How Hard Can It Be?

This week my guest is my longtime friend and co-conspirator Jim Crowley, who most recently served as CEO of Skyhook Wireless. Before that was the CEO and President of BuyWithMe, and before that of Turbine, a massive multi-player gaming company that was acquired by Warner Bros. in 2010. Jim and I worked closely together at m-Qube before that, where he was our Chief Operating Officer and ran our gateway business while I was the GM of mobile advertising and interactive TV.

Jim actually started his career as an Attorney at Hale and Dorr, a Boston law firm, from 1992 to 1994. He holds a JD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and a BA in Economics and Philosophy from Connecticut College in 1986.

In today’s second segment Jim and I will talk about the importance and the challenges of business model innovation, something that provides a threadline through his entire career, and a challenge facing more and more entrepreneurial leaders as the rate of change and innovation increases around the world.

While this episode is on the long side I think you’ll enjoy hearing it as much as I enjoyed making it. It’s a chance to get to know someone I consider one of the finest people in the startup ecosystem, not only for his individual talents and track record but because of the values of team and family that, as you’ll hear for yourself, originate in a childhood spent right in the middle of a whole mess of Crowley brothers and sisters in a house where everybody was expected to do their part.

How Hard Can It Be is sponsored by G20 Ventures, early traction capital for East Coast enterprise tech startups, backed by the power and expertise of 20 ​of the Northeast's most accomplished ​entrepreneurs. G20 Ventures.​..​​ ​People first.

How Hard Can It Be is ​also ​sponsored by Actifio​. Actifio​ virtualizes​​ data ​the way a hypervisor virtualizes compute, ​to ​help customers enable the​ ​hybrid cloud, build higher quality applications faster, and improve business resiliency and availability.​ ​Actifio​... ​Radically Simple.​

This week my guest is Bill Wiberg, co-founder, General Partner, and spiritual guide of G20 Ventures. Bill is an accomplished executive and 14-year venture investor passionate about technical innovation, and helping entrepreneurs win. He has extensive operating experience, culminating in his role as the President of Lucent Technology’s $5 billion Cellular and PCS Wireless Networks division. Prior to that he held senior management positions in product development and marketing at AT&T, Bell Labs, and Lucent, and made the change to venture investing in 2000.

Bill serves on the Boards of G20 portfolio companies Mautic and Siemplify. He remains a GP at Advanced Technology Ventures, and serves on the Boards of Great Point Energy, Rive Technology, Silicor Materials, Oasys Water and Aquion Energy.

He earned an M.B.A. from Columbia University, an M.S. from Stanford University, and a B.S. from Cornell University. He and his wife and two daughters one of whom is also a recent graduate of Cornell - live in Wellesley.

In today’s second segment I’ll ask Bill about the death of IT, exploring the implications of the rapid commoditization of the compute, networking, and storage technologies businesses large and small have used to differentiate themselves from competition for the last 60 years. We’ll explore what the coming generation of enterprise tech looks like from the centrality of enterprise data, AI, machine le arning and the evolution of voice technology from novelty to business value driver.

How Hard Can It Be is sponsored by G20 Ventures, early traction capital for East Coast enterprise tech startups, backed by the power and expertise of 20 ​of the Northeast's most accomplished ​entrepreneurs. G20 Ventures.​..​​ ​People first.

How Hard Can It Be is ​also ​sponsored by Actifio​. Actifio​ virtualizes​​ data ​the way a hypervisor virtualizes compute, ​to ​help customers enable the​ ​hybrid cloud, build higher quality applications faster, and improve business resiliency and availability.​ ​Actifio​... ​Radically Simple.​

This week my guest is Steve Kraus, the general Partner who leads healthcare investing activities as Bessemer Venture Partners a storied century-old VC firm headquartered right here in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. Steve has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the top healthcare investors in the industry, having led or actively participated in investments in Ovascience, Sirtis Pharmaceuticals, Affymax, Aveo, Transave, Verastem, Acceleron, Restore Medical and Flex Pharma… and those are just the ones who made it onto the NASDAQ. Today he serves on the boards of Welltok, Bright Health, Health Essentials, Docent Health, Allena Pharmaceuticals, Alcresta, and Docutap.

Steve graduated summa cum laude from Yale was a Baker Scholar at the Harvard Business School. Before joining Bessemer he worked in private-equity and as a management consultant at Bain & Company. He worked on a couple of big political campaigns throughout his career, and serves with me on the board of the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA,) and on that of the Achievement Network, on the investment committees of BCBS Massachusetts and Rock Health, and as an innovation advisor to Boston Children’s Hospital.

​

In today’s second segment we’ll talk about how healthcare is changing in the shadow of our new President-Elect, where it is and where it’s headed for us as Americans, New Englanders and plain old patients of a system in a pretty dramatic state of flux.

This week my guest is Patrick MeLampy, co-founder of 128 Technology and that company’s Chief Operating Officer. With longtime partner Andy Ory, Patrick co-founded Acme Packet Inc. and served as its Chief Technology Officer, eventually taking the company public and selling to Oracle in a transaction valued at over $1.7 Billion. Patrick holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Boston University.

A great student of innovation, Patrick has accumulated 26 issued or pending patents, and has some very specific ideas to share on what keeps most people and companies from innovating, the subject of this week's second segment.

​

How Hard Can It Be is sponsored by G20 Ventures, early traction capital for East Coast enterprise tech startups, backed by the power and expertise of 20 ​of the Northeast's most accomplished ​entrepreneurs. G20 Ventures.​..​​ ​People first.

How Hard Can It Be is ​also ​sponsored by Actifio​. Actifio​ virtualizes​​ data ​the way a hypervisor virtualizes compute, ​to ​help customers enable the​ ​hybrid cloud, build higher quality applications faster, and improve business resiliency and availability.​ ​Actifio​... ​Radically Simple.​

This week my guest is Ram Sudireddy, pretty universally regarded as one of Boston's best engineers and entrepreneurs in the world of microprocessors. Starting as a UMass computer and electrical engineer, Ram realized his dream early to work at the legendary Bell Labs where he was the chief architect and lead designer for a number of highly complex ASICs. He left Bell Labs to found Siltek Corporation, which provided ATM and SONET design services for companies including Lucent, SGS Thomson, and Sun Microsystems. Through a series of successful acquisitions Ram ended up at Applied Micro, where he served as SVP, GM, and CTO managing a worldwide group of more than a thousand engineers. He founded Chil Semiconductor, acquired by International Rectifier in 2011 for 75 Million in cash.

An active investor and angel, Ram also serves on the Dean's Council of the Harvard Divinity School. In Part II of our podcast this week we'll spend some time talking about Religion and Entrepreneurship, including Ram's thoughts on the role and importance of religious thinking and ethical responsibility for entrepreneurs.

​--​

How Hard Can It Be is sponsored by G20 Ventures, early traction capital for East Coast enterprise tech startups, backed by the power and expertise of 20 ​of the Northeast's most accomplished ​entrepreneurs. G20 Ventures.​..​​ ​People first.

How Hard Can It Be is ​also ​sponsored by Actifio​. Actifio​ virtualizes​​ data ​the way a hypervisor virtualizes compute, ​to ​help customers enable the​ ​hybrid cloud, build higher quality applications faster, and improve business resiliency and availability.​ ​Actifio​... ​Radically Simple.​

This week's episode features my conversation with the great Jit Saxeena, founder and CEO of Applix and Netezza, Boston startups he led through successful IPO's before being acquired by Cognos and IBM, respectively. The secret of his remarkable success? The desire to zag when others zig, and the conviction to follow through.

This week's second segment features a conversation on venture boards, including Jit's best advice on how to be a better board member, the right way to leverage a board as CEO, and what makes for a healthy board culture.

Our inaugural episode features my conversation with Bob Hower, Founding Partner of Boston-based G20 Ventures. Bob is a 13-year VC vet twice named to the Forbes "Midas List," having led investments in great ideas and great teams including Acme Packet (APKT, acquired by Oracle), AppIQ (acquired by HP), Channel Advisor (ECOM), Actifio, [x+1] (acquired by Rocket Fuel), Evergage and Fuze.

Learn Bob's story growing up in New Jersey, why he loves Hamburger Helper, and his unlikely journey from pulling drywall to venture capital.

This week's second segment features Bob's thoughts on the changing face of venture capital, the innovations driving it and the shifting landscape that led to the creation of G20 ventures.