We are excited to sit down with Jeff Schumann, Co-Founder and CEO at Aware. Jeff started building technology at a young age (selling software to CBS and tracking Al-Qaeda) before founding Aware, a contextual intelligence platform for organizations. During the episode, we discuss intercepting terrorist communications, the employee voice as the most important asset, and why context is king.

Episode Chapters:

1. Early Entrepreneur Days - 1:25
2. Working with the CIA - 6:10
3. Modernizing the Tech Stack at Nationwide - 11:10
4. Aware: Contextual Intelligence - 13:33
5. Ask IQ (Chat GPT for the Enterprise) - 15:28
6. Columbus: The Collaborative City - 24:17
7. Living by your Values - 27:00
8. Employee Privacy - 31:17
9. Enterprise AI Adoption Trends - 35:50
10. Ending Questions - 39:00

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback

1. Moving from Paris to NYC - 1:20
2. FX Trader at BNP - 2:25
3. Joining Airswap (3rd ever Decentralized Exchange) - 4:51
4. Breaking down Draper Associates - 9:40
5. Investing with Tim Draper - 14:57
6. Crypto POV - 17:00
7. Bullish on Bitcoin - 20:30
8. Changing Consumer Behavior - 23:51
9. The Future of the Metaverse - 26:55
10. Coinbase: Leading the Way - 30:45
11.  Ending Questions - 31:14

This week, we're sitting down with Arjan Singh, the Co-Founder of Jolie. Arjan's journey into the world of beauty and wellness began early on and grew as he collaborated with entrepreneurs in high school and honed his expertise in luxury, consumer, and fashion at BCG. In today's episode, we'll delve into the essentials of building a successful consumer brand, the underlying factors of skin and hair health, the significant impact of social influence, and the number one tool every founder should utilize.

Episode Chapters:

1. Passion for Beauty Wellness - 1:20
2. The Power of Relationships - 3:32
3. Starting Jolie - 7:40
4. Developing a Shower Head - 11:46
5. Changing Consumer Behavior - 14:26
6. The Jolie Marketing Approach - 17:12
7. Valuing Connections & Experiences - 21:10
8. Product Messaging with Macro Economic Shifts - 24:15
9. Will Jolie Raise Capital? - 28:48
10. Ending Questions - 30:07

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We're excited to chat with Luke Skertich, a Principal at FJ Labs.  Prior to his role at FJ, Luke transitioned from a pre-med background to a career in product management. FJ Labs, known for its focus on early-stage marketplace businesses, has invested in industry giants such as Alibaba, Uber, and Airbnb. In this episode, Luke delves into his journey from pre-med to venture capital, shares insights on investing in marketplace platforms, and explores the dynamics of balancing supply and demand. 

Episode Chapters:

1. Initial Career Path - 1:26
2. Portfolio Value Add - 5:19
3. FJ Founding Story - 6:41
4. What is a Marketplace? - 8:55
5. Attractive Marketplace Attributes - 12:38
6. Evaluating a Marketplace/Competitive Landscape - 15:32
7. API Enabled Marketplaces - 22:06
8. AI Enhancing the User Experience - 26:15
9. SaaS Enabled Marketplaces - 28:15
10. Ending Questions - 31:23

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We're excited to chat with Jacob Effron, a Partner at Redpoint Ventures.  Before joining Redpoint in San Francisco, Jacob served as a product manager at Flatiron Health.  In addition to being an investor, Jacob hosts two podcasts, Unsupervised Learning and Vital Signs. Jacob sheds light on the impact of artificial intelligence in healthcare, the influence of large language models (LLMs) on drug discovery, the current importance of value-based care, and the future prospects of AGI!

Episode Chapters:

1. Economic Development in East Africa - 1:26
2. Breaking down the Product Manager Role - 2:54
3. Redpoint's Strategy - 4:42
4. Healthcare AI Themes - 7:32
5. AI Meets Drug Discovery - 10:20
6. The Impact of AI on Clinical Trials - 14:35
7. Value-Based-Care versus Fee-For-Service - 17:40
8. Technology Paired with VBC - 21:00
9. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - 24:24
10. Evaluating a Founder - 27:30
11. Ending Questions - 28:54

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We're excited to talk with Jason Bornstein, Partner and Head of Research at Forerunner. Jason started his career by leading growth marketing at Bonobos, scaling it into one of the first venture-backed DTC brands to achieve $100M in revenue. Post business school, he joined Forerunner, a VC firm specializing in early-stage consumer-driven ventures.  Jason shares his experiences of shifting from conventional marketing tactics and his exploration of VC during his business studies and discusses Forerunner's people-centric strategy, including the innovative brand power score.

Episode Chapters:

1. Starting in Growth Marketing at Bobobos - 1:55
2. Diversification across Marketing Channels - 5:53
3. Business School to Investing - 9:58
4. Forerunner's Investment Strategy - 12:48
5. Joining as a Principal and Promotion to Partner - 14:05
6. Carving out a Head of Research Position - 16:10
7. Thematic Focus in Practice - 18:25
8. Forerunner's Brand Power Score - 22:03
9. Improving Your Score - 26:02
10. Ending Questions - 28:45

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We are excited to sit down with Sean Thorne, founder and CEO at People Data Labs. Sean dropped out of the University of Oregon to start his first company, Hallspot. Taking his learnings from Hallspot, he started People Data Labs (PDL). PDL is an innovative API product for developers & data scientists, with over 3 billion data records. Sean discusses why every company is a data company, how perseverance wins out, powering AI companies, and the importance of a clear story while fundraising.

Episode Chapters:

1. Entrepreneur Pursuit - 1:30
2. Starting a Company at 19 - 3:50
3. Building People Data Labs - 6:20
4. Founder, Market Fit - 7:45
5. The Evolving Ideal Customer Profile - 11:05
6. How to Win as a Data Company - 13:55
7. Fundraising from VCs - 17:42
8. Data is the New Oil - 21:20
9. Privacy Impact - 23:20
10. Who will benefit from AI? - 26:15
11. Ending Questions - 29:50

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We are excited to sit down with Victor Guwein, founder and managing partner at M25. Victor started his career as a founder of a scooter company, Scooter Versity. At 23, Victor founded M25 to invest solely in the Midwest.  Fast forward 8 years, and M25 has invested in over 130 companies and is now investing out of its third fund. Victor discusses why the Midwest is ripe for disruption, the M25 DNA,  valuations shifting with market dynamics, and how to win at the pre-seed / seed stage.

Episode Chapters:

1. Starting a Scooter Company - 1:20
2. Starting a Venture Fund (@ 23) - 3:06
3. Building a Track Record - 7:48 
4. How VCs make Money - 10:32
5. The M25 Sourcing DNA - 14:10
6. Objectivity with Decision Making - 16:50
7. The Importance of Entry Valuations - 20:00
8. Interest Rates Impact on Valuations - 24:08
9. Coastal Investors moving Central - 27:32
10. Advice to Emerging Managers - 30:11
11. Ending Questions - 31:45

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We are excited to sit down with Manu Sharma, an investor at Tusk Venture Partners.  Manu started his career at Dallas VC, helping launch the fund before heading to business school in Chicago. This year, Manu joined Tusk Venture Partners, an early-stage fund based in NYC. Tusk has a unique model in that it helps companies navigate highly regulated markets. Manu dives into the benefits of business school, doubling down in regulated markets, pros and cons of AI and what areas of vertical SaaS are ripe for technological disruption. 

Episode Chapters: 

1. Moving from India to the United States - 1:30
2. Building Dallas Venture Capital - 2:15
3. Why Business School? - 4:00
4. Tusk Venture Partners - 7:10
5. Helping Companies with Regulatory Risks - 9:45
6. The History of Vertical SaaS - 11:16
7. AI Execution on Vertical SaaS - 18:12
8. The Contract Network (Legal Tech) -  23:10
9. The End State of LLMs - 25:45
10. Platform Team in VC - 27:12
11. Ending Questions - 28:45

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.

We are excited to sit down with 2x founder Alex Jekowsky. During college, he launched Ulyngo, a multi-channel marketplace that enabled universities to facilitate student life commerce. Alex grew the business until its acquisition by Modo Labs in 2019. He then founded Cents, a leading laundry business management system. Cents helps laundromats with everything from onboarding, payments, employee management, customer records, in-store operations, and more!

Episode Chapters:

1. Founding Ulyngo - 1:15
2. Interest in Laundromats - 4:48
3. Modernizing the Laundry Tech Stack - 7:30
4. The Consumer Experience - 10:50
5. Cents' Addressable Market - 12:40
6. Optimizing the Value Chain - 15:32
7. GTM Strategy - 18:27
8. Vertical SaaS Takeover - 23:30
9. Payments in Vertical SaaS Businesses - 26:35
10. Horizontal versus Vertical SaaS - 28:00
11. Ending Questions - 30:15

As always, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.