Venture with Grace

Nancy Wang is a Venture Partner at Felicis, where she backs early-stage founders building in infrastructure, cybersecurity, and AI. As a product and engineering executive, Nancy brings a builder’s mindset to investing: helping startups refine their product-market fit, land their first enterprise customers, and scale production-grade systems. She complements this investor perspective with her operational role as VP and Head of Engineering at 1Password, leading all product engineering teams and spearheading the company’s next-generation initiatives in generative AI security and identity access management, architecting systems for an agent-first future.Prior to 1Password, Nancy served as Director of Product & Engineering and General Manager at Amazon Web Services, where she owned P&L and led product, engineering, and design for AWS’s $1.5B+ data protection and data security portfolio. Earlier in her career, she built cloud SaaS products at Rubrik, network infrastructure products at Google, and helped launch HealthData.gov for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nancy extends her cybersecurity expertise by serving on the Cyber-Resilience Advisory Council for Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT), advising the C-suite on enterprise security trends and product strategy, and bridging early traction with durable growth for both Fortune 10 companies and startups.Passionate about expanding access to technical leadership, Nancy founded and serves as board chair of Advancing Women in Tech (AWIT), a global 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has educated over 45,000 learners on Coursera. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also serves on the Board of Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (BoTIE).Topics: What it takes to land your first enterprise customerWhat founders get wrong about enterprise salesHow to lead technical orgs through hypergrowth#StartupTips#ProductLeadership#EnterpriseTech#FounderAdvice

Chris Protasewich and Mike Wystrach are the Co-Founders and General Partners of Cutting Horse, a growth equity firm for exceptional consumer companies. ~~~~~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. ~~~~~The firm backs emerging consumer product and service businesses across food & beverage, health & wellness, pet & animal health, and home & lifestyle categories. Cutting Horse focuses on bootstrapped, profitable, founder-led businesses in the $1–15 million revenue range, typically investing $1–5 million while providing hands-on operational support to help scale the businesses. Chris and Mike have been building and investing in consumer businesses together for over a decade. They first met in 2015 when Chris backed Mike’s company Freshly, the healthy prepared meal delivery service that scaled nationally and sold to Nestlé for $1.5B, while he was an investor at Highland Capital Partners. Since then, they launched and scaled Petfolk, a rapidly growing veterinary services platform now operating 35 locations across 7 states.Topics: The Consumer Brand Growth Playbook No One Talks AboutThe Next Wave of Investment in Wellness, Pets & Everyday GoodsWhat It Takes to Raise Growth Capital#ConsumerVC #FounderLed #BootstrappedBrands #GrowthCapital #PetTech

Nait Jones is the founder and CEO of AdTwin.ai, a venture-backed generative AI platform that empowers marketers to create and launch high-performing audio ads in minutes. A three-time founder and former partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Nait brings a rare dual perspective as both operator and investor. At a16z, he led go-to-market and cultural partnership strategies and spearheaded the firm’s Talent x Opportunity Fund, investing in underrepresented founders. He also helped build Royal, a Web3 music rights startup backed by artists like Nas and The Chainsmokers. Known for bridging culture and technology, Nait’s career spans audio, AI, crypto, and consumer tech—with a deep commitment to expanding access and reshaping how stories are told through media.Topics: Why Audio Advertising Is the Next Big ChannelThe Truth About Fundraising as a Former VCThe Rise of Voice AI in Performance Marketing#AI #VoiceAI #GenerativeAI #StartupLife #VentureCapital #MarketingTech🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/66438438...

Cody Coleman is the co-founder and CEO of Coactive AI. He is also a co-creator of DAWNBench and MLPerf, a founding member of MLCommons, and his work spans developing standards and benchmarks for high-performance deep learning to data-centric AI. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford and MEng and BS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.Topics: AI-Powered Search & AnalysisEnterprise-Grade Visual Data SolutionsStrategic AI Infrastructure#AI #MachineLearning #DeepLearning #Benchmarking #TechInnovation

Jesse Marble is the Founder and General Partner of Wildwood 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. ~~~~~Wildwood Ventures is an early-stage venture firm and studio investing in startups at the intersection of wellness, the outdoors, and healthy living. After bootstrapping and exiting his growth marketing agency, Magneti, Marble transitioned from operator to investor in 2023, launching Wildwood in partnership with VF Corporation (parent of Vans, The North Face, and Timberland). Wildwood combines hands-on company building with venture capital, backing companies like Out&Back, Kinsa Active, and Roots. Topics: Consumer tech investing in the wellness and outdoor economyHow to build a wellness or outdoor startup that actually scalesPartnering with VF Corp: What It Means to Have a Strategic LP#VentureCapital #WellnessTech #FounderJourney #EarlyStageStartups

Ryan Breslow is the founder and CEO of Bolt, a one-click checkout company he launched to make fast, secure online purchasing accessible to retailers beyond Amazon. After leaving Stanford to pursue entrepreneurship full-time, he scaled Bolt to an $11B valuation and helped popularize “Conscious Culture,” a workplace philosophy that blends high performance with mindfulness and transparency. He’s also the founder of Love.com, Eco, Prism, The Family Accelerator, and The Movement—ventures that reflect his broad interest in wellness, fintech, and purpose-driven innovation. Known for his ambitious vision and direct communication style, Ryan continues to push boundaries as one of tech’s most unconventional young founders.Topics: How to Build Mission-Driven Companies That Scale FastResetting Startup Culture: What Needs to ChangeCreating Companies That Balance Speed and Values#startups #founderjourney #entrepreneurship #techinnovation #fintech #wellness

Lorraine K. Lee is a keynote speaker, best-selling author, and founder specializing in professional presence and personal branding. With over 324,000 followers on LinkedIn, she is recognized globally as a LinkedIn Top Voice and a go-to expert on virtual communication and executive presence. Previously a founding editor at LinkedIn and the first managing editor at Prezi, Lorraine has helped shape how professionals show up and stand out in the modern workplace. Her book Unforgettable Presence distills a decade of experience into actionable frameworks used by leaders at Zoom, Cisco, Amazon, and McKinsey. Today, she teaches at Stanford Continuing Studies and LinkedIn Learning, empowering individuals and teams to be seen, heard, and remembered for all the right reasons.Topics: How to Build a Magnetic Personal Brand Without Being CringeWhy Great Work Isn’t Enough—You Need to Be Seen, TooStrategic Presence: How Founders Win in Pitches and Hiring#ExecutivePresence #PersonalBranding #Leadership #CareerGrowth #RemoteWork

Steven Lee is the Founder and General Partner of Seven Stars. ~~~~~ 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. ~~~~~This episode is in partnership with Notion. Notion is the AI workspace that works for you. Startups move fast - and Notion helps you move faster. From idea to exit, build docs, manage projects, and run your team and startup in one connected workspace powered by Notion AI. And because you’re part of the show’s community, Notion’s giving you up to 6 months of the Business plan with Notion AI—worth up to $12K—free. Apply here: https://ntn.so/gracegong~~~~~Seven Stars is a $40 million seed and pre-seed venture fund backing AI applications across consumer and enterprise sectors. A former partner at SV Angel, Lee helped lead investments in over 35 AI startups including ElevenLabs, Captions, Mercor, Reflection AI, and Skild AI, and personally invested in OpenAI. Inspired by his immigrant parents who ran a clothing shop called Seven Star Fashion in L.A.'s Koreatown, Lee named his firm in their honor and brings a deeply founder-first approach to investing. With a focus on hands-on fundraising support, talent access, and advisory networks from top tech companies, Lee aims to empower the next generation of visionary AI founders and ensure AI benefits not just the first billion users, but the next eight billion.Topics: Which AI application areas are still underexplored or overhypedCommon fundraising mistakes AI founders make and how to avoid themThesis on AI reaching "the next eight billion users" #AIInvesting#FounderFirst#VentureCapital#AIForTheNextBillion#SeedStageVC

Andrew Brackin is a Partner at Gradient 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 Gradient, Andrew co-founded Vial, a tech-enabled clinical trial platform that raised over $100M in venture capital from top-tier firms. Prior to Vial, he was part of the founding team and the Head of Growth at Newfront (YC W18), an AI-powered commercial insurance brokerage valued at $2.2BN, insuring numerous Fortune 500 companies. His career began at Jobr, a mobile job search business that Monster.com acquired in 2016. Andrew was a 2013 recipient of the Thiel Fellowship. Outside of work, he loves reading about global affairs, working out at Barry’s Bootcamp, and enjoying live music.Topics: Lessons from raising $100M+ and building in a complex, regulated industrySectors that are overhyped vs. undervalued in today's marketPredictions for the next wave of healthcare innovation#StartupLeadership #HealthTech #VentureCapital #ThielFellowship #AIinInsurance

Sid Trivedi is a Partner at Foundation 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 https://bit.ly/3GrB4Qj and see how easy it can be.~~~~~Sid leads early-stage investments in enterprise software and cybersecurity. With experience spanning Wall Street (Barclays Capital), private equity (Symphony Technology Group), and venture capital (Omidyar Technology Ventures), Sid brings a unique perspective to building category-defining companies. At Foundation Capital, he has backed market leaders including DevZero, Stacklet, Neurelo, AirMDR, Prime Security, Levo, Permiso, Anvilogic, and Fortanix, with notable exits including CloudKnox (acquired by Microsoft), Respond Software (acquired by FireEye), and MistNet (acquired by LogRhythm). Beyond investing, Sid curates Foundation's IT + Security Dinner Series for Fortune 2,000 executives, co-founded and co-hosts the Inside the Network podcast, and serves on advisory boards for Entrepreneurship at Cornell and the California Israel Chamber of Commerce. A Cornell University graduate (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) with a Bachelor's in Economics and Biological Sciences, Sid's global perspective was shaped by growing up across Asia during the mobile revolution, where his father's work at Nokia provided early exposure to transformative technology innovation.Topics: Why cybersecurity is the next trillion-dollar marketThe intersection of AI and cybersecurityWhat Fortune 2000 CIOs actually want from security startups#CybersecurityVC #EnterpriseTech #AIInfrastructure #VentureCapital #StartupInvesting