Angel Invest Boston

Gamer turned AI maven, Kevin Lyman is implementing Jeremy Howard’s vision of harnessing the super chips that power gaming machines (GPUs) to interpret medical images. Deep learning algorithms are already making radiologists faster and better at their work. It’s a story of man plus machine not man versus machine. Don’t miss this accessible report from the frontier where machine is starting to make a tangible difference in medical care. Some highlights from the interview: Kevin Lyman Versions 1.0 & 2.0 Kevin Lyman, Gamer Turned AI Maven Stints at Hasbro, SpaceX & Microsoft The Inventors Guild Jeremy Howard of Kaggle Fame Decides AI Is Ready to Take on Medical Imaging-Founds Enlitic GPUs: Good for Gaming + Processing Medical Images “…deep learning has managed to turn AI into more of an engineering problem than a science problem.” “…you can see most AI setups today as being like a black box.” Kevin Lyman Dropped Everything to Join Jeremy Howard at Enlitic “…they didn't just give us the $10 million in our Series A. They gave us 100 terabytes of historic patient data-“ “…21% faster, they caught 11% more of the true positives and with 9% fewer false positives…” “…we should not be focused on man versus machine… We should be very focused on man plus machine…” AI – Compare & Contrast Kevin Lyman’s Personality Disposes Him to Work in Startups Kevin Lyman 2.0 Interview – Nine Months Later Headway During Nine Months Since 1.0 95% Body Coverage About to Deploy Beta with Capitol Health

The secrets of startup fundraising revealed by an angel steeped in Boston’s tech investing scene. 35 minutes is all it takes to make you a better fundraiser. Sal Daher, CFA of the Angel Invest Boston Podcast is your mentor. Topics covered include: Introduction Why Do You Need Funding? “So, raising money has to be for a purpose. There's a real danger of getting money and it killing your ” Secret #1: Raising Money Is Selling – Stephen Hawking vs. Willy Loman – Warm Calling not Spamming Secret of Fundraising #2: Ask for Advice to Get Money, Ask for Money to Get Advice Secret of Fundraising #2.50: Start with the Least Likely Prospects – Your Pitch Will Improve Secret of Fundraising #2.75: Angels & VCs Require Different Pitches Secret of Fundraising #3: Fundraising Can Paralyze Your Business Types of Funding “The problem is, early on, who knows what your company's worth?” Understanding the Difference Between Angel Money and VC Money “…do not underestimate the value of a functioning board.” Sean’s Question on Picking VCs Nathan’s Question About When to Raise Money Matt’s Question About Better Ways to Match Founding Teams with Investors Elizabeth’s Question About How Angels Put Together a Portfolio of Startup Investments A Question About Investment Theses Please Leave a Review on iTunes, It Helps Us Get Found

His bonhomie masks a keen intelligence that has, for decades, taken note of what makes or breaks founding teams. Joe Caruso is the CEO Whisperer, the Father Confessor to Founders. Joe’s an intrepid angel investor who goes where other angels fear to tread. This makes him a highly sought-after board member or advisor. I was privileged to sit down with him for an hour and to imbibe his wisdom and good humor. Typical Joe Caruso comment: “…you don't train a Labrador to flap its ears. It makes for a lousy butterfly.”   Here are some highlights of what we discussed: Joe Caruso Introduction Joe Caruso Bio How Joe Discovered He Wanted to Be the Father Confessor to CEOs How Roxbury Latin School, the One True School, Figured in Joe Caruso’s Formation Joe Caruso Drops Out of High School and Enrolls at Northeastern University Boston’s Unique Environment for Learning: Jeff Bezos Take Note “I'm in the cafeteria … and at the table is a newspaper from the prior June … and they had a list of starting salaries of all the people who graduated, and electrical engineers made more than anyone else, so I said I guess I'll be one of them.” “…co-op [work/study program at Northeastern] taught me that engineering wasn't my strong suit.” Outstanding Argument in Favor of Northeastern’s Co-op Program Delightful Story About Joe Caruso Considering Turning Down Harvard Business School Joe Caruso Had No Idea of the Value of Networking While at Harvard Business School! “I studied and ... I took no advantage of that [networking at HBS], which in retrospect was a huge missed opportunity.” How Doing Turnarounds Got Joe Caruso Involved with Level Up “Here's this 19-year-old kid, either freshman or sophomore at Princeton, that was going to drop out to start a company.” “It had gaming, location-based. As I kidded with him, it was very buzzword-compliant.” “If you give me a bright, passionate, high-integrity entrepreneur, that's the ticket of admission to at least me considering investing.” Semyon Dukach’s Answer to “Should I Start a Company?” “…you don't train a Labrador to flap its ears. It makes for a lousy butterfly.” “None of this is off-topic. … Our topic is human nature.” “So, be who you are. That also says, "complement who you are."” The Change in Business Plan of Which Joe Caruso is Proudest From Measuring Alpha Waves to Helping People Recover from Spinal Injuries Leveraging Personal Computers for Lab Automation The Particular Hell of VCs with Conflicting Interests Sal Daher Reads the Review from Listener bpaul2 – Reminds You to Leave a Review in iTunes Joe Caruso’s Favorite Pivot Joe Caruso’s First Investment Joe Caruso’s Parents Were Survivors of the Depression Era and thus Not Open to Entrepreneurship "We've gotta get you out of the basement." Joe Caruso’s Apologia for the Value of Boards – Directors vs. Advisors What Advice Do You Find Yourself Giving Over and Over? Joe Caruso’s Parting Thoughts

Few are as well positioned to see the huge opportunities that exist for small and medium businesses in digital marketing as the founder of Constant Contact. In his new company, Brevi, Randy Parker is using software to allow mom & pop businesses to access those opportunities in ways that pay. I had loads of fun talking to this most clever and affable guest; and I learned a lot. Here’s what we touched on: Randy Parker Introduction How Randy Parker Discovered He Wanted to Build Software What Took Randy Parker from Florida to MIT “So, I was third generation entrepreneur. My kids now I say are fourth generation entrepreneurs when they're doing things.” “…in a consultant practice it's always, essentially, you're usually being hired to solve something that other people haven't figured it out.” “I grew up in a family thinking about A/B tests, and marketing…” Roving Software / Constant Contact Started as an Information Agent for Business Constant Contact Was Essentially a SaaS Business by Another Name Sal Daher Thanks Listener JaySingh1022 for an iTunes Review – Asks for Your Review What Brevi, Randy Parker’s Current Startup, Does “The way we can do that [allow the local coffee shop to compete with Starbucks] is, to actually tap into their data.” Brevi Ties into the Small Business’ Operating Software to Learn About Opportunities for Growth “…there is no substitute for the integrity and the commitment to the small business.” Intuit’s Scott Cook as the Model of Attention to All Customers For 2019, Randy Parker Hopes to Give Users a Tangible ROI on Their Ad Spend Thriving on the Abundance of Data, Machine Learning Can See Patterns Humans Can’t Randy Parker and the Proto-Kindle Alice’s Table Outseta “…startups are like a family. And so, like families, there are some great things about them and there may be more challenging things about them.”

Invest Alongside Boston's Top Angel in Our Syndicates: Link to Syndicates Page Angel investors Catherine Friend White and Ben Littauer answered questions about investing in startups in front of an audience at Babson College. Then the audience got to ask questions. The conversation ranged from the optimal portfolio size to the usefulness of the blockchain. Here are some highlights: Sal Introduces Live Event - Thanks Nina Block & Margaret Jone from Babson for Making it Possible Sal Introduces Angel Catherine Friend White Sal Introduces Angel Ben Littauer How Catherine Became an Angel Investor How Ben Became an Angel Investor “…there are about 32 [angel groups] here in New England…” “…I have so many soft values that I get from doing this [angel investing]…” KnipBio & UltraCell Cognition Therapeutics – Susan Catalano “Having run my own company for 27 years, I have also my own list of what not to do…” “If you have 25 [investments], you can probably diversify away a fair amount of the risk.” “One of the biggest mistakes that early investors make is, they have a good outcome on their first bet and then they think they can pick winners.” “…angel deals are chronically underfunded in the Boston area…” “…when you're providing growth capital you need to keep providing more.” NextShift Robotics ICOs “…I think that there is a lot of value in blockchain, but there's a lot of swamp around the blockchain ecosystem…” “The other thing to know about blockchain is that the NSA has cracked it.” Potential of Using the Blockchain for Storing Medical Records Maybe This Is a Situation Where an ICO Makes Sense Coachability Is Crucial for Founders "I am going to be the forever CEO." “…come to us and ask for advice, you might get money.” Golden Seed Office Hours & The Capital Network, TCN, as Great Resources Q&A: Joel Francois of Helius Power Q&A: Ankit Soni of Cricket++ Q&A: Bob Goodof of Walnut Ventures Q&A: Brett Wagner of Waec LLC

Zipcar’s first investor, Jean Hammond, is Boston’s indispensable angel. Her hands-on approach has been pivotal to the success of her startup and several others. She co-founded the leading accelerator for educational technology startups, LearnLaunch. The interview was great fun and hugely instructive to me. Don’t miss it! Here are some highlights: Sal Introduces Jean Hammond From Studying Biology at Boston University to Running a Food Warehouse Jean Decides She Needs a Rigorous MBA – Goes to MIT Sloan Moved to Edinburgh & Worked at Fast-Growing Computer Networking Startup “By the time I left there [Spyder], I felt like I'd done all the different functions in a little startup and done it while growth was going on.” Jean Hammond Founds AXON “AXON was four years old when 3Com acquired it and had grown quite rapidly to a pretty good business, and we got a pretty good price.” Jean Hammond’s Second Startup, Quarry, Suffered from Bottlenecks in Telecom Infrastructure “We live in a magic world of technology today that just things you wouldn't have imagined could happen are happening every day.” “First, I wish to thank listener Phillip L. 36 for this great review on iTunes” Jean Hammond Becomes Zipcar’s First Investor “By coming back into town and talking to everybody, I found out that I was an angel investor. I didn't even know that all of that time.” This Is Why We Call Her the Indispensable Angel Jean Hammond Invests Widely with Boston’s Angel Community Golden Seeds & Teaching Angel Investing Jean Hammond Starts the Activity that Would Lead to the Founding of LearnLaunch, the Ed Tech Accelerator “Education is a really interesting industry. It's the last of the giant industries, well over five trillion globally, maybe six, to digitize.” “Qstream is based on technology that actually understands how memories are fixed.” “…learning science is quite clear that we need to be striving, taking a little bit harder than you took the last time.” “…some of our most excited investors in the LearnLaunch accelerator are coming in from India and China and Japan because they want to be a part of these changes.” Jean Hammond’s Thoughts on the Importance of Boards to Startups “Being a board member for a startup is actually quite a challenging job…” Jean Hammond’s Parting Thoughts

Timeless values of loyalty and integrity have helped Phillips Kuhl build a thriving company at the heart of one of the economy’s most innovative sectors: biotechnology. Holding more than 250 conferences per year, Cambridge Healthtech Institute or CHI, helps participants discover new perspectives on the problems they are addressing. This impressive feat requires the concerted effort of 150 talented employees whose encouragement and guidance are Phillips Kuhl’s constant concern. I really enjoyed discovering how my friend of long standing built his remarkable company. Here are some highlights: Sal Introduces Phillips Kuhl “…consorting with biotech royalty…” Russian Studies & Economics at Haverford Reading Russian Novels to Stay Awake on the Night Shift “I always knew that I wanted to work for myself. I didn't work particularly well for someone else. I'm not great at following someone else's direction…” Grandmother Provided Phillips with a Model for Entrepreneurship Fast Growth Got the Attention of Vidar Jorgensen Who Was Already in the Conference Business The Easiest Decision: Become an Entrepreneur “…one of the key lessons was figuring out who were the people that represent the buy side of that topic, who are the people that represent the sell side…” “…critically valuable to have several different perspectives that are brought together…” “You're going to hear perspectives that you otherwise might not be aware of…” Listener BPaul2 says: "Great content. Very informative podcast for entrepreneurs to get inspired and start working in their ideas." Company Crisis Number One Company Crisis Number Two Company Crisis Number Three The Heartbreak of Having to Fire Good Employees A Culture of Openness Sets CHI Apart Angel Investing: SQZ Biotech Savran Tech Angel Investing: Glycosyn What Phillips Most Appreciates About Boston

The possibility of transcending the limits of human intelligence in scientific discovery has led this young British scientist to leave academia and found a startup. Founder & CEO James Field and LabGenius are engineering the evolutionary process to create novel proteins that have remarkable qualities. I caught up with James at TEDMED and had a most revealing interview. Topics covered include: Sal Pitches the Syndicate Sal Introduces James Field, CEO & Founder of LabGenius James Field Was Inspired to Become a Scientist by Science Fiction Discovered Synthetic Biology by Participating in iGEM James Field Is the Second PhD from Imperial College on the Podcast, Beth Marcus Was the First “…the big flaw in my approach was that I was trying to apply rational engineering principles to nano-scale highly complex biological systems. And in my opinion, that's the wrong way to go about it.” “…if you start testing many designs in parallel and then selecting for the ones that work, you don't have to be smart.” “…LabGenius is a vehicle through which we can explore and harness evolution to develop new products.” Founding a Company Was the Best Way to Accelerate the Work that Excited Him Harnessing Evolution, but Doing it Better than the Natural Process “…in the case of natural evolution, the process doesn't get any smarter. But the beauty of our process is every single time we conduct one of these evolutionary cycles, we gain information that then enables us to be more intelligent about how we design these biological systems.” Concrete Applications “…because we're so mission-driven, we're gonna continue this mission until either we succeed or conclusively fail.” “…I was really banging my head against a brick wall until I found a group of investors who understand this to be an important part of the development of humanity…” Transcending Human Intelligence by Designing Evolutionary Processes for Scientific Discovery Is Astonishingly Promising James Field’s Parting Words

Invest Alongside Boston's Top Angels: Click Here to Join Our Syndicates List   Aki Balogh had a project to apply machine learning to help content creators. Suddenly it looked like a business when Jeff Coyle, the VP of Search at an established company, joined him as co-founder. MarketMuse is now a fast-growing startup helping hundreds of companies figure out what content to create. Aki, Jeff and VP of Engineering at MarketMuse, Noah Davis, were in studio for an engaging interview. Some highlights: Sal Talks about Angel Invest Boston’s Syndicate Aki Balogh Talks about Going to Community College at age 15 Jeff Coyle Goes from Computer Science at Georgia Tech to Content Marketing A “Take Your Kid to Work” Day Gets 12-Year Old Noah Davis Interested in Software Engineering “I like computer science, but I was not going to be the best engineer. I wanted to do something with people.” Jeff Coyle’s First Job Out of College Gave Him Exposure to Entrepreneurship “So, I'd been trying to solve the problem that MarketMuse solves by hand, manually, for ten years.” “And she asked me if I wanted to see something cool. Of course, I did. So, she slung a few lines of code … and made something happen and appear on a screen that had previously had nothing on it. From that moment, I was hooked-“ “And some of the things we use APIs for at MarketMuse allow us to move very fast as an organization.” MarketMuse’s Founding Story “I think you should be at a startup, either running your own or working on somebody else's. And that operational experience would make you a better investor down the line.” “So, I started thinking, I wonder if there's a way we can use machine learning to actually help with this content creation problem and help us figure out what to write about and how to write about it…” “…oh my gosh, the Vice President of Search from TechTarget is interested in what we do, I nearly fell out of my chair.” “If you have that culture of content internally, you can really take this quickly and integrate it in your workflows to be more successful at the planning side, and then even in the execution side.” “The search-engine industry has changed in the meantime here to really start caring about content quality too.” “…basically we have a software as a service solution that allows you to evaluate the quality and comprehensiveness of any page on any topic.” “Processes that would take tens, twenties of hours in the past, the research elements, we're doing in minutes.” Aki Balogh’s Advice to Startups in Finding Their First Use Case “…we were fully remote because I would just work with wherever I found talent…” MarketMuse Uses Slack and Confluence to Keep Remote Staff on the Same Page “I wanted to avoid venture until as late as possible because it creates a couple of bad behaviors.” Sal Brings Up Wistia as Fantastic Bootstrappers “The more data you crunch, the more cases you see, the more knowledgeable you are and therefore the farther ahead you are of your competitors who haven't crunched those particular numbers. This is an interesting-“ “…your quality of life basically just falls, continually falls as the company grows, because you have less personal freedoms and so on. But it's a very meaningful process…” “…40% of a startup is articulating what the software does…” Creating an Environment in your Startup for People who Are not Entrepreneurs

Invest Alongside Boston's Leading Angels in Our Syndicates: OPT IN HERE In this interview, repeat founder Jo Schneier addresses the problem of providing effective training to the 64 percent of the population that does not have a college degree. Drawing on Jo’s experiences and prior startups, Cognotion’s opening gambit is a training platform for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) an occupation with stratospheric job turnover. Cognotion seems to be succeeding in improving retention of its client’s CNAs. Here are some of the topics addressed: Sal’s Pitch for the Angel Invest Boston Syndicate Sal’s Intro of Jo Schneier How Jo Schneier Became an Entrepreneur Jo Schneier Is Pulled into Cognotion “We looked at all of the 64 percent of Americans that don't get a college degree, a four-year college degree. And we were asking ourselves, where did they land in the workforce? And were there opportunities for them where they can move from a minimum wage job up the ladder a little bit, so they start on the pathway up for economic mobility.” “Right, so instead of paying an agency three to six thousand dollars to place somebody, they essentially become the school for this new employee.” “Yeah, the turnover rate for CNAs and at skilled nursing facilities is 147 percent in the first month…So, if we can get somebody to four months, the likelihood they're gonna stay for four years is significantly higher.” How Cognotion Built Its Team Features that Make Cognotion’s Learning Platform for CNAs Effective “…we formed channel partnerships with some larger institutions that are already selling into this space.” “So, our biggest competitors are in-person schools.” Qstream as a Possible Model? Cognotion’s Funding Trajectory $5.5 Million Angel Round Advice to Founders & CEOs – Absorb the Stress & Hire People Smarter than You “This is a complex time in America's history. And I think it's a unique opportunity, also, for people who are smart and dedicated entrepreneurs to look at how can we participate in improving the economy today.” Jo Schneier on AI & Employment