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© Jennifer Neundorfer, January Ventures
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Beyond the Cap Table is a podcast hosted by January Ventures’ Jennifer Neundorfer. The show aims to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Venture capital is all about driving alpha, and Jennifer’s guests are truly innovating on the venture model to drive outlier returns. Tune in to hear the candid stories behind what these guest do, why they’re doing it and the results their driving.
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This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode, we switch it up and discuss our 5th Annual Early Stage Founder Sentiment Report. I’m joined by our investment associate, Lizzie Carr, to dive into the data and share what stands out. Lizzie and I delve into:
Why the results suggest that the early stage fundraising market might be stabilizing
How the founder experience remains bifurcated, and why underrepresented founders are feeling even more friction in this market
Why finding and cultivating a strong founder community is the key to success in fundraising, company building, and more
How founders can successfully activate their networks and enlist people to help, even if their networks haven’t been helpful in the past
How increased alignment between founders and funders can maximize mutual success within the VC & tech world
What’s ahead for venture and the outlook for 2024
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode, I interview Ed Zimmermann, venture lawyer at Lowenstein Sandler and Co-founder of First Close Partners, a fund of funds investing in underrepresented fund managers. Ed is a venture veteran who has spent his career supporting and championing founders and funders. In this candid and thoughtful conversation, Ed shares:
His personal motivation for championing social justice and diversity, and how he brings that unique perspective to venture capital
Why he started angel investing and what he has learned about investing from sitting on the legal side of VC
How to approach building a diverse network with an open and prepared mind
Why Ed started First Close Partners to help underrepresented fund managers get to “first close” and how the fund helps its partners evaluate underrepresented funders
Why sharing fund-level returns data can help emerging fund managers understand expectations and communicate effectively with their LPs
Ed Zimmerman chairs Lowenstein Sandler's Emerging Companies & Venture Capital practice (fka, The Tech Group), which he and Anthony Pergola co-founded in the 1990s. Ed has been a growth company, startup and venture/M&A lawyer for 30 years. Ed co-founded First Close Partners, which invests into venture funds owned and run by underrepresented managers across the world, and The Historic Fund (a nonprofit supporting Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) by donating fully-funded LP interests in a portfolio of VC funds into HBCU endowments). Outside of First Close Partners, Ed has personally invested in 100+ VC funds and 150+ startups, predominantly in the US, Europe, and Africa. Ed serves as: an Adjunct Professor of VC at Columbia, on the Wall Street Journal’s Panel of Experts, founder/Chair of VentureCrush, Interim Chair of the Board of Center for Policing Equity, and a Board member at Fisk University, Black Women Talk Tech, The Orchid Foundation, and, previously, Harvey Mudd College. Ed was an adjunct professor of law at Rutgers Law School. Ed has served as an advisor on VC matters to the President of France. Ed also serves on the boards and/or LPACs of several venture capital funds (all of which have impact as part of their mandate), including 2050, The Historic Fund, and Ingressive Capital, and as an advisory board member of Ada Ventures. Ed advocates on issues concerning racial equity, gender, the LGBTQIA+ community, reproductive rights, and gun control.
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode, I interview Brittney Riley Gavini, venture investor at Pivotal Ventures. Pivotal Ventures expands opportunity and accelerates equality in the United States through high-impact investments, partnerships, and advocacy. Pivotal Ventures focuses on areas where social progress has stalled—and where the organization can have the biggest impact. Brittney and I explore:
Pivotal’s investment strategy to maximize returns and impact
The case for investing in emerging managers and how to underwrite them before they have historical fund data
What Pivotal’s diligence process looks like for funds vs. direct investments, and what gets her to yes
How Pivotal Ventures is reimagining the world for women in the US and why they believe the care economy is the place to start
Why she believes in a collaborative model to drive change in the ecosystem and how they partner with programs like Recast Accelerate to breaks down barriers for female GPs
Why she started Founderkind to help early stage entrepreneurs take the leap to start a business
Brittney Riley Gavini’s work focuses on driving capital to overlooked people and problems by making venture capital more equitable and effective. She has over a decade of experience focused on early-stage innovation, as an operator, investor, and LP. For the last five years, Brittney has been at Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company founded by Melinda French Gates. There, she invests in emerging venture funds and leads direct investments in the Care Economy. Previously, Brittney led the US ventures team at Village Capital, where she built the process and team to source, train, and invest in early-stage companies in Fintech, Health, and Education. Brittney spent the beginning of her career at early startups, focused on growth and community in the consumer tech space.
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode, I interview Allison Baum Gates, General Partner at SemperVirens. Allison and I discuss:
Key lessons from her book Breaking Into Venture, which was informed by her own experience starting from scratch in the industry
What she learned from building her first venture fund in Asia, why she believes specialization wins in venture, and how she landed at her current fund, SemperVirens
Why exclusivity in venture is a feature, not a bug - plus her advice for how to navigate that exclusivity
Why 'leaning out' out of networks that don't work for you can be the answer to finding your way in a network-driven ecosystem
Why she focuses on how founders interact in non-fundraising conversations, and how that impacts her investment decision
Why Allison believes in an ecosystem model of investing and what that looks like at SemperVirens
How to tap into being an outsider and use your unique perspective to your advantage
Allison Baum Gates has spent her entire career at the intersection of finance, technology, and the future of work. As a General Partner at early stage venture capital fund SemperVirens, Allison invests in technology transforming workforce, healthcare and financial services. The fund is backed by a powerful platform of HR leaders, giving Allison unique insights into the needs and perspectives of industry-leading employers. She is also a contributing writer for Forbes, a guest lecturer at Columbia Business School and UC Berkeley-Haas, and the author of Breaking into Venture (McGraw-Hill, 2023). Prior to joining SemperVirens, Allison worked on the trading floor at Goldman Sachs; was an early employee at General Assembly (which sold to Adecco for $413mln in 2018); co-founded Fresco Capital, a global seed fund; and was an investor at Trinity Ventures. Currently based in New York, Allison has lived and worked in San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. She holds a B.A. in Economics with Honors, a minor in Film Studies, and a language citation in French from Harvard University.
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
We were thrilled to interview Priyanka Jain, Co-founder and CEO of Evvy, and explore her groundbreaking approach to women’s health and her drive to uncover much needed answers for women. In this episode, we discuss:
How Priyanka moved from being a product expert to a CEO, and why she made that choice
Why she gave herself a deadline during the initial exploration period of starting Evvy and how that helped her uncover a hidden massive market opportunity
How Evvy is redefining the standard of care for women’s health
Why founders should feel empowered to ask for help upfront and lean on their founder community for support
How Priyanka raised a $14M Series A in the midst of a challenging fundraising environment
Priyanka Jain is the co-founder and CEO of Evvy. Priyanka has always been passionate about leveraging data to improve outcomes for women. She spent the past 4 years as Head of Product at pymetrics, where she focused on building algorithms to make hiring more fair, efficient, and transparent. She's excited about the opportunity to create new datasets that will help us improve diagnoses and treatments for women's health conditions that have gone under-researched for far too long. Priyanka is also a spokesperson for the United Nations Foundation's Girl Up Campaign, Chair of the Acumen Fund's Junior Council, and on the Innovation Board for the XPrize Foundation. She received her B.S. from Stanford University, where she was a Mayfield Fellow and President of Stanford Women in Business.
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
During this episode, we interview Jeremiah Gordon, General Counsel at CapitalG. Jeremiah shares:
His unique take on the venture capital industry from his various legal, LP, and angel investor viewpoints
What makes a venture fund a viable franchise, and how he helps emerging managers achieve that
What role affinity groups play in supporting diverse founders, and how the Black Angel Group at Alphabet is especially well positioned to provide differentiated support for founders
Why he thinks now is a great time to build a company despite the current economic conditions
Why venture capital is a team sport and why building your 'tribe' is crucial to your success
Jeremiah joined Google in 2011 and has been the General Counsel/Chief Compliance Officer of CapitalG since its creation. In this role, Jeremiah manages legal and regulatory affairs for CapitalG and is involved in all aspects of CapitalG, including fund formation, deal execution, portfolio management and international investments. Before CapitalG, Jeremiah was a senior counsel at Google where he worked with Google’s corporate development team on acquisitions, investments and special projects. Prior to Google, Jeremiah worked at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati where he represented leading technology companies, entrepreneurs and investors in significant transactions and business challenges. Early in his career, Jeremiah was a corporate associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Jeremiah holds an AB in Economics from Princeton University and a JD from Harvard Law School.
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode, we interview Charles Hudson, Founder and and Managing Partner of Precursor Ventures. Charles is a seasoned GP, a leader in the VC ecosystem, a champion of early stage founders, and one of the most productive people in venture. Whether you’re a founder, GP, or LP, there is so much to learn from Charles. Listen in as Charles discusses:
How he built Precursor from the ground up and transitioned from an emerging to established fund
The secrets to landing top LPs for an "unconventional" strategy
How to qualify investors, whether you’re a founder or a GP
The characteristics that make early stage founders successful
Why VCs must build trust and avoiding judgment to actually move the needle for portfolio companies
What questions early stage founders (and their investors) can ask themselves before raising the next round of capital
Productivity hacks to scale yourself and your impact
What he views as the biggest change to the VC industry in the past 5 years
Charles Hudson is the Managing Partner and Founder of Precursor Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. He invests in people over product at the earliest stage of their entrepreneurial journey. Under his leadership, Precursor Ventures has raised four funds and has over $175 million under management. He has invested in more than 375 companies and has supported more than 400 founders, including the teams behind Clearco, Juniper Square, The Athletic, Incredible Health, Carrot, and Pair Eyewear. Prior to founding Precursor Ventures, Charles was a Partner at Uncork Capital where he focused on identifying investment opportunities in mobile infrastructure, mobile applications, and marketplaces and supporting their portfolio companies on business and corporate development matters. He was also the CoFounder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, an Android-focused mobile games startup based in San Francisco, CA. Charles is an active member of the VC community. Charles is the 2023-2024 Chair of the NVCA Board of Directors, is a board member at Venture Forward, is on the investment committee for Screendoor, and recently joined Path Ahead Ventures Advisory Board. He is also an advisor and mentor to a number of emerging managers. Charles holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Stanford University.
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode, we speak to Mariela Salas, Executive Director of SomosVC, formerly LatinxVC, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the representation of Latino/a investors in the venture capital ecosystem. In this episode we discuss:
What SomosVC is doing to grow and support the Latino/a venture capital ecosystem
What Mariela learned from being the only Latina in the room and why she is now determined to ‘take up space’
How Mariela’s doctorate research on the intersection of Latinx identity, DEI, and venture capital shapes her approach to building SomosVC
Why data is so important for increasing representation in VC and key insights from the SomosVC annual report
How to build an authentic community and then activate that community for change
Why the first annual SomosVC Summit proved now is the time for Latino/a investors
Mariela Salas is the Executive Director of SomosVC, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing the representation of Latino/a investors in the venture capital ecosystem. With nearly 20 years of experience in the entrepreneurship, finance, infrastructure, and technology sectors, she has held executive leadership positions in various corporations and non-profits, including JP Morgan, Verizon, and ACCION USA. Mariela is a Doctoral Candidate at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School. She holds a Master of Science degree in Policy Analysis and Management from The New School University. She earned her Bachelor of Science from Paul Quinn College.
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode, we speak to Roxanne Petraeus, Co-founder & CEO of Ethena, a compliance platform for modern teams. Our discussion with Roxanne covers:
What she learned bootstrapping her first company and how it shaped her discipline when starting Ethena
How her experience in the military prepared her to be a founder and CEO
The secret to building and maintaining strong co-founder partnerships
How to find internal champions and why they are critical for enterprise sales
What founders should know about building relationships with prospective investors
How to transition to a multi-product company, and why customer feedback is so important in that process
How to build an outstanding internal culture within your organization
Roxanne Petraeus is the CEO and co-founder of Ethena. Ethena is the compliance platform for modern teams. Companies like Pinterest, Zendesk and Figma rely on Ethena's suite of admin- and employee- friendly training and compliance tools. After graduating from Harvard’s Reserve Officer Training Program, she was commissioned into the U.S. Army. She served on a combat deployment to Afghanistan and in training missions to Cambodia and Mongolia. After leaving military service, she worked at McKinsey & Company as a consultant before founding Ethena. Roxanne is a Rhodes Scholar and holds degrees from Harvard College and Oxford University.
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode, we talk with Shannon O’Leary, Chief Investment Officer of the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation. In this episode, Shannon shares:
Her strategy for the Foundation’s $1.7B investment portfolio
How she delivers top decile returns by investing in diversity
What actually stands out in a diligence process, and why an “edge” is overrated
What emerging managers can do to land their first institutional LPs
Why she assesses funds on DEI and what it tells her about prospective managers
What emerging fund managers can do to derisk themselves
Shannon O’Leary is the Chief Investment Officer of the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation. Shannon oversees the Foundation’s Investments team as well as all aspects of the Foundation’s $1.7 billion investment portfolios for individual donors, nonprofit endowment holders as well as two partner foundations, F. R. Bigelow Foundation and Mardag Foundation. In her role, Shannon works closely with the investment committees, Foundation staff and others on portfolio decision-making to maintain and grow assets that sustain the Foundations’ grantmaking, ensuring secure annual income and offering other investment funding, education and capacity-building resources for the 200+ nonprofits it serves. Since joining the Foundation in 2019, Shannon has implemented an approach that both quantifies and preferences Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as well as ESG investing strategies that align with the Foundation’s work to inspire generosity, advocate for equity, and invest in community-led solutions. An experienced leader with depth and breadth in building and managing investment teams, processes and procedures, Shannon joined the Foundation after serving as CIO at The Advocate Group, a Minnesota-based wealth management firm. Previously, Shannon spent seven years as the manager of wealth planning and investments for a large family office and served as a member of its Investment Committee.
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
Claude Grunitzky is CEO and Managing Partner at the Equity Alliance, a New York-based fund that invests in venture capital firms and early-stage ventures run by women and people of color. Born in Togo, Claude is also the founder of two media companies, TRACE and TRUE Africa. Over the past two decades, TRACE, which was funded by Goldman Sachs and successfully sold to European investors in 2010, has become one of the most popular youth culture media brands focused on Black culture. TRUE Africa is a Google-funded media tech platform championing young African voices and innovators all over the world. Growing up, Claude, who speaks six languages and carries three passports, was exposed to many different cultures. These foreign interactions shaped his transcultural philosophy and informed the creative energy of his ventures.
In this episode, Claude shares:
Why he started Equity Alliance to invest in venture capital firms and early-stage ventures run by women and people of color
How he built a top media company and got Goldman Sachs to lead his Series A
How he successfully raised capital for Equity Alliance and turned his wishlist of LPs into a reality
How he does diligence on funds, and what makes a manager stand out
How he activates his network and makes it work for him and his portfolio companies
Why being less transactional is actually the key to success in venture
This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
Sonia Kastner is the CEO and Founder of Pano AI, the leader in wildfire early detection and intelligence. Previously, Sonia spent over 10 years building and leading supply chain and manufacturing organizations within fast-growing mission-driven start-ups. Her global leadership experience spans Nest Thermostats, multiple solar energy companies, and extensive work across the IoT ecosystem. Prior to starting her career in technology, she worked in economic development for New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In this episode, Sonia discusses:
How she structured the initial idea generation stage for Pano and built conviction to go all in on this opportunity
How she raised over $45M for Pano and what she’s learned about running a successful fundraising process at various stages
Why her background in operations and supply chain give her a unique perspective as a founder and CEO
How to build a team from Day 0 and her creative secret to finding early hires
How to tackle enterprise sales at the early stage and the key to landing Pano’s first customer
Her approach to recruiting mentors and leveraging them both personally and professionally
Andrew Konya is the founder and CEO of Remesh, a web-based platform that lets institutions have live conversations with their audiences, or customers at scale, using AI to analyze and organize their responses in real-time. Since the days of that first investment, Remesh has gone on to raise $40M from investors like General Catalyst, Lionbird and Techstars. Before Remesh, there were real tradeoffs between the speed and scale of research vs. the depth and quality of response. Remesh delivers qualitative insights and quantitative scale, enabling organizations to gain fast, frequent, and efficient insights and make decisions with confidence.
In this episode, we get into:
How he decided his idea needed to be a business, not a non-profit
Power of telling people about your idea
Differences between building a technology vs. a business
The importance of getting feedback from the market and having flexibility as an early founder
How to identify and invent your own metrics of success
How to think about building a sustainable business
Why founders should actively seek out situations where they feel like an imposter
Selling a vision and team to early investors
The importance of getting to a quick no from early investors
How to create the right type of urgency for early investors
The office as a place to build culture and celebrate
Alex is the co-founder of two tech companies. His first company, Onosys – was a comprehensive, enterprise-level digital ordering platform for restaurant chains. Note that Alex started Onosys in 2008, so he was on the bleeding edge of the digital revolution for restaurants. Onosys raised angel capital from Zapis Capital, a family office that is a great partner to early stage founders, before they sold to Living Social in 2012. Alex’s second company was Scout RFP, an innovative e-sourcing solution for companies across all industries, which he started in 2014 With Scout, Alex and his co-founders raised $60M from funds like NEA, Menlo Ventures, and Scale Venture Partners. Scout was acquired by Workday in 2019 for $540M.
In this episode, we get into:
When he knew he wanted to become an entrepreneur
The ambition to drive his own destiny
The biggest piece of advice he would give to an entrepreneur
How your big idea will be rough before you get it right
His unique approach to early market discovery
What founders can learn from an interview vs. a survey
The moment listening to the customer changed his revenue model
Why it is critical to ask customer what they have vs. what they use
The benefit of establishing relationships with investors early
How to effectively build relationships
The importance of being open and honest from the start
What investors are looking for in the early days
Why co-founders need to have the uncomfortable conversations upfront
Why founders shouldn't worry about an exit strategy
How and when to bring in strategic investors
How to decide which city is the best location to build your business
Diane Hessan is a successful entrepreneur, researcher and author. She is the founder and Chairman of C Space, formerly Communispace, which was the first company to build online communities for market research, and which was ultimately sold to Omnicom. Diane was CEO of the company during 14 years of exponential growth, as C Space worked with hundreds of global brands to gain insight and inspiration from their consumers. A serial entrepreneur, Diane has consolidated all of her investment and advisory work into a new company called Salient Ventures, which helps accelerate the next generation of growth companies in tech.
In this episode, we get into:
Her real motivation, to become a CEO and leader
When she decided to start a company and build the kind of organization she wanted to work for
What led her to leave a job that she was reasonably happy in
How to come up with your idea and find a problem that matters to you
How her personal need for community identified a white space and business opportunity
One of the most critical skills for entrepreneurs: selling
The most important question: “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”
How to look at failure
The moment of validation for C Space with the Hallmark Idea Exchange
Why loving your customers is gratifying, especially in a BTB business
Why it’s all about your team and finding, keeping and motivating the employees that complement you
How (almost) everyone pivots
The realization that listening is an underrated marketing strategy
Her goal to help five women entrepreneurs a week
Sandi Lin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Skilljar, the leading customer education platform used by enterprises like Cisco and Verizon to accelerate product adoption and deepen customer engagement. She has raised over $50M in venture capital from Insight Partners, Mayfield, and Trilogy Equity Partners. Prior to Skilljar, she led product management teams at Amazon. Sandi has bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
In this episode, we get into:
Why it was better for Sandi to throw herself off the deep end without an idea
How she identified a space that she could relate to and truly love
Why she believes that opportunity always exists as an entrepreneur, you just have to go find it
The importance of great customer discovery and how it can actually lead to customers
How the enemy in a startup is time and that with a cofounder, you can make twice as much progress
Her biggest time saving hack
The internal debate whether to pay yourself
Keys to finding investors who believe in you as a founder
Why you should seek feedback and listen, even if you don’t always agree
Why you, yes you, should learn how to code
1Tristan is the Founder and CEO of Walker & Company, a leading CPG company making health and beauty simple for people of color. Walker & Company products included the Bevel shaving line for Black men and FORM Beauty, a women’s hair care collection designed for all hair textures launched in 2017. Walker & Company raised over $30M in venture funding from funds like Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Collaborative Fund, GV, Upfront and Felicis. Walker & Company was acquired by Proctor & Gamble in 2018. Tristan is also the founder of CODE2040, a non-profit dedicated to promoting diversity in the tech industry, and is on the boards of both Foot Locker and ShakeShack. Tristan has been named USA Today’s Person of the Year, was on Fortune’s 40 under 40 list, and was on Ebony’s 100 most powerful people list.
In this episode, we get into:
How Tristan leveraged his own unique lived experience
The importance of identifying an opportunity based on your own unique lived experience
How to turn your unique experience into a strength
How to react when someone tells you the market you’re in isn’t big enough
The power of optimism and authenticity
Why focus is so critical in the early days and what happens if you lose it
The six values that guide all of Tristan’s decisions
Why the secret to freedom is ownership
Esther is the CEO and co-founder of Squad, a screen-sharing social platform that drives real connection and engagement. Esther found early success on YouTube and became a pioneer in influencer marketing and spearheaded award-winning digital campaigns for companies like Weight Watchers and Kmart. Squad raised $7M in venture capital from funds like First Round, BBG Ventures, Y Combinator, Halogen Ventures and January Ventures. Squad was acquired by Twitter in December 2020. After finding early success on YouTube, she became a pioneer in influencer marketing and spearheaded award-winning digital campaigns for Fortune 500 companies including Weight Watchers and Kmart.
In this episode, we get into:
Why Esther was obsessed with solving for loneliness
Why starting a company is really a family journey
How to move from operating from a place of fear to finding your power as a founder and operating from a place of confidence
Breaking the prototypical founder mold
How it really feels to go through a pivot and how Esther’s daughter was the inspiration for the product vision that eventually became Squad
Why it’s important to plan for a co-founder to leave from day one
How to sequence your fundraise to become a “hot deal”
Tammy Sun is the CEO and co-founder of Carrot Fertility, the leading global fertility benefits provider for employers. Carrot’s mission is to improve access to high-quality fertility care and dramatically reduce the emotional and financial strain for employees who need it. Tammy was inspired to create Carrot after she spent $35,000 of her personal savings to undergo egg freezing. Carrot supports over 200 companies in more than 50 countries across North America, Asia, Europe, South America, and the Middle East. Carrot has raised $40M in venture capital from leading funds like F-Prime, CRV, Maven Ventures, Precursor Ventures, and Uncork Capital.
Tammy has had a successful career across marketing, technology, and politics. Before founding Carrot, she was the Director of Partnerships at Evernote. Prior to Evernote, she spent a decade in politics, where she served as a presidential appointee at the Federal Communications Commission during the Obama administration. She also held roles at the Clinton Foundation and The White House.
In this episode, we will cover:
How Tammy turned her personal experience with fertility into the motivation to start and build Carrot
How to know if you’re the best person to turn your idea into a business
What to look for in a co-founder and founding team
How to create feedback loops with prospective customers to inform market discovery and land your first customers
The critical things Tammy did to generate momentum for her first raise and why fundraising has been easier since
Tips for standing out in the sea of companies selling into HR & benefits teams
Tammy’s #1 suggestion for early stage founders
Shadiah Sigala is the Founder and CEO of Kinside, a platform to provide modern childcare benefits for today’s working parent. Childcare issues cost the United States’ economy an estimated $4.4 billion in lost productivity each year and also impact employee retention rates. Kinside serves hundreds of employers by connecting their employees to tens of thousands of reserved spots at top rated daycares and preschools nationwide. Kinside’s intuitive app brings much-needed relief for new parents transitioning back into the workplace, and aids employers in their retention efforts with parents at all stages. Kinside has raised over $4M from investors including Initialized Capital, Haystack, Precursor Ventures, January Ventures, Y Combinator and Kairos.
Shadiah is a serial tech entrepreneur, previously co-founding HoneyBook, a SaaS tech company that powers over 50,000 freelancers in managing their business and clients. Shadiah broke ground in her first generation Mexican-American immigrant family by receiving degrees from Harvard (Master's in Public Policy) and Pomona College (BA in Latin American Studies. She has authored groundbreaking studies regarding the gender pay gap and sexual harassment in the freelance economy, published on Fortune, Forbes, and Huffington Post, among others.
In this episode, we will cover:
How Shadiah’s love of novelty and challenge led her to the world of startups
Why Shadiah thinks it’s a mistake to keep a new idea under wraps
The role of co-founders and how to find them
Why it’s important for founders taking care of themselves – and to take a pay check from day one
Raising the first round of capital, showcasing confidence, and equalizing the dynamic between investors and founders
The case for selling ahead of building and landing your first customer with a PowerPoint pitch
Kinside’s critical role in addressing the childcare crisis caused by the pandemic
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