at Battery Ventures, one of the longest-standing technology-focused venture and growth equity firms in the world with over $13 billion in AUM across its fund history.

Guidewire, which Marcus co-founded in 2001 and led as CEO for over two decades, became the defining platform for property and casualty insurance software — going public on the NYSE in 2012 and scaling to a multi-billion dollar enterprise serving hundreds of insurers globally. Today, Guidewire trades at a market cap north of $10 billion and remains the gold standard for core systems modernization in the insurance industry.

Since transitioning to Battery Ventures, Marcus has brought his operator lens to bear as an investor, focusing on enterprise software and the intersection of technology and complex, regulated industries.

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LISTENER DISCRETION: The views and opinions Mark shares on this podcast are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Brighton Park Capital. Nothing discussed today should be taken as investment advice or an offer or solicitation with respect to any securities.  Any topics discussed today are for illustrative purposes only 

Listener Discretion: Please note the views and comments expressed by Logan on today’s show is his own and do not reflect the views of ScaleView Partners. All topics covered in today’s episode should not be taken as financial advice. 

Today's guest is Mark Dzialga, Founder and Managing Partner of Brighton Park Capital, a Greenwich-based growth equity firm that has scaled to nearly $4 billion in AUM since its founding in 2019. Brighton Park invests in entrepreneur-led, growth-stage software, healthcare, and tech-enabled services companies, with a portfolio that includes Darktrace, Coralogix, HITRUST, Canary Technologies, Orca AI, and Orbital Witness.

Before founding BPC, Mark spent over 20 years at General Atlantic, where he chaired the Investment Committee from 2007 through 2017 and helped expand GA's footprint across Europe, Latin America, India, and Asia. He played a pivotal role in the growth and dominance of General Atlantic. Earlier in his career, Mark was co-head of the Technology M&A Group at Goldman Sachs.

In today's conversation, we'll dive into why Mark left one of the most respected growth investing platforms in the world to build his own, how he's navigating the so-called "SaaS apocalypse" and the AI revolution, what revenue durability really means today, the question of will AI make new jobs, how to adapt and embrace AI in white collared jobs, how Brighton Park wins deals in a crowded growth equity landscape, and his advice for the next generation of investors trying to break into the industry.

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Today's guest is Matt Moore, Co-Founder and CTO of Chainguard — the software supply chain security company on a mission to make the open-source ecosystem safe for enterprises everywhere. 

Matt's background spans some of the most consequential corners of the cloud-native world. Before co-founding Chainguard, he was a core contributor to the open-source ecosystem and played a pivotal role at Google, where he helped shape the Kubernetes and supply chain security landscape that underpins much of modern software infrastructure today.

In today's conversation, we'll dive into Matt's journey from open-source engineering to founding a company, how Chainguard is tackling one of the most critical — and often overlooked — challenges in enterprise software, the philosophy behind building security into the foundation rather than bolting it on, what it takes to turn deep technical expertise into a venture-backed company, and his vision for the future of software supply chain security in an AI-first world.

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Welcome back to the FinanZe Podcast, episode 25.

Today’s guest is Marty Vanderploeg, Co-Founder and former CEO of Workiva — the cloud platform that fundamentally transformed how organizations manage, connect, and report critical data. Today, Workiva serves over more than 80% of the Fortune 1000.

Marty’s journey into software and entrepreneurship is anything but conventional. He began his career as a professor at Iowa State University before making the leap into building companies, founding Engineering Animation Inc., a pioneer in visualization software whose technology played a role in some of the most complex and high-profile events in modern history.

He later co-founded Workiva, scaling it into a category-defining SaaS platform at the intersection of financial reporting, compliance, and enterprise data management.

In today’s conversation, we’ll dive into Marty’s transition from academia to entrepreneurship, the story of EAI, the founding and scaling of Workiva, establishing a positive company culture, the lessons from building multiple companies, and what it takes to create, the future of software companies in today’s AI first world, and advice to young people on building enduring companies

Let’s get into it.

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Welcome to the FinanZe podcast, episode 24. Today’s guest has one of the most fascinating original stories you’ll hear in the world of investing — from being a US Army Ranger qualified sniper to founding one of the most transformative internet companies in the restaurant industry, to now backing the companies he believes can solve the most urgent problems facing our planet.

Chuck Templeton is a Managing Partner and co-lead of S2G Investments, a firm focused on growth and late-stage venture businesses across food & agriculture, energy, and oceans. Before he was an investor, Chuck was an operator & serial entrepreneur. He founded and was the CEO of OpenTable, which fundamentally changed how we experience dining out. He then went on to serve as lead investor and Chairman of the Board at Grubhub.

In today’s episode we talk about Chuck’s time in the military, early career at OpenTable and Grubhub, his investing philosophy at S2G Investments, the software landscape, and his advice for young people entering an AI first job workforce. 

Link to S2G Investments Website: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/

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In this episode, we sit down with Barry Eggers, Co-Founder and Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.

We are going to explore his journey from Silicon Valley’s early days, to leading one of the most influential venture firms. We dig into the founding of Lightspeed, starting the M&A practice at Cisco, the story of Snapchat, his investment strategy, the AI era, the one misconception young VCs should know, and EQ over IQ in investing. 

If you enjoy today’s episode please leave a 5 star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 

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 In this episode, I am joined by one of the top technology investment bankers on wall street, Ted Smith. Ted is the Co-Founder and President of Union Square Advisors, a technology focused investment bank.

After graduating with a bachelor's degree from Notre Dame University, Ted began his career at Morgan Stanley, where he was an early member of the firm’s technology investment banking group. 

Prior to co-founding Union Square Advisors he was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, where he headed the global software investment banking practice. He also served as a corporate executive at Novell, including as Vice President of both Corporate Development and Business Development. 

In our episode we chat about his time in the early days of Morgan Stanley’s tech group, the dot.com era, founding Union Square, his career journey, AI tech trends, work life balance, and his advice for junior investment bankers. 

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In this episode of the FinanZe podcast, I am joined by one of the top investment bankers on Wall street, Steve McLaughlin. Steve is the Founder and CEO of FT Partners, one of the premier investment banks in the world and the largest focused on Fintech. 

After graduating with a finance degree from Villanova University, Steve spent his first few years working at GE Capital in their famous financial management program. He then received his MBA from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania, leading him to Goldman Sachs, where he spent 8 years at the firm becoming the head of the fintech group until his departure in 2002. With his entrepreneurial spirit and love for fintech, Steve started Financial Technology Partners in San Francisco. Steve was named the most influential dealmaker in Fintech by The Institutional Investor in 2017 and has continued to close some of the biggest deals in the fintech industry. 

Thank you to our sponsors at Magic Mind. Please learn more about the healthy energy drink shot at https://magicmind.com
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In this episode I am joined by another amazing guest Mrs. Saira Malik. Mrs. Malik has had a fantastic career in the finance world. Mrs. Malik is currently the Chief Investment Officer of Nuveen, one of the largest investment management firms in the world. 

Previously, she spent her first 6 years at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in equity research. Saira was recognized as one of Pensions & Investments’ "Most Influential Women in Institutional Investing" in 2023 and has been profiled in Barron’s, which ranked her among the top 100 most influential women in U.S. finance. She was also named one of the LinkedIn "Top Voices in Finance". 

Saira holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and a masters of finance from The University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lastly, she holds the CFA designation.

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Thank you to our sponsors at Magic Mind. Please learn more about the healthy energy drink shot at https://magicmind.com

Order your Magic Mind today at https://a.co/d/4R06mLi

Hi everyone, and welcome to the FinanZe podcast, episode 19. Today I am joined by another fantastic guest Mr. Tom Gotsch. Tom has had a fantastic career in the finance world with over 9 years of investment banking experience. Tom is currently a Director at TD Cowen, one of the top investment banks in the world. Tom began his professional career with Raytheon Technologies where he was a program manager for 8 years before transitioning to MHT Partners, which was eventually acquired by Cowen and Cowen was recently acquired by TD Bank. Tom holds a bachelors and masters degree in industrial engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In addition, Tom earned his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Business.

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