Founder & Funder Experience

“If you want to get a deal done as an entrepreneur, you can create the narrative that rationalizes your bias. And so when I call (references), I’ll give you some questions that I asked, I think the most salient piece of information is, okay, tell me a time when you were low, or that you had a transition? What did they do for you?”

— Hooman Radfar (Founder & CEO @Collective)

Today’s guest is Hooman Radfar, Founder & CEO at Collective (backed by General Catalyst, QED, Google’s Gradient Ventures, and Expa). Collective's vision is to increase the number of financially successful businesses-of-one by enabling self-employed people to focus on their passion not their paperwork.

Having been on the VC-side of the table, Hooman really understands how incentives at the capital level impact every aspect of company-building. Aside from sharing insights on the market and how Collective was born, Hooman shares his unique approach to company building, covering some of the most important pillars of any startup: 1) Fundraising and 2) Relationships. 

• The outsized opportunities in the small-business market. 
• How to dissolve bias when selecting your VC/Investor partners.
• Back to basics— doing business with people you have strong relationships with.
• Building things for the love of building!

“I would just caveat that I don't believe that being an operator makes you a better investor. It's still an incredibly hard job of picking great companies. We’ve all seen great venture capital investors who've never been operators…”

— Gautam Gupta

Today’s guest is Gautam Gupta, Partner at M13 Ventures and founder (former CEO) of NatureBox, a digitally native brand of snacks. He started his career as an early stage investor at General Catalyst, and had the great fortune to join the firm at 18 years of age, spending his first 8 years as part of a team that scaled it from a small firm to one with global reach. In this interview, Gautam talks about his unique learnings and journey from starting in venture, venturing out as a founder, and returning to venture! 

• Starting a career at a startup VC and being part of its growth into an international brand.
• The ups and downs of building a consumer startup. 
• The ONE 10x thing founders often don’t make the time for … 
• Distilling the art of successful fundraising. Period.

“I'm looking for leaders that I think can lead a company of hundreds of people in the future. And sometimes, you just don't get that feel, there's no way to quantify it. It's like a gut feeling that you have, but we're only looking to invest in companies that will have massive outcomes.” — Sheel Mohnot

Today’s guest is Sheel Mohnot, Co-founder and GP at Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV). BTV is an early-stage venture fund focused on building the future of fintech by leading seed and pre-seed rounds of fintech companies.

Before becoming an institutional investor, Sheel founded the podcast “The Pitch” and a tech-enabled food company, Thistle, serving 10’s of thousands of customers every week. He also invested in numerous tech companies as an angel investor, successfully achieving two meaningful exits in fintech companies.

In this interview, Sheel talks about the journey from operator to angel, and now, institutional investor. If you are serious about getting into venture capital for life— you’ll enjoy Sheel’s sharing!

“So I would say, the main thing I look for, is a founder

who can clearly articulate their vision.”— Sheel Mohnot

Highlights:

Successful fundraising = clarity in communication!

The single point of failure on unsuccessful early-stage venture deals.

Enjoying being a VC, unapologetically.

“I got interested in technology as a way of solving some of these major challenges I was seeing in my classroom. And that's not just education. There’s also all the other things that people need to actually have upward mobility in their lives.”

— Ashley Bittner

Today’s guest is Ashley Bittner, Founding Partner at Firework Ventures, Investing in human-centered Future of Work companies. Their current investments include: TRANSFR, Stride Funding, Hone, Learn In, Podium Education, Catch, BrainTrust, The Prelude Institute, and Edvo.

With first-hand experience as a teacher in the Bronx, a management consultant, and a political appointee in the Obama Administration, Ashley brings a thoroughly insightful learnings about the Future of Work. 

In this interview, Ashley talks about the kind of innovations needed to meet the rapidly evolving needs of our workforce. She also touches on important matters such as diversity, upward mobility, and the role policy plays in driving socioeconomic transformation.

“Bridgette (Founding Partner) and I focus a lot on how we think or how we build a platform that has really values diversity of thought, different experiences.”

— Ashley Bittner

“I think the entrepreneurs that have the best shot at success are those who have done the work to understand who they are, to have tons of confidence and courage in what they're building, but to also just be very aware, and humble about what they aren't great at.”

— Melanie Strong

Today’s guest is Melanie Strong, Managing Partner at Next Ventures and former Nike executive for over 18 years. With a history of leading diverse international teams, Melanie is one of the most passionate leaders you can find in the sports, health and wellness space. 

In this interview, Melanie talks about the fundamentals of human performance. Whether you are an athlete or not, you’ll appreciate her humble insights about career development, well-being, company-building, and life fulfilment :) 

“That's my mantra when I ride— humility, humility, humility— over and over again.”

— Melanie Strong

• Coming into venture with a fresh set of eyes.
• The exciting developments in sports, health, and wellness. 
• The #1 well-being habit that everyone needs to pay attention to!
• The ‘artform’ of early-stage venture investing.
• The people-first approach to performance and resilience.

“Hunt for a problem worth solving, and then solve it better than anything else on the market.”

— Hiten Shah (Co-Founder & CEO at FYI)

Today’s guest is Hiten Shah, Co-Founder & CEO at FYI, long-time serial founder and investor (120+ investments to date). Hiten has been in the profession of building companies since 2013— pioneering technology solutions in the analytics space that are easy-to-use and intuitive. First, with Crazy Egg, then with KISSmetrics, and now, with FYI. 

In this interview, Hiten shares some great insights into problem-hunting, product-development, and the performance psychology behind ‘0 to 1.’ Throughout this interview, you will experience his deeply empathetic, humble, and more importantly, engaging approach to company-building! Especially if you possess the ‘born to build’ mentality that so many great founders have!

“This is one big problem we see founders do: preventing the thing (problem) next time is not as important as solving the thing first. Especially with a big problem!”

— Hiten Shah (Co-Founder & CEO at FYI)

• Problem-hunting— go where most don’t, and out-solution those who are there! 
• The 5-Day MVP rule 
• Solving big problems faster!
• Don’t understand something? Start with context! 
• Controlling how you respond to what happens.
• Solving for the future, not recreating the past.

Today’s guest is Jun Deng, Investment partner at Social Starts & Joyance Partners— investing in the emerging science of health and happiness. The funds have achieved great success, effectively investing in multiple unicorns and companies exceeding 100MM in valuation. 

Jun has a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and intentionally crafted her career in Venture Capital due to her love for new technologies that disrupt traditional areas. In this video interview, Jun shares her experience in investing and scientific due diligence— combining her love for data analysis with emotional intelligence to evaluate the companies building the future! 

Today's guest is Alex Mans, serial entrepreneur, founder and president at FLYR Labs. FLYR is a company radically transforming air travel through cutting edge technologies that are years ahead of what has been commercially available. Backed by notable tech figures such as Peter Thiel, FLYR solves complex problems with beautifully engineered solutions to help leading airlines around the world unlock their full potential. 

Even before founding and building FLYR, Alex has been building software and hardware products since 2007. In this interview, Alex takes us through his journey of entrepreneurship. But more importantly, he talks about the advantages and opportunities of solving the really hard things that no one else is! 

"I got to see this machine learning AI space progress and now I'm working in blockchain. And I have to tell you— there's a pattern. I just see this pattern.”

—Jack O’Holleran

Today's guest is Jack O’Holleran, serial entrepreneur, and Co-founder and CEO at SKALE Labs. SKALE is a technology company solving the blockchain scalability problem, helping the ecosystem run hundreds of millions of smart contracts and transactions per second. Before founding SKALE, Jack also co-founded and grew Aktana, the leading SaaS Sales and Marketing Analytics platform for Global Life Sciences companies. In this exciting interview, Jack takes us on an engaging journey of entrepreneurship— the inevitability of technology, and, the growth mindset behind building or achieving anything new! 

• From riding horses and scooping snow to building tech companies in Silicon Valley. 
• Patterns in innovation and what that means for the future of technology and blockchain!
• The growth mindset behind building and achieving anything new!
• A world with much fewer middle-men. 
• Building an AI & Machine-Learning driven product before people even knew what AI was!

“It just seems to me like an inevitable thing, where you can— through smart contracts and open source software, and essentially blockchains— create new rails rules and governance for the way we use software systems.”

— Jack O’Holleran

Today's guest is Neha Tanna M.D., Investment Partner at Social Starts & Joyance Partners. Neha and the team are early-stage investors in the emerging science of health and happiness.  The funds have achieved great success, effectively investing in multiple unicorns and companies exceeding 100MM in valuation. 

In this interview, Neha Tanna takes us through her unique personal and professional journey. From medical general practitioner to innovation in the medical industry, and now an investment partner in a global institutional venture fund.

Neha's sharing is a breath of fresh air— direct, engaging, and authentic. If you consider a career in venture, Neha's sharings will help you connect some dots between points A and B. If you are an early-stage founder looking for the right investment partner— you will gain an appreciation for the people behind the investments that enable breakthrough innovations to achieve dramatic scale and impact. 

• From doctor to investor at an institutional venture fund— how? 
• Radical candor— starting with yourself! 
• Learning and growing in the venture profession. 
• Happiness is a science. 
• Better collaboration between nature and science— the next emerging frontier of innovation?