The VentureFizz Podcast

Episode 362 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Alice Pomponio, Managing Director at BrightEdge, the investing arm of the American Cancer Society. Venture capital and private equity investors are all working on meaningful initiatives in terms of building great companies with the hope of gaining a meaningful return for investors. However, the role that Alice plays in the world of investing into startups is different… As the innovation, impact investment and venture capital arm of the American Cancer Society, BrightEdge propels groundbreaking patient-centric solutions by accelerating ACS’s mission to advance science, reduce disparities, and promote healthcare sustainability. All of the investments from BrightEdge have a common goal and that is to fight for a world without cancer. On top of this incredibly important mission is how the firm operates where the financial returns are reinvested back into the fund or are returned to the American Cancer Society to build a diversified and sustainable source of funding for the organization. In this podcast, we cover: * The platform shift to AI and its potential impact on cancer research. * Alice’s background and how cancer has affected her family, plus a walk through her career in the biotech & pharmaceutical industry. * The details of the firm’s proprietary Cancer Impact Investment Framework. * Sample portfolio companies and the overall impact that BrightEdge has made. * How BrightEdge is helping to advance health equity and increase representation for underserved populations. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 361 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Phil Pergola, CEO at CloudZero. Phil has a tremendous track record and we talk about a lot of great companies that he’s helped build throughout his career, but I need to highlight one of these companies in this intro and that is BladeLogic and the lasting impact the company has made. If you’ve ever read the famous startup book by Ben Horowitz called The Hard Thing About Hard Things… the competitor to his company Opsware was BladeLogic which is absolutely classic. BladeLogic went on to become a public company and was subsequently acquired by BMC Software. Another fascinating point about BladeLogic is the people and how many have gone on to become C-level sales executives or advisors at some of the most successful companies out there like MongoDB, AppDynamics, Snowflake, Wiz, Okta, and others. There is even a podcast called Hunters + Unicorns which interviews a bunch of them. CloudZero is the leader in proactive cloud cost efficiency. They enable engineers to build cost-efficient software without slowing down innovation. The company announced a $32M Series B round of funding last year. In this podcast, we cover: * The importance of building a successful pre and post-sales organization, plus the details of the LAYR model (Land Adopt Expand Retain). * Phil’s background and the story of his initial interest in pursuing a career path as an actuary. * A trip down Boston tech memory lane across multiple companies like Eggrock Partners which was acquired by Breakaway Solutions, BladeLogic, enerNOC, and CloudHealth Technologies. * All the details about CloudZero - how they found product market fit, why he joined as CEO, and the latest at the company today. * Advice on raising venture capital funding. * Lots of great advice on being a first time CEO - his lessons learned, what you should think about in the first 90 days, and advice on how to get on the radar for CEO positions. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 360 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Mike Troiano, Partner at G20 Ventures. When I think of Mike, I think of a master marketer, a branding guru, and an amazing storyteller. As we start our conversation we discuss the importance of these traits as it relates to entrepreneurs. The importance of storytelling and brand building is often overlooked by entrepreneurs. Yet, it is such a critical part of a startup’s success as a good story attracts customers, talent, and capital. If you haven’t followed his blog, please make sure you check it out on Medium, as there are so many great pieces of advice to help you improve your skills in storytelling, creating a brand, and building a startup. He’s one of the best. G20 Ventures is the capital partner that helps new businesses grow with smart money, great storytelling, and the right connections. The firm’s sweet spot is mainly Series A investing in enterprise software companies. In this podcast, we cover: * Playing sports at Cornell and getting his career started in the marketing agency world, plus starting his own company which was acquired and went public. * The full lifecycle story of M-Qube which was acquired by VeriSign and all the details about how the company powered the voting for American Idol and the lucky case drawing for Deal or No Deal. * Launching a startup called MatchMine which was backed by the Kraft family and was building a personalization tech for consumers that ended up being too early for the market. * The story of Actifio and its copy data management solution which grew into unicorn status with backing from Tier A investors and was acquired by Google. * How a viral post on Medium started his journey into venture capital and joining G20 Ventures, where he was a founding member and LP. * Getting started as a VC and how he found his Zone of Genius, plus what he’s targeting for investments. * The 5 phases of a career. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 359 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO of Sincere. Boston has this legacy reputation that you can’t build consumer companies in the area, yet there are so many great companies that have scaled like Wayfair, DraftKings, iRobot, SimpliSafe, and so… so… many more. Plus, don’t get me started on how many brands, especially footwear, are located here. Anyway, Sincere is another example of a great consumer company at scale. It is highly likely that you’ve used one of their products like Punchbowl to plan a party, Timehop to relive past memories, or Memento, where you can collect and preserve memories together for a group video or photo album. Sincere’s latest brand is Lovebird, a new platform for the wedding industry which is taking on The Knot and other outdated incumbents and as highlighted in this interview with Matt, there will be more coming from Sincere. In this podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the legacy of an entrepreneur and what led Matt down the path of starting a corporate foundation at Sincere for charitable initiatives. * Matt’s background story, growing up with 5 brothers and how he started his entrepreneurial roots early on. * Getting his career started and how he became the youngest Product Manager at Adobe. * His brushes with tech luminaries like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Alexis Ohanian, Justin Kan, and Dharmesh Shah. * The background story of Punchbowl and the three key characteristics he used for building a business. * Why the expansion into the wedding market with Lovebird made sense for the company and how they are differentiating themselves from the competitors. * Matt’s philosophy around buying premium domains and a hint about his best 5 letter domain that is not even live yet. * And so much more.

Episode 358 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Simon Taylor, Founder & CEO of HYCU. One of the things that I love about this podcast is hearing the stories of entrepreneurs and the ambitious moves they make to build their companies. For example, last week’s interview with Brian Liu was a great example where he and his Co-Founder cold called and got the most recognizable lawyer on the planet - that being Robert Shapiro - involved with LegalZoom in the early days of the company. Simon’s story is also legendary. At the point of having an MVP, they wanted to partner with a fast growing company called Nutanix. He flew out to the company’s offices in California and unannounced, he asked to speak to the CEO. After pitching his company and convincing team members during that initial unannounced call, the CEO did finally sit with him and after building a backup solution for Nutanix, a partnership was established and they were off and running. HYCU is a leader in the multi-cloud and SaaS data protection as a service industry. The company has raised $140M in VC funding to date. In this podcast, we cover: * A discussion around leveraging a partnership model for a company’s GTM strategy and how to build it with the right mindset and approach. * Simon’s background story, including receiving a signed book from legendary computer entrepreneur An Wang, the founder of Wang Laboratories, when his family moved to the U.S. * Starting his career in cubicle jobs and how he learned the importance of rigor like his experience as a 401K rep answering phones and how it helped shape him as an entrepreneur. * Building his first company in Prague, an IT outsourcing company which was acquired by Comtrade and then his next company, a monitoring tools company that was acquired by Citrix. * The full lifecycle story of HYCU and all the details about their platform. * The benefits of raising capital from corporate VCs. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 357 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Brian Liu, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of companies like LegalZoom, BizCounsel, & Overture. Lots of the best ideas come from experience within your own industry and it was Brian and his co-founder, Brian Lee (who has since gone on to be a co-founder of ShoeDazzle and The Honest Company) who both had experience in the law industry and saw an industry which was ripe for disruption. After experimenting with some ideas, the idea for LegalZoom had the best validation for building a company and some of the most successful entrepreneurs take bold risks. For example, to bring validation for consumers about the legitimacy of their business for legal docs, they cold called and got Robert Shapiro (yes, the high profile attorney from the OJ Simpson trial) involved in the business… and from there, they were off and running… which ultimately led to a publicly traded company. His latest company is Overture, an attorney-to-attorney referral platform for solos & small firms. In this podcast, we cover: * A discussion about the impact and potential that AI has for the legal industry. * Brian’s background story and his experience as a practicing attorney. * The full lifecycle story of LegalZoom, including the Robert Shapiro cold call and how they scaled the company. * All the details about Overture. * Brian’s work as an advisor for entrepreneurs like Julia Rodgers from HelloPrenup, who was featured in Episode 336 of The VentureFizz Podcast. * And so much more.

Episode 356 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Erika Ebbel Angle and Colin Angle. I’ve had co-founders on my podcast in the past but it is very rare that I have a married couple and it is very hard not to use the phrase power-couple of this one. Having both Erika and Colin on the podcast was awesome, as we were able to dig into both of their background stories and professional journeys. If you are in the Boston tech scene, you probably know about Colin as a co-founder and former CEO of iRobot, but equally impressive is his wife, Erika. Here are some examples of her many professional accomplishments: * B.S. in Chemistry from MIT; Ph.D. in Biochemistry from BU. 2004 Miss Massachusetts * Founder of a non-profit organization called Science from Scientists which teaches STEM lessons to students in grades third through eight. * TEDx speaker about Your Gut Microbiome that has over 2 million views. Co-Founder & CEO of Ixcela. Ixcela is a pioneering company in internal fitness, specializing in the gut microbiome. The company recently announced its Ixcela Cancer Support Program in collaboration with Roper St. Francis Healthcare which showed the critical role that gut microbiome health plays in reducing cancer care side effects. Ixcela's supportive care is designed to be hyper-personalized to help mitigate symptoms and improve the patient’s health. In this episode of our podcast, we also cover: * A discussion about the gut microbiome and Erika’s research. * The story of iRobot and how they discovered product-market-fit through a combination of work in mine-hunting algorithms, industrial store cleaning, and the My Real Baby doll with Hasbro led to the Roomba. * All the details about Ixcela and how their personalized care and support works. * Colin’s role in Ixcela as a member of its Board of Directors. * The state of personalized healthcare and how AI has its place but why the human element is still very important. * The future of robotics and AI, plus a discussion about 10Beauty. * What dinner looks like in the Angle household. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 355 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Ben Maitland-Lewis, Director of Startup Banking & Founder Success at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and yes, this episode is also sponsored by SVB. Ben and I go way back. His previous company, Pretty Instant, had a long-standing relationship with VentureFizz. This Y-Combinator company was an on-demand photography marketplace that did all of our office tour photoshoots on VentureFizz. It honestly was an amazing experience… such a great company. But even when you work with someone for a long time and you have a great professional relationship, there is so much about the person that you don’t know and this is one of the reasons why I love this podcast. I learned that Ben’s background story is very eclectic… from living abroad as a child, to being a street performer and being in the circus to playing music with an orchestra… and then being in a band playing the top clubs in LA to playing drums for other bands like Incubus, Dishwalla, and others… I could go on and on, so I’ll stop here and let him tell his story in this interview. Today, Ben is still leveraging his experience as a founder but helping other entrepreneurs in lots of meaningful ways at SVB. In addition to Ben’s background story, we also cover: * A discussion about making the transition from founder to employee. * Ben’s journey into entrepreneurship and the story of PressKit. * All the details about Pretty Instant and how the company got started and scaled. * His current role at SVB and the different ways he is working with founders. * Some analysis and positive vibes from SVB’s State of the Markets report. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 354 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Paul Morville, Co-Founder & CEO of Parrot AI. This episode was recorded live at Startup Boston Week at Suffolk University. I recorded two episodes at this year’s event, so stay tuned for the second episode in a couple of weeks. Paul is a serial entrepreneur and as you’ll hear from our podcast, he is very successful but likes to fly under the radar. Case in point, while most companies can’t wait to broadcast a round of funding, I couldn’t find any press releases or media coverage about any outside investment for Parrot AI. Come to find out, the company raised capital in 2021 from Accomplice, Pillar, Legion Capital, and others. We discussed his reasoning as to why they decided against announcing funding which was very interesting. Parrot AI is not just a meeting recorder, transcription, and note-taking tool. It is an AI-powered collaborative workspace that turns conversation into results because of its understanding of the full context of a business. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The 2 biggest lessons learned while building multiple companies. * Paul’s background story and his work on building Barron’s online property which was one of the first financial websites. * His professional journey as a Product Manager, including experience at Arbor Networks and how so many people have gone off to start other companies like Twilio. * The founding story of Confer which was one of the first endpoint security solutions in the cloud that was acquired by Carbon Black which later went public & was acquired by VMware. * His decision to pass on an opportunity to join a VC firm and continue down the entrepreneurial path. * All the details about Parrot AI and how it differentiates itself from competitors. * What makes a great Product Manager. * And so much more.