The Hard Part with Evan McCann Neil Grunberg from Storytime Capital
Neil Grunberg is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Storytime Capital.
Storytime Capital is a VC focused on early-stage (Pre-Seed & Seed) investments. They primarily focus on technology solving the Future of Work.
Previously Neil was a Co-Founder at AlayaCare (~$300M raised) and was at Workbrain and part of the "Workbrain Mafia".
Takeaways
- What made Workbrain so special and Neil's experience there.
- Genesis story of AlayaCare.
- What made AlayaCare's culture so strong and leading with empathy.
- Building and maintaining Co-Founder relationships.
- Fundraising insights (AlayaCare raised close to $300M)
- Checking your ego and Neil's experience working on product, strategy, corp dev, etc.
- How a founder's role changes throughout the life of a company.
- How to build a strong corp dev function.
- Why start a VC firm and what it is like having perspective as an operator, founder and now investor.
- Why the future of work thesis.
- Major shift in software solutions.
Chapters
00:00 The Workbrain Experience
06:20 The Genesis of AlayaCare
10:39 Co-Founder Relationships and Empathy
14:33 Fundraising Insights
17:06 Evolving Roles in Startups
23:38 Corporate Development Lessons
29:23 Building a Community as an Investor
34:27 Future of Work Thesis
38:21 The Shift in Software Solutions
41:03 The Investor's Perspective
45:29 Personal and Professional Excitement
48:09 Handling Hard Times
Keywords
Workbrain, AlayaCare, co-founder relationships, fundraising, corporate development, future of work, software solutions, investor insights, community building, resilience