Funding Frequency: Venture Capital | Startups | Science

Gautam Gupta, Partner at M13 Ventures discusses his time as CEO of Nature Box, his early Angel Investment into Grammarly, and breaking into Venture Capital at the age of 18.

Kathe Shillo Beardsley is the Managing Partner at Upslope Ventures in Denver, Colorado.

In the first third of this episode, we talk about how Kate balances her role as Managing Partner of Upslope Ventures with her role as a new mom to two toddlers.  And also, the business lessons Kate learned as the executive assistant of Martha Stewart and Huffington Post co-founder, Ken Lerer.

Then, we discuss the difference between offensive and defensive venture investing and the characteristics that early startup founders should look for in an investor beyond the offer of capital.

In the final third, we break down three of Upslope’s portfolio companies and what they are doing to change the world, including Billie, the female razor subscription service just acquired by Proctor and Gamble this past week.

Marc Wesselink is the Co-Founder of Contrarian Ventures, Venture Rock, and Startup Bootcamp Africa

We discuss marks experience as a 12-time entrepreneur and the impact of Brexit on the distribution of startup capital.

Then, we touch on Mark's interest in blokchain technology and the power of a distributed ledger to revolutionize the way humans transact.

Finally, we talk about the lack of startup capital in Africa and the transformative technologies that investors are missing out on.

 Frank Meehan - Co-Founder & Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures and Partner at the SparkLabs Accelerator, Asia’s premier accelerator in Seoul, Korea.

In the first third of this episode, we discuss the learning curve to raising capital as both a startup founder and a VC firm founder.

Then, we delve into the nitty-gritty financials of investing at the seed stage and how a startup founder can attract further investors after receiving their first check.

Finally, we discuss Frank’s time as a board member in the early days of Spotify in 2009 and what a fly on the wall of the now music streaming titan would have seen in those days.

In this episode, I sit down with Sergey Gribov, Partner at Flint Capital in the Boston office. We discuss Sergey’s past investments in Russia and Flint’s interest the Israeli startup community and the benefits and challenges that come with operating startup there.

Akul Penugonda is an investing Principal at San Francisco-based tech accelerator: Acceleprise.

We discuss how Acceleprise seeks to bring tech knowledge and expertise out of the tech sector into other markets.

Halfway through the episode, we touch on the three key indicators that Akul looks for to determine potential in a startup and the common mistakes that founders make in a pitch to investors.

In the final third of this episode, we talk about three startups from the recent Acceleprise cohort that are creating a more efficient immigration process, an automated solution system for business disputes, and better lines of communication between elder care facilities and patient’s families.

Marvin Liao is a Partner at 500 Startups in Silicon Valley and focuses on both the venture capital investments and accelerator-side of the firm.

In the first part of this episode, we discuss Marvin’s time at Yahoo after the 2000 tech bubble and how starting a career after an economic crash was actually a great thing.

Secondly, we move onto Marvin’s first Angel investments and how losing money in these deal made him a better mentor and investor.

Finally, we discuss how early startups can turn their purpose into a story, craft their pitch, and avoid the most common pitfalls Marvin sees.

Enis Hulli is a Partner at 500 Startups in Istanbul and host of the Glocal podcast. 

In the first third of the show, we discuss how Mr. Hulli started and ran an angel investment network that defied the proper channels and regulations in Turkey to provide desperately needed capital to the Istanbul startup community.

In the second part, we’ll get a feel for what the Turkish startup ecosystem is like: what types of technology that Turkish entrepreneurs are creating better than their transatlantic counterparts and how.

And in the final third, we discuss 500 startups and their international investment model as well as Enis’s most recent investment and why he believes it will become the next unicorn.

In this episode, I interview Jonathan Tower, Founder and Managing Partner of the San Francisco-based Venture Capital firm, Catapult VC. We discuss Jonathan’s investments into the wildly successful Dollar Shave Club and Jet.com, the increase in regionally focused venture capital firms, and the markets he believes will be the most impactful in the next 5 years.

Danielle D’Agostaro is a partner at the Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator: Alchemist Accelerator. We discuss the benefits of going through a tech accelerator as a startup founder, investors’ preferences for teams over individual startup founders, and the common mistakes founders make when pitching to investors.