Where do video games get their names? A lot of the time they come from branding experts like Renata Amaral Morris and Gabriel Seibel, international trend-setters and co-founders of Eat Design Studios. 

This week Louis talks to the dynamic creative team about what it’s like designing and building brands for the next generation of online entrepreneurs — from gamers to content creators, twitch streamers and more. 

(Plus: Why Gucci is getting into gaming & other online trends worth watching.)  

Highlights include: 

-How do design & branding go hand-in-hand?

-How should new startups build a brand narrative? 

-What are some of the emerging digital brand trends of 2021? 

-Why is the gaming industry gaining so much mainstream attention and money? 

-How should startups select a branding and design partner? 

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-21-designers-renata-amaral-morris-gabriel-seibel/.

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Renata Amaral Morris (CEO) & Gabriel Seibel (COO/CFO) are co-founders of Eat Design Studios, a design studio that helps develop brands across industries and around the world. Renata and Gabriel are both Brazilian, but relocated after college. Today they run EAT from hubs in Los Angeles and Paris, respectively. 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he’s not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

https://rocketplace.com/podcast

This week Louis talks with Swapnil Shinde, whose fintech startup Zeni launches out of stealth mode this week. 

Zeni is a full-service finance firm that blends machine learning and artificial intelligence tools with a team of highly experienced financial professionals. The collaboration aims to create faster and more accurate, real-time accounting experience. 

Louis talks to Swapnil about founding the company with his brother, his years-long frustration with bookkeeping, this year’s tax season hurdles and much more. 

Highlights include: 

-What is Zeni? How is it a new kind of accounting tool? 

-What will finance look like 10 years from now? 

-How should startup founders pick a finance partner? 

-When is it time to hire a full-time CEO? 

-What are trends in global work & accounting? 

-What has changed coming into tax season 2021?

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-20-accounting-swapnil-shinde/.

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Swapnil Shinde is the founder & CEO of Zeni alongside his brother Snehal, who serves as the company’s Chief Product Officer. Prior to Zeni, the brothers founded Mezi, a travel booking tool that was acquired by American Express.   

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he’s not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

https://rocketplace.com/podcast

Voilá. It’s the perfect name for a recruiting company. And for Victoire Duprez, it’s a one word story about who she is and where she’s been. 

Victoire, who is french, rose through the ranks at the global recruiting firm Michael Page, working for powerhouse french brands like Chanel, and ultimately landing in Los Angeles, where this January, she decided to do something kind of crazy: start a recruiting outfit of her own. 

Louis & Victoire talk about how it’s going, the specifics of the Los Angeles tech scene, and the ways the pandemic has changed the way companies hire. 

Highlights include: 

-Victoire’s story of coming to America and the difference in recruiting here. 

-How is the D&I conversation different in Europe vs. the U.S? 

-What is a recruiting warranty and should you ask for one? 

-How should companies select a recruiter that is a match for their needs? 

-What should companies be paying a recruiter — & how to know whether it’s too much or too little?

-The future of technology, including NFTs and brain-computer interfaces. 

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-25-recruiter-victoire-duprez.

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Victoire Duprez is a recruiter and the founder of Voilà, a Talent Matching Agency. Though she was born and raised in France and has travelled all around the world, Victoire’s agency is based in sunny Los Angeles. 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he’s not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

Find Voilà on Rocketplace https://rocketplace.com/profile/voila.

The VC market has lost its mind. 

Funding rounds are huge. Unicorns are many. There’s a lot of money, and a lot of people willing to spend it. 

It feels like we’re living through a singular moment. But is that true? There’ve been tech booms before — is this one really any different? 

Here to talk about it is Bill Beer, a veteran of Silicon Valley and an insider to its funding sprees going back to the early 2000s. As a partner at Daversa Partners, Bill has spent the past two decades working with newly-minted superstars & top VCs to build out their executive ranks. 

Bill & Louis talk about today’s funding boom and what’s driving it (hint: FOMO), as well as the ins & outs of executive recruiting and how to find a firm that matches your needs. 

Highlights include: 

-What makes today’s funding boom different from others in Silicon Valley? 

-Are we in the middle of a tech bubble and is that a bad thing?

-What should startups be looking for in an executive recruiting partner?

-How do you know whether it’s time to take your executive search function in-house? 

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Bill Beer is a partner at Daversa and leads the company’s San Francisco office. Since joining the company in 2003, he has helped build executive teams for leading companies including Google, PayPal, Postmates, Sonder, Twitter, Credit Karma, NextDoor, Reddit, AirBnB, Pinterest & Square.

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he’s not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

Find Bill Beer on Rocketplace: https://rocketplace.com/profile/daversa-partners.

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Like every industry, tech has had its ups and downs. 

A bubble that burst in 2001. Regrowth. Consolidation. Facebook-ization. Uber-ization. And now a venture market like we’ve never seen, with record-high valuations and funding rounds that were once inconceivable. 

So what exactly is going on? 

Tony Willis, Sebastian Kayll & Matt C’de Baca have some theories. Their boutique executive recruiting firm, Renaissance Leadership, has been helping grow some of the industry’s biggest players since 2003. If anybody has any clue what’s going on — and what’s next — it’s them.   

Listen to the interview to find out what we learned. 

Highlights include: 

-What are the challenges of hiring executives in the middle of a funding bubble?  

-What context should we be bringing to this historical moment in tech? 

-Are we at the top of the bubble? Is that a bad thing? 

-What should startups be looking for in an executive recruiting partner?

-How has the pandemic created demand for new and innovative Head of People positions? 

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Matt C’de Baca is the Managing Partner, North America at Renaissance Leadership. He joined the company in 2015 and is based on Menlo Park. 

Sebastian Kayll is a Managing Partner & Co-founder at Renaissance Leadership and is based in the company’s Marlow office in the UK. He founded Renoir Partners in 2001, which would go on to become Renaissance. 

Tony Willis is the Executive Chairman of Renaissance Partners and is based in the company’s Marlow office in the UK. 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he’s not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

Find the Renaissance Leadership team on Rocketplace: https://rocketplace.com/profile/renaissance-leadership

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