The VentureFizz Podcast

Companies strive to build a strong culture that will hopefully be the foundation for success. In the case of Seth, having a People First culture is the priority and it is why they operate with an upside down org chart. When you think about it, the upside down org chart makes a ton of sense. Aren’t leaders the ones who are ultimately working for their reports to do whatever it takes to ensure the success of each person in their position which ultimately translates into the company’s success?

Another great example of Seth’s leadership and the culture at Conductor is the fact that when the company was purchased back from WeWork in 2019, every employee (which was over 250 at the time) were granted the same class of stock and were all labeled as co-founders in the company.

Seth and I start out the conversation with a deep dive on this topic of a People First culture and he shares lots of useful info about its benefits.

Conductor is an organic marketing platform built for enterprise SEO, Content, and Web teams— powering the organic marketing revolution. The company recently announced $150M in new funding at a $525M valuation.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* Seth’s background story including his first startup called MindMD, an online therapy website that was ahead of its time.

* The rise and fall of LinkExperts, a link building business for SEO that he co-founded, which ended up being the precursor to Conductor.

* A deep dive into Conductor and the value of its platform for companies, plus the details on its growth plans ahead.

* The story of their acquisition by WeWork in 2018 and the buy-back in less than two years.

* Advice on scaling hiring and culture at the same time.

* And so much more.

If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

There is so much disruption happening in the healthcare industry, it is truly an exciting time. Just last week, we published our interview with Sean Duffy, Co-Founder & CEO of Omada Health, which is helping people who are dealing with chronic conditions achieve long term improvements and if you go into the archives of The VentureFizz Podcast, you’ll find lots of other discussions with healthcare entrepreneurs.

One particular sector that I’m really excited about is the area of personalization in the healthcare industry. We are all unique, so shouldn’t the way you treat your body in terms of diet, exercise medicine, etc., etc. - all be specific to what your body needs versus what works for a sampling of people?

As you’ll hear, Lola had her own personal health situation which led her down the path to start Base. The company has built a new way to track your health and improve on critical items like diet, sleep, stress, fatigue, and more with affordable at-home lab testing. Our blood is the gateway and Base is unlocking the data to help you figure out the root causes to your health issues, make improvements, and continue to monitor & measure your health along the way.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* Lola’s background story including her experience at Amazon, Instagram, and a healthcare startup.

* All the details about Base in terms of how it works and what you can expect as a consumer.

* How they figured out their go-to-market strategy and growth plans ahead.

* Advice for consumers on evaluating healthcare startups and ways to determine which ones you can trust.

* Advice for female founders on raising capital.

* And so much more.

If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

There’s so much going on in the healthcare industry. It is truly a transformative time that spans across the full spectrum whether it’s advancements in medicine, operational improvements, and more, there is obviously no shortage of innovation and an opportunity to make a meaningful impact. Thus, I always get excited when I get a chance to interview an entrepreneur who is scaling a company in this industry.

Omada Health has raised over $250M in venture captial funding and they are on a mission to help people make significant, lifelong changes through incremental steps. They are making it possible for people with chronic conditions to achieve long term improvements in their health and we get into the weeds in terms of how they are accomplishing this very meaningful cause.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* Sean’s full background story including his time working in the healthcare industry, Google, IDEO, and a side hustle business that still operates today.

* His fascination with building out ideas and how it led him down the path of becoming an entrepreneur.

* All the details on Omada Health and how they are making a difference in the healthcare industry, push the complexity of their business model.

* A look at their Series D round of funding and growth plans ahead.

* Hiring advice when scaling your company.

* And so much more.

If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

A disproportionate amount of capital invested into companies does not go to gender diverse teams and it’s a problem. It’s a problem and an issue that I’ve brought up multiple times in this podcast as I hope the continuous awareness of this issue creates a positive impact over time.

Based on Lori’s background and the focus on her firm, it was a perfect opportunity to find out if we are making some level of progress in terms of capital fundraising for gender diverse companies. We kick off our interview on this topic and we address a recent report from Pitchbook that shares some positive statistics from this year in terms of company exits, funding activity, and unicorn valuations for women-led startups… but as you’ll hear… there’s still a long way to go.

Victress Capital is working to address this issue with a focused on investing in early-stage consumer startups with gender diverse teams. The firm recently announced its second fund and portfolio company examples include companies like Daily Harvest (which was recently valued at over $1B), Droplette, Summersalt, Alyce, and many others.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* Lori’s background story and how she transitioned into an investor role, then co-founded a private equity firm called Lineage Capital.

* What led Lori and her partner, Suzanne Norris, down the path of starting Victress Capital.

* All the details on the firm in terms of the size of their fund, stage of investing, and how they evaluate startups.

* Advice on building a consumer company and why you should focus on retention versus paid acquisition.

* And so much more.

If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

On Upper90’s website you’ll find the following phrase: It’s not how much you raise… it’s how much you own. It’s a very compelling statement that makes a ton of sense, yet every day in the world of tech news, there’s a concentration on the size of the round and company’s valuation.

Wouldn’t it be cool if they also reported how much of the company the founders still own? Since the entrepreneurs are the ones taking the most risk, shouldn’t we celebrate their ownership stake instead?

Upper90 is working on solving this exact challenge as the firm aims to help founders keep more of their ownership by potentially delaying or even skipping their Series A round of funding. They do this by leveraging alternative forms of financing, like debt, to provide the capital for the company’s growth.

The firm is focused on eCommerce and fintech businesses and have been first investors in companies like Thrasio, Clearbanc, and several others.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* Common mistakes that founders make as it relates to equity and fundraising.

* Billy’s background story in terms of time at Wharton and his experience in the financial services industry which focused on building electronic trading businesses and exchanges.

* What led him and his Co-Founder, Jason Finger, down the path of creating Upper90.

* All the details on their investment thesis and how their model works.

* Hiring advice for founders on building out your initial leadership team for a company.

* And so much more.

If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

If you look across the investing landscape for companies, there are firms that typically specialize in each stage like seed, Series A, growth rounds, etc. Some firms even provide capital through the full lifecycle.

However, what if the foundation of your firm was even earlier. I mean, even before the entrepreneur has an idea. What if you built your firm on the thesis of taking a long term approach to identify and invest in the world’s top talent by building a community of incredibly bright, driven, and entrepreneurial individuals. In this scenario, you can provide these individuals with the resources and network to push their career and eventually their idea forward with access to capital.

As a headhunter for several years focused on product management and marketing talent, I have a deep appreciation for Eric’s firm Contrary Capital and their approach to this unique way of thinking and leverage community to build their competitive advantage.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* Key factors that people are looking for when starting to build out a career.

* Eric’s background growing up, including his time at Northeastern and a look at the startups he worked on while there - one of which was a Toast competitor.

* How Eric came up with the idea for Contrary Capital and a deep dive into the firm’s unique model and how it all works.

* The details on their second fund and the stage of investments they are targeting, as well as portfolio examples.

* How the firm has been able to achieve a high level of diversity of cohorts.

* And so much more.

If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Dr. Meisha-ann Martin, Director, People Analytics at Workhuman, joined us to discuss how the great resignation will shape and impact the future of the workforce.

As part of this webinar, we covered:

* What is The Great Resignation and why does it matter?

* Details from Workhuman's survey & Bureau of Labor statistics.

* Why are people looking for a new opportunity?

* More details on the type of flexibility employees are looking for these days.

* Impact on DEI

* What can companies do to reduce turnover?

* And more!

The negotiation dance… some might enjoy it, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most people probably don’t, especially when it comes to purchasing software. It’s like a known fact that if you wait until the end of the quarter, you’ll likely get a better rate versus if you purchase the same product at the beginning of the quarter.

It was Ryan’s experience in sales that opened his eyes to this challenge in the industry and realized that there must be a better way. A better way with transparent pricing and a frictionless buying experience which also saves you money.

Enter Vendr, the SaaS buying platform that is changing how companies buy and renew SaaS. With over $300+ million in SaaS purchases across over 1,000 suppliers, the Vendr SaaS buying platform enables the world’s fastest-growing companies to purchase SaaS, without friction and at a fair price. The company recently announced a $60M Series A round of funding led by Tiger Global.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* Why is it important for entrepreneurs to think big about their business starting day one.

* How Ryan transitioned into a career in sales at SCVNGR, then HubSpot where he worked his way into a leadership role and then led enterprise sales at InVision.

* All of the details on Vendr including their massive growth, hiring, culture, and funding.

* What his experience at Y Combinator taught him.

* Advice for entrepreneurs on hiring and structuring their sales team.

* And so much more!

If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

The world of sports and media has been radically changing. Not to date myself, but I remember back in college, it seemed like ESPN was continuously on. It was our go-to for breaking news and SportsCenter gave us the scores and highlights from the day prior. Now, you go to Twitter and other social media outlets if you need to find out what happened or to catch the highlights from a game.

As part of this evolution, athletes are building their own personal brands and engaging with their fans through social media. Even college athletes can now earn money from their name, image, and likeness.

Tiffany’s experience in the sports industry gave her a front row view of where things were heading. She discovered a need in the market to build a company around this trend. If athletes are now content creators, they need an easy way to create this content and once they build up a following, they need an easy way to monetize it.

Thus, Curastory was born. A video creation and monetization platform that is initially targeting athletes, but the company certainly has ambitious plans to eventually grow to other categories. Curastory recently announced a new $2.1M round of funding which included Lightspeed, Techstars, Randi Zuckerberg, and others.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* A discussion around the evolution of sports and media.

* Tiffany’s background growing and how she discovered the world of sports analytics.

* All the details on her role as part of the Sports Analytics team at ESPN and the origination of the Fan Happiness Index.

* The aha moment that led Tiffanny down the path of starting Curastory and the company’s progress to date.

* Advice for diverse founders on raising capital.

* And so much more.

If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Lars is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits, as he has built companies to capitalize on the growth of mobile adoption. It’s a fun discussion and a nice trip down mobile memory lane, like remember when you would get billed by your mobile carrier if you purchased a ring-tone?

Not only has Lars had successful exits but his last two companies have been acquired by two world-class organizations: Apple and Mastercard. Thus, he shares some great stories, including some insights into the negotiation process with Steve Jobs, which does not disappoint!

For Mastercard, the acquisition has been a massive success, as the company is rapidly expanding this division in Boston with a new 25,000 sq ft state-of-the-art office space in Post Office Square and the Data & Services team is hiring across the board. They are also investing back into the local tech ecosystem through various charitable initiatives such as TUGG, Build Boston, Girls4Tech with the Red Sox Foundation, and more.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* A discussion around the key factors that Lars looks for when deciding to go all-in on an idea for a business.

* His background growing up and the details on his first startup which was a photo-sharing app and how he later get involved with the team at m-Qube.

* All the details around Quattro Wireless and how the company disrupted the mobile web.

* Building SessionM and the tough decision to pivot a successful business which led to its ultimate acquisition by Mastercard.

* Lars’ experience as an investor and how it benefits him in terms of learning.

* Hiring advice for building out your team at an early-stage company.

And so much more.

If you like the show, please remember to subscribe and review us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.