The Room Podcast

Welcome back to The Room- today’s conversation is another installment in our mini-series, Movers & Shakers where we sit down with early-stage entrepreneurs to hear about their stories. Today we sit down with Paige Finn Doherty, Founding Partner of Behind Genius Ventures. Behind Genius Ventures is an early-stage fund investing in product-led growth companies and play at the pre-seed/seed stage. They are backed by Bain Capital Ventures, Tribe Capital, Bonfire Ventures, and others. Behind Genius focuses on API-first products, wellness, creator economy, and dev tools. Paige is also the author of Seed to Harvest: A Simple Explanation of Venture Capital. Today we chat about her passions, how she got into venture, and her take on future tech trends. Let’s open the door.

In today’s episode, Claudia and Madison sit down with Gaby Goldberg, an investor at The Chernin Group. A self-proclaimed Gen Zer, Gaby natively understands the creator and gamer economies. Through a self-discovery semester off from Stanford, where she spent time working at a startup in Tel Aviv, Gaby fell in love with venture capital. Through Twitter, she landed her first job in VC at Chapter One. After this experience, she found herself at Bessemer before recently joining The Chernin Group to focus on the evolving space of crypto. Today's episode explores insights and themes including navigating early career milestones, the concept of modern friends, and the future of Web 3. Let’s open the door.

Before the launch of season 5 of The Room Podcast, we are so excited to introduce a four-part mini-series: Movers & Shakers, where Madison and Claudia sit down with early-stage entrepreneurs and influencers to hear their stories. In this week’s episode and series launch, we sit down with Madison Campbell, Co-Founder and CEO of Leda Health, a health and wellness startup turning the conversation around sexual assault into actionable change lead. A company created for survivors by survivors, Leda Health provides the care and resources needed for a full recovery and works towards bettering the many systemic shortcomings surrounding sexual assault services. We chat with Madison on her journey to founding Leda Health and her mission and vision for the future of healthcare and wellness. Let’s open the door.

As we recently wrapped on Season 4 of The Room Podcast, Madison and Claudia take a trip down memory lane to look back on our past two seasons. Over the past year, we’ve had the most amazing guests come to join us in The Room to share their inspiring stories. Take a look back on some of our key themes and insights from the past two seasons. Thank you so much for joining us for four seasons now! We have so much more in store, but for now, let’s take a look back and open the door.

In the Season 4 finale of The Room Podcast, Madison and Claudia sit down with Andy Ruben, Founder and CEO of Trove, an end-to-end technology and supply chain platform, unlocking second-hand shopping for your favorite brands. Before founding Trove, Andy served on the senior leadership team at Walmart, including the role of Chief Sustainability Officer. A big congratulations to Trove who recently announced their $77.5M Series D funding. With the resale and e-commerce space expected to hit $64B in annual sales by 2028, Trove is at the forefront of enabling top-tier brands like Patagonia, REI, and Lululemon to capture this rapidly growing market. This week’s episode covers key themes such as how we empower sustainable consumption, the art of the reframe, and building a business in a supply-constrained market. Let’s open the door. Season 4 is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley. …

In The Room with Katie Warner Johnson This week on The Room Podcast, we are excited to share our conversation with Katie Warner Johnson, Founder and CEO of Carbon38. Carbon38 is one of the leading activewear e-commerce platforms, carrying brands like Beyond Yoga, Isabel Marant, Adidas by Stella McCartney and their own line. Katie's journey to disrupting the activewear industry started early on as a professional dancer from childhood and later, a Physique 57 fitness instructor. After years of being immersed in the health and fitness world, Katie realized that the sports bras and leggings that were being sold were just not meeting the needs of women. She decided to move to Los Angeles and build a business that provided fashion-forward activewear designed by women, for women. In this episode, Katie talks about the relationship between being a performer and an entrepreneur, serving the needs of her customer, The Boss, empowering women with women-led brands, and the future of activewear. Season 4 is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley.

In The Room with Sashee Chandran In this week’s episode of The Room Podcast with co-hosts Madison and Claudia, they are joined by Sashee Chandran, CEO, and Founder of Tea Drops. Founded in 2015, Tea Drops are organic, ground leaf teas pressed into fun shapes that dissolve in water. Think of a bath bomb, but tea! Using 15% less waste than traditional tea bags, Tea Drops provides an environmentally friendly, convenient, and high-quality tea experience. Tea Drops are now sold in nearly 2000 store retailers around the United States. This week’s key themes include what it's like to start and fund a venture-backed business in the CPG space, the importance of passion and grit, and the future for D2C. Let’s open the door. Season 4 of The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley.

In The Room with Vera Shokina In this week’s episode of The Room Podcast, Madison and Claudia take a break from chatting with their typical founder or funder to cover a core need of every startup and fund: their bank. They are joined by Vera Shokina, Managing Director at Silicon Valley Bank where she covers U.S. banking and early stage international banking, helping VC funds and startups with all of their banking needs. From the founding moment of SVB, the bank has been focused on early stage technology companies and venture capital funds. Vera walks us through the top tips for founders looking to establish a banking relationship, the process of getting a debt line, and how a bank like SVB helps out with remote work. Let’s open the door. Season 4 is sponsored by our friends at SVB and Cooley. The episode is now live on all podcast streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Welcome to another episode of The Room Podcast! In this week’s episode, co-hosts Madison and Claudia chat with Danielle Cohen-Shohet, Co-Founder and CEO of GlossGenius. Danielle, a freelance hobbyist makeup artist, started GlossGenius when she knew that there had to be a better way to manage a business and engage with clients. From scheduling to booking and payments, GlossGenius meaningfully helps freelancers and small businesses in US salon and studio spaces. In this episode, Danielle talks about building for a specific need and passion, developing a tech platform for hyper-local businesses, and where the beauty industry is going next. Let's open the door. Season 4 of The Room Podcast is sponsored by our friends at SVB and Cooley. This episode is now live on all podcast streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

In this week’s episode of The Room Podcast, Madison and Claudia sit down with Katherine Salisbury, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Qapital, a mobile banking app designed to help incentivize people to save smarter. Qapital’s Chief Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely leverages science to propel people into better money habits. Since its inception in 2015, Qapital has helped millions of users collectively save over $2 billion. This week’s key themes include navigating raising venture capital with an untraditional background, co-founding your business with your significant other, and when to make your product a paid product in the world of free. Let’s open the door. Season 4 is sponsored by our friends at SVB and Cooley. … Key Theme 1: Navigating raising venture capital with an untraditional background After graduating from Cornell Law, Katherine started her career as a lawyer in New York City before moving to Europe to found and run a sports management company focused on soccer. Without a background in FinTech, Katherine advises founders to just show up and put in the time and energy. It’s a learning curve to work out all the kinks, but you have to be willing to try, be embarrassed, and mess up. Key Theme 2: Co-founding your business with your significant other Co-founding Qapital with her significant other George Friedman, Katherine gives some tips on how to balance personal and work life. She says it’s sometimes easier to be on the same rollercoaster with a significant other as they share compassion for one another whether it be through the good or bad moments. Katherine also emphasises the importance of turning it off and knowing when to put work aside for the day. Key Theme 3: When to make your product a paid product in the world of free When deciding the pricing scheme for her product, Katherine and her team went to several pricing experts and ended up developing a lasting partnership with Simon Kucher. They tested different options out and were able to back up Katherine’s initial intuitions with detailed research. … Thank you so much for tuning into another week of The Room Podcast. Join us on Clubhouse on Wednesday, Sept. 1 at 1:30PM PST to hear directly from Katherine! New episodes launch every Tuesday at 7AM PST.