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Inevitable Podcast
Inevitable Podcast episodes
- 16. Michael Perry (Maple)
In this episode I have an incredible chat with Michael Perry.
For those who don't know, Michael is, before anything else, father of two sons, Leander and Solomon. He is CEO of Maple, a family tech startup looking to help families free up time and spend more quality time together.
Before launching Maple, Michael was the founder of Kit, a fully automated virtual marketing assistant for small business owners. Before being acquired by Shopify, Kit was live in 30+ different countries and helped small businesses all over the world. After the acquisition, he then became a director in Shopify where he led product and marketing technology for 4 years.
Michael is also an angel investor, small business enthusiast, and considers himself to be a bit of a survivalist. He had amazing personal and professional experiences as an entrepreneur and business leader and is here today to share some of these learnings with us.
Here are some questions I asked Michael:
- You describe yourself to be a bit of a survivalist. What do you mean by that?
- You had your first professional experience when you were 7 years old, working on your uncle's video store. How was it to have this experience so early in life in a family-owned business?
- Do you remember what you did with the first money you earned? What did you buy with the money?
- You mentioned that being a father is the hardest, yet most important job you have ever had. How do you assess Michael the founder before and after paternity?
- Your parents sacrificed a lot to give you and your sister the best you could have. It's obvious you appreciate it very much. How do you want your children to perceive you as a father?
- You grew up in a very small town in California. But living in California at that point in time must have had huge effects on your tech entrepreneurial formation. How do you think growing up in such a vivid tech geography shaped your life?
- Do you have any habits such as journaling, meditation, exercise, that make you feel more balanced for your day-to-day activities?
- You are at the very beginning of your mission to make parent's lives easier at Maple. What do you think is the success threshold for Maple, what is your long-term vision?
- Is there something that you started doing recently that has significantly improved your life?
- Is there something that you think is true, but others don't?
Michael, thanks for joining us. The conversation was great, and I'm sure listeners will find it extremely insightful.
56 min - 15. Cameron Sepah (Maximus)
Today I'll chat with Dr. Cameron Sepah. Cam is not an ordinary founder.
Cameron Sepah holds a B.A. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA. He's a Clinical Professor at UCSF, where he trains psychiatrists to treat patients with ACT, an evidence-based therapy. Also, he's an executive psychologist, and he coaches CEOs and VCs to change behaviors and optimize health and performance.
Besides, he popularized dopamine fasting, has helped start 3 startups and was a Venture Capital Investor at Trinity Venture and Magi Ventures. Today, Cameron is an Advisor to 8VC.
Recently, Cam founded Maximus, a consumer health company that provides men with content, community, and clinical support to optimize them in mind and body. Maximus has raised $5M from Silicon Valley goats such as Founders Fund and 8VC as well as leading angel investors and operators from Bulletproof, Tinder, Coinbase, Daily Stoic, and Shopify. I also led an investment in Maximus when I was at my previous firm.
In my conversation with Cameron we discussed his experience studying Cognitive Neuroscience at Harvard, his career before founding Maximus, his company and more.
Here are some questions I asked Cameron during our conversation:
- What made you choose Cognitive Neuroscience at Harvard? Were you interested in human behavior growing up?
- You went from being a scientist to start working in technology. When was the moment it clicked and you felt that moving to San Francisco would be interesting to pursue your career?
- What were some of the most interesting or important experiences, now that you are building Maximus, that you took from that hypergrowth through Omada?
- After leaving Omada you started a company in the keto nutrition space before founding Maximus. However, you sold it. How was your experience with that?
- While you were talking I was thinking what's going to happen when we have kids. How are we going to raise them in the correct way? What do you think about this?
- Was there a moment in your life, when you realized that you needed to make Maximus your mission?
- If you want to become a customer or learn more about the community what is the Maximus protocol? What does Maximus provide?
1 hr 35 min - 14. Adhemar Milani Neto (Kovi)
Adhemar Milani Neto is the Founder and CEO of Kovi, a company that enables a more efficient, all-inclusive, and flexible car rental for on-demand drivers in LATAM. They have pioneered an asset-light model in the car rental industry that generates more value both to their partners and suppliers.
Kovi is backed by leading global investors such as Valor Capital Group, Monashees, GFC, ONEVC, Maya Capital, YCombinator, Shift and has raised more than $160M to date.
Previously, Adhemar was a general manager at 99 (acquired by Didi Chuxing), a strategy consultant at Bain & Company, and worked at International Paper and BOSCH.
He's passionate about purpose-driven entrepreneurship and serves as an advisor to several early-stage companies. Adhemar is also married to Natasha and together they have a dog called Simba.
In my conversation with Adhemar we discussed his childhood, his experience working at traditional companies, social media and more.
Here are some of the questions I asked Adhemar during our conversation:
- Let's go back to your childhood. When you were 12 years old, you were living in the U.S. because of your father's work. How do you think this experience of living abroad at such an early age shaped your personality?
- Technology was part of your career when you finished engineering in college. After graduating, you went to work for BOSCH and International Paper. What made you think this was the type of job that you wanted when you were right out of school?
- You are not really active on social media like Instagram or Twitter. Is there a reason for that?
- After working at some traditional companies, you decided to go to business school. This is a very traditional path that is not usually taken by founders. What was behind the decision to go back to studying?
- At the time, you won the INSEAD Entrepreneurship Bootcamp and Venture Competition with an asset optimization idea: OptiTruck. Eventually, you saw that CargoX was growing in Brazil, and gave up the idea. What did you learn about startups and fundraising with OptiTruck?
- After coming back from your MBA in INSEAD, you went on vacation in Southern France and decided to join Bain & Company. I'm always very curious to understand why people choose consulting or banking. What was the thinking behind joining a consulting company?
- What have you learned from Chinese culture? How was it to work at 99 in the two different periods of the company's history, pre Didi Chuxing and post Didi Chuxing acquisition?
- You mentioned the massive opportunities within Kovi's market. When we think about it, there is financing, access, car ownership, and many others. Regarding opportunities, what are your thoughts on electrification and car subscription?
- We live in a world of very high levels of convenience. What do you think would be the perfect car subscription for someone to feel like their rental is their own car?
- Another topic that I wanted to talk about is your relationship with meditation and spirituality. What type of mindful practice do you keep and how do these things impact your life in general?
- Do you have a specific morning routine or just a few things that you have to do every day in the morning for your day to start right?
I hope you liked this episode!
Make sure to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and leave us feedback. I'm curious to find out what you learned the most from this episode.
If you want to stay in touch, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @pedrosorren. Also, you can subscribe to my newsletter and read my essays on pedrosorren.com.
1 hr 24 min - 13. Michael Sidgmore (Broadhaven)
Michael has spent his career as a financial technology investor and operator focused on the financial services infrastructure, wealth management, and specialty finance sectors. Today, he's the Co-Founder and Partner at Broadhaven Ventures, where he focuses on sourcing, investing, and managing investments into early-stage FinTech companies globally.
Prior to Broadhaven Ventures, he was a pre-product employee and SVP at iCapital Network, where he helped build the family office and RIA networks of the online investment platform that has over $75 billion in assets and has received $200 million in funding from investors including BlackRock, Blackstone, Carlyle, Goldman Sachs, and WestCap.
In his spare time, Michael writes and talks about how and why alternative investments are going mainstream on Alt Goes Mainstream, a content platform he founded. Also, he's the co-founder of another content platform called Community x Capital, where he and Alexis Ohanian share conversations about the collision of community and capital.
Michael has an impressive track record, and I could go on introducing him for hours. But now we'll deep dive on his trajectory.
In my conversation with Michael we discussed his childhood, his experience as a soccer player, his career pivot to become an investor and more.
- Here are some of the questions I asked Michael during our conversation:Can you tell us a little about your childhood experience growing up outside of D.C. and your first professional experience playing soccer? Also, can you tell us why you chose to pursue a different path after that at the London School of Economics?;
- After reading a book called Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood, you chose not to pursue a soccer career, cold e-mailed the author and started working at his company "Room to Read". Nowadays, how important do you think it is to have an authentic online presence so you can be in a position to generate value like you did by just cold emailing the author?
- You unfortunately lost your father at a young age, and mainly because you had a good relationship with him, it must have been difficult to deal with it. How did you deal with this important moment of your life?;
- Over the past decade, we witnessed a groundbreaking era of democratized access to alternative investments.. And, now, we have entered the most exciting wave of democratization of access to alternative investments: democratized access to investing in real things. How do you see the alternative investments market evolving in the next few years and decades?
- You had extensive experience at iCapital Network, a financial technology company connecting advisors and their high net worth investors to leading alternative investment. What do you think is the ideal percentage of capital allocation for high net worth individuals to alternative investments?
- When we first connected I shared with you an allocation on an investment because, differently from other VCs, you had that "Rambo" look on your face that made me feel we were very similar in a sense of hustling hard for results. Being on the two sides of the table as an investor and tech executive, how do you think a VC has to help founders make the best out of their businesses?;
- Maven, from Gagan Biyani, raised $750K from 479 investors on Republic before their $20M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz. How do you picture the VC landscape changing after on-ramps, equity crowdfunding and companies like Republic democratizes access to the asset class?
- Thank you very much for an amazing conversation, Michael. If I may, I like to ask rapid fire questions. I'm very interested in a good morning routine. What does yours look like?
1 hr 49 min - 12. Kevin Lee (Immi)
Today I'm here with my great friend Kevin Lee. We met at FundersClub, where we worked together. The determination and hustle Kevin Lee has is hard to find and inspires me.
Kevin's social mission is to help accelerate human progression through Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. He's currently focused on improving people's health by democratizing access to nutritious and delicious food through immi, a food brand he has been working on for the past 2 years.
immi is backed by investors and advisors including Collaborative Fund, Siddhi Capital, Pear Ventures, ONEVC, as weel as co-founders of companies such as Caviar, Thrive Market, Magic Spoon, Kettle & Fire The Hustle, Twitch, and Casper.
Welcome Kevin to the Inevitable Podcast!
Here are the main topics from this episode:
- The inception of Immi;
- Kevin's experience working @Kabam;
- His learnings from side projects like Quora Domination;
- Kevin's journey from FundersClub, to Pear, to Immi;
- How he organizes his calendar and balance calls with deep work sessions;
- The founder role of growing and outsourcing your role as fast as possible.
Listen to the episode on other platforms and access the show notes: https://www.inevitablepodcast.com/
Read Pedro Sorren's essays: https://pedrosorren.com/
Follow Pedro Sorren on social media: https://pedrosorren.com/links/
Subscribe to Pedro Sorren's newsletter: https://pedrosorren.com/newsletter/
Meet Atman: https://atman.vc/
1 hr 36 min - 11. Elizabeth Yin (Hustle Fund VC)
Today my guest is Elizabeth Yin, co-founder and General Partner at Hustle Fund, a pre-seed fund for software entrepreneurs. Previously, Elizabeth was a partner at 500 Startups where she invested in seed-stage companies and ran the Mountain View acceleration program.
Prior to that, after leaving Google, Elizabeth co-founded and ran an ad tech company called LaunchBit, which was acquired in 2014 by BySellAds. Elizabeth has a BSEE from Stanford and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
Elizabeth has reviewed over 20k startup pitches from around the world in the last few years and has helped numerous portfolio founders raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Her work and writing on startup fundraising have been featured in numerous publications including TechCrunch, Forbes, Huffington Post, BetaKit, and more.
Welcome Elizabeth to the Inevitable Podcast!
Here are the main topics from today's conversation:
- Elizabeth's experience growing up in Silicon Valley and her first contact with the "startup world" helping her best friend's cousin: Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos. She also shares how Tony inspired her and those around him;
- How her time at Google teached her about politics at big techs and inspired her to become a founder at LaunchBit. And also, is this the path for most engineers at big tech?;
- Yin's journey on founding her own startup prior to the Lean Startup movement (without knowing how to raise money or even market a product), how learning from mistakes was a key part of that process, and the details around the exit;
- The path to the VC world (something she didn't expected) as a result of being a builder and wanting to find a bigger purpose, and also her vision on the acceleration scene for startups;
- What investor should look for on founders (and why most VCs get it wrong) and how investor can really be helpful and relevant for startups;
- The story behind fundraising for Hustle Fund VC and why it's a full-time job for the founders (no side projects here);
- Money is a commodity. Why should a founder looking to raise funds work with you? Elizabeth shares her unique view on that;
- And why we need to look beyond unconscious biases when analysing businesses and founders looking for investment.
1 hr 27 min - Elizabeth's experience growing up in Silicon Valley and her first contact with the "startup world" helping her best friend's cousin: Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos. She also shares how Tony inspired her and those around him;
- 10. Marvin Liao (GAMEGROOVE)
Listen to the episode on other platforms and access the show notes: https://www.inevitablepodcast.com/marvin-liao/
Read Pedro Sorren's essays: https://pedrosorren.com/
Follow Pedro Sorren on social media: https://pedrosorren.com/links/
Subscribe to Pedro Sorren's newsletter: https://pedrosorren.com/newsletter/
Meet Atman: https://atman.vc/
55 min - 09. Rodrigo Teijeiro (RecargaPay)
Access the show notes: https://www.inevitablepodcast.com/rodrigo-teijeiro/
Listen to the episode on other platforms: https://www.inevitablepodcast.com/
Read Pedro Sorren's essays: https://pedrosorren.com/
Follow Pedro Sorren on social media: https://pedrosorren.com/links/
Subscribe to Pedro Sorren's newsletter: https://pedrosorren.com/newsletter/
Meet Atman: https://atman.vc/
2 hr 2 min - 08. Alexandre Liuzzi (Remessa Online)
Access the show notes: https://www.inevitablepodcast.com/alexandre-liuzzi/
Listen to the episode on other platforms: https://www.inevitablepodcast.com/
Read Pedro Sorren's essays: https://pedrosorren.com/
Follow Pedro Sorren on social media: https://pedrosorren.com/links/
Subscribe to Pedro Sorren's newsletter: https://pedrosorren.com/newsletter/
Meet Atman: https://atman.vc/
1 hr 20 min - 07. John Cowgill (Costanoa)
Access the show notes: https://www.inevitablepodcast.com/john-cowgill/
Listen to the episode on other platforms: https://www.inevitablepodcast.com/
Read Pedro Sorren's essays: https://pedrosorren.com/
Follow Pedro Sorren on social media: https://pedrosorren.com/links/
Subscribe to Pedro Sorren's newsletter: https://pedrosorren.com/newsletter/
Meet Atman: https://atman.vc/
1 hr 23 min
About Inevitable Podcast
From the publisher's feed
Pedro Sorren, from Atman, hosts candid conversations with world-class founders and investors to understand their secrets and the decisions that made them who they are.