Episode 59: Steve Kokinos - CEO of Algorand

Welcome to Episode 59 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Steve Kokinos, CEO of Algorand. Steve is the definition of a serial entrepreneur, and one who has seen tremendous success. His company-building roots go back to when he was in college where he launched a company called WebYes, which was acquired. He was then a Co-Founder of BladeLogic, a company that went public and was later acquired by BMC for $800M. The next company he co-founded was Fuze, one of the anchor tech companies in the Boston tech scene that disrupted the way companies communicate by removing those clunky old PBX systems to a cloud-based offering for enterprises. Algorand is another highly disruptive company, as they have built a first-of-its-kind blockchain and cryptocurrency that is built specifically for business. The company recently announced a $62M round of funding, along with the appointment of Steve as their CEO, plus the addition of Sean Ford as its COO. You might recognize Sean’s name, as he is the former CMO of LogMeIn and was a guest on our podcast back in March. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: -How he built his first company and got traction with major customers while still in college. -The story behind BladeLogic, and what it was like scaling to the point of going public. -The aha moment behind Fuze, and why challenging market conditions ended up working to their advantage. -All the details behind Algorand and what excites him about the company’s technology and how they are bringing cryptocurrency and the blockchain to the enterprise. -Advice for entrepreneurs on figuring out sales and pricing. -How to manage your company’s culture and keeping the bar for talent high through hypergrowth mode. -Plus, a lot more. Today’s episode is sponsored by Pluralsight. It is amazing what machine learning can do. With mounds of data being harvested every day, there’s so much we can learn and create. Pluralsight, the technology learning platform, is using this data for the good of tech professionals everywhere. Their AI helps you see what level your tech skills are at and recommends opportunities to keep learning. Pretty cool, right? And they’re looking for help to make their algorithms even smarter. If changing the way the world learns technology through the intersection of Design, Product, Data Science and Engineering is right up your alley, apply to work at Pluralsight. Want to work here? Visit pluralsight.com/venturefizz to learn more. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!