Office Hours with Spencer Rascoff

Liz Jenkins, the COO of Hello Sunshine talks about how the media company looks to put women at the center of the narrative. The L.A.-based company was founded by actor Reese Witherspoon and dedicated to female authorship. Their stories aspire to be both fun and informative and to spread contagious joy through the women at the heart of their storytelling. Liz, who joined the company as its CFO in 2018, talks about the career path that took her from investment banking to the entertainment industry. During her time at Hello Sunshine, she’s helped grow the company’s business, including their scripted, unscripted and kids & animation studios, plus Reese’s Book Club. Previously, Liz served as the head of strategic ventures for Sony PlayStation and senior vice president of corporate development and strategy at Media Rights Capital (MRC) where she developed and implemented innovative distribution models, strategic partnerships and new businesses across film and television. Liz serves on the board and audit committee of Snap Inc. and is a board member and the Treasurer of GLAAD. Liz received her M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and her B.A. from Stanford University.

With her longstanding Wall Street career (Citigroup, Merrill Lynch) and unique perspective as a woman in a predominantly male industry, Sallie Krawcheck is tackling a question that has mystified investment banks for decades: how to successfully market wealth management services to women. As CEO of digital financial investment platform Ellevest, she sees diversity as the greatest advantage in cracking the code. Krawcheck encourages each employee to bring their "whole self" to work, and emphasizes hiring the best fit for the team, which in some cases could be a different choice than the person who traditionally would be considered the best fit for the role. This interview was originally published on September of 2016.

Ryan Serhant, one of the most visible real estate brokers in media, chats with Spencer about his inventive approach to sales on this episode of Office Hours. Ryan is known as one of the stars of Bravo’s Emmy-nominated "Million Dollar Listing New York," and its spin-off show "Sell It Like Serhant." Ryan tells the story of how he wound up working as a real estate agent after arriving in New York to support his dream of becoming an actor. It started as a way to cover his rent and living expenses. What followed was a wildly successful career in real estate. His team was ranked number 1 in New York by the "Wall Street Journal" for three straight years. After a decade of leading that sales team he founded SERHANT, a cloud brokerage designed around the digital marketplace. The brokerage’s in-house production team and tech platform has reinvented the traditional business model, bringing in over $4 billion in sales and selling more than 80 new development projects across New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

Spencer speaks with Calvin Selth, program manager for AnnenbergTech at the Annenberg Foundation on this episode of Office Hours. In his role at the foundation, Calvin leads operations and program management for PledgeLA, a collective of more than 220 tech companies and venture capital firms hosted in partnership with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. PledgeLA's mission is to connect civic, private sector and nonprofit partners to increase access to jobs and capital for underrepresented communities.  Calvin began his career as a bilingual K-8 educator, and has used his past experience in talent recruitment, nonprofit development and event marketing to gather people from diverse backgrounds around shared goals. He graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University and holds a certificate in leadership and management from the Wharton School. 

Paul Hanges, CEO of JibJab speaks with Office Hours host Spencer Rascoff about how the L.A.-based digital entertainment studio has attained success beyond its viral videos by moving into the eCards space and using its unique blend of satirical humor to compete with rivals Hallmark and American Greetings. Founded in 1999 by brothers Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, the company first achieved widespread attention during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Their video of candidates George Bush and John Kerry singing “This Land Is Your Land” became a viral hit. JibJab has produced commercials and short videos for clients including Sony, Noggin, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, PBS Kids, Sprout, NBC, Qubo and Disney before focusing on what eventually became their flagship personalized eCard and messaging services. They've seen surprising success with their animated sticker-making program which became a top App Store download. In 2019, JibJab was acquired by the private equity firm Catapult Capital.

Steven Wolfe Pereira, CEO of Encantos talks with Spencer about how the EdTech start-up uses "storyteaching" to help kids learn 21st-century skills. With diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) baked-in to the Public Benefit Corporation's mission, Encantos seeks to unlock talent from creators around the world to help build inclusive Storyworlds around the characters that make up its Intellectual Property. The platform, co-founded with author/illustrator Susie Jaramillo, who serves as President and Chief Creative Officer helped create Canticos, an Emmy-nominated bilingual baby and toddler brand. Headquartered in Culver City, the start-up has raised a total of $8.5M in over three rounds of funding. Steven Wolfe Pereira began his career in finance at The Blackstone Group and has had roles as the CMO of Datalogix, Neustar and Quantcast. He earned a B.A. from Tufts University, was a Fulbright Scholar and earned his MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. A Dominican-American born and raised in New York, Wolfe Pereira now lives in Los Angeles with his family. (Disclosure: dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is an investor in Encantos.)

Russ Glass, CEO of Headspace Health, a digital mental health and wellbeing platform, speaks with Spencer about his involvement overseeing the surge in the Telehealth market after the merger of Headspace and Ginger. Glass, a serial tech entrepreneur—who was also formerly Founder of Bizo, Inc., aqcuired by LinkedIn— speaks candidly about his successes and failures with previous start-ups and why he believes that there is such overwhelming demand for the healthcare services that Headspace offers.

Allison Ellsworth and her husband Stephen, formerly employed in the oil and gas industry, quit their jobs to bet on themselves and and started a health-based soda alternative. Their concept, a prebiotic drink called Poppi masks the strong taste of apple cider vinegar using less than 6 grams of sugar to help support gut health. The Texas based start-up was funded by Rohan Oza after the couple went on Shark Tank who helped them work on a rebrand. Allison, who was 9 months pregnant shares how the company has focused on its digital and retail sales strategy, and why they are moving their team from Dallas to Austin.

This conversation explores the L.A. tech scene and venture investing featuring two of the industry's leading voices. Spencer Rascoff and Dana Settle discuss Pacaso and Greycroft while sharing their thoughts on L.A.'s evolving ecosystem. Dana Settle is a founding partner of Greycroft, where she heads the firm’s West Coast office out of Los Angeles. Prior to joining Greycroft, Dana spent several years as a venture capitalist and advisor to startup companies in the Bay Area, including six years at Mayfield, where she focused on early stage companies in the mobile communications and consumer Internet markets. Dana currently manages Greycroft’s investments in Anine Bing, AppAnnie, Avaline, Bird, Bumble, Citizen, Clique, Comparably, Goop, HamsaPay, Happiest Baby, Merit Beauty, Seed, Thrive Market, Versed, and WideOrbit. She also managed the firm’s investments in The RealReal (IPO), Awesomeness TV (acquired by Dreamworks), Maker Studios (acquired by Disney), Pulse (acquired by LinkedIn), Trunk Club (acquired by Nordstrom), Sometrics (acquired by American Express), Viddy (acquired by Fullscreen), and Voicea (acquired by Cisco). Show notes and resources: Dana Settle bio on Greycroft Both sides of the table Diversity Ride for the Term Sheet  

In this fireside chat with dot.LA and Pacaso co-founder and chair Spencer Rascoff, Jam City President and co-founder Josh Yguado explores what the acquisition of Ludia means for the future of Jam City and mobile gaming. The discussion covers what it means to sit at the intersection of traditional entertainment and mobile gaming and why L.A. is the perfect place for this work.  Jam City is reimagining the future of mobile gaming. Already an award-winning company behind the world’s most enduring mobile games, the company’s recent acquisition of Ludia bolsters its global portfolio of top studios that develop and publish top-grossing games.