Mark Ghermezian, Co-founder & Prior CEO @ Braze: How Braze Raised $180M Pre-IPO

Mark Ghermezian is the co-founder and prior CEO of Braze, a customer engagement platform used by businesses for multi-channel marketing. Braze raised $180M before its IPO from leading investors Meritech Capital, Battery Ventures and ICONIQ. Mark is now the founding GP at MXV. 

In this episode we dig into: 

Starting AppBoy/Braze and hustling to raise initial capital 
Randomly meeting his co-founders on a street corner in NYC
The importance of building relationships between rounds with VCs 
Why you should always get on a plane to close the deal 
Stepping back as CEO pre-IPO 
Building a VC firm from scratch