Venture with Grace

Sami Ghoche is the Co-founder and CEO of Forethought. ~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to manual reconciliation and repeated follow-ups - raise and deploy capital faster and with greater transparency. Ready to make your fund operations smoother? Visit Verivend.com and see how easy it can be.~~~~~He guides the company’s vision, strategy, and product growth. With a deep background in AI and machine learning, he previously worked on LinkedIn’s AI and ML team, enhancing the relevance of the newsfeed. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Sami is originally from Lebanon and is passionate about soccer and building technology that makes a real-world impact.He holds both an M.S. and a B.S. from Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude.Topics: How AI Is Changing Customer Service Current Trends in Artificial IntelligenceWhere customer service technology will be in 5-10 years#VCPodcast #AIStartups #CustomerService #ConversationalAI

Arnav Sahu is a Partner at Peak XV Partners (fka Sequoia India). ~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to manual reconciliation and repeated follow-ups - raise and deploy capital faster and with greater transparency. Ready to make your fund operations smoother? Visit Verivend.com and see how easy it can be.~~~~~Prior to that, he was a Principal at Y Combinator. YC is a leading startup accelerator and venture capital firm with a combined portfolio valuation of over $750 billion (some of their most successful investments include OpenAI, Coinbase, Airbnb, Stripe, DoorDash). He partnered with and invested in several successful startups such as Scale AI, Replicate, Luminai, Vanta, Rippling, PostHog, Fivetran, Mattermost, Salt Security, BuildBuddy, Stoke Space, Zepto, Secoda, Aquarium Learning, and Pylon. Previously, Arnav was an investor at Spark Capital. Prior to that, he worked at Cisco and AppDynamics, and was an investor at Blackstone, one of the most successful investment firms in history. Arnav graduated from Cornell University and grew up in India.Topics: What separates YC alumni that go on to unicorn status vs those that don'tNext big AI opportunitiesHow AI founders think about moats and defensibility differently#VentureCapital #YCombinator #PeakXV #AIInvesting #SeedStage

Ben Sun is a Cofounder and General Partner at Primary. ~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to manual reconciliation and repeated follow-ups - raise and deploy capital faster and with greater transparency. Ready to make your fund operations smoother? Visit Verivend.com and see how easy it can be.~~~~~Forbes' Midas List ranks him as one of the top 100 tech investors in the world. His founder-first approach originates from having been one: His experiences cofounding Community Connect, one of the first social networking companies, and LaunchTime, an incubator, inform how he supports founders in the portfolio.Ben focuses his investing activities on primarily consumer-facing companies. Ben has been active in the NYC tech community for over 20 years. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur and investor, Ben worked at Merrill Lynch in the Technology Investment Banking Group, but he really began his career at the age of eight when he worked in his parents’ Chinese restaurant.Topics: Building the VC Firm Founders Actually NeedWhy incubate Companies Instead of Just Funding ThemThe Art of VC Team Building and What Most Get Wrong#VC #VentureCapital #StartupInvesting #SeedFunding

Packy McCormick (208k+ on X) is the founder and creator of Not Boring (243k+ subs). ~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to manual reconciliation and repeated follow-ups - raise and deploy capital faster and with greater transparency. Ready to make your fund operations smoother? Visit Verivend.com and see how easy it can be.~~~~~~Not Boring is a media & venture capital firm. Not Boring Media produces content at the intersection of business, strategy, technology and web3. The Not Boring newsletter, is the #1 Business newsletter on Substack with over 243,000 subscribers. Not Boring also produces the "Not Boring Founders" podcast - which is available wherever you listen to podcasts. Not Boring Capital invests in companies with stories to tell, and helps tell them.Topics: Newsletter Empire BuildingStorytelling as Investment ThesisContrarian Takes on Current Markets#VC #NotBoring #PackyMcCormick #VentureCapital #Newsletter

Dan Cahana is an Investor at Notable Capital.~~~~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to manual reconciliation and repeated follow-ups - raise and deploy capital faster and with greater transparency. Ready to make your fund operations smoother? Visit Verivend.com and see how easy it can be.~~~~~~~~Dan focused on cloud infrastructure, including cybersecurity, data, AI, and the developer lifecycle. He supports the firm's investments across Israel and is a founding member of InvestInData (IID), an angel syndicate of data executives that invests in and supports early-stage data companies. Prior to joining Notable, Dan was an investor at General Atlantic, where he focused on growth-stage software.Dan holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His portfolio includes Vercel, Neon, Patronus AI, Gem Security (acquired by Wiz), StarTree, Inngest, and NetBox Labs.‍Topics: Cloud Infrastructure & Market EvolutionAI Infrastructure & Data StackEnterprise Sales & Go-to-Market#VC #CloudInfrastructure #DevTools #DevOps

Josh Aharonoff, CPA, is the founder of Your CFO Guy (450k+ followers) and Mighty Digits.~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to manual reconciliation and repeated follow-ups - raise and deploy capital faster and with greater transparency. Ready to make your fund operations smoother? Visit Verivend.com and see how easy it can be.~~~~~Josh and his company serve as a fractional CFO for fast-growing companies and startups. With over 450,000 followers on LinkedIn, Josh is a highly influential voice in finance, known for sharing practical insights on financial strategy, cash flow management, and Excel mastery. He combines deep financial expertise with hands-on experience to help businesses scale efficiently through expert financial modeling, reporting, and strategic guidance. Passionate about empowering leaders, Josh provides the tools and knowledge necessary to thrive in today’s fast-paced business world.Topics: Building a personal and company brand on LinkedInKey fundraising tips for foundersTurning financial data into a compelling growth story#StartupGrowth #FounderTips #VCInsights #FinancialModeling #BrandBuilding

Tony Stubblebine is the CEO of Medium. ~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to manual reconciliation and repeated follow-ups - raise and deploy capital faster and with greater transparency. Ready to make your fund operations smoother? Visit Verivend.com and see how easy it can be.~~~~~He took the helm in July 2022 after a career as a serial entrepreneur and tech leader, including founding Coach.me and publishing Better Humans on Medium. Known for his focus on substance and human storytelling, Tony led Medium through a dramatic turnaround by prioritizing personal, thoughtful content and human curation over algorithm-driven clickbait and AI-generated material. Under his leadership, Medium surpassed one million paying subscribers and is on track to become profitable for the first time, thanks in part to strategic cost-cutting and a shift to a subscription-based model that values quality over hype. Topics: The evolution of online publishingNavigating AI in contentBuilding authority and audience#VC #Podcast #Medium #TonyStubblebine #Entrepreneurship #Tech

Prashanth Chandrasekar is the CEO and Board Member of Stack Overflow, the world's largest and most trusted community and platform for developers and technologists. With over 100 million global monthly visitors and market-leading, fast-growing collaboration and knowledge-sharing Enterprise SaaS and AI products, Stack Overflow enables the world to develop technology through collective knowledge. In 2021, Stack Overflow was acquired by Prosus for $1.8Bn.Previously, he served as Senior Vice President & General Manager of Rackspace's Cloud & Infrastructure Services portfolio of businesses, including the Managed Public Clouds, Private Clouds, Colocation and Managed Security businesses. He also held a range of senior leadership roles at Rackspace including Senior Vice President & General Manager of Rackspace's high-growth, global business focused on the world's leading Public Clouds including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Alibaba Cloud, which became the fastest growing business in Rackspace's history.Topics:AI's impact on developer workflowsLeadership approaches for transforming tech platforms into enterprise giantsMaintaining developer trust while evolving commercial strategies#StackOverflow #TechLeadership #DeveloperCommunity #SaaSThis episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to manual reconciliation and repeated follow-ups - raise and deploy capital faster and with greater transparency. Ready to make your fund operations smoother? Visit Verivend.com and see how easy it can be.

Morgan Blumberg is a Principal at M13. Morgan spent five years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. She worked on a presidential campaign, at Bloomberg Philanthropies and consulted for start-ups in the political media space.Topics: Healthcare and future of workEmbedded AI, productivity tools, and infrastructureFrontier investing trends#AI #FrontierTech #VentureCapital #StartupInvesting

Manish Patel is the founder of Nava Ventures. He led teams that have designed, developed, and scaled products with global impact, from enterprise advertising systems like AdWords to consumer experiences like Google Maps. Prior to that, he was a GP at Highland Capital Partners. Highland has raised over $3B in committed capital and invested in more than 270 companies, resulting in category-defining businesses across consumer and enterprise technology. Investments include companies such as Rent the Runway, 2U, Catalant, Harry's, Malwarebytes, nuTonomy, Clearbanc, Scopely, ThredUP, and Turbonomic.Topics: Enterprise AI adoptionBridging traditional industries with AI The future of work and automation #VentureCapital #AgTech #EnterpriseAI #GoogleToVC