Chris and Matt invited Jamie McGurk, General Partner at BAM Elevate, to share his expertise on the state of today’s market. Jamie currently oversees the private investment division of Balyasny Asset Management L.P. 

“We focus on private markets, starting beyond the venture stage… think of us as early growth investors.”

Jamie discusses his broad view of the market today and where he has seen the biggest changes.

“In 2021, top-performing private companies that exited had really strong balance sheets. But many had operational expense plans that were wound up to match that. Now, some of that “unwind” will happen, but not for all of them.”

He talks about how the private growth funds have slowed down in competition and how that has impacted deal velocity over valuations (so far, anyway).

Jamie also covers valuation compression and what he sees happening across the board.

Check out Bam Elevate to learn more.

Visit c2ventures.co to learn more about our portfolio companies.

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Follow Matt on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Follow Chris on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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Jake DeCicco and his two brothers have a fascinating story about becoming top entrepreneurs in one of the most saturated consumer goods categories - Coffee. Super Coffee's most recent valuation is $500 million, and its goal is to expand into the International market in the next few years. Super Coffee's core premise was to make a drink that was a third of the calories and zero sugar but tasted like a Starbucks frappuccino.

Jake shares the journey he and his brothers went on and how they used their experience as athletes to work as a team and keep going through the tough times. "Learning how to be teammates, first. We respect each other's positions and just make sure that we are working towards the team's greater goal, which carries over very nicely to the workplace."

The brothers always had an entrepreneurial spirit, "Jordan and I always had a little bit of an entrepreneurial bug. We would make lemonade stands in high school or hustled and sold gum in the hallways that we bought from Sam's Club." This mentality served them well when they had to grind daily to produce their first shipment of Super Coffee to Whole Foods.

The journey these three brothers have gone on has been inspirational to listen to, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did,

Learn more about Super Coffee here: https://drinksupercoffee.com/

Connect with Jake here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-decicco-42698a66/

Connect with Chris here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cunninghamchrisc2/

Follow us on Twitter: @c2_ventures

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PREVIOUS INTERVIEW - Kara Goldin started her career at Time Magazine and was quickly recruited by CNN for advertising sales. She then took a role at a small startup company called 2Market, where she was worried that she wouldn't contribute because she knew nothing about tech. 

But, Kara showed up every day, learning and growing, and when AOL acquired the company, she became the youngest Vice President and one of the few female leaders on the team. She managed a team of around two hundred people for years until she realized that she was missing out on her children's lives. 

"I have three kids back in San Francisco under the age of four. I cannot rewind their life. And I thought I'm hopping off this train," Kara told Chris. It was not an easy transition, and she was met with many naysayers, telling her she was making a mistake. Nevertheless, she persisted in her decision to be with her family and take a break. 

At the same time, Kara began with health issues. This was the catalyst that would change her life trajectory forever. 

Unbeknown to Kara, she was on her way to becoming one of the most well-recognized female entrepreneurs in the health and wellness industry today. 

Hint Water was born out of Kara's curiosity to find answers. Answers about her health issues and why "diet" drinks were deceiving consumers into believing they were healthy when they were, in fact, detrimental. 

"I mean, it was crazy because again, I think the challenge that people have is there are healthy perceptions versus healthy reality. And here I am, a smart person, a successful person, and I was fooled, right. It is really, really tricky."

Kara spent the next several years taking one step forward, two steps back, trying to bring Hint Water to the world. She eventually got her first break with Google and then Whole Foods. 

"Talking about superpower. I think my curiosity has always been probably one of the biggest superpowers that I have."

Kara has grown her water company into selling face and body products that are chemical-free. She also wrote Undaunted to share her life's journey to encourage other entrepreneurs to keep being curious and never lose faith. 

To learn more about Hint Water, visit https://www.drinkhint.com.

To learn more about Kara Goldin and her book undaunted, visit https://karagoldin.com.

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In The Trenches, this week, we have Ben Cantey, Founder and CEO of Rumby.co, and Nick McHenry, Co-Founder and CEO of OneShop. They are taking the old-school, out-of-date economies and turning them on their heads with new retail tech. "Mobile app engagement is a huge thing. Just as important as local brick-and-mortar store engagement is. So getting people in the store and then giving them this mobile app experience that they come back to is so important."

One Shop is a software platform that works with omnichannel retailers, primarily focusing on the brick-and-mortar side, helping stores engage their clientele with personalized communication and product recommendations through automated communications. So when you shop in-store, or if you shop online, you get relevant updates from new deliveries you shop. "The way we approach retailers is from the data analytics side and think about how we can introduce new, innovative technology and data they understand even though we're taking a brand new approach, they've never seen before.

Rumby is a Shopify-like platform taking dry cleaners and laundromats online. So their customers can place orders and manage orders all online. And we fulfill those orders via our logistics partners, door dash and Uber. So you can get your laundry and dry cleaning, all done from the comfort of your home. "With the launch of our mobile API, we're working with retailers to create laundry experiences in their strong mobile apps. A retailer could build out a laundry experience in their mobile app, use our API, and then access over 1,200 cleaners across the U S and provide that experience to their customers."

Check out rumby.co and connect with Ben.

Check out Oneshopretail.com and connect with Nick.

Visit c2ventures.co to learn more about our portfolio companies.

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Instagram - @c2ventures

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Today, in the trenches, we invited Ian White, Co-Founder of Koffie Labs, and Rashid Galadanci, Founder of Driver Technologies, to talk about what they are seeing in the insurance tech sector.

"Somebody first identified trucking insurance to me as Satan's pit of insurance, but I love it." Ian jokes about his love of commercial trucking insurance and knows that the industry has lost money for the last ten years. "Bringing in new tech folks and underwriters who are experienced but not jaded is a really exciting way to turn it around."

Rashid bought the dream of autonomous cars and trucks. "I drank the Kool-Aid. I saw the dream about the future, painted for us by our dear friend Yuan at Tesla. Then I realized that this was not something that only the bottom of the pyramid doesn't have access to. Actually, 95% of the pyramid won't have access to these types of tools."

Ian and Rashid talk about the challenges, and progress that is happening in their respective parts of the insurance tech industry and share the growth and innovation happening to help protect drivers and truckers in the future.

Please support the show by subscribing and sharing it with a friend.

Follow us on Twitter - @superpowerspod, Instagram - @superpowerspod

Learn more about Driver Technologies - https://drivertechnologies.com/

Learn more about Koffie Labs - https://getkoffie.com/

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I met Mick Batyske years ago in Barcelona, and I was blown away by his incredible musical talent and entrepreneurial spirit. This guy has DJ'd for some of the biggest names: Cartier, Complex, GQ, Instagram, Jay-Z, LeBron James, Michelle Obama, Miguel, Prince, Spotify, Vanity Fair, and Will Smith. Not only is he one of the most requested DJs, but he is also an investor, speaker, podcaster, and devoted father.

But Mick's journey didn't start with hot nightclubs and celebrity schmoozing. "I got my start deejaying in a dorm room in college. I walked in there with two crates of records, two turntables, and a mixer that barely worked and became a DJ. It was my first exercise in rebranding because I was an overweight, hairline-receding nerd in high school. A fat drummer and a marching band kid. Two months later, I was like the coolest student in the dorm."

Over time Mick realized he could connect with people he would never usually get the chance to meet. He got the opportunity to build connections with influential people through his music. "I realized I'd much rather be in rooms of people that we can add mutual value outside of the DJ booth versus just, like pretty people drunk at a club."

The event and DJ industry got annihilated during the pandemic, so he began to evaluate how to pivot his attention and start to grow different revenue streams. Mick started angel investing and advising startups through his company, The Xavier Co. Mick invests in, and advises a plethora of start-ups including Anchor, BPM Supreme, and Buzzer.

Connect with Mick at mick.co or check out his music on SoundCloud.

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Mick's BIO

DJ, speaker, investor and advisor Mick Batyske (p/k/a MICK) has his feet planted at the intersection of culture and entrepreneurship.

Inc Magazine referred to MICK as a “combination of Gary Vee and Questlove.”

Vogue says he "keeps the dancefloor going all night."

Complex has called MICK "the most entrepreneurial deejay."

But MICK refers to himself as the father of the coolest 6-year-old in the world: Myles.

DJ clients have included Andreessen Horowitz, Cartier, GQ, Instagram, LeBron, Michelle Obama, NBC, Prince, Twitter, Vanity Fair, and Will Smith.

His speaking reel includes Alibaba, Cannes Lions, MasterCard and Stanford.

MICK’s investment portfolio includes Anchor, Backdrop, Buzzer, Dot Dot Dash, and Winc.

Via this new venture, The Xavier Co, he is currently advising a plethora of start-ups including Game On and Polinate.

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Welcome to the second installment of In The Trenches. In line with our core strategy of traditional old economy sectors looking for productivity solutions, we have started to see a marked increase in the number of solutions aimed at the traditional brick-and-mortar retail space. And in some cases, maybe even the e-commerce space or something in between.

In this episode, Matt shares data to support what we've seen regarding the limitations of e-commerce and the misunderstood features of traditional brick-and-mortar retail. He talks about what innovations we are seeing with AI, security, and much more.

Follow Matt on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Follow Chris on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Visit c2ventures.co to learn more.

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Phil Bronner and I have known each other for the last 15 years. Phil started as a self-described snotty-nosed kid running around Baltimore trying to play ball and became one of the most successful venture capitalists in the D.C. area.

"I was leaving for school, and my dad said congratulations. You're going off to college. I really hope it goes well. But if it doesn't, you're never coming back here. You're going to the military. And that stuck with me."

He started in venture in 1999 and worked his way up, gaining his apprentice-style experience through a big fund that had $650 million under management. "It's hard to learn the business outside of the industry. You sort of have to learn it by doing." After 15 years, he decided to pave his own path and co-founded Ardent Venture Partners.

Phil shares his journey of what it is like to be a black man in venture and how we can break the cycle of making deals with "the same people we always have."

"How does venture work? It's driven by two things—your relationships and pattern recognition. You do research and other things. But, you also say, well, I backed the person who looks just like that person who reminds me of this person. And that makes you more comfortable doing that deal. So when your networks are white males, it's going to lead to referrals that are from other people who look like them."

Phil has an incredible way of seeing things from others' perspectives and finding a workaround to be successful. "Often, we allow emotion to color our perspective on the situation. But you have to pay attention and separate that from your decision-making."

Visit LinkedIn to connect with Phil or learn more about Ardent Venture Partners.

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Phil's Bio

Phil Bronner is the co-founder of Ardent Venture Partners, a venture fund investing in companies that transform the way we work. He is currently on the board of Reserve Trust, Verituity, ExecOnline, OneMain Financial (O.M.F.), and an investor in Method Financial and Collective. Before co-founding Ardent Venture Partners, Phil was Founder/Managing Member of Summer League Ventures (S.L.V.). Active S.L.V. deals include Morning consult, ExecOnline, Ordway Labs, Gather.ai, Anno.ai, and AirSide Mobile.

Prior to S.L.V., Phil was a General Partner with Novak Biddle Venture Partners. Over the course of his 15-year career, he led 16 investments (was actively involved in 20) with investments totaling over $100 million. Three of Phil's series A investments went on to be worth $880 million or more. Investments include 2U (TWOU), Infoblox (BLOX), SolidFire (Acquired by NetApp), AddThis (acquired by Oracle), Webs (Acquired by Vistaprint), Approva (Acquired by Infor), LifeShield Security (acquired by DirectTV), ClearStandards (Acquired by SAP), Social Gaming Network, and Logic Library (Acquired by S.O.A. Software). In addition, Phil's past board observer seats include N.E.W. Customer Service Companies (acquired by Asurion), AnswerLogic, a natural language search engine (acquired by Primus Knowledge Systems), and Spectrum K12 (acquired by Power Schools). Phil was the founder of Quad Learning, a venture-backed startup acquired by Wellspring Higher Education, served as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., and worked as a software engineer at I.B.M.

Phil earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University; a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Law; and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Phil and Brooke live in Washington DC with their 3 kids: Dylan, Sophia, and Mason.

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I want you to meet my partner, Matt Olivo. This year, I am getting him more involved in the Superpowers Podcast because he is a wealth of knowledge for new founders and anyone interested in Venture. Matt and I are starting a series called, In The Trenches, where we talk about things that we find interesting, companies we see killing it in tech, founders we admire, advice for new startups, and so much more.

This is the first episode, and we cover our 2022 Tech Industry Predictions that Alleywatch picked up. Will we get it right this year? Listen in to find out what we predict will happen in tech this year. We also went over our 2021 prediction to see how we did. It wasn't too bad...

Send me feedback if you like this kind of episode or topics you are interested in hearing us talk about to [email protected].

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I started playing hockey when I was 5 years old. Now I call myself a midlife crisis hockey player, somewhat (but not NHL level) living out my childhood dreams of being in the league. So, I couldn't wait for Heidi to join me and talk about our shared love of hockey on the podcast. 

I have known Heidi for over 15 years, since her MySpace and Pandora days, where I got to see first-hand how incredible she was at listening to her customers and using that knowledge to make better business decisions for the companies. This led her to an opportunity at the NHL when they were building out their social marketing and marketing practice.

"It is a privilege and an honor to be the CMO at the NHL. When I first joined, it was our one-hundredth anniversary. It's not too often that as a marketer, you get the opportunity to usher in the next generation of fans with a hundred-year-old brand. So that's what really excited me."

Heidi has taken the NHL to the next level, focusing on bringing new fans into the fold. "How do we grow our fan base and diversify our fan base? It has to start with who's working in our league. Then extends to the fans and the players, et cetera."

Even though joining the NHL was an exciting career move for Heidi, she had no previous experience in sports. "Coming in as a new and casual fan, in the beginning, I could see right away that we spent a lot of time catering to the avid fans. We conducted focus groups that confirmed my observation. Hockey fans are like the coolest, most rabid, fanatical fans out there. They know the rules, history, and tradition. It can be intimidating to be on the outside trying to get in."

Heidi has always focused on what customers are saying. She has never been afraid to hear feedback and tries to connect the old and the new generations to keep her companies relevant. I hope you enjoy our conversation and we inspire you to join our love of hockey.

You can connect with Heidi on LinkedIn and visit the NHL to learn more.

Connect with Chris Cunningham and subscribe to the show.

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Heidi's Bio

As Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Heidi Browning leads the National Hockey League’s growth marketing strategy with a focus on digital, innovation, and social media. With more than 25 years of marketing experience, including success with major brands in Silicon Valley, Browning brings a valuable mix of client, agency, and media owner perspectives to the NHL. Browning is known as a passionate pioneer in digital, mobile, and social marketing and as an executive who advances new ideas and innovation within the industry. Inspired by the intersection of media, technology, and culture, Browning studies generational trends in attention and brand engagement. Her experience marketing to Millennial and Gen Z audiences is essential for engaging young sports fans and will help guide her leadership of the NHL’s new fan database/analytics initiative.

Under Browning’s leadership, the NHL has experienced a 33% growth in followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. She spearheaded the introduction of eight new Twitter accounts, including six international languages, @StanleyCup; @NHLGIFs; NHL Europe on Instagram; and TikTok, Weibo, and WeChat accounts. As a result of a focused strategy on video content, video streams have increased 111% across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Since Browning’s arrival at the NHL, the League’s Instagram engagement has increased by 58%, while followers on that account increased 46%.

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