The VentureFizz Podcast

Episode 392 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Damien Lewke, Founder & CEO of Nebulock. Damien is purpose built for this company, which is a statement he’s heard from one of his investors that being Will Lehman. When you hear about Damien’s background story, it’s hard to argue. Damien’s path to where he is today has been very thoughtful, methodical, and intentional. It’s a path that allowed him to learn and understand as much as possible about cybersecurity. In addition, he has worn several different hats throughout his career (I’m talking Solutions Architecture… Product Marketing… Product Management… and other roles) that have all put him in a strong position to lead a venture backed startup. Nebulock is an autonomous threat hunting platform designed from scratch for behavior-based detection. By connecting directly to identity, endpoint, and cloud telemetry, Nebulock continuously hunts threats, surfaces hidden anomalies, and automatically increases your detection coverage. The company announced $8.5M in funding, including their seed round led by Bain Capital Ventures alongside Decibel VC, Zetta Venture Partners, In-Q-Tel, and several angel investors. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:57 Being a Solo Founder 05:03 Damien's Background & Playing Soccer in Germany 07:35 The Impact of Sports on Entrepreneurship 09:50 Career Beginnings 12:08 Transition to CrowdStrike 17:11 Joining Palo Alto Networks 19:08 Pursuing Further Education at MIT 21:38 Product Management at Arctic Wolf 23:45 Founding Nebulock 27:22 What is Threat Hunting? 29:57 Details about Nebulock 32:17 State of the State at Nebulock & Looking Ahead 40:46 3 Lessons Learned Since Founding a Company 43:34 Personal Insights and Recommendations 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 391 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Joseph Krause, Co-Founder & CEO of Radical AI. There are many benefits with the platform shift to AI, but one of the clear benefits that I’m seeing is how some of the most brilliant minds are working on incredibly meaningful and challenging problems. While yes, there is a need for lots of applications, even another photo sharing app, I’ve always strongly believed that the best entrepreneurs should leverage their intellect to work on something that could actually change the world. Meet Joseph, an entrepreneur who has built his career for this moment. He has a bias for action and a go-big or go home approach with a startup that is looking to completely reconstruct the scientific process and if successful, it will replace multi-national corporations like Dow Chemical. Radical AI is building a self-driving lab which will accelerate materials R&D to tackle the world’s most pressing problems. Through the integration of artificial intelligence, engineering, materials science, and applied research, Radical AI is changing the way materials are designed, developed, and discovered. The company announced a $55M Series Seed+ led by RTX Ventures, joined by NVentures (NVIDIA’s VC arm), noa, Infinite Capital, Eni Next (Eni’s VC arm), AlleyCorp and many others. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * The details of Radical AI recommendations with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) for the 2025 National AI Research and Development Strategy Plan. * Joseph’s background story and experience in academia, DEVCOM Army research lab, & the National Guard. * How a cold email landed him a position in venture capital and his time at AlleyCorp. * The full story of Radical AI and how they are addressing material science challenges with an innovative approach. * The Self-Driving Lab concept and why Radical AI is a generation-defining opportunity. * Building a culture of action and hiring plans. * 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 390 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Maya R. Said, Sc.D., Founder & CEO of Outcomes4Me. Maya believes that in our lifetime, we will get to a point where we can either cure or control cancer.  That is a bold statement and one of major importance.  As we kick off our interview, she shares the reasons why it could happen. In order to get there, however, it is certainly going to take a lot of brilliant founders and innovative companies, but when you have founders like Maya who are building companies like Outcomes4Me, you can see why there is hope. For this podcast, I am blessed to speak with so many amazing people, who are all very intelligent, driven, and optimistic… but Maya is in a league of her own. Her academic credentials are beyond next level and what she accomplished within the healthcare industry makes her uniquely qualified to build a company that is contributing to this mission of either curing or controlling cancer. Outcomes4Me is the first and only end-to-end, AI-driven patient empowerment platform that helps patients with cancer take a proactive approach to their care from diagnosis throughout every stage of life and care.  Its direct-to-patient platform integrates clinical guidelines, genomics, trial matching, and symptom tracking to help patients navigate through a cancer diagnosis with confidence and clarity.   The company recently announced a $21M round of funding from new investor - Salica Investments, with participation from all existing investors: Labcorp Venture Fund, Forecast Labs, Northpond Ventures, Sierra Ventures, Asset Management Ventures, IRA Capital, and Merstal LTD. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Maya’s background story and her experience in academia at MIT. * Her transition into industry and the various leadership roles she held. * The full story of Outcomes4Me including how the platform works and how they help patients, plus their plans looking ahead. * The importance of data to speed up innovation and the drug development process. * The impact of TV advertising * The overarch theme of what she has learned while building a company. * Fundraising advice * And 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 389 and today’s guest is Jeff Taylor, serial entrepreneur and Founder of Monster.com. About a month ago, the combined entity of Monster & CareerBuilder filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It signaled the end of an era and a 31 year run for Monster which is pretty extraordinary. A reflective tribute was added to LinkedIn by Jeff and after reading his post, I immediately reached out, as the story of Monster needed to be told and documented. Thus, I went long form for this interview, a la Joe Rogan style, to bring you the most detailed account of Monster.com from an initial dream to a top 11th or 12th website in the world & a major consumer brand. An initial dream, you might ask… yes… it’s true.  Jeff dreamt of the idea, the brand, and the mascot… which received tremendous pushback from multiple parties in the early days. It’s this story and so many others that we uncover: * The early building blocks of the internet and how groundbreaking Jeff and Monster.com was in terms of being the 454th dot com and posting the first jobs and resumes on the internet. * The debatable too-early acquisition of Monster in the very early innings of the dot com bubble by TMP Worldwide. * Stories of the hypergrowth years at Monster. * Behind the scenes of the, what was first considered a failure then turned iconic - When I Grow Up - Super Bowl commercial. * And what I found to be the most shocking story… which we lead with - the paper napkin agreement between Jeff Taylor and Reid Hoffman for Monster.com to acquire LinkedIn.  Wow - can you imagine what might have happened if Monster’s board didn’t turn the deal down? In addition to the deep dive into the legendary story of Monster, we also discuss Jeff’s background story, other companies he’s built like Eons, and his current company called BoomBand - which is reinventing the resume and building a new AI talent marketplace. The company is still in stealth mode but expects to launch its product late fall. 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 388 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Andy Ellner, Founder & CEO of Quilt Health. Yes, there are endless possibilities in terms of the platform shift to AI and how it will disrupt industries, but the one that I’m most excited about is the healthcare industry.  Could there be a great moment to hopefully improve lives and maybe even eradicate diseases or even cure cancer someday?  The future is unknown but these advanced in technology certain give a lot of hope. To tackle these big problems, we need people who are not only the top brilliant minds on this planet, but they also need to be risk takers in terms of building these companies. Andy fits the bill.  Not only is he an MD with top academic credentials, but he’s also a serial entrepreneur. And probably the most important quality of Andy is that he comes from a medical family that’s passionate about making a difference across the world and that quality is deeply rooted into his mindset as well. His latest company is Quilt Health, a digital health company dedicated to bridging gaps in treatment access for complex diseases. They are focused on sickle cell disease and plan to expand to address other complex conditions.  Quilt Health just announced a $6M seed round of funding led by MaC Venture Capital and Underscore Ventures, with participation from Meridian Street Capital, BoxGroup, Watershed VC, and Coalition Operators. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like: * Some key lessons learned while building healthcare startups, including the importance of finding the right business model. * Andy’s background story including his connection to the Baseball Hall of Fame and his work helping to solve the global HIV pandemic where his learnings from this timeframe have carried over to Quilt Health. * Co-Founding the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care. * Starting Firefly Health to address the inefficiencies of primary care with a virtual-first care model. * What led him down the path of starting Quilt Health and their plans for disrupting the industry. * His Minimum Viable Team philosophy and advice around hiring. * What excites him about the potential AI use cases in the healthcare industry. * And so much more.

Episode 387 of The VentureFizz Podcast features John Voith, CEO & Co-Founder of InStride Health. A common theme for John that you’ll hear throughout the interview is how he has always followed his head and heart. It’s a philosophy, where you can build something meaningful for the world that fulfills your interests yet has a mission to help people. Healthcare is certainly an industry where one can have an impact and what’s interesting is that he has never wavered. As you’ll learn, John’s interest in healthcare began as a child and it has followed through his career and entrepreneurial journey. InStride Health provides specialty outpatient care for pediatric anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and related presentations. The company is venture backed with $56M in funding raised by General Catalyst, .406 Ventures, Valtruis, Mass General Brigham Ventures, and Hopelab Foundation. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like: * John’s background story and how medical illness in his family influenced his future in the healthcare industry. * Seeing rapid growth of his career at athenahealth where he became one of four General Managers in the company. * The founding story of Virtudent, a venture backed company that provides preventive dental care and care coordination through teledentistry services, on-site services and virtual support. * All the details about InStride Health and how he met his Co-Founders Drs. Mona Potter and Kathryn Boger, plus all the details on their unique and effective approach to treatment. * Lessons learned as a CEO and advice for healthcare entrepreneurs. * And so much more.

Episode 386 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Shahid Azim, Managing Partner & CEO of C10 Labs, an AI venture fund and studio. When ChatGPT was released towards the end of 2022, it changed everything and the AI era officially began. It was perfect timing for Shahid and his two co-founders of C10 Labs that being Professor Ramesh Raskar and Dr. Patricia Geli, as the organization was born out of a course they were co-instructors on called AI for Impact. They knew the time was now and it was an opportunity to build a market leading venture studio that is specifically focused on AI-first companies. They were early to the movement and helped create the spark for the AI ecosystem in the Boston area. Fast forward to today, Shahid and the team at C10 Labs are deeply involved in creating the core foundation for AI in the Boston tech ecosystem from the startups that are participating in their accelerator to playing a key role in lots of other initiatives like the Massachusetts AI Hub. Overall, C10 Labs is making a major impact. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Details about how C10 Labs came to fruition. * Shahid’s background story and his journey into entrepreneurship. * The details about Shahid’s startups which focused on lots of important matters like brain health or heart health like Quanttus, a VC backed company with ground breaking tech for a continuous blood pressure monitoring wearable device that came before the launch of the Apple Watch. * All about C10 Labs and what companies can expect by going through their program. * The criteria they look for while reviewing companies for their accelerator and the details on their upcoming AI Biology cohort this fall. * Common stumbling blocks for native AI companies. * And so much more.

Episode 385 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Julia Austin - Board Member, Executive Coach, HBS Senior Lecturer, Operator, Angel Investor, and now - Author. Another repeat original guest! Julia was a guest for Episode 30 of The VentureFizz Podcast back in 2018 where we do a deep dive into her background plus cover lots of interesting topics like what it takes to become a great Product Manager and others. In this interview, we catch up to discuss her new role as an author and the details about her new book called After The Idea - What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/julia-austin/after-the-idea/9781541705296 https://www.amazon.com/After-Idea-Really-Create-Startup/dp/1541705270 Julia is a seasoned operator who has served in leadership roles at several scaled technology companies like Akamai, VMware, and DigitalOcean. She has also advised hundreds of founders and startups. In this new book, which I believe will become a new staple in the entrepreneurial startup circles, she helps entrepreneurs navigate the complexities and challenges of building a startup like important matters around product, people, operations, and more. What I also appreciate the most about this book is the fact that it is very comprehensive, yet easy to understand and implement. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like: * A quick run through Julia’s background - check out Episode 30 for the deeper dive. * How Julia became a member of the faculty at Harvard Business School and the impact of The Startup Operations course that she created. * The inside look at what it’s like to write a book. * How proper discovery can help avoid false positives. * Why entrepreneurs don’t always need a co-founder. * The importance of ABR - that being Always Be Recruiting - for founders. * The difference between Founders & Joiners * Comparing the Boston and NYC startup ecosystems. * And so much more.

Episode 384 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Thomas “TK” Kinsella, Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer of Tines. The success of Tines is not based on luck. The company’s co-founders experienced a major problem that wasn’t being being solved by existing platforms and after talking to peers who were also dealing with the same problem, they decided to do something about it. But, it wasn’t just an idea that got them to where they are today. This team was uniquely qualified to build the next generation solution based on TK’s and his Co-Founder & CEO, Eoin Hinchy’s many years of experience in the cybersecurity industry, plus a history of working together for something like 15+ years at Deloitte, eBay, and DocuSign. Tines empowers teams to build, run, and monitor their most mission-critical and sophisticated workflows. The company recently announced a $125M round of funding at a $1.125B valuation and is co-headquartered in Dublin and Boston. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like: * A discussion about the cybersecurity industry and the platform shift to AI. * TK’s background story growing up in Dublin and some mutual geeking out on rugby. * Starting his career in cybersecurity at Deloitte where he met Eoin, plus lots of details about what they worked on at eBay and DocuSign. * Getting Tines started from the early days and all the details about the platform today. * Why they hired a top designer as one of the first employees in the company and the importance of making products that are easy to use. * Details on the latest round of funding and what’s next. * 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.