Ventures

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Andrew Cronk (Co-Founder, Figment.io) and I discuss practical ways to engage with the Web 3.0 stack, how to keep up with information in the blockchain space, how to learn and teach others about crypto technologies, and where everyone is going to be storing and sharing baby photos in the future.  Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-19 for detailed notes and links to resources (videos, articles, etc…) mentioned. You can watch this episode via video here. In this episode we cover the following:   2:30 - A quick discussion about what’s been happening in the blockchain world since summer 2020, i.e. the DeFi “boom.” 4:09 - What has Figment.io been up to? Servicing two personas with three products. Coin holders and Web 3 developers, with validator nodes/staking, Hubble, and Data Hub.7:00 - Figment Learn - new product for developers to learn how to build on blockchains. 7:50 - Why do we need all these extra blockchains? Why do we need more than Ethereum?  11:23 - Regarding the question “Where do you upload your baby photos?” // What is it now within the Figment team and what will it hopefully be in the near future? 13:16 - What technology shifts are happening that are warranting the creation of these new blockchains? Trusted Execution Environments and Intel SGX, Oasis, Secret.Network. Users owning their own data. Example of the project looking at people sharing xrays/CT scans to train a model. 16:03 - Would people training these models need to be compensated with a token? 16:50 - Where are/would people’s images be stored in the Web 3 stack in this example? 17:58 - What areas in the blockchain space is Andy most excited about? Where does it get his news about blockchains? Check out Messari. Privacy of data. Personal digital locker of data. 20:10 - Commentary/questions about the multidisciplinary nature of blockchains - where does Andy like to spend his time? What things are working? Speculation, DeFi like Automated Market Makers (Uniswap), and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). OpenSea marketplace.     25:10 - Example of a “receipt” that could be given to consumers who buy something. 25:50 - More about Figment’s new Learn product. How does it work? Who is it for? (Peer to Peer learning system)27:45 - Would people in Learn get paid in the token of the chain that is promoting content? Or what incentive mechanisms are in place?  29:48 - As a developer today, what sorts of things can I do with DataHub?30:34 - What are some examples of things I can build with NEAR? 31:55 - Will DataHub have the APIs necessary to interact with NEAR? 32:30 - Final thoughts from Andy to the Web 2 to Web 3 engineers and investors out there. Let’s take back the internet.  

In this episode of Ventures, I discuss with my guests Spencer Graham (https://twitter.com/spengrah) and Tony Little (https://twitter.com/DrTonyLittle) the past, present, and future of blockchain technologies and Web 3.0. Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-18 for detailed notes and links to resources (videos, articles, etc…) mentioned. You can watch this episode via video here. In this episode we cover the following:    1:59 - Tony intro, including his new job at https://www.prescryptive.com/ 2:38 - Spencer intro, Web 3.0 product manager. 3:50 - Tee-up about exploring the narratives of blockchain, starting first with explaining what blockchain is.11:00 - How would Tony talk about the story of blockchain from its origin to today? 17:00 - A quick caveat from Spencer about the problem of narratives. 17:56 - How would Spencer talk about the story of blockchain from its origin to today? 22:17 - What’s up with DeFi (Decentralized Finance? Why has it been all the rage the last couple of years? 25:00 - Blockchain ecosystem today similar to the “primordial soup” in biology that gave birth to life. The “experiments” happening today are like that early environment, and time will tell what comes out of it and evolves.26:36 - Transition from the infrastructure narrative into products. What prevents someone from borrowing money in the DeFi space and running away with it? 29:52 - Why would someone borrow ~$1k by putting up something like $1.5k in collateral? What is the engine that makes DeFi go right now?31:55 - What other products in the DeFi space are catching Spencer’s interest? (discussing risk management products)  34:59 - What’s up with yield farming and COMP’s governance protocol? (see also https://www.coindesk.com/defi-yield-farming-comp-token-explained) 39:44 - Recapping yield farming and the ability to potentially make more money from owning these tokens in the future. 42:06 - How active is yield farming now in DeFi? Is it a zero-sum game? 43:39 - What “net new” types of products can blockchain enable? (discussion around identity, shared governance, company ownership, and the future of work)50:30 - Perhaps blockchains simply enable existing products/protocols to be scaled? (Will’s example of chaining internet through neighbors in mountain/valley environments, and a reminder that technology reduces cost and/or increases convenience)53:50 - Blockchains as “scaling trust”. 55:38 - What is “trustless” then? Do we really mean “scaling trust” ?  An extreme minimization of trust? What are we trusting in with regard to the blockchain tech and ecosystem? 57:33 - What is Web 3.0? (A discussion of Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and the sharing of costs, ownership, and outcomes of ventures at the infrastructure and application level in Web 3.0. “Putting communities back in control”) 1:00:51 - Discussion of Filecoin / IPFS - and The Graph - as examples of new Web 3.0 stack components.1:02:55 - Discussion of identity, “directory”, and consent. 1:04:30 - Discussion of Web 1/2/3 transitions as an expansion of protocols and interfaces with those protocols. 1:05:08 - How do Tony and Spencer think about the future of blockchain? What excites them? 

In this episode, Alexandra Skillman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexskillman/) shares her extensive knowledge in the world of PR for an entrepreneurial audience. We discuss at length PR considerations for startup founders regarding go-to-market strategies, overall marketing plans, working with journalists, reaching out to influencers, and avoiding common mistakes.Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-17 for detailed notes and links to resources (videos, articles, etc…) mentioned. You can watch this episode via video here. In this episode we cover the following:    2:02 - Alex intro, background, and journey into public relations 7:32 - More details about Alex’s time at the Walt Disney Company and working with Aaron Sorkin, Sean Connery, and others.15:13 - Alex’s time in the Bay Area working in both entertainment and startups23:16 - Leaving Electronic Arts and working for a global PR firm 27:07 - The story of Alex launching her own PR business29:52 - How Alex started acquiring clients 34:23 - At what point in a founder’s journey should they consider hiring a PR firm / publicist? 41:10 - What is a Butter Twist and what are Stix golf clubs? https://www.bttrkitchen.com/ // http://stix.golf/ 43:48 - More about the details about how a PR person can get products featured by journalists and influencers. 47:33 - What business models make sense for PR? How would B2B SaaS companies, for example, make use of PR? 49:38 - What should founders expect from an ongoing relationship with a PR firm/person, on a month-to-month and year-to-year basis? (e.g. “Newsjacking”) 53:40 - How should teams use a press release (or not) ?56:30 - Information about embargos and the timing of press releases across media outlets.1:01:40 - What advice does Alex have for founders considering hiring a PR person/firm. 1:07:30 - “PR isn’t dead” // Advice for founders who may think that PR isn’t effective. 1:14:23 - PR can be an important part of startup validation, since journalists and influencers have a unique perspective. (PR can also lead to important pivots). 1:16:02 - Where can people find Alex online? https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexskillman/ // https://twitter.com/typeamarketing 

In this episode of Ventures I had the honor of interviewing executive coach Shandel Sutherland (https://www.shandelgroup.com/) about topics including organizational effectiveness, personal/team wiring and communication, the “why” behind a company, and setup work that is necessary for teams to be maximally efficient. Establishing clarity is one of the hardest jobs as an entrepreneur and business leader, and in this episode we get a front-row seat into how a 20-yr coaching veteran helps founders and their teams be amazing. Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-16 for detailed notes and links to resources (videos, articles, etc…) mentioned. You can watch this episode via video here. In this episode we cover the following: 2:16 - Shandel intro, background into how and why she got into coaching4:00 - How she started her coaching business (founding story). 5:22 - Landing her first handful of customers, how did she position herself to customers? What was the value proposition? 8:07 - Fighting against the hustle/fake-it-until-you-make it culture that founders often think they need to espouse at the expense of their personal life and mental health. 11:23 - At what point did Shandel’s business scale from serving individuals to serving teams? 14:45 - Will’s experience of - and Shandel’s commentary on - how interpersonal relationship conflict and miscommunication can lead to operational inefficiency in a company. (And how trust between people is either growing or shrinking but never staying the same; it takes work).16:34 - About Shandel Group and the origin story of the name.  18:55 - What are the assessments that her group does at the beginning of an engagement? Can founders/executives do those on their own? 23:44 - When you are in a situation where you aren’t self aware, what do you do? How do you become aware? 27:44 - Coaching frameworks, a bit of Will’s story being coached, and what does the coaching framework typically look like for an executive? 30:24 - Personal retreats (when/how) and truth-telling from coach to client. 37:14 - Talking through the five dysfunctions of a team (Lencinoi). 44:32 - Mental health for founders, and what founders listening in need to hear as they are feeling convicted from this conversation. 48:38 - Why does miscommunication happen amongst teams? 53:33 - Talking through purpose, values, vision, mission, and why all the pre-work before you get to the particulars is necessary (and can create low-drama, high-functioning teams). For details, see: https://www.shandelgroup.com/thrive 1:07:44 - What should founders look for when choosing a coach to hire? What are the things to watch out for? 1:09:54 - Will’s high-level takeaways from this episode (given that Shandel always ends her coaching calls with takeaways). :)

My guest this week (John Biggs, https://twitter.com/johnbiggs, https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndbiggs/) is an entrepreneur, writer, and technologist. He was the east coast editor at TechCrunch for fifteen years, was an editor at Coindesk, and is currently the Editor in Chief at Gizmodo. In this conversation we dive into a wide range of topics including 5G, the future of work, blockchains, recommended books, John’s entrepreneurial ventures, his new book (Get Funded), previous books (https://johnbiggsbooks.com/), and practical advice for entrepreneurs.  Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-15 to watch via video, for detailed notes, and for links to resources (videos, articles, etc…) mentioned. In this episode we cover the following: 1:55 - John intro, technologist, entrepreneur, and writer.2:17 - About John’s time at TechCrunch3:00 - Advice that John has for people who have an idea for a startup5:19 - John’s own personal journey entering the world of being a writer6:55 - His journey diving intro entrepreneurship himself (a cryptocurrency-based remittance system). 9:16 - John’s overall take on the crypto world and it’s future 11:11 - More entrepreneurial stories from John’s career, learnings for entrepreneurs, and details about his more current projects.13:22 - What technology stack does John recommend for founders who want to build their own software startups. 14:49 - About John’s new book Get Funded. 17:24 - Thoughts on crowdfunding, the overall landscape, and practical advice for founders considering it.20:47 - Advice for writers starting their career23:08 - Thoughts on tech trends and topics that are interesting to John, especially AI in journalism and graphene. 24:55 - Thoughts on 5G, is it real or overhyped (or both?)26:16 - Future of Work: Is the work-from-home shift in light of the pandemic a good or bad thing for society in general? 27:37 - History and entrepreneurial journey of each of John’s books. (https://johnbiggsbooks.com/) 29:40 - What are serverless architectures and why are they getting so much attention today? 31:40 - What books does John recommend for founders? (Negotiating books: Getting to Yes, Pitch Anything, Never Split the Difference, -- And History books to understand how major decisions have been made in war and politics. Also, Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson) 33:42 - Advice for people interested in lots of different things who are being told to focus. 36:39 - What questions is John thinking about and most curious about right now? 38:42 - Is there a glimmer of hope regarding meaningful content out there that people are paying for? 40:00 - Where can people learn more about John and find him online? https://twitter.com/johnbiggs // https://johnbiggsbooks.com/

This week I’m excited to share an in-depth conversation with Troy Henikoff  (https://www.linkedin.com/in/troyhenikoff/, https://www.mathventurepartners.com/ ) about his entrepreneurial story and path into startup investing. Troy is one of the most amazing and inspiring people I know. I first met him when I moved to Chicago in the mid-2010s, and his generosity, enthusiasm, and support for founders has been consistently admirable and contagious. After an extended introduction where he shares his story, we walk through practical validation, execution, and funding advice for early stage founders. Be sure to visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-14 for detailed more notes and links to resources (videos, articles, etc…) mentioned. You can watch this episode via video here. In this episode we cover the following: 2:12 - Extended Troy intro: his journey as an entrepreneur, starting and selling multiple companies, working for his acquirers, angel investing in new companies, starting a fund (Firestarter Fund) and accelerator (Excelerate Labs), teaming up with Techstars, and ultimately starting MATH Venture Partners.26:20 - What fuels Troy’s “Give First” ethic? Many who have worked with him over the years have noticed his exceptional and inspiring generosity, where did that come from? What’s behind that? 30:21 - Going back to Troy’s early companies, once he noticed a semblance of Product-Market Fit, how did Troy navigate the dance between managing growth and product? 40:20 - What advice does Troy have for someone who has a day job and has an idea for a startup? (Check out the Jobs to Be Done and Clayton Christensen Milkshake, specifically this short video)45:25 - In the startup landscape, is “Business to Business” (B2B), “Consumer” (B2C), and “Marketplaces” roughly the broad categories out there, and how do entrepreneurs know whether their startup in each model is “validated”? (It’s an art form, and “it depends”, but a key thing to look for is engagement)51:03 - How should entrepreneurs with a validated idea - or idea they think is validated - go about the process of practically building the product? 55:54 - What advice does Troy have for founders looking for a technical co-founder? 1:00:40 - When a founder finds a potential technical co-founder, how should they practically engage? What are the first steps? How do they set up clear communication and expectations? 1:08:22 - How should founders think about fundraising? Who are the players and what are the stages? 1:13:25 - A word on financial modeling and the importance for founders to build one (Troy and I co-wrote an article series here on Financial modeling, including a practical example).1:17:53 - Where can people find out more about Troy, MATH Venture Partners, and the videos he’s put together? https://www.mathventurepartners.com/ 

In this episode of Ventures we examine the origin story of Lead Honestly, a web-based software platform designed to help managers have better one-on-one meetings with their direct reports. My guests Shay Howe (https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayhowe/) and Darby Frey (https://www.linkedin.com/in/darbyfrey/) have a frank and open conversation about starting a side business, balancing family life and their day jobs, transitioning from builder to manager, validating their startup idea, holding to values when setting pricing, and advice for entrepreneurs.Importantly, Shay and Darby are two of the people I respect most in the world when it comes to being “product people”; i.e. those with smart and relentless focus on the customer and the ability to translate that focus into a world-class (and lean-startup friendly) product and consumer experience.  Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-13 for detailed notes and links to resources mentioned. You can watch this episode via video here. In this episode we cover the following: 3:54 - What does Darby do, day-to-day, in his day job? 6:04 - What does Shay do, day-to-day, in this day job? 9:31 - When did Darby start writing code?11:08 - Shay’s shout-out to Darby on being an entrepreneurially minded engineer, i.e. shipping value to customers. 12:24 - Will’s story of watching a master's thesis from someone very excited about optimizing an algorithm (and why these kinds of people are important/needed, but they are often different than an engineer wired to be customer-minded). 13:02 - How did Darby transition from writing code to becoming a manager? 15:09 - What advice would Darby have for an early stage startup CTO looking to hire their first engineer? 17:20 - What is the origin story of Lead Honestly? 22:52 - How did Shay/Darby go about testing/validating the idea to decide to give it a go?27:00 - Once initially validated, how did Shay/Darby go about growing the company and juggling the day jobs, family life, etc…  30:38 - Darby highlights the importance of using their own product 32:00 - Shay highlights that the origin story was born out of a real problem that both Shay and Darby experienced themselves. 37:35 - Darby emphasizes their holistic approach to focusing on the customer problem and building/iterating features from that perspective. 38:20 - What should an “idea person” do who isn’t technical or a “product person” go about building a company from scratch? 45:08 - The importance of Product-Market Fit, Founder-Product Fit, and Channel-Product Fit. 46:17 - Tips for validating an idea that overcomes (understandable) biases. (Check out the book: The Mom Test)52:43 - How did Shay and Darby balance their product vision and feedback from early customers that might point in a different direction? 56:10 - Once you know you “have something” - how do you go about actually building the product? What are the nuts and bolts of the build process? 1:02:22 - What is the vision for the short-to-medium future of Lead Honestly? 1:05:55 - Where does Lead Honestly fit in the spectrum of Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), and marketplaces for software startups? 1:11:50 - Final words to entrepreneurs and early stage investors listening in, especially founders trying to juggle a day job and a side business.

In this episode we cover the full spectrum of an amazing startup story: Patrick’s original idea, recruiting a team, landing his first customers, getting into an accelerator (Techstars), raising a $1.2 million seed round, and being acquired by ServiceNow. Overall, the purpose of this show (Ventures) is to educate and inspire a new generation of venture builders and investors. In this episode, we dive deep into a variety of strategies and tactics that are important for founders to consider. My guests today are Patrick Lowndes (https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricklowndes/) and Brian Geihsler (https://www.linkedin.com/in/briangeihsler/), co-founders of VendorHawk (acquired by ServiceNow in 2018)Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-12 for full notes and links to resources mentioned. You can watch this episode via video here. In this episode we cover the following (this is an abbreviated list): 3:55 - The origin story of VendorHawk8:22 - Work with the early Prota Ventures crew and support for Patrick to focus on selling the idea to potential customers with wireframes/mockups. 10:25 - Intentionality on writing down and testing hypotheses with wireframes/mockups, and eventually quick MVP demos of the business concept.12:06 - How exactly did Patrick successfully sell contracts with wireframes? What strategies/tactics did he use? 16:04 - Key hypothesis: is this enough of a pain point that customers would pay money for it?16:26 - What was the problem that Patrick/Brian were solving? What was the value proposition that the first handful of customers were sold on?18:25 - How did Patrick navigate his way into an organization in order to meet a decision-maker?20:21 - What was Brian thinking about during the time when Patrick was landing the initial customers? 26:50 - Importance of worldview and value alignment, especially amongst co-founders, and why investors should look for it in early stage companies. 28:44 - The story of scaling the company even more, getting into Techstars, and raising seed money. 30:30 - Help from the Seattle community, mentors, and other founders. Closing their seed round 70 days after demo day.32:00 - The story of hiring software engineers, an early sales team, and scaling a business while navigating family life as founders, having a new baby, etc… 33:12 - At what point did Patrick quit his day job? 34:37 - At what point did Brian quit his day job? 35:12 - What aspects of an accelerator - and Techstars in particular - make it most helpful for founders? 36:40 - What did Patrick/Brian and their team do after being seed funded? How did they scale? How did they architect their product roadmap and company operations? 41:40 - How did they build a B2B software sales team? 50:32 - What was Brian learning during the scaling process? How did he think about building the best possible engineering team and operations processes? 52:14 - How to successfully sell customers when you can’t build all the features they need right away? 54:47 - Where did those conversations with Corp Dev end up? What is the story behind selling VendorHawk to ServiceNow?  1:00:06 - How did Brian/Patrick navigate telling their team about the company sale? How did they set expectations with their acquirer about what the team merging in would look like?1:03:06 - What did things look like after the acquisition? What did the team do? How did it go?

In this episode of Ventures, my guest Dave Feldman (@DaveKeto) and I discuss a variety of topics related to lipids, immunology, ketogenic diets, and the future of health tech. I first came across Dave’s work when I noticed my cholesterol levels (specifically LDL-C) raised significantly when fasting and/or low-carb dieting, and I found that there is a large community of people who have noticed the same phenomenon. Dave has helped pioneer efforts to formulate hypotheses around why this might be the case, and why LDL levels in our blood may be considerably more complex than we’ve been led to believe. Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-11 for more detailed notes and links to resources mentioned. You can watch this episode via video here. In this episode we cover a wide variety of topics, including: 8:02 - Introduction to basic lipidology12:50 - Introduction to the basic lipid panel17:06 - What are the likely purposes of having LDL particles stick around the bloodstream in humans for a few days? 22:06 - Description of the study where lipopolysaccharide killed mice with low LDL.23:12 - Description of why LDL undergoes endocytosis to deliver cargo to tissues around the body. 24:50 - Why are the antioxidant features of LDL important? 29:47 - Further discussion on immunology and free radicals. 32:14 - What is the purpose of oxidative stress and inflammation? 35:37 - A conversation about statins, PCSK9 inhibitors, and drug studies in general targeted at lowering LDL-C.42:08 - How do statins work to lower cholesterol? What is the mechanism? 48:00 - Why does LDL-C shoot up when fasting?50:35 - How could LDL be related to fighting COVID-19?  52:43 - Coming back to Dave’s story, what is Dave up to now? What is his most recent N=1 experiment? 59:29 - What are Dave’s hypotheses for the expected data for this most recent experiment?1:00:42 - How should low-carb dieters be thinking, generally, about inflammation and LDL? How should we think about data from people who lack LDL receptors? 1:08:05 - How should people think about the size/impact of LDL particles and their ability to “shoot holes” like beebees in vascular cell walls. 1:16:00 - Why do we care about how/why LDL particles get on the inside vascular cell walls? What does Dave think is going on when this happens?1:20:35 - What is Dave’s overall advice for people, at the end of the day, that are concerned about their elevated LDL-C when going on low-carb, high-fat diets? 1:25:33 - Why are triglyceride levels typically low in people on low-carb, high-fat diets?1:33:50 - What would Dave study right now if he had a full lab to run an experiment? 1:35:10 - What’s causing the inflammation damage on vascular cell walls in heart disease? 1:40:23 - What’s up with high susceptibility to electrolyte imbalances on low-carb diets? What are the mechanisms involved here? 1:47:25 - What opportunities exist for startups considering tackling the problem of heart disease and obesity?   1:52:49 - Where can people learn more about Dave and his work? https://cholesterolcode.com/ and https://twitter.com/daveketo and https://www.facebook.com/groups/CholesterolCode/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/LeanMassHyperResponder/ 

In this episode my guest Rachael Kim (Founder & CEO, Project Untaboo) and I discuss period equity, period health/care/education, Project Untaboo, and advice for entrepreneurs and investors considering the space of femtech and healthcare in general. Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-10 for detailed notes and links to resources mentioned. You can watch this episode via video here. Throughout this conversation we cover the following: 1:45 - Rachael intro, background as a young entrepreneur and data privacy expert5:07 - Principles learned from Rachael’s first business as a violin teacher 10:18 - Experience in London working in data privacy when GDPR legislation passed 16:54 - Rachael’s experiences traveling around the world and lessons learned. 22:26 - More background on the threads that came together for Rachael to start Project Untaboo; origin story. 24:05 - What was the original vision for Project Untaboo before COVID-19 hit and how did things change when the pandemic was widespread?27:29 - What are the global social justice / social impact issues surrounding period care and the need for period education? 30:17 - What options/education/innovation is happening globally? 34:15 - What stories and resources does Project Untaboo (https://www.projectuntaboo.com) have available today for people to check out?36:21 - What is “femtech” ?37:52 - What is the outlook for femtech and what is Rachael hopeful for in this industry in the future? 42:30 - What apps/services are available for period care/tracking? What does Rachael recommend? 44:11 - What research is happening in period care/science/equity? What is Racheal currenting learning/investigating? 49:17 - Where is Project Untaboo heading in the future? 52:04 - Who is Project Untaboo’s customer? 53:35 - Will it be a subscription service for consumers? 53:58 - What will the Business-to-Business (B2B) side look like? 54:40 - What advice does Racheal have for a younger audience listening in that may not have a great support system to talk about period care? 56:40 - What opportunities exist for entrepreneurs interested in innovating in femtech/period care? What new products/services would be excited for Rachael to see in this space? 59:05 - What is Period Equality / Period Equity? (Note: for a more general conversation about the difference between “equity” and “equality”, see: https://www.premiertalentpartners.com/how-equality-and-equity-are-different/ ) 1:01:25 - What final words does Rachael have for investors/founders/innovators listening and watching in? 1:03:33 - How can people help Rachael and Project Untaboo? (Learn more and sign up for their newsletter at https://www.projectuntaboo.com/ )