The road of a solo GP is full of highs and lows, and today’s guest Kirby Winfield has been through all of it. After working in the 90s tech and startup scene in Seattle, Kirby went on to found Ascend VC as a solo GP. We talk about his biggest lessons, the best advice he’s gotten, and dig into some of the stories from the trenches as an emerging manager.About Kirby Winfield:Kirby Winfield is currently the Founding General Partner at Ascend.vc, a pre-seed stage venture fund investing in marketplace, e-commerce/DTC, and B2B software startups in the Pacific Northwest.Early in his career, Kirby was a founding team member and operating executive at back-to-back tech IPOs, with Go2Net (GNET) and Marchex (MCHX). He is also a two-time venture capital-backed CEO, with AdXpose (DFJ, Ignition) acquired by comScore (SCOR), and Dwellable (Maveron, VersionOne) acquired by HomeAway (AWAY).A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:45 Kirby’s journey into tech06:08 Lessons from the Dot Com bust12:21 Why founders should get to know public market analysts13:45 Kirby’s early experience as an Angel Investor16:07 Early exits as an investor18:11 Finding his first LPs as an emerging manager21:36 Why he viewed his age as a first time manager as an advantage26:37 Building a better startup ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest31:37 Kirby’s original investment thesis and how is has evolved38:19 Managing as a solo GP45:03 Things to avoid that may be red flags to LPs49:10 Navigating the seed and early stage markets in 202252:50 The best career advice he’s gotten as a GPFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Chuck D - Narrates the Band the Clash, Invest like the best* 📰 - Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Chad Sanderson substack - Data Products* 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Garmin* 📈 -  Favorite New Trend: Lower valuation caps* 📚 - Favorite Book: Led Zepplin, The Beatles* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Running Everyday Solves ProblemsFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Building company culture through a screen is a challenge more and more organizations are facing these days. The benefits of remote work will not go away, so how can organizations adapt and evolve to build a culture with everyone spread out? Our guest today is Jason Goldlist, CEO and Co-Founder of Venue, a remote-first meeting software for culture-obsessed companies. We talk about Jason’s dedication to community throughout his career working at amazing companies like Wealthsimple, and how he got Slack’s Founder, Stuart Butterfield and Accel Partners to back his startup.About Jason Goldlist:Jason Goldlist is the Co-Founder and CEO of Venue, he has been an operator with strong ties to community-building for the last 15 years. Prior to Venue, Jason was Head of Marketing and General Manager of Wealthsimple. He also Co-Founded TechTO, one of Canada’s most prominent tech communities. He began his career at McKinsey and did his undergrad at the University of New Brunswick and his MBA at INSEAD.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:37 Jason’s journey into tech04:45 Why he leans towards counterintuitive decisions06:30 Lessons Jason took from working at McKinsey09:23 Working in sub Saharan Africa10:57 His experience working at Wealthsimple13:30 Judging his early career in terms of experience in the moment and in retrospect15:29 Jason’s first role at Wealthsimple and how it grew19:18 How he worked on Culutre at Weathsimple20:05 Origins of TechTO23:17 What TechTO has accomplished27:25 How the pandemic and the TechTO events schedule inspired Venue30:18 Steps Jason and the Venue team took to help define the problem32:18 Why 2x2 analysis can sometimes deceptive34:20 Building Venue’s MVP37:46 How venue is helping build culture and community in the remote world39:58 ROI casestudies for Venue43:09 How Venue’s $4M seed came together47:21 The long-term vision for VenueFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Reply All, the show about the Internet and how we relate to it, told through the lens of amazing storytelling and mysteries. Start with episode #158, the case of the missing hit. * 📰 - Favorite Newsletter/Blog: The TechTO newsletter. Monday is community events and people, Wednesday is career advice and opportunities, and Friday is all about news and fundraising. * 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Stream Deck by Elgato. I use it to control my lights, speakers, music and a lot more.* 📈 -  Favorite New Trend: Remote-first* 📚 - Favorite Book: Bonfire of the Vanities, In Cold Blood, and The Sun Also Rises* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson:Know thyselfFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Once is lucky, twice is good. And our guest today is good. Darrell Silver, Founder and CEO of Unbundle Studio, has sold two companies for over $100M and he’s using that experience to start investing. We dig into why Darrell decided to help create tech companies with underappreciated founders in a venture studio model and the mindset needed for running the studio completely off his own balance sheet.About Darrell Silver:Darrell Silver runs Unbundle Studio, a venture studio that launches tech companies with underappreciated founders. He is also a board member, advisor, and investor across EdTech and child advocacy.He co-founded+CEO'd+sold two companies: Thinkful (acquired by Chegg) & Perpetually (acquired by Dell).A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:33 Darrell’s journey into Tech04:51 Darrell’s experience pitching Jason Calacanis and TechCrunch Disrupt08:21 Building Thinkful and selling to Chegg11:02 Best practices for acquihires and retaining senior talent13:00 Evaluating deals by weighing the best alternative15:46 Why you can’t BS your way through an M&A process17:32 Why Darrell launched Unbundle Studio21:41 The thesis behind Unbundle Studio23:25 Types of founders Unbundle is looking for24:22 Why Darrell is using his own money to start Unbundle26:01 How the traditional venture model doesn’t account for profitable businesses27:27 Darrell’s experience as an LP28:38 Why he sticks to his expertise when investing30:50 What he looks for when he invests33:06 The importance of good board members35:55 Building your networks37:05 What he learned from Mike Maples at Floodgate38:36 Redflags people should avoid when pitching him as an LP39:50 How Darrell adds value as an LP41:16 Why being a board member is philanthropic42:44 Advice for new LPs44:39 The best career advice he’s gotten as an LP45:50 Why he’s building a workshop with his dadFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Mike Maples* 📰 - Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Matt Levine* 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Apple Watch* 📈 -  Favorite New Trend: Google Home* 📚 - Favorite Book: Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Grinding It Out* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: How lucky he’s been to be presented with these life opportunitiesFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

It’s tempting to think of Venture Capitalists as the top of the food chain, but in reality, we are closer to founders. VCs build an investment thesis and then go test that thesis, both in the fundraising marketplace and in doing their investments. Just like with founders, sometimes the marketplace demands VCs to pivot and change their thesis, sometimes dramatically. And always—always—VCs are held accountable by their investors, known as Limited Partners, or LPs. Our guest today is Jeffrey Rinvelt, his work at Renaissance Venture Capital finds him investing as an LP across many funds. He’s got some great insights into what LPs are thinking, and what the market may hold in the coming months.About Jeffrey Rinvelt:Jeffrey Rinvelt is a Partner with the Rennaisance Venture Capital. He was previously part of Ardesta, where he was a Director engaged in sourcing, evaluating, and conducting due diligence on investment opportunities, as well as monitoring and providing assistance to the companies in Ardesta’s portfolio. Prior to joining Ardesta, Jeff was a co-founder of GrapeVINE Technologies, providing Product Management and Marketing for their knowledge management product, eventually resulting in an acquisition by Sun Microsystems. Jeff was also part of the start-up team for MAXfunds.com, an Internet company providing complete coverage of the mutual fund industry, including hundreds of funds not available on any other site. In addition, Jeff spent five years with Ernst & Young’s Information Technology group as a senior consultant.Jeff is a proud trustee of Western Michigan University and also lends his expertise to a number of local non-profits.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:38 Jeff’s journey into Venture Capital and why he started in Michigan05:11 How he got through the 2008 financial crisis06:11 The original investing thesis for Renaissance Venture Capital08:59 Inspiration and innovations around Renaissance10:33 What makes a good fund manager12:20 Red flags for emerging managers14:52 What’s more important for a manager, track record or technical chops?17:10 How Jeff works to give value as an LP19:33 Building a platform as an LP20:29 What the current market is like as an LP22:50 Internal conversations around deployment of funds in 202224:05 Types of returns they are looking for in the current market25:38 Are preferred returns required to get LPs27:15 Advice to new LPs28:46 Why isn’t there standardized reporting around track record for Venture30:55 The problems with current 409A valuations32:55 Thoughts on opportunity funds34:29 Why Jeff stopped doing direct investments35:12 Philosophies around co-investing opportunities36:37 Investment categories Jeff is excited about38:20 Showing off results from research and investments39:24 The best career advice he’s ever gottenFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Cocaine and Rhinestones The History of Rock in 500 Songs* 📰 - Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Dave Pell’s Next Draft* 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Raspberry Pi* 📈 -  Favorite New Trend: Work from Home and Walk and Talks* 📚 - Favorite Book: The Hard Things About Hard Things* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Longterm games with long-term peopleFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

The term A/B testing gets thrown around a lot in startups, many use it to great effect, and some know they should use it, but never quite do. Our guest today is Chetan Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO of Eppo, a platform that helps companies run useful, reliable experiments by automating the analysis, diagnostics, and investigations, all on top of your data warehouse. We get into the power of A/B testing, how Eppo can unlock that power for startups of all sizes, and best practices for implementing them.About Chetan Sharma:Chetan Sharma is the Co-Founder and CEO of Eppo. Previously, he was Data Scientist at Webflow and Airbnb. Chetan worked in empirical healthcare policy, helping to craft metrics and incentive systems as part of the Affordable Care Act's pay-for-performance programs. He has BS and MS degrees from Stanford.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:25 Chetan’s journey into startups and data science03:46 His experience working at AirBnB06:56 How one of his projects at AirBnB became open source11:22 Chetan’s decision to take a year to travel before his next career move14:42 Why A/B testing is so popular at startups17:34 Some misconceptions around A/B testing21:31 Why companies struggle with A/B testing24:08 What happens when A/B gives inaccurate results26:38 Picking the right northstar metrics for your company to track29:32 How capital-constrained companies can use A/B testing to solve problems faster30:59 What Eppo does to make A/B testing better32:15 How Eppo works34:12 Why focusing your company to work on core products and not tools is important at early startups35:42 What early-stage startups can do to get more data38:04 The ROI of Eppo even in a recession39:39 The value-add of Eppo40:32 Customer case studies of Eppo42:43 Eppo’s new Cupid product46:13 Plans for the recent $16M Series A round backed by some of world’s leading data and  product investors like Menlo Ventures and Amplify PartnersFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: NFL Podcasts, Hardcore History, Ezra Klein, Tyler Cowen* 📰 - Favorite Newsletter /Blog: Lenny Rachitsky* 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Apple Watch* 📈 -  Favorite New Trend: Angel Investing* 📚 - Favorite Book: How Asia Works* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: All you know is what you personally observe and what you personally feel, you don’t know intentions of others.Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

The human component of building a startup has always been, and probably will always be one of the most challenging aspects of any organization. Our guest today is an expert in building culture and getting the best out of people, Sandy Scholes, Chief People Officer, most recently at Flipp, has a wealth of experience in team building and coaching managers to get high performance from their teams.About Sandy Scholes:Sandy Scholes is a leader with 15+ years of global HR experience ranging from large multinational organizations to mid-size companies both public and private. Most recently she was the CPO of Flipp. Previously Sandy was Executive Vice President, Global Human Resources at Entertainment One, and Senior Vice President, People at Softchoice.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:44 Sandy’s journey into tech04:43 How Sandy was able to navigate between large organizations and smaller startups07:07 Dealing with office politics at large companies09:19 What is performance management and how it differs from traditional HR11:42 Why open ended questions and frameworks are important12:59 Problems with traditional performance reviews16:25 Types of frameworks that work best for managers19:40How much influence should managers have in setting OKRs21:39The cadence that performance and work plans should be updated23:35Why isn’t performance management more widely adopted24:19How often should managers check-in?29:06Advice to managers to avoid random or confusing feedback33:01Communicating expectations to employees34:20How do you establish a culture of high performance without dealing with burnout or high turnover37:01Dealing with burnout38:02What to do with high performance/low culture fit hires39:23Favorite tools to help with performance coaching40:09Does Sandy coach performance to those in her private life41:15About her fatherFast Favorites* 🎙- Favorite Podcast:  Ted Talks* 📰 - Favorite Newsletter /Blog: HBR / Center for Creative Leadership* 📲 - Favorite Tech Gadget: Theragun* 📈 -  Favorite New Trend: Pickle Ball* 📚 - Favorite Book:   Work Book: Good to Great * 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson:  I always loved this quote: Whether You Think you can or Think you can’t - You’re right. Get out of your comfort zone and try something even if you think you may fail. Push your envelope and build your confidence and courage.  I especially think this is important for females.  We second-guess ourselves too much. Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

When we are working with our portfolio companies, we find that a big part of success is building a strong sales team. But what’s the best way to do that, and how should sales teams be rewarded and structured. Our guest today is Nabeil Alazzam, Founder and CEO of Forma.ai, a sales compensation platform that removes the guesswork of motivating sales teams and unlocks agility through a delivery-focused, AI-driven platform.About Nabeil Alazzam:Nabeil Alazzam is the Founder and CEO of Forma.ai. He began his entrepreneurial journey while studying Mechanical Engineering at Queen's University and continued through graduation as a consultant for ZS.During that time, Nabeil advised Fortune 100 companies on sales force effectiveness and strategy and saw first-hand the pain of poor enterprise sales compensation management. He saw a gap in the market and moved quickly to gather a team and found Forma.ai in 2016.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:32 Nabeil’s journey to starting Forma.ai04:16 Lessons Nabeil learned as a management consultant05:44 How working with Pharmacuetical Reps shaped his view on the importance of data in the sales process08:18 Pain points as VP of sales that lead him to starting Forma11:35 How Nabeil views a proper compensation structure14:14 What founders need to consider prior to rolling out a sales comp plan17:22 How companies can implement strategies when limited data is available20:35 What you should do to implement a new sales compensation plan23:00 Creating feedback loops between sales and leadership24:54 How early-stage startups can use Forma27:37 Dealing with fallout from changing compensation plans30:25 Communication strategies to sales staff32:25 How quota and targets can lead to attrition35:11 Organizations that hurt themselves with a poor comp plan38:29 How Forma actually works41:21 Methods which Forma collects data44:22 How their recent series B came together led by ACME Capital, along with our good friends at Crosslink Capital, Golden Ventures, and Uncork Capital Fast Favorites:* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Lex Fridman, All In* 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Morning Brew* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Lelit Bianca* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: Getting outside* 📚- Favorite Book: Amp It Up* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: If it was easy, everyone would be doing itFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

The trend for companies to become their own media outlet is not going away, and the link between Venture Capital and that trend is growing stronger. Our guest today is Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, and the recently launched Hawke Ventures. We talk about Erik’s career, why he launched a VC Fund, and where all of this is going.About Erik Huberman:Erik is the founder and CEO of Hawke Media, the highly successful marketing agency known as Your Outsourced CMO® that’s helped grow over 3,000 brands worldwide, and is valued at more than $150 million. He is the author of The Hawke Method, which demonstrates that marketing is more than a numbers game: calculations for business growth and sustainability go far beyond systemic analysis.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:32 Erik’s career journey to starting Hawke Media09:29 Lessons Erik learned from his first startup15:58 How to spend capital wisely and the dangers of changing for the sake of change18:29 Early customers for Hawke Media and how they got traction22:20 Some of Erik’s favorite campaigns24:49 Examples of ROI from their campaigns27:14 The reason why Hawke Ventures was launched33:28 How Hawke Ventures differentiates itself from other funds36:20 Things he wished he knew prior to launching the fund40:08 Fundraising in 202241:10 Hawke Venture’s investing thesis43:01 The strategic partnership with Bank of CaliforniaFast Favorites:* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: This Week in Startups, Hawke Talk* 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Friday Forward* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: iPhone* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: The Rise of TikTok* 📚- Favorite Book: Appetite for Self Destruction* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Crazy s**t always happens and you need to be resilientFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

In 2022, Zoom fatigue is a thing. Collaborating, co-working, and networking over a screen presents a new set of issues that we are only now starting to address. Our guest today is Tom Medema, Founder and CEO of usebubbles.com, a platform designed to improve asynchronous collaboration and reduce zoom fatigue.About Tom Medema:Tom Medema is the founder and CEO of bubbles, a workplace productivity platform leading the async revolution. Before bubbles, Tom co-founded Bloomon, a successful DTC flower delivery service, and experienced the thrill and pain of building a global engineering workforce. His experience as Bloomon's CTO drove him to move to Bay Area and build a platform that will allow teams to collaborate better in a remote environment. As bubbles' CEO, Tom raised $8.5M in Seed funding from partners including Khosla Ventures, Craft Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, 468 Capital, and Bain Capital, and strategic angels including Naval Ravikant, Jeff Morris Jr, Brianne Kimmel, Rahul Vohra & Todd Goldberg, and Ryan Hoover. Today bubbles has over 20,000 monthly active users, supporting teams from around the world in overcoming 2 of the biggest challenges: getting their point across, and making smarter decisions. A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:22 Tom’s journey into startups03:18 Early experiments with coding and tech04:09 Selling a company when he was 1605:17 Lessons from being the CTO of Bloomon07:58 How Tom managed a remote workforce prior to bubbles and why he decided their had to be a better way10:33 Common issues around remote collaboration11:44 The thing that finally pushed him to start bubbles13:02 The exact problem Tom was trying to solve with bubbles15:44 Why software is the answer to this screentime dilemma18:37 How bubbles actually works21:41 Ways to deepen communication over video23:33 How the short video chat feature of bubbles is additive to asynchronous communication24:23 Use cases that makes bubbles different from Notion and Loom28:53 ROI customers are seeing from bubbles31:24 How bubbles compares to Slack’s video huddles33:44 Why Tom describes bubbles as a movement not a product36:11 How the recent fundraising round for bubbles came together37:30 The importance of Twitter and Social Media40:12 Plans for the fundraisingFast Favorites:* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: The Ezra Klein Show* 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Open View Blog* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: iPhone* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: Asynchronous Work* 📚- Favorite Book: Name of the Wind* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Most challenges can be overcome with simple hard workFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

In 2022 we tend to think that we live in a global marketplace, but regional differences still exist in VC and startups. Our guest today is Akash Bajwa, Investor at Earlybird VC. We talk with Akash about the current state of the European Startup scene, how the recent pullback is affecting things, the rise of European VC superstars like Harry Stebbings, and Earlybird’s plan for its recent $350M fund.About Akash Bajwa:Akash is an early-stage investor at Earlybird, one of Europe's longest-standing early-stage funds. Prior to this Akash was investing in fintech at Augmentum Fintech, and spent time in corporate venture at Barclays Ventures.A word from our sponsor:At Ripple, we manage all of our fund expenses and employee credit cards using Jeeves. The team at Jeeves helped get me and my team setup with physical and virtual credit cards in days. I was able to allow my teammates to expense items in multiple currencies allowing them to pay for anything, anywhere at anytime. We weren’t asked for any personal guarantees or to pay any setup or monthly SaaS fees.Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook, or AWS every month. New users can earn up to 3% cashback for their first 90 days.The best part is Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days in any currency you want, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves also recently launched its Jeeves Growth and Working Capital initiative for startups and fast-growing companies to enable more financial freedom for companies. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in  24 countries including Canada, US and many other countries around the world.Jeeves truly offers the best all-in-one expense management corporate card program for all startups especially the ones at Ripple and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to officially partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of our Tank Talks special with a‍ $250 statement credit after the first $2,500 in spend or a $500 statement credit after the first $5000 in spend. Lastly, all Jeeves cardholders receive access to their Lounge Pass program and access to over 1300 airports globally.Visit tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:32 Akash’s journey to becoming a tech investor05:10 Lessons he learned as an investor at Barclays09:01 Barclay’s investing mentality when he was there12:21 Working and investing at Augmentum, Europe’s publicly listed FinTech fund16:48 The tradeoffs investing from a publicly listed fund20:18 An overview of European VC history and how it’s different from the US26:45 The impact of YC and Silicon Valley creating brain drain in the European market31:52 Differences in European Founders mindsets36:51 How fundraising is different in the European market and it is evolving40:01 Current market factors in how Earlybird is deploying capital45:54 The effect of Harry Stebbings and others to bring attention to Europe50:38 Plans for Earlybird’s new €350M fundFast Favorites:* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Invest Like The Best* 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Tomasz Tunguz* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Kindle* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: Rise of Creators* 📚- Favorite Book: Guns, Germs, and Steel* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Put goodwill out into the world without expectationsFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.Agency This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com