Angel Invest Boston

Invest Alongside Boston's Leading Angels Via Syndicates: Opt In Here Cambridge-based Wistia has taken the road less-traveled to success. They did not raise a lot of money but now compete with richly-funded startups. What’s their secret? Listen to the interview with the delightful founders of this popular video platform, Brendan Schwartz and Chris Savage, as they discuss the unique culture and vision that make the startup remarkable. During the interview I pondered naming the episode “They Did It Their Way”; an echo of the song made famous by Frank Sinatra. I decided against this title because Chris and Brendan are nothing like the self-absorbed crooner. Actually, they are two friends from college who built a business together and still enjoy working and socializing with each other. The beautiful story of their friendship is only one of the attractions in this bravura interview. Highlights include: Brendan Schwartz and Chris Savage Bio Wistia’s Founders Lived and Worked in a 10-Person House in Cambridge Keeping Costs Low “When we started Wistia, we were both 23 years old. I think really the thing that was the most attractive to me was that it was an adventure, and that no two days would be the same.” Wistia’s Founders Tried a Lot of Ideas Before They Found Their First Use Case How Wistia Found its First Use Case Startups Tend to Undercharge for Their Services; Wistia Was No Different in This $400 per Month from the First Corporate Client Was a Lot Compared to a Burn Rate of $1600 per Month “Today, Wistia is a video platform.” “It’s really trying to make it easy for you to get value from your videos.” “There's no way Wistia would be what it is today if we weren't crazy scrappy for many, many years.” Sal Asks for Your Review – He Points at Chris & Brendan Significantly! Great Advice on Finding Your First Use Case The Savage Rule: “If you're not embarrassed by the stuff you're putting out in the world, you probably have taken too long in protecting it or trying to make it perfect…” On Being Friends and then Co-Founders – Dos & Don’ts Chris Savage & Brendan Schwartz, Like Bettina Hein of the Founder of Pixability, Are Very Wise About their Schedule Chris Savage’s Brilliant Responses to the “Sleep When You’re Dead” Idea Wistia Has Been Massively Capital Efficient Compared to Brightcove & HubSpot – Their Investors Are Elated!! Over-Funded Competitors Undone by the Video Market’s Slower-Than-Expected Growth Wistia Is Has Put in Place a Financing Structure Unusual for a Startup “We hit on this idea of raising debt so we could do right by the investors, and we could really take a bet on ourselves…” Startups Chris Savage & Brendan Schwartz Admire Parting Thoughts from the Founders of Wistia “I wish everyone could just think longer term.”

Join Sal's Investment Syndicate. Opt In Here: Syndicates Page At age 32 Molly Lindquist was diagnosed with breast cancer. Other women in her family had also endured this terrible ordeal. She survived it and is fighting back. Consano, the crowdfunding platform she founded, funds more than 65 medical research projects at leading academic centers such as Dana-Farber and Memorial/Sloan Kettering. Her work is getting serious attention because she’s figured out how to help disease survivors channel their energies towards defeating the illnesses that beset them. I had the opportunity of interviewing this energetic and engaging founder at TEDMED. Here are some of the topics covered in this brief conversation: Sal’s Pitch for his Investment Syndicate Molly Lindquist Bio Molly Lindquist Is Diagnosed with Breast Cancer, as Both Her Grandmothers Had Been Molly Lindquist Tells Consano’s Founding Story “I mean, over 50% of their time [researcher’s time] is spent fundraising. I'm naively thinking, shouldn't you be in the lab coming up with treatments. We need some cures here.” Molly Lindquist Explains How Consano Works “But people have now been calling this [Consano], this Kickstarter / Match.com hybrid. I was like, did not see the Match.com coming.” “So, our biggest differentiator from many of the other crowdfunding platforms is that we vet each project.” “We've listed about 65 projects from 25 academic centers from West Coast, East Coast, Dana-Farber, Sloan Kettering…” “I think the biggest piece of advice I usually give when people ask me is really, be ready to jump on to an emotional roller coaster.” Molly Lindquist on Work/Life Balance “I think you know my whole premise now is leaving this world, as we all will at some point, having left a mark and having made it a better place.”

Invest Alongside Angels Like Bob Goodof. To Join our Syndicate List Opt In Here: Link to Syndicate Sign Up Growing up in humble circumstances in Ohio, Bob Goodof discovered he had a head for numbers from playing with his baseball cards. At MIT he excelled in material science. After stints in the chemical industry and an MBA from Harvard, Bob became an investment analyst on Wall Street specializing in the oil and gas industry. He now invests as an angel with Walnut Ventures and teaches at Babson. He’s a sought-after advisor to startups and a valued colleague to other angels. Here are the highlights form this fun and engaging conversation: Sal’s Pitch for Angel Invest Boston Syndicates Bob Goodof Bio How Bob Goodof Dodged a Career in Journalism and Ended Up in Engineering Bob Goodof Is a Guy Who Does His Numbers Bob Goodof Dodges a Career in Aero & Astro, Ends Up in Material Science aka Metallurgy Bob Goodof Gets an “Industrial MBA” from Dow Chemicals in His First Job Bob Goodof Was Very Relaxed at Job Interviews, Perhaps Too Much So Why Bob Goodof Decided to Get a Real MBA – The Real Value of a Harvard MBA An Intro to the World of Investment Analysts Bob Goodof Tries to Drag HBS Kicking & Screaming into Entrepreneurship Projects Bob Goodof Gets Fired from His First Job after HBS; 18% Mortgage + an Attempt to Create a Software Newsletter Bob Goodof Makes a Connection Playing Hockey & Gets a Job at Eaton Vance Being an Analyst Was the Perfect Job; Bob Goodof Got to Ask Questions Companies Had to Answer The Origin of Bob Goodof’s Entrepreneurial Urge + Breeding Lobsters in the Brine Bob Goodof’s Rule: “Beware Wisconsin CEOs with Deep Tans” – What He Looks for in Management How the Investment Business Changed during Bob Goodof’s Career Bob Goodof’s Take on Why Fund Managers Buy and Sell Shares So Frequently Sal Reads Helldoc88’s iTunes Review and Urges Listeners to Leave Their Own Reviews How Bob Goodof Started Angel Investing Bob Goodof’s Take on the Associative Nature of Creativity What Bob Goodof Likes to Tell Founders Is there a Danger in Investing Only in Areas You Know? Why Bob Goodof was Intrigued by Fortified Bike Bob Invests in a Nutraceutical Company Startups Bob Goodof Is Excited About: UltraCell, DropWise & Poly6 UltraCell DropWise How Did Poly6 Avoid the Distraction of Too Many Possibilities? A CFO That Can Say No How Bob Goodof Stated the Off Wall Street Conference for Oil & Gas Bigs

Invest with Boston's Leading Angels. Join Our Syndicates: Opt In to Syndicates List Roboticist Keenan Wyrobek’s first career was founding Willow Garage which created ROS (Robot Operating System) that now makes robotic components inter-operable. After creating a foundation to sustain this vital piece of open source software, Keenan went in search of new engineering challenges. He became intrigued with the idea of helping developing countries deliver crucial medical supplies to areas that are poorly served by roads. He co-founded Zipline, the VC funded venture that is improving the lives of people in rural Rwanda. Zipline is now poised for profitable growth. Listen to this inspiring and brilliant engineer speak passionately about solving major problems while building a business. Topics covered: Sal’s Pitch for Angel Invest Boston Syndicates Sal’s Introduction of Keenan Wyrobek How Keenan Wyrobek Became an Engineer Keenan Wyrobek Starts Willow Garage & Creates ROS (Robot Operating Systems) the Ubiquitous Open Source Software that Makes Robot Components Inter-Operable Robotics: 90% Software & 10% Hardware? Keenan Wyrobek Stumbles upon the Idea of Zipline “And I think the reason we got that traction in our conversations is that this was a really visceral problem. Everybody's one degree away from it. It's either your grandmother or you or your sister has gone to the hospital and the doctor says, "I could have helped you, but I don't have X."” It Took Two and a Half Years to Refine the Solution for Delivering Perishable Medical Supplies with Drones “Our first plane had a wingspan that was probably about four feet and what we operate now is 10 feet. So it's went from a plane you could carry under your arm with no problem to a thing that's a beast.” VCs Saw a Huge Opportunity In the Midst of the Drone Craze in 2014 & 2015, Zipline Was Quietly Making Progress New Version of the Drone Is Built to Scale Keenan Wyrobek’s Advice to Young People Interested in Drones Parting Words

INVEST WITH BOSTON'S LEADING ANGELS JOIN OUR SYNDICATES: Opt In Here   Joe Meyer founded ExecThread, https://execthread.com/, to solve a pain point he felt acutely himself. Joe had sold his company to Apple and, after the obligatory stint at the acquirer, was looking for a senior executive position. He was astonished when he revealed all sorts of important things about his career profile to a recruiter and the recruiter did not take notes. That’s when it hit him that the recruiting industry was totally broken and he decided to build a solution for the problem. Two and half years later he has $7MM in VC funding and 25,000 highly selected and engaged users helping him map where the “hidden jobs” are. Among his backers is a co-founder of LinkedIn who was astonished that ExecThread could be aware of the “passive job seeker”, execs who would entertain an offer but who are not seeking a new position actively. Listen to this interview with a founder building a company that promises to be very big and very profitable. Some of the topics addressed: Sal Daher’s Pitch for Angel Invest Boston Syndicates Introduction of the Guest “Absolutely. I also experienced the pain point when I hired executive recruiters as a hiring manager at my last two companies as well, so I've seen it both from the candidate-facing perspective now, as well as from the client or hiring-company perspective.” How ExecThread Works – Accessing the “Hidden Job Market” for High-Level Execs “I quickly realized, though, that this walled-garden approach in the executive search industry actually benefits executive recruiters much more than it does hiring companies, and far more than it does candidates.” “…we've created the largest aggregator of non-listed and non-published jobs in the world, that you won't find on any other job platform out there.” How ExecThread Got VC Funding LinkedIn Co-Founder Lee Hower about Execthread: “"Wow, you guys have access to the passive job-seeker." Joe Meyer Speaking of Executive Recruiters: “…I gave them everything that wasn't on my LinkedIn profile, and the thing that amazed me was, they didn't write it down.” “For an incredibly manual process that we think can be largely automated. And there's a lot of inefficiency in this industry, but there's also a large appetite to pay for solutions.”

Invest with Boston's Leading Angels. Click here to Opt In to Our Syndicates List => Syndicates Page In college, Diane Stokes juggled caring for a sick mother, working full-time, doing ROTC and even had time to be on U Mass Lowell’s cheer leading squad. This energy and focus served her well as she progressed in her career of helping build startup after startup. Eventually, Diane founded a startup of her own. It succeeded beyond her greatest expectations. She invested as an angel for a while but is now back at another startup, helping them grow. My conversation with her revealed a personality of impressive determination and stamina leavened by good humor and genuine caring. I really enjoyed this interview, I think you will too. Topics covered include: Diane Stokes Bio While in College, Diane Stokes Cared for Her Sick Mother, Worked Full-time, Did ROTC and Still Found Time to Be on the Cheerleading Squad How Diane Stokes Found Her Path in Work Life How Diane Stokes Juggled Her Transition from Engineering to Sales While Being a Mom and Getting Her MBA Diane Stokes Left a Poorly Managed Startup and Went to a Second One that Got Acquired by Chipcom, a Particularly Well-run Company at Chipcom Diane Learned a Lot Diane Stokes Realizes She Wants the Startup Life Diane Stokes, Tri-Athlete Sal Daher Reads an iTunes Review by TDN7 – Insightful Review How Diane Stokes Founded her First Startup – Spoiler Alert: Moonlighting Involved In Many Ways, ORP Was the Perfect Startup for Diane Stokes to Co-Found What Diane Stokes Thought She Knew About Startups but Didn’t The Most Useful Things Diane Stokes Learned from Co-Founding ORP – Number of Founders Is Critical The Most Important Thing Sal Daher Learned at The Venture Café 😉 Why Diane Stokes Is Going Back to the Startup Life Important Disclosure About Diane Stokes Diane Stokes Has Joined Wireless Startup Wyebot Heading Up Marketing Diane Stokes Gets Sal to Reveal the Exact Reason He Started the Podcast Parting Thoughts from Diane Stokes

Since its publication in 2011, “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries has determined how startups are built. The idea is that little can be known up front about what customers really want, thus a series of cheap and quick experiments are in order. Minimally viable products (MVPs) are slapped together and put in front of trial audiences with the goal of having them “fail fast”. This rapid experimentation may lead the startup to change directions repeatedly. These changes in business direction have come to be called pivots. Now a team of experienced product people are challenging some aspect of the Lean Startup Method. Among those voices are Geordie Kaytes, Radhika Dutt and Nidhi Aggarwal. They have seen the problems that blind adherence to the Lean Startup Method can bring, such as aimless and unproductive pivoting. They propose a rebalancing towards a more deliberate approach. In our interview Nidhi, Geordie and Radhika tell us what drove them to fashion this new approach to product creation. Radical Product can be found at: Radical Product Website

When Sid Satish saw his first surgery he was struck by the contrast between the advanced technologies in use side by side with ancient practices such as the negotiation over how much patient blood has been lost. He saw an opportunity to apply technology to create an informed calculation of blood loss. This was in 2011, now this technology runs on iPad Pros and is in use at 30 hospitals.   Here are some highlights from this eye-opening interview:   Siddarth Satish’s Bio Got Hooked on Entrepreneurship from Business Plan Competitions at UC Berkeley Gauss’ Device & Software Scans the Operating Room to Estimate Blood Loss – Too Cool! [The Product Is Called Triton and Has Been Adopted at 30 Hospitals and Used on 100,000 patients Already] How Gauss Got Started “…we've had a few of our health systems study the delivery of the system and find that it has clinically impacted blood transfusions, made them more efficient, it has led to a significant increase in the recognition of hemorrhage, which is the problem we're trying to solve….by almost 400 percent.” “When you're trying to change an entire field and trying to change the way that medicine is ultimately practiced with a completely new perspective, it takes re-imagination both on the technical front, but also on the clinical front, on the customer-facing front.”

Invest Alongside Boston's Leading Angels in Our Syndicates Learn More Here: Angel Invest Boston Syndicates Guest: Semyon Dukach, Super Angel, Founder & VC - "The Energizer" When Semyon Dukach’s family came to America as refugees from the Soviet Union, they had a hundred dollars to their name. Semyon is now one of Boston’s most consequential super angels. Along the way he founded a couple of startups himself and made some remarkable angel investments that put him in a position to be helping founders with money and time. He has a knack for encouraging founders during the tough times. He’s done some fascinating stuff, like being a member of MIT’s fabled blackjack team, more recently he headed up Techstars in Boston. Now he’s raised a venture fund, One Way Ventures, focused on working with immigrant founders. Don’t miss this inspiring interview. Topics covered include: Sal’s Announcement of the Angel Invest Boston Syndicate Sal’s Intro of Semyon Dukach Semyon Dukach Bio The Moment Semyon Dukach Figured Out What He wanted to Do in Life Semyon Dukach’s Immigrant Story One of Semyon Dukach’s Adventures on MIT’s Fabled Blackjack Team The Satisfaction of Helping Out Customers in Significant Ways Semyon Dukach’s Tremendous Pivot Story Semyon Dukach’s First Angel Investment Some of Semyon Dukach’s Favorite Startups – Wanderu, Quanergy & Lovepop Cards Semyon Dukach’s Leadership at Techstars Boston Semyon Dukach’s Advice to Startups Applying to Techstars Why Are Immigrants So Over-Represented Among Founders How One Way Ventures Came About About Eveline Buchatskiv, Semyon’s Partner in One Way Ventures Semyon Dukach’s Advice to Angels & Founders

Invest Alongside Boston's Leading Angels in Our Syndicates Learn More Here: Angel Invest Boston Syndicates Shiva Kashalkar of Green Piñata Toys The toy industry is hard for new comers. Building a subscription business in the toy industry is doubly hard. Despite the obstacles, Shiva Kashalkar and her company, Green Piñata Toys, are starting to get traction. They report 50% organic growth month over month with 90% monthly retention. The secret of their growth has been the creation of an algorithm to predict from the first delivery, what toys will be of most interest to their customer’s children. Listen to this engaging conversation with a dynamic young founder who is beginning to see green shoots in her startup.