the full bloom

Shruti Gandhi, Managing Partner of Array VC, joins Bart Macdonald on this episode of the full bloom  to share the lessons she has picked over the last decade successfully backing enterprise software ventures at the earliest stages of company building!

Array's portfolio companies have gone on to raise follow on capital from Sequoia, Founders Fund, and the who's who of Sand Hill Road. She dives into how Array leverages her thesis-driven approach and hands-on approach has helped set her up for success.

Shruti Gandhi, Managing Partner of Array VC :: Twitter + LinkedIn
Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn

Carlos Cashman, Co-founder of Thrasio, joins Bart Macdonald on this episode of the full bloom  to unravel his story that's lead to building this iconic unicorn.

Thrasio is one of the fastest-growing acquirers of Amazon third-party FBA brands. Thrasio is quickly becoming one of the largest, and most profitable, consumer product companies in the Amazon ecosystem. With over 100 successful acquisitions of Amazon and e-commerce businesses, Thrasio has held seven fundraises in a little over one year and has raised a total of $1.75 billion since 2018.

Carlos shares his story and experiences as a multi-exit founder, agency owner, and seasoned leader in the startup space that lead to the creation of Thrasio. Hear Carlos' insights on Thrasio's playbook as the company scales to reach an aggressive goal- acquiring one e-commerce business per day. 

Carlos Cashman, Co-founder of Thrasio :: LinkedIn
Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn

Lloyed Lobo joins Bart Macdonald on this episode of the full bloom to talk about his experience scaling software companies, and building communities in the tech sector.

Lloyed Lobo shares the lessons he's learned as a software engineer, operator and multi-company founder. Lloyed is the co-founder and president of Boast.ai, which automates access to billions in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives so companies can fuel their growth while preserving equity and avoiding red-tape.

Armed with $123M USD in funding, Boast.ai is on a mission to help innovative companies become successful. Lloyed also co-chairs Traction, a community of over 90k+ founders and tech professionals co-founded by Boast.AI, that brings leaders from the fastest growing companies like Shopify, Twilio, Slack, LinkedIn, GitHub, Cloudflare, and many more to share learnings on building, growing, and scaling startups via weekly webinars, regular meetups, and an annual conference.

Lloyed Lobo, Co-founder and President of Boast.ai :: Twitter + LinkedIn
Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn

Making more than 100 investments in early-stage software companies, Emergence Capital has built a winning playbook over the past 20 years.

Joe Floyd, General Partner of Emergence Capital, joins Bart Macdonald on this episode of the full bloom. Joe breaks down the fund's strategy on making high-conviction bets in early stage companies- most notably Salesforce, Zoom and Gusto.

Joe opens up the playbook on how the Emergence team works with founders to evolve into venture scale CEOs, detailing the common mistakes founders make, and the 5 super powers of a great early-stage founder.

Hear what Joe thinks about the current state of the early stage markets, and what Emergence is looking for when investing in SaaS products in 2021.

Joe Floyd, General Partner Emergence Capital :: Twitter + LinkedIn
Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn

What do tech bloggers and venture capitalists have in common? They're both digging to learn more about the newest emerging technology.

Peter Rojas, Partner at Betaworks Ventures, joins Bart Macdonald to talk early stage investing, social gaming and first-time founder challenges. Peter has built a notable career in technology as a 4x founder- originating from a background in journalism as a founder of Gizmodo/Gawker Media, and most recently VP of Strategy at AOL.

On this episode Peter and Bart uncover the challenges a venture firm faces when investing in early-stage technology. And on the flip-side, he shares the importance of having empathy for first-time founders navigating the venture world.

Peter Rojas, :: Partner, Betaworks Ventures :: Twitter + LinkedIn
Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn

Taking a company public is easier than you think. And Bart wants to know, why aren't more people talking about this?

Serial entrepreneur and investor, Ian Patterson, shares insights from his trials and tribulations of financing startups. From bootstrapping Exapik, to taking Plurilock public- Ian has years of experience raising capital as a founder.

Ian and Bart chat about raising venture capital, alternative financing options, SPACs and RTOs. Ian shares his perspective going from venture-backed founder to, taking $PLUR public on the TSXV. And the steps Plurilock took to make the informed decision to IPO.

Ian L. Paterson, Founder of Plurilock :: Twitter + LinkedIn
Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn

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Ian's story from ianlpaterson.com,

Ian L. Paterson is CEO at Plurilock, an advanced cybersecurity company, where he led the initial productization and later commercialization of over 35,000 hours of academic research. As CEO, he raised $5M in early-stage investment and closed the company’s first $1M in revenue from lighthouse customers in the US federal government, critical infrastructure, and financial services.

A serial entrepreneur, Ian was previously founder and CEO of Exapik (acquired by FlashGate), a data monetization marketplace that he bootstrapped from $0 to six figures in recurring revenue over the first six months, processing over a billion data events per month with clients in AdTech, FinTech, and Fortune 1000, and then selling the business after 2 years.

Prior to Exapik, Ian led the enterprise data science division as Director of Insights at venture-backed analytics firm Terapeak (acquired by eBay), where he delivered record-setting $10M in sales from marquee customers including eBay, VF Group, and the world’s largest quantitative hedge funds.

"Do things that are interesting, work with great people and work as hard as you can."- Jeff Richards

Jeff and Bart are diving deep into the concept of "playing the long game" in investing, careers and relationship building. Jeff Richards, Managing Partner of GGV Capital, brings 25+ years of compounding experience as a founder and investor to this episode of the full bloom.

Jeff gives his perspective on the future of technology as a 2x founder that's lived through the Dot-com bubble, Managing Parter of  $9B global venture capital firm and father. Jeff explains how GGV Capital is placing bets on early-stage founders and companies around the world through Seed and Series A venture capital investments.

Looking for a dose of optimism on the future? This episode is a must listen.

Jeff Richards, Managing Partner of GGV Capital :: Twitter + LinkedIn
Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn

How do you close an acquisition of an international SaaS company in less than 30 days? Speed, creativity and an experienced team.

Bloom Venture Partners recently announced our latest acquisition of Viostream. Viostream is a leader in online video solutions, empowering government and corporations organizations to engage their employees, customers & stakeholders by simplifying the sourcing, management and distribution of video.

Jay Vasantharajah, General Partner of Bloom, joins Bart on this episode of the full bloom to take you backstage on the deal, from sourcing to ink.

Jay and Bart are pulling back the curtain, bringing the acquisition to life from the perspective of private equity and SaaS investors. Jay details why Viostream was a lucrative acquisition for Bloom, and how the Bloom team plans to  add value to the company through years of operational experience.

Jay Vasantharajah, General Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn + Blog
Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn

If you've spent more than one refresh on Twitter, and have a brokerage app installed on your phone, you've probably heard of the infamous Howard Lindzon.

Howard has leveraged his prowess for financial markets into a notable 20 year career- pioneering the fintech industry as a startup founder, media personality, investor, father and creator of the cashtag (ex: $RIMM and $AAPL).

Howard joins Bart on this episode of the full bloom to chat about the importance of using leverage in two markets- financial and social. Hear why Howard thinks we're entering a new era of social leverage, and explains why "your network is your net worth" is more true than ever before.

Bart and Howard analyze the trends of the public markets. And recent CEO of $SLAC.U, gives his perspective on the unique investment opportunities SPACs create. 

Howard Lindzon, General Partner of SocialLeverage :: Twitter + LinkedIn
Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn

Adii Pienaar believes there's a new measure of entrepreneurial success. After more than 12 years of chasing success, Adii is reflecting on his journey as a 3x founder and CEO, and introduces his new perspective of "success" as a startup founder.

Adii's entrepreneurial journey started with building custom Wordpress themes, eventually leading to founding WooThemes in 2008. After WooThemes was acquired by Woocommerce in 2015, Adii has parlayed his wins into multiple e-commerce technology ventures- mostly recently as the founder of Cogsy.

In this episode, Bart and Adii host a conversation about the importance of founders separating themselves from the successes & failures of business. Adii dives deep into reflection on his experience launching products, growing teams and funding ventures- sharing what he would do differently as a first-time founder.

Adii recently launched his book, Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success. In Life Profitability, Adii provides you with a new perspective for becoming self-aware, recognizing your values, and understanding your impact. An enriched life and a successful business are not mutually exclusive. In fact, this book will provide you with the first steps in building a business that is more sustainable, with increased options for you, your employees, and your community. Learn how to give yourself some space, measure meaningful output, and live with intention so that you can maximize profit that truly counts.

Adii Pienaar, Founder of Cogsy :: Twitter + LinkedIn
Bart Macdonald, Managing Partner of Bloom Venture Partners :: Twitter + LinkedIn