Founder & Funder Experience

“I think the real definition (of empathy) for me is just having a full understanding of the whole person.”

— Puneet Agarwal

Keeping it ‘@True’... 

Today's guest is Puneet Agarwal, General Partner at True Ventures, a seed and Series A stage venture fund in San Francisco that is empowering extraordinary founders from all walks of life. The True VC team has invested in iconic companies such as Peloton, Duo, Blue Bottle, and Fit Bit, to name a few.  

But logos hardly do justice to the depth of learning, coordination, and that community goes behind every single founder they partner with! 

In this interview, we get a comprehensive look into the psychology and experience behind one of True’s incredible General Partners, Puneet Agarwal. Puneet’s insights come from a place of deep humility while providing an incredibly lateral view of all things that matter to founders and people in tech— leadership, empathy, and company-building. 

“I think what I've said before, and I'll say, again, is that I think venture capital is a fundamentally human business.”

— Puneet Agarwal

• Keeping it ‘True’ — VC as a human business. 
• Coming full circle on venture— starting a career in venture, leaving to be an operator, and returning.
• 360 vision on founders— a sophisticated use of empathy for evaluating, partnering, and investing in visionary founders. 
• Pushing the fold in early-stage VC— how can you successfully maximize risk at the earliest stages?
• Cross-functional innovation— product, go-to-market, and business model!

“So, we're really looking for, you know, is this person able to navigate from an entry point and then find a bigger vision down the road that they can, again, also navigate?”

— Puneet Agarwal

“We are big believers that everybody in technology is

standing on the shoulders of giants.”

— Satya Patel

Today's guest is Satya Patel, Founding Partner at Homebrew, a seed stage venture fund in San Francisco focused on helping entrepreneurs who are building within the Bottom-Up Economy. Alongside his partner, Hunter Walk, Satya and the team are investing in mission-driven founders who are leveraging technology— often in some novel way— to democratize access to products, services, data, customers, revenue, markets, and more! 

Satya’s thoughtful sharing provides piercing clarity to a myriad of topics— venture investing, career development, and company building. Anyone who consumes large volumes of content will find Satya’s sharing to be a breath of fresh air! 

• The bottom-up economy and making the world a more equitable place to live. 
• The best of both worlds— classical VC and operational support. 
• Operating experience— a double-edged sword?
• Bringing the product-philosophy to investing.
• The ONE domain of expertise every VC must master. 
• The founder’s relationship with capital— necessary evil, or, a rewarding path to long-term value creation and partnership?

“That's how we're gonna level up mankind— by augmenting people's natural capabilities with the software and tools that we create. Give them superpowers and make them Superhuman—that's where the name of the company came from.”

— Vivek Sodera

Today's guest is Vivek Sodera, Co-Founder at Superhuman, the fastest email client in the world. The team has rebuilt the inbox from the ground up to make customers brilliant at what they do. To date, Superhuman has over 300,000 people on their waitlist, and raised over $51MM in VC led by a16z and First Round Capital. 

Vivek’s journey as a serial entrepreneur is packed with humble insights that come from a deep respect for the ‘art of the start’ and beyond. If you too are a passionate operator and team-builder, you will feel a strong kinship with Vivek. 

“I think the biggest growth area for me personally, is going super deep in the context of being more external facing— this is actually a real-time conversation I'm having right now with my co-founder, Rahul...”

— Vivek Sodera

• From studying chemical and nuclear engineering, to serial entrepreneurship— how? 
• Co-creation and serendipity— meeting Rahul Vohra and joining forces to create Superhuman!
• Discovering the quotient for product-market fit. 
• Building a world-class team who are obsessed with delighting customers. 

“ I think if I have one DNA very much in common with Silicon Valley is just this insane amount of optimism. For me everything is possible. That's why I went from rug salesman to venture capitalist.”

— Pejman Nozad

Today's guest is Pejman Nozad, Founding Managing Partner of Pear.VC, an early-stage venture capital firm partnering with entrepreneurs from day ‘zero’ to build category defining companies.

Pejman has over 15 years of experience investing in early stage high tech start-ups. He's invested in over 100 startups and has seeded several multi-billion dollar companies such as Dropbox, Lending Club, Gusto ( Zenpayroll), Doordash, Guardant Health and Branchmetrics.

As a human being and professional investor, Pejman is someone with an inherently ‘positive-sum’ approach to life and business. In this video interview, Pejman covers key areas of his most unprecedented career journey into VC— one that connects all the dots in hindsight while illuminating the future with foresight. 

“I encourage entrepreneurs to have a global view, I encourage entrepreneurs to think about outside where we are— some of the best entrepreneurs I've ever worked with investments in themselves.”

— Pejman Nozad

• From rug salesman to rockstar venture capitalist— how?
• What does being the BEST seed investor mean?
• Self-awareness as a guiding mechanism to a rewarding career. 
• The core ingredients to building ‘category defining’ companies. 
• Learning from the great investments you miss.

“I think the transition is learning that I am a whole center in and of myself. ”

— Tracy Lawrence

Today's guest is Tracy Lawrence, Co-Founder & Former CEO at Chewse (acquired) and an allround complete human being. Tracy founded Chewse, a corporate tech-enabled catering company, at about 19 years of age. Their mission was to bring people and teams closer together through well-curated and sourced foods!

Over the 10 years, Tracy shaped the culture around love— for the customer, for each other, and for life. But more importantly, Chewse became a symbol for a humane organization, one that recognized the significance of emotions in business and performance, and designed their team practices around it. 

Tracy is a unique founder with truthful insights about startup life— before, during, and after! 

If you want hardcore tactics and strategies, this video interview isn’t for you. But if you want to explore how the softer, subtle human needs move and shape startups— you’ll enjoy this! :)

“I have my whole life to be a novice,

which is actually kind of thrilling if I don't attach my ego to it.”

—Tracy Lawrence

• Understanding your past and freeing yourself from it!
• Little hints that suggest that founding a company might just be for you …
• Lessons from founding and running a startup for over 10 years.
• Emotions and their place in company-building. 
• Listening to your voice and bringing your unique style of leadership to your company! 
• Life after exiting your startup! 

“I think that if we start to think about the world in a much broader way, and sort of lift ourselves out of the immediacy of Silicon Valley— and this goes for both investors and founders— there are much, much bigger market opportunities for us to get excited about.”

— Monique Woodard (Founder at Cake Ventures)

Today's guest is Monique Woodard, Founder at Cake Ventures. Cake Ventures has a simple, effective motto, “Investing in where we’re going, not where we came from.” Monique invests at the intersection of technology and newly powerful consumer groups who are mostly overlooked by most. 

Before starting her venture firm, Monique worked at 500 Startups, investing in pre-seed and seed companies in the US and Africa. She also worked as a product-focused operator and founded a national community of tech entrepreneurs.

Monique symbolizes how one can live a self-directed, meaningful life regardless of your background. Any investor and operator who is building the future of humanity can benefit from watching this video! You will feel a kinship with what Monique has to share! :)

“To put a clear perspective on it like back when I started, there were really very few black people in venture. There was Charles Hudson, and like that was it.”

— Monique Woodard

• Investing in where we’re going, not where we came from. 
• Venture Capital as a culture-setting vehicle. 
• The evolving state of diversity in tech and venture. 
• Market trends, changing demographics, and the newly powerful consumer groups. 
• The growing economic power of women in the world.
• Gray New World— the aging market is still in its infancy. 
• Journey to the west— from programming to venture investing.
• Breaking the mold for a more diverse, equitable venture ecosystem.

“There's this opportunity for well-designed technology to help us feel more in tune with our environments, more connected to our emotions, and more in touch with how our bodies feel on a physical level.”

— Sam Shames (COO & Co-Founder of Embr Labs)

This podcast interview is close to the heart for us…

Today's guest is Sam Shames, Co-Founder & COO at Embr Labs. Embr Labs pioneered the exciting category of thermal wellness technology, starting from their labs at MIT, to growing a company with customers who absolutely love their product (The Embr Wave). 

Sam and the Embr Labs team truly embody the pure, honest spirit of entrepreneurship, and one that is grounded in scientific research & innovation. As co-founder and COO of Embr Labs, Sam shares his humble insights and discoveries in company building. If you want to model and adopt a low-ego stance for growing a category defining technology company— watch this video! 

“And for us, that's the fundamental belief that technology can— and when it's at its best— should make our lives better.”

— Sam Shames (COO & Co-Founder of Embr Labs)

• Temperature— a keyboard to our nervous system? 
• Empowering people to harness temperature for their well-being.
• What do you do when no single co-founder should be CEO?
• What’s professional wrestling got to do with entrepreneurship?
• CFO— Chief Food Officer?

Today’s guest is Nina Achadjian, Partner at Index Ventures. Before joining Index, Nina was also the founder of HIVE Ventures, the first seed fund focusing on Armenian entrepreneurs. She was also a higher yield bond trader at Citigroup and the FP&A Lead for Google’s AdSense team.

In this podcast episode, Nina shares her unique journey into venture and her passion for working with brilliant entrepreneurs who shape the world we live in. Furthermore, if you are determined to find a path into VC, Nina provides a simple, effective frame for securing your VC career. 

You’ll enjoy this! :)

“I had the luxury to help other people before myself...

it grew me more into a mentor as a leader than it did as a hustler entrepreneur.”

— Sandeep Kumar Sood

Today’s guest is Sandeep Kumar Sood, Co-Founder & CEO of Kun.ai, a consulting company that has led innovation for large financial institutions for over a decade. To date, they have shipped over 150 products for the clients which include the top ten US banks, Fortune 500 technology companies, and numerous unicorn startups. 

Sandeep was also the co-founder of Junglee Games, helping the company become the largest game producer in India. Before that, Sandeep also successfully sold his first agency, Monsoon, to Capital One. 

As a serial entrepreneur, CEO, and mentor, Sandeep’s insights and sharings come from a place of deep humility and experience. If you want to adopt the right stance for transforming old, archaic industries— you must watch this interview! Sandeep will take you on a journey of building the future with an appreciation for the past...

“This to me is a moment for the industry (financial) when consulting and labor is equally if not more important than SaaS companies in the space.”

— Sandeep Kumar Sood

“It was wonderful to understand that there was so much you can do

when you can just figure out if you set your mind to it.”

— Celine Ivari (Co-Founder & CEO, WholyMe)

Today’s guest is Celine Ivari, Co-Founder & CEO of WholyMe, a company focused on delivering the healthiest, effective relief solutions for an active lifestyle. Along with Co-Founder & COO, Quitterie de Rivoyre, Celine is on a mission to empower people to make the best decisions for their well-being and the planet. 

Before co-founding WholeMe, Celine co-founded and operated Meshkati hair center— a high-end hair loss clinic in London. Celine holds a Master’s Degree in Genetics, and worked in the medical educator sector, helping big pharmaceutical companies launch new medicine globally. 

Celine possesses an incredibly mature and youthful approach to leadership, building a sustainable business, and placing customers at the center of all commercial efforts. Any founder, seasoned or emerging, will enjoy listening to her speak! :) 

“If you believe in yourself, and if you have faith in your project and your ambitions, and the bigger mission, then you can weather every single storm.”

— Celine Ivari