A clear trend is these days is the Ops movement. DevOps, AdOps are the most well-known, but more and more support functions are having dedicated systems and platforms created to help support their roles.Our guest today, Josh Sharkey, Founder and CEO of meez, is pioneering the Food Tech space and creating a Google-Drive for restaurants and chefs. He talks about being a non-technical founder and why he wanted to build a dedicated platform for chefs.About Josh Sharkey:Josh started his career as a line cook working for renowned Chef Rick Moonen, he worked his way up the ladder in the NYC food scene (including working with Mario Batali) and became Chef at Gray Cafe in 2004. In 2009, he founded his own restaurant chain, Bark Hot Dogs. From there Josh became COO at Aurify Brands in 2016. Aurify includes chains Five Guys and Le Pain Quotidien. He founded meez inside Aurify in 2017 while still COO, and went full-time at meez in 2020.In this episode we discuss:01:28 How Josh’s journey in the restaurant industry lead him to founding meez04:29 Lessons learned from his first startup Bark Hot Dogs07:06 The early inspiration for meez08:22 The off-the-shelf solutions he tried prior to building something for himself09:54 Why chefs have been forgotten in technology solutions prior to meez12:26 How Josh’s experience has shaped the product offering from meez13:29 Finding user adoption in the chef community14:50 The process of building his MVP16:16 The preconceived notions that needed to rechecked after getting user feedback18:16 Why meez is finding traction20:36 How the vision for the company has evolved as more customers have onboarded21:31 Meez’s data strategy currently and moving forward24:32 Content strategy for meez26:10 What Josh cooks for his family27:41 How recipes add into meez and work for him29:42 Plans for the recent $6.5m seed round with Stuck Capital and Craft Ventures alongside the Founder of Bento BoxFast FavoritesPodcastStarting GreatnessBlogFirst Round ReviewTech GadgetOura RingPitchTrendGig economyBookSiddharthaZero to OneMythical Man-MonthLife LessonEverything is my fault.RecipeFresh pizza doughFollow 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

Today we take a deep dive into the Ripple X Fellowship, with its Founder, Dominic Lau. The world of startups and venture capital can be the road to providing immense value to consumers, founders, and investors, but it also can look like a brick wall to those without insight, connections, or knowledge of it all works. The RippleX Fellowship program gives students looking to become Founders and Investors access to that knowledge, as well as, a cohort of like-minded people to collaborate with.Founded in 2019, the RippleX Fellowship recently launched its tenth cohort and is now making its curriculum open to the public at ripplexfellowship.thinkific.com for students globally to help democratize access to startups and venture capital.About Dominic Lau:Dom joined Ripple Ventures as its first employee right after graduating from Waterloo and has been an integral part of building the firm from day one. He is Principal at Ripple Ventures and runs the RippleX Fellowship and is a Board member on several of Ripple’s Portfolio companies.In this episode we discuss:01:30 Dom’s background and why he wanted to jump into Venture investing02:43 How he got hired at Ripple Ventures04:02 Why Dom started the RippleX Fellowship07:46 What it was like to launch the first RippleX cohort10:19 How the program has evolved over the years11:51 How the fellowship grew to beyond Matt and Dom’s personal networks and into the US13:08 The pitch to participants to get them to apply and thrive in the program14:40 Success stories from the RippleX Fellowship18:05 Other benefits of participation in the fellowship19:22 The importance of the alumni network22:00 Focus of the 10th cohort and moving forward24:33 Why Dom decided to open up the curriculum to anyone27:21 The importance of persistence when applying to programs like the RippleX Fellowship28:15 The long-term vision of the RippleX Fellowship29:03 Why the RippleX Fellowship prides themselves on diversityFast FavoritesPodcastBeautiful Stories from Anonymous PeopleNewsletter/BlogVeradi VerdictTech GadgetNinja CoffeemakerNew TrendWeb3 Gaming (Here’s Dom’s Blog Series on Web3)BookMaybe You Should Talk To SomeoneLife LessonMomentum is EverythingFollow 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

Investors from the coasts can fall into the flyover trap, looking only for opportunities in larger coastal Metros like Silicon Valley or NYC, but our guest today Chris Olsen, Founding Partner of Drive Capital, threw conventional wisdom to the wind by leaving a job at Sequoia Capital and moving to Columbus, Ohio to raise a new fund and bet on founders in underserved geographies. Since then, Drive Capital has grown to $1.2B AUM and its portfolio includes Duolingo, Udacity, Lightstream, Root Insurance, and Comply360.About Chris Olsen:A native of Cincinnati, Chris is a Co-Founder and Partner of Drive Capital, a Columbus-based venture capital firm focused on investing in world-class technology companies outside of Silicon Valley. Prior to founding Drive, Chris was a Partner at Sequoia Capital for six years and helped launch the firm’s first growth fund. Chris’ first job out of school was on the professional squash circuit where he quickly learned he was better suited to work with entrepreneurs.In this episode we discuss:01:36 How Chris’ time at Sequoia Capital shaped him as an investor04:52 Biggest winners and some of the lessons he took away07:02 What he learned from the misses during that time08:33 The importance of teams and iteration for early startups10:03 The aha moments of when he saw the opportunities outside of Silicon Valley14:32 The reality of being comfortable when you are starting something new18:20 How he found his co-founders and why he moved before the fund had closed23:52 Factors that Drive Capital looks at when investing in an underserved geography25:35 How new ecosystems are made and how institutional dollars flow into new cities27:58 Why Canada has been a focus of Drive’s recent investment30:19 How Canada’s founders differ from US founders and why immigration is Canada’s secret weapon32:42 Why Chris like founders to take big swings to create large enterprises36:02 The culture of speed that Drive Captial has built and how founders should think about working with them39:51 What Chris is excited about and nervous about in the current VC market43:23 How Drive’s business model has evolved over the last 8 yearsFast FavoritesPodcast20 Minute VCBlog/NewletterThe EconomistTech GadgetTesla Model XNew TrendGrowth of capital and companies outside of Silicon ValleyBookThe Old Man and The SeaLife LessonYou’ve got to fail until you succeed.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 healthcare industry offers a tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs, and the Dental Instrusty, in particular, is experiencing rapid change and transformation with advancements in imaging and analysis. Our guest today, Wardah Inam, Co-Founder and CEO of Overjet is improving the accuracy of dental x-rays and reducing costs for providers and insurance companies. Overjet recently closed a $42M Series B with General Catalyst and Insight Partners, and has raised $75M in total venture financing.About Wardah Inam:Wardah Inam has been a robotics and AI researcher, operator, and now founder for the last 15 years. After completing her undergraduate work at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Wardah came to Boston to finish her schooling at MIT/Havard Business School for a Masters and PhD. After working in product management at Q bio, Wardah co-founded Overjet in 2018.In this episode we discuss:01:38 Wardah’s journey to starting Overjet02:54 How she came to the dental industry04:11 Finding her co-founders and starting the business04:58 The experience of starting Overjet at the Harvard Innovation Labs05:50 What Overjet’s mission is and how it works07:32 How Overjet got access to providers09:54 What Overjet does to solve pain points in the dental industry using AI11:58 How Dental Service Organizations are using to Overjet to drive efficiency14:56 The ways insurance companies are using Overjet and how they got their first insurance customers17:54 Their sales process now that they have momentum and trust in the marketplace18:47 Detecting suspicious claims using Overjet’s AI21:42 Going beyond cavity detection into tumor detection22:57 Overjet’s testing process and better than dentist bar they set for themselves and FDA clearances25:38 How Overjet is used by dentists as a communication tool to patients28:14 The pricing model for Overjet and how that evolved29:30 Learnings from their pricing experimentation32:13 Plans for their recent raise and the long term vision for OverjetFast FavoritesPodcastAll In PodcastNewsletter/BlogTBD ;)Tech GadgetAirpodsNew TrendDigital NomadBookHigh Growth HandbookLife LessonEverything you put in the world is a reflection of youFollow 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 are few experiences more loaded with lore and mystique in the western world than the Israeli kibbutz and being a soldier in the special forces. Our guest today is Lior Susan, Founding Partner at Eclipse Ventures, and he has lived both of those lives, as well as, being a successful founder and operator, and a non-consensus venture investor. Eclipse invests in founders who want to bring the full-stack approach to legacy industries and build digital bridges to the physical world. They have $2.6B in AUM. Lior’s investments include Bright Machines, Augury, Cheetah, Owlet Baby Care, June Life, Insidepacket, and Lucira Health.About Lior Susan:Prior to launching Eclipse in 2015, Lior was Founder and General Partner at LabIX, the hardware investment platform of Flextronics where he led investments in companies across energy storage, wireless/infrastructure, 3-D optics, additive manufacturing, and robotics.Lior also co-founded Farm 2050, an AgTech Collective, with Innovation Endeavors to address the global food challenge. Prior to LabIX, he was part of the founding team of Elementum, the Flex proprietary SaaS platform, which was later spun out. Before moving to Silicon Valley, Lior was a serial entrepreneur in Tel Aviv, where he helped build Intucell, which was sold to Cisco in 2012. Lior is a reservist of an elite Special Forces unit in the Israel Defense Force.In this episode we discuss:01:47 How Lior’s experience growing up in a kibutz shaped his worldview05:47 What being in the military and special ops taught him07:06 How he and his brother were able to turn a $5M investment in their startup into a $475M exit to Cisco in two years10:10 Why he joined an established company after his startup experience12:29 What he learned about supply chain management and why he started thinking about founding Eclipse16:02 Why Lior wanted to back founders looking to disrupt old-line industries and the early LPs that believed in him18:07 How Lior overcame his lack of track record as an investor when he first started Eclipse19:55 Eclipse’s track record before and after Covid21:28 Timing signals on when to invest in disruptive technologies26:29 Is updating the supply line just about automation and replacing workforce?28:54 How Covid is refocusing supplychains away from global suppliers32:08 Advice for founders looking to disrupt and sell into legacy industries33:35 Why he recommends to his founders to go after larger players first instead of SMB35:02 The importance of finding a design partner36:30 What Lior is telling his companies about how deal with inflation38:59 Why founders should avoid exclusivity40:40 The strategy around Eclipse’s two newest fundsFast FavoritesPodcastBridgewaterNewsletter/BlogWall Street JournalTech GadgetOwletNew TrendClimate InvestingBookThe Art of WarLife LessonWhen you don’t build, you don’t break.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

A great launch can change the trajectory of your startup, and one of the places you can have a great launch is on Product Hunt. So how can you set yourself up for success on that platform?Our guest today, Joaquin Roca, Co-Founder and CEO of Minerva, a Chrome extension that allows you to easily create training guides, and has had multiple successful Product Hunt launches. He talks through some strategies and what he’s learned about launching and running a startup over the last few years.About Joaquin Roca:Joaquín​ ​V.​ ​Roca​ is a seasoned organizational consultant with wide-ranging experience. In addition to consulting, Joaquín has founded two technology companies built to help managers learn to become great leaders (LeaderNation and the Scaffold). As an entrepreneur Joaquín has played every role imaginable from sales rep, to accountant, and from designer to software engineer.Prior to Minerva, Joaquín has an extensive background in teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, where he has designed and delivered courses on varied topics including organization development, statistics, research design, creativity, innovation, and leadership.He then became a consultant working with startups (e.g., SumAll, Eyeview, Datadog, Digital Ocean), large organizations (e.g., Hyundai Capital America, Pfizer, American Express), and government and non-government organizations (e.g., UNICEF, UNFPA, the Borough of Lansdale Pennsylvania).Joaquín did his undergrad at NYU and graduate work at Columbia.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.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 pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part,  Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist  by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:28 Joaquin’s journey to starting Minerva03:46 The most difficult manual guide he made prior to Minerva04:34 Minerva’s beta process and how the team knew they were onto something06:10 Early use cases and how they found early users08:04 The importance of iterating while defining your Ideal Customer Profile09:16 Why they decided to launch as a Chrome extension11:22 Surprising use cases that have popped up on the platform12:58 What they did prior to launching on Product Hunt14:53 The community’s response to the Product Hunt Launch16:10 What the “mission control” looked like during the launch17:42 Their research process prior to launching19:06 Minerva’s social media strategy on launch day21:20 Jaoquin’s general approach to social media and building in public22:32 How they closed their seed round after their first Product Hunt launch25:46 Looking back on how their fundraising went and how it forced him to step up27:52 Where they ended up after that first Product Hunt launch and what the immediate effect was on their business30:21 the biggest lessons from his Product Hunt launches33:16 How Joaquin is still trigger shy to hire a new head of sales and what steps he’s taking for long-term sales success36:01 Immediate plans for using their $4M Seed round lead by Bryan Rosenblatt Craft VenturesFast FavoritesPodcastShay AnythingNewsletter/BlogMario GabrieleTech GadgetGoogle PixelTrendTikTok as User Acquisition ToolBookIf On A Winter’s Night, A TravellerTeam of RivalsGetting to YesLife LessonDon’t take it too seriously, you’re not getting out alive.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 notion that leaders are born and not made can feel oppressive to founders and others working their way up the business ladder. Leadership is isolating enough without the toxic mythology that you’re just supposed to know how to do from the get-go. Our guest today, Christine Tao, Co-Founder and CEO of Sounding Board, is working to normalize coaching for CEOs, Founders, and others who want to become better leaders. Sounding Board allows organizations to manage, scale, and measure coaching on one unified platform. Their AI-Powered admin tools and centralized data insights integrate with our proprietary, managed coach network to deliver coaching at scale. Sounding Board recently closed a $30M Series B funding round led by JAZZ Venture Partners.About Christine Tao:Christine co-founded Sounding Board in 2016 to solve the most challenging yet important part of her role as SVP of a fast-growing VC-backed startup: Leadership Development. Her experience as an operator at stops like YouTube and Tapjoy has helped guide at Sounding Board. She did her undergrad at UC Berkeley and her MBA at Wharton.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.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 pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part,  Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:33 The difference between a coach and a mentor04:51 The lightswitch moment when she knew she had to found Sounding Board08:26 Why she decided to turn her coach into her co-founder11:53 The value and ROI coaching brings to clients and organizations15:23 How the Sounding Board platform is scalable for future growth18:55 Solving the cold start problem with a marketplace21:13 The ICP for Sounding Board and what leadership means to Christine23:35 How they landed at that ICP25:10 How Sounding Board integrates with learning platforms27:02 The biggest challenges coaches and organizations saw during the early pandemic28:32 How Sounding Board standardizes it caching approach across organizations and internally30:32 The structure Sounding Board uses to contract and pay their coaches31:37 Overcoming jargon and other industry-specific knowledge32:34 The success and flexibility of matching coaches to organizations34:00 What the future of the coaching industry looks like over the next 5-10 years37:27 The broad appeal of coaching across the work/life spectrum39:30 Plans to deploy their recent $30M Series B lead by JAZZ Venture Partners41:51 The number of coaches on the platform today and the plans for growthFast Favorites:PodcastThe Startup Chat20 Minute VCNewsletter/BlogMark SusterFirst Round ReviewReforgeTech GadgetLogitech Video CamNew TrendRenting, not owningRentTheRunway.comBookThe Hard Thing About Hard Things By Ben HorowitzLife LessonYou should always just ask.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

We are changing things up with today’s episode whereby our host, Matt Cohen, is answering the questions instead of asking them, on a Dealmaker’s DNA Podcast with Ilan Jacobson.Ilan goes deep into Matt’s family upbringing and how he became so interested in business and investing. They dig into his journey starting Ripple Ventures and his path to becoming an entrepreneur. This episode gives you some insight into who Matt Cohen really is and how he thinks about investing, business, and family.Topics discussed:* What Ripple is and why Matt started it* What creates entrepreneurs* Matt’s backstory and family upbringing* The level of sacrifice involved in being an entrepreneur* Matt’s view on failure and why everyone needs to own it* Matt’s constant curiosity on all things* Maintaining a good network* The line between business and personal* Matt’s mentors* How to pick jockeys (ie startup CEOs)* How our minds perform at the highest level and how we can take care of it 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

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we need better tools to work and collaborate remotely. For years engineering teams have solved this problem with GitHub and other version control systems, but for documents and other collaborative workflows, there hasn’t been a rock-solid tool. Today’s guest, Adam Nathan, co-founder and CEO of Almanac is working to change that. Almanac is working to replace entrenched players like Google Workspace and Microsoft Office, and a recent $34M Raise led by Tiger Global and joined by Floodgate and others will give them a real shot at disruption.About Adam Nathan:Adam started his career at the White House, where he worked on policy initiatives. He moved to the private sector and had roles at Lyft, Apple, and Varo before co-founding Almanac. He did his undergrad at Duke and an MBA at Harvard.A word from our sponsor:Ripple Ventures is always focused on helping our founders and CEOs find the best partners to work with. But before we introduce any provider to our companies, we always make sure we try the product first. And when it comes to managing business expenses at Ripple, we were super excited when the team at Jeeves came knocking on our door.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 pay any setup or annual fees either. Not only does Jeeves save us time, but they also give us up to 3% cashback on our purchases including expenses like Google, Facebook or AWS every month. The best part,  Jeeves puts up the cash, and you settle up once every 30 days, unlike some other corporate card companies that make you pre-pay every month. Jeeves offers a truly all-in-one expense management corporate card program for international startups and we at Tank Talks could not be more excited to partner with them. Listeners of Tank Talks can get set up with a demo of Jeeves today and take advantage of a $700 discount and skip the waitlist  by visiting tryjeeves.com/tanktalks to learn more.In this episode we discuss:02:57 Adam’s journey to becoming a founder07:34 Why disrupting the status quo has been a recurring theme in his career11:45 How starting Almanac prior to the pandemic allowed them to A-B test assumptions prior to being more widely adopted16:19 Painpoints with Google Workspace and Microsoft Office that Almanac is trying to solve19:50 What Almanac has learned from early use cases outside of the tech world23:39 How their CORE document template library has helped customers and accelerated growth26:01 Uses for Almanac’s Snippet feature28:18 Why Adam thinks Hybrid office strategies are doomed to fail31:24 How Almanac is a cultural choice, not a productivity tool35:15 Adam’s experience working with Floodgate and TigerFast FavoritesPodcastSmartlessNewsletter/BlogWait But WhyTech GadgetAirpodsTrendArtisanal CoffeeBookDeep WorkLife LessonDo Your Homework.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

On Today's show, we talk about angel investing, the current venture landscape, and how the later stage investing world is being disrupted with Partner at Craft Ventures, Bryan Rosenblatt. Bryan brings a deep operations background to his investing from working at companies like Twitter and Reddit where he helped with customer acquisition. He soon added angel investing as a side hustle and was able to get into competitive rounds in later-stage companies like Lamda School, Slack, and Carta. It’s a great conversation.About Bryan Rosenblatt:Bryan is a partner at Craft Ventures, focused on building the firm's east coast portfolio. Prior to joining Craft, Bryan led Reddit's New York office and revenue team, cultivating partnerships with brands like Google, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, P&G, and HBO. During his time at Reddit, the revenue organization grew 10x while scaling revenue to a $100m+ annualized revenue run rate. Bryan was an early member of Twitter's New York team where he worked with brands like Peloton, Harry's, Bonobo's, Casper, and Under Armour on their acquisition marketing efforts. Bryan has been an active investor both personally and via Riverside Ventures, which he founded in early 2017. His investments include Carta, Citizen, Bonobo's, Slack, and Dapper Labs. In 2018, Bryan was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Marketing & Advertising. He was also recognized by Ad Council for championing nonprofit advertising that builds awareness around topics including mental health and diversity & inclusion. In 2021, Bryan was named to Business Insider's Top 100 Seed Investors.Bryan is a mentor for Backstage Capital, helping advance underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs.A message from our sponsor:Now more than ever, entrepreneurs need committed partners to help them navigate the hardest pain points of scaling a technology business. Created by one of Canada’s largest banks, RBCx is re-imagining what it means to create meaningful and impactful technology companies in Canada.RBCx – the tech banking arm of the Royal Bank of Canada - is a full-service platform that accelerates the entrepreneurial journey at every stage of growth – providing access to a complete suite of capital solutions, innovative products and services, and operational expertise to help technology companies scale.Sid Paquette – former Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures, is leading the group and has recruited a bunch of new faces to the bank from the Venture and Tech industry. Tony Barkett and Tyler Kirk – two former Silicon Valley Bank leaders in addition to Nicole Kelly and Anthony Mouchantaf have also joined Sid from OMERS Ventures.RBCx has been incredibly active since their launch in June as an LP, and have already backed some of Canada’s most notable VC funds including Golden, Amplitude, Version One, and Lumira Ventures. To learn more about RBCx visit www.rbcx.com or follow them on Twitter or Linkedin.In this episode we discuss:02:42 Biggest lessons he learned in his early career at Reddit and Twitter about customer acquisiton04:34 How he evolved from a qualitative perspective to a quantitative perspective on marketing05:49 The experience of building a sales team at Reddit starting in 201507:41 The importance of brand story and opportunity when there is a strong userbase10:14 How Bryan was able to get into competitive later rounds as an angel investor12:07 The importance of momentum and building on wins to secure dealflow13:26 Bryan’s early due-diligence process14:18 Why a founder’s character is important at early stage investing15:05 The learning value of losing money as angel investor16:04 Early personal risk when investing16:39 The biggest loss and biggest wins as an angel investor18:54 Training yourself to know when to listen to your gut20:34 Ways he needed to step up his game when joining a marquee firm like Craft Ventures22:15 Early lessons he learned from the senior Craft Ventures partners24:01 What was the hardest thing to learn in his transition to venture investing25:18 How the market has evolved since becoming a VC27:16 The importance of conviction in growth when investing28:12 The SaasGridQA.com tool Craft just launched for founders to help analyze and predict growth29:10 How Bryan helps foster and grow partnerships within his portfolio30:55 Will companies like Pipe.com ultimately destroy the VC model?32:25 Bryan’s tips for founders who are pursuing a product-led growth strategy34:33 The best way to onboard new customers35:44 Craft Venture portfolio companies that have nailed the product-led growth strategy37:18 The part of the Craft platform Bryan would recommend to every founder38:53 How Craft views the market in generalFast FavoritesPodcastAll In PodcastNewsletter/BlogFred WilsonHoward Linson/r/MetsTech GadgetQuestTrendAlternative assets like trading cardsBookThinking in BetsLife LessonStay hungry, stay humble.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