With the recent market pullback, growth-stage startups have to figure out how to best navigate today’s markets. In this episode, we welcome Margaret Wu, Partner and Lead Investor at Georgian Partners, a Canadian fund that invests in high-growth tech companies. Recently they have focused on the growth of applied AI, investing in Vention, a digital manufacturing automation platform in its $95M Series-C round; and in a $150M Series-C round for global HR software platform Oyster.Georgian Partners also publishes The Georgian Impact Podcast, runs the collaborative pre-investment CoLab program, and has developed a robust R&D team that leverages AI-driven solutions for its founders. Margo and I discuss how software can be the lifeblood of a well-run organization; how Georgian is currently managing its existing portfolio investments, and the incredible platform Georgian has built to help companies use data to deliver insights to CEOs and startups. About Margo Wu:Margaret “Margo” Wu is a Lead Investor at Georgian and is involved in due diligence, deal selection, and board governance for startups exploiting Applied AI.Prior to Georgian, she was a Product Manager for mobile marketing at Amazon, co-founded a biotech company, and served as COO at OneSpout, a local e-commerce startup. Margaret began her career in technology consulting at Accenture and holds an MBA from Cornell University, as well as a BSc and BES from the University of Waterloo. 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 any time. 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 up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:37 Margo’s background in technology and startups and her journey into investing04:20 How consulting helped Margo understand the building and scaling of companies06:05 Lessons learned from Product Management at Amazon10:25 Georgian’s investment thesis and mandate13:40 How Georgian found deals at the right valuations over the past year16:49 Thoughts on “Operating during a Downturn” and preparing for a crucible moment19:47 How Georgian is thinking about profitability and how realistic it is for founders to pursue23:01 Georgian’s acquisition strategy given the cheap opportunities in the public market25:04 Advice to founders looking for growth capital but are at risk of a flat/down round26:49 How Founders are responding to the current market conditions28:56 Does Georgian Partners time the markets?30:55 How Georgian manages follow-up investments in later-stage, pre-IPO firms32:00 How Georgian’s platform has tactically supported founders34:23 How the CoLab program works38:13 How the R&D Team can help portfolio and non-portfolio company founders Fast FavoritesPodcastAll-In PodcastBlog/NewletterWait but Why By Tim UrbanTech GadgetNintendo 64New TrendRemote Work/ WFHBookArt of the Start by Guy KawasakiLife LessonKnowing when to pivot and when to persevereFollow 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

Being an outsider these days has a lot of advantages. It can allow ideas to crystallize in ways that someone who is too close to an industry may avoid. Today we welcome Nate Pierotti, Principal of New Stack Ventures, an early-stage fund whose mission is to invest in outsiders and founders that don’t come from the same educational pedigrees or locations we typically see in the venture world. New Stack has been encouraging entrepreneurship in new places and innovation in new technologies and recently announced the close of their second fund of $42.6 million. In this episode, we discuss the mass exodus from the Silicon Valley, the effects of the pandemic and the recent market meltdown on VC firms, and the future of technological startups.About Nate Pierotti:With New Stack Ventures, Nate Pierotti has used his deep technical knowledge and invested in startups like insurance platform Covie and life sciences platform BTR. He was previously co-founder and CEO of Monarch, a sports robotics company. He received multiple patents for his work at Monarc, and was part of engineering and product design. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Iowa.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 any time. 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 up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:33 Nate’s background and his journey into startups and technology04:34 Nate’s experience with building his first startup, Monarc07:13 What differentiates non-coastal founders in the VC world08:20 Nate’s transition into venture capital with New Stack Ventures14:24 How entrepreneurs have resisted the pressure to move to the Silicon Valley 17:06 How New Stack Ventures keeps its founders from becoming complacent18:01 Finding and scaling management teams locally20:48 The future of outsider-built technologies and startups25:37 What the mass exodus from the Silicon Valley means for entrepreneurs28:00 Supporting diverse founders outside of the Valley29:10 How New Stack competes with other firms in the Midwest, and firms along the coasts35:41 How New Stack advises its founders and helps them access capital and opportunitiesFast FavoritesPodcastsThe 20 VCBlog/NewletterAbove the Crowd by Bill GurleyTech GadgetAirPodsNew TrendUnit EconomicsBookPredictably Irrational by Dan ArielyLife LessonTreating people fairly and with respectFollow 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 been a year since Boris Wertz was a guest on Tank Talks, and oh what a year it’s been. We’ve seen NFTs and Crypto rise, fall, rise, and crash. And that’s just the last few weeks. We thought it would be fun to listen with new ears to this thought-provoking conservation with someone who has helped build the crypto space into what it is today. Through his position as an early investor in Dapper Labs, creators of CryptoKitties and NBA TopShot, Boris has been an early believer in the power of blockchain and crypto and he’s now setting his sights on climate change investing and the creator economy.Boris’ Background:Boris Wertz is founding partner of Version One and one of the top tech early-stage investors in North America. Born in Germany and based in Vancouver, Boris takes a wide-angle view to find great companies all across North America with a focus on the pre-seed and the seed stage in marketplaces, enterprise SaaS, crypto, healthcare, energy, climate.. He is a board partner with Andreessen Horowitz and is well-respected for his uncanny ability to find the next generation of leaders. Before becoming an investor, Boris built an online marketplace for used and out-of-print books in 1999, selling the business to AbeBooks.com where he became COO and led a team of 140 people doing $250mm in platform revenues. After AbeBooks.com was sold to Amazon, he moved into investing, first as an angel and now with his own fund Version One which launched in 2012.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 any time. 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 up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:27 The growth of DeFi as an industry03:48 How negative associations with the early ICO market has affected DeFi06:01 The opportunity Boris saw in 201709:32 The speed of innovation the crypto space11:14 How big the market for Ethereum can grow12:52 Valuing crypto platforms and protocols14:04 How Uniswap.com works and its power16:10 The lending mechanic in Ethereum18:58 New platforms like nexusmutual.io and opyn.co22:42 How DeFi compares and competes with another Boris portfolio company, Coinbase27:28 Has Boris bought any TopShot packs personally29:39 Selling his Cryptokitties investment to his LPs31:30 The future of cryptoart32:33 What value means with today’s meme-investing34:47 How his team decides on what is worth investing in37:50 Addressing Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger’s crypto critique40:08 Working with LPs as investment thesis evolves43:02 How portfolio company silviaterra.com is working to fight climate change44:34 Investing while remoteFast FavoritesPodcast:Invest Like The BestNewsletter or blog:stratechery.comTech gadget:Google PixelNew trend:The creator economyFavorite book:Albert Banger’s forthcoming bookFollow 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

One of the trickiest problems in the startup world is how to properly compensate your employees. It’s a delicate balance between providing competitive offers, retaining employees, and being wise with your funding. Our guest today is looking to help founders navigate these decisions, Thanh Nguyen, CEO and Co-Founder of OpenComp is building a platform that allows companies to evaluate how their organization's compensation data stacks up against the market and build fair offers, and qualify compensation requests from potential candidates directly against real market data.About Thanh Nguyen:Thanh is a leading expert in his field with more than two decades of experience in compensation and HR strategies. He has worked with thousands of technology companies, including Airbnb, A16z, Chan Zuckerburg Initiative, Figma, LiveNation, Lyft, Uber, and many othersPrior to OpenComp, Thanh was most recently a partner of Connery Consulting, overseeing operations, a team of management and delivery consultants, and business development. Thanh also worked as the first member of the Rewards team at Salesforce.com where he remained for nearly a decade, spanning various domestic and international HR leadership roles.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 any time. 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 up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today!In this episode we discuss:02:50 Thanh’s journey into a career in compensation08:46 Lessons he learned on how to grow a startup from his time at Salesforce12:30 Why Thanh saw the need to start OpenComp14:24 How OpenComp works and where its data comes from18:11 The volume of data OpenComp tracks and how their freemium model works19:22 How OpenComp weaves user data into a broader picture of the market21:44 Mistakes early founders make when building a compensation plan23:30 Why growth rounds can pressure founders to hire the wrong people24:57 Advice to founders that are struggling to compete for talent26:55 How to think about equity when building compensation plans29:48 Pros and cons of salary transparency at OpenComp and in the market in general32:38 How pay transparency can help guide companies that may only be salary-focused34:48 What Thanh advises companies to think about compensation with a hybrid work environment37:40 How OpenComp is helping to fight the great resignation and ensure employee retention39:30 How data from OpenComp is helping companies the importance of DEI42:52 Plans for OpenComp’s recent $20M Series A  led by K5 Global, Time Ventures, 8VC, Mantis VC, and J.P. MorganFast FavoritesPodcastsAudio BooksBlog/NewletterApple News FeedTech GadgetApple ecosystemNew TrendPay transparencyBookBreathLife LessonEmbrace The GrindFollow 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

Retail investing, meme stocks, and finding new ways to bring underrepresented and non-traditional demographics into the investor class will be a lasting impact of the last two years. Our guest today, Ali Moiz, Founder and CEO of Stonks.com is at the center of that movement. We talk with him about what led him to create the platform, which allows accelerators and investors to Livestream demo days and founder pitch sessions. We hear the story of how he got the domain, how his history led him to this, and what he plans to do with his recent funding round which he raised obviously on Stonks.com itself.About Ali Moiz:Ali has been a successful founder for over 20 years. Most notably as CEO of Streamlabs, a platform to improve the streaming experience for creators on platforms like Twitch. He Founded Stonks.com in 2021.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 any time. 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 up to 3% cash back on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. 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 every entrepreneur. The best thing of all is that Jeeves is live in 24 countries including Canada, the 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 $700 sign-on bonus and skip the waitlist that already has thousands of companies by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to get setup today! In this episode we discuss:03:21 Ali’s journey into startups and company building05:35 The biggest lessons he learned from his experiences with startups07:42 His early experiences with angel investments09:48 What Stonks.com is and how it works16:06 How the pre-seed and seed rounds of Stonks.com came together18:21 How Stonks.com short-circuits the fundraising process for startups21:11 How companies can raise capital on Stonks.com23:09 What Stonks.com addresses that other platforms are not28:16 How Stonks.com sets up for Demo Days38:40 How Stonks.com is infiltrating the traditional market41:08 Managing VC relationships offline42:30 Ali’s advice for acquiring liquidity on the secondary share market50:01 Building companies in and around financial crisesFast Favorites:PodcastThe All-In PodcastNewsletter/Bloga16zTech GadgetWhoopNew TrendDemocratizing access to asset classes that were previously closed (The Robinhood Movement)BookThe Almanack of Naval RavikantThe Cold Start ProblemLife LessonGrit/ PersistenceFollow 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

Fundraising can be one of the most daunting tasks as a founder or even for a fund manager like me. If you just google how to fundraise, you get millions of results, a lot of conflicting information and it can all be overwhelming. Our guests today, Leslie Fine and Jonathan Lowenhar are looking to help solve that for founders by being a trusted source of coaching and advice with their startup advisory firm, Enjoy The Work.About Jonathan Lowenhar:Jonathan is an operator who successfully built a $1B business segment for a large public company, guided the turnaround of a distressed $100M+ revenue business, launched and sold a venture-backed startup, and led a B2B SaaS business to global-scale.In 2015, he founded Enjoy The Work, a firm of expert early-stage operators who have combined their considerable skills to advise the next generation of startups to launch, grow, and reach scale.About Leslie Fine:In 2008, Leslie founded Crowdcast, and successfully exited the company in 2012. Following Crowdcast, she helped lead three more startups, and landed at Salesforce to help launch their first AI product. She joined Enjoy The Work in 2019 as a General Partner. She has a PhD in Game Theory and Behavioral Economics from Caltech.In this episode we discuss:01:21 Leslie’s journey into the startup ecosystem03:43 Jonathan’s journey into the startup ecosystem06:38 Why they had to leave her corporate job to return to startups08:48 What about working with startups that excited Leslie11:21 Why fundraising is so much more than building a pitch deck and hope isn’t a strategy14:36 Other things founders need to think about when entering a fundraise and why being defensive is the death of a fundraising effort17:52 Investors are looking for no, not looking for yes19:02 Entrepreneurs need to understand that investors also have bosses, so make their jobs easy22:14 Why fundraising is a sales funnel that deserves scrutiny at every stage of the process24:48 Being arrogantly likable as a founder during a fundraising process26:09 The four different playbooks for fundraising30:22 Having a support person on the road to fundraising32:00 The third rails of fundraising41:42 Managing emotions during the fundraise44:22 Warm intros vs. cold introsLeslie’s Fast FavoritesPodcastThe IndicatorNewsletter/BlogTomasz TunguzTech GadgetTheragunNew TrednFemale EntrepreneursBookAlice in WonderlandLife LessonIf it takes less than 5 minutes, just do it.Jonathan’s Fast FavoritesPodcastThe Bill Simmons PodcastNewsletter/BlogScott GallowayTech GadgetAir FryerNew TrendSoft PantsBookThe FountainheadLife LessonDon’t keep scoreFollow 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

Onboarding is a pain point in hiring, but also when bringing new customers up to speed. Not only can it be difficult to navigate as a consumer, but it can be difficult to produce the materials and tutorials in the first place. Our guest today is aiming to fix all of that, Jennifer Smith is the Co-Founder and CEO of Scribe, a platform that makes manuals a thing of the past. She talks to us about how her platform works, what it was like fundraising while pregnant, and how her background in consulting and VC prepared her for life as a startup founder.About Jennifer Smith:Jennifer Smith started her career in consulting at McKinsey. She left to join Coatue and then Greylock Partners, heading up their CXO Program. In 2019 she Co-Founded Scribe. She did her undergrad at Princeton and has an MBA from Harvard Business.In this episode we discuss:01:37 How consulting helped her become an investor03:01 Early experiences that showed Jennifer the connection between finance and tech04:56 Knowledge is not evenly distributed and how to tap into that05:47 Her experience at Greylock Partners and how it prepared her to be a founder07:54 Jennifer’s advice to VCs11:06 Fundamental problems large organizations face and how smaller companies can help solve them13:42 Employee onboarding difficulties companies face14:48 When Jennifer started thinking about launching Scribe17:16 Meeting her co-founder19:05 Why they built in stealth for over a year20:45 Early customer hypotheses’s that proved wrong22:03 How Scribe actually works24:37 Scribe’s cross-platform functionality28:26 Is video a good platform to help onboarding30:15 Use cases Jennifer is seeing for Scribe32:30 How she fundraised her Series A34:01 Some of her most helpful Angel Investors36:05 Why founders should push back against Lead investors to fit in more strategic angelsFast FavoritesPodcastPlanet MoneyNewsletter/BlogAllison PickensTech GadgetSiri DictationNannetteNew TrendThe 90’s aestheticBookWallace WattlesLife LessonGeneralists are overrated.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

There’s a lot of hype around AI—both its capabilities and the extreme predictions of its utility and potential harm to society. Our guest today is using AI to help reduce harm by detecting fraud at scale in the financial sector. Ronan Burke is Co-Founder and CEO of Inscribe, a platform that has a mission to save billions of dollars lost to fraud by onboarding trusted customers faster and finding bad-faith users quicker using AI.About Ronan Burke:Ronan Burke is the Co-Founder of Inscribe.ai, which he founded after graduating from University College in Dublin. He participated in YCS18 and Inscribe is trusted by companies like BlueVine, Petal, Fair, and Ramp, and backed by Y Combinator, Uncork Capital, Crosslink Capital, and Foundry Group.In this episode we discuss:01:37 Ronan’s path to founding Inscribe with his twin brother03:02 How they viewed startups growing up in Ireland04:44 Growing the startup ecosystem in Dublin05:20 The launch of Inscribe08:06 Deciding which brother was CTO and which was CEO09:52 Ronan experience at YC12:54 What fraud means to Inscribe and how the pandemic made their service even more urgently needed16:09 The ROI of Inscribe to onboarding customers and detecting fraud from preexisting customers19:29 The three steps Inscribe uses to validate customers21:54 How Inscribe searches the dark web for templates and other fraudulent activities23:33 How the volume of data helps their ML24:00 What a typical fraud case looks like25:28 The market size for fraud detection26:55 Competition to Inscribe28:00 What the sales process looks like when selling to large FinTechs30:19 Case studies for Inscribe31:53 How their fundraising process went33:23 Plans for the next few years34:20 Plans for a hybrid model workplaceFast FavoritesPodcastTim Ferris ShowNewsletter BlogSimon Taylor FinTech Brain FoodTech GadgetLogiTech Stream CamNew TrendHybrid WorkingBookPrincipalsLife LessonIf you care about something, double down on it.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 rise of influencer to VC is starting to hit its stride. This has been an evolution from celebrities like Ashton Kutcher to newsletter writers like Packy McCormick. Our guest today is a part of that trend, moving from Division I college football player at the University of Michigan to sales at IBM and Okta, and now Marell Evans, Founder and Managing Partner of Exceptional Capital, is a rising star in the VC world. He is making an impact through his connections to sports and other high-impact individuals and his experience in sales and investing.About Marell Evans:Marell started his career in sales at IBM and Okta. He moved into the investing when he joined 415 in 2017, an early-stage fund founded by Owen Van Natta. From there he moved to Softback to help with their incubation and investing efforts and launched Exceptional Capital in 2022. He graduated from the University of Michigan.In this episode we discuss:01:41 Marell background and how he started playing football02:25 How Marell was the first college graduate from his family03:27 Who gave him motivation to succeed at an early age05:00 How Marell views the struggles in his early life06:59 The path from footbal to the tech world11:10 Why high-level athletes make strong hires13:37 Leadership is born and honed through sports14:38 Marell’s experience at Okta18:11 What it was like working at Softbank21:28 Lessons he took from his time at Softbank23:50 Marell’s relationship with Draymond Greene and what they have learned from each other26:27 Why athletes going into VC is a techtonic shift for good28:36 How Name Image Likeness is changing college athletics and how his career would have been different if that was in place when he played30:19 The fundraising process for Exceptional Ventures and how he attracted high-profile LPs33:57 What type of support his high-profile LPs have brought to Exceptional Ventures34:57 How to get in touch with MarellFast FavoritesPodcastAll In PodcastBlog/NewsletterFortune Deal TermsTech GadgetGarmin Fitness WatchNew TrendEmerging ManagersBookOutliersLife LessonDon’t let your humility compromise your competencyFollow 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

We hear a lot about building a community and creating startup ecosystems, but what does that really look like? Our guest today, Brendan King, Co-Founder and CEO of Vendasta has built both a community-focused platform and has helped build the startup ecosystem in Western Canada. Vendasta helps small and medium businesses create SaaS offerings by combining best-of-breed software vendors and the expertise of local media companies.About Brendan King:Before founding Vendasta in 2008, Brendan served as COO and a Director of Point2 Realty solutions, growing its membership to over 165,000 agents and brokers in 85 countries. In 2007, he was named one of the '100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders' by Inman News. Prior to that he founded and sold two successful computer retailing operations and also worked for Cameco Corporation as a Geophysicist. Brendan holds an Advanced Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Saskatchewan.In this episode we discuss:01:31 Brendan’s career journey04:39 Lessons he learned that gave him grit and stick-to-itiveness05:48 Why he and Vendasta are focused on the SMB segment07:15 How Vendasta helps serve SMB with a three-sided marketplace10:15 Pain points Vendasta addresses for SMB12:56 The mistakes he made and how they can solve problems for time-starved businesses14:28 Helping build a startup ecosystem in Western Canada16:51 The way Vendasta is adjusting to remote work19:50 Why resuburbanization is a trend moving forward21:52 How remote work is exposing Vendasta to stronger recruiting competition23:40 What Canadian investors can do to further accelerate the startup scene across the country28:02 What government in Canada has done to support Vendasta31:16 The decision of when to go public34:53 What other communities around the globe can do to jumpstart a startup ecosystemFast FavoritesPodcastAll InSaaStrNewsletter/BlogJames ClearDavid Skok For EntrepreneursTech GadgetNestNew TrendRemote Hybrid Organization DesignBookGood to GreatWorking BackwardsThinking Fast and SlowLife LessonBeing challenged is inevitable, being defeated is optionalFollow 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