The VentureFizz Podcast

Welcome to Episode 29 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This episode, I interviewed David Friend, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wasabi. Here’s a fun fact. You know the legendary synthesizer sound to "Baba O’Riley" by The Who? Well, that legendary sound was created by David’s first company, ARP Instruments, which provided synthesizer technology to The Who, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, The Beach Boys and many others. The company was ultimately sold to CBS. As you will find out, exits are a common theme throughout our discussion. David and his business partner, Jeff Flowers, have started five companies together, all of which have been acquired or in the case of Carbonite, that company went public in 2011 and currently has a market cap over $1B. The duo’s current company, Wasabi, is taking on the cloud storage giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft by offering faster storage at a fraction of the price. In this episode, we cover: -David’s entrepreneurial journey through many successful companies -The details on Wasabi and why they aren’t afraid to compete against the giants -Why he keeps building companies, plus the secret to staying young -And of course, a lot of useful advice for entrepreneurs! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 28 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This episode, I interviewed George Colony, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Forrester Research. George originally started Forrester out of his basement, and the company has gone on to become one of the world’s most influential market research and advisory firms. Forrester went public in 1996, and is still traded on the Nasdaq today. These days, George is also involved as the founder of a new startup called Your Call Football, which is modernizing the game of football by giving fans the chance to influence a live sporting event in a real-time competitive gaming experience. Your Call Football actually just completed a very successful inaugural season. In this episode, we cover: -George’s participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos -The story of Forrester -How an interview with former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue led to the a-ha moment of Your Call Football -All the details on getting a new football league set up for its inaugural season, plus the future of the company and technology -And of course, lots of useful advice for entrepreneurs! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 27 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This episode, I interviewed Jeet Singh, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of Redstar Ventures, a startup foundry that incubates new businesses. Jeet was also a Co-Founder and CEO of ATG, a massively successful company in the Boston tech scene. The eCommerce software company went public in 1999, and was later acquired by Oracle for $1B. Not only is Jeet a successful founder of tech companies, but he is also a passionate musician and has a band called The Singhs. In this episode, we cover: -Alpha Delpha Phi (Fi) - the legendary MIT fraternity where he met Joe Chung, his Co-Founder and other industries luminaries like Brad Feld and Colin Angle -The story of ATG -How giving up $1M in revenue was a catalyst for scaling the company -The Redstar model and their portfolio companies including the most recent one called Money Experience -Plus, lots of useful advice for entrepreneurs! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 26 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! It’s actually hard to believe that I haven’t interviewed an investor yet… but that is changing today! My guest is TJ Mahony, who is a Partner at Accomplice - one of Boston’s most active venture capital firms. Before joining Accomplice as an investor, TJ was CEO & Co-Founder of FlipKey, which was acquired by TripAdvisor. Prior to FlipKey, he was part of the core team of amazing people that helped build Compete to become a successful business that was ultimately acquired. TJ is what I consider a product-minded investor, as he is able to add value to entrepreneurs in so many ways. TJ is also the type of guy who is always willing to help people out by giving advice or making connections & intros. Each time I’ve met with him, you leave the meeting full of energy and lots of new ideas swirling in your head, which is why I was really excited to interview him. In this episode, we cover: -The story of his basketball career at Macalester College, and how he was just 2 points away from a major milestone -The story of FlipKey, where he shares an embarrassing story about a meeting at Steven Kaufer’s house, who is the CEO & Co-Founder of TripAdvisor… it’s a classic. -How he got into angel investing and venture capital -Advice for founders on building teams -And a whole lot more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice! And make sure to follow Accomplice on Twitter @Accomplices and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 25 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For today’s episode, I interviewed Jay Habegger, who is the CEO and Co-Founder of ownerIQ, a second-party data marketplace. This venture-backed Boston company has over 800 retailers and product brand marketers using the ownerIQ platform to maximize their data asset. Jay is a serial entrepreneur, whose last company BitPipe was acquired by TechTarget in 2004. His career has been focused in the tech industry from the outset, having worked for a company that was building the foundation of the Internet in the early 1990s. In this episode, we cover topics like: -The journey through his career -The story behind ownerIQ -Advice for founders who are raising capital -Hiring and building out teams -And more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice! And make sure to follow ownerIQ on Twitter @ownerIQ and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 24 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For the 24th episode of our podcast, I interviewed Sue Graham Johnston, the President of 128 Technology in Burlington. I have to admit, one the best things about doing this podcast is the opportunity to dig deep into the background of our guests. When I’m doing research on each person, there’s always something that comes up that helps take the story to the next level. Well in the case of Sue, as I was doing my research on Google, I was blown away to see a connection to an amazing story that made headlines across the world for a great charity, that being the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Sue and her husband were two of the key people that helped grant a wish for a boy named Miles Scott, who ended up being Batkid for the day in San Francisco and fight crime alongside Batman, who was played by Sue’s husband EJ, to rescue the damsel in distress, who was played by (you guessed it) Sue Graham Johnston. It is truly an amazing and heartwarming story that we talk about at length. She also shares the details on how they’ve played a role in crashing the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s website not once, but twice. We also talk about: -Her professional accomplishments, of which there are many. -What she learned at Oracle in terms of operational leadership. -128 Technology - why she joined and what the company does. -Her passion for very important issues, like addressing the pipeline issue of women in STEM roles and working to fix the gender pay gap. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice! And make sure to follow 128 Technology on Twitter @128technology and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 23 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For the 23rd episode of our podcast, I interviewed Ellie Mirman, the CMO at Crayon in Boston. Ellie was one of the early, early employees at HubSpot, as she joined the company right after they raised their Series A round of funding and were only about 10-15 employees. She saw the full lifecycle of the company in terms of their growth to an IPO and wore lots of different hats along the way. Since HubSpot, she was the VP of Marketing at Toast for a little over two years and is now the CMO at Crayon, a market and competitive intelligence platform company that just raised $5M in venture funding. In this episode, we cover topics like: -Those fun videos HubSpot was making during the early days of the company (the Alanis Morrissette one was classic) -Why she loves joining early stage companies -The current state of the marketing industry -Career advice for marketers looking to become a CMO -And 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! And make sure to follow Crayon on Twitter @Crayon and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 22 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! Let's face it: in order for a tech ecosystem to thrive, you need people who are not only successful entrepreneurs, but also know how to pay it forward for the next generation. For the 22nd episode of our podcast, I interviewed Andy Palmer, who is the CEO & Co-Founder of Tamr in Cambridge. Andy is the definition of what it means to pay it forward. A serial successful entrepreneur in his own right, and he is also a very active angel investor with close to 60 of his own investments (not to mention being an LP in other local funds, and mentoring lots of founders along the way). In this episode, we cover topics like: -How rugby relates to startups -The details behind Vertica, a very successful company that was acquired by HP -Why you shouldn't raise capital in the early days of your company -The common mistakes entrepreneurs make when pitching an idea -And lots more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice! And make sure to follow Tamr on Twitter @Tamr_Inc and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 21 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This time, I want to start with a question: How do the worlds of professional hockey and business relate to each other? Well, you're about to find out, as I interview my first former professional athlete for the podcast. His name is Mike McKee and he is the CEO at ObserveIT, a company that is rapidly growing in Boston’s massive security cluster. Mike played professional hockey for the Quebec Nordiques before the franchise relocated to Colorado and became the Avalanche. Upon entering the business world, he graduated from Harvard Business School and later became an executive at PTC and Rapid7 before joining ObserveIT as CEO. In this episode, we cover topics like: -What playing professional hockey taught him about the business world, and of adversity -How he charted his way through lots of different roles, to the point of landing a CEO position at a venture-backed company -His “hire slow” philosophy, and why he talks people out of jobs -And so much more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice! And make sure to follow ObserveIT on Twitter @ObserveIT and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.

Welcome to Episode 20 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of The VentureFizz Podcast, I interviewed Howard Kogan, CEO of WordStream. WordStream is a venture-backed SaaS company and a thought leader in the world of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing. They develop online advertising software and provide managed services to help businesses and agencies grow through paid search and paid social. Howard is an expert at growing and scaling companies as an executive, and his track record speaks for itself. The last two companies he was apart of—Communispace and Molecular—were both acquired. In this episode, we cover lots of topics like: -The journey through his career -Building the foundation to allow your company to scale -When you should hire a COO -What companies might be thinking about when it comes to an acquisition -And 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! And make sure to follow WordStream on Twitter @WordStream and VentureFizz @VentureFizz.