First Commit

We're excited to talk with Jason Bornstein, Partner and Head of Research at Forerunner. Jason started his career by leading growth marketing at Bonobos, scaling it into one of the first venture-backed DTC brands to achieve $100M in revenue. Post business school, he joined Forerunner, a VC firm specializing in early-stage consumer-driven ventures.  Jason shares his experiences of shifting from conventional marketing tactics and his exploration of VC during his business studies and discusses Forerunner's people-centric strategy, including the innovative brand power score.

Episode Chapters:

1. Starting in Growth Marketing at Bobobos - 1:55
2. Diversification across Marketing Channels - 5:53
3. Business School to Investing - 9:58
4. Forerunner's Investment Strategy - 12:48
5. Joining as a Principal and Promotion to Partner - 14:05
6. Carving out a Head of Research Position - 16:10
7. Thematic Focus in Practice - 18:25
8. Forerunner's Brand Power Score - 22:03
9. Improving Your Score - 26:02
10. Ending Questions - 28:45

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 Sean Thorne, founder and CEO at People Data Labs. Sean dropped out of the University of Oregon to start his first company, Hallspot. Taking his learnings from Hallspot, he started People Data Labs (PDL). PDL is an innovative API product for developers & data scientists, with over 3 billion data records. Sean discusses why every company is a data company, how perseverance wins out, powering AI companies, and the importance of a clear story while fundraising.

Episode Chapters:

1. Entrepreneur Pursuit - 1:30
2. Starting a Company at 19 - 3:50
3. Building People Data Labs - 6:20
4. Founder, Market Fit - 7:45
5. The Evolving Ideal Customer Profile - 11:05
6. How to Win as a Data Company - 13:55
7. Fundraising from VCs - 17:42
8. Data is the New Oil - 21:20
9. Privacy Impact - 23:20
10. Who will benefit from AI? - 26:15
11. Ending Questions - 29:50

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 Victor Guwein, founder and managing partner at M25. Victor started his career as a founder of a scooter company, Scooter Versity. At 23, Victor founded M25 to invest solely in the Midwest.  Fast forward 8 years, and M25 has invested in over 130 companies and is now investing out of its third fund. Victor discusses why the Midwest is ripe for disruption, the M25 DNA,  valuations shifting with market dynamics, and how to win at the pre-seed / seed stage.

Episode Chapters:

1. Starting a Scooter Company - 1:20
2. Starting a Venture Fund (@ 23) - 3:06
3. Building a Track Record - 7:48 
4. How VCs make Money - 10:32
5. The M25 Sourcing DNA - 14:10
6. Objectivity with Decision Making - 16:50
7. The Importance of Entry Valuations - 20:00
8. Interest Rates Impact on Valuations - 24:08
9. Coastal Investors moving Central - 27:32
10. Advice to Emerging Managers - 30:11
11. Ending Questions - 31:45

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 Manu Sharma, an investor at Tusk Venture Partners.  Manu started his career at Dallas VC, helping launch the fund before heading to business school in Chicago. This year, Manu joined Tusk Venture Partners, an early-stage fund based in NYC. Tusk has a unique model in that it helps companies navigate highly regulated markets. Manu dives into the benefits of business school, doubling down in regulated markets, pros and cons of AI and what areas of vertical SaaS are ripe for technological disruption. 

Episode Chapters: 

1. Moving from India to the United States - 1:30
2. Building Dallas Venture Capital - 2:15
3. Why Business School? - 4:00
4. Tusk Venture Partners - 7:10
5. Helping Companies with Regulatory Risks - 9:45
6. The History of Vertical SaaS - 11:16
7. AI Execution on Vertical SaaS - 18:12
8. The Contract Network (Legal Tech) -  23:10
9. The End State of LLMs - 25:45
10. Platform Team in VC - 27:12
11. Ending Questions - 28:45

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 2x founder Alex Jekowsky. During college, he launched Ulyngo, a multi-channel marketplace that enabled universities to facilitate student life commerce. Alex grew the business until its acquisition by Modo Labs in 2019. He then founded Cents, a leading laundry business management system. Cents helps laundromats with everything from onboarding, payments, employee management, customer records, in-store operations, and more!

Episode Chapters:

1. Founding Ulyngo - 1:15
2. Interest in Laundromats - 4:48
3. Modernizing the Laundry Tech Stack - 7:30
4. The Consumer Experience - 10:50
5. Cents' Addressable Market - 12:40
6. Optimizing the Value Chain - 15:32
7. GTM Strategy - 18:27
8. Vertical SaaS Takeover - 23:30
9. Payments in Vertical SaaS Businesses - 26:35
10. Horizontal versus Vertical SaaS - 28:00
11. Ending Questions - 30:15

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

In today's episode, we're joined by Daniel Fetner, a General Partner at Alpaca.  Before joining Alpaca, Daniel founded Soil Connect, a SaaS-enabled marketplace to manage and acquire soil. Daniel joined Alpaca in 2018 as Chief of Staff and later moved into an investor role. At Alpaca, he primarily focuses on real estate and construction tech. Daniel dives into how he recruited for VC, why specialization matters, PropTech as a standalone category, and the current state of the market.

Episode Chapters:

1. Founding Soil Connect - 1:45
2. Founder -> Funder - 4:36
3. Alpaca's 4 Founder Strategy - 10:47
4. Category Specialization as an Investor - 13:40
5. PropTech Evolution - 16:12
6. Hardware meets Software - 21:40 
7. PropCo/OpCo Structure - 23:15
8. Real Estate Tech Enablement - 26:35
9. Multiples Leveling Off - 28:00
10. Ending Questions - 29:43

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 Mike Hinckley, the founder of Growth Equity Guide. Mike started his career in investment banking before working in growth equity at General Atlantic. Mike noticed firsthand the need for interview prep resources and sought to create a dedicated growth equity platform.  With recruiting in full swing, Mike dives into growth equity as an asset class over time, tips and timelines for breaking in, and the importance (or not) of networking,

Episode Chapters:

1. Investment Banking -> Growth Equity -> Tech - 1:33
2. Growth Equity Interview Prep - 5:21
3. GE Evolving Overtime - 7:00
4. Recruiting Landscape - 9:45
5. How to Stand Out in a Crowded Market - 14:53
6. Networking - 21:37
7. Interview Structure - 23:04
8. Ending Questions - 30:00

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

Today, we sat down with Jacqueline Blackburn, a Principal at Decisive Point. Jacqueline was an athlete at the Naval Academy before serving as a platoon commander for six years after college. Now, Jacqueline is focused on investing in defense, energy, and infrastructure. During this episode, Jacqueline discusses the importance of purpose and team, early-stage investing in deep tech, becoming a strategic partner, innovation during times of need, and the current state of globalization.

Episode Chapters: 

1. Starting at the Naval Academy - 1:28
2. Deployment and Platoon Responsibilities - 4:01
3. Introduction to Venture Capital - 6:54
4. Investment Strategy at Decisive Point - 9:55
5. Hardware, Robotics, Drone, and Quantum Investing - 12:35
6. How to Win Deals - 16:03
7. Hardware meets Software - 18:20
8. Success Stories in Defense (Anduril) - 20:20
9. Building in Advanced Manufacturing - 24:02
10. Geopolitical Collaboration - 26:18
11. Ending Questions - 28:10

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 Charlotte Japp, the Head of Platform at ffVC. Charlotte began her career in creative marketing and later founded Cirkel, a platform that facilitates connections between experienced and younger professionals for mutual career support. Fundraising for Cirkel served as her introduction to the VC ecosystem. During this episode, Charlotte provides insights into platform's evolving role, the value VCs bring to the table, the assessment of platform performance, brand development, and her vision for the future of platform strategies.

Episode Chapters:

1. Media Background - 1:30
2. Founding Cirkel - 4:33
3. The Role of Platform - 6:26
4. Value Add as a VC - 9:55
5. Individual KPIs and Metrics - 12:31
6. Prioritizing Portfolio Tasks - 15:25
7. Early Stage versus Growth Equity - 17:45
8. Brand Building as a VC - 19:15
9. Winning Deals - 25:36
10. Sequoia Cuts Talent Team - 27:38
11. Ending Questions - 31:33

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 chat with Tycho Onnasch, General Manager of Trust Machines and Co-Founder of Zest Protocol. Originally from Amsterdam, Tycho attended Oxford University before founding Deedmob, a volunteer management platform. Now, Tycho is building Zest Protocol, the first on-chain Bitcoin lending protocol. Tycho discusses deciding where to build in Bitcoin, introduction to smart contracts, adoption points in Bitcoin, regulatory jurisdiction, and transitioning to a mainstay currency. 

Episode Chapters:

1. Dutch Culture - 1:30
2. Building Deepmob - 2:57
3. Exposure to Bitcoin - 5:12
4. What is Finance? - 8:55
5. The Role of Bitcoin in DeFi - 11:20
6. Building at Trust Machines - 14:57
7. How Zest Protocol Profits - 18:42
8. The Importance of Bitcoin Lending - 21:55
9. Regulatory Oversight in Crypto - 23:45
10. Investing in Crypto - 26:45
11. Traditional Banking Systems & Bitcoin's Impact - 30:22
12. Ending Questions - 31:44

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