The VentureFizz Podcast

Welcome to Episode 51 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights!

For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Nilanjana Bhowmik, General Partner at Converge, an early stage venture firm based in Cambridge that she co-founded with her partner Maia Heymann.

Nilanjana has 23 years of experience as a venture capitalist, investment banker, and an operating executive. Prior to starting Converge, Nilanjana was a General Partner at Longworth Venture Partners where she led the firm’s investments in enterprise tech.

In addition to her current role as a venture capitalist, she is also the President of TiE-Boston, an organization that fosters the entrepreneurial scene in the Greater Boston area.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

-Her passion for distance running and how it related to her role as an investor, where helping entrepreneurs build a business is ultimately a marathon and not a sprint.

-Her background growing up in India, plus how she came to the US where she ultimately played a key role in helping Object Design, a company that launched the first object-oriented database, grow to the point of going public.

-The “breakthrough potential” she looks for when making an investment.

-What led her to take on the role of President at TiE-Boston.

-The potential “50-plus year” industry trend that she’s currently keeping her eye on.

-Plus, a lot more!

Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 50 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights!

For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Ben Nye, CEO at Turbonomic, which is an anchor company in the Boston tech scene that has raised over $100M in funding.

Ben has been successful in the tech industry from both sides of the equation. As an executive, he helped take Precise Software public, which was later acquired by VERITAS Software.

As an investor at Bain Capital Ventures, he’s been recognized multiple times by Forbes’ Midas List as one of the top VC investors in the US. His investments have included many companies that you’ve likely heard of like LinkedIn, Rapid7, DocuSign, Solarwinds, Stackdriver, and many others.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

-Ben’s background, from the early days when he started out as a salmon fishing guide to how he got into the tech industry.

-His experience as one of the top VC’s in the country building out the Infrastructure Software Practice at Bain Capital.

-All the details in terms of the evolution of Turbonomic and their platform that delivers workload automation for hybrid cloud environments.

-His thoughts on sales and figuring out which model is right for your company.

-Why references are the most important part of the interview process.

-Plus, a lot more!

Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 49 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights!

For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Lewis Gersh, Founder & Chief Stamp Licker at PebblePost.

Lewis is a serial entrepreneur and investor, having founded a seed stage investment firm in New York City. His latest startup is called PebblePost, a company that has invented Programmatic Direct Mail.

The company provides a solution that combines the new with the old. Their platform takes consumers’ online interest and intent data and ultimately uses that information to send out highly targeted and meaningful direct mail programs on behalf of brands and retailers. PebblePost recently announced a $25M Series C round of funding led by Advance Venture Partners.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

-Lewis’ background story and the details on his first company, Worldly Information Network.

-His experience as an investor and focus on B2B marketing & eCommerce technologies.

-The aha moment that led him to start PebblePost, plus the details on how their platform works.

-What entrepreneurs should know before starting a company. Hint… it has a lot to do with focus.

-Plus, a lot more!

Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 48 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights!

For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Bob Davis, General Partner at Highland Capital Partners.

As a founder and an investor, Bob has been there from the very beginning of the Internet. He was the Founder and CEO of Lycos, which was a dominant company back in the Web 1.0 era.

For the past 17 years, he has been a Venture Capitalist at Highland Capital Partners. His track record as a VC speaks for itself, having led investments at several successful companies that resulted in exits like nuTonomy, Bullhorn, Quattro Wireless, Turbine, and several others. In fact, just last week, one of his investments, Handy, announced its acquisition by ANGI Homeservices (the owners of Angie’s List & HomeAdvisor). His current portfolio includes Lovepop, SessionM, Harry’s, Freshly and others.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

-The full background story of Lycos, from its early days to ultimately becoming the most visited internet destination in the world back in 1999

-Setting a record as the fastest company to ever go public in the history of the NASDAQ

-How he evaluates investment opportunities, and the specific criteria behind those decisions

-The difference between products that are vitamins versus pain-killers

-Plus, a lot more!

Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 47 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights!

For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Ed Park, Co-Founder and CEO of Devoted Health.

Ed and his brother Todd Park have a special bond, and their great relationship has carried over into the world of entrepreneurship. Ed joined his brother and Jonathan Bush in the very early days of building athenahealth, one of the anchor companies in the Boston tech scene which is publicly traded on the NASDAQ.

Ed and Todd’s next company is called Devoted Health, and they are looking to fix healthcare for seniors.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

-The full background story of athenahealth, and how the HMO revolution of the late 90’s created the perfect storm to solve the administrative headaches for doctors

-How their focus kept them on a path which ultimately resulted in the top IPO of 2007

-The details on Devoted Health, and how they are looking to make healthcare easier, more affordable, and a whole lot more caring

-How they have built a world-class leadership team, which includes the person who invented the term “data science”

-Plus, a lot more!

Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 46 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights!

For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Zack Schildhorn, a Partner at Lux Capital in New York City. Lux Capital has $1.4B under management and is currently investing from its $400M fifth fund.

Zack has led the firm’s investment in companies like Shapeways, SOLS Systems, and Moment. His most recent investment is in a company called Latch, a New York tech company that is modernizing buildings by digitizing physical keys with a smart access system.

Oh, and Zack has an interesting hobby as a reef aquarist where his work is actually on display at their offices with a 180-gallon reef aquarium.

In this episode, we cover:

-His interest in technology at a young age and starting his own company

-How he sought out and landed an opportunity in venture capital while he was still at Cornell

-What his career path has looked like in venture and how he worked his way up through the ranks to a partner at the firm

-His interest in making investments that bridge the intersection between digital and physical worlds

-Lots of great advice for entrepreneurs in terms of fundraising and hiring

-Plus, a lot more!

Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 45 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights!

For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Stefania Mallett, Co-Founder & CEO of ezCater.

Stefania is a serial entrepreneur. One of her previous companies was acquired and the deal had a 14X return for its investors. Her current company, ezCater, has raised almost $170M in funding and is focused on becoming the dominant player for a $100B industry worldwide.

We first covered ezCater on VentureFizz back in 2014. In the article, she was quoted by saying that they are going to be a billion-dollar company. Well, it’s now four years later and in our podcast, she shares the details on where they are at in terms of achieving that very goal. Let’s just say… it’s trending in the right direction.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

-What led her down the path of entrepreneurship and starting companies

-The aha moment behind starting ezCater and the early days of bootstrapping the business

-So much great advice for not only building companies but also building a successful marketplace

-Her thoughts on hiring, and how they have maintained a strong culture at scale with over 450 employees

-Specific recommendations on how to become a leader

-Plus, a lot more!

Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 44 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights in Boston and NYC!

For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Dave Balter, Co-Founder & CEO of Flipside Crypto.

Dave is a serial entrepreneur having founded two companies in the Boston tech scene that have been acquired. BzzAgent was acquired by dunnhumby and then, Smarterer was acquired by Pluralsight, a company that went public back in May of this year and is aggressively growing their team in Boston.

His current company, Flipside Crypto, is a venture backed startup that is providing indexes and investment vehicles for cryptocurrencies.

Not only has Dave’s impact been felt as an entrepreneur, but he is also an investor and advocate for the Boston tech scene.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

* The legendary Dave Balter tech prom - yes that did happen

* The details behind BzzAgent, plus a fun story involving Jason Calacanis

* Smarterer’s pivot that led to an acquisition

* A simple description on cryptocurrency and blockchain, plus what Flipside Crypto is up to and how they are helping people build a diversified portfolio

* How he got into angel investing, including being one of the first investors at Runkeeper

* Plus, a lot more.

Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 43 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights!

For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Justin Robinson, Co-Founder & SVP of New Business at Drizly.

Shortly after graduating from Boston College, Justin started Drizly with his two co-founders: Nick and Corey Rellas. They saw an opportunity to build a company in a relatively untapped area of eCommerce—that being the home delivery of beer, wine, and liquor. Today, Drizly is available across 101 markets and the company has raised $35M in venture funding.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

-The aha moment behind starting Drizly

-The early days of the company, which were spent working in a liquor store to learn the ins and outs of the industry

-How they able to initially attract consumers and build a company in a highly regulated industry

-Why they are poised to win over Amazon

-Advice for first-time entrepreneurs raising capital

-Plus, a lot more!

Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 42 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights!

For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Adam Medros, President & COO of edX.

Adam is one of the most successful consumer web executives in the Boston area. As SVP of Global Product at TripAdvisor, he was one of the key members of the team that helped the company scale to a global, publicly traded company with 400 million monthly users and over $1.5 billion in annual revenue.

Adam joined edX last November in an executive leadership role for this organization that has an amazing social mission attached to it. Founded in 2012 by Harvard University and MIT, edX is an online learning destination and MOOC, which is an acronym that stands for a Massive Open Online Course provider. They offer high-quality courses from the world’s best universities and institutions to learners everywhere.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

-Adam’s background and his career path

-Advice for people who are considering business school

-Great stories behind the hypergrowth years at TripAdvisor

-Why he decided to join edX and the details on their platform

-His experience as a board member at WordStream, and advice on selecting board members for your company

-Plus, a lot more!

Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!