Village Global Podcast

This is a special live episode that was recorded at Village HQ in San Francisco on June 14 2018. The event was put on in partnership with Xoogler, a network of former Googlers who have come together to help each other with their startup ambitions.Village Global co-founder Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) chatted with Jo Varshney (@jo_getter), founder and CEO of VeriSIM Life and Kiran Bellubbi (@smalldozes), founder of Keyo, about their experience with the Village Network Catalyst program.Jo and Kiran explain what it was like to be a founder in the Network Catalyst program, including how the team at Village helped them with their business model, leveraged Village's unique structure as a network to their advantage and guided them through the fundraising process.

Joining Erik on this episode are Maia Bittner (@maiab), co-founder of Pinch, and Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi), FinTech partner at 500 Startups. They go over the variety of sectors being disrupted by FinTech companies these days, including insurance, credit reporting, personal financial management, capital markets, financial planning, international finance and even banking in the developing world.Erik asks what kinds of opportunities Sheel and Maia see for founders and entrepreneurs as well as the pitfalls faced by different types of companies in the space. Sheel explains how he subdivides his fund and explains the difference between an “enabler” and a “disruptor.”They talk about why FinTech startups often have an advantage in distribution as opposed to product, contrasting with the competitive advantage a startup typically has. Of course, they also cover crypto and the opportunities in FinTech that blockchain and tokenization provide — as well as where the crypto hype might be overblown.

Erik is joined by Nicole Quinn (@Nik_Quinn), Investing Partner at Lightspeed and Lee Edwards (@terronk), former CTO of Teespring and active angel investor. They explain why they’re bullish on consumer packaged goods startups and which industries they see startups disrupting in the future. They also discuss why they think there will be so much growth in the space, especially in e-commerce.They debate the relative importance of having a technically sophisticated founder in a CPG startup and whether a new CPG startup needs to have a strong brand from Day 1. They also talk about the new forms of marketing that CPG startups are taking advantage of.Erik asks what kind of advice they would give to new CPG founders and what kinds of pitfalls new founders need to avoid.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favourite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Erik is joined by Eric Klein, partner at Lemnos VC, and Sankarshan Murthy (@sancartion), CEO and co-founder of Bumblebee Homes. They talk about trends in urbanization, housing and storage in America and why changing attitudes towards consumption present a huge opportunity for investors and founders alike.Sankarshan explains how what his team is working on at Bumblebee Homes will change how and where people choose to live. Eric talks about why he invested in Bumblebee, the other companies he’s invested in so far, and other investment opportunities he's looking for.They explain why now is a good time to start a hardware startup and how changes in the market have enabled anyone to build a prototype in their garage with off-the-shelf components and free software publicly available on GitHub. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Tammy Sun (@tammysun), CEO and co-founder of Carrot Fertility and Afton Vechery (@aaffttoonn), CEO and co-founder of Modern Fertility talk with Erik about this rapidly emerging space.They explain how they got started in the fertility space, give us a rundown of the corporate landscape as it stands at the moment and explain why the market is changing so quickly. They also give us some insight into why it's difficult to build a business in this space and what kinds of opportunities they would be looking for if they were investors or prospective founders.Erik also asks what the future might hold for their companies, how they aim to change how women think about their health, and what kinds of implications a new perspective on fertility might have for society in general.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Kendrick Nguyen (@kendrickesq), CEO of Republic and Andy Bromberg (@andy_bromberg), CEO and co-founder of CoinList join Erik to talk about the changing landscape of investing in crypto.They explain how their companies will allow more people to invest in cryptocurrencies, will change how startups are funded, and will impact the broader securities markets. They discuss some of the challenges of securities regulation and how conventional investing will change with the rise of cryptocurrencies.They also make some bold predictions about how the form of cryptocurrencies will change in the future and how individuals, companies, and governments might be involved.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favourite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Carolyn Witte, CEO of asktia.com, and Hans Gangeskar, CEO of Nurx, discuss the future of direct to consumer women's healthcare. They talk about creating a one-stop-shop for women's healthcare, user perceptions and trust in data collection, taking ownership of the healthcare experience, and building companies in healthcare without domain expertise.

Erik talks to Polly Rodriguez (@polly_claire), co-founder of Unbound, Andrea Barrica (@abarrica), founder of O.school, and Gina Gutierrez (@Gina__Gutierrez), founder of Dipsea Stories, about the state of sexual wellness startups.Just a heads-up — due to the topic of the discussion, there is some adult language in this episode.These founders are on a mission to serve the half of the population that is currently not well served when it comes to sexual wellness. They explain the quirks of the unique market they’ve chosen to tackle, including little availability of data about the market and the hesitance of investors or partners to work with any company even marginally involved in sexuality. They discuss how the youth of today are growing up in a very different environment when it comes to sexuality and why more and more have to turn to the private sector for sex-ed when the school system fails them. The three explain how they reach their customers despite the limitations placed on them by traditional marketing channels, swap fundraising horror stories and explain how they plan to create disruption.Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favourite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Host Erik Torenberg talks to Jo Varshney, founder of VeriSIM Life, a Village portfolio company, and Eric Stefanich, director and senior scientist at Genentech.They explain how VeriSIM is changing drug discovery and development and why more and more drugs are being developed "in silico." They also discuss how startups can work in harmony with big companies and how big pharma has become much more forward-thinking than it is usually given credit for. Erik asks what opportunities they would be looking at if they were a VC in the space right now and how software-as-a-service (SaaS) in pharmaceuticals has evolved. They also discuss dealing with different types of investors when you're starting a biotech company. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favourite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Erik talks to Adam Bry (@adampbry), co-founder and CEO of Skydio, a company that designs and manufactures autonomous drones. Adam gives us a rundown on where the company is at right now, how it got there and what we should be expecting in the drone space in the future. Erik asks where Adam would be investing if he was running a venture firm focused on the space and what potential roadblocks to the rise of the drones could be. Adam explains what some of the other companies in the space are working on and how an ordinary consumer’s life might change once autonomous drones become more prevalent. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favourite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc/podcast or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.