Unlimited Partners

By Thomas McGannon

Join Thomas McGannon on his journey to learn - what makes great partnerships? We explore stories of people working together throughout business building, investing, community and family. While much of... more

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FAQs about Unlimited Partners:

How many episodes does Unlimited Partners have?

The podcast currently has 32 episodes available.

Unlimited Partners episodes:

February 07, 2023 Alexander Campbell of Rose.AI | Understanding Markets and Self Through Data
This week's Unlimited Partner is Alexander Campbell of Rose.AI a "cloud data platform designed to help users find, engage, visualize and share data". Alex got his start at Lehman Brothers just before they collapsed. He learned a lot during that time about what not to do, and having a longer term data set to backtest trades. He then moved Bridgewater Associates where he became the Head of Commodities group. He then launched Black Snow, a global macro hedge fund until 2022 when he dove into AI technology with all his learnings to date. Seeing AI as the way of the future, he has built a tool that can quickly clean and analyze data to share insights.
WE GOT A YOUTUBE!...check out the video version of this pod!
Alex's song is This Time Tomorrow by The Kinks
Links:
Thomas McGannon LinkedIn
Follow us on social media:
Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon...
@uppodpod Twitter
@uppodpod Instagram
UP YouTube Channel
up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode)
Email us:
[email protected],
DISCLAIMER: The host and others associated with this podcast may have investments with the guests and/or the companies associated with them. This is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research.
...more
1h 11min
December 20, 2022 Semil Shah GP Haystack Ventures | How One of the Best Seed-Stage Investors Operates as a GP (Figma, HashiCorp, DoorDash, Instacart)
This week's Unlimited Partner is Semil Shah the GP for Haystack Ventures, one of the best performing seed-stage funds around. see: DoorDash, Instacart, Figma, Opendoor, HashiCorp, Carta, People.ai among others. Semil gives great insight into how he is as a leader, investor, parent. He's calm, structured, thoughtful and measured in his responses.
Also, check out our Youtube page for some new video clips of Thomas and Semil!
Haystack site
Semil's LinkedIn
Semil's Twitter
Topics Include:
-Fear as a motivator
-HashiCorp
-Infrastructure as software
-Time horizons, decision making as a leader
-Family
Semil's song is Jose Gonzalez Heartbeats

Links:
Thomas McGannon LinkedIn
Follow us on social media:
Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon...
@uppodpod Twitter
@uppodpod Instagram
UP YouTube Channel
up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode)
Email us:
[email protected],
DISCLAIMER: The host and others associated with this podcast may have investments with the guests and/or the companies associated with them. This is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research.
...more
59min
December 15, 2022 Zenbusiness Co-Founders Rafael Lopez and JC Glancy on Persevering to Build a Platform for Day One Entrepreneurs
This week's Unlimited Partners are Rafael Lopez and JC Glancy of Zenbusiness, a platform that helps SMB users automate their business needs. They've been known to be a LegalZoom killer.
Today's episode is a bit of a pivot from us at Unlimited Partners. We recorded a 2 hour long convo and cut out the fluff to bring you a 25 min excerp, narrated by Thomas McGannon. At some point we plan to upload the full interview.
Links:
Thomas McGannon LinkedIn
Follow us on social media:
Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon...
@uppodpod Twitter
@uppodpod Instagram
UP YouTube Channel
up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode)
Email us:
[email protected],
DISCLAIMER: The host and others associated with this podcast may have investments with the guests and/or the companies associated with them. This is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research.
...more
26min
November 29, 2022Divergent Capital | Lucy Wang & Katie Shea, What's It Like To Be a Pre-Seed Machine Learning Venture Capitalist?
This week's Unlimited Partners are Lucy Wang and Katie Shea of Divergent Capital. They are both Co-Founders and General Partners. Divergent is a "first check investor backing teams taking deeply technical and scientific innovations to market with unique insights on business models and GTM beyond just enterprise and SaaS."
Topics Include:
Lucy's background, growing up in Wuhan, China and emigrated to the US when she was 12, learning English in 7th grade

Starting at Bridgewater and not liking finance, going to grad school and getting her Masters in Machine Learning

Learning about AI in 2012, and moving to venture

Katie's brother Tom Shea was on the podcast with Adgile Media previously

Growing up in an entrepreneurial family

Why they started Divergent?

What does a funnel look like as a pre-seed investor
Tags: Packy McCormick, Tom Shea,
Lucy's song is Stuntin' Like My Daddy by Birdman and Lil Wayne
Katie's song is anything off of the Encanto soundtrack
Sponsors:
Tegus Research
My Marketplace Builder
Links:
Thomas McGannon LinkedIn
Follow us on social media:
Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon...
@uppodpod Twitter
@uppodpod Instagram
UP YouTube Channel
up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode)
Email us:
[email protected],
DISCLAIMER: The host and others associated with this podcast may have investments with the guests and/or the companies associated with them. This is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research.
...more
1h 9min
November 09, 2022Matt Gialich (Co Founder/CEO of AstroForge) & Joe Wilson (Founder of Undeterred Capital) | Day One Partners on a Mission That Could Change Everything
This week's Unlimited Partners are Matt Gialich and Joe Wilson, Co-Founder at AstroForge and MP at Undeterred Capital respectively. Matt had been working on a submarine project and decided to pivot to freaking astro mining! How cool is that? Joe and Undeterred stepped into become the first investors on the cap table. This is an amazing conversation. How did they get funding? How does Matt know this can work? Oh man we think this is one of our favorite convos we've had to date. If this company is successful it would easily be one of the wealthiest on the planet. Oh yeah, let's just fly some rockets to asteroids and mine the metals, then refine them, then fly them back to earth, easy right!? Well, do not miss this episode. Thanks again for listening.
Topics Include:
Matt's path to AstroForge via Bird scooters, submarines

Focusing on de-risking the business side

Having to tell investors of his submarine project he was working on that he wasn't passionate about it and wanted to pivot to mine asteroids

Coming up with a plan

Attracting new investors

Learning he didn't know a lot about the business side of things so they got help

Finding 776 to help with valuations, etc.

How it will work, a 2 year autonomous journey (Bruce Willis will not be involved)
Joe's song is Yes, Sir, I Can Boogie
Matt's song is Dinosaurs Will Die by NOFX
Sponsors:
Tegus Research
My Marketplace Builder
Links:
Thomas McGannon LinkedIn
Follow us on social media:
Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon...
@uppodpod Twitter
@uppodpod Instagram
UP YouTube Channel
up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode)
Email us:
[email protected],
DISCLAIMER: The host and others associated with this podcast may have investments with the guests and/or the companies associated with them. This is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research.
...more
1h 44min
November 03, 2022Ben Dahl, Co Founder of Unspam and Managing Director of Signal Peak | Cloudflare and the People Who Made the Internet a Better Place
This week's Unlimited Partner is Ben Dahl , an early-stage investor based in Salt Lake City. He is a Managing Director at Signal Peak Ventures, a $500M fund which specializes in relatively underserved geographies around the United States. He was also the Co-Founder at Unspam, which was the predecessor company that led to Cloudflare. He held a board seat there for over 8 years, and now at SPV is participating in a $1.25B fund launched by Cloudflare to support companies who are building on their workers platform.
Topics Include:
Growing up in Utah and being told to pursue medical school by his parents

Meeting Matthew Prince (CEO Cloudflare) at a young age

Co-Founding Unspam Technologies w/ Matthew Prince

Tech culture in SLC

Unspam's Project Honeypot as a predecessor to Cloudflare, creating an http blacklist from an IP reputation score

Getting 2nd at Techcrunch and being motivated

How Cloudflare got partners to try them out in the beginning

"I am a better advisor than an entrepreneur...and learning that earlier than later is a blessing"

Working with Co-Founders, Lee Holloway and Michelle Zatlyn at Cloudflare

Joining Signal Peak, and the importance of relationships with Founders

Datadog, Snowflake

Ben's song is The Streets of Laredo by Marty Robbins
Sponsors:
Tegus Research
My Marketplace Builder
Links:
Thomas McGannon LinkedIn
Follow us on social media:
Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon...
@uppodpod Twitter
@uppodpod Instagram
UP YouTube Channel
up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode)
Email us:
[email protected],
DISCLAIMER: The host and others associated with this podcast may have investments with the guests and/or the companies associated with them. This is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research.
...more
1h 32min
October 25, 2022Heather Loomis Tighe, Family Office Strategist & Advisor (BlackRock, JP Morgan); Lessons from One of the World's Best
This week's Unlimited Partner is Heather Loomis Tighe a Venture Capital Advisor and Partner and Strategic Advisor to Family Offices. She has made quite the name for herself in the fixed income world over the past 20 years. From Blackrock (Head of West coast institutional family offices), JP Morgan Chase (fixed income manager overseeing a portfolio of $13B), she has a plethora of knowledge which she was willing to share with us.
Topics Include:
Being an Environmentalist and thinking about the future

Her career arc from being an English major at Duke University to trading Equity Securities to Fixed Income

Traveling and attending the London School of Economics, living in Asia

Almost taking a job at the CIA

"The bond market is the smarter market"

"Can you think? Can you work hard? Do you have what it takes to learn something and execute upon it?"

Managing risk
Heather's song is Bob Dylan's Tangled Up in Blue
Sponsors:
Tegus Research
My Marketplace Builder
Links:
Thomas McGannon LinkedIn
Follow us on social media:
Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon...
@uppodpod Twitter
@uppodpod Instagram
UP YouTube Channel
up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode)
Email us:
[email protected],
DISCLAIMER: The host and others associated with this podcast may have investments with the guests and/or the companies associated with them. This is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research.
...more
1h 8min
October 18, 2022 Episode 25! What We've Learned -- with Brent Beshore, Amanda Groves, Tripp Jones and Kyle Harrison
This is the episode where we go back and hear some gems from some of our favorite guests so far. Kind of like when your favorite tv show of the 90s put out a recap of best-ofs and passed it off as a new episode. We've had an incredible amount of soundbites and we welcome you to go back and listen to our growing catalog of guests. Here's a brief compilation of some of our favorites.
We'd also like to thank our newest member of the team Rami Adi for helping us out the past few months. He heard our podcast and asked if he could help out. He's designed a new website for us, transcribed episodes, given feedback, and so much more. We're lucky to have him.
As always, continue to listen, like and subscribe, tell a friend. We can't thank you enough for the support. We have a lot of cool stuff in the works. Stay tuned.

Kyle Harrison's Ep 119
Link
Tripp Jones's Ep 107
Link
Amanda Grove's Ep 104
Link
Brent Beshore's Ep 103
Link
Sponsors:
Tegus Research
My Marketplace Builder
Links:
Thomas McGannon LinkedIn
Follow us on social media:
Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon...
@uppodpod Twitter
@uppodpod Instagram
UP YouTube Channel
up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode)
Email us:
[email protected],
DISCLAIMER: The host and others associated with this podcast may have investments with the guests and/or the companies associated with them. This is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research.
...more
30min
October 07, 2022Paul Santos, Founder of Wavemaker Partners (Singapore) | Investing into Southeast Asia & Going Further Together, Than Faster Alone
Today's Unlimited Partner is Paul Santos Founder and Managing Partner at Wavemaker Partners, a VC fund based in Singapore. He's built one of the best performing VC funds by finding a great niche in SE Asia. Wavemaker is based in Singapore. His leadership skills and wisdom are very apparent while listening to this discussion, it's no wonder his reputation is so high. Thomas recently visited SE Asia and almost everyone he met said he needed to talk with Paul.
"Wavemaker Group is a multi-faceted cross border venture capital firm founded in 2003. The firm is dual headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore and has raised over $580M across multiple funds. We currently have a team of 70 people across both sides of our practice. Wavemaker is one of the most active early-stage investors in Southern California and Southeast Asia and has invested in over 360 companies in the last 17 years. US-based investments include MindBody (NASDAQ: MB), DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI) and StyleHaul (acquired by RTL). Singapore-based investments include Luxola (acquired by LVMH), ArtofClick (acquired by Xurpas), and Pie (acquired by Google). In Southeast Asia, Wavemaker focuses on enterprise and deep technology companies."
Topics Include:
Building Wavemaker into one of the best funds in the world

"If you want to fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together" (African Proverb)

Finding a niche in Singapore

The Man in the Arena Theodore Roosevelt speech is required reading for people at his firm

Having Jesuit influences

P&G experience yet wanting to build something on his own

EFishery, a tech driven fishery company focused on helping farmers increase productivity through tech, 'while at the same time creating a more sustainable, safe, and fair environment for them'

Life Lessons and hacks from Paul are abound
Paul's song is What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
Sponsors:
Tegus Research
My Marketplace Builder
Links:
Thomas McGannon LinkedIn
Follow us on social media:
Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon...
@uppodpod Twitter
@uppodpod Instagram
UP YouTube Channel
up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode)
Email us:
[email protected],
DISCLAIMER: The host and others associated with this podcast may have investments with the guests and/or the companies associated with them. This is for entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Please do your own research.
...more
1h 26min
September 27, 2022Jenny Bloom, Former CFO at MailChimp & Zapier | Tegus Talks w/ Akash Khanolkar (Octane), Jenny Bloom, Thomas McGannon
Today is a first for UP. We share our favorite use case for Tegus - connecting our partners with industry legends! We sit down with Jenny Bloom (former CFO of MailChimp and Zapier) and Akash Khanolkar (Co-Founder of Octane). We get a great deep dive into how MailChimp and Zapier became successful. We get into how Jenny was able to lead and make pivotal decisions along the way. For any SaaS business leader, this is a great podcast to listen to. IOHO! (In our honest opinion!)
Topics Include:
Jenny Bloom's intro - Starting as a fractional CFO, spending 14 years at MailChimp as CFO (but also many other roles) and Zapier

Akash's background (Octane)

MailChimp started as a web design company's side project in 2000

Zapier was a startup at the University of Missouri and got into Y Combinator

Building a long-lasting company with no exit in mind, no startup funding

People are your biggest asset and cost

Teaching your employees financial terms so they spend wisely for the company

Integrating their platform when automation was a standard in the industry

Going through Covid

Financial learnings from a SaaS business

It's always about your plan
Jenny's songs are...Earth, Wind & Fire - September & Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)
Akash's song is Billy Joel - Piano Man
Sponsors:
Tegus Research
My Marketplace Builder
Links:
Thomas McGannon LinkedIn
Follow us on social media:
Like and subscribe and all that stuff...stay in touch as we will have exciting updates and content soon...
@uppodpod Twitter
@uppodpod Instagram
UP YouTube Channel
up-pod.com (Now with ListenNotes for transcripts of each episode)
Email us:
[email protected],
...more
57min

FAQs about Unlimited Partners:

How many episodes does Unlimited Partners have?

The podcast currently has 32 episodes available.