Growth Investor with GrowthCap‘s RJ Lumba

We’ve all heard of the gig economy.  There are millions of people in today’s world who earn a living as a freelancer.  And a good portion of these freelancers are enabled through online platforms both in finding gigs as well as learning new skills.  In today’s episode we chat with Matt Cooper, the CEO of Skillshare, an online learning community for people working in the creative field from design to illustration to photography and beyond.  Over 9 million users are on Skillshare and according to Matt they are only beginning to scratch the surface of what the platform could become.  Some estimates place the global creative market at $2 trillion and in the U.S. alone $700 billion.  Matt has extensive experience in building and leading companies enabling the gig economy.  He shares with us his insights into the growing community on Skillshare as well as his keys to success in leading an organization.  We hope you enjoy the show.    

In this episode, we chat with Eric Kinariwala, the CEO and Founder of Capsule, a healthcare technology company that is forever changing the way we interact with pharmacies.  It was actually Eric’s terrible experience at a pharmacy one day that led to the idea behind Capsule.  And in just a few years since its founding in 2016, the company has made great strides towards becoming a pharmacy that works for everyone.  Eric has raised $270 million to date from notable backers including TCV, Thrive Capital and Glade Brook Capital Partners.  We cover a lot of ground in our conversation from Eric’s childhood observing his mother’s impact as an entrepreneur to his keen insights into the three waves of ecommerce.  We hope you enjoy the show. 

In this episode, we chat with Steve Murray, a Managing Partner at Revolution Growth, which is a late stage growth fund that invests in private companies around the country.  The fund has nearly $1 billion in assets under management and is an integral part to the Revolution platform founded by Steve Case and Ted Leonsis. Steve joined the Revolution Growth team as a partner in 2016 bringing over 25 years of experience with high growth technology businesses. He joined Revolution from Softbank where he worked for nearly 20 years with some of the most important technology companies of our generation including Yahoo, Etrade, GeoCities, Ziff Davis, GSI Commerce, Buzzfeed, Fitbit, xAd, Kabbage and many others. In our conversation you’ll hear about how the tech landscape has changed over the years, what Steve looks for in a good investment opportunity and how the Revolution platform and its Rise of The Rest initiative is having an impact across the country. We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode, we chat with Ramzi Ramsey of Softbank Vision Fund, the iconic $100 billion venture capital fund.  The Fund is not only impressive because of its size but also because of the enduring vision and ambition of its founder, Masayoshi Son, and the team.  Ramzi focuses primarily on direct private company investments in the enterprise software space.  We cover quite a bit of ground in this conversation, from the genesis of Softbank to the founding of the Vision Fund and to how Ramzi and his colleagues quickly have significant impact on the companies they invest in.  Ramzi graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School.  We hope you enjoy the show.

In this episode we chat with two time entrepreneur Paul Schneider.  Paul and his co-founder have bootstrapped two different software businesses (The Isadore Group and Socious) to a successful sale.  Typically, when we hear of someone selling a software business, or any business for that matter, we think that person must have developed a super unique product or service, or that person got lucky by being at the right place at the right time, or that person had all the right connections.  As you’ll hear from Paul, what’s made him successful is his mindset and belief in “making it happen”.  What propelled him early on in his career, was realizing he could manufacture winning the lottery…that is...through business.  Paul also shares with us other aspects to what has made him successful including finding the right business partner, listening to customers, and evolving his sales strategy. Thanks for joining us and we hope you enjoy the show. 

In this episode, we chat with Ben Weinberg  and Josh Elser of Susquehanna Growth Equity, a leading growth equity firm founded in 2006 in affiliation with Susquehanna International Group.  Ben and Josh focus primarily on direct private company investments in the software space.  We cover quite a bit of ground in this conversation, from the genesis of Susquehanna International Group, now a global financial powerhouse, and the entrepreneurial mindset that drives the organization to the founding of the growth equity practice and to the current dynamics at play in the growth equity market.  Both Ben and Josh graduated from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. We hope you enjoy the show.   

General Stanley McChrystal retired from the US Army as a four-star general after thirty-four years of service. He is a partner at the McChrystal Group, a leadership consulting firm based in Virginia and a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. General McChrystal recently coauthored Leaders, which explores how various leadership styles can be effective depending on time and situation.  His previous books My Share of the Task and Team of Teams were both New York Times bestsellers.  We hope you enjoy the show.

Richard Stockton has always had a passion for real estate. After graduating from Cornell, Richard began his career in real estate centric roles at both PwC and Morgan Stanley. After a brief stint working for one of his former clients, he joined Braemar as CEO. Braemar is one of the market's leading REITs focused on full-service luxury hotels and resorts. The company currently owns 13 properties around the United States, including the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe, Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas, Hotel Yountville, and Bardessono Hotel and Spa among others. With a keen focus on growth in revenue per available room, Braemar is dedicated to expanding its portfolio of luxury hotels and resorts and delivering strong dividends and equity returns to its shareholders.

Like many great businesses, Associa comes from humble beginnings. John Carona founded the company in 1979 after taking out a loan against his wife’s Datsun. In the years following, the company has expanded beyond its Dallas Texas roots to provide association management services around the country. Today it is the global leader in association management serving over 5 million residents through 190 branch offices in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

NewSpring Capital is a leading private investment firm headquartered near Philadelphia. Founded nearly 20 years ago and with $1.8bn in assets under management, NewSpring has backed over 140 companies since inception. We recently spoke with Brian Kim, a partner in technology growth equity, as well as Lee Garber a principal who leads the firm’s holdings strategy. Both Brian and Lee were 2018 Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investor awardees.