Startup Grind

Today we have a great interview with one of the founders of the legendary technology Company Skype, Niklas Zennstrom. After Skype, Niklas created his VC fund Atomico in 2006 to help entrepreneurs primarily outside Silicon Valley to scale their businesses domestically and globally. 

Atomico has invested in more than 50 companies on four continents. 

In 2005, Skype was sold to eBay Inc for $3.1bn, the largest European venture capital exit to date. 

He also co-founded Kazaa, Joost and Joltid. In 2007, he co-founded Zennström Philanthropies, to combat climate change, improve the state of the Baltic Sea and encourage social entrepreneurship. Mr. Zennström holds dual degrees in Business and MSc Engineering Physics/Computer Science from Uppsala University in Sweden, and he spent his final year at the University of Michigan.

Let’s listen into Niklas Zennstrom interviewed at Startup Grind Europe by Stu Woo of the Wall Street Journal. 

This podcast is brought to you by HBX ­ Harvard Business School’s digital learning initiative. Introducing “Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen,” an engaging and interactive online learning experience from Harvard Business School’s HBX. Learn to create winning strategies to position your organization for long­term success by applying proven disruption and innovation theories from world renowned strategist Clay Christensen. Disruptive Strategy encourages active learning and peer collaboration, and requires a commitment of approximately thirty hours over six weeks. Applications are being accepted for upcoming cohorts in August and October. To learn more, visit disruptivestrategy.org

Today we have a conversation from the Futurecast Series produced in partnership between the ATT Foundry & Ericsson. It features Kenny Lauer, VP of Digital & Marketing for the Golden State Warriors moderated by Digital Thought leader Andrew Keen. Kenny Lauer leads the day-to-day management of marketing, digital, and game experience for the Golden State Warriors. He has over 25 years of customer strategy experience with companies such as Apple and KPMG, remains an active member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences where he judges the EMMYs for Interactive Media, and serves as an Advisory Board member to the SXSW Interactive Festival.

Lets listen into Kenny Lauer interviewed by Futurecast Moderator Andrew Keen in San Francisco earlier this summer. 

Today we have a conversation with Mike Maples and early investor in Twitter, Chegg, Digg, and other great companies through his firm Floodgate VC

Mike Maples Jr has been on the Forbes Midas List since 2010 and was also named one of "8 Rising Stars" by FORTUNE Magazine. Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was involved as a founder and operating executive at back-to-back startup IPOs, including Tivoli Systems (IPO TIVS, acquired by IBM) and Motive (IPO MOTV, acquired by Alcatel-Lucent.) Some of Mike's investments include Twitter, Twitch.tv, ngmoco, Weebly, Chegg, Bazaarvoice, Spiceworks, Okta, and Demandforce. Mike is known for coining the term "Thunder Lizards," which is a metaphor derived from Godzilla that describes the tiny number of truly exceptional companies that are wildly disruptive capitalist mutations. Mike likes to think of himself as a hunter of the "atomic eggs" that beget these companies. He received his BS, from Stanford University and his MBA from the Harvard Business School. His hobbies include shooting clays, cinematography, and calligraphy.

Lets listen into Mike Maples interviewed in Silicon Valley by Startup Grind’s founder Derek Andersen. 

This podcast is brought to you by HBX ­ Harvard Business School’s digital learning initiative. Introducing “Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen,” an engaging and interactive online learning experience from Harvard Business School’s HBX. Learn to create winning strategies to position your organization for long­term success by applying proven disruption and innovation theories from world renowned strategist Clay Christensen. Disruptive Strategy encourages active learning and peer collaboration, and requires a commitment of approximately thirty hours over six weeks. Applications are being accepted for upcoming cohorts in August and October. To learn more, visit disruptivestrategy.org

Martin Hosking, Co-founder & CEO of the commerce site Redbubble. Previously he had served as Senior Vice President of Product at Aconex Limited. since July 1998. He was instrumental in the development and subsequent listing on the NASDA Q of search company, LookSmart. Prior to that he served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He served with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as a Diplomat in Egypt and Syria and held various senior posts in Canberra, Australia. Hosking holds a B.A. in History and Economics from the University of Melbourne, and an Australia MBA (with Distinction) from the Melbourne Business School. 

Lets listen into Martin Hosking interviewed at our Startup Grind Melbourne Chapter Earlier this Year.

Today we have a great interview with the CoFounder & CEO of 23andMe Anne Wojcicki from our 2016 Global Conference. Anne has a 10-year background in healthcare investing, focused primarily on biotechnology companies. Ms. Wojcicki worked at Andor Capital Management as a Healthcare Analyst, Ardsley Partners as a Healthcare Analyst and Investor AB as Senior Healthcare Analyst. 

Wojcicki also worked at the National Institute of Health as a Research Associate in Oncology and Hematology. She worked at the Weizmann Institute as a Research Associate in Biochemistry and at Yale University as a Research Associate in the Biochemistry Department. She serves as a Member of Advisory Board at QB3. Anne received her B.S. from Yale University in 1996.

Let’s listen into Anne Wojcicki interviewed by the Editor of The Atlantic, Steve Clemons at Startup Grind 2016. 

Today we have a special conversation with the legendary Silicon Valley Angel Investor Ron Conway. 

Ron Conway has been an active angel investor for over 20 years. He was the Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds (1998-2005) whose investments included: Google, Ask Jeeves, Paypal, Good Technology, Opsware, and Brightmail. 

Ron was recently named #6 in Forbes Magazine Midas list of top deal-makers in 2008 and is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors. He is the Vice Chairman of the UCSF Medical Foundation, Board Member of The Tiger Woods Foundation, and SF Homeless Connect, and on the Benefit Committee of Ronald McDonald House, College Track, and the Blacked Eyed Peas-PeaPod Academy Foundation. Ron is also featured in Gary Rivlin's book _The Godfather of Silicon Valley: Ronald Conway and the Fall of the Dot-coms, described as 'the man who has placed more bets on Internet start-ups than anyone else in Silicon Valley.

Lets listen into Ron Conway interviewed by Startup Grind’s founder Derek Andersen at our Global Conference Earlier this year. 

This podcast is brought to you by HBX ­ Harvard Business School’s digital learning initiative. Introducing “Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen,” an engaging and interactive online learning experience from Harvard Business School’s HBX. Learn to create winning strategies to position your organization for long­term success by applying proven disruption and innovation theories from world renowned strategist Clay Christensen. Disruptive Strategy encourages active learning and peer collaboration, and requires a commitment of approximately thirty hours over six weeks. Applications are being accepted for upcoming cohorts in August and October. To learn more, visit disruptivestrategy.org

Today we have a special conversation with the co-founder of Slack, Stewart Butterfield. Butterfield technically serves as the President of Glitch at Slack Technologies. Prior to Slack Butterfield served as the President of LudiCorp Research and Development Ltd. Stewart also directed the 11-member design group at Communicate.com, where he acted as design lead or managed teams on millions of dollars worth of projects for companies like HSBC and Sears Travel. 

He co-founded Flickr at Yahoo! Inc. He has also a long consulting interaction design career, most recently with Telus, the CBC and The Economist. 

He was recently named to the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and is a nominating judge in the Webby Awards. In 2001, he was nominated for a Chrysler Design Award. 

In 2006, Time magazine’s put him on their list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Stewart received a BA in philosophy from the University of Victoria, and an MPhil in philosophy from Cambridge University. 

Lets listen into Stewart Butterfield interviewed by Accel Partners’ Andrew Braccia at Startup Grind’s Global Conference in Silicon Valley earlier this year. 

Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist at Canva. Guy is also a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation, and executive fellow at the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley. Formerly, he was an advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google and chief evangelist at Apple. 

He is the author of The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, and ten other books. Guy has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

Lets listen into Guy Kawasaki at our Global Conference Earlier this year. 

This podcast is brought to you by HBX ­ Harvard Business School’s digital learning initiative. Introducing “Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen,” an engaging and interactive online learning experience from Harvard Business School’s HBX. Learn to create winning strategies to position your organization for long­term success by applying proven disruption and innovation theories from world renowned strategist Clay Christensen. Disruptive Strategy encourages active learning and peer collaboration, and requires a commitment of approximately thirty hours over six weeks. Applications are being accepted for upcoming cohorts in August and October. To learn more, visit disruptivestrategy.org

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Nirav Tolia, the Founder and CEO of the neighborhood based social network, Nextdoor.com. Prior to founding NextDoor, Tolia co-founded Fanbase in 2008. Tolia has served as an Advisor and Consultant to aSmallWorld, Simply Hired and Zillow. He served as the Chief Operating Officer and Corporate Director at Shopping.com Ltd. 

Tolia helped create Shopping.com through the merger of Epinions and DealTime where he had been responsible for product development, marketing, engineering, and operations. He co-founded Epinions and served as its Chief Executive Officer from April 2000 to April 2003.

Before that he served in a variety of product and marketing positions at Yahoo! Inc. 

Mr. Tolia received a BA in English from Stanford University.

Lets listen into Nirav Tolia Interviewed by Josh Elman of Greylock partners at Startup Grind’s Global Conference earlier this year. 

Today we have a special conversation with Dustin Moskovitz Co-founder of both Asana & Facebook. He is interviewed by NY Times Tech Columnist Katie Benner at our Global Conference in Silicon Valley earlier this year. Dustin co-founded Asana with the mission to help humanity thrive by enabling all teams to work together effortlessly. Prior to Asana, he cofounded Facebook and was a key leader within the technical staff, first in the position of CTO and then later as VP of Engineering. Dustin attended Harvard University as an Economics major for two years before moving to Palo Alto to work full-time at Facebook.

Let’s listen into Dustin Moskovitz and Katie Benner at Startup Grind Global 2016. 

This podcast is brought to you by HBX ­ Harvard Business School’s digital learning initiative. Introducing “Disruptive Strategy with Clayton Christensen,” an engaging and interactive online learning experience from Harvard Business School’s HBX. Learn to create winning strategies to position your organization for long­term success by applying proven disruption and innovation theories from world renowned strategist Clay Christensen. Disruptive Strategy encourages active learning and peer collaboration, and requires a commitment of approximately thirty hours over six weeks. Applications are being accepted for upcoming cohorts in August and October. To learn more, visit disruptivestrategy.org