The VentureFizz Podcast

Welcome to Episode 41 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Mike Sullivan, CEO of Acquia. Mike is an entrepreneur who co-founded an early SaaS company called Steelpoint Technologies, a provider of high-end electronic discovery solutions that was later acquired. If you are not familiar with Acquia, they are one of the anchor companies in the Boston tech scene, known for helping companies create digital experiences. They have a global presence with about 800 employees. In this episode, we cover: -The details on Steelpoint, and how the company moved from a services business to a productized solution -His decision to join Acquia, and his partnership with Dries Buytaert, Acquia’s Chairman, CTO and Co-Founder -The current state of Acquia, and their strategy moving forward (which could include making acquisitions) -Advice for growing a bootstrapped business, as well as how to generate revenue on day one and get your first customers -Plus, a lot more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 40 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Eric Horndahl, CEO & Co-Founder at Renoviso. Eric was a major contributor to two successful web companies in the Boston area, that being FlipKey (which was acquired by TripAdvisor) and BuyerZone (which was acquired by Reed Business Information). If you’ve ever had a major home improvement project like replacing your windows… it’s typically not a great experience, but Renoviso is looking to change that by disrupting the home improvement industry with a whole new approach through transparency, technology, and world-class customer service. . Renoviso’s investors are Corigin Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, NextView Ventures, FJ Labs, plus a who’s who list of angel investors. This interview is timely, as they just recently raised $7M in venture funding, so we had a lot to talk about. In this episode, we cover: -Eric’s background and his experience at BuyerZone, which includes so many great alumni -His experience at FlipKey, where they built a vacation rental marketplace -The aha moment behind Renoviso and their unique business model -Advice for first-time founders raising capital -Plus, a lot more! Quick side note: It’s hard to believe that this is our 40th episode! It’s been a blast interviewing so many great people in the tech industry. We have a great roster of guests coming up, but I want to make sure we’re giving our audience what they want. So, if there are any guests you’d like to hear the background story of, feel free to shoot us an email at podcast@venturefizz.com! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 39 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! I’m excited, as this is Part 2 of our special podcast mini-series where I interviewed two Boston tech legends. The first being Paul English, who is best known as the Co-Founder & CTO of KAYAK. If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, make sure you do. There’s so much great info in there. But today’s interview features Mike Volpe, who as most of you already know, was the Chief Marketing Officer and an early employee at HubSpot. And, he was recently the CMO of Cybereason. So, why is this a podcast mini-series? Well, they are both together now at Lola.com, a disruptive online travel service which is focused on serving the needs of business travelers. They recently announced the addition of Mike as the company’s CEO, and Paul moved to the role of CTO. I went over to their offices to interview both of them shortly after the announcement was made to bring you these exclusive interviews for our podcast. In this episode, we cover: -Mike’s background, and his family’s history of success in the tech industry -The story of HubSpot; we talk a lot about its early days, how they built a world-class culture, experimental marketing, and what it was like going public -His current role as CEO of Lola.com, and the future outlook of the company -His thoughts on the Boston tech and angel investment scene -Plus, a lot more Today’s podcast is sponsored by Yesware, an inbox productivity platform that transforms the way you send emails. With features such as campaigns, email tracking, and templates, Yesware removes barriers to productivity and empowers teams to make smarter decisions, faster. Yesware is hiring! Be sure to check out http://bit.ly/yeswareishiring for more info on their culture and job openings. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 38 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For the latest episode of our podcast, I interviewed Michael Cardamone, Managing Director & General Partner at Acceleprise, a SaaS-focused accelerator with programs in New York City, San Francisco, and Melbourne, Australia. Michael was an early employee on the business development team at Box and more recently led business development and partner marketing at AcademixDirect. In addition to his current role at Acceleprise, Michael is an active angel investor and personally advises a number of startups. In this episode, we cover: -Michael's background and his experience with the family business -What it was like working as an early member of the Box team -The details on Acceleprise -Lots of great advice for founders, like how they should approach sales and their pricing strategy -Plus, a lot more Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 37 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Paul English, who is one of the top entrepreneurs in the tech industry. Several of Paul’s companies have been acquired, but he is probably best known as the Co-Founder and CTO of KAYAK, which went public and was acquired by Priceline for $1.8B. Paul’s current company, Lola.com, is a disruptive online travel service focused on serving the needs of business travelers. In this episode, we cover: -Paul’s background, and his earlier companies -The founding of KAYAK and its acquisition -The details on Lola.com -His thoughts and tips on hiring -What it was like having a book written about him -His charitable work -Plus, a lot more! Ok - quick side note! This interview is actually Part 1 of a two-part podcast mini-series, as this interview was held shortly after the announcement of Mike Volpe joining the Lola.com team as CEO (and Paul moving into the role of CTO). So in addition to today's interview with Paul you’ll want to check back next week because we are going to have an interview with Mike Volpe, which is his first podcast interview since taking on the role as CEO. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 36 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode, I interviewed Eric Paley, Managing Partner at Founder Collective, a seed stage investment firm in the Boston area. This year, Eric was ranked #11 for the Forbes Midas list, which is a ranking of the top VC in the industry. And yes… there’s no doubt, he definitely has the golden touch. His early investments include Uber, The Trade Desk, Cruise Automation, Formlabs, and more. Prior to launching Founder Collective with his partners David Frankel and Micah Rosenbloom, he was a co-founder (along with Micah) at a company called Brontes Technologies that was acquired by 3M. In this episode, we cover: -Eric’s background and his journey into entrepreneurship. -The background story about Brontes and how they disrupted an untapped industry. -The formation of Founder Collective. -The story behind his investment in Uber. -Why he loves making investments that are "non-obvious” or “non-glamorous.“ -Plus, a lot more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 35 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this second New York podcast, I interviewed Alex Douzet, who is Co-Founder and CEO of Ollie, a company that is disrupting the pet food industry with a next-generation pet wellness brand. Prior to Ollie, Alex was Co-Founder and CEO for The Ladders, which brought an innovative business model to the online job search market and during his time there, its member base grew to over 10 million users. Not only is Alex a serial entrepreneur, but he is also a 6X Ironman Triathlon finisher. In this episode, we cover: -How training and competing in an Ironman compares to founding and running a startup -Lessons learned from raising venture funding and building The Ladders -The aha moment that led him down the path of starting a company in unfamiliar industry -Ollie’s business model and their progress to date -His hiring secrets -Plus, a lot more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 34 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For the 34th episode of our podcast, I interviewed Kent Bennett, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. Kent’s career path into venture capital wasn’t typical. He was actually a Hollywood screenwriter before attending Harvard Business School and pursuing a career in venture. He now has 10 years of experience as a venture capitalist and has made investments in lots of high profile companies like Blue Apron, Toast (which just announced $115M in new funding at a $1.4B valuation), MealPal, Renoviso, and others. In this episode, we cover: -His experience as a screenwriter in Hollywood -How he got into venture capital -His investment criteria, and how to get on his radar -What to expect during your first meeting with him -Plus, a lot more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 33 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode of our podcast, I interviewed Rick Grinnell, Founder and Managing Partner of Glasswing Ventures. Glasswing, which is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in next-generation AI startups, just announced its $112M debut fund. Rick has a proven track record of success in the venture capital industry where many of his investments have led to an exit. His investment in EqualLogic led to an acquisition by Dell for $1.4B, which at the time, was the largest cash transaction of a venture-backed company. In this episode, we cover: -How music led him down the path to a career in the tech industry, and how he transitioned into venture capital -The story behind EqualLogic and the massive acquisition -The launch of Glasswing Ventures -The details around his area of focus in terms of making investments -Advice for founders who are looking to raise venture capital -Plus a lot more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 32 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of your most-trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! As you may have heard, we recently expanded VentureFizz to New York City, which is really exciting! So, it obviously makes sense for us to expand our podcast there too. Welcome to the 32nd episode (and 1st in New York) of our podcast! For this episode, my guest is Graham Brown, who is a partner at Lerer Hippeau, which is the most active early-stage firm in New York. Their portfolio includes many successful companies and names you’ll recognize like Casper, Warby Parker, BuzzFeed, and many others. The firm recently announced its sixth fund at $122 million, so I was really excited to interview Graham and get all the details. In this episode, we cover: -Graham’s background and his career path -The history of Lerer Hippeau and its new fund -His particular areas of focus in terms of making investments -Advice for founders, who are looking to raise venture capital -Perspectives on the NYC Tech ecosystem -Plus, a lot more. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 31 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode, I interviewed Armen Zildjian, the VP of Sales at Drift, which one of the fastest growing companies in the area. I don’t know if his last name looks familiar, but if your sales team has a gong in the office, odds are it has his last name on it, as he is part of the Zildjian family tree - the famous maker of cymbals that are played by pretty much every major drummer out there, from the Rolling Stones to the Foo Fighters. Armen has created his own legacy in the tech industry by having built up sales organizations at companies like LogMeIn, GrabCAD, and Dyn - which all had an exit, either an IPO or an acquisition. Based on this common theme of success, I was really excited to chat with him about his expertise around building out high performing sales organizations for tech companies. In this episode, we cover: -Armen’s experience building out sales at each company. -Drift and how they are creating the category of conversational marketing. -The unique structure of the sales team at Drift and what he looks for when hiring sales people for his team. -Advice for founders who are setting up sales and when they should bring in a VP of Sales. -Plus, a lot more! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 30 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! For this episode, I interviewed Julia Austin, who wears many different hats these days. She is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, Board Member, angel investor, and advisor to several emerging tech companies. Julia saw her career skyrocket upon joining Akamai in the early days of the company, where she eventually became VP of Engineering. From there, she went on to hold leadership roles at VMware and was recently the CTO at DigitalOcean. Julia is the definition of someone who knows how to pay-it-forward in terms of her involvement in the Boston tech ecosystem. In this episode, we cover lots of topi: -Julia’s background and the evolution of her career. -What it takes to become a great product manager. -Best practices around hiring and how the first employees define your culture. -The criteria she looks for when she is making investments. -Plus, a lot more. Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 29 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This episode, I interviewed David Friend, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of Wasabi. Here’s a fun fact. You know the legendary synthesizer sound to "Baba O’Riley" by The Who? Well, that legendary sound was created by David’s first company, ARP Instruments, which provided synthesizer technology to The Who, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, The Beach Boys and many others. The company was ultimately sold to CBS. As you will find out, exits are a common theme throughout our discussion. David and his business partner, Jeff Flowers, have started five companies together, all of which have been acquired or in the case of Carbonite, that company went public in 2011 and currently has a market cap over $1B. The duo’s current company, Wasabi, is taking on the cloud storage giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft by offering faster storage at a fraction of the price. In this episode, we cover: -David’s entrepreneurial journey through many successful companies -The details on Wasabi and why they aren’t afraid to compete against the giants -Why he keeps building companies, plus the secret to staying young -And of course, a lot of useful advice for entrepreneurs! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 28 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This episode, I interviewed George Colony, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Forrester Research. George originally started Forrester out of his basement, and the company has gone on to become one of the world’s most influential market research and advisory firms. Forrester went public in 1996, and is still traded on the Nasdaq today. These days, George is also involved as the founder of a new startup called Your Call Football, which is modernizing the game of football by giving fans the chance to influence a live sporting event in a real-time competitive gaming experience. Your Call Football actually just completed a very successful inaugural season. In this episode, we cover: -George’s participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos -The story of Forrester -How an interview with former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue led to the a-ha moment of Your Call Football -All the details on getting a new football league set up for its inaugural season, plus the future of the company and technology -And of course, lots of useful advice for entrepreneurs! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!

Welcome to Episode 27 of The VentureFizz Podcast, the flagship podcast of Boston's most trusted source for startup and tech jobs, news, and insights! This episode, I interviewed Jeet Singh, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of Redstar Ventures, a startup foundry that incubates new businesses. Jeet was also a Co-Founder and CEO of ATG, a massively successful company in the Boston tech scene. The eCommerce software company went public in 1999, and was later acquired by Oracle for $1B. Not only is Jeet a successful founder of tech companies, but he is also a passionate musician and has a band called The Singhs. In this episode, we cover: -Alpha Delpha Phi (Fi) - the legendary MIT fraternity where he met Joe Chung, his Co-Founder and other industries luminaries like Brad Feld and Colin Angle -The story of ATG -How giving up $1M in revenue was a catalyst for scaling the company -The Redstar model and their portfolio companies including the most recent one called Money Experience -Plus, lots of useful advice for entrepreneurs! Lastly, if you like the show, please remember to subscribe to and review us on iTunes, or your podcast player of choice!