Episode 435 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Kojo Osei, Partner at Matrix.

The venture capital industry originated back in 1946 in the Boston area, when The American Research and Development Corporation was founded by MIT president Karl Compton and Harvard professor Georges Doriot.

From that point, an industry was born, and firms were created, but very few have had the lasting impact and track record as Matrix, one of the OG firms that helped institutionalize this industry.

The firm has a tremendous track record through the years making investments in legendary companies like Apple and FedEx… plus category creators like HubSpot, Zendesk, and Oculus… or current investments like Canva, Suno, GOAT, and Flock Safety.

Matrix is investing out of its 12th fund, an $800M fund for seed and Series A investments, and the firm continues to have a strong presence on both coasts.

Kojo is a Stanford grad, who was the Head of Product at Sirona Medical, the AI operating system for radiologists, before becoming a VC. Now based in NYC, Kojo has been an investor with Matrix for over five years. Some areas of interest these days for investments include agent-driven commerce, how the software infrastructure is getting rebuilt for agents, and model application integrated companies. His investments include companies like Channel3, BoldVoice, Ampersand, and LM Studios.

Chapters:

00:00 Introducing Kojo Osei, Partner at Matrix

03:24 What is Agent Driven Commerce

09:45 Koji's background & Early Career

13:20 Joining Matrix as a VC

14:37 Advice for Aspiring Venture Capitalists

17:05 The First Year in Venture Capital

20:26 Details about Matrix's

25:01 Investment Areas of Interest for Kojo

27:48 The Art of the Cold Email to a VC

34:17 Exploring the 'Why Now' Philosophy

37:59 AI: Current State and Predictions

42:06 Common Mistakes Founders Make

44:23 GTM for Developer Products

48:11 Leveraging AI in Daily Workflow

49:23 Kojo's Recommendation & Personal Interests

Podcast Sponsor:

This podcast is brought to you by one of the strongest longtime supporters of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors and $44B in loans as of Q4 2025 – SVB delivers expert guidance, specialized products and a team that knows the innovation economy inside and out. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 434 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Ted Julian, CEO & Founder of Flux.

Lots of successful people are very humble. They might credit their success to timing, luck, or another reason to downplay things which is a trait that I do admire. Ted fits the bill here, as he’s very humble.

But, as you’ll hear in this podcast interview, his track record is extraordinary. He’s been part of the founding team or leadership team for not 1, not 2, not 3… but 4 exits. Very few, if any, have that type of track record in Boston.

It’s obvious that he knows how to time the market with the right product and build an exceptional team to execute and scale.

That is exactly why I am so incredibly excited about what he is working on right now. With the current paradigm shift to AI, there is a rare opportunity for proven founders to swing for the fences and build massive anchor tech companies in Boston.

Ted’s latest company is Flux, which recently announced $5M in funding round led by Calibrate Ventures, with participation from True Ventures and Glasswing. They have built a code-first engineering intelligence platform that gives engineering leaders ground-truth visibility into the work actually happening across today’s complex, AI-accelerated codebases.

Think of it this way: Salesforce completely digitized the sales pipeline, HubSpot digitized the marketing funnel… now, with AI tools helping developers ship code faster than ever before, Flux provides the missing system of record to ensure engineering organizations are optimized with less risk and are aligned with business outcomes.

Chapters

00:00 Introducing Ted Julian - CEO & Founder of Flux

03:44 Lessons Learned Around GTM Strategies & Getting Early Adopter Customers

06:58 Ted's Background and Getting his Career Started

07:32 Co-Founding @ Stake & Amazing Alumni

09:26 Other Exits

14:38 Ted's Philosophy of Entrepreneurship

19:34 Why He Keeps Building

22:27 Details on Flux: Transforming Engineering with AI

27:41 Flux's Recent $5M Round of Funding & What's Next

30:23 Their fundraising process

33:53 Leveraging AI in his personal life

36:32 Hobbies outside of work

Episode 433 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Roy Hotrabhvanon, CEO & Co-Founder of PlayerData.

Some companies seem like they were just meant to happen, which is certainly the case for PlayerData.

Back in 2016, Roy was on track to compete in the Rio Olympics for archery when a severe car accident completely derailed his plans. But instead of letting that tragic incident define him, Roy picked himself up and built a tech company around the specialized performance tracking tools he had originally hacked together to train his own body.

He was using sensors and data to optimize his performance, which certainly was not common practice back then. His firsthand experience seeing what hardware, software, and data could do for athletes sparked the foundation for PlayerData, and his timing turned out to be absolutely perfect.

Fast forward, PlayerData helps athletes at every stage of their game build confidence, stay healthy, and work smarter with the company’s world-class performance tracking technology.

The company recently announced a $12M from Kevin Durant’s 35V, Tennis Australia, Darco Capital, and Pentland Ventures, and what is also really exciting, they announced the move of their U.S. headquarters from Philadelphia to Boston.

As you’ll hear from this interview, PlayerData is relentlessly innovating. In addition to their core wearable tracking platform, they recently partnered with Mitre to launch the world's first GPS-enabled "Connected Ball" which is FIFA certified. Now, coaches, trainers, and athletes have even more data to optimize training and performance.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics, including:

Chapters:

00:00 Introducing Roy Hotrabhvanon, CEO & Co-Founder, PlayerData

04:33 Fundraising for a Hardware / Software company in the sports industry

07:37 Roy's background - Growing up in Thailand

11:02 Meeting his PlayerData Co-Founder, Hayden Ball

11:39 What he was tracking that led to starting PlayerData

13:40 The early days of PlayerData

18:30 "Hardware is Hard" - Experience building hardware in the sports space

24:12 PlayerData today - Details on the Company and how it works

27:22 Collecting data in practice and real game situations

28:48 The platform's ease of use and portable nature

31:29 Details on the cloud-first tech behind the data

34:24 Leveraging AI for Enhanced Coaching

35:39 Strategic Expansion into the US Market

36:54 Why Roy chose Boston for their US Headquarters

37:48 Scaling Operations and Team Growth

38:57 Go-to-Market Strategies for Broad Accessibility

41:00 What's next for PlayerData

41:48 Advice for Founders in the Sports Tech Industry

43:03 Integrating AI into Daily Operations

44:17 3 Apps Roy Can't Live Without

45:29 Book / Podcast Recommendations

46:00 What He Does for Fun Outside of Work

Episode 432 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Johannes Galatsanos, CEO & Co-Founder of Diffraqtion.

I’m incredibly lucky to host this show because the guests I interview are truly out to rewrite the rules of what's possible. Johannes is a perfect example. He brings over 15 years of deep expertise across AI, quantum tech, and operations across a career that includes lots of deep research in academia to executing massive, corporate AI initiatives at global giants like Novartis.

So, what does someone with that background do to push the absolute limits of technology?

How about building a space company that is creating the world’s first quantum camera to help satellites and machines see further and think faster?

By blending quantum photonics with cutting-edge AI edge-computing, Diffraqtion’s technology enables satellites and telescopes to bypass traditional lens constraints entirely—delivering 20 times higher resolution and 1,000 times faster processing speed, all at a fraction of the cost.

As you’ll hear from this interview, there are a countless number of use cases and industries that are perfect for Diffraqtion’s technology, which puts them in an ideal spot to build a massive anchor tech company in the Boston startup scene.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

02:37 What is Quantum Computing?

11:40 Johannes' Childhood in Greece and Early Interests

14:52 Transition from Academia to Industry

20:46 Introduction to Diffraction and the Quantum Camera

25:03 Quantum Camera Applications in Space Domain Awareness and Earth Imaging

27:26 Commercializing the technology

28:48 Manufacturing Challenges and Building the Quantum Camera

33:56 Building in Public and Strategic Networking

39:38 Their Innovative Rolling Funding Strategy and Capital Efficiency

45:50 Perfecting their Investor Pitch

49:08 Why Boston for Space Tech Innovation?

53:26 Excitement About Space Industry and Artemis Missions

55:43 Closing Remarks

Episode 431 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Cathy Lewenberg, CEO of Bevi.

When most people think of a beverage company, they immediately think of a traditional consumer brand fighting for shelf space at the grocery store.

But the real magic behind Bevi is its highly defensible B2B business model and it’s brilliant.

Bevi has made the old corporate water cooler cool again with its high quality platform which combines smart hardware, software, data, and customized flavors & enhancements to create a delightful experience. Oh, and its units are directly installed into your office, gym, hotel, or elsewhere.

On top of their success, Bevi is also helping out our planet. The company recently hit a historic milestone, officially surpassing 1 billion single-use bottles and cans saved from ending up in landfills.

Cathy stepped in as Bevi’s CEO almost two years ago to lead the company’s next phase of growth. As you’ll hear, she is uniquely qualified to scale this business. She spent years driving digital transformation and healthy convenience initiatives at CVS Health, before serving as Chief Operating Officer and then CEO at Drizly, where she helped lead this hypergrowth company to a $1.1B acquisition by Uber.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* Cathy’s advice on joining a founder-led company as CEO.

* Her background growing up in upstate New York and her competitive experience rowing crew at Princeton.

* Her impactful tenure at CVS Health, where she ran the food and beverage business, led the shift toward healthy convenience retail, and helped play a key role in the decision to exit the tobacco category.

* Why she joined Drizly and the dramatic “COVID moment” that triggered rocketship growth for alcohol delivery, leading all the way up to the Uber acquisition.

* All the details about Bevi, what’s next, and the company’s culture.

* The burning question: Is a residential Bevi machine coming to our homes anytime soon?

* Cathy’s advice to the next generation of women aspiring to step into the CEO seat.

* And, so much more!

Podcast Sponsor:

This podcast is brought to you by one of the strongest longtime supporters of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors and $44B in loans as of Q4 2025 – SVB delivers expert guidance, specialized products and a team that knows the innovation economy inside and out. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 430 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Phil Beauregard, Managing Partner of Impellent Ventures.

I first met Phil back when Boston was going through another massive resurgence of growth following the financial crisis of 2008. It was a special time when local founders and investors banded together to help build and scale the Boston tech ecosystem. It was a movement that is reminiscent of what we are seeing today with the Mass AI Coalition. There was a major buzz in the air back then, and it worked, resulting in the launch of multiple successful companies, including two of Phil's own startups which were both acquired.

There is a phrase that Phil commonly uses, which is “why join the Navy when you can be a pirate” and I think it speaks volumes to his mentality and how they deploy capital at Impellent Ventures.

They don’t just simply follow the herd, especially when it comes to finding elite entrepreneurs. They are entirely location-agnostic and welcome working with exceptional founders who are tackling massive, real-world problems in emerging ecosystems... not just out in Silicon Valley.

Impellent Ventures is focused on making seed and pre-seed investments. The firm is led by Phil, David Brown (who previously appeared on Episode 190), and Tariq Trotter, aka Black Thought of The Roots, who serves as a General Partner at the firm.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* A conversation around building startups outside of San Francisco, and why we are living through the "consumerization of the enterprise" era.

* The correlation between smaller fund sizes and investor returns.

* Phil’s background growing up in New Bedford and studying business at The Wharton School at UPenn, plus how he first caught the entrepreneurial bug and met his co-founder, Matt Grace.

* The inside story behind his two exits: Objective Logistics to Carbon Black and Rekindle to HubSpot.

* His transition from operator to investor at Impellent Ventures, plus all the details on their unique investment criteria, portfolio company examples, and how Tariq Trotter joined the firm.

* His role as an early advisor to multiple successful tech companies, including the critical advice that Toast luckily chose not to take.

* How Phil is leveraging AI to build his own Relationship Intelligence System, helping him scale his ability to "pay it forward" to the ecosystem.

* Plus, so much more!

Episode 429 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Lior Div, CEO & Co-Founder of 7AI.

One of the most exciting parts of this platform shift to AI is watching elite, repeat founders get back into the arena. It’s often these experienced builders who have the appetite and the playbook to swing for the fences and create a truly category-defining company.

Lior is exactly one of those entrepreneurs. Along with his co-founder, Yonatan Striem-Amit, this duo is uniquely qualified to build the leading agentic AI security platform. They have deep expertise in the cybersecurity industry and… by the way, they’ve done this before with their prior unicorn, Cybereason.

7AI empowers enterprises to shift security tasks to AI agents. The company recently made waves across the entire tech ecosystem by announcing a massive $130 million Series A round of funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Blackstone Innovations Investments, Greylock, CRV, and Spark Capital.

To put that into perspective: a $130 million Series A is the largest Series A round in the history of the cybersecurity industry. It is exactly that type of aggressive funding, along with blue-chip investors, that creates market leaders.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

A discussion around the rapidly changing landscape of AI and how that affects cybersecurity.

Lior’s background story, including being part of Israel’s elite Unit 8200 intelligence group and how he got involved in the cybersecurity industry.

Scaling Cybereason, plus why he chose to build his companies in Boston.

The background story of 7AI and all the details on the company & platform.

The distinct operational differences between building a traditional software business versus building a native AI company.

7AI’s aggressive growth plans ahead, a look inside their company culture, and what it takes to build a trusted brand in security.

The most important skills someone needs to be a successful CEO.

And more!

This podcast is brought to you by one of the strongest longtime supporters of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors and $44B in loans as of Q4 2025 – SVB delivers expert guidance, specialized products and a team that knows the innovation economy inside and out. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 428 of The VentureFizz #podcast features Mike Pappas, CEO & Co-Founder of Modulate.

Is Boston the best place to build a voice AI company? Based on its rich history in this category, I would have to say 1000%.

From the early days of ScanSoft and Dragon to SpeechWorks and Vlingo—all of which eventually fell under the voice juggernaut Nuance, which worked on the early days of Siri and was acquired by Microsoft—the pedigree in this city is unmatched. Add in players like Bose, Vivox, and the sizable presence of Amazon Alexa in the area, and it's clear: Boston is the voice capital of the world.

Mike Pappas and his co-founder Carter Huffman are adding a massive new chapter to that legacy and thatis Modulate, a venture-backed voice intelligence company building AI models and APIs designed to understand real-world conversational audio at scale.

Modulate is the company behind ToxMod, the world's most advanced proactive voice moderation platform. If you’ve played Call of Duty lately, you’ve likely interacted with their tech. And, the company recently launched a new product called Velma, the leading AI-platform for real-world voice intelligence.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

Mike’s perspective on the shift from license-based to usage-based pricing models.

Mike’s background story—from his physics studies at MIT to his early career at Bridgewater Associates.

Entering "startup land" at Lola and the critical hiring lessons he learned while working alongside Paul English.

The founding of Modulate and the pivotal moment when they realized the tech they built was actually the solution to a massive safety problem in gaming which led to a relationship with Activision.

All the details about ToxMod and Velma, including customer examples and use cases.

Why their dataset is a "moat" that makes their technology uniquely defensible in the age of generic LLMs.

Mike's advice for first-time founders on raising capital and building a high-performance culture.

Plus, so much more!

This podcast is brought to you by one of the strongest longtime supporters of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors and $44B in loans as of Q4 2025 – SVB delivers expert guidance, specialized products and a team that knows the innovation economy inside and out. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 427 of The VentureFizz #podcast features Joshua Summers, CEO & Co-Founder of EnFi.

Josh is a serial entrepreneur who has been at the center of multiple success stories in the Boston tech scene. He has a unique ability to see exactly how technology will impact an industry right at the beginning of a platform shift - whether that was mobile, digital advertising, or in the case of his current startup, AI.

However, as Josh and I discuss, building a "Native AI" company is fundamentally different from his past experiences. We get into the nuances of how companies are being built this time around - from the breakneck pace of development to the new ways you have to structure a team.

Josh’s latest venture is EnFi, an AI-native platform that delivers autonomous agents to complete end-to-end commercial lending workflows. They are solving a massive "human capital crisis" in the credit industry, and the market is taking notice. The company recently announced a $15M Series A, bringing its total funding to date to $22.5 million.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

00:00 Introducing Joshua Summers, CEO & Co-Founder of EnFi

02:38 The Difference of Building an AI Native Startup

05:48 Josh's background & Growing Up

07:27 Career Beginnings and Entrepreneurial Journey

11:37 The Birth of Zync and being Early to Market

14:04 Acquisition by WHERE and Early Phone App Strategies

17:29 Building Ad Platform and Monetization

20:29 PayPal Exit

24:05 Starting clypd - Scaling & AT&T Exit

31:59 Why Culture Matters!

34:08 Angel Investing and the Beginnings of TBD Angels

38:41 How EnFi got Started

46:25 The Details of EnFi: AI in Lending

50:28 Cultivating Culture at EnFi

52:40 The Hardest Positions to Hire for Right Now

53:58 Why Boston is a Great Place to Build a Startup

55:26 3 Essential Apps

57:55 Podcast / Book Recommendations for Entrepreneurs

Episode 426 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Natan Linder, CEO & Co-Founder of Tulip.

There are very few entrepreneurs in Boston who have built multiple tech companies to a billion+ valuation (Tulip & Formlabs), but Natan is one of them. He is a “builder” in the truest sense of the word, focusing on building what he calls “important things” rather than just the latest “shiny object.”

In our conversation, we have a discussion about Physical AI, meaning AI that lives outside of the digital domain in things like robotics and self-driving cars. Natan believes we are hitting a “ChatGPT moment” for the physical world, so it was interesting to hear his perspective on this trend.

Tulip is the leader in frontline operations. They help companies of all sizes and industries equip their workforces with connected, composable, and intelligent tools. With Tulip’s no-code platform, manufacturers can digitize processes, collect real-time data, and drive continuous improvement by using AI and without writing a line of code. The company recently announced a $120M Series D round of funding at a $1.3B valuation.

In this episode of our podcast, we also cover:

Chapters:

00:00 Intro - Natan Linder, Co-Founder & CEO, Tulip

03:30 The Physical-AI Moment

10:56 Natan Linder's Early Life and Curiosity

14:58 Early leadership role with Samsung

19:07 Getting involved with Rethink Robotics

25:34 Natan's thoughts on humanoid robots

28:55 Revolutionizing 3D Printing at Formlabs

33:49 Landing Mitch Kapor as an Investor in Formlabs & The "Elevator" Pitch Story

39:38 The Genesis of Tulip & Details of the Platform

50:31 Customer Use Cases

57:11 Tulip's Growth and Future Direction

01:04:30 Why Now Is a Good Time to Join Tulip

01:07:28 Boston is an Epicenter of Advanced Technology

This podcast is brought to you by one of the strongest longtime supporters of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors and $44B in loans as of Q4 2025 – SVB delivers expert guidance, specialized products and a team that knows the innovation economy inside and out. Learn more at SVB.com.