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