Tank Talks By Ripple Ventures

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

Selling B2B has an entrenched playbook, and some might say it’s so ingrained that it needs to be disrupted. Our guest today is Ross Rich, Co-Founder and CEO of Accord. Accord is a platform that leverages collaboration and community to make the B2B sales and onboarding process smoother. Ross shares how he got accepted into YC based on a hand-drawn piece of paper presentation and no working prototype and how Accord has been able to land high-profile customers like Figma and Stripe in their first year of operation.About Ross Rich:Ross Rich has an entrepreneurial mindset, starting an events company in school with his brother, transitioning to managing music acts then working at Columbia Records, before landing at Stripe. In 2019 he co-founded Accord, a Customer Collaboration Platform for high-growth startups who need to build a repeatable sales & onboarding process to hit ambitious revenue goals.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:02:43 How Ross landed on the path to founding Accord03:25 Lessons from the Music Industry that he still uses today06:09 The open culture at Stripe07:26 What Ross took from his time at Stripe11:55 Early misperceptions about partnerships Ross had15:52 How Accord got accepted into YC with no working prototype22:05 The problem Accord solves24:20 Advice to sales teams working to create relationships with potential clients26:30 How to setup a more modern B2B customer pipeline29:02 Why collaboration is at the core of what Accord does31:44 How Accord helps manage communication and collaboration35:54 Advice to early startups to build their customer journey38:06 Things startups should avoid in B2B sales40:07 Use cases from Accord successes like Stripe43:53 How Accord leverages social media in its own marketing45:58 Plans for the next 12 monthsFast Favorites:* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: * All In Podcast w/ Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg* 📰- Favorite Newsletter /Blog: * SaaStr or First Round blogs on early startup advice* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: * Airpods, noise canceling (especially on flights)* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: * WFH* 📚- Favorite Book: * The Alchemist * 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: * Your greatest strength is your greatest weaknessFollow 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

This episode is a milestone, Episode 100! And for that special occasion, we have a very special guest filled with unique insights from his time in the Canadian Special Forces. On today’s show, we welcome Glenn Cowan, Founder of ONE9. ONE9’s Special Mission Fund is Canada’s first and only national security and critical infrastructure security fund. The fund focuses on dual-use technologies validated in the military / special operations and intelligence community while scaling commercially. He is also the founder of ONE9 Capability Labs, Canada’s first defence and security focussed technology accelerator.About Glenn Cowan:Glenn Cowan is the Founder of ONE9, an ecosystem for national security and critical infrastructure technology innovation and integration. Anchored by Canada’s first security focussed venture capital fund, One 9 provides unparalleled access to proprietary deal flow emanating from compartmentalized programs in the Five-Eyes defence, security and intelligence communities. Harnessing years of operational military experience at the forefront of special operations and national security operations, One 9 has developed, implemented, and deployed cutting-edge technologies while working with industry leaders to deliver high-impact capabilities. With a deep understanding of end-user requirements, One 9 knows what is needed and what works. Leveraging a unique and agile ‘Task Force’ of subject matter experts (SMEs) One 9 provides clients and partners the requisite knowledge and advisory skills to navigate bringing products to market for defence and security end-users.Prior to ONE9, Glenn was an officer in Canadian Special Forces for over 18 years.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 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 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:02:53 Glenn’s journey from Special Forces officer to Venture Investor07:49 Moments from Glenn’s military career that have stuck with him as an investor11:24 How special forces helped train Glenn’s decision-making in venture16:02 What pushed Glenn to commit to investing fulltime22:28 The impact of Glenn’s grandfather on him as a business operator24:18 Disspelling the notion that Special Forces is a boys club25:37 What Glenn means when he says Venture Capital is a special force30:20 How ONE9 supports founders and helps with decision making to deploy resources35:26 What risk-assesment is like when viewed through a Special Forces lens42:50 How Glenn’s perspective can help grow the tech eco-system47:14 How Glenn met his co-founder Daniel Weinand, Co-Founder of Shopify51:16 What it was like raising their $50M Fund I led by Kensington Capital56:10 What is Capability Labs and how it worksFast Favorites:* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: The Everyday Warrior* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Whoop* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: Cold plunge* 📚- Favorite Book: Gates of Fire, Tribe, The Alamanc Naval Ravikant, Daring Greatly* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: The power of vulnerabilityFollow 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

Retaining talent is a superpower for successful companies and creating environments that support employees is often the foundation of retention. Our guest today is Cameron Yarbrough, Co-Founder and CEO of Torch, a platform that helps companies build professional growth through the power of trusted relationships. We are big believers in coaching and mentorship and Torch has really caught our eye with how they are able to measure ROI on these traditionally difficult-to-measure relationships. We also talk to Cameron about Torch’s recent $40 million Series C financing round right before the market downturn.About Cameron Yarbrough:Cameron is Co-Founder and CEO at Torch Leadership Labs, a leadership development company built on principles of psychology and management best practices. Prior to Torch, Cameron worked at the Stanford Graduate Business School as a facilitator to MBA students in Interpersonal Dynamics. He has a Masters in Counselling Psychology and a clinical background. He also was a CEO and founder of an e-commerce in the first dot-com wave in 1997.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 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 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:02:47 How Cameron’s career led him to Stanford Graduate Business School and ultimately Torch05:28 Cameron’s journey of self-discovery after selling his first business09:18 The final push that led Cameron to start Torch13:09 Why companies should still invest in supporting employee's professional growth15:55 How Founders can leverage their missions to find and retain great employees17:11 How companies can better embody their missions19:26 The most important leadership skills for founders to master25:06 How Torch shows ROI on coaching and mentorship to leaders27:01 How Torch devised their unique method of coaching and mentoring29:11 Cameron’s advice to first-time founders31:40 How founders should think about stress and how Cameron manages his own stressful times34:33 Dealing with impostor syndrome36:18 The importance of humility and authenticity in founders37:36 Coaching high-calibre entrepreneurs40:01 Cameron’s experience with M&A and the lessons he learned42:14 Plans for their recent $40M Series C led by 137 Ventures, in addition to follow on capital from Initialized Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Obvious VenturesFast Favorites:* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: Wow In The World* 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: Josh Bersin* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Calm App* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: Remote Work* 📚- Favorite Book: The Invention of Nature* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: Be humble and be vulnerable 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

Finding new and more efficient ways to reward creators for their efforts is one of the biggest challenges of the digital economy. Our guest today, Jared Nusinoff, is working to bring value to creators with Mash, a crpyto/web3 platform that helps get creators paid with a new “Pay-As-You-Enjoy” model. Mash recently received a $6M seed-round co-led by Castle Island Ventures & Whitecap Venture Partners.About Jared Nusinoff:Jared is the CEO and Co-Founder of Mash. His previous experience was starting a Travel Company, Out Here Travel, and he spent a long stint at Google. He began his career at Bain and did his undergrad at Ivey Business School at Western University.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 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 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:02:30 How Jared started as a canoe guide in Canada and got involved with technology03:56 What Jared took from his time at Bain04:53 Simplifying options can help people make decisions06:13 Lessons he took from his time at Google07:52 How he launched projects within Google08:29 Google’s mindset around success and failure09:23 Why revenue isn’t always the best success metric within companies like Google11:17 Lessons he learned from founding his adventure travel company Out Here Travel16:13 How Web 2.0 has failed creators to help them support themselves20:23 Who is a creator today and why they are turning to Web322:50 How Mash helps creators26:23 Problems he’s hearing from creators28:40 What the BitCoin Lightning Network and why they chose to build Mash ontop of it32:38 How Mash helps crypto curious creators dive into the Web3 world34:42 Securtity on Mash to protect wallets from scams36:55 Early use cases of Mash39:41 How developers are using Mash40:44 The competitive landscape for Mash42:33 Plans for their seed-round Co-led by Castle Island Ventures & Whitecap Venture Partners43:50 Being a remote-first companyFast Favorites:* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: * On The Brink – best/smartest take on bitcoin + web3/blockchain* 📰- Favorite Newsletter /Blog: * Fred Wilson’s AVC* Ben Hunt’s Epsilon Theory * Stratechery by Ben Thompson* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: * Coldcard Signing Device / Wallet* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: * Freedom Enabling Sound Money – Lightning Network + Bitcoin* Unbundling of the Internet* 📚- Favorite Book: * Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: * Don’t listen to life lessons. Everyone’s unique. Do things* Do your own research. Don’t trust the “experts” & narratives.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

Hiring is one of the toughest challenges startups face in today’s global economy. They are competing for talent not only against “name brand” companies, but also the incredibly rich and robust startups from around the world. Our guest today has seen that struggle both as an operator and now as an investor, Michele Delcambre, is the operations partner at Felicis Ventures, one of the greatest venture firms to form in the last decade. Prior to Felicis, she led HR and Talent divisions at some of the fastest-growing technology companies like Atlassian, Okta, Databricks, and Stripe.This is a great conversation with a ton of insight for founders at all levels.About Michelle Delcambre:Michelle is an Operating Partner at Felicis and leads Talent and People focused initiatives. In this role, Michelle leverages over a decade of experience in high-growth companies to advise and assist companies across the portfolio on their People and Talent best practices.Prior to joining Felicis, Michelle led Talent and People Operations functions for a number of successful technology companies building and scaling hiring practices, People strategy, and People technology solutions during incredible growth periods. Michelle has seen various stages of scale, as the first US-based recruiting leader for Atlassian scaling from a few dozen to a few hundred employees, and growing organizations from 500-2,000 as the Head of Talent at Okta through their IPO. Additionally, she helped Stripe to operationalize the People and Recruiting functions as they scaled from >2,000 to over 5,000 employees. Michelle is a native of Louisiana and attended Michigan State University.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 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 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:02:41 Michelle’s journey into Talent/HR04:20 How Michelle’s view on talent was shaped by her time at Atlassian06:22 Lessons she learned from her time at Zenefits09:56 How she helped Stripe transition to remote work during the pandemic12:16 What resources needed to shift when Stripe went remote12:59 How Stripe’s culture survived and thrived during the pandemic14:31 Why remote work has increased the available talent pool and how startups can win the war for talent18:40 Why good employees leave companies and how remote-only or in-office only is more complicated20:31 Policies that founders should consider to attract talent24:44 Why Gen Z wants in office to find mentorship26:50 How DEI efforts help companies become stronger29:25 The use of data in recruiting and HR30:48 Tools Michelle recommends to track HR data31:30 How to build a talent pipeline33:18 Common mistakes that hiring managers make36:15 Balancing moving candidates through the pipeline versus rushing bad candidates into a role38:37 Michelle’s role at Felicis and how she helps its portfolioFast Favorites:* 🎙- Favorite Podcast: The Trojan Horse Affair, Things You’re Wrong About * 📰- Favorite Newsletter/Blog: The Tedium* 📲- Favorite Tech Gadget: Apple Watch* 📈-  Favorite New Trend: Tiny library rooms* 📚- Favorite Book: To Kill A Mockingbird, The Changing World Order* 🤔 - Favorite Life Lesson: All people have more in common than you thinkFollow 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