First Commit

This week, we sat down with  Avante Price, CEO and Co-Founder of POSH. During the conversation, we cover Avante's journey from being an undergraduate student at NYU to dropping out and starting POSH. We also cover starting an event community, finding success in a consumer-facing space, optimizing for profitability, and hiring at the early stages.

Episode Chapters:

1. DJ to Startups - 1:12
2. Three Missing Themes in Event Platforms - 5:56
3. Deciding to Drop Out - 8:24
4. Creating a New Market - 11:20
5. Gaining Market Share - 15:25
6. 2024 Roadmap - 17:51
7. Managing as a Younger Founder - 23:15
8. The Shopify Journey - 26:30
9. Events on the POSH Platform - 30:22
10. Quick Fire - 32:13

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

This week, we sat down with Avery Rosin, a Partner at Lead Edge Capital. During the conversation, we cover Avery's long journey at Lead Edge, where he has impressively navigated the path from Analyst to Partner. We also cover Lead Edge's strategy, Avery's areas of focus, his thoughts on the current macro environment, and his advice to aspiring growth equity investors.   

Episode Chapters:

1. Selling Cutco Knives - 1:20
2. Staying Power at a Fund - 5:25
3. Lead Edge's Strategy - 8:10
4. Retention is King - 12:50
5. Determining the Best Benchmarks - 16:06
6. Investing as a Generalist - 19:50
7. Healthcare IT - 21:21
8. Raising Fund II and Beyond - 26:22
9. IPO Market Opens Up - 28:22
10. Quick Fire Round - 31:55

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

We are excited to sit down with Sara Choi, Partner at Wing VC! Prior to Wing, Sara co-founded the mobile data company Airfox. Since 2019, Sara has dedicated her efforts to investing in early-stage companies operating at the intersection of bio and data. During this episode, we discuss raising VC capital (versus not), the impact of a thematic focus, and the future trajectories of drug discovery.

Episode Chapters:

1. The American Dream - 1:15
2. Founder Journey X 2 - 5:33
3. Day 1 at Wing VC - 8:10
4. Entry Stage Valuations - 12:55
5. Sector Specialization - 14:30
6. Data's Impact on Biology - 19:04
7. Sourcing Superpower - 23:43
8. VC Office Hours - 26:50
9. Drug Development - 28:37
10. Healthcare with Employers - 36:21
11. Ending Questions - 39:10

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We are excited to sit down with Pete Mathias, Partner at Alumni Ventures. Prior to VC, Pete was the lead drummer in a rock band, Filliger, where he traveled the world for 14 years. Later in his career, Pete found his way into the venture world and focused on strategic technologies critical to the United States. During the episode, we discuss breaking into VC from a non-traditional background, a network-powered approach, and why software has eaten the world.

Episode Chapters:

1. From Graduation to Rockband - 1:30
2. Discovering Venture Capital - 4:15
3. VC with a Non-Traditional Background - 6:54
4. Two Types of Investment Opportunities - 10:27
5. "I am wet clay" - 13:36
6. Investing in Nuclear Energy - 18:05
7. Tips for the "Partner Path" - 25:20
8. Is VC the Right Fit? - 27:45 
9. Ending Questions - 28:58

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

We are excited to sit down with Alessio Fanelli, Partner and CTO at Decibel. Alessio grew up in Rome and made his way to the US as an engineer at 645 before landing at Decibel Partners, an early-stage fund focused on data, dev tools, and cyber security. During the episode, we discuss dropping out of school to start a company, the importance of open-source software, how to diligence pre-product market fit, and the next wave of large language models.

Episode Chapters:

1. Growing up in Rome - 1:20
2. Learning to Code - 3:27
3. Joining 645 - 7:10
4. Partner & CTO @ Decibel - 10:42
5. Open Source Software - 15:56
6. Diligence as a Pre-PMF Investor - 26:10
7. Challenging Open AI - 29:54 
8. Now's the Time for Dev Tools? - 34:50
9. Ending Questions - 36:17

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

Check out Alessio's podcast!

We are excited to sit down with Jeff Schumann, Co-Founder and CEO at Aware. Jeff started building technology at a young age (selling software to CBS and tracking Al-Qaeda) before founding Aware, a contextual intelligence platform for organizations. During the episode, we discuss intercepting terrorist communications, the employee voice as the most important asset, and why context is king.

Episode Chapters:

1. Early Entrepreneur Days - 1:25
2. Working with the CIA - 6:10
3. Modernizing the Tech Stack at Nationwide - 11:10
4. Aware: Contextual Intelligence - 13:33
5. Ask IQ (Chat GPT for the Enterprise) - 15:28
6. Columbus: The Collaborative City - 24:17
7. Living by your Values - 27:00
8. Employee Privacy - 31:17
9. Enterprise AI Adoption Trends - 35:50
10. Ending Questions - 39:00

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

1. Moving from Paris to NYC - 1:20
2. FX Trader at BNP - 2:25
3. Joining Airswap (3rd ever Decentralized Exchange) - 4:51
4. Breaking down Draper Associates - 9:40
5. Investing with Tim Draper - 14:57
6. Crypto POV - 17:00
7. Bullish on Bitcoin - 20:30
8. Changing Consumer Behavior - 23:51
9. The Future of the Metaverse - 26:55
10. Coinbase: Leading the Way - 30:45
11.  Ending Questions - 31:14

This week, we're sitting down with Arjan Singh, the Co-Founder of Jolie. Arjan's journey into the world of beauty and wellness began early on and grew as he collaborated with entrepreneurs in high school and honed his expertise in luxury, consumer, and fashion at BCG. In today's episode, we'll delve into the essentials of building a successful consumer brand, the underlying factors of skin and hair health, the significant impact of social influence, and the number one tool every founder should utilize.

Episode Chapters:

1. Passion for Beauty Wellness - 1:20
2. The Power of Relationships - 3:32
3. Starting Jolie - 7:40
4. Developing a Shower Head - 11:46
5. Changing Consumer Behavior - 14:26
6. The Jolie Marketing Approach - 17:12
7. Valuing Connections & Experiences - 21:10
8. Product Messaging with Macro Economic Shifts - 24:15
9. Will Jolie Raise Capital? - 28:48
10. Ending Questions - 30:07

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We're excited to chat with Luke Skertich, a Principal at FJ Labs.  Prior to his role at FJ, Luke transitioned from a pre-med background to a career in product management. FJ Labs, known for its focus on early-stage marketplace businesses, has invested in industry giants such as Alibaba, Uber, and Airbnb. In this episode, Luke delves into his journey from pre-med to venture capital, shares insights on investing in marketplace platforms, and explores the dynamics of balancing supply and demand. 

Episode Chapters:

1. Initial Career Path - 1:26
2. Portfolio Value Add - 5:19
3. FJ Founding Story - 6:41
4. What is a Marketplace? - 8:55
5. Attractive Marketplace Attributes - 12:38
6. Evaluating a Marketplace/Competitive Landscape - 15:32
7. API Enabled Marketplaces - 22:06
8. AI Enhancing the User Experience - 26:15
9. SaaS Enabled Marketplaces - 28:15
10. Ending Questions - 31:23

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We're excited to chat with Jacob Effron, a Partner at Redpoint Ventures.  Before joining Redpoint in San Francisco, Jacob served as a product manager at Flatiron Health.  In addition to being an investor, Jacob hosts two podcasts, Unsupervised Learning and Vital Signs. Jacob sheds light on the impact of artificial intelligence in healthcare, the influence of large language models (LLMs) on drug discovery, the current importance of value-based care, and the future prospects of AGI!

Episode Chapters:

1. Economic Development in East Africa - 1:26
2. Breaking down the Product Manager Role - 2:54
3. Redpoint's Strategy - 4:42
4. Healthcare AI Themes - 7:32
5. AI Meets Drug Discovery - 10:20
6. The Impact of AI on Clinical Trials - 14:35
7. Value-Based-Care versus Fee-For-Service - 17:40
8. Technology Paired with VBC - 21:00
9. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - 24:24
10. Evaluating a Founder - 27:30
11. Ending Questions - 28:54

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.