Powered by Battery

Figuring out how to rapidly scale a novel type of e-commerce business is never easy—but try doing it during an unprecedented global pandemic. Just ask Scott Cutler, the CEO of online marketplace StockX. Cutler—whose Detroit company started off selling high-demand sneakers but has since diversified into areas ranging from streetwear to watches to electronics—has overseen seen brisk growth at StockX over the last year and raised significant capital from investors. But Cutler, a veteran of the New York Stock Exchange as well as consumer-tech companies like eBay, has had to do it differently this time. In this podcast with StockX board member and Battery General Partner Roger Lee, Cutler discusses StockX’s business model as well as his evolving leadership style over the last year. Notably, his approach has included focusing more on internal communications; showing more empathy with his executive team and employees; and planning ahead for pandemic-related, market disruptions that could impact StockX’s business. Have a listen. Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of podcast guests, not Battery. The information provided in this podcast is solely intended for the use of entrepreneurs, corporate CEOs and founders regarding Battery Ventures’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies. The information is current as of the date it was published. The contents are not intended to be used in the investment decision making process related to any product or fund managed by Battery Ventures. Battery Ventures provides investment advisory services solely to privately offered funds. Battery Ventures neither solicits nor makes its services available to the public or other advisory clients. *StockX is a Battery portfolio company. Investments identified above are for illustrative purposes only. No assumptions should be made that any investments identified above were or will be profitable. It should not be assumed that recommendations in the future will be profitable or equal the performance of the companies identified above. For more information about Battery Ventures’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies, please refer to our website. For a complete list of portfolio companies, please see https://www.battery.com/our-companies/list/. Content obtained from third-party sources, although believed to be reliable, has not been independently verified as to its accuracy or completeness and cannot be guaranteed. Battery Ventures has no obligation to update, modify or amend the content of this podcast nor notify its audience in the event that any information, opinion, projection, forecast or estimate included, changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate.

The volume of software code being written by companies for new and existing software applications is exploding today—and growing even more due to Covid-19. Many enterprises are speeding up digital-transformation efforts that were in the works before the pandemic, owing to the need to move more services online, improve online products for customers and connect a workforce that is, in many instances, still toiling at home. But there’s a downside here that companies must manage, too: all the security risks that come with rapid application development. Enter Contrast Security*. The Los Altos, Calif. firm specializes in baking security into application development and extending it all the way through to production—in industry lingo, “DevSecOps”—which helps companies digitize more quickly and securely. In a recent interview with Powered by Battery, Contrast’s CEO, Alan Naumann, talks through the company’s mission as well as the special challenges, and opportunities, he’s faced as a leader this year. Have a listen. The information provided in this podcast is solely intended for the use of entrepreneurs, corporate CEOs and founders regarding Battery Ventures’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies. The information is current as of the date it was published. The contents are not intended to be used in the investment decision making process related to any product or fund managed by Battery Ventures. Battery Ventures provides investment advisory services solely to privately offered funds. Battery Ventures neither solicits nor makes its services available to the public or other advisory clients. *Contrast Security is a Battery portfolio company. Investments identified above are for illustrative purposes only. No assumptions should be made that any investments identified above were or will be profitable. It should not be assumed that recommendations in the future will be profitable or equal the performance of the companies identified above. For more information about Battery Ventures’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies, please refer to our website. For a complete list of portfolio companies, please go to: https://www.battery.com/our-companies/list/ Content obtained from third-party sources, although believed to be reliable, has not been independently verified as to its accuracy or completeness and cannot be guaranteed. Battery Ventures has no obligation to update, modify or amend the content of this podcast nor notify its audience in the event that any information, opinion, projection, forecast or estimate included, changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate.

If you’re a tech CEO, you’ve probably heard of “product led growth.” But what about a product-led company? In this episode of Powered by Battery, we speak with Todd Olson, the CEO of software company Pendo*, who’s written a book on how to build what he calls a product-led organization—one intensely focused on creating products that delight customers and easily anticipate their needs. Pendo, founded in 2013, is a software company whose technology helps other companies accelerate digital product adoption among customers and internal employees? Olson also chats with us about steering Pendo through the Covid-19 pandemic, adapting company operations for work-from-home and what it’s like to build a unicorn tech startup in Raleigh, NC. Have a listen. The information provided in this podcast is solely intended for the use of entrepreneurs, corporate CEOs and founders regarding Battery Ventures’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies. The information is current as of the date it was published. The contents are not intended to be used in the investment decision making process related to any product or fund managed by Battery Ventures. Battery Ventures provides investment advisory services solely to privately offered funds. Battery Ventures neither solicits nor makes its services available to the public or other advisory clients. *Pendo is a Battery portfolio company. No assumptions should be made that any investments identified above were or will be profitable. For a complete list of portfolio companies, please go to https://www.battery.com/our-companies/list/

Banks and credit unions haven’t always been the quickest adopters of new, digital tools. But could the global pandemic push them along? In this episode of Powered by Battery, we chat with Dede Wakefield, CEO of financial-technology firm Alogent, which sells technology to help financial institutions better manage their own internal processes and interact with customers online. Wakefield talks about how COVID-19 at first generated a “pause” in her business, with some customers putting off new initiatives temporarily—but then causing many to re-engage with new initiatives to make them more digitally savvy in a socially distanced world. In addition, Wakefield discusses her lessons learned from having a large team working from home, including changing the way she handles internal company communications. Have a listen. Disclosure: The information provided in this podcast is solely intended for the use of entrepreneurs, corporate CEOs and founders regarding Battery Ventures’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies. The information is current as of the date it was published. The contents are not intended to be used in the investment decision making process related to any product or fund managed by Battery Ventures. Battery Ventures provides investment advisory services solely to privately offered funds. Battery Ventures neither solicits nor makes its services available to the public or other advisory clients. *Alogent is a Battery portfolio company. Investments identified above are for illustrative purposes only. No assumptions should be made that any investments identified above were or will be profitable. It should not be assumed that recommendations in the future will be profitable or equal the performance of the companies identified above. For more information about Battery Ventures’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies, please refer to our website. For a complete list of portfolio companies, please visit: https://www.battery.com/our-companies/list/ Content obtained from third-party sources, although believed to be reliable, has not been independently verified as to its accuracy or completeness and cannot be guaranteed. Battery Ventures has no obligation to update, modify or amend the content of this podcast nor notify its audience in the event that any information, opinion, projection, forecast or estimate included, changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate.

How do you stay connected with partners and customers without traveling—and keep employees motivated when they feel like every interaction with a co-worker is a draining, formal meeting? How do you onboard new employees remotely? Most of all, how do you keep from feeling powerless when the world shuts down (at least temporarily) and many of your customers are suffering? According to Samuel Bouchard, the CEO of cobot-application company Robotiq*, you get very intentional about internal communications, and you go back to business basics. In this episode of Powered by Battery, Bouchard talks about managing his company through an unprecedented pandemic—and using Covid-19 as an opportunity to re-connect with core constituencies, launch new initiatives and move his company forward. Have a listen.

In this episode of Powered by Battery, we talk with Cross River Bank's CEO, Gilles Gade, about the company’s origins, how it is dealing with the pandemic and what a return to work for his employees will look like. Have a listen.

On this episode of Powered by Battery we talk to the founder of hotel-software provider Mews. Mews’ founder, Czech-born Richard Valtr, comes from a family of hotel operators in Europe and has a far-reaching vision of how hotels can offer better service to customers—through technology. Valtr talked to us in late May about the tough business decisions Mews had to make earlier this year as global travel ground to a near halt, but also offered thoughts on how his company’s products can help hotels create engaging and more contactless experiences for guests in the future. Take a listen!

In this episode of Powered by Battery, we chat with Redox* CEO Luke Bonney, who started Redox out of a digital-health incubator in Madison, Wisc. Redox’s platform helps everyone from small startups to large enterprises—including customers such as the Cleveland Clinic and Brigham and Women’s Hospital--exchange healthcare data and realize the potential of technologies such as electronic medical records. In our interview, Bonney discusses how customers are using Redox to help in the fight against COVID-19; how ever-changing healthcare regulations are affecting his business; and how he amasses the information he needs, as a CEO, to lead his company through these times. Take a listen!

We now live in a screen-focused era in which modern businesses are really apps with businesses attached—and not the other way around, says Clark Valberg, the CEO of InVision*, a company which makes popular digital product-design software. This means that good design—driven by a relentless focus on the customer—should be paramount for most businesses, Valberg says. In this episode of Powered by Battery, Battery’s Sanjiv Kalevar talks with Valberg about just how InVision maintains its relentless customer focus, as well as how businesses need to think about design internally. Valberg also breaks down InVision’s innovative all-remote work culture; tells us what he’d be doing if he weren’t running a big software company; and discusses how observing Shabbat has helped his work-life balance and, he says, made him a better CEO. Have a listen.

In this episode of Powered by Battery, Braze CEO Bill Magnuson breaks down the role his company played in the innovative Whopper campaign but also talks about what it’s like to run a fast-growing tech company in New York; how to manage a company re-branding and name change; and how a highly technical founder can build a seasoned management team and a diverse board. Have a listen.

Many technology CEOs come from the nation’s top business schools, or emerge from Silicon Valley garages. Others come by way of Iran, Sweden and the University of California at Berkeley’s computer-science department. That’s Ali Ghodsi’s story, at least. Ghodsi is a PhD computer scientist who, with several others, is the original creator of Apache Spark open-source, unified analytics engine project. He and his co-founders later leveraged that project to create the data and analytics company Databricks, which now has more than 900 employees and $100 million in annual revenue. In this episode of Powered by Battery, Ghodsi talks about Databricks’ early days as well as the challenges that he, as an ex-academic, faced building up core corporate functions like sales, marketing, finance and HR. Have a listen.

Do you run a technology company that doesn’t fit neatly into an existing tech category—say, CRM software, data analytics or collaboration tools? One that doesn’t get much analyst coverage (because analysts don’t know how to classify you) or attention from the press? Then congratulations: You might be creating a new category. In this episode of Powered by Battery, Anthony Kennada, currently a Battery executive in residence and the former CMO of software company Gainsight*, walks marketers through the best practices for creating a brand-new tech category. It’s what he did at Gainsight, which pioneered the category of “customer success” software to help businesses hang onto—and upsell—customers paying through a recurring subscription model.

Did you know that only ten percent of Americans who need physical therapy are actually getting it? Nancy Ham, the CEO of rehab-software company WebPT, knows it—and is busy scaling a large technology business to make sure more people get the care they need, efficiently and seamlessly. In this episode of Powered by Battery, we chat with Ham, a longtime healthcare-IT executive who joined WebPT in 2016. Ham reflects on why so few people are now getting the PT they need, and how more streamlined access to physical therapy could actually put a dent in the nation’s devastating opiod crisis. She also offers tips for other executives on how to manage M&A at the corporate level; how to build a unique and cohesive culture; and how having a more diverse management team and board can pay dividends, or at least change the tone in the boardroom. Have a listen.

Big tech is under scrutiny like never before today, with government regulators grilling—and fining—large tech companies for not adequately protecting consumers’ privacy online. Nicole Wong, a former deputy general counsel at Google who later served as deputy CTO of the United States in the Obama administration, is uniquely positioned to weigh in on the topic. On this episode of Powered by Battery, we chat with Wong, whose team at Google dubbed her “The Decider” for her role evaluating controversial online content and making critical decisions about free expression on the Internet around the world, including on Google’s YouTube site. These days, Wong is consulting with other companies on issues such as privacy, security and big data. In our conversation here, she discusses topics including the impact of GDPR on tech companies in the U.S.; the ethical implications of facial-recognition technology; and Google’s reasons for deciding to do business in China, and later to pull out of the country.

On this episode of Powered by Battery, we chat with Max Schireson, a Battery executive-in-residence who previously served as the CEO of open-source database company MongoDB. After growing up in a tent in Canada (his parents were hippies), Max followed a fairly non-traditional path to the CEO suite. He also has some interesting stories to tell about working with Oracle founder Larry Ellison—including searching for the Oracle chief’s glasses in the Pacific Ocean. Max also discusses managing work-family balance, the future of artificial intelligence and the potential antitrust implications of some recent industry moves in cloud computing.

Tim Campos, the current CEO of intelligent-calendaring company Woven, has some big ideas about how to shake up the online calendar and bring it into the modern age. In this inaugural episode of Powered by Battery, Campos—the former CIO of Facebook—discusses how his experience at Facebook informed his decision to start Woven, one of many companies (like Slack and Airtable) trying to optimize specific elements of larger office-productivity suites. Current online-calendaring systems need a reboot because they are too dependent on email and aren’t “smart”, meaning they can’t learn from a users’ past meetings and other work habits, he argues. In this interview, Campos breaks down how artificial intelligence can make calendars better—but also talks about Facebook’s culture, the future of work and even some great office-themed movies from the 1980s, such as “Nine to Five” and “Working Girl”.