First Commit

Today, we sat down with Sean Simons, a Senior Associate at Newark Venture Partners. Sean had an untraditional path into Venture Capital. He started his career at PhotoShelter and 212 brewing before beginning a fellowship at NVP. While at NVP, he worked as a scrap collector and airplane washer. Five years later, Sean has built a strong brand by leading impressive investments within supply chain & logistics. Join us as Sean dives into getting his foot in the door, how to win deals, theme-focused sourcing, why the supply chain is essential, and the future of maritime technology.

Episode Chapters:

1. Working in Sales and Washing Airplanes - 1:42
2. The Journey into Venture Capital - 6:45
3. Why You? - 9:07
4. NVP’s Investment Strategy - 11:10
5. Seed Stage Investment Process - 15:15
6. The Supply Chain Innovation - 17:08
7. Globalization and Nearshoring Supply Chain - 20:55
8. Blue Economy Technology - 23:19
9. EV Waste and Innovation - 29:08
10. Final Questions - 29:56

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

Today we are joined by Rickard Brüel Gabrielsson, an artificial intelligence researcher and co-founder of Unbox AI. Rickard moved from Sweden to the US to attend Stanford and immediately dove into learning systems and artificial intelligence. Rickard breaks down unsupervised learning, text-based language models, revolutionizing retail, pricing your product, encoding semantics, and where companies will incorporate foundation models.

Episode Chapters:

1. Transitioning from Sweden to the US - 1:35
2. Interest in Learning Systems & AI - 2:40
3. Unsupervised Learning - 5:24
4. Foundation Models - 7:14
5. Unbox AI - 9:29
6. Building Application Models - 11:41
7. VC in the eyes of an AI founder - 14:26
8. Fine-tuning and Vector Databases - 17:08
9. Embedding Semantics - 19:50
10. Protecting Domain Expertise - 24:40
11. Are Smaller Players Ripe for AI Innovation? - 26:43
12. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) applicability - 28:52
13. 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.  

During today’s discussion, we sat down with Kartik Chopra, CIA officer turned Founder, leading Devron - a federated machine learning platform. With a Series A backing from Tiger Global, Devron revolutionizes data access and empowers teams to analyze and build models on-site. Join us as Kartik shares his journey, AI's impact on investing, finding a VC partner, machine learning capabilities, and the state of data privacy.

Episode Chapters: 

1. Childhood and Rutgers University - 1:45 
2. Roles & Responsibilities in the CIA - 3:45
3. Roots of Devron - 5:35
4. Devron as a Solution - 7:20
5. Raising VC Capital - 10:54
6. Scaling Post Fundraise - 13:30
7. Enterprise versus Government Customers - 15:34
8. Trends in Machine Learning - 19:14
9. Investing in Machine Learning Companies - 23:26
10. Data Sharing in Regulatory Environments - 25:10 
11. Consumer Data Privacy - 27:43
12. Ending Questions - 29:00

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

During today’s discussion, we sat down with Dawit Heck, a Principal at Bain Capital Ventures based in New York.  In February, BCV announced $1.9 billion in new funds to back founders from Seed to Growth stages. Over the last 20 years, BCV has backed companies such as Attentive, DocuSign, LinkedIn, Mirakl, and more. Dawit discusses transitioning into venture capital, Bain's structure and value add, thesis building, and the current state of marketing tech and venture capital. 

Episode Chapters: 

1. Takeaways from Banking & Growth Equity - 1:25
2. Bain Capital’s Structure - 5:55
3. Former Operator Impact as an Investor - 9:47
4. Learnings from Scott Friend - 11:17
5. Thesis Building - 12:53
6. Sourcing Tips & Tricks - 15:50
7. The Power of Marketing Tech - 19:40
8. Trends within the Application Layer - 24:36
9. Vertical SaaS Solutions - 27:58
10. Content Creation and Displacing Legacy Solutions - 30:10
11. The State of Venture - 33:22
12. Ending Questions - 36:44

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 introduce John Melas-Kyriazi, Co-Founder and CEO of Standard Metrics. John began his journey as a physics Ph.D. student at Stanford before embarking on a career as an Investor in 2014 at Spark Capital in Boston. After five years of sourcing and leading 10+ investments, John left to start his own company. Standard Metrics is a portfolio collaboration tool for venture capital firms and startups. During our discussion, John dives into sourcing tactics, contributing as a younger board member, the inception of Standard Metrics, the evolution of the ideal customer profile, and the future of data automation and reporting.

Episode Chapters:

1. Path To Studying Physics - 1:22
2. Introduction to StartX - 4:35
3. Starting at Spark Capital in Boston - 7:20
4. Sourcing Tactics - 9:30
5. Transition To Leading Deals - 13:00
6. Adding Value as a Junior Board Member - 14:40
7. Catalyst for Starting Standard Metrics - 16:45
8. Evolution of The Ideal Customer Profile - 23:15
9. Future of LP Reporting - 25:25
10. Competition/Platform Displacement - 28:15
11. Automation of Financial Data - 30:20
12. Leveraging Artificial Intelligence - 32:44
13. Ending Questions - 34:50

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 sit down with Teddie Levenfiche, co-founder of PerfectTed.  Formerly an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company in LA, Teddie moved back to the UK in April 2021, where he started to create the perfect blend of natural and sustained energy. PerfectTed is revolutionizing the energy drink space in the UK with their matcha-powered energy drinks. Join us as Teddie breaks down the problems around energy drinks, sourcing high-quality matcha, big beverage companies' approach to Matcha,  metrics for CPG brands, social media & content strategy,  and experience on the BBC's Dragons' Den.

Episode Chapters:

1. Starting at Penn and Entrepreneurial Pursuit - 1:12
2. Interest in Matcha - 2:15 
3. Sourcing Matcha - 4:30
4. Misconceptions around Matcha - 7:00
5. US versus UK Adoption - 8:58
6. Scaling Distribution to 400 Stores - 12:55
7. Unit Economics Over Time - 15:50
8. Daily Metrics - 17:20
9. Drink Brands Folding into Conglomerates - 20:05
10. Dragons' Den (UK Shark Tank) - 22:40
11. Beverage Brand Teddie Respects & Why - 25:57
12. Activation Services - 27:06
13. Expanding Across Borders - 31:00
14. Ending Questions - 31:20

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 interview Judy and Eliot Fost, co-founders of Beli. Former investment analysts at McKinsey, their shared passion for food and exploration led them to create Beli, an innovative app. Beli allows users to organize restaurant lists, maps, and reviews, while also offering personalized recommendations based on their dining history. Join us as Judy and Eliot share insights on Beli as a social media platform, user acquisition, the product roadmap, competition, and their unique experience of working together as a married couple.

Episode Chapters:

1. Mckinsey to Harvard Business School - 0:55
2. Explaining Beli (App) - 4:12
3. Beli as a Social Media Platform - 6:41
4. Metrics and User Retention - 8:50
5. User Acquisition - 11:00
6. Monetization Strategy - 12:38
7. Expansion Plan - 14:30
8. Recommendations Based on Data- 16:22
9. Competition - 19:05
10. Content Creation - 20:40
11. The Future of Beli - 21:57
12. Experiences Around Food - 24:32
13. Ending Questions - 27:50

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

During today’s discussion, we sat down with Carlos Alonso-Torras, a newly promoted Partner at FinTech Collective in New York City. Carlos is a former operator turned investor with a strong passion for investing in Latin America. His current fund focuses on Seed and Series A investing in FinTech globally. Since its inception in 2012, FTC has invested in over 50 companies, including MoneyLion, Vestwell, Willa, Flutterwave, and TradeBlock. Join us as Carlos discusses shifting from an operating to investing role, starting as an Associate and working his way up to Partner, vertical specializations within FinTech, and the investing ecosystem in Latin America.

Episode Chapters:

1. Motivation to get an MBA at Penn - 1:05
2. Operations to Investing - 2:05
3. Interest in FinTech - 3:17
4. FinTech Collective - 4:10
5. Promotions in VC - 4:50
6. Portfolio Support - 5:50 
7.  Vertical Specialization in FinTech - 7:10 
8. Venture & Growth Investing in Latin America - 9:40
9. Tech Adoption in LatAm - 14:10
10. Current State of Venture Capital Funding - 16:57
11. Mattilda Investment - 19:45 
12. Decentralized Finance Solutions - 20:50
13. Ending Questions - 22:45

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

Show Notes

• LatAm Digital Payments

 We are excited to introduce Romie Boyd, a partner at Sequoia, which has an exceptional reputation for its investments from seed to IPO and beyond. Sequoia has an impressive portfolio, having partnered with prominent companies such as Airbnb, DoorDash, HubSpot, 23andMe, and more. Having previously worked with Bain Capital's Private Equity Group in Boston, Romie shares insights on transitioning from Private Equity to Growth Equity, team dynamics at Sequoia, the impact of AI on personal and investor levels, thematic sourcing, and the art of building strong founder relationships.

Episode Chapters:

1.  College Soccer to Venture Capital - 0:55
2. Joining Sequoia - 3:10
3. Private Equity to Growth Equity - 6:20
4. Founder Traits and Deal Teams - 8:00
5. Culture - 10:40
6. Advancements in AI - 13:30
7. Generative AI Impacting VC Tech Stack - 16:55
8. Data Analytics & Business Intelligence - 20:25
9. Sourcing and Thesis Building - 21:45
10. Ending Questions - 25:05

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

 Show Notes

• Generative AI Article

Today, we welcome Shubham Goel, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Affinity. Affinity is a relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers. Affinity uses machine learning to score and increase the chance of closing deals, transforming traditional CRM. In this episode, Shubham shares his experience of meeting co-founder Ray at Stanford as undergrads, and talks about the future of CRMs, risks in relationship management, expanding the business, and fostering remote team culture.

Episode Chapters:

1. Childhood in India - 1:00
2. Founding Affinity - 3:40 
3. Attending School in the Valley - 6:30
4. Affinity for PE/VC - 9:30
5. The Future of CRMs and AI - 12:30
6. Risks Impacting the Relationship Management Industry - 15:00
7. The Vision of Affinity - 17:00
8. Target Customer & Expansion - 19:20
9. VC Tech Stack - 21:10
10. Working with a Friend- 24:16
11. Team Culture and Engagement - 27:10
12. Ending Questions - 29:25

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