Venture Vignettes

Host Riana Shah sat down with Alan Chiu, a partner at XSeed Capital to talk about product design and engineering. Alan has a computer engineering background and holds a MS in Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was a Sloan Fellow focused on entrepreneurship, venture capital, and mergers and acquisitions. He has previously worked as an engineering manager at a network security start-up and director of product management, before joining XSeed Capital as a partner investing in mobile enterprise applications, data analytics platforms, enterprise infrastructure, and fintech startups. In this conversation Riana and Alan chat about product design, getting an edge over your competitors, and knowing when to quit working on an idea.

This week Venture Vignettes host Riana Shah got to have a heart-to-heart with Miriam Rivera, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Ulu Ventures, an early stage venture fund in Silicon Valley. Miriam has worked at all stages of new ventures, from formation to Fortune 500 public company, Google Inc. At Google, Miriam became vice president and saw Google grow from 200 employees to over 15,000. Miriam serves on many non-profit and for-profit boards and has been voted one of the top 100 women of influence in Silicon Valley. As a first-generation college student and scholarship recipient, Miriam graduated from Stanford University where she earned the AB/AM and JD/MBA degrees.

In this podcast we talk about a wide range of topics including coming from humble beginnings, the early days of Google, innovating business models to increase revenues, and seed-stage investing.

This week Venture Vignettes host Riana Shah got to have a heart-to-heart with Miriam Rivera, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Ulu Ventures, an early stage venture fund in Silicon Valley. Miriam has worked at all stages of new ventures, from formation to Fortune 500 public company, Google Inc. At Google, Miriam became vice president and saw Google grow from 200 employees to over 15,000. Miriam serves on many non-profit and for-profit boards and has been voted one of the top 100 women of influence in Silicon Valley. As a first-generation college student and scholarship recipient, Miriam graduated from Stanford University where she earned the AB/AM and JD/MBA degrees.

In this podcast we talk about a wide range of topics including coming from humble beginnings, the early days of Google, innovating business models to increase revenues, and seed-stage investing.

This week, Venture Vignettes host Riana Shah sat down with the co-founder and CEO of Folia Water, Dr. Jonathan Levine. Levine received his Ph.D from Columbia University in Earth and Environmental Engineering and worked on African water supply for the U.N. Millennium Villages Project for his masters. Folia Water is a wholesale technology manufacturer that sells and distributes paper filters so that middle-income consumers in emerging markets have more affordable access to clean, filtered water instead of paying ten times more for bottled water. In this lively podcast, we talk about the impact of his scientific background on running a business, being part of 500 Startups, and doing customer discovery in emerging markets.

This week, Venture Vignettes host Riana Shah sat down with the co-founder and CEO of Folia Water, Dr. Jonathan Levine. Levine received his Ph.D from Columbia University in Earth and Environmental Engineering and worked on African water supply for the U.N. Millennium Villages Project for his masters. Folia Water is a wholesale technology manufacturer that sells and distributes paper filters so that middle-income consumers in emerging markets have more affordable access to clean, filtered water instead of paying ten times more for bottled water. In this lively podcast, we talk about the impact of his scientific background on running a business, being part of 500 Startups, and doing customer discovery in emerging markets.

This week Venture Vignettes host Riana Shah spoke with Bimla Picot, designer extraordinaire and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the fashion label Rebecca Minkoff. Bimla is the the the founder and CEO of ReboundWear, a clothing company that focuses on created dressing solutions when regular clothing is too constrictive or difficult to wear. Through her background in fashion and design, Bimla founded the company after discovering that there was a lack of clothing to accommodate people with limited mobility, for instance when someone has had surgery or a broken bone. See what she says about manufacturing a physical product and finding an entrepreneurial community of support.

Please note: This interview was over Skype so the sound is not perfect throughout the entire podcast. That said we still have the scrappy, entrepreneurial spirit so be sure to take a listen!

This week Venture Vignettes host Riana Shah spoke with Bimla Picot, designer extraordinaire and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the fashion label Rebecca Minkoff. Bimla is the the the founder and CEO of ReboundWear, a clothing company that focuses on created dressing solutions when regular clothing is too constrictive or difficult to wear. Through her background in fashion and design, Bimla founded the company after discovering that there was a lack of clothing to accommodate people with limited mobility, for instance when someone has had surgery or a broken bone. See what she says about manufacturing a physical product and finding an entrepreneurial community of support.

Please note: This interview was over Skype so the sound is not perfect throughout the entire podcast. That said we still have the scrappy, entrepreneurial spirit so be sure to take a listen!

We had the opportunity to sit down with Siqi Mou this week who is the founder of the startup beauty company Hello AVA, a bot that provides personalized skincare recommendations. She received a MBA/MPA-ID joint degree from Harvard Kennedy School and Stanford Graduate School of Business and previously worked in the finance industry. Siqi and her team have done an incredible job of doing customer discovery. They spoke with with over 300 people before they even launched their product. In the process they realized that people were more likely to talk to you if they could give them something in return that went beyond a traditional survey. Hear Siqi's amazing story in her own words on this podcast!

We had the opportunity to sit down with Siqi Mou this week who is the founder of the startup beauty company Hello AVA, a bot that provides personalized skincare recommendations. She received a MBA/MPA-ID joint degree from Harvard Kennedy School and Stanford Graduate School of Business and previously worked in the finance industry. Siqi and her team have done an incredible job of doing customer discovery. They spoke with with over 300 people before they even launched their product. In the process they realized that people were more likely to talk to you if they could give them something in return that went beyond a traditional survey. Hear Siqi's amazing story in her own words on this podcast!

In this episode we speak with Christos Shepherd, co-founder of Campfire, an app that allows individuals to talk with their favorite celebrities and experts this week. He’s a graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business, previously started his own airline, and originally hails from Jamaica. Listen in for some super candid conversations about diversity, forming positive company culture, and raising capital for your startup!