On this episode: We are joined by Scott Malpass who served as the Chief Investment Officer for Notre Dame’s endowment, growing it from $400 million to over $12 billion. We discuss the strategies and practices that allowed Notre Dame’s investment office to achieve amazing long-term returns on its endowed capital. Specifically, Scott gave his thoughts on asset managers and how to find good ones, the University’s role in private investing, and acting as a co-investor for world-class private equity firms. Scott’s wisdom on long-term investing is unparalleled, don’t miss this episode.

We are joined by Brian Plamondon, a member of the Healthcare Corporate Venture Relationships team at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). With over 50% of venture-backed life sciences and tech companies in the US banking with them, SVB is engrained within the Silicon Valley ecosystem. During our conversation with Brian, we cover how SVB helped its clients during the pandemic and COVID’s impact on the venture and M&A space. Additionally, we discuss growing verticals within the healthcare industry, increased capital allocation to megafunds and solo GPs, and the state of the venture capital industry abroad.

Johannes Burgard, MD and Founder at the solar energy software company Solytic, joins us for this episode discussing his path as a founder.  Johannes explains Solytic’s product and go-to-market strategy that has allowed the company to raise millions in capital and operate in over 60 countries in just 4 years after its founding, and shares his advice from founding his company. As a trained engineer, Johannes is able to provide insight into what it’s like founding a company from a non-business background, and tells the hardships of starting his company.

Elizabeth Davis, a venture investor at Anthemis on their Female Innovators Lab team, helps us kick off the fall semester with an exciting discussion on early-stage investing and the rise of financial technology companies. In addition to diving into key sub-verticals and investment themes within fintech, we focus on how Elizabeth is working to combat inequities that women face in the venture funding space. Only about 2% of all venture funding goes towards women and Elizabeth wants to change that by helping female founders on the front lines.

Justin Schneider, CEO and co-founder of the LA-based men's fashion brand Wolf & Shepard, joins the show to discuss his journey from track star to shoe designer. Justin talks about the adaptability and willingness to face the unknown that is necessary to become a founder. We also touch on Justin’s industrial design background, his work with Reebok, Adidas, and New Balance, as well as some of his big successes, including seeing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wear his shoes.

Mike Fitzgerald, co-founder and partner at High Alpha, a venture studio in Indianapolis, comes on the show to discuss the strategy and operations of venture studios. Mike’s background in software, sales, and entrepreneurship guides our conversation on starting companies at venture studios, the attractiveness of B2B SaaS, and guiding exits and innovation through large corporations. This episode also provides insight into Mike’s experience founding a venture studio and his advice from that process.

On this episode: Tom Mendoza, former President and SVP of Sales at NetApp and benefactor of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, joins the show to discuss his philosophy behind goal setting and establishing a clear vision for an organization. Drawing on his experience at NetApp, Tom also outlines how he developed a strong corporate culture at NetApp and how others can do the same at fast-growing tech companies.

On this episode: Conor McCarter is the co-founder of Prequel, which helps companies set up and manage their data stacks so they can focus on what matters: getting insights to drive their businesses. We talk about with Conor about pursuing a dual engineering masters degree and MBA at Harvard and subsequently deciding to jump in full time to work on his startup. We also focus on Conor’s experience with Y Combinator, which is the premier American seed money startup accelerator. Topics include applying and interviewing for YC,  maximizing time given the unstructured nature of the program, the infamous Demo Day, and the state of Prequel after going through the accelerator.

On this episode: Conor and Alex chat with Mike Anello, co-founder and managing director at M33 Growth, a growth equity firm in Boston MA. On this episode we discuss key aspects of providing value to Growth Equity portfolio companies. Mike touches on his experience in his role as a managing director, creating operations teams, and pitching a company's value to its potential customers.

On this episode: Conor and Alex chat with Michael Bechtel, Chief Futurist at Deloitte. Michael discusses what it means to be a futurist, how to analyze trends defining future operating systems and opportunities, and how companies can prepare workforces for changing technological environments. Get a glimpse into his thought process and learn about how you can prepare yourself for careers in large corporations.