Episode 73: Jared Hecht - Co-Founder and CEO at Fundera

Welcome to Episode 73 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast from the leading authority for jobs & careers in the tech industry. For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Jared Hecht, Co-Founder and CEO at Fundera. Jared is a serial entrepreneur who credits his success to the combination of a lot of hard work and yes, a bit of luck. He was a co-founder of GroupMe, a group messaging app, that was acquired for around $85M just about one year after the company was started. His latest company is Fundera, a marketplace for small businesses who are looking for financing options. To date, the company has helped 15,000 small businesses secure well over $850 million through its platform. In this episode of our podcast, we cover lots of great topics like: * Jared’s early career aspirations to be in the music industry, including the story of how he offered Vampire Weekend to be their manager. * How he landed at Tumblr when it was still an early-stage company and what he learned there. * The full story on GroupMe, including how he met his co-founder Steve Martocci and how they were able to get traction that ultimately led to an acquisition by Skype. * All the details on Fundera, plus the social mission behind the company and how they are filling such a critical gap in our economy by supporting small business owners. * The hardest parts of building a company. * How he evaluates talent at different stages of a business. * Advice for evaluating investors when raising capital. * Plus, a lot more. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!