The VITALIZE Podcast: Venture Capital | Startups | Angel Investing

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Jesse Randall (@SweaterCEO), CEO and Co-Founder of Sweater Ventures, a VC fund that pools money from millions of regular people and invests it into emerging technology and product companies poised for growth—companies you’ll see in your daily life or at work. At Sweater Ventures, they believe that every founder should be able to build their vision, and every person should be able to support the startups that create the next generation of influence and wealth. Their mobile-first experience allows you direct access to the world's most exclusive asset class—Venture Capital.

Jesse Randall originally set out to raise a traditional venture fund, but immediately raised an eyebrow at the accredited investor requirement. Is that really still necessary? The Sweater Ventures team is hell-bent on leveling the playing field and reinventing venture capital to reach its maximum potential. That starts by creating a venture capital fund that anyone can invest in.

Website: Sweater Ventures

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/deviantstrat/

Twitter: @SweaterCEO

Show Notes:

• How Sweater Ventures is democratizing VC investing
• Jesse’s background and Sweater Ventures’ origin story in the history of accreditation laws
• The process that took 4 years from idea inception to launching Sweater Ventures
• Sweater Ventures’ fundraising inception and Jesse’s personal tip for surviving the raise
• How they pitched investors on the concept of disrupting the VC industry
• Sweater Ventures’ go-to-market strategy and how they leveraged the time waiting for SEC approval
• The marketing behind building Sweater Ventures’ waitlist
• Developing multi-channel legitimacy
• The model behind Sweater Ventures and how they’re different from a traditional venture fund
• Sweater Ventures’ unique redemption windows
• The Sweater Ventures app and why they're a mobile-first company
• Sweater Ventures’ investment thesis
• Building out a team for Sweater Venture’s unique structure
• The story behind the Sweater name
• Where to connect with Jesse and why he prefers LinkedIn as a platform

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 400+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Shayna Harris (@mamashayna) and Noramay Cadena (@noramayc), co-founders and managing partners at Supply Change Capital, a VC firm that believes in a future of food that is sustainability-mindful, supply chain efficient, better for you, and culture rich. They invest at the intersection of food, culture, and technology to catalyze early stage sustainable businesses that modernize the food system.

Noramay Cadena is an aerospace engineer turned investor whose professional career has spanned a diverse range of operating and investing environments, from early-stage startups to Fortune 50 companies. She previously launched MiLA Capital, an early stage fund that invested in over 20 manufacturing and supply chain companies. She also leads investments for Portfolia's Rising America Fund, a micro fund investing in Latinx, Black and LGBTQIA founders. She serves on the advisory board of the Homeboy Industries Ventures and Jobs Fund, and as a founding board member of Latinx VC, an organization increasing the Latino ecosystem of funders and founders. She was appointed to the board of the Housing Authority Commission of Los Angeles (second largest housing authority in the nation) by the Los Angeles Mayor. In 2020, she was named one of 50 renowned women in robotics, one of 10 Latinas making waves in venture capital, and one of the top 100 influential Latinas in the United States. She’s a Kauffman Fellow and holds a MBA, a Master’s in Engineering Systems and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering – all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She’s also a Director Member of the Latino Corporate Directors Association (LCDA).

Shayna Harris brings an insider's eye to the industry, from architecting the 21st-century chocolate supply chain at Mars to building the groundbreaking food tech company Farmer’s Fridge. She advises Fortune 100 companies and startups on navigating the fast-changing food terrain, and writes for Forbes. She has spent her career at the intersection of food, sustainability, and innovation. She’s driven by a deep personal belief that food is a human right, and it should have a positive impact on all it touches. She cares to connect with people in authentic and personal ways; spanning from the farmers that she lived with and learned from in southern Mexico, Brazil, and Cote d’Ivoire, to the board rooms of Mars, Oxfam, and Farmer’s Fridge. She’s also a builder – she has never taken a role with a job description. 

Website: Supply Change Capital

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/noramay/ and linkedin.com/in/shaynaharris/

Twitter: @noramayc and @mamashayna

Show Notes:

• How both Shayna and Noramay ended up in the VC industry
• Supply Change Capital’s origin story
• How Noramay and Shayna came to develop Supply Change Capital’s investment thesis at the intersection of culture and climate in the future of food
• Their fundraising journey and storytelling around their thesis
• What differentiates Supply Change Capital
• The FOODS framework for evaluating founders
• Their Supercharge III post-investment support program in partnership with Verde Associates
• Their favorite up and coming food trends
• Some of Supply Change Capital’s most interesting investments: Aqua Cultured Foods and Hyfé Foods
• How Shayna and Noramay stay educated in the rapidly changing future of food market
• How Shayna and Noramay protect their time as VCs
• How they’ve approached building out the Supply Change Capital team

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Kelly Graziadei (@kkgraz) and Joanna Lee Shevelenko, the founders and General Partners of f7 Ventures (@F7Ventures), a seed investment fund comprised of seven senior female operators who met at Facebook. With expertise in product, engineering, sales, marketing, partnerships, HR, and operations, they invest in and help bold founders grow and scale at their earliest stages. During their tenures at Facebook, Google, Yahoo and beyond, they managed and developed thousands of people across dozens of teams around the world. They grew and managed revenue from $0 to > $15B, scaled user growth to over a billion, launched over 30 new products globally, and led teams across almost every organizational discipline.

Kelly Graziadei brings 20 years of leadership experience in tech and consumer internet with companies ranging from 3 people to 200,000. She spent 7 1/2 years at Facebook in leadership positions in sales, product marketing and media. Kelly joined Facebook in 2010 and built and led its Mid-Market Sales & Account Management team in North America. She then led Facebook’s Monetization Product Marketing for the Direct Response Ads & Commerce business globally, focused on inbound product strategy and global go-to market. Throughout her career, Kelly has driven dramatic scale, revenue growth and product development while establishing teams and cultures that help people perform at their full potential. In 2018, Kelly became a founding partner of F7. 

Joanna Lee Shevelenko joined Facebook in 2006 as one of the first 100 employees. She built multiple teams 0-1 including content moderation, site integrity and user insights. Started the Facebook India office, worked on Facebook’s first ecommerce effort, growth strategies, stealth mobile projects and top partnerships. After Facebook, she became the COO at Premise Data (series C) and COO of Atrium (series B). In addition to being a founding partner of F7, she’s also the EIR at Social Capital and Board Director at mPharma.

Website: f7 Ventures

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kellygraziadei/ & linkedin.com/in/joannaleeshevelenko/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kkgraz
Email: [email protected]

Show Notes:

• The journey of founding f7 Ventures
• Deciding to go from angel investing to starting an institutional fund
• The process of raising capital for f7 and fundraising as rejection exposure therapy
• What differentiates f7 for LPs
• Defining f7’s mission, vision and values and how that constantly impacts their execution
• Navigating co-founder dynamics: different skillsets and personalities but aligned values
• f7’s investment thesis and what ties together their three buckets
• Their specific rubric for evaluating founders
• Establishing accessibility and building trust with their founders and how they provide value to their portfolio companies
• Their plan for future funds
• Some of their biggest surprises and learnings since launching f7
• How investing has changed from 2021 to 2022 with recent market shifts
• The process of investing in CloudEagle
• Their off-cycle investment in Done
• What they’re most excited about in the realm of Future of Work

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Amy Eliza Wong (@amyelizawong), the founder of Always On Purpose®. She is an executive leadership coach, author, speaker, and facilitator working with organizations such as Airbnb, Salesforce, Roku, LinkedIn, Facebook, and more. Amy offers transformative leadership development and cutting-edge communication strategies to executives and corporate teams around the world, as well as institutions including Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. She pulls from various disciplines, studies, and practices to find a consilient approach to achieve flow and create profound impact through the three lenses of Self, Relationships, and Results. As a certified executive coach with expertise in transpersonal psychology, design thinking, interpersonal neurobiology, and Conversational Intelligence®, Amy has catalyzed transformative growth for hundreds of executives and teams. She has a passion for helping leaders identify blind spots, reclaim precious time, energy and creative bandwidth, and create next level impact. Her new book, Living On Purpose, was released in March of 2022.

Website: Always on Purpose

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amyelizawong/

Twitter: @amyelizawong 

Show Notes:

• How Amy became an executive coach
• Amy’s North Star of feeling it out instead of figuring it out, and how she has put it into practice to build her business
• How Amy defines who is a good fit for her work 
• The process of enabling people to get unstuck
• Self-worth as the common theme Amy sees her clients struggle with
• The question to ask to understand exactly how you’re holding yourself back
• Amy’s constant evolution as a coach and how she defines her work
• Amy’s system approach and how she equips teams for better communication
• Indicators of when to work with an executive coach
• How Amy came to write her book, Living on Purpose
• The challenging jump from coaching individuals to writing a book for a wide audience

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

Justin Gordon (justingordon212) talks with Samara Hernandez (@SamaraMHernandz), the Founding Partner at Chingona Ventures, an institutionally-backed pre-seed stage fund investing in the next generation of badass founders building technology and technology-enabled companies all over the U.S. In May 2022, Chingona Ventures announced the close of their $52M Fund II.

Samara has over 15 years of experience in investing, selling, and advising on both public and private markets. She has a background in sales, operations and technology at Goldman Sachs. She was an early-stage investor with MATH Venture Partners and advisor to Angeles, Camino Financial, and Chicago Blend. Samara is actively involved in the Chicago tech community and passionate about helping underrepresented groups get into STEM education, venture capital and entrepreneurship. She co-founded the Latinx Founders Collective organization to bring together Latinx founders, investors, and community leaders to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Samara is an active member of Latinx VCs, a San-Francisco based group of experienced venture investors coming together to connect, engage, and foster the Latinx VC ecosystem. She studied engineering at the University of Michigan, and has her MBA from Northwestern University. Samara is a proud Mexican immigrant and mama to a toddler.

Website: Chingona Ventures

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/samaramejia/

Twitter: @SamaraMHernandz

Samara on the Just Go Grind Podcast in January 2021: https://www.justgogrind.com/samara-mejia-hernandez-podcast/

Show Notes:

• Samara’s journey to raising a $52M fund for Chingona Ventures, including doubling her target
• Portfolio construction from Fund I to Fund II 
• Funding 80% women and minorities and getting them in a position to grow a venture-backed business
• Building out the Chingona Ventures team and offering opportunities to interns
• What Samara is prioritizing platform-wise
• Having an authentic social media presence
• The origin story of one of Chingona Ventures’ most successful investments, Career Karma, and meeting founder Ruben Harris via cold outreach
• The process of raising Fund I vs Fund II
• Participating as a Kauffman Fellow
• Samara’s thoughts on leadership and passion

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Drew Leahy, Managing Partner at Hawke Ventures (@hawkeventures), an early stage consumer and B2B marketing technology fund. He is also the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Hawke Media. Prior to Hawke, Leahy was Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder of SnapSuits.com, a tech-forward men’s fashion e-retailer with over $2M+ in revenue. Drew was also Entrepreneur-in-Residence at memBrain in Los Angeles, making investments with tech and entertainment angel investors Ken Hertz and Liz Heller.

He is a data-driven, product focused entrepreneur and VC, motivated by the thousands of softwares that power brands. He has extensive experience in consumer mobile & web, b2b SaaS, social media, video, apparel, and entertainment verticals. 

His product mantra: Vision (big), Execution (small), Test (thorough), Revise (smart). Repeat. He obsesses over conversion rate optimization, which is part art, part science.

Website: Hawke Ventures & Hawke Media

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drewleahy/

Twitter: @hawkeventures

Email: [email protected]

Drew’s first podcast episode with Justin in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8w_JjvSokc

Show Notes:

• The journey from closing Hawke Ventures’ first $5.6M fund to raising a $25M fund 
• How Drew is thinking about building out their team & how different firms approach the platform role
• How Hawke Ventures leverages the relationship with Hawke Media
• What Hawke Ventures is looking for in potential portfolio companies with their lead check fund
• Hawke Ventures’ unique portfolio construction strategy and the value of a narrow investment thesis
• Evaluating companies’ alignment with their thesis and what it means to hustle alongside their founders
• Some of the stories behind Hawke Ventures’ portfolio companies and how their “tracker checks” work
• What makes them repeat-invest in a company
• How their diversity-focused Venture Scout Program came about
• Drew’s thoughts on the current VC market

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Mariam Hakobyan (@mariam_hakobyan), Co-Founder and CEO of Softr, the easiest no-code platform for building custom apps and portals, in minutes. With Softr, you can build client portals, internal tools, marketplaces, online communities, resource directories, websites and more. They believe the world is missing out on some of the most creative minds, ideas and innovation (99.7% to be exact), and have set out to change that with Softr by democratizing software building so anyone can build businesses without tech skills.

Softr grew from 0 to 50K+ users in <1 year, with $0 marketing, all driven by WOM, virality and a passionate community. In January 2022, they closed their $13.5M Series A to build the largest ecosystem of no-code apps.

Mariam is an engineer turned entrepreneur, mother of two, and lover of all things technology, product & design. She built and led products & engineering teams for more than a decade, and is now making tech accessible to everyone by building the future of no-code.

Website: Softr

Slack: Softr Community

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mariamhakobyan/

Twitter: @mariam_hakobyan

Show Notes:

• What is Softr?
• Softr’s origin story, their MVP, and how they’ve evolved
• Deciding to price Softr higher than other website builders from the beginning
• The timeline from idea generation to launching MVP
• The journey to full-time for each Softr founder
• Softr’s Product Hunt launch and getting their first paying customers
• Finding and leveraging a community of Twitter no-code enthusiasts
• How they’ve maintained growth momentum post- Product Hunt
• How they landed on Softr’s growth strategy
• Launching their mobile app and letting their customers guide their product development
• The process of raising VC for Softr
• How they screened for right-fit investors
• The importance of empathy, trust, and conflict management skills in a co-founder relationship
• Married co-founders: the value of setting clear role and responsibility boundaries and finding work-life balance
• Mariam’s view on the landscape of the no-code industry
• The range of Softr’s use-cases

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Tony Jamous (@jamingo), the CEO and founder of Oyster, a Global Employment Platform that empowers companies to hire, pay, and care for team members wherever they are in the world. Oyster allows growing companies to tap into the global talent pool and offer their remote workers around the world a great employment experience. They are on a mission to make the world a better place by making it possible for any talented person in the world to realize their full potential through fulfilling, fairly-compensated work.

Website: Oyster

Optimize for distributed work: Oyster Academy

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/teljamou/

Twitter: @jamingo

Tony on the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/tony-jamous-podcast/

Show Notes:

• Oyster: a global employment platform
• How the talent shortage and digital transformation trends have fueled Oyster’s growth to reach $1B valuation in less than 2 years
• Building a team that resembles the planet Earth, at 500+ employees distributed in 60 countries, and 60% women
• The operational logistics of a huge distributed team using their “follow the sun” model
• Leading by example: how to be the best remote worker
• Oyster’s open source academy for remote workers
• Tony’s perspective on the global distributed work trend and how it reconnects us to our communities
• Incorporating in-person time with a distributed team and the downside of hubs
• What has tangibly impacted Oyster’s GTM strategy and their rapid growth
• Oyster’s category-creation playbook
• Tony’s thoughts on the future of work and how distributed work can make the world more resilient

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

In this episode, Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks again with Gale Wilkinson (@galeforceVC), Founder and Managing Partner at VITALIZE, a seed-stage venture fund and angel community investing in The Work Revolution. In this round with Gale, we dig into the details of the Work Revolution and VITALIZE's investment focus.

Previously, Gale founded IrishAngels, one of the largest angel groups in the world. She has led $65M+ in early-stage deals across 80+ startups. Her experience prior to VC includes founding two failed startups, consulting for new product launches with Nielsen, and strategy with Orbitz. Gale received a BBA with honors from Notre Dame and an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She was a founding Board member of the C200 Scholars Network, and she is currently a founding Board member of Chicago Blend, an organization focused on increasing diversity in VC and startups.

Website: VITALIZE Venture Capital 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/galevc/

Twitter: @galeforceVC

VITALIZE Newsletter: Re:VITALIZE

VITALIZE Angel Investing Community: VITALIZE Angels

Show Notes:

• How Gale defines the Work Revolution
• Why VITALIZE is focused on the Work Revolution
• VITALIZE’s buckets within the Work Revolution
• Some of VITALIZE’s portfolio companies in the each of the Work Revolution buckets
• How Gale views verticalized solutions and next gen hiring
• Gale’s thoughts on remote work trends
• The growing trend of hiring internationally
• Where Gale sees the greatest opportunity within the Work Revolution
• The shifting space of learning development
• The over-crowded benefits space
• New areas Gale is excited about within the Work Revolution
• Gale’s thoughts on both the potential and challenges of the exploding Web3 space
• How Gale views innovative b2b2c business models 

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Maryanna Saenko (@FutureSaenko), Co-Founder and Partner at Future Ventures, which supports passionate founders who are forging the future. For the past 25 years, Future Ventures has backed the visionaries who push the boundaries of possibility and explore the frontier of the unknown. They focus on disruptive technology such as commercial space exploration, deep learning, quantum computing, robotics, AI, blockchain, sustainable transportation, synthetic biology and clean meat. As venture capitalists, the founders of Future Ventures have led founding investments in several companies that had successful IPOs and others that were acquired for over $16 billion in aggregate. Some of their early VC investments include Memphis Meats, Mythic, Nervana, Planet, Rethink Robotics, Skype, SpaceX, Tesla and Zoox.

Maryanna Saenko is an early-stage venture capitalist with an interest in robotics, quantum computing, blockchain, aerospace, and the future of food. Previously she was at Khosla Ventures, and prior to that at DFJ, where she worked with Steve Jurvetson to focus on frontier technology investments. She was also an investment partner at Airbus Ventures where she led a series of venture investments strategically aligned with Airbus’ future-of-aerospace initiatives. Before Airbus, Maryanna was a consultant at Lux Research and a research engineer at Cabot Corporation. Maryanna graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a BS in BioMedical Engineering and a BS and MS in Materials Science and Engineering.

Website: Future Ventures

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maryannasaenko/

Twitter: @FutureSaenko

Email: [email protected]

Show Notes:

• Maryanna’s Ukranian background and her thoughts on the current conflict in the region
• How Maryanna came to co-found Future Ventures with Steve Jurvetson and their big vision
• How they manage deal flow with just two investors
• Derisking the customer side of deep tech
• Future Venture’s thesis around deep tech
• How they conduct due diligence in complex industries
• Evaluating teams’ credibility
• How they approach onboarding LPs
• Determining Future Venture’s fund size and deployment period
• The areas Maryanna is most excited about investing in, including the future of food
• How Maryanna keeps herself organized in terms of aligning her values with Future Venture’s portfolio companies

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/