Seed to Scale

Seed to Scale

By Eniac VenturesBusiness
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Seed to Scale episodes

  • Chris Farmer, Founder & CEO of SignalFire on reinventing the venture model with a many-to-many platform, powerful datasets and a full-stack team of engineers and data scientists

    Chris Farmer, Founder and CEO of SignalFire speaks with Eniac Ventures’ Vic Singh on his early background as an investor and how he flipped the traditional venture model on its head with data-driven insights and a founder-centric thesis.


    In this episode, Chris discusses, after years of research, what led him to build SignalFire on top of infrastructure that powers the fund and empowers their founders through data, talent and their expansive advisory network. SignalFire aims to offer founders maximum impact by opening doors to the expertise and services they need to move the needle through their many-to-many approach. He also speaks to their unique team, complete with engineers and data scientists, and how they are consistently building products and innovating their services.


    Chris also digs into their barbell approach to investing, typically starting with an early stage - their sweet spot - and then being able to come back in with support during later stages, bringing their unique offerings to the table to complement the traditional firms. 


    Additionally, he talks through how the firm has scaled, what sectors they are currently interested in, their deal sourcing strategy and his advice for founders on finding the right investment partners.


    SignalFire’s portfolio includes Uber, Lime, Zume Pizza to name a few. Prior to SignalFire, Chris was a Partner at General Catalyst and Bessemer Venture Partners.


    Follow Send comments to [email protected] and tweet us @seedtoscale.

    27 min
  • Shivani Siroya, Founder & CEO of Tala, on raising capital, scaling teams and funding the underserved

    Shivani Siroya, Founder & CEO of Tala, speaks with Eniac Ventures’ Nihal Mehta about her journey from finance to entrepreneurship, and now a CEO of a fast-growth company with more than 270 employees across 5 countries and $100M in venture funding.


    Tala is a mission-driven tech company opening financial access across emerging markets. Working for the UN Population Fund across Africa, Shivani saw the lack of access available to millions of people firsthand and started working on ways to solve the problem. Less than 5 years later, she had attracted some of the biggest names in venture capital, such as Chris Saca and Steve Case, and now has landed the support of financial giants including PayPal.


    In this episode, Shivani talks about the inception of Tala and how it was born to close the huge financial access gap from traditional banking practices. She warns founders to not focus on name brand funds, but shares advice on staying true to your vision and focus on what you are solving and the opportunity will follow.


    Shivani speaks about the challenges of hiring and finding the right people who can bring diverse viewpoints, but share Tala’s vision, as well as her responsibility for ensuring the workplace is not only diverse but an environment that is equitable and gives everyone the opportunity to succeed. 


    She also speaks to how she manages time, the importance of her CEO letters and why she holds a weekly AMA.


    Send comments to [email protected] and tweet us @seedtoscale. 

    20 min
  • Michael Mignano, Founder & CEO of Anchor, on building the company that democratized podcasting

    Founding General Partner Hadley Harris talks with Michael Mignano, Co-founder & CEO of Anchor, the company making it easy for anyone to create a podcast. 


    Michael built Anchor to democratize audio. By putting a free, full-stack podcasting platform in the pocket of anyone with a smartphone, Anchor is changing the way people think about audio, empowering everyone to have their voices heard, and pioneering new ways for creators to generate revenue. Anchor now powers one-third of all new podcasts in the rapidly growing market.


    Prior to founding Anchor, Michael was VP of Product for Aviary, growing the company’s audience to over 100M users before being acquired by Adobe in 2014. Previously, Michael led Digital Product Development for Atlantic Records.


    In this episode, Michael talks about how his passion for music and his drive for creativity lead him to build a company that aims to remove the friction from podcasting. He speaks about the challenges he and Co-founder & CTO Nir Zicherman faced early on, and how their roles and approaches to business have changed as they grew. 


    Michael also speaks to the learning curve they faced early on when hiring. As new entrepreneurs, they learned a lot about finding the right people who align and can execute on your vision and, on the flip side, how to pivot talent with the business needs.


    He also shares his views on the industry, their latest new features and the podcasts he has in rotation - they are some good ones!


    Send comments to [email protected] and tweet us @seedtoscale. 

    28 min
  • Mark Suster, Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, on the current startup ecosystem in LA, why the city was quick to adopt Bird and the challenges facing the future of transportation
    Founding General Partner Nihal Mehta talks with Mark Suster, one of the very best VCs in the biz and a true pioneer of LA venture capital.
    Mark is the Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, the largest and longest-serving fund in LA - all the way back to 1996, long before the region became known as Silicon Beach. To date, they’ve invested in more than $1 billion, with about 50% going to tech companies from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Mark’s investments include Bird, Density, Imbellus, Invoca, MakeSpace, mitú, Nanit, Osmo, and Tact.
    In this episode, Mark speaks to how his prior experiences influence how he approaches his work today. Most importantly, how his mother was his earliest role model as an entrepreneur, a philanthropist and activist, and how he got into programming on his mother’s computer while still in high school which lead him to become a computer programmer in the late ’80s (when it wasn’t as sought after as it is today). Mark discusses what he learned during his time at Accenture and how it laid a strong foundation for understanding how businesses operate at scale.
    Mark speaks to the current startup and venture ecosystem in LA, and why more influencers outside traditional VC are becoming investors. He also addresses the future of transportation, including the rapid adoption of Bird in Los Angeles and what cities are doing to solve the many challenges.
    He also addresses the current state of politics, something he covers often on his blog Both Sides of the Table.
    Send comments to [email protected] and tweet us @seedtoscale.
    17 min
  • Shahin Farshchi, Partner at Lux Capital, on leading the deep tech boom & science vs engineering risk
    Founding General Partner Vic Singh sits down with Shahin Farshchi, a Partner at Lux Capital, to discuss his path to venture capital, by way of Detroit, a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and founding a company that stemmed from his research in wireless, vital sign monitoring.
    Shahin speaks to how Lux spearheaded investments in science and deep tech when most venture capitalists were interested in adtech, cloud, and SaaS. He shares the mistakes he made and lessons learned along the way, such as that time and money are grossly underrepresented when bringing a product to market and how important it is to build out a company, not just the technology.
    He also discusses the common mistakes investors make when “placing bets” on general themes and why Lux’s strategy is to identify amazing talent and let that talent drive you. He says, “We tend to find new investment themes at the fringes of our existing companies.”
    Shahin shares advice for founders with backgrounds rooted in science or technical founders on the transition to becoming a CEO as the company grows and matures, and when it makes sense to help recruit a CEO that has the skills to take the company to the next level.
    Lastly, he speaks to what it was like being a teenager in Iran and how it shaped his worldview.
    Send comments to [email protected] and tweet us @seedtoscale.
    23 min
  • Anu Duggal & Sutian Dong of Female Founders Fund on the inception of the world’s first female-fund
    Founding General Partner Nihal Mehta sits down with Anu Duggal and Sutian Dong, Partners at Female Founders Fund, to discuss the inception of the world’s first female-focused Venture Capital fund, how they were set up on a “blind date” by Ed Zimmerman of Lowenstein Sandler and have been able to use their unique backgrounds and points of views to make strong investments.
    In this episode, Anu speaks to risk tolerance and the challenges they’ve faced while fundraising and Sutian addresses the huge shift in the industry as female founders are securing more capital than ever.
    They also discuss building strong brand awareness and how collaboration across the VC community has been important to raising awareness for their fund and reaching the female founder community. Sutian shares that Female Founders Fund has always led with the mission to be the first place that FF think of going to when raising capital, but also want to be instrumental in supporting female entrepreneurs even before they think about starting a company.
    Lastly, see what #WWND means and why it hangs in their office, how they try to establish work/life balance and why they are excited about the rise of alternative communities.
    Send comments to [email protected] and tweet us @seedtoscale.
    15 min
  • John Borthwick, Founder & CEO of betaworks on “What is it that we actually want to build?”
    Founding General Partner Hadley Harris speaks with John Borthwick, the Founder & CEO of betaworks and long-time investor in the early NYC tech scene. In the past decade, John has helped hundreds of companies build products and scale - such as Giphy, bit.ly, Tumblr, GroupMe - and continues looking for ways to improve the model with each new company.
    In this episode, John speaks to a recent blog post he published on “Building Bicycles for Our Minds” in which he addresses his perspective on why there is a significant lack of vision for the next wave of technology and what we can do about it as tech leaders and entrepreneurs before it gets worse.
    John shares his thoughts on “just building stuff because you think it is interesting, doesn't mean you should," talks about the power of intent, and why it is important for entrepreneurs to look further out on the horizon than just the next hill.
    John also speaks to the evolution of betaworks. From a startup factory to a multi-faceted business, betaworks, including a venture fund, a formal accelerator program as well as the newly launched a membership-based resource community called Studios.
    Send comments to [email protected] and tweet us @seedtoscale.
    Read John's full blog post: https://render.betaworks.com/building-bicycles-for-our-minds-c79a2dd0b958
    17 min
  • Clara Sieg, Partner at Revolution Ventures, on the capital gap & being bullish on tier 2-3 cities
    Founding General Partner Tim Young speaks with Clara Sieg, a Partner and Founding member of Revolution Ventures. Clara has been featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital and named LinkedIn’s Top 10 Professionals Under 35 for VC & Finance.
    In this episode, Clara discusses how her hometown of Pittsburgh has evolved as a tech hub and how it has influenced her passion for finding and investing in companies outside of Silicon Valley. She talks about the early days of Revolution and why they were one of the first funds that strategized around the opportunities in second and third-tier cities. She talks about the growing ecosystems across the up-and-coming cities, the local talent coming out of local schools and how she leverages this to recruit and scale companies.
    Clara shares her perspective on the mindset and unit economics of founders outside of the valley, how they operate businesses due to less capital flow and can think differently about taking on investments and dilution.
    Clara also gives advice to founders managing and optimizing their board and how to make sure you get the best possible people around the table versus just optimizing for valuation.
    Send comments to [email protected] and tweet us @seedtoscale.
    15 min
  • Jeff Clavier, Founder of Uncork Capital on transitioning from Angel to Seed & advice to aspiring VCs
    Founding General Partner Vic Singh speaks with one of the OG’s of seed investing and a Veteran of the Forbes Midas List, Jeff Clavier, Founder & Managing Partner at Uncork Capital.
    In this episode, Jeff recounts his journey from a small town in France to studying in Paris and landing in the startup circuit as an engineer that eventually led him to angel investing in successful the Web 2.0 companies of the early 2000’s.
    Jeff gives advice to aspiring VCs, his thoughts on what it was like transitioning from an angel to his first institutional fund and how the timeline for building credibility as an investor is very different today. He also speaks to the challenges faced as their funds grew, the best strategy to stand out to LPs and how Uncork views co-investors.
    He also speaks on his journey building hardware companies and how he saw the opportunity to apply the capital efficient model of software as well as his experience with Fitbit.
    17 min
  • Marah Lidey & Naomi Hirabayashi on how they are disrupting the wellness industry & secured Series A
    Nihal Mehta speaks with the talented founders of Shine Text, Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi on how they’ve built one of the fastest-growing health and wellness companies. Working together at DoSomething.org, they realized the importance of daily peer-to-peer support and seized the opportunity to build a community to help others.
    In this episode, Naomi and Marah speak about the early days growing Shine from 50,000 to now 3 million users and their approach to fundraising. They discuss the changing model of investor-founder relationship and how keeping an open dialogue led them to a Series A on Christmas Eve.
    Marah and Naomi also touch on how millennials are dispelling the Baby Boomer Myth of being too broke to invest in yourself and the intersectionality of self-care and technology, especially how important it is today in response to what is happening in the world.
    Send comments to [email protected] and tweet us @seedtoscale.
    16 min

About Seed to Scale

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to Seed to Scale. The podcast where Eniac Ventures sits down with founders, investors, and influencers to discuss all things startups and seed stage.