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Sand Hill Road
60 Episodes
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In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Henry Shi, co-founder of super.com an all-in-one savings super app for everyday Americans. Having recently raised a $85m Series C led by Inovia Capital, the company is trusted by over 5 million customers worldwide and has helped them save over $150M to date. Super.com is backed by Tier 1 investors including NBA superstar Steph Curry and has raised over $150M USD and surpassed $1B in sales.
00:00 Intro
01:37 From Chatbot to Super App
03:02 V1 of the product
04:55 Product Today
06:39 Going from appless app to super app
09:34 Going from travel-only to Walmart
12:47 Going from Seed to Series C
14:56 Fundraising in 2016
16:15 Surviving the pandemic
17:45 The Las Vegas offsite
19:34 Perfecting Distribution
21:29 Founder transition
25:04 Vision for Super.com
In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Kshitij Grover, co-Founder and CTO of Orb (www.withorb.com), a billing platform provider that solves usage-based billing needs. The SF based startup has to date raised a total of c. $19.1 million across its Series A ($14 million led by Menlo) and seed ($5.1 million led by Greylock).
In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Gen Isayama, co-founder and CEO of World Innovation Lab, a Palo Alto and Tokyo based venture firm investing in growth-stage companies and serving as a bridge between startups and Japanese corporations.
00:00 Intro
01:30 World Innovation Lab
04:10 From Japanese lawyer to Silicon Valley VC
09:10 From DCM to WIL
13:55 WIL investment thesis
19:40 Japanese entrepreneurial culture
26:57 Open innovation Models at WIL
31:57 Raising Fund I
37:00 Full spectrum of WIL Activities
42:16 Investment strategy and portfolio construction
48:06 Outlook for WIL III
51:23 Call to action
In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Dan Ahrens, founding partner at Left Lane Capital, a New York based venture capital and early growth equity firm that invests in high-growth internet and consumer technology businesses.
00:00 Intro
02:43 Consumer vs. enterprise tech
05:09 Getting into venture
07:54 Raising Left Lane I
10:35 Investing while fundraising
13:09 The Left Lane Capital playbook
17:09 Due diligence in a hot market
18:52 Scaling Left Lane Capital
21:36 Deployment pace
23:28 Focus area
26:04 Hard conversations
28:10 Arc
32:53 Exo Freight
35:28 Supply Chain Tech
37:04 Call to action
In this episode, Erasmus Elsner is talking to Divyang Arora, founder and CEO of Byte Kitchen about cooking up the future of digital food halls with Byte Kitchen founder Divyang Arora.
0:00 Intro
1:24 2 minute elevator pitch
4:27 Going all in
8:07 Business Model
14:52 The Byte Kitchen playbook
18:52 Optimal Partner Restaurant Profile
25:39 End customer benefits
27:25 Raising the Seed Round
30:14 Early traction
31:54 Byte Kitchen's Use of Tech
34:50 Call to Action








