Startup Project: Build the future

Startup Project: Build the future

By NatarajTechnology
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Startup Project: Build the future episodes

  • #59 - Aseem Datar - Partner at Madrona Ventures - From Intern to General Manager at Azure

    Aseem joined Madrona in 2021 after spending almost twenty years as an operating executive. He works alongside founders building the future of next-generation infrastructure (core, security, DevOps), intelligent applications, robotics, and automation.


    Full conversation includes:

    • From Intern at Windows to GM at Microsoft Azure
    • GM at Azure to Investing at Madrona
    • Investing at Madrona
    • Startups vs Big Tech in AI
    • Commoditization of LLMs
    • Difference between LLMs & Human Brains


      • Follow Aseem on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/aseemdatar/

      To stay up to date checkout ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thestartupproject.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@natarajsindam

      31 min
    • #58 - TA McCann - Professional Sailor, Serial Entrepreneur (5x Founder with 3 Exits), Managing Director at Pioneer Square Labs

      To stay up to date checkout ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thestartupproject.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@natarajsindam⁠⁠

      T.A. McCann is a serial entrepreneur with an impressive track record. He has founded and served as CEO of several successful companies. Some notable ventures include Senosis (acquired by Google), Gist (acquired by Blackberry), and Rival IQ, a leading company in marketing analytics.

      McCann's expertise extends beyond founding companies. He has also held senior roles at Microsoft, where he led divisions such as Exchange and the Mobile Services divisions. Additionally, he has worked as an EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) at Polaris Venture Partners and Vulcan Capital.

      Full conversation includes:

      • Becoming a professional sailor
        • Working at microsoft exchange
        • Starting 5+ companies (3 exits)
        • Working for Paul Allen & building Startup Studio Vulcan Labs
        • Selling Gist to Blackberry
        • Rival IQ
        • Synosis (acq by Google)
        • Pioneer Square Labs
        • Systematic customer discovery & customer development process
        • Advice to entrepreneurs raising capital
        • Is AI a step change?
        • Who will capture value in AI? Big tech or startups?

          • Follow TA on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamccann/

          51 min
        • #57: How to Run Innovation Sessions with Bill Gates to Solve World Problems?

          To stay up to date checkout ⁠⁠⁠⁠thestartupproject.io⁠⁠⁠⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: ⁠⁠@natarajsindam⁠⁠

          In this episode Nataraj spoke to Taylor Black who co-founded Fizzy Inc. Post Fizzy Taylor worked at Innovation Science Fund & currently works as a Principal Product Manager at the Office of the CTO Incubator at Microsoft.


          Transcript:

          [00:00:00] Nataraj: I looked at the portfolio there then

          it's completely deep tech, uh, and sort of like invention based, uh, ideas.

          [00:00:08] Nataraj: Uh, so what was the process of like

          capturing and invention and taking and productizing it and, you know, making a
          return out of it? Like what was the thinking process there?

          [00:00:20] Taylor: So the, uh, and you can read Malcolm

          Gladwell's take on this in a, in an article where he described our invention
          sessions. Um, a and the invention sessions are a bit of a riff on like an
          innovation session or an envisioning session or things along those lines where
          you, you come up with wild ideas within a particular problem space, um, in a
          very unfettered sort of, Um, and the whole goal of this session is to generate
          as many ideas as possible.

          [00:00:52] Taylor: That's the sole ROI you're looking for

          in those sessions. Um, but there's certain conditions you set for success in
          those [00:01:00] sessions. And so the way that
          we ran those sessions, and I, and I, I ran, uh, a number of them, um, is that
          we would prepare for months ahead of time in gathering all of the materials
          that related to the problem.

          [00:01:14] Taylor: and by materials I mean the scientific

          research in a particular problem space, the, uh, market, uh, and startup landscapes
          of that particular problem space. Um, uh, things that people had written about
          it. Books, articles, um, you know, YouTube videos, everything, uh, along those
          lines. And the goal was to, um, inform.

          [00:01:43] Taylor: Kind of the fermentation moment of

          when you're thinking about a problem, all of these things w wouldn't
          themselves, um, not be a solution necessarily, but there are all the things
          that someone who wanted to be completely informed or as, as, as informed and
          possible as possible about a set of [00:02:00]
          problems. Um, Had all of the raw material there.

          [00:02:03] Taylor: We'd also do customer discovery, we'd

          do customer interviews to understand those pain points. We'd bring people in,
          um, uh, and run sessions with them where they would, you know, get deep into
          their own, um, the problems they were encountering so that everybody who is,
          and everybody who's part of the sessions had to.

          [00:02:22] Taylor: Understand those materials, uh,

          deeply. We'd even quiz them on occasion. Um, it also helped that, uh, bill
          Gates, um, uh, whenever he came to those sessions, he would have all of those
          materials like completely groced. And so you, you know, you needed to have them
          groced too so that you didn't, you know, uh, lose face in front of Bill.

          [00:02:44] Taylor: But, um, Uh, but the key, so we'd,

          we'd get everybody, all of those materials and have them go through them, uh, a
          good month or so before the actual sessions happened. Um, that gave everybody
          an, an even playing [00:03:00] field in terms
          of, you know, I may be a physicist, I may be a biz dev person, I may be, um, an
          attorney.

          [00:03:06] Taylor: I may be, uh, you know, a program

          manager, but I have all of the same raw material. Uh, and my own perspective on
          it that I can bring to these sessions. The sessions themselves, them, um, were
          set around particular problem spaces and we'd start, we'd start each, um,
          session and then there's a variety of different kinds of sessions that we ram.

          [00:03:28] Taylor: Um, Uh, with a lot of provocations, a

          lot of conversation, a lot of like wild thinking and post-it notes and
          whiteboards of just dumping ideas out, uh, that had occurred to people or
          occurred in conversation or happened in the, in the hallway outside. Um, and we
          get all those ideas down, documenting everything.

          7 min
        • #55: What is the insurance against Innovation Dilemma?

          To stay up to date checkout ⁠⁠⁠thestartupproject.io⁠⁠⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: ⁠@natarajsindam⁠

          In this episode Nataraj spoke to Taylor Black who co-founded Fizzy Inc. Post Fizzy Taylor worked at Innovation Science Fund & currently works as a Principal Product Manager at the Office of the CTO Incubator at Microsoft.

          Transcript:

          [00:00:00] Nataraj: To me it always made sense for large

          companies to have some kind of incubator or accelerator model because one of
          the reasons I think we are seeing in this bear cycle, sort of like when the
          wave sort of, you know, falls down, you see who's naked scenario.

          [00:00:17] Nataraj: Um, I think any company which

          survives multi decades has to have multiple large businesses. Mm-hmm. . I think
          in a lot of ways, I mean, looking back, a lot of companies didn't, uh, look for
          long-term opportunities as much as they should. Like we can talk about like,
          uh, Amazon, you know, putting billion dollars into their phone, but I would
          argue the potential on the upside of suckers was so high they should have put
          in, you know, one more billion and tried the next version.

          [00:00:50] Nataraj: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. , uh, and I. , like

          argue the same with Facebook in a sense. Like now they're doing this metaverse
          thing. [00:01:00] Um, and sort of again
          retreating that back now. But I feel like even Facebook with all its cash flow,
          uh, didn't really think, um, because they always self constrained themselves to
          be a social company.

          [00:01:14] Nataraj: Um, like I think that's sort of like

          a self-imposed mental model on themselves. Mm-hmm. , like, uh, I would not
          impose themselves like a social company. Yeah. You work good at Facebook and
          WhatsApp, but I mean, look at how many great technologies that came out from
          Facebook, open source community and like putting that social as a blanket on
          your company.

          [00:01:34] Nataraj: I think. Set a backstage for all

          these technologies, which could be, you know, productionized and, you know,
          capitalized. Mm-hmm. . Right. Uh, that's, I feel like a lot of companies,
          especially the large companies, are with very good cash flow sort of mixed out
          on business opportunities because of that reason.

          [00:01:50] Nataraj: That's my personal view on like, , a

          lot of companies could have it if it is well run. Mm-hmm. . Um, and should have
          it because of this reason. Right? Mm-hmm. , it's sort of [00:02:00] like you are the innovation dilemma that
          you'll encounter at some point as a large company, and you have to have a sort
          of a backup backstopping mechanism to that innovation dilemma, which every
          company will eventually face.

          [00:02:12] Nataraj: Mm-hmm. , um, So I feel like the

          innovation, uh, accelerator or the incubator would sort of act as that, uh, you
          know, that part of small investment, it's sort of like an insurance to the, uh,
          to innovation dyna that you would eventually encounter anyways, uh,

          [00:02:28] Taylor: , I think you're right.

          [00:02:28] Taylor: There's a, there's an inherent problem

          there too, though, is that, um, uh, innovation is inherently a yo low yield. .
          Um, and so within, and it's my kind of rule of thumb, that within two or three
          years of any program like ours existence, um, finance is gonna come and say,
          where's the revenue? Where's the roi? And if you don't have a data driven way
          of showing your, your anticipated revenue, your anticipated ROI on the basis of
          your activities, then uh, [00:03:00] it's entirely
          legitimate that you get.

          [00:03:02] Taylor: There's a, there's a, there's data

          driven ways of showing that the whole venture ecosystem depends on the fact
          that you're able to show future revenue on the basis of what you're doing now.
          Uh, that's how you raise funds, right? Um, and so every, uh, innovation program
          inside an enterprise has to have that same data-driven hygiene.

          For full conversation check out Episode 53.

          4 min
        • #54: How Techstars Seattle Works & How Should Founders Think About It?

          To stay up to date checkout ⁠thestartupproject.io⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam
          In this episode Nataraj spoke to Marius Ciocirlan who co-founded ShareGrid, a marketplace for filmmakers and photographers to rent and sell their equipment. It was ⁠acquired⁠ by Backstage and is now Managing Director of Techstars Seattle. Techstars expanded to Seattle in 2010, and since then more than 130 companies have gone through the program & collectively gone on to raise more than $2.5 billion in capital. 
          Full Transcript:

          [00:00:00] Nataraj: So Techstars is an, you know,

          traditionally what we call as an accelerator, right? Yeah. Uh, so what are the
          founders really getting outta, um, joining tech?

          [00:00:09] Marius: Yeah, for sure. So, um, the Tech

          Techstars program essentially, uh, falls into almost three phases. So it's a 13
          week program and it's kind of, uh, set up in three phases. The first phase is
          customer discovery, so we worked with you to ensure that like, , you truly
          understand who your customer is and what are they buying from you.

          [00:00:31] Marius: Like, you know, you, you would be

          surprised how many people have an idea of who their customer is, but it's not
          clearly defined. They don't really understand why that customer is interested
          in their product. So even companies that are farther along, we find. , it's
          always good to like really reflect on who your customer is.

          [00:00:50] Marius: So the first phase is customer

          discovery. Second phase is go to market and execution, which is more important
          nowadays, especially given the market [00:01:00]
          situation. More important than ever to actually gain real traction in your
          business and prove out that your business has some product market fit. And
          product market fit can mean different things at different stages.

          [00:01:12] Marius: But at least in your initial M V P,

          there needs to be some product market fit. And then the third phase is we're
          preparing you to go out in front of investors. So we're working on your pitch
          deck, we're working on your delivery, we're working on all of your documents,
          uh, getting you ready to ensure that you're ready for, uh, investors and
          putting you in front of investors.


          Full version at thestartupproject.io


          4 min
        • #53 Taylor Black - Innovation Science Fund & Microsoft Incubator

          To stay up to date checkout ⁠⁠thestartupproject.io⁠⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam
          In this episode Nataraj spoke to Taylor Black who co-founded Fizzy Inc. Post Fizzy Taylor worked at Innovation Science Fund & currently works as a Principal Product Manager at the Office of the CTO Incubator at Microsoft.
          Full Conversation includes:

          • Starting a company during law school
          • Running a WordPress server farm
          • Why WordPress still dominates internet?
          • Working at Innovation Science Fund
          • Running innovation sessions attended by Entrepreneurs, Nobel laureates, Scientists & Bill Gates
          • Fundamental technology breakthrough in Metamaterials
          • Funding Starlink competitor
          • Incubator inside Microsoft for the Office of the CTO
          • Measuring Innovation inside large organizations

            • You can connect with Taylor here on LinkedIn.


            56 min
          • #52: What is Sharegrid & how it got started?

            To stay up to date checkout ⁠thestartupproject.io⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam
            In this episode Nataraj spoke to Marius Ciocirlan who co-founded ShareGrid, a marketplace for filmmakers and photographers to rent and sell their equipment. It was ⁠acquired⁠ by Backstage and is now Managing Director of Techstars Seattle. Techstars expanded to Seattle in 2010, and since then more than 130 companies have gone through the program & collectively gone on to raise more than $2.5 billion in capital. 
            Full Transcript:

            [00:00:00] So you decided you

            want to be in tech. Then how did, uh, your, uh, company start, uh, share grid?

            [00:00:06] Yeah, so she

            started, um, actually the idea was kind of originated while I was, was working
            our group on both my co-founder and I, Raj. He was, he was, he went to film,
            well he went to photography school. I, uh, uh, I believe it was more of like a
            media communication, uh, background.

            [00:00:24] But he ended up in

            tech as well. He was a designer and front end developer and um, he was a
            longtime photographer and we would take walks all the time and. , he, he sold
            his previous company to Groupon, so he's been very entrepreneurial himself and
            we were always kicking around ideas of potential startups that we could start.

            [00:00:47] And one of the ideas

            was, uh, it derived from him trying to sell some of his equipment. He was like,
            I really want this new lens, but I already have so many lenses. How do I
            justify kind. [00:01:00] Investing more money
            into more equipment when I'm not even using the equipment I already have. So
            that was kind of the thread that we started to talk about the idea, and
            essentially the idea was a lot of filmmakers, photographers invest.

            [00:01:15] Quite a bit of

            capital into, uh, equipment, into, into different, uh, cameras, lenses, audio
            equipment, lighting equipment, and it's very, very expensive. I mean, we're
            talking thousands of dollars for a camera or lens. Sometimes for film
            equipment, you're looking at 40, $50,000 for cinema camera, and that doesn't
            count all the additional accessories and, and everything else you need.

            [00:01:41] I knew about this

            from my prior film years, and I had a lot of friends who after school, their,
            their thinking was, if I invest a bit of money into equipment, the chances of
            me being hired, uh, will increase. Because the film world is actually a very
            much [00:02:00] a gig economy, freelance type
            of world. So they were thinking, if we invest in, in this equipment, uh, I will
            stand amongst the rest and like be hired more frequently.

            [00:02:10] That doesn't always

            happen. So you invest all this money, but your monthly payments are coming in
            every day, every, every month. , but you're not always getting hired. That
            equipment's not always being used. So Arra and I saw that opportunity of like,
            there's all this idle equipment. What if you were to rent that equipment out,
            similar to other pure tope economies, like, uh, like u you know, like Airbnb,
            um, So we had the idea and we essentially wanted to validate if this is
            something that other people would be interested in First.

            [00:02:43] I spoke to a lot of

            my friends from Phil School and everybody said, It's a great idea, but what
            about if somebody steals my equipment while they're renting it? They don't come
            back with the equipment. So that was always kind of the big challenge that we
            had to face. But, but that's how the [00:03:00]
            idea, just to answer your question, that's how the idea kind of derived is just
            from a personal need and also just a brainstorm of ideas.

            [00:03:07] So it was

            essentially a marketplace for renting, uh, camera and other high-end equipment
            for production.

            [00:03:14] Exactly. Exactly.

            4 min
          • #51: Working in Tech vs Movie Business

            To stay up to date checkout ⁠thestartupproject.io⁠ & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam
            In this episode Nataraj spoke to Marius Ciocirlan who co-founded ShareGrid, a marketplace for filmmakers and photographers to rent and sell their equipment. It was ⁠acquired⁠ by Backstage and is now Managing Director of Techstars Seattle. Techstars expanded to Seattle in 2010, and since then more than 130 companies have gone through the program & collectively gone on to raise more than $2.5 billion in capital. 
            Full Transcript:

            [00:00:00] So I was like, you

            know, working on Samsung, making videos and then also like working on sets,
            like reality TV shows and stuff like that, while at the same time doing a
            startup and. Uh, learning UX design. So I had to make a decision. I couldn't do
            both. And the reason I decided to go into tech, I remember having this kind of
            conversation with my significant other, is that in film it's a very traditional
            career path, meaning, In order to become a cinematographer or a director or a
            producer, you have to pay your dues.

            [00:00:35] Like there is very

            strict rules about what certain people could do on a set and what they can't
            do, like. I've been told in my position as a production assistant was like, you
            are not allowed to move that equipment. You're not allowed to move that chair
            because the union, you don't belong to that union.

            [00:00:53] So it's actually

            like a safety regulation or. It was a very traditional kind of [00:01:00] career path, and I realized that like I
            was not going to reach my dream of becoming a cinematographer or director well
            into my forties, probably fifties, and it was gonna take a long time where in
            tech it was actually the complete opposite.

            [00:01:18] The younger you

            were, the more respect you got and almost the more opportunities you received.
            So my goal was always like, I really enjoyed. and it seems like doors are just
            really opening, people are just much more supportive. If you have big
            ambitions, you don't have to like, wait in line and wait your turn.

            [00:01:38] You could just act on

            those ambitions. Uh, so it just felt like a much friendlier community and just
            more embracing. So, um, it went towards tech and I, I always planned like at
            some point in my career, I'll make it in tech and then I'll come back at an
            older age and a film and I'll be a producer and I'll fund my own films or uh, [00:02:00] documentaries or whatever, whatever that
            might be.

            3 min
          • #50: Marius Ciocirlan - Managing Director Techstars Seattle, Co-Founder of Sharegrid (Acq by Backstage)

            To stay up to date checkout thestartupproject.io & follow Nataraj on twitter: @natarajsindam

            In this episode Nataraj spoke to Marius Ciocirlan who co-founded ShareGrid, a marketplace for filmmakers and photographers to rent and sell their equipment. It was acquired by Backstage and is now Managing Director of Techstars Seattle. Techstars expanded to Seattle in 2010, and since then more than 130 companies have gone through the program & collectively gone on to raise more than $2.5 billion in capital. 

            Full Conversation includes:

            • How skateboarding led do film school
            • Raising funds via grants
            • Startup weekends
            • Early days at Groupon Mobile Team
            • Origin story and cofounding Sharegrid (acquired by Backstage)
            • Joining Techstars Seattle as Managing Director
            • What's special about Techstars Seattle?
            • How founders should think about Techstars Seattle

              • If you are founder and is interested in applying to TechStars Seattle you can get in touch with Marius at [email protected]

              39 min

            About Startup Project: Build the future

            From the publisher's feed

            Conversations with founders, operators and investors who are building the future. Listen to find the stories, ideas, tactics & investments behind the products that will define the future of technology.