Angel Invest Boston

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate: Click to Join This podcast is brought to you by Peter Fasse, patent attorney at Fish & Richardson: https://www.fr.com/team/j-peter-fasse/ While in prep school Matt Singer performed at a religious ceremony and became fascinated with the impact his music had on the congregants. This fascination led Matt Singer to major in music at Yale, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, and to think of how to make a life in music. Matt hit the streets soon after graduating to start his music business. For ten years he built Dawn Treader Production with marquee names such as Paul McCartney, James Earl Jones and the New York Philharmonic. Relying on the emotional connection possible on TV, he sold the CDs he produced by the tens of thousands on QVC. In 2007 he joined co-founder Amanda Eilian, in starting a company that is now changing the way large enterprises communicate with their customers and employees via video. Videolicious makes it easy for employees to produce polished videos personalized to particular clients that make emotional connections. The platform is now used by 4,000,000 users in 100 countries, it’s even taught at 90 schools of journalism. Backed by Amazon and VC money, this startup is poised for continued growth. This is the story of someone who followed what seems to be an impractical passion but managed to create something that is useful to large numbers of paying customers. Listen to this candid and introspective conversation with a young man who thinks deeply but acts practically. In particular, I liked what he had to say about how founders can prepare their psyche for the arduous journey of building their startup: “It turns out that anything that you accomplish in life actually brings a crush of responsibility, so you really just have to enjoy the journey because there is no magic carpet ride of happiness that comes with any accomplishment.” HERE ARE THE TOPICS COVERED AND SOME QUOTES: Matt Singer Bio Matt Singer Actively Looks for a Way to Turn His Passion for Music into a Living, and Succeeds The Story of The Talk Market Which Became Videolicious How Matt Connected with his Great Co-founder, Amanda Eilian What Videolicious Does Today Sal Daher Reads a Review from Listener ChangDS and Ask Listeners to Leave a Review on iTunes The Pivot that Turned The Talk Market into Videolicious The Vision Stayed the Same, the Implementation Changed Great Point about Finding Your Focus “From the perspective of entrepreneurs, I think it's just good to note that you can have a vision but there are a lot of choices along the way in terms of who should you really sell to.” Videolicious is Taught at 90 Schools of Journalism – It’s Becoming Ingrained Instead of a Sales Binder Videolicious Allows You to Send Your Customer a Compelling Personalized Video “Video is becoming the standard way that people create content.” Videolicious’ Board Has Been Very Supportive – They’ve Been Amenable to Reasoned Arguments “Yeah, you've heard that theme of focus, focus, focus, but exactly what that means is not always super clear.” "Wow. What do I need not only just to get in the door, but also to keep them forever?" How Matt Singer Got Amazon as an Early Investor in His Company How Videolicious’ VC Backers Help with More than Money The Interesting Route Videolicious Took to VC Funding The Path Ahead for Videolicious – Making Video Creation Ever Easier & More Effective Matt Singer’s Three Bits of Advice for New Founders “Definitely finding a great co-founder is important… someone that you can really work with… work through thick and thin, because there's going to be ups and downs constantly and so it's great to have someone that can support you and you can support them.” “…thinking through the entire lifecycle of your customer from the acquisition to renewal.” Having a Long-term View Is Crucial in Selling to Enterprise Customers Because Everybody Works from Home, Videolicious Looks for Self-starters ” I do find that being able to tell the story and the vision is a good way to attract talent.” Other Startups That Matt Singer Admires – Companies That Make Using their Product Super Easy What Matt Singer Has in Common with C.S. Lewis “…most technology is pretty disruptive for your average employee. It's different than what they're used to doing. That's what you have to contend with as a startup, you assume that's a big jump, even if your product in the isolation is easy.” Matt Singer’s Parting Thoughts – A Truly Valuable Observation “It turns out that anything that you accomplish in life actually brings a crush of responsibility, so you really just have to enjoy the journey because there is no magic carpet ride of happiness that comes with any accomplishment.”

Join Sal Daher's Investment Syndicate: Click to Join Sponsored by Peter Fasse, patent attorney at Fish & Richardson Brad Feld and Dave Jilk bring the wisdom of modernity's most unsettling thinker to entrepreneurship.  Like the ancient Stoics, Nietzsche has much to add to the thought of people disrupting existing assumptions today. Brief excerpts from Nietzsche  are paired with essays from founders who grapple with the ideas in question.  Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Brad Feld, Co-Founder of Techstars The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors by Dave Jilk & Brad Feld “…for every two lines of Nietzsche, there's probably two pages of Brad Feld and another entrepreneur talking about something really important.” “…I thought I knew something about Nietzsche, and pretty much everything I knew about Nietzsche was wrong.” “…Nietzsche was a Nazi.” - "Don't believe everything you hear about Nietzsche." Nietzsche’s Sister and Literary Executor Was Indeed a Nazi Who Tried to Co-opt Her Brother’s Thoughts into Nazism “Dave [Jilk] and I met at MIT, we've been friends since college. I met him on the first day of college.” Product Placement for Toscanini’s Ice Cream in Cambridge  Dave Jilk Is the One Who First Became Hooked on Nietzsche Brad Fled and Dave Jilk Edited Quotes from Open-source Translations of Nietzsche’s Works to Make Them Intelligible to 21st Century Readers LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Who Read Philosophy at Oxford, Wrote the Foreword “…page one would be the title page and would say The Venture Playbook, and the next 299 pages would be blank.” “The power of being an entrepreneur is finding your own way.” Nietzsche and Mentor Whiplash Silent Killers Fake It Before You Make – Bad & Good "If thou gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee." Sal Daher Talks About Sponsor Peter Fasse of Fish & Richardson Brad Feld on Angel Investing “…of the 40 investments, 20 of them were zeros, 20 failed. Three of them were worth each more than a hundred times my money.” One of Brad Feld’s 100X Investments Was Harmonix (Guitar Hero) “…recognize that being an entrepreneur…will be more successful for you if you view it as a life journey rather than a single company.” “Don't ask people to be your mentor. Do things for those people that engage you with their world…” Brad Feld on Biotech: “…life sciences is so big…picking a couple of areas or types of companies, where you can start to build both expertise and real networking...an understanding of what's real and what's not real” Adam Grant’s Give and Take Topics: co-founder, management, Techstars, software, returns, angel investing strategies

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join Bettina Hein is the founder of Pixability, one of the fastest-growing companies in Massachusetts. She was also co-founder of SVOX, a profitable Swiss startup sold to Nuance Communications for $125MM. This record may make her success seem easier to achieve than it was. Bettina Hein overcame numerous obstacles to justify the sobriquet “Fearless Founder”. Learn from her as I did. She is an exemplar of resilience, grace under fire and plain common sense. She also has much to teach us about how a startup might best raise money. Whenever I ask angel investors about a remarkable pivot by a founder, there’s a good chance Bettina’s name will come up. Don’t miss this charming and instructive conversation with a star founder. Here are topics and quotes from the interview: Bettina Hein Bio How Bettina Hein Found Her Entrepreneurial Path in Life Bettina Hein Used to Write Computer Programs in Fourth Grade but Did Not Learn to Code in College; Why? Professors Discouraged Bettina Hein from Pursuing a Career in the Sciences “If I had to go back, I would probably get an undergraduate degree in either electrical engineering or computer science.” “I think I wanted to be an entrepreneur very early on. There's just that example that was set in my family. There's no one in my family that has had a nine to five job ever, except my brother…” Bettina Hein Founds an Entrepreneurship Initiative for Students at her University Called Start, that Leads her to Brains-to-Venture, Which Connects Her with Her co-founders in SVOX SVOX Has a $125 MM Exit to Nuance Communications Bettina Hein Starts Pixability – Looked for Co-founders But Could Not Find Any Willing Takers – How She made Being a Solo Founder Work Pixability’s Storied Pivots “We help large brands and their agencies place their video advertising and optimize it on YouTube, and we've expanded to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.” How Pixability’s Platform Impacts the Viewing Public “Consumers like it better, and brands get more out of it.” Sal Daher Reads an iTunes Review from HealthTech617 – Asks You to Leave a Review on iTunes Bettina Hein’s Advice on Fundraising for a Startup Bettina Hein on How Things Change Once a Startup Gets Venture Funding Bettina Hein Thinks Founders Are Scared of Having a Board So They Miss out on a Lot “Many beginning entrepreneurs are scared of having a board. They fear the meddling in their business. They fear that people will force decisions on them, on the board. I have not seen that ever happen.” “For me, often times the exercise of preparing for a board meeting is almost more important than the board meeting itself because it allows me to really think through the narrative of the company.” Bettina Hein’s Way of Balancing Work & Family Bettina Hein on Fundraising While Pregnant Bettina Hein on Marketing Technology’s Crowded Landscape   Topics: discovering entrepreneurship, pivot, venture funding, boards, co-founders, raising money

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join Repeat biotech founder Todd Zion on SmartCells (acquired by Merck for $500MM) and his current venture Akston Bio which is doing cool things with proteins. Todd has valuable insights on VC funding, angel investing and founding teams. This interview’s a peach! Intro of Todd Zion, PhD Co-Founder of SmartCells (Merck) and Akston Bio Todd Zion Was Fascinated by the Potential of Polymers to Do Powerful Things Smart Drug Delivery – Making Insulin Adapt to Blood Glucose Levels “…then got bitten by the bug, like I said, of the entrepreneurial spirit that runs quite strong through MIT.” “…with SmartCells, we made a conscious effort to build a company that could be capital efficient and achieve what angels want out of an investment…” Jeff Behrens’ Experience at Siamab Is Discussed Todd Zion Is Leery of Raising Big Money Because It Raises Costs “…you should always be betting on the jockey and not necessarily the horse.” “Sometimes you may throw out really good ideas, due to a lack of resources.” “…anyone with ten million spends the last million better than the first nine.” “...in a venture-funded world, there's a huge amount of price inflation.” “…if anyone wants a job at Akston, you can get a covered garage parking in the winter.” Akston’s Basic Technology: Coupling a Protein to an Antibody to Enhance the Function of the Protein Reversing the Body’s Autoimmune Response to Insulin Which Causes Type 1 Diabetes. The Importance of a GMP (good manufacturing practices) Facility of Your Own Creating an Ultra Long-Acting Insulin for Dogs & Cats Akston Pivoted to Making a Protein-Based COVID Vaccine From the Design of the Molecule to Human Trials Took Only 11 Months Advantages of Protein-Based Vaccines: Easy to Make, Easy to Store and Contain No Genetic Components Akston’s Protein-Based Vaccine Is Expected to Be as Effective as J&J’s Parting Thoughts from Todd Zion If It’s Easy and Obvious You’re Probably Doing It Wrong Advice Applies to Angel Investors as Well Making Money Is Important But, You Need Deeper Motivation or You’ll Quit Repeat Founding Teams Can Be Really Powerful – The Blues Brothers   Topics: biotech, partnerships with strategics, venture capital, co-founders, angel investing strategies

Everything you never wnated to kn

Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join Sponsored by Peter fasse, patent attorney: https://www.fr.com/team/j-peter-fasse/ Angel investor Paul Silva has an idea about how to help startups after they exit accelerators. Launch413 is taking the friction out of getting and giving advice to founders. Great chat with a fun guest who is also a listener. Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Angel Investor Paul Silva “…because they're a first-time founder, so they're going to make all the first-timer mistakes. We don't want to pay the tuition bill for them to learn, right?” “…a lot of great founders out there that don't…have access to those things, and so angels…say no because they're inexperienced. That drove me nuts. That was the problem that inspired Launch413.” “…providing each of our entrepreneurs a virtual C-suite of executive coaches.” “…we get compensation…through a royalty sharing agreement with the entrepreneurs. We don't take any equity.” 413 Portfolio Startup IgnitePost Greatly Improves Responses to Sales Calls 413 Portfolio Startup Apprentiscope Takes the Friction Out of Hiring Interns Super Angel Jay Batson’s Back Story and Revenue Based Finance Sal’s Portfolio Company AceUp Makes Coaching Easy for Large Enterprises Sal Daher Asks Paul Silva About Ways to Back Early-Stage Biotech Startups Eric Ries’ Podcast Out of the Crisis Sal’s Critique of Syndications – Paul Silva’s Response QSM Diagnostics – Doing a Lot with Modest Funding Savran Tech., Purdue Company with Ultra-Rare Cell Technology Waseem Daher of Pilot on Why You Can’t Have Too Many Angels “As an angel, I love that my money is helping do all the things, but I really want to do more. I want to help.” Paul Silva Brainstorms Ways to Help Purdue Connect with Angels “There's a huge gap in what happens after the entrepreneur launches the company.” “He joined a group of these angel investors in New England where they ride in their motorcycle and they listen to angel pitches in different towns in New England”

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join In 2013*, my brother-in-law Martin Aboitiz sat in my dining room and sketched out a business he planned to start. I thought “majnun” which is Arabic for crazy! How would this guy who had built software companies in Argentina found a startup to help Americans have better access to their healthcare data? But I underestimated his resourcefulness and titanic tenacity. Four years later, Healthjump is at cashflow break even and has 7.5 million patients in its data warehouse. I’m glad because I have some real money riding on Martin’s company. Listen to this lighthearted but informative interview. It was inspired, in part, by an excellent meal shared by the interlocutors the night before which included an outstanding paella (see photo) and some delightful wines. We talked healthcare, pivots, angel investing homeruns and flops and many other matters. * (I said 2003 in the podcast by mistake) Topics covered include: Sal Daher’s Intro for the Relaunch Martin Aboitiz Bio Martin Aboitiz Gets Started in His Career Lessons from Working in a World Bank-funded Project in the Philippines Lessons from Doing Business in Argentina How Did Martin Discover He Wanted to Be an Entrepreneur? Martin Aboitiz’s Advice about Dealing with Failure – Really Good Stuff! Martin Aboitiz’ First Startup – Intermedia Martin Aboitiz Sets Up an Informal Incubator for Argentine Startups Martin Aboitiz Founds Healthjump in 2013 to Make Medical Records More Accessible to the Patient Problem: Healthcare Data is Sitting in Silos and People Don’t Have Access Healthjump’s Pivot Saber & Amadeus as Analogues “Now in healthcare it's different because what we're seeing right now is the equivalent of the Hyatt across the street buying the bed and breakfast. That did not happen in travel but it's happening in healthcare.” Lack of Healthcare Record Interoperability Is Pushing Consolidation to an Absurd Extreme Healthjump is Helping Make Electronic Health Records (EHR) Software More Interoperable Seven and a Half Million Patient Records Now Reside in Healthjump’s Data Warehouse As More Practices Use Healthjump to Understand Their Data the Number of Patients Who Can Use Healthjump to Access their Records Grows – Network Effect Healthjump is at Cashflow Breakeven Martin Aboitiz Starts Angel Investing – Three Homeruns in a Row – Thought Angel Investing Was Easy Martin’s Favorite Pivot Story - Twitter Argentina as a Place to Build a Startup – OLX & Mercado Libre Topics: founding story, pivot, product, angel investing strategies, returns

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join Purdue is going all out to be Innovation U. Professor Wayne Chen and I spoke of the various initiatives to that end including evaluating faculty on the patents they get and what startups they found. Highlights: Sal Daher Introduces Professor Wayne Chen Who Leads Innovation at Purdue’s School of Engineering Initiatives Afoot at Purdue to Get Technology Out of the Lab and Into Society Sal Talks About How Çağrı Savran, a Purdue Professor Was Helped in Founding Savran Technologies Applying Machine Learning to Determine the Best Management Strategies The Value of Machine Learning: “…you hit something that the typical human cannot see, that's where your opportunity space, right?” Purdue School of Engineering Now Being Evaluated on Value of Patents and Starting Companies “…"No, I'm not a CEO material," we find you a CEO.” Purdue Is Making Big Investments in Creating Spaces to Connect with Industry Pitch for Peter Passe, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson How Angel Groups Work Purdue University Is Geographically Isolated – Seeking to Connect with Startup Hubs The Increasing Possibilities of Virtual Connections Post- Corona “…the disciplines in which Purdue is strong are closer with the investor community in Boston than they are with Silicon Valley…” Why Sal Daher, CFA Is Now Investing Only in the Life Sciences Sal’s Biotech Investing Screen Sal Invites Listeners to Provide Ideas as to How Life Science Companies Can Best Be Supported The National Science Foundation Is Now Emphasizing Taking Scientific Discovery to Commercialization Purdue Is Also Supporting Student Entrepreneurship Wayne Chen’s Closing Thoughts Topics: university relations, raising money, discovering entrepreneurship, management, robotics / AI

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate: Click to Join Federico Cismondi, co-founder of Sal’s portfolio company doDoc, is back on the podcast to talk about the company’s acquisition and the lessons he learned from the initial raise to the exit. A charming and instructive conversation with a thoughtful founder. Why Getting the Best Patent Advice is Indispensable Sal Daher Introduces Federico Cismondi, Co-Founder of doDoc Which Was Recently Acquired The Problem that doDoc Solves “This is the platform for those people who need workarounds because Google Docs just doesn't cut it for them, or Microsoft Word…” Federico, as CEO, Learned He Needed to Delegate More doDocs Pivot from Academic Clients to Pharmaceutical Clients doDoc’s Near-Death Experience and What Federico Learned from It doDoc Was Initially Built with Unsuitable Technology - Making a Dog Meow Entrepreneurship in Portugal - What Argentina and Portugal Have in Common How the Exit Came About “...we try to create settings for people to share their ideas, to present them and to run with them. Sometimes they don't even need the validation from a supervisor...in order to run with that idea…” Federico Cismondi Spoke with 1000 people to Get 24 Investors for doDoc Spending More Time with His Co-Founder Than with His Wife Federico Cismondi’s Parting Advice to Founders Topics: co-founders, management, exits, culture, Techstars, software

Sponsored by Peter Fasse, Patent Attorney at Fish & Richardson: https://www.fr.com/team/j-peter-fasse/ Join Sal's Syndicate: Click Here Two brilliant scholarship kids became friends at Georgia Tech and went on to found a company that could change the world. This is the story of Matthew Stellmaker and Keith Hearon and of the good chemistry manifested in their friendship and in the creation of new polymers friendly to people and nature. The idea came to Matthew when he was working at a large company that produces 50,000 tons of citrus waste per year. His friend Keith thought that he could do something interesting with the citrus rinds so Matthew got the company to fund the research into creating a use for this natural material. These two young founders display remarkable self-knowledge and reveal discoveries in the art of founding companies that could help other founders, technical or not. It’s a valuable conversation that includes the following topics: Keith Hearon Bio Matthew Stellmaker Bio Keith Hearon Views Himself as an Entrepreneur Who Uses Science to Commercialize Valuable Products – Inspired by Ken Gall, Founder & Inventor How Keith & Mathew Became Friends How to Find a Job in Architecture in a Down Market Challenge of Langer Lab Further Energized Keith Hearon How Poly6 Got Started How Poly6 Zeroed in on its First Use Case How Poly6 Zeroed in on its First Use Case How Being Co-founders Changed Their Friendship Should You Found a Company with Your Friend? The Risks of Moonlighting The Care & Feeding of Advisors – Busy People Generous with Their Time Other Startups Matthew & Keith Admire