Episode 300: Diane Hessan - Entrepreneur, Investor, Board Member, and Columnist

I’m so excited to announce that with this episode we have hit a new milestone and that is #300 episodes of The VentureFizz Podcast!!! Did you know that my first interview was published 5 years ago, so I am blown away to reach this milestone. Starting a podcast is not necessarily hard, but keeping up with it is certainly one of the trickiest parts. I believe that the key criteria for a successful, long standing podcast is that the host needs to be genuinely interested in the topic that is being discussed. It goes without saying that I am fascinated by the journey of building startups and I consider myself to be incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to interview so many amazing entrepreneurs and investors. I want to thank them all for taking the time to share their stories and advice with our audience. So, for Episode #300, I couldn’t think of a better guest than Diane Hessan - Entrepreneur, Investor, Board Member, and Columnist. Diane has accomplished so much through out her career and during this interview she shares so many great stories from each step along the way including building Communispace (now called C Space) which was the first company to leverage social media for consumer insights. We had a lot of ground to cover, so we discuss a lot including: * Diane’s background story growing up in Pennsylvania and why she completed her undergrad at Tufts in three years, plus the story of her very unique application to Harvard Business School. * Her career path as a Brand Manager for General Foods and later rising through the ranks at The Forum Corporation. * The full story of Communispace and how the company pivoted and disrupted the market research industry which led to an acquisition by Omnicom. * Authoring a book and becoming a nationally recognized expert on the American voter. * Serving on the Board of Directors at companies like Panera Bread, Brightcove, Eastern Bank, and others. * What it’s like giving a commencement address. * Saying “yes” and the importance of serendipity. * And so much more! Ok quick side note, as you know this is Episode #300. This means we have quite the library of interviews with entrepreneurs and investors in the tech industry. I interview legends like Diane who are wildly successful, but I also interview first time entrepreneurs, as I like to provide insights and advice for entrepreneurs at different stages. So, if you haven’t explored our full catalogue, you can go to venturefizz.com/podcast or any of the major streaming players like Spotify, Apple, Google Play, Soundcloud, and others. I hope you find these interviews useful, as there are so many great lessons learned!