The VentureFizz Podcast

Episode 367 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Vivjan Myrto, Founder & Managing Partner at Hyperplane. Why Boston Be The Star of the AI Revolution - this is the title of an article that Zach Winn wrote for VentureFizz seven years ago. It talks about the history of AI in the Boston area including Marvin Minksy’s first neural net machine back in 1951, the amazing academic institutions, plus the state of the tech ecosystem in this industry back then. Vivjan was featured in this article along with this quote: “I think machine intelligence represents a once in a lifetime opportunity for entrepreneurs...” It’s impressive to see how Vivjan and his partners were well ahead of the AI hype machine, as they built Hyperplane’s focus around backing the best founding teams working in this sector along with other innovations in hardtech like robotics, sensors and more. The firm’s name is even based on a term in machine learning applications, a higher-dimensional plane used to help categorize data based on its underlying structure from images to real-world events. In this podcast, we cover: * Vivjan’s inspirational background story from growing up in Albania to fighting cancer and moving to the United States for treatment and learning how to speak English while he was in the hospital. * Going on to build a healthcare startup that was acquired. * How Hyperplane came to fruition and how they raised their first fund. * All the details about Hyperplane and the firm’s area of focus for investments. * A deep dive into Modulate, one of their portfolio companies. * Advice on taking the entrepreneurial leap * A discussion around the Boston tech scene and areas for improvement. * His passion for wind sports and photography. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode #366 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Graham Brooks, Partner at .406 Ventures. “Data is the new oil” - it’s a slogan that you hear everywhere these days… it’s on TV commercials, print ads, LinkedIn posts… but this is not a new trend or revelation for Graham. His interest in data goes back to his first job out of college and his passion for data has followed him throughout his career, including in his current role as the leader of .406 Ventures’ Data + AI strategy. .406 Ventures is a Boston-based venture capital firm with over $1.4B under management and nearly two decades of experience leading or co-leading early-stage investments in pioneering healthcare, data + AI, and cybersecurity companies founded by visionary entrepreneurs. Oh… and here’s a fun fact about Graham… his sport of choice while growing up was fencing. He competed all over the world and was a two-time All American at Princeton. So cool. In this podcast, we cover: * Graham's thoughts on AI and the investment outlook for 2025. * His background story including how he got into fencing. * Joining a Princeton startup called ALK Associates which was early AI for data cleansing that was acquired by Trimble. * Learning sales and fundraising as part of the founding team at Accentus after he received his MBA at Dartmouth. * Graham’s journey to landing a job in venture capital which was intentional, plus he shares some great advice for others who are interested in this career path. * The details about .406 Ventures and its thesis driven approach, plus portfolio company examples and their investment process. * His passion for extreme sports * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 365 of The VentureFizz Podcast features John Harthorne, Founder & Managing Director of Two Lanterns Venture Capital and Founder and decade-long CEO of MassChallenge. A career is a body of work. It doesn’t have to be a straight line… it can take twists and turns… yon can switch industries… you can reinvent yourself… and it should be fulfilling. As you’ll learn from John’s background, he had lots of twists and turns but ultimately, he decided there must be more to his career. One where he can make a massive impact, but he obviously had to weigh the risks of the unknown during one of the worst economic conditions back in 2009. That unknown became one of the largest accelerators in the world with over 4,000 alumni and over $13B raised with a 65% survival rate which includes companies like Flywire, Ginger, Bitso and many, many more. It’s proof that you can think and dream big! Today at Two Lanterns Venture Capital, John is focused on making pre-seed and seed investments in software startups in the U.S. and Israel. In this podcast, we cover: * John’s outlook for 2025 as an investor. * His background with lots of twists and turns, including how he landed in the tech industry at a cybersecurity company called @stake. * The decision to go back to business school at MIT Sloan and how his passion for entrepreneurship developed. * The full lifecycle story of MassChallenge. All the stories from leaving Bain as a consultant along with Akhil Nigam to start the accelerator, all the obstacles they overcome, and then scaling the organization. * What led him down the path of starting Two Lanterns Venture Capital, plus all the details on the firm and what they are targeting for investments. * Common entrepreneurial mistakes. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode #364 of The VentureFizz Podcast features John Andrews, Co-Founder & CEO of Cimulate. There is a wave of entrepreneurs who are uniquely qualified to build a pillar tech company in the Boston tech ecosystem while leveraging the platform shift to AI. Not only is John one of them, but he is also an alum of the very successful crew from Endeca. John and his co-founder, Vivek Farias, are tackling the future of eCommerce and as you’ll hear, their platform is a perfect use case for Gen AI. Their last company, Celect, was a big data predictive analytics platform for the retail industry which was acquired by Nike. Cimulate recently announced a $28M Series A round of funding led by Spark Capital with participation from their seed stage investors SIERRA Ventures and Pillar VC, with additional participation from LFX Venture Partners and Commerce Ventures. In this podcast, we cover: * A deep dive into the use cases of AI in the retail & eCommerce industry especially around personalization. * John’s background story and getting his career started at Deloitte Consulting and getting an MBA from HBS. * How he met Steve Papa, the founder of Endeca, and the full lifecycle of his experience there including the acquisition by Oracle and integration of their tech there. * Connecting with Vivek Farias and Devavrat Shah through Steve Papa and the story of building Celect which was using AI / machine learning back in 2014. * How the acquisition by Nike came together * All the details about Cimulate and how the platform works, plus their growth plans ahead. * Biggest lessons learned as a multi-time CEO. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 363 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Jay Batson, Acquia Co-Founder & Founding CEO, serial entrepreneur, investor, and mentor. Lots of people like to make predictions, especially around this time of the year. Few are right. Jay on the other hand made some bold predictions about the future in a Forrester report that he published back in 1995 called Beyond Internet Gaga and it is pretty remarkable. So what does Jay predict in 1995? Yes, the internet was emerging but these predictions were made when there were only about 35 million internet users and before the Netscape IPO. He detailed three scenarios: 1. The first was internet-based cyberattacks. 2. The second was how a younger generation would be glued to the internet (think screentime) and how it would replace the television, plus the emergence of social media, & online gaming. 3. The third was the advancement of smart appliances. It’s really amazing and as you’ll hear, Jay has a knack for seeing the future and creating businesses that capitalize on shifts in technology, some that have been widely successful or some that just didn’t hit. We chat about all of them. In this podcast, we cover: * Jay’s background story and how he got started in entrepreneurship by building a company in the energy sector. * Moving to Boston and more of his early experiences in the tech industry. * All the details about founding PingTel and its innovation in IP phones and he even pulls out one of the phones for the visual, plus his reflection on why the company didn’t succeed. * The full story of how he met Dries Buytaert (who was a guest on Episode #326) and how they co-founded Acquia together and lots of great scaling stories to unicorn status. * His role post-Acquia as a mentor and investor. Why founders should spend more time on their go-to-market strategy. * The importance of co-founder and investor alignment. * And so much more.

Episode 362 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Alice Pomponio, Managing Director at BrightEdge, the investing arm of the American Cancer Society. Venture capital and private equity investors are all working on meaningful initiatives in terms of building great companies with the hope of gaining a meaningful return for investors. However, the role that Alice plays in the world of investing into startups is different… As the innovation, impact investment and venture capital arm of the American Cancer Society, BrightEdge propels groundbreaking patient-centric solutions by accelerating ACS’s mission to advance science, reduce disparities, and promote healthcare sustainability. All of the investments from BrightEdge have a common goal and that is to fight for a world without cancer. On top of this incredibly important mission is how the firm operates where the financial returns are reinvested back into the fund or are returned to the American Cancer Society to build a diversified and sustainable source of funding for the organization. In this podcast, we cover: * The platform shift to AI and its potential impact on cancer research. * Alice’s background and how cancer has affected her family, plus a walk through her career in the biotech & pharmaceutical industry. * The details of the firm’s proprietary Cancer Impact Investment Framework. * Sample portfolio companies and the overall impact that BrightEdge has made. * How BrightEdge is helping to advance health equity and increase representation for underserved populations. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 361 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Phil Pergola, CEO at CloudZero. Phil has a tremendous track record and we talk about a lot of great companies that he’s helped build throughout his career, but I need to highlight one of these companies in this intro and that is BladeLogic and the lasting impact the company has made. If you’ve ever read the famous startup book by Ben Horowitz called The Hard Thing About Hard Things… the competitor to his company Opsware was BladeLogic which is absolutely classic. BladeLogic went on to become a public company and was subsequently acquired by BMC Software. Another fascinating point about BladeLogic is the people and how many have gone on to become C-level sales executives or advisors at some of the most successful companies out there like MongoDB, AppDynamics, Snowflake, Wiz, Okta, and others. There is even a podcast called Hunters + Unicorns which interviews a bunch of them. CloudZero is the leader in proactive cloud cost efficiency. They enable engineers to build cost-efficient software without slowing down innovation. The company announced a $32M Series B round of funding last year. In this podcast, we cover: * The importance of building a successful pre and post-sales organization, plus the details of the LAYR model (Land Adopt Expand Retain). * Phil’s background and the story of his initial interest in pursuing a career path as an actuary. * A trip down Boston tech memory lane across multiple companies like Eggrock Partners which was acquired by Breakaway Solutions, BladeLogic, enerNOC, and CloudHealth Technologies. * All the details about CloudZero - how they found product market fit, why he joined as CEO, and the latest at the company today. * Advice on raising venture capital funding. * Lots of great advice on being a first time CEO - his lessons learned, what you should think about in the first 90 days, and advice on how to get on the radar for CEO positions. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 360 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Mike Troiano, Partner at G20 Ventures. When I think of Mike, I think of a master marketer, a branding guru, and an amazing storyteller. As we start our conversation we discuss the importance of these traits as it relates to entrepreneurs. The importance of storytelling and brand building is often overlooked by entrepreneurs. Yet, it is such a critical part of a startup’s success as a good story attracts customers, talent, and capital. If you haven’t followed his blog, please make sure you check it out on Medium, as there are so many great pieces of advice to help you improve your skills in storytelling, creating a brand, and building a startup. He’s one of the best. G20 Ventures is the capital partner that helps new businesses grow with smart money, great storytelling, and the right connections. The firm’s sweet spot is mainly Series A investing in enterprise software companies. In this podcast, we cover: * Playing sports at Cornell and getting his career started in the marketing agency world, plus starting his own company which was acquired and went public. * The full lifecycle story of M-Qube which was acquired by VeriSign and all the details about how the company powered the voting for American Idol and the lucky case drawing for Deal or No Deal. * Launching a startup called MatchMine which was backed by the Kraft family and was building a personalization tech for consumers that ended up being too early for the market. * The story of Actifio and its copy data management solution which grew into unicorn status with backing from Tier A investors and was acquired by Google. * How a viral post on Medium started his journey into venture capital and joining G20 Ventures, where he was a founding member and LP. * Getting started as a VC and how he found his Zone of Genius, plus what he’s targeting for investments. * The 5 phases of a career. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.

Episode 359 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO of Sincere. Boston has this legacy reputation that you can’t build consumer companies in the area, yet there are so many great companies that have scaled like Wayfair, DraftKings, iRobot, SimpliSafe, and so… so… many more. Plus, don’t get me started on how many brands, especially footwear, are located here. Anyway, Sincere is another example of a great consumer company at scale. It is highly likely that you’ve used one of their products like Punchbowl to plan a party, Timehop to relive past memories, or Memento, where you can collect and preserve memories together for a group video or photo album. Sincere’s latest brand is Lovebird, a new platform for the wedding industry which is taking on The Knot and other outdated incumbents and as highlighted in this interview with Matt, there will be more coming from Sincere. In this podcast, we cover: * A discussion around the legacy of an entrepreneur and what led Matt down the path of starting a corporate foundation at Sincere for charitable initiatives. * Matt’s background story, growing up with 5 brothers and how he started his entrepreneurial roots early on. * Getting his career started and how he became the youngest Product Manager at Adobe. * His brushes with tech luminaries like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Alexis Ohanian, Justin Kan, and Dharmesh Shah. * The background story of Punchbowl and the three key characteristics he used for building a business. * Why the expansion into the wedding market with Lovebird made sense for the company and how they are differentiating themselves from the competitors. * Matt’s philosophy around buying premium domains and a hint about his best 5 letter domain that is not even live yet. * And so much more.

Episode 358 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Simon Taylor, Founder & CEO of HYCU. One of the things that I love about this podcast is hearing the stories of entrepreneurs and the ambitious moves they make to build their companies. For example, last week’s interview with Brian Liu was a great example where he and his Co-Founder cold called and got the most recognizable lawyer on the planet - that being Robert Shapiro - involved with LegalZoom in the early days of the company. Simon’s story is also legendary. At the point of having an MVP, they wanted to partner with a fast growing company called Nutanix. He flew out to the company’s offices in California and unannounced, he asked to speak to the CEO. After pitching his company and convincing team members during that initial unannounced call, the CEO did finally sit with him and after building a backup solution for Nutanix, a partnership was established and they were off and running. HYCU is a leader in the multi-cloud and SaaS data protection as a service industry. The company has raised $140M in VC funding to date. In this podcast, we cover: * A discussion around leveraging a partnership model for a company’s GTM strategy and how to build it with the right mindset and approach. * Simon’s background story, including receiving a signed book from legendary computer entrepreneur An Wang, the founder of Wang Laboratories, when his family moved to the U.S. * Starting his career in cubicle jobs and how he learned the importance of rigor like his experience as a 401K rep answering phones and how it helped shape him as an entrepreneur. * Building his first company in Prague, an IT outsourcing company which was acquired by Comtrade and then his next company, a monitoring tools company that was acquired by Citrix. * The full lifecycle story of HYCU and all the details about their platform. * The benefits of raising capital from corporate VCs. * And so much more. Episode Sponsor: As a longtime champion of the local startup ecosystem, Silicon Valley Bank supports innovative companies with the solutions and financing they need through every stage of growth. With more than 1,500 bankers and relationship advisors, and $42B in loans as of Q2 2024 – SVB delivers the right people, service and resources to support your entire financial journey. Learn more at SVB.com.