Venture with Grace

Marc Silberman is a Partner at Comcast Ventures. ~~~~~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 https://bit.ly/3GrB4Qj and see how easy it can be.~~~~~Prior to CV, Marc led Corporate Development at FirstMark Capital, where he partnered with the firm's portfolio companies to drive top-line growth and accelerate go-to-market initiatives. He has nearly a decade of experience both operating and investing in high-growth technology businesses. On the operating side, Marc has held roles spanning growth strategy, operations, and finance at several New York-based technology companies, including CLEAR (NYSE: YOU), a biometric technology platform, and BuzzFeed (NASDAQ: BZFD), the global news and entertainment company. He was also previously a venture investor at Time Warner Investments, a media-focused corporate venture capital fund. Marc holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University with a double major in Applied Economics & Management and Communication. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Department of Communication at Cornell University and is a Board Trustee of the New Heights Academy Charter School.Topics: How Comcast Ventures' strategic approach differs from traditional venture capitalWhat operators-turned-investors look for that pure-play VCs might missThe intersection of content, technology, and consumer behavior#AIInvesting #CorporateVC #FounderSupport #GenerativeAI #VentureCapital

Krish Ramineni is the Co-founder and CEO of Fireflies.ai, an AI voice assistant that automates meeting notes, action items, and workflows for millions of professionals worldwide. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Krish started Fireflies after working at Microsoft, where he focused on product and growth. Under his leadership, Fireflies scaled to support users across 100,000+ organizations, including teams at Uber, Nike, and Netflix, and pioneered the use of AI meeting agents to transform productivity. With a background in product design, go-to-market strategy, and AI, Krish is a leading voice on the future of work, human-AI collaboration, and conversational intelligence.Topics: The Future of Work: Building AI Agents That Actually Do the WorkBootstrapping to Millions of Users: Lessons in Product-Led GrowthReinventing Meetings: Turning Conversation into Execution with AI#AIProductivity #FutureOfWork #StartupPlaybook #AIConversations #SaaSTools

Phylicia Koh is a General Partner at Play Ventures. Phylicia is based in Singapore and leads new investments into game studios, tech, and plays into the intersection of gaming and lifestyle. She also leads Play's diversity and inclusion initiatives and is part of Play's ESG committee. Before joining Play as Employee #1, Phylicia spent 9 years in marketing and growth, working with the likes of Mighty Bear Games, Voice Labs, Homage, Ethnicraft Online, as well as for the Singapore Economic Development Board.Topics:Investing at the intersection of gaming, culture, and consumer behaviorFrom operator to investor: building Play Ventures from the ground upWhat’s next in gaming: new platforms, virtual economies, and global trends#GamingVC #ConsumerTech #VentureCapital #WomenInVC #InteractiveEntertainment

Jonathan Corbin is the Founder and CEO of Maven AGI. Most recently, he served as Global Vice President of Customer Success & Strategy at HubSpot. Prior to HubSpot, Jonathan spent over two decades building scalable customer success systems across multiple regions and industries. His vision for Maven was shaped by firsthand experience with the challenges of customer success, gained during his leadership roles at Adobe, Marketo, and Sprinkler. Sami Shalabi is the founder and CTO of Maven AGI. Sami brings over 25 years of experience building personalization and AI-powered software at Google, IBM, and various startups. Sami led engineering for both Google News and Google Play Newsstand and co-founded Zingku, which was acquired by Google. With more than 50 patents and a track record of scaling products from inception to over 1 billion users, Sami’s expertise spans both innovation and leadership. He holds SB and MEng degrees from MIT. Topics: Building an AI-native platform for customer success from the ground upLessons in scaling, GTM, and technical innovationThe future of customer-facing teams in the age of AGI#AIforGTM #CustomerSuccess #SaaSLeadership #FoundersJourney #AIStartup

Chris Koehler is the Chief Marketing Officer at Twilio. With over 25 years of experience in leading marketing, sales, and product teams across various domains and industries, Chris is a seasoned and versatile leader who thrives on growing and scaling new products and businesses. As the Chief Marketing Officer at Twilio, he is responsible for global marketing strategy, with a focus on expanding brand awareness, and driving messaging and positioning across Twilio's Segment and Communications platforms. All while continuing to build Twilio's world-class marketing org and its incredible culture. Chris brings a unique combination of skills and expertise to his role, ranging from customer analytics, web analytics, social media, predictive analytics, multivariate testing, optimization, branding, product marketing, product management, sales engineering, account management, and customer success. He has a passion for marketing, analytics, digital trends, and building high-performing teams that deliver exceptional results and value to customers and stakeholders. Chris also has a strong academic background, having completed the Business Analytics Program at Harvard University and a B.S. in Marketing from George Mason University.Topics:Building Marketing Organizations for HypergrowthThe Evolution of B2B SaaS MarketingAI's Impact on Marketing Strategy and Execution at Enterprise Scale#B2BMarketing #SaaSLeadership #Twilio #ProductLedGrowth #CMOInsights

Shravan Narayen is a Partner at IVP, where he invests in founders who are deeply driven to solve meaningful customer problems. He has worked across every stage of a startup’s journey—from early product development to IPO—which helps him support teams with real operating experience. At Snowflake, he saw how big technical improvements can completely change how businesses operate. At Confluent, he learned that building a great product and successfully bringing it to market go hand in hand. Earlier in his career, he worked at early-stage startups, which gave him a deep respect for the process of finding product-market fit. Shravan believes that keeping an open mind is one of the most important qualities in venture—every conversation with a founder is a chance to learn something new and potentially discover the next big company. Port cos: Perplexity, Eightfold.ai, Baseten, Chainguard, SublimeSecurity, Cortex, Glean, and Lumafield. Topics:What It Really Takes to Scale Enterprise InfrastructureHow to Spot Founders with “Irrational Compulsion” EarlyGrowth-Stage VC in the AI Era: Noise vs. Signal#GrowthStageVC #EnterpriseAI #ProductToIPO #StartupScaling #TechnicalFounders

Arjun Pillai, CEO and Co-Founder of DocketAI, an SF-based AI startup transforming revenue enablement. He previously served as Chief Data Officer at ZoomInfo after it acquired his second company, Insent.ai, and is widely recognized as a thought leader in data strategy and revenue operations. With clients like ZoomInfo, DocketAI has raised $20.3M to pioneer the world’s first AI Sales Engineer, helping B2B sales teams instantly access insights from their documents (Slack, Salesforce, Google Drive, etc.) and drive revenue efficiency (delivering results like a 22% increase in revenue per seller). Arjun is a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits. Topics: AI-Driven Sales InnovationExpert Insights on AI & Sales EnablementBuilding AI sales Engineer #ai #sales #engineer #saas #zoominfo

Maryam Banikarim served as the CMO at major brands including Nextdoor, Hyatt Hotels, Gannett, NBCUniversal (SVP), and Univision. Known for her mission-driven approach and cultural fluency, she has consistently transformed legacy companies by revitalizing their brands and deepening community engagement. Beyond the corporate world, Maryam is the co-founder of NYCNext and The Longest Table, grassroots initiatives fostering connection and creativity in public spaces. A proud New Yorker and daughter of immigrants, Maryam uses her platform to champion empathy and the power of storytelling.Topics: From Corporate CMO to Founder & Top StorytellerCommunity Building as a Competitive EdgeBuilding Brands with Purpose#PurposeDrivenLeadership#BrandStorytelling#CommunityBuilding#MarketingInnovation#Entrepreneurship

Brendan Baker is a Partner at Rackhouse VC. ~~~~~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.~~~~~Brendan began his career as a materials and civil engineer before joining AngelList as its second employee to manage most of the platform’s first 10,000 deals. After that he joined Greylock, where he built systems to systematize venture with data, process, and code. Brendan has since worked with top firms to build venture systems, including one of the first algorithmic capital auto-deploy platforms, before spending six years as a Partner at Ridge Ventures investing in companies tackling massive, unglamorous problems like ERP, supply chain, and finance. He has advised over 1,000 founders on their fundraising, including as a formal advisor to companies like Aumni (acq. By JP Morgan), Valence, and Passport. Topics: Data-Driven Venture Systematizing Investment DecisionsInvesting in Boring Why Unsexy Markets WinVenture Operations Beyond Deal Making#VentureCapital #AngelList #SystematicInvesting #DataDrivenVC #EnterpriseInvesting

Simon Kim is a principal at SK Telecom Americas, where he focuses on strategic investments and partnerships across AI, data center infrastructure, and next-gen connectivity. SK Telecom Americas' portfolios includes high-growth startups like Anthropic, Perplexity AI, Lambda Labs, TwelveLabs, Together AI, Inworld AI, and GGWP. Prior to this, Simon managed direct and LP investments at SK Group, backing companies such as DataRobot, Republic, and Consensys. With deep experience across venture, strategy, and operations—including time at CLO Virtual Fashion and a Coinbase-backed crypto startup—Simon brings a cross-border, cross-sector perspective to frontier tech investing. He holds an economics degree from UC Berkeley.Topics:Strategic investing at the edge of AI, cloud, and telcoHow global corporates identify breakout frontier techLessons from backing Anthropic, Lambda, and Inworld AI early#AI #CorporateDevelopment #DataCenters #5G #FrontierTech #VCInsights