Fund 81

In this Fund81 podcast episode, we talk about something that has made our team at MergeLane better investors - the Enneagram. We use the Enneagram in the work we do in Conscious Leadership. Understanding the Enneagram has forever changed the way I assess and support startup founders. To talk about how the Enneagram can help other VCs, I invited Kaley Klemp to join the podcast.

Kaley is a master Enneagram specialist, as well as a highly sought after speaker, certified YPO Forum Facilitator, and a transformational executive coach. She helps individuals and organizations outperform their competitors by unlocking a deeper understanding of what motivates and drives people. Kaley co-authored The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, and The Drama-Free Office, and wrote The 13 Guidelines for Effective Teams.

To learn more about the Enneagram, you can start to identify your Enneagram Type by taking the Enneagram Institute’s RHETI test. I also highly recommend Kaley’s online Enneagram course.

In this last podcast episode of Season One, I interviewed Jaclyn Freeman Hester from Foundry Group. Since joining Foundry Group in 2016, Jaclyn has seen more VC fund pitches than she can count. As someone relatively new to the industry, she has a fresh perspective on how to craft a compelling pitch and the dos and don'ts of approaching institutional investors. She also has an incredible pulse on the landscape for emerging managers and trends in early-stage venture capital. Enjoy!

In this Fund81 podcast interview, Dave Balter, the CEO of one of our MergeLane portfolio companies, Flipside Crypto, shared his perspective on investing in the cryptocurrency space.

I invited Dave to join us for four reasons:

He is one of the most engaging and entertaining speakers I know.

He has the ability to explain complex things in an easy-to-understand way - something I have found rare in the cryptocurrency space.

He is obsessed with and extremely knowledgeable about cryptocurrency.

Because he is both a serial entrepreneur and a venture investor, he has an interesting perspective from both sides of the table.

About Flipside Crypto

Flipside Crypto has developed algorithms to track cryptocurrency performance indicators. Flipside licenses this data and uses its technology to provide investment opportunities for accredited investors via its indexes. The company also manages the process of acquiring and storing cryptocurrency to alleviate the headache of potentially confusing things like encryption and digital wallets. Flipside closed a $3.4 million financing round led by True Ventures three months after MergeLane’s investment. Coinvestors include the Chernin Group, Resolute Ventures, Boston Seed Capital, Converge, and Founder Collective.

About Dave Balter

Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of Flipside Crypto, a provider of data solutions and investment vehicles for cryptocurrencies. Dave has spent most of his career as an innovation‐obsessed builder of companies, most often as a founder and CEO, but occasionally as a board member, advisor or investor. Dave is also an active venture investor and M&A professional. As an operator, Dave is probably best known for Smaterer, which he founded, led, and sold to Pluralsight in 2014 and BzzAgent, which he founded, led, and sold to dunnhumby in 2011. Post BzzAgent acquisition, Dave acted as Global Head of Investments for dunnhumby and founded dunnhumby Ventures. Dave is also an independent angel and venture partner at Boston Seed Capital. Dave’s investments have included DraftKings, Promoboxx, FitnessKeeper, and Help Scout. Dave was named one of the 30 most disruptive people in Boston tech by Boston Magazine in 2016, was a finalist for the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year, and was recognized as a future legend by the Ad Club. He cofounded the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and authored two books on the subject including Grapevine and the Word of Mouth Manual Volume II. A long time Techstars mentor, Dave also co-founded Intelligent.ly, a classroom space that helps star employees become managers with his wife, Sarah Hodges, and sits on the Board of Directors for the Boch Center for the Performing Arts.

Enjoy!

Conscious Leadership has been a game-changer for our partnership and our investing. For this Fund81 podcast interview, I invited my business partner at the MergeLane venture fund for high-potential startups with at least one woman in leadership, Sue Heilbronner, to talk about Conscious Leadership.

Gaining an understanding of venture fund legal terms can be a bit like learning a foreign language. In this episode, my guest Mark Weakley helps us navigate some of the more complicated terms commonly seen in venture fund legal documents.

In this Fund81 podcast episode, I spoke with Bill Maris. Bill was the founder and first CEO of Google Ventures (GV) and now runs his own fund, Section 32. He also happens to be an introvert. I am also an introvert and have been doing a lot of thinking about how my introversion plays into my life as a venture capitalist. Bill and I explore this topic in this episode.

Venture Capitalists are increasingly looking for ways to differentiate themselves and produce better returns. One popular path to this is specialization according to geography, industry sector, etc. Nick Moran, GP at New Stack Ventures and host of the Full Ratchet podcast, shares his insights.

Venture fund legal terms can sound a bit like a foreign language to new venture capitalists and venture fund investors. In this Fund81 podcast episode, Liz Meade, a new angel investor considering venture fund investments, interviews me, Elizabeth Kraus, your host at Fund81, to decode some of the lingo in venture fund offering agreements.

Welcome to Fund 81! Join Elizabeth Kraus, a managing partner of the Mergelane investment fund in Boulder, as she asks the questions and gets the answers surrounding many of the topics flying around the world of venture capital and angel investments.